Hi, my name is Jim Roy, former PGA and Champions Tour player, and I'm here in Syracuse, New
York, at my home course, Bellevue Country Club.
In this video, I want to address 'coming over the top'.
My students, a lot of them struggle with this, and I want to touch on a couple reasons why
I think people struggle with this, and hopefully give you some ideas and some feels that can
get you back on track.
First of all, let's talk about, what is 'coming over the top'?
So, most of us are aware that when we take the club up to the top of our swing, we'd
like the club to start down, pretty much straight down, and to deliver the club from the inside.
Coming over the top, I see a lot of people, their first move from the top, the club jets
out here, and once it goes out there, it's not coming back.
So, what does that do?
It causes the path to continue on this way, across and to the left, and in order to hit
it, I see a lot of you backing out of the shot because you feel like you have to, and
you really do, once that club gets out of plane.
So, what do I see as the main reason for this?
Overuse of your body, too much tension in your arms, and you're not letting your arms
swing, so the sequence of motion is a little off.
So, people get up, they try to hit it hard from the top, and as soon as they do this,
there's no recovery from there.
So, let's talk about, how can we fix this?
Number one, when we start the club back away from the golf ball, I see a lot of you getting
the club way too far inside, so your natural inclination, once you do this, is to go like
this to hit it.
So, let's talk about the initial move away from the ball and how maybe you can check
to see if you're in the right position.
What I like to do is set up.
I'm going to keep the club on the ground, and with my left hand, and arm, and shoulder,
I'm going to trace a semi-circle as I turn, and I'm going to trace it to the middle of
my right foot, put my right hand on it, lift the club up, and that's a pretty good indicator
as to where the club should be.
Now, I mean, it can be out here, and it can be a little in here, but this is a good guideline
for you.
And then, from here, we're just going to set the club the rest of the way.
So, we're pretty much on plane, a pretty good position to hit a decent shot.
So, check to see, are you taking that club inside too quickly and it's getting your arms
way in here, which is forcing you out here.
So, the takeaway is one of the reasons, and another reason, like I said, is a lot of people
get up here, anxious, go to hit it, and once that club's there, no good, no good.
So, here's a couple things that you can work on that's going to help you feel the arms
more in your swing, and also that club fall down on plane so you can hit more solid shots,
better accuracy, as well as better distance.
So, this is a favorite drill of mine that, actually, I got from Craig Harmon years ago,
and I use it in my golf swing.
We're going to set you up for success.
We're going to set up and pull our right foot back, so my right toe is even with my left
heel.
What that's going to do is, it creates this vision of room here, and gives you the freedom
to come from the inside, and the correct weight shift.
So, from here, the ball's in the middle of my stance.
I'm going to take the club back, the weight shifts into my right heel.
My first move is to shift into my left foot, and that motion there, as you can see, lets
the club fall on the correct plane.
I'm not going this way.
So, I want you to start out doing this, small little shots.
We're going to shift our weight to the right, come from the inside, and we're going to create
more of an inside attack on the golf ball, which is the exact opposite of that over-the-top
move.
Now, I've had great success with this drill, and I think you will, too, because it really
gives you freedom to stay in here and hit from the inside, instead of feeling like you're
all jammed up once you come over the top.
So, let me hit a couple more with the right foot back, backswing, shifting my weight to
my left side, and then hitting from the inside.
So, again, that ball started a little bit right and drew in, which is a shot, if you're
coming over the top, you feel like you're never going to hit.
Now, let me talk about quieting the body and getting your arms in motion.
Remember, most people that come over the top, they're here, and they're all body, and the
arms aren't involved enough.
Along with the right-foot drill, I want you to hit some shots with your feet close together,
which is automatically going to quiet your body down.
From there, when you take the club back, I want you to pause at the top of your swing.
When you pause at the top of your swing, you're going to initiate the downswing more with
your arms, which is what you need to do if you're always coming over the top.
So, with this swing, feet are close together, which quiets the body, I'm going to take the
club up, and I'm going to pause for a second, and then start down.
Again, distance isn't a factor here.
We're just trying to create a different pattern for you.
Okay, up, pause, swing.
So, that pause is just enough for you to activate your arms on the downswing and quiet your
body down so your body doesn't throw that club out over here.
So, let's do that again.
I'm going to take it up, pause, come back down.
So, on all those swings, I'm feeling more of my arms, less of my body, which I think
is a great feeling here in golf, especially if this is what you struggle with.
And then, the last one I want to show you is a great way to practice.
If you can find a ball above your feet, then you can easily feel what it's going to be
like to come from the inside.
Okay, so here we are with the ball above our feet.
Now, my students have had really good success with hitting a lot of balls this way to help
them feel what it's like to come from the inside and maybe break that habit of coming
over the top.
So, the ball's above my feet, so now I kind of almost have the lay of the land helping
me here.
So, before you hit this, I want you to make some concerted swings, and on the downswing,
I want you to really feel like you're swinging up into the hill.
So, I'm swinging up into this hill.
This is the exact opposite motion of the 'coming over the top' move.
So, I'm telling you, you've got to exaggerate it just to change a little in this crazy game.
So, a couple of good practice swings, we're swinging up into the hill.
Then, get up here with that same feel, and I'm going to feel like I'm going to swing
up into the hill, and the ball's going to start to the right and draw back.
Try this.
Swing, practice swings, downswing, up into the hill.
That's the exact opposite motion, and I think you're going to find it's going to help.
So, let's review really quickly on how we can help stop 'coming over the top'.
Number one, we've got to quiet our body down.
Most people get up here, they try to hit it with their body, and when they do, that club
gets thrown out here, and once it is, it's not coming back.
So, let's check our takeaway, make sure we're not whipping the club inside too much.
At the top of our swing, we want to feel our arms falling.
We need to feel our body quiet.
So, how do we do that?
Remember, both feet together, swing it up, pause, and then start down.
That helps us initiate our downswing more with our arms, and quiets the shoulders so
we don't throw that club over here.
The right-foot drill, when we pull this club back, you're going to feel like you have a
great field of vision here.
You're going to have a feeling that, once you're up here, you can have that club approach
from the inside, which is the feeling that you want.
Start out slow.
Don't try to hit it far.
Get the feeling, and then once you get confidence, you'll get more and more adept to that feel.
And then, of course, if you can practice with the ball above your feet, just the lay of
the land is going to help you come from the inside and get your attack angle more shallow,
and get rid of that over-the-top move.