Hitting top of the ball.

Hi all

I only started Golf last week - already hooked!
The problem is i constantly hit the top of the ball so i cant get height or distance, with the driver or the irons. My friend tells me that that i stand up once i begin to swing towards the ball, and i can feel me doing this most of the time. i dont know how to stop myself doing this?

You just need to focus on keeping your lower body steady and be in an athletic stance throughout your swing. Also keep your eyes down until after impact.

To help stop hitting the top of the ball, especially off the tee, is remember this: M.T.T (Empty Tee!) thats what your looking for, not the ball sailing off into the distance. As you complete your followthrough your shoulder will lift your head naturally, and all being well you will see your ball then. I have used this little reminder and it generally helps me to keep my head down.

Hi ash1986,

One week into the game and you are already hitting with drivers and all? I'm into my 6th lesson and I have not actually tried with driver. I'm basically sticking to the PW and 7 iron, occasionally allowing myself a couples of swipes with the lower irons

I think for starters, better to start with the shorter irons to improve your swing, and then slowly move on to the longer clubs as you get more comfortable?

Hi, are you taking lessons at the moment? If not then that's always the best place to start to get fundamental swing mechanics in place.

It sounds to me as though you are trying to lift the ball off the ground with your swing. All irons are designed with a loft that will do that for you so your aim is to hit the ball with a descending blow.

To get the feeling for how this should feel, try this when you are next at the range.

Before you hit any balls with a full swing set up with a ball next to your right foot (if you're a right handed player) and with a sand wedge or pitching wedge take a backswing simply by turning your shoulders only until the clubhead is about knee-high and then swing through the ball gently and smoothly.

You should find that the ball pops forwards quite nicely with a very solid impact. By moving the ball backwards in your stance, you've ensured that you'll hit the ball on a downwards path and that your hands will be ahead of the ball. By taking a short swing you'll have also eliminated or minimised any problems with swaying or lifting up with the body.

Now, gradually work upwards to a half swing with the same club, concentrating on the same idea of hitting down on the ball and keeping the movement of the body limited to shoulder turn. Once you're hitting the ball consistently like this then you have some of the fundamentals of iron play in place.

Good luck and above all have fun.

Paul

Hi Paul,


Yes, I'm taking a 10-lesson beginners course which is supposed to lead to my PC test. I'm into the 6h lesson and have already covered the 3/4 swing. However we didn't really go through this hitting down on the ball issue, so hopefully I will get a better idea of this when I try out your drill at my next visit to the range.

One question though.. So does this mean that I am hitting correctly only when I feel my club hitting the mat at every stroke (right after it hits the ball)?

Hi Ash.

Sounds like you need to get stuck into some of the basic ideas of golf:

Swing the club. Don't try to hit the ball, just let it get in the way of the swing. Your ultimate goal is to get a good, repeatable ball trajectory. But to get the ball up and going straight every time, impact has to be the same every time. At impact the ball is completely still, but the club is moving. So good, repeatable ball trajectory becomes good, repeatable swing. The ball does the same thing everytime. It just sits there waiting for impact. So it's the motion of the club which determines what the ball will do after impact.
Forget about the ball, and just concentrate on swinging!


Release the club head. Let the club head sweep through the hitting area with loose wrists. Try this without a ball at first. Take a sandwedge and make a half or 3/4 length swing and just let the arms drop, keeping the left arm straight. Keep your wrists completely loose and the club will naturally swing back to and through the start position, and you might be surpised how fast the club head is moving when it does.


Club still descending when the ball gets in the way. With irons, even long ones, a beginner should always have the club still descending when contact is made with the ball. What this actually means is the ball isn't at the bottom of the swing arc, but a little before. And that means that the hands are actually still a little infront of the club head at impact.
If you've got the hang of releasing the clubhead, then now you just have to put the ball in the right position in your stance; or rather, stand in the correct position in relation to the ball.
Take your impact address position as described below so that the ball is located in such a way that the line formed by your left arm and club is leaning a little towards the target. You might have to exaggerate this a little to start with, i.e. use a larger tilt towards the target.


Get rhythm! This helps timing of all the movents, and making a repeatable motion. You can make all the right movements in the swing, but if you do them in the wrong order, the result will not be the same. Learning a rythm helps keep everything in order and in the same order every time.


