How to Stop Overturning a Golf Swing

That feeling of winding up for a huge, powerful backswing often leads to exactly the opposite result: a weak, uncontrolled shot that leaves you frustrated. This common mistake, known as overturning or over-rotating, is a major source of inconsistency for golfers of all levels. This article will break down exactly what overturning is, why it wreaks havoc on your game, and provide actionable drills to help you build a more compact, powerful, and repeatable golf swing.

What is Overturning a Golf Swing?

Overturning is simply turning your body too much in the backswing. Instead of creating a powerful, coiled spring, you’re creating a loose, disconnected motion. It’s the difference between winding up a rubber band until it's tight and just twisting it until it's a limp noodle. A properly loaded backswing involves your shoulders turning about 90 degrees while your hips turn about 45 degrees, creating separation and torque. When you overturn, that separation is lost.

Here’s what it typically looks like:

• Your golf club goes well “past parallel” at the top of your swing, pointing towards the ground.
• Your trail elbow (the right elbow for a right-handed golfer) lifts and disconnects from your body, often described as a "flying elbow."
• You lose your athletic posture, often standing up or straightening your back leg excessively.
• You may even lose balance, feeling your weight shift to the outside of your trail foot.

Think less about how long your swing is and more about how good your turn is. The goal is a controlled rotation that keeps your arms, body, and club working in sync, stopping at a point where you feel loaded and ready to release maximum energy into the ball.

"But I Feel More Powerful!" - The True Cost of Over-Rotating

The sensation of a massive windup feels powerful, but it’s a trap. Overturning sabotages your swing in several critical ways, leading to the exact opposite of what you’re trying to achieve.

1. Loss of Power and Speed

Power in golf comes from sequencing - the efficient transfer of energy from your lower body, through your core, and finally to your arms and the club. When you overturn, your body gets so far out of position that this sequence breaks down. You can't unwind properly. To recover, your first move is often with your arms and hands, which is a massive power leak compared to leading the downswing with your lower body.

2. Massive Inconsistency

When you overturn, you create an enormous amount of ground to cover just to get the club back to the ball. This long, complicated journey back is incredibly difficult to repeat. One time you might heave your body forward and hit a thin shot. The next time, you might drop behind it and hit it fat. Or you could pull your arms across your body and hit a weak slice. This lack of a repeatable swing path is the very definition of inconsistency.

3. Wildly Unpredictable Direction

Overturning forces your body to make compensations to try and square the clubface at impact. This often leads to two very common and dreaded results:

• The Big Slice: Overturning causes your body to fall out of sequence, so your arms and club are left behind. You then “come over the top,” swinging the club on an out-to-in path across the ball, producing a high, weak slice.
• The Duck Hook: In an attempt to save the shot from slicing, many golfers will aggressively flip their hands at the ball. This rapid closing of the clubface results in a low, sharp hook that dive-bombs out of the air.

Your ability to control where the ball goes is directly tied to your ability to control your body's rotation. Overturning is a loss of that control.

Key Causes and How to Identify Your Problem

Before jumping into drills, it's helpful to understand why you might be overturning in the first place. Often, it's not a conscious choice but a symptom of an underlying issue.

A Poor Setup: An unstable base is a common culprit. If your stance is too narrow, you'll naturally lose balance as you turn back, often leading to over-rotation to try and find stability. Similarly, standing too upright (not enough hip hinge) encourages your shoulders to turn flat and too far.

Relying on Arms, Not Body: Many golfers lift their arms away from their body to create the feeling of a "big" swing instead of rotating their torso. A proper swing is a turn, not a lift. If your arms are disconnected from your chest's rotation, they can travel much farther back than they should.

A Misguided Hunt for Distance: The simple, yet incorrect, belief that a longer swing equals more power is the number one reason golfers develop this habit. Focus on speed and efficiency, not length.

Flexibility Issues: Paradoxically, both a lack of and an excess of flexibility can cause problems. A golfer with limited thoracic (upper back) mobility might try to manufacture a turn by swaying their hips or lifting their arms. A golfer who is hyper-flexible might not feel any resistance and just keep turning until they are completely out of position.

Drills to Build a More Compact and Powerful Swing

Knowledge is great, but positive change happens through purposeful practice. These drills are designed to give you the feeling of a correct, compact backswing. Start slow, without a ball, just to ingrain the sensations.

Drill 1: The Back-to-the-Wall Feel

This is a fantastic drill for feeling proper hip rotation without swaying or overturning. It establishes the "stop sign" for your turn.

What you'll need: A wall and a golf club.

1. Stand a few inches away from a wall, with the wall behind you. Get into your normal golf posture.
2. Take a slow, deliberate backswing. Your immediate goal is to feel your trail butt cheek (right cheek for a right-hander) brush or "kiss" the wall.
3. Once your cheek touches the wall, stop your backswing. That’s it. That is your end point.
4. Notice how stable and loaded you feel. Your hips have turned, but they haven't swayed off the ball. Recreating this feeling is your goal on the course. You don't need any more turn than this.

Drill 2: Connected Arms with the Headcover Drill

This classic drill addresses the "flying elbow" and weak, disconnected arms that are a staple of over-rotation.

What you'll need: A golf club and a headcover (or a small towel).

1. Tuck the headcover into your trail armpit (right armpit for right-handers). It should be snug, but not so tight that it restricts all motion.
2. Take slow, half-to-three-quarter practice swings.
3. Your goal is to keep the headcover from falling out during your backswing.
4. If it falls out, it means your arm has separated from your torso - the exact move that leads to an overturned, disconnected swing. This drill forces your arms and chest to turn together as a single, powerful unit. Hit small shots at the range to get a feel for this connected motion.

Drill 3: The Shoulder Turn Pointer (Club Across Shoulders)

This drill clarifies what a good shoulder turn really is. It’s not just about turning horizontally, it’s about tilting down towards the ball.

What you'll need: Just a golf club.

1. Get into your golf posture without a ball.
2. Place a golf club across your chest, holding it firmly against your shoulders with your arms crossed. The shaft should be parallel to the ground.
3. Now, simulate your backswing by rotating your torso.
4. As you rotate back, look at the end of the club shaft. At the top of a proper backswing, the end of the shaft should be pointing down at the ground, roughly where the golf ball would be.
5. If the shaft is pointing straight out, level with the ground, your turn is too flat - a major cause of overturning. This drill trains your upper body to maintain posture and rotate on the correct angle.

Final Thoughts

Overturning a golf swing is a habit born from a misunderstanding of how power is created. By shifting your focus from swing length to swing quality - and practicing with intentional drills - you can build a more controlled, compact, and powerful backswing that leads to consistent strikes and better scores.

Translating the "feel" of these drills to your real swing on the course is the final step, and having an objective view can be a huge help. With our app, Caddie AI, you can get instant swing analysis on the range. You can capture a swing video to see if you're truly shortening that backswing or snap a photo of a troublesome lie for real-time strategy on the course. It provides that expert, on-demand feedback to help you trust your changes and play with more confidence.