Irons tips 5 Oct 2026 17 min read

Can Better Trail-Hip Loading Stop an Over-the-Top Iron Swing?

If you keep coming over the top with your irons, check what happens before the downswing starts. A trail leg that locks and an upper body that moves towards the target too early can leave you trying to shallow the club from a difficult position.

That was the pattern Piers Ward identified in Hunter, a scratch golfer whose six-iron miss was short and right. Hunter wanted higher flight to help the ball land more softly. The work began with a better trail-hip load, then a brief delay in the upper-body turn while the arms lowered. It helped Hunter find a shallower delivery and cleaner contact during the session. It is a useful progression if you recognise the same movement, not a cure for every steep swing.

Check what happens before the club gets steep

Hunter already knew the club was arriving steep. Trying to change that position alone had not solved it. Piers kept working backwards: what happened before that delivery, and what was making the next move difficult?

Start by separating the delivery you can see from the movement that sets it up. A down-the-line recording helps you check the club and hands. A face-on recording helps you see whether your upper body is moving towards the target too early. One view cannot answer both questions equally well.

Piers used two views to investigate the cause. Down the line, the club and hands were working outside the intended delivery zone. Face on, Hunter’s upper body was moving towards the target early. His right leg and hip were also starting to lock rather than allowing him to turn and load comfortably into the trail side.

For a right-handed golfer, the right hip is the trail hip. Watch that side as you swing back, then watch your upper body from the top to half-down, when the lead arm is roughly parallel to the ground. Are you loading into the hip, or straightening and getting stuck as your chest starts moving targetwards?

Hunter’s big divots did not make shaft lean the whole explanation, either. Piers thought the forward lean of the shaft looked reasonable; the outside, steep approach still mattered. Do not remove useful shaft lean simply because you want a shallower divot.

Why the trail leg mattered

In Piers’ demonstration, the trail leg straightened too much and the hip stopped loading comfortably. The upper body was already tipping towards the target at the top. Adding Hunter’s familiar turn-through feel from there sent the club into an even steeper delivery.

The problem was the combination, not a rule that the trail knee must never straighten or the hips must keep turning without limit. Look for whether you can still rotate and load that side without your upper body being pushed towards the target.

A short-right iron miss does not diagnose this fault by itself. Check the movement as well as the shot. Moving pressure into the lead side is not the same thing as throwing your upper body towards the target.

There are other routes to a steep delivery. If your pelvis moves towards the ball instead, check whether your hip turn is taking away space. That is a different direction of movement from Hunter’s face-on pattern.

Load your trail hip with a split-stance rehearsal

Piers first changed Hunter’s stance to make the trail-side load easier to feel – and harder to avoid. The staggered setup challenged his balance, so they began with slow rehearsals rather than full-speed shots.

Try the movement without a ball first:

1. For Hunter’s right-handed version, keep the right, trail foot nearer the ball line and move the left, lead foot back away from it. Use a small, comfortable stagger and keep your hips square at address.
2. Make a slow backswing, letting the trail hip turn back rather than locking the leg.
3. Pause long enough to notice whether you can stay balanced.
4. Return to address and repeat before adding a gentle swing through.

Hip depth here means the trail hip turns back behind you; it is not a request to slide your whole body away from the target. Keep the distinction clear in a face-on recording as well as the down-the-line view. Piers guided Hunter physically during the lesson, but that is not an instruction to have someone push you into position at home.

Hunter described feeling his backside deeper and the work around his trail hip. That gives you a feel to explore, not a pressure percentage to hit. Do not turn the hip load into a forced stretch. If the stance makes you wobble, make the rehearsal smaller or use a more stable setup with your coach.

When a movement check is useful

Before choosing the drill, Piers revisited a hip-rotation and stability screen. Hunter’s hip wanted to move out rather than rotate as Piers intended. That helped explain why an instruction to simply turn more was not enough for this golfer.

Piers recommended individual help from a TPI-certified instructor and appropriately chosen mobility and strength work. The useful lesson is to check what you can control, not to copy a home pass/fail grade or diagnose a restriction from a single picture. If loading the hip feels restricted or painful, stop forcing the rehearsal and get qualified guidance. The stance drill practises a movement; it does not establish what is causing a physical limitation.

