How to Fix Your Over the Top Move - Live Lesson

Do you have a steep, over the top golf swing? No matter what you try and do, you can't stop it and get the club to shallow out properly? Here's the way to fix it permanently that you've never heard before! Watch this golf student completely fix his swing plane in real time in this Live Lesson by RotarySwing Founder Chuck Quinton.

Speaker 1:
All right. So let me show you what's going on there. It's pretty easy to see. So a couple of little things it's set up. You're just a little too squatted down. There's too much knee flex there. You're too far back on your heels, which is going to limit the ability to use your legs very well. Then, as you go back, the biggest issue is how you're bringing the club down. And that is with all right, shy. All right, arm, you can see a big chicken wing right here. So your left arm has totally been here and your shoulders are really open you're. You're just trying to power the whole swing with the right side of your body. And so we've got to do a few little things so that you can start to learn how to use your body correctly. One, we got to get you set up correctly.

Speaker 1:
Notice, can you see my mouse cursor here? Okay. So watch as you go back, you see how your hips are moving all over the place, moving back, and then back forward. And then you lose the touchline really severely here. And this is all typical one the setup issue, cause your lower body, you have way too much knee flex here. And you're actually kind of cockeyed. You're set up with your shoulders pretty closed or should be pretty open. And then the hips kind of do a bunch of bunch of stuff. You're trying to get back into normal position. So your legs sandwich, knee flex, you've taken out right there from where you were to address, right? So these are all tied together. Now, once we get you understanding how to load up the body properly, the over the top stuff will start to go away just from the pure fact that you're losing your body. But right now, if you can't use your core very well, then you're always going to have to fire that right side and you just won't be able to stop it. So let me show you what we gotta do first.

Speaker 1:
The first thing when you're S so let me just kinda, I'm going to exaggerate some stuff. So it's easy to see, but when you're set up kind of Squatty and open, this is why you see your legs kind of, you know, your hips going back in the back up and as the leg straightens up. And so your lower body can't really produce any power. It's just kind of moving around really loosey goosey. So what we've got to do first is stand much taller than the legs and hinge from the hip socket. And then just have a little bit of knee flex, and this will get your spine angle more forward and immediately starts to engage your hamstrings and your glutes. But when you're set up like this, you're going to be in really big trouble. So you're also a little bit far back on your heels.

Speaker 1:
So you have knee flags and, and set back on your heels a little bit. So if somebody taps you in the chest, you would fall over pretty easy this way. You want to feel that you couldn't be knocked over one way or the other easier. Somebody pushes you from the back. You shouldn't be able to fall over is by pushing from the front. You shouldn't go to fall over easier. It should feel pretty neutral. Well, here, the next big thing is really understanding how to turn, how to coil and what you're really trying to do in the swing. So what you're doing right now without realizing it is that you squatted here and then you kind of load up this right side. And then the whole downswing is this. And that's why when I showed you from down the line, you kind of looked like your elbow is bent out here.

Speaker 1:
You have that chicken wing. This only happens when you drive from the right side, the right arm and the right shoulder. So how do we fix that? We have to create rotational force rotation when you're turning your body back in, turn it through and not using your arms to try and push is what allows you to get extension and wit in the swing and free speed. And that's what we're going to work on today. So once we get you set up properly, it's going to feel a little funky. At first. The next big thing is helping you focus on what you really need to feel in your backswing. And what that's going to be is as you go back, you're going to feel more this loading, because as you start down, it's this part of your body that's turning, that causes your arms to be brought down.

Speaker 1:
If this doesn't turn. And especially from here, both your hips and your core, then your arms are always going to fire. And you're going to swing from here up. And you're going to learn to swing from here down. That's the only way to fix what you're doing when you're coming over the top. So once you do this and part of this too, because you know, if you've been swinging really right-side dominant for awhile. It's really hard to feel when you're doing this at first. So we've got to have to do it piece by piece where you really start feeling your arms are doing way, way less. They're going to feel much more relaxed right from the beginning. And so once I get my arms pretty chilled out and I've started focusing on is my right hip load is my core loaded. And my arms can just go to the top and feel pretty soft and loose.

