Stop Topping The Golf Ball
By Paul Wilson
Topping the ball is one of the most frustrating shots the
average player can hit. You will often hear that the cause of
topping the ball is that you are "looking up" or "raising your
body up too early". Although this is true, you have to ask
yourself the question, “WHY” are you looking up? If you can
answer this question, you will finally eliminate the topped
shots from your game forever!
There are a couple of reasons why you would look up. In this
tip, we will look at what is causing you to look up before you
even take the club back (in the next tip we will talk about what
causes you to look up when you are actually hitting the ball).
This is a problem I bet you didn’t even realize that you are
doing ... until now.
If you look at the color picture of me in my set up position you
will see that when I look at my target, I do so, through tilted
eyes. The black and white picture depicts how the average player
looks to the target with level eyes.
Why Looking at Your Ball Through Tilted Eyes is so
Important
If you take your set up position and look at your target through
level eyes you’re telling yourself that this is the way you want
to watch your ball fly through the air once it is hit.
Unfortunately, this will cause you to raise your body up through
the shot and finish with your eyes level (black and white
picture below). If you raise your body up through impact the
club will come off of the ground slightly causing you to top the
ball.
Now, if you could set up to the ball and look at the target
through tilted eyes each and every time before you hit the ball,
you will be telling yourself that this is the way you want to
watch your ball fly. If you watch your ball fly through the air
this way, you will maintain your spine angle throughout the
shot. If you maintain your spine angle throughout the shot, your
club will make consistent contact with the ball and you will
finish on a tilt as seen in the color picture below.
Why Do You Want to Look Through LEVEL Eyes?
The reason to watch your ball fly through "level" eyes as
opposed to "tilted" eyes is quite simple, it's because you walk
around in everyday life looking through level eyes. This means
that you naturally want to see things this way. If you walked
around everyday with your head tilted to one side you wouldn't
even be reading this tip. Unfortunately, watching your ball fly
through tilted eyes is easier said than done because it goes
against what you want to do naturally. Now that you know how
important it is and how it effects your golf swing, you will
want to get used to it no matter how uncomfortable it may be.
How to Work On It?
The best way to work on watching your ball through tilted eyes
is to do some practice swings towards a mirror or while watching
your reflection in a large pane of glass. As you take your set
up position, take a look at the reflection of yourself imagining
that you are looking at your target. Make sure that when you do,
you see that your eyes are tilted like the picture of me at
address.
Now, take a swing and stop when you have hit the finish
position. Again, take a look at yourself and check to see that
when you finish, your eyes are also tilted (this tilt should
only be slight DO NOT be too tilted or you will put too much
pressure on your lower back). You should be watching the ball
fly through the air with tilted eyes as I am in the follow
through position (color picture). If you notice that after you
swing through your eyes are level you are going to have to keep
practicing until you have mastered tilted eyes. If you do, you
will finally be on your way to stopping those topped shots.
Paul Wilson
Creator - Swing Machine Golf
|
Join 1, 2 or 3 Day
Schools at the |