Sport Today

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to cure oneself of back
swinging way past parrallel? I always try to limit my backswing, but
can't seem to control it.
Thanks

If you limit your body turn by bracing your right knee, toe parallel or even
turned a bit to the target. If you do not permit your left arm to bend more
than a bit.  If you do not let your grip or left wrist break down; then
there is no need TO limit your backswing amplitude.

The long driver Zuback and John Daly both have identical swings in that
their clubhead almost hits the left knee.  Doesn't seem to hurt their
games....
FWIW

GH

 Why would you want to do that?

me

Firm up the wrists without increasing grip pressure. My guess is that the
wrists are breaking down causing the club to go past parallel. If you are
going past parallel because of a shoulder turn, don't worry about it. Learn
to play it and use that extended power. Because as you get older, it will
diminish.

--
Bryan D. Greer
Tulsa, OK
bdgreer1 at cox dot net

Lots of practice with video cameras, preferably one overhead.   I had absolutely
no idea where my club was pointing on my backswing before I took lessons at
Bogart.

I was amazed when I discovered that when I tried to do a 3/4 swing in front of
such a camera, it was exactly parallel.

Dave,

An easy way to do this is to view your backswing as a clock dial & limit
the top of your swing to say 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock, e.g.  It gives you a
good visualization clue & should help increase your precision.  Works for
me when my swing gets a little loose.

YMMV...

The best thing to do is stop thinking in terms of "club parallel to ground".
Start thinking of how much you can turn, and of not losing control of your
wrist***.  The position of your club will be unique.  For some people,
short of parallel might still be too long of a backswing.  For others,
parallel might not be far enough.

- Don't let your left elbow bend (more than just a little).
- Don't loosen your grip at the top.
- Don't reverse pivot.

If you do these, you will find it hard to go much past parallel,
unless you are extremely flexible.

Keeping a flat left wrist at the top also helps.

I am curious about "Don't loosen your grip at the top".

Do you mean such that the club might slip out of your hand?   Or do you mean, so
that the club doesn't get***ed by your backwards movement?

I don't reverse pivot and my left elbow is pretty straight - but I am quite
flexible and it is very easy for me to have too much back-swing.

Either keep your left foot flat if you're lifting it, limit your
backswing hip turn or make sure your right foot isn't flaring out too
much.  All of these will create more tension in the backswing limiting
how far you can take the club back.

David Laville, G.S.E.M.
The Golfing Machine Authorized Instructor
Contributor Of Consistent & Spam Free Golf Advice

Mirror.

I used to overswing and then have to come over the top just so I could
mishit badly for all my effort. My problem was that I wanted to feel
some kind of stretch so I could rebound against it and knock the ***
out of the ball. All wrong.

Try this,instead of focusing on how far past parallel you're going,
focus instead on making a complete honest to god 90* shoulder turn. I
bet if you do that, keep your left arm fairly straight and your left
wrist flat, that'll give you enough of that stretch feeling that you
won't feel you need to go past parallel. . .

All caveats apply, hacker not a pro, "get lessons from your local PGA
pro" etc, etc. . .

John Daly's wrists are very flexible, and he doesn't think he has too much
backswing.  But his grip is consistent - it doesn't loosen so the club has
"wiggle room".  It's almost impossible for the club to fall out of your
hand, but it's real easy for it to "dip".  You just want to have the wrists
***ed before that top of the backswing.  Otherwise that "dip" move can
cause a lot of inconsistency.

David Laville's comments in this thread are also valid, and might be
your problem (I'd forgotten about that).

Regarding the grip, common problems are loosening the last three fingers
of the left hand (like Bobby Jones used to do on purpose, but you aren't
Bobby Jones), or letting the club slide down in the notch between your
thumb and left hand, or letting your two hands come apart at the top.
You can check for problems by sticking tees between the ***of the club
and the palm of your left hand, and in various other cracks and crevices
in your grip and then taking a swing to see if any of them fall out.  If they
do, you will know where something is getting loose.

If you are still getting more than 90* of wristcock, though, you might
consider going to the weaker grip with the left hand & flat wrist at
the top that I talked about before.  This forces the wristcock to
be a purely radial motion of the left hand that, in itself, limits
the amount of wristcock that can occur.  Why is this a good idea?
Well, if you have a 90* angle, when you start the downswing the
pull that is in effect exerted on the clubshaft is straight down
the shaft, so things don't wobble around so much.

But I would take a long, hard look at that left elbow.  That's where
the problem usually is.

One swing problem that might cause overswing
would happen if during the the arms fall under the plane. The golfer
may notice the coil is not as tight and may compensate by turning past
parallel to feel the same tightness.

Regarding the grip, dip, and wiggle room:

I read a golf mag (the one with an article about a chicken swing) on
the way to AZ, that touted improving the drive by teeing up higher and
not grounding the driver. Not a new concept, but I'd never been
interested in trying it so I did at my next practice session.

Hanging the club from the hands caused me to grip a little firmer and
reduced any "wiggly" feel I may have had when grounding the club. Kept
the wigglies out at the top a little better, too.

Being clear of the ground of course eliminated catching in the grass
at the takeaway which was nice.

One thing I didn't like was the feeling in the wrists and hands as the
club's weight torqued the hands down.

I tried it with the irons too, lifting less, like ~1cm for irons,
~2plus cm for driver. The jury is still out on both.

-Gray

You may try working on the sequence of your golf swing. Your backswing
is waiting for something to stop it, and it isn't in your brain but in
your feet. The beginning of your downswing will stop your backswing if
your sequence is correct, ie. from the ground up. Your feet should
start working your body to the ball before the club has reached the
top of the backswing. The arms and club can no longer go "back"
because the body is going in the opposite direction.
For most people, it is difficult to comprehend just how early the body
begins to work back to the ball. However, this is a very "athletic"
action that you have been doing in other sports since you were a
toddler. If you throw a ball, hit a baseball, etc. you will become
aware of your body going forward while your arm(s) are still trying to
go back. The benefits of this proper sequence are better balance and
all that is related to it.
Last thing, it isn't critical that the swing is short but just that it
is in sequence. Daly and others are examples of longer swings that are
still in the right order. It has been my experience that most amatuers
struggle with their sequence when they wait too long to get started
down.

Redgoat