Let the arms lower, then turn through

A better backswing gave Hunter somewhere better to start. The next task was to stop the upper body racing ahead as he changed direction.

The rehearsal was load, arms down, then through. Swing back, pause, let the arms lower while the chest stays turned away from the target briefly, then let the body turn and the club release through.

The important word is briefly. Piers specifically warned Hunter not to delay too long. This is a sequencing feel for a golfer whose torso turns and moves forwards too early, not an instruction to freeze the chest or keep your weight on the back foot.

Let the lower body move without rushing the chest

You can begin moving into the lead side while the chest stays turned away briefly and the arms lower. Piers used a step-into-the-lead-side rehearsal to explain that distinction. The lower body does not have to wait motionless for the arms, and the torso does not have to lunge towards the target to move pressure forwards.

Piers later explained that Hunter’s forward upper-body position involved both moving towards the target and turning too early. The delay was aimed at that combination – not at eliminating all lower-body movement. Check the relationship: a better trail-side load, the arms finding room to lower, then a turn through – not the chest beating everything else to the ball.

Once you can rehearse it, try a small, flowing iron shot from a tee. You do not need to copy the stop-and-pump action during every shot. Keep the same intention, then swing through. The arms may feel more involved than usual because Hunter was used to the body racing ahead. That feel does not mean pulling the club down as hard as you can.

Piers initially asked Hunter to start the ball a little right of his target line and bring it back with a soft draw, helping him move away from his steep pattern. That was Hunter’s practice task, not a shot shape every golfer must produce. For another explanation of an upper body that leans towards the target, see our guide to shallowing the club earlier. Keep your own diagnosis clear before combining different feels.

Check the rehearsal and the shot separately

A rehearsal can look much better while the old move comes straight back when a ball is there. Hunter experienced that gap, which is why feedback mattered.

Match the feel to a visible change

In Hunter’s app review, the rehearsal showed a better half-down upper-body position. He was surprised that a movement which felt exaggerated could look more appropriate. That is a useful reason to film the rehearsal: the feel of staying back is not a reliable measurement of how far the upper body actually stays back.

Piers narrowed Swing Coach’s feedback to the spine position at half-down. Instead of chasing every coloured marker, Hunter could hear feedback on the movement they were actually working on. Some non-green markers can be acceptable within an individual golfer’s useful pattern; the aim is not to make every part of the screen green.

Keep the task consistent when comparing feedback. Piers asked Hunter to make the pump smaller, explaining that its size could affect the reading. Compare like-for-like rehearsals at the same phase, then assess drill shots and normal shots separately.

Check three levels of transfer

Use the same approach in your practice, recording from a consistent camera position:

1. Rehearsal: can you load and lower the arms without the old upper-body move?
2. Small drill shot: does more of that movement remain when you have a ball to hit?
3. More normal shot: can you keep enough of the change as you reduce the stance exaggeration?

Compare the upper-body movement at the same phase, then look at the strike and ball flight. Do not count a good rehearsal as proof of a good shot. If the normal shot loses the change, return to the smaller task rather than making the app target more demanding.

Nor does one improved app marker certify the whole swing. Piers accepted that the new movement could be clearer in a rehearsal, less complete in a drill shot and harder again in a normal swing. That is useful feedback about what to practise next.

If you want help connecting your feel with video and audio feedback, explore Swing Coach.

Try the easier split stance

The more demanding stance helped Hunter find the trail-side load. Piers then reversed the stagger: Hunter’s left, lead foot was nearer the ball line, with the right, trail foot pulled back away from it. That version made it easier for Hunter to turn, brace on the lead side and let the arms release.

Begin with a slow practice swing. Load the trail hip, let the arms lower with that slight delay in the torso, then turn through. If you can keep your balance, add a gentle teed shot.

Piers described a second job for this version: finding support on the lead side while the arms continued through. He compared it to handing over a baton in a relay: the body helps start the movement, then the arms need freedom to carry it on rather than staying pinned against the torso. Do not deliberately jam the lead knee or stop your body to copy the analogy.

The two versions had different jobs. One challