Should the club be Parallel at the top of your golf swing?

[leaney]

It seems that most pros have their club parallel at the top of their swing with a driver. But with irons it seems that most of the pros have a 4/5 back swing.

Is this the norm?

Is this what all of you do?

Thanks

 

[birdieman]

I would like to do what you describe but I have a tendency to overswing through a combo of raising arms after shoulder turn is complete and the left arm bending at elbow, both of which allow the club to come past parallel at top of backswing. I continually try and cure this and can manage ok with a practice swing but can't when a ball is involved it seems! Very frustrating.

 

[In_The_Rough]

I had a problem with overswing very early in my Golfing career!! Fixed and do not even swing to parallel with the Driver and 3/4 swings with Irons.

 

[DaveM]

Somewhere between 3/4 and full on the driver. Somewhere between 1/2 & 3/4 most of the irons. 3/4 is really more than enough as long as you have a full wrist hinge. You may find you hit the driver longer and straighter as well.

 

[sawtooth]

I try to make 3/4 backswing for the irons and about parallel for the driver. Most of the time when I hit a crap shot its because I've gone back too far.

 

[JustOne]

Should the club be parallel? It's up to you. One can hardly knock John Daley or other big hitters, yet Luke Donald doesn't strip the cover off the ball and made it to world No1. No point in swinging too far if you can't control the face/path or hit it off the sweetspot.

 

[leaney]

Thank you for the comments gents.

 

[MadAdey]

I was always told when I was learning as a kid never to swing the club to parallel. If you have to swing an iron back to parallel for the distance take one more because you should never be hitting an iron at 100% otherwise you will loose control and accuracy.

The driver on the other hand is different. Your hitting that for raw distance. Taking that back to parallel is understandable. If you are not going to hit the driver to get it out there as far as possible then take a 3-wood and go for accuracy.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I would like to do what you describe but I have a tendency to overswing through a combo of raising arms after shoulder turn is complete and the left arm bending at elbow, both of which allow the club to come past parallel at top of backswing. I continually try and cure this and can manage ok with a practice swing but can't when a ball is involved it seems! Very frustrating.

You and me both. If I could stop my swing at 3/4 length it is perfectly on plane etc. Its the extra few icnhes that lift the head up as the arms push the shoulders up that kills me. I can get in a great position on the range but on the 1st tee its same old, same old. The Tour tempo work I did two winters back slowed the pace back and should have given me more time to make a controlled swing but it never really panned out that way

 

[SocketRocket]

You dont need to do a longer backswing with a driver to get it parallel. If you make a full shoulder turn the longer shaft of the driver will tend to drop it to around parallel. The shorter shaft in an iron will tend to lay off a bit.

 

[chrisd]

I work on a shorter swing and rhythm all the time. 3/4 is what I want but the tempo is vital, as there seems little point in swinging shorter, and then trying to blast the ball 500 mph

Chris