Over Swinging

I am overswinging at the moment and cant seem to stop. More so with my woods than my irons. When im at the top of my backswing i can see the head of my driver out of the corner of my left eye and find it a little off putting. I usually am very confident with my driver and hit it fairly straight and long but just of late im get the odd severe slice creep in and its doing my head in. i play off 14 handicap. Can anyone help?
Thanks.

Most probable cause is the disconnection of the arms and the body. Once the arms break away, they can travel pretty far on their own, and you see this at the top...they just keep going.

The real problem now, is they have to reconnect on the downswing, and that causes you to time it right. Late, and you slice, early and you hook.

So you are probably late.

Obvious solution is to not disconnect. This takes away the need to time it perfectly.

Staying connected does not mean you have to shorten the length of you swing, you still extend your arms out to their full length away from your chest. It means you need to keep them within the range of your shoulders.

The other possible cause is you simply breaking your leading elbow. This will feel like you are over swinging, when actually you are under swinging (shortening the length). You probably already know this, and would have been able to diagnose already, so it is probably the first.

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I'm a golfaholic, no question about that. Counseling wouldn't help me. They'd have to put me in prison, and then I'd talk the warden into building a hole or two and teach him how to play. ~Lee Trevino

Thanks Greg. So you dont think i may be over rotating my shoulders? I do understand what you mean by breaking the leading elbow and im not doing that.Do you have any tips on how to get the feeling of keeping my arms connected to my body? I will practise on the range.

The classic connection drill is to hold a headcover in your lead armpit. If the arms get too high or too far away from your body, the headcover falls out.

Try to keep your takeaway wide, stay centred and have your hands as far away from your head as possible at the top. Any collapse of the elbows or leaning towards the target in a reverse C position will allow the club to drop behind you.

Like Greg said disconnection and breaking the elbow can be two causes. If you rule out those other cause may be loss of lower body stability, and/or loss of balance. If you loose knee flex, find your backswing pulling you off your front heel, or you reverse pivot (reverse weight shift) each of those could result in the overswing position.

Good luck in your attempts to correct it. It can a difficult and fustrating problem to stop. (Look at Phil Mickelson - it has taken him a lot of time and work to reduce with his driver).