Find your Perfect Top of the Swing Position with this Checklist

The top of the swing position represents the halfway point in your golf swing, the middle point between your address position and the impact with the golf ball. When you reach that position and before you proceed with your downswing there are a few golf tips and checkpoints that you should know.

In this video you’ll learn how to position your club properly at the top of the swing. You’ll learn how to keep it from going across the line or teach it to go past a laid-off position. You’ll also learn about the tradeoff between control and shot distance. Finally, you will learn how to position your wrists at the top to prevent your club from being in a bowed or cupped position at the top.

Have you ever wondered how far back you should go with your backswing? We propose that you should go past noon (or midnight) in an imaginary clock. Indeed, when the club is perpendicular to the ground in your backswing that is noon and if it reaches the point where it goes past that to be parallel to the ground then that would be 3 o’clock. You should aim to take your club back between 1 and 3 o’clock in your backswing. Going past 3 will likely result in an over-swing and your timing and tempo will probably suffer. Going short of noon means that your swing is probably too short, robbing you of shot distance in the process.

Consider this tradeoff. The shorter the golf swing, the more control you have over your shot but at the cost of distance. The longer the golf swing, the more distance at the cost of control. The idea here is to find the perfect balance that allows you to strike the ball with control and to see that ball reach its full distance potential. Golf courses are several thousands yards long and you will need to send your ball out there if you aim to play par.

Another way to see if you are turning properly is to place a club over your chest and to check where the end of the club points during your backswing. Ideally, you would want that club to point towards the ball in front of you, or even to the back of it. That will create good upper body rotation and will ultimately store a lot of power in your golf swing. So make sure that you turn your upper body 90 degrees when you are hitting full distance golf shots.

You will notice that hinging your wrists as you go from the halfway back position to the top of the swing position will help you in reaching that desirable position. Indeed, a classic top of the swing position should see your club shaft pointing straight at the target, or parallel to the target line. If your club points to the right of the target then you are across the line at the top. If the club points to the left of the target then you are in a laid-off club position at the top.

Finally, another quick checkpoint is to make sure that the leading edge of the club is parallel to your left wrist. If your left wrist is pulled back, then your wrists are in a cupped position at the top and this will produce an open clubface position. If your left wrist is pushed then your wrists are in a bowed position at the top, resulting in a closed clubface position.

For more on the top of the swing position see:

[robbixon]

The series of videos on the set up and the perfect swing are amazing and should be watched over and over! My game has improved by watching these videos. They are well produced, easy to follow and understand, and they break down the set up and the swing step-by-step. This channel lacks the hype of other instructional channels, but delivers in a big big way in terms of quality, golf instruction, and tips.

[tennesseetrash]

Love the content and length of you videos

[ravora]

love your content and main game has benefitted amazingly from them. in many of the videos, it looks like the wrist is cupped at both the halfway and top of backswing positions. at what point do you get the lead wrist back to neutral or even a bit bowed at impact? many videos i watch encourage the lead wrist to be either flat or a bit bowed after takeaway so that you don't have to time the move on the downswing (if that makes sense!)

[omullick]

Love the content! I’m surprised it was so challenging to find a checklist type video.

[lukejuras]

At 1:34, what's better to get: control or power? One person tells me that it's better to practice hitting 1, 000s of balls at 75% swing to develop better control, another person tells me to practice hitting 1, 000s of balls at 100% swing to develop power/distance. Which one should I be focusing on?