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How to Fix Your Overswing

I don't think you have to fix your overswing if you are hitting it well. In fact, lots of people said Jack Nicklaus had the overswing. But Nicklaus never changed his swing and won 18 major championships.

Phil Mickelson also is accused of having an overswing. But he doesn't think so.

I think it's not an overswing:

・If you are shifting your weight fully on the back foot on the backswing
・If you are not losing balance on the follow through
・If you are not sliding your hips to the right during the backswing

Average golfers tend to overswing in an effort to compensate for lack of distance. When you do this, you tend to bend your left elbow too much at the top of your golf swing and have the reverse pivot.

As a result, you end up losing even more distance.

For more information about how to prevent sliding of your hips and stop reverse pivot, please see the following articles.

The Right Knee Flex during the Backswing
The Hip Slide on the Backswing
Golf Correct Weight Shift and Drills
Curing (Stopping) Reverse Pivot with Drills

Stop Sliding Your Hips to the Right

If you are sliding your right hip to the right on the backswing, you want to fix that for more distance.

When you talk to the players who slide their hips, they are only trying to shift their weight to their back foot on the backswing.

But they are failing to do so.

To shift your weight correctly, instead of trying to shift your weight onto your right foot, try to shift your weight to you right knee.

When you slide your hips, your right knee also slides to the right. But if you try to transfer your weight to your right knee, you can prevent it from sliding to the right.

Also, focus on turning your hips and shoulders during the backswing. This will help you to shift your weight correctly.

Stop at the Top Drill

Here is the drill that Butch Harmon recommends for correcting your overswing.

1) Swing to the top and pause for 3 seconds
2) Start your downswing and hit the shot

To pause at the top, you need to have balance. So if you can do this drill, you don't have an overswing.

Your Grip can Cause the Overswing

Weak grip often causes the overswing. When you have the weak grip, your clubface will open at impact and cause a slice.

So you are going to have to do something to prevent the face from opening.

You can either come over the top or try to move the ball forward in an order to create enough time to close the face.

But these won't help you with distance at all. If you tell me to weaken my grip, I can easily lose 50 yards on my drives. That's how important the grip is.

Most players who overswing do so in an effort to increase distance. But all they might have to do is to change their grip.



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