Speaker 1:
And then once I start to shift and use my core to turn the club shallows up. Now, if I did anything at all with my right side, with my arms at all, it will go over the top. There's no way around that. If I start trying to push like this, it will always go to the top. But when I shift and pull this left side of my body, the club shallows out, and then as I post up and release and we look at it from base on. So I'm here pulling, pulling. Now you can say, I have a lot more width, but I didn't try and move my arms to create weight. As soon as you do that, you'll chicken. When, cause your arms will swing across the body. So the only way to do it, and I like to use it, something kind of heavy at first, like an impact bag, because this'll keep you from wanting to use your arms.

Speaker 1:
Look, it's just too heavy. So this gives you the feeling of having to use your whole body to rotate and keeping your arms straight. And then as I turn my body things in my arms is nice, would stay nice and straight feeling something heavy. But when you pick up a club, it's really easy to do this. And that's an exaggeration of what you're doing. Does that make sense? Yeah. So we're going to get you set up right first. Then we're going to focus on getting your body to turn and feel a load in a very different spot. So we're going to do that without your arms. First one with your arms across your chest. Okay? Yep. Stay nice and tall. Perfect. Come forward. We were way too far back on your heels. There you go. Good. Now as you turn back because you can't use your arms at all. I want you to try to fill this more on your belly, both in your, your left oblique, the left side of your rib cage. There you go.

Speaker 1:
Good. Now use that left side. As you shift back to the left to pull your rib cage, pull your hips around. There you go. Good again. Good. You feel the left side a lot more than you're used to. Yeah. So understand your weight needs to be between the center of your ankle. Up to the back of the ball of the foot. The middle of your foot is where your weight needs to be. There you go. Great. Now do the exact same thing. Put your left arm out in front of you and just let your left arm get moved by your belly. As you turn your hips, as you turn your arms, just going to go along for the ride.

Speaker 1:
Okay? So you picked your arm up there. Here's what you did. You went back, you started to turn and you did this as you're turning your arms, gonna feel much shallower and you need it to let it to move. You're adding too much elevation. So you're activating your shoulder and then that's going to make you also want to come over the top. So you gotta keep your arm nice and relaxed and let it sweep more around better. Again, still too much elevation that the arms swing around a little bit more good. I go to the top and stop. Now. It's still focused. Make sure you're staying nice and tall through your legs. Get your weight more forward. There you go. Good.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. I'll bring your right arm up to help support the left. There you go. Okay. Let your arms come a little bit deeper. There you go. No more than that right there. Now. Relax your arms for good about your arms and just use that left side to pull you back down again. So we'll go left arm. Only let that left arm rotate more rotation. There you go. There you go. Good. Now left side. Keep going. If you turn now to impact. So it's about now address. You still have a tendency to kind of want to get back on your heels a little bit. I didn't capture here, but make sure you stand nice and tall, but your hips are doing better here. Now, as you come down, if your arms are relaxed and you're not pushing from the right side, the shoulders are going to hang back a little bit. And you're going to turn from your obliques and end up with the shoulder. Square was right there and shoulders are nice and square. So we should be pretty close there. Now you're still trying to push on that right side a little bit there, but we're getting there. So now let's take the club and do the same thing. But with the club upside down and left arm only come all the way down to impact, but use your body, your hip turn and your obliques to bring your body down to impact.

Speaker 1:
Okay. Almost all right. We'll take a quick look. Now we've got a swing plane to work with. So now set a lot better. So you've taken a lot of knee flex out of there, even though you probably feel kind of off balance compared to what you're used to because you were sitting so far back on your heels, it just feels really different. You can see you don't look like you're off balance at all. Right? So set ups a lot better, pretty close to it. You still got a lot of tension in your wrist that you're kind of actually trying to cut the wrist and arms a little tight, but we're getting there. You've got to let your upper left arm. This part right here, rotate more. We try to do it too much from just your wrist. You have to let your whole arm at the shoulder socket rotate to help set club on plane.

Speaker 1:
Once we get here, that would be, you know, if we let the left upper left arm rotate a little bit better and we had a little speed and momentum to this, our arms, your arm would go up just a little bit further. It'd be a little bit higher and it'd be just about perfect. So when you're drilling, this is pretty good. Then we got to see. So you're still trying to turn your head and shoulders there. So you're looking way up here, wherever your head goes, your shoulders are going to go and that's going to encourage you to come over the top even more. So you can't turn your head to look way out here because you're going to really struggle with coming over the top as you do that. Okay, this is definitely better. We're a much better plane, but we've got to get our head back and let our hips turn not from the right side. So we're close. Let me show you all right.

Speaker 1:
So as you start at, first of all, as you're going back, you know, you want, you tend to keep this part of your arm really close to your chest, and then you just kind of have to do this. And that's why your arm looks kind of bent at the top. As you turn back and you're loading up, this part of your arm has to rotate. And that's what allows the club and arms swinging up more freely instead of having it down, stuck to your chest, it's got to come away a little bit. So then from there, if I just keep this back and I don't try to, you know, you and you turn your head, that's going to turn your shoulders, you know, try and turn your shoulder. If you turn your core. And then as you do that, you'll see that your shoulders stay back and nice and square.

Speaker 1:
And then the club releases. But if you try and look out here and turn, you're still going to turn your shoulders. And soon as your shoulders turn, that's going to bring you over the top. So you're going to start practicing nice and tall, the dress, let the upper left arm swing away from the chest and rotate here. And then as you start down, you're just gonna keep looking back here, not out here, cause that's going to turn your shoulders, shoulders relaxed, but you're going to shift your weight, turn your belly, and now you can see it. I can actually get my shoulders very closed. I didn't impact right, but versus this. So you're going to exaggerate that left arm only first turn from here. Keep your chest and head looking back at the camera. All come forward a little bit. Good. Now let your upper left arm rotate as you go back.

Speaker 1:
They're better now than your left wrist is really cut there. Make sure your left side feels loaded up. Now keep your chest and head looking back at the camera and just use your hips and core to bring the club down. Yeah, do it again. Nice again. Keep your head and chest back. Perfect. All right. Let's take a look. You said your arm is still swinging a lot. You don't realize it. And you know how I know if you didn't move your arms at all during the takeaway right here where my mouse cursor is, your arm would not move past that line. And I'll demonstrate this in just a moment, but watch, see how your left arm is swinging way out past my mouse cursor, right? It's just way too active with your arms way too active. So now the arms are taking over a little bit, but we're, we're close there. We just got to turn better. We have to turn focus on turning more than swinging the arms less. But now as you focus on just turning your core instead of your shoulders and your head watch what happens to the club. So that through the form. Perfect. Yeah. She'll shoulders are closed. Look at your hips square, right? So way better now the club would not drop too far to the inside. Let's go to the second one. Yeah. It's a very, you're super overactive with your wrists. Super. Over-active your club's super flat here. You're trying to add way too much rotation in your hand. Your hand is doing way, way, way too much, but we'll get there, but now look how the club shallows out. Right? Huge difference. Yeah. Perfect.

Speaker 2:
Almost perfect. Right? So

Speaker 1:
Almost there. So we've got to do a couple of little things. So first I was talking about that little plane. I put my mouse cursor right here on your form. Right? Imagine that somebody was holding. I actually do this with my students a lot. I'll put my club, hold a club like this. And so that they turn and they can't let their arm, you know, the clubs, keeping it from going out. Right, right now yours is doing this right. If I just turn my body, my core, my hands always going to go right to the inside and then go back here. But you're trying to do this.

Speaker 2:
Turn it up. Yeah. You tried

Speaker 1:
To do it too much. It's just gotta be a lot more natural. So as I turned back, it's my bow, my arms never going out away from me like this. I'm just turning and just a little bit of rotation. Okay. Now from there, all I have to do, keep everything relaxed with my arms and shoulders. Keeping, looking back at the camera and just use my legs and my ugly to bring club down. And then my arms just get swamped. But if my arms are tight, my shoulders are tight because I start doing some active with them right away. Then they're always going to take over. They're going to be the, you know, they're going to fire right away, but you can stop. See when you replace that arm swing and that our movement with core movement, the club shallowed out immediately. Right? And that's the whole key to the swing.

Speaker 1:
That's why you're coming over the top. And this is exactly how you fix it. So that when you start going to add, speak to this, that speed, your T your brain is going to want to go back to arms, right? And if you start swinging those arms right off the ball and trying to get active with it, then they're going to get tense first. And then we're in trouble. We can't recover from that because our brain is going to sense all that tension and it's going to want to unload it. So you're going to have to start really focusing on using from here to here is what's going to be tight as you go back. This is coiled. So that as I start down, I can move quickly with my legs and hips and core. My shoulders. Aren't doing anything from here up is in a coma from here down is working a lot.

Speaker 1:
So that's what I want you to feel first. Let's get the arm fixed a little bit. So we're not taking that left arm out away from us so much. So can you tilt the camera down so nice and relaxed with the arm? The arms should not move out away from your body. Just turn your body coil up better. There you go. Better. Good again. Good. All right. Let's take a look and see where we're at. We're really, really close. Their set up. Looks good. Much better. Yeah. I'm a bit my mouse cursor right on your form. See how much better that is?

Speaker 2:
Yeah. It felt like I was going way inside.

Speaker 1:
Exactly. That's why we can't rely on feel, right? Yeah. Would you consider arms going straight down the line? That's perfect. Now the clubs actually I'm playing earlier. It was really flat when you add it. A lot of that left arm rotation. Now we're going now. You still got this little left wrist cup thing. You've got to monkey around with that a little bit. You're still wanting to get it, trying to hold on to that club and cut that risk. The risk needs to be nice and flat. If it was flat, we'd be golden right here too far.

Speaker 1:
Perfect clubs through the shoulder, through the bicep, through the forearm. It's right on blanks. Perfect. So that's it. So now you're going to have to start feeling in order to do this at speed, right? That's the trick, because right now your brain is used to creating speed with your arms, right? And now that speed has to come from your body has to come from your legs or your hips, your core. So that's what you're going to start working on. As you slowly start building up to getting used to speed, you've got to keep your arms nice and relaxed. As you said, it feels like it's going inside when it's actually staying perfect. But don't rely on feel because you'll say, oh, if it feels like mom's going inside, that's good. And next thing you know, it will be going inside. Right? So just watch it as if you did it.

Speaker 1:
Perfect. It should look like during that first part of the takeaway, as you're turning back and adding just the slightest amount of elevation, the arm looks like it's the illusion of, it's just going straight down the line, but obviously you're turning. So it's going inside while it's elevated, but it's a small amount, but what you did was perfect. So now you're turning, turning, coiling, loading up your legs, loading up your glutes, loading up your core. And then you're going to use that to bring you down. And then as you do that, you're going to post up left leg is going to be straight. You're going to post up and then your arms are going to essentially get flung through the ball instead of you trying to push them through the ball. Does that make sense? So you want to imagine that you're kind of trying to use your body to fling your arms is kind of a simple way of thinking about it, but your body has to move fast and it has to be loaded up in the backswing in order to move fast. So as you're going back, you want to feel this part really loaded up and then use it to release. And that's where the speeds uncomfortable with your arms. That actually the softer you keep them the faster your body can move them and keep the club on plane. So that's going to be, the big transition is getting speed from here, your hips and your core have got to move much quicker and your shoulders have to move much slower. It makes sense clubs inside there, much better with the wrist, much better.

Speaker 1:
That's okay. We're getting there. Nice. Get that left leg really posted up on it. So I want you to, as you're starting back, you're going to feel a lot of weight on it and you're going to really drive up, push that, but into the ground, straighten that left knee. Relax that right shoulder and let the, let the arms be flung off the chest. Let's a quick look at that one. We're still turning our shoulders a little bit too much. You're turning your head.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. Realize that after I got to work.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. And that's just a bad habit, but let's take a quick look at it.