And, of course, setup. Your setup should match impact (i.e. as close as possible for such a static position versus the in-motion body position at impact). But it's not good to start swinging from a strained, static position like this. So first mimic your impact position to make sure everything will be in the right place at impact, then relax and take a big breath. This will probably mean your left arm and club (which should be a straight line at impact, slightly leaning towards the target) will un-straighten a little. When you're ready to swing, to keep relaxed, but start a dynamic swing, go from this relaxed position back to your impact position and then directly into your backswing.
This will start your back swing from an already dynamic position, i.e. with the body already in motion, which should prevent a jerky start off, and produce a more consistent backswing. One thing it often helps to do is stop the left wrist from cupping in the backswing and, more importantly, at impact.



As far as topping the ball is concerned, you need to keep your head at the same height during the swing. If you try to see where the ball is going, you'll look up early and what this invariably means, even for pros when they're eager to see the result of a shot, is that the head is already on the way up before impact.

How do you stop doing this? You need to learn to trust yourself. More precisely, to trust your swing. What that means is to learn to trust that your ball is going to get up and go straight. The best way to do that is to start with shots that you can already get up and keep straight.

So take a pitching wedge, or the highest iron that you can already pitch straight with, i.e. making a reduced swing with a standard setup.
Practice making pitches with this club and not looking for where the ball goes for a count of two AFTER impact. HIT, ONE, TWO, LOOK. Keep focussing on where the ball was in your stance until the LOOK. When you do look up, you'll still be able to see where the ball went.

Because you're using a pitch shot, you don't need to move to the normal full finish, and can keep your head still, i.e. not lift it. Only when you say "LOOK", look up if you want too. You maybe won't even need to look up, because you'll hear the clean snick of the club hitting the ball, and know you got it up.
The point is to learn that with that club and a half swing, you can get the ball up and straight.
Once you can completely trust that swing to the point where you don't need to lift your head to look, make it a bit longer until you can trust the 3/4 swing. With this you'll have to move to a fuller finish, but still try to keep your head at the same level, looking at where the ball WAS before impact, for as long as possible. HIT, ONE, LOOK, probably, before you momentum naturally rotates you around and forces you to stop looking at the ball's setup position.

Then go up a club and start from half swing pitches again.

You'll soon see that the ball gets up okay when you don't lift your head, and that you top the ball only when you do lift your head.

As with all these small things, keep practicing until you own it. That means until you don't have to think about it, until it's already become a subconcious habit that you don't have to think about. This will probably take a couple of weeks.

Like this, you'll learn that you DON'T need to look up immediately to be able to follow the ball, and you'll learn that you DO need to keep your head at it's setup height to make the right contact.

Tom

Hi Tom,

Thanks so much for affirming everything. I must admit, 10 lessons is really too short for one to learn all these fundamentals, especially when it has to include putting, chipping, bunker shots etc :P All the tips I've been reading from you guys really gives me a much better understanding and picture of what it should be.

I've taken note of all the pointers, and I would say theoretically and mentally, they are already ingrained into me. I just wish physically I can execute all the mental knowledge I've gained in the past few weeks

Will go for another round of practice this Thursday and come back with some updates Just something to clarify... When we talk about a 3/4 swing, does that include any twisting of the torso?

What body turn for a 3/4 shot.

Well, it depends which swing "method" you're following.

Some methods teach a takeaway initiated by the shoulders, which means that your torso is already actively winding up at the start of the backswing.

Others say to keep the shoulders and torso inactive until the arms get to halfway up/horizontal on the backswing. But all that means you're not actually pushing with your shoulders until that point. But try to swing this way and you'll see that in fact you still have to wind you're torso somewhat because your shoulders have already rotated.

Either way, even for a half swing/pitch shot, and more so for a 3/4 swing, where your arms rise to somewhere about 30 degrees from the horizontal, you'll have some shoulder turn and therefore torso twisting.

But the difference in torque between a half swing and 3/4 should feel fairly significant. With a half swing, there will be less torque, and therefore the shot is easier to control and lets you gain confidence, and that's why you should start with pitches in that drill I detailed before and after move up to 3/4 swings, where the torque will be greater, and control a little less easy to master.

Tom

Go to the bookstore. Purchase Ben Hogan's "5 Lessons". It's very short. These 5 lessons will help you set up a routine: grip, address, stance, backswing and downswing. The routine will help you set up correctly in a way giving you the best chance to swing correctly. This means the best opportunity to strike the ball correctly.

Buy this book NOW. Read it. Read it again. Read it again. It will change your life!

Hi Tom,

Just to confirm. At the top of my swing, my left arm should be relatively straight and pointing 30 degrees towards the sky? And how far should my right elbow be from my body? I'm still not very sure how the top of my swing should look like...