Finally found out what is causing me to pull the ball

For several years I have gone through periods where I pull the ball way to the left. I usually will hit a few during a round and other times just about every shot. Out of frustration I did a search on here the other night and found a great thread on this very subject of pulling. Several people stated that a common cause is an over the top swing. To be honest, I really didn't even know what an OTT swing was. YouTube thankfully has many great videos describing the problem and giving instruction in helping overcome. I have been told by a few friends that I sometimes do a weird, loopy thing when I start my downswing. Bam! OTT swing. I started working on some things to help improve my swing and one of those was trying to keep my right elbow from flying wildly. Also the position of my hands at address. Keeping my right elbow close to my hip has helped during practice sessions so I took it to the course this afternoon. I ended up hitting my irons really well and shot an 80 (My lowest round is 78) with a triple bogey after rinsing a tee shot. I would like to thank my fellow WRXers for helping me get the root of my problem! This is one awesome forum.

If you have a suffered from having an OTT swing how did you change your swing to get out of it?

Congrats on the breakthrough. I fixed my ott swing by learning to close the club face relative to the swing path. This forced me to learn to swing inside to out and hit a draw, otherwise it was pull hooks!

Coming OTT can be caused by a multitude of other things happening well before impact. Nearly impossible to say what the fix for your swing would be without seeing it

Essentially your trail shoulder and forearms are internally rotating in transition when you come 'over the top.' There's a ton of reasons for why it happens.

When I start to get steep, it's usually because my hand path in the backswing is not deep enough. The hands are then forced to go more downward instead of going slightly downward and then outward to deliver the club head to the ball.

I prefer to move chronologically in the swing when it comes to making repairs to the swing. So, I would check your position at the top of the swing first and see if there's anything going on there that would make it likely to come over the top.

RH

> @trilerian said:

> Congrats on the breakthrough. I fixed my ott swing by learning to close the club face relative to the swing path. This forced me to learn to swing inside to out and hit a draw, otherwise it was pull hooks!

Can you elaborate? Trying to understand if you rotated your wrists for a closed position at impact?

> @T-3 said:

> > @trilerian said:

> > Congrats on the breakthrough. I fixed my ott swing by learning to close the club face relative to the swing path. This forced me to learn to swing inside to out and hit a draw, otherwise it was pull hooks!

>

> Can you elaborate? Trying to understand if you rotated your wrists for a closed position at impact?

>

>

Originally, I used the motorcycle drill. Now I use a stronger grip.

I use a Moe Norman style swing, and fought the OTT for years. I came up with so many AHA! moments that turned out to not be the problem; it wasn't funny. What it finally turned out to be was that at the top of the swing, I was cupping my lead wrist instead of keeping it flat. With that single axis swing, when I cupped the wrist, it sent the shaft up, more vertical. Which changed my swing plane, causing me to swing down to the left. I was very good about swinging down on the shaft plane, LOL. Unfortunately it had become the wrong plane. Once I figured it out, the OTT was stopped. Finally.

I don't know if that same wrist thing might apply to a conventional swing.

> @Snowman9000 said:

> I use a Moe Norman style swing, and fought the OTT for years. I came up with so many AHA! moments that turned out to not be the problem; it wasn't funny. What it finally turned out to be was that at the top of the swing, I was cupping my lead wrist instead of keeping it flat. With that single axis swing, when I cupped the wrist, it sent the shaft up, more vertical. Which changed my swing plane, causing me to swing down to the left. I was very good about swinging down on the shaft plane, LOL. Unfortunately it had become the wrong plane. Once I figured it out, the OTT was stopped. Finally.

>

> I don't know if that same wrist thing might apply to a conventional swing.

This seems to be more of what's going on with me. I was doing the single plane type swing with the shaft of the club in a straight line with my arms at address. I have since dropped my hands closer to my knees at address and am getting good results when I keep my lead (left) wrist flat as well at the top of by back swing. I had another good day yesterday with my irons on the course. Thanks for the input!

I have pulls issues. I realized after watching monte's efficient swing that I did not have almost any vertical wrist hinge. I started practicing this, and my arms felt so outside/in front of my body. I felt like I was going to go way left. But nope, straight high shots, center of face.

For me, it turns out that I was pulling the club inside. I then over compensated by getting steep, and OTT.

Going back to basics, I found a fundamental flaw that needed to be fixed. As monte and other great teachers state, the DS issue is a symptom of set up or BS.

There are a multitude of reasons for a pull and an OTT move/fix is not normally the fix.