The Ubiquitous Over-the-Top Swing
While in the process of compiling the Titleist Performance Institute’s 12 most common swing faults for a blog post, decided to discuss the over-the-top subject first, simply because TPI claims that most amateurs have it, and that’s what differentiates the good golfers from the not-so-good.
The TPI definition (one of 12 definitions for OTT, apparently), from their Level 1 course is, “the club is thrown outside of the intended swing plane, with the club head approaching the ball in an out-to-in motion”.
So, as the MGSSystem believes that for every un-desired club position exists a body-position presenting the club incorrectly, the OTT position should be seen just pre-impact, at which stage it becomes apparent that OTT is indeed a universal disease, not one which is biased and afflicts only us ‘lesser’ mortals. The professionals may not be as overtly OTT as others, and definitely not early in their downswings, but they are OTT too.
If you go by the MGSS definition of OTT, which requires the club to be on the lead/left arm plane and both the trail/right thigh and shoulder to be behind the lead/left one.
Look at how the pros leave themselves no room to straighten out the right arm, leave alone let it roll over for that baby draw. It’s only that they have quick (and not always reliable) last-minute reflexes to change club path with ‘feel’, and enough strength to bludgeon the ball into submission and so not realize they could be consistently better.
Now look at the picture below with club on ‘left arm plane’, and both right thigh and shoulder ‘behind’ left (the right thigh could be slightly further behind). All of this HAPPENS without the golfer’s awareness, just by making the MGS full-swing set-up and backswing.