Speaker 2:
Unless I think about it. I can't stop it.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. There's too many things. And think about if we got a one by one left wrist looks a lot better. There still a little bit of covering, but we're close there, but that left arm is your left arm. You're still getting most of your rotation from your wrist. You're getting it from here and not enough from here. Okay. So just something you got to work on, you really got to feel that that left arm is going to rotate and come away from the body. Just a hair, but it's really close.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. I tried to use, think about rotating my elbow instead.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. You can think about your elbow. Exactly. Yeah. Pretty good there. Yeah. Just looking out to the left a little bit, but close that left leg just needs to be posted up on a little bit more aggressively, but we're really close there. And the other thing I want to point now, so I'm gonna put my mouse cursor on your tush line. You remember it was moving way back behind it and then you lost your posture coming down,

Speaker 2:
Right, right on the money.

Speaker 1:
Wow. So now as you're maintaining, as you learn to move from that left side of your body, your left leg, your left hip, your left elbow bleak. That's what causes you to actually increase your spine angle and maintain that tush line. In fact, you've actually moved past your original Tosha line, right. Which is obviously not normal. When you start losing that touch line, you're always moving too much from the right side and correctly. So now we've got posture. Everything's looking great here. We just got to get aggressive with our, with our hips, our core, turn our hip turn to really post up on that and turn it with some speed. But otherwise this is fantastic. And then you just need to keep working on your head, not looking out there like you want to get in the habit of kind of looking back behind you, just as an over-exaggeration at first.

Speaker 1:
So you keep maintaining all this stuff, but you can see that just by making a handful of little changes, right? They're all related. At first, when you too far back on your heels, I don't care how you know, what your intentions are. If you're back here like this and your body starts to turn, your hips have to move into the wall. So now you can see that you're maintaining your line, even though you feel a little bit different in terms of weight, your weight is going to be between the center ankle and the ball of the back of the ball of foot. So this middle part of your foot, that's where weight needs to be a setup because your weight has to move back, right? If you're already back on your heel, it can't go anywhere else. So then you kind of start trying to do some weird compensations with your hips and then our hips can't load properly.

Speaker 1:
So now you're in good posture. As you back, you're going to start focusing on loading your hips, your glutes, your hamstrings, your core, everything from here down so that you can then use that to post up. So you're going to start focusing more as you start down the muscles that you feel that you're really loaded up on going back, really your core that's, what's going to move. And then you're off. You're going to get really aggressive with contracting those goods because that's, what's going to turn your pelvis and post up. And once you post up and your hips stop turning that's when the arms get flung off the chest. Does that make sense? Yeah. So the whole thing again comes down to just moving from your core, chilling out the arms, and then watch these little things. Like I said, you know, if you're feeling like your elbow is turning a little bit more than your wrist, doesn't have to do. Some of this is pretty hard to control, and these are small, small muscles, small bones. So we want to do everything with bigger muscles. So as you go back, yes, this elbow is going to turn a little bit. This is going to turn less and it'll be easier for it to stay flat for you. And then this for right now, totally. Just along for the ride for you. Back as you start down, start moving your core, you saw the clubs shot out, maintain the Tisch line. All good, any questions?

Speaker 2:
I do feel I still feel a little tension in the upper body, but I guess over time, I'll be able to eliminate that. Like,

Speaker 1:
It's going to be something you're going to have to consciously think about at first, like pay attention to your setup. A lot of times, you know, people kind of get their shoulders elevated and they squeeze their arms together and they don't realize it. And they look like this set up and their shoulders look really narrow. And there's track is really elevated, is really easy to do, shrug them, depress them, keep them nice and relaxed and down. And then if they're, if they're elevated like this, there's already tension there. So going to use them. Right. So just check that. It's a really simple check to just make sure your shoulders are nice and relaxed and a neutral. And then your arms are just got to stay more neutral. And you're going to start partly, you'll probably notice this. As you were standing taller through your legs and hinge you more from the hip, you probably feel a little bit more on your glutes and hamstrings back behind you, right? When you're set up, versus if you're like this, you tend to feel it more on your quads. So that is going to be where you start paying attention to where you have healthy tension and then your shoulders have just got to relax. Everything from here up has got to be more or less along for the ride.

Speaker 2:
Yeah, because the more I, when I do, I got a golf net in the back, mark practiced more. I can feel my knee getting stringed, which knee? The left knee coming through.

Speaker 1:
Yeah. So what you were doing before was all right. Side push. And so when that happened, his knees, just getting beat up. Now, as you're starting to shift your weight over there and move from here, you're going to feel that that left leg is really getting moved by your hips versus you driving into it. And then, you know, you're flipped trying to scramble around for balance. All of that stuff will change. Cause you're starting to move from your core. That's where your movement needs to emanate from. So you're comfortable with that. It's, it's going to change everything in your swing because you're going from a body driven swing, you know, an arm driven, swing, go, body driven swing. And so they're very different. So a lot of things are going to change, but you did an amazing job when you maintain the social line, maintain your spine angle, get your shoulders back, drop the club that I'm playing. I mean, that's, it's perfect. Now. It's just a matter of learning to do that at speed.

Speaker 2:
Okay. One last unrelated question. What, what flex shaft would you use stiff? Regular. You're asking for me or for you, for me. Well,

Speaker 1:
For you right now, you can't really do. You can't really think about shaft flex. You can't think about getting fitted. You can't worry about any of that stuff until you learn how to use your body correctly, because it's what matters most is how you load that shaft. And when you start swinging right side, right arm, you put a lot of stress in the chef early and believe it or not, when you do that, you tend to want to play with a stiffer shaft. Even if your swing speed is slower.

Speaker 2:
That's exactly me.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, exactly. So you put a lot of stress and you want to avoid that. Cause that stress on the shaft is happening too soon and it's happening at the wrong angle. So your, the shaft bends on one plane and bids on a much budgeted for planes, that's moving throughout the downswing. So as that's happening, then you need a shaft with lower torque and it's different chef. As you get more comfortable moving from your body and you're not loading that shaft. So aggressively early in the swing, you can actually play softer shaft. That starts once you have your core movements down, then you start worrying about getting a club in shaft. It's going to feel perform right for you

Speaker 2:
Because I did get a new driver in, in the I hit the ball 20 yards further with the next stiff shaft and the this ship. And the guy said, you shouldn't be doing that with your swing speed. So that explode

Speaker 1:
Most of these guys who fit clubs have no idea what they're doing. You can not fit based on club, head speed club, head speed in some degrees is completely irrelevant. It's how you load and stress that shaft maintain the load on that shaft. That matters more than anything. And when people are side, they load it really early and any duty to really stiff shaft. But as you get more comfortable, you could go to a softer shaft for sure. I mean, it just depends, but long story short, like for me personally, I just use stiff shafts in my irons, nothing special there, KBS tours. Obviously I swing very, very fast with my irons, but I load the shaft very gradually. So I don't need like a super stiff, super low Torx. Jeff. I want something that I feel is better in my hands, but at the same point for my driver, because it's graphite and this totally different set of animals and there's no standardization either, you know, extra stiff for one company is a, you know, a stiff and another and all of that stuff.

Speaker 1:
So don't get too hung up on that. It really means nothing. But at the end of the day, I do use a stiffer shaft in my driver. I saw I use a double X flex and my driver or no just X stuff, X extra stuff now. But again, I do have a high speed, but I also still load that shaft gradually. And I just want something more for feel and control. And I'm looking with the driver. I hit down on the ball a little bit just for control. So a little bit of an active tip helps me get the ball up in the air and increases my spin rate a little bit. But now you're starting to get into the nuances, right? But as you fix your swing, that's when you start looking at, you know, getting the clubs, it'll feel a million times better because when your arms are really tight and you start loading that shaft early in the swing, when you play with the soft shaft, it feels like out of control. You just don't know what it's doing, but you can start once you start relaxing your arms and hands, you can truly feel what that shaft is doing. You can feel where the bin point is. You can feel if it's more in the middle part of the shaft or more in the butt or what have you. But right now, when you're just kind of hucking the club from the top, you can't get that sense of feel. And so it's really difficult to fit somebody like that, unless you're just band-aiding everything.

Speaker 2:
Okay. All right. Great. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1:
You bet. So keep up the good work, watch what you did. Obviously keep a copy of this lesson because everything that you really need to focus on is it's all right here. So keep reviewing it, video yourself and keep working at it. You're looking great. Thanks Jeff. I appreciate you bet. Take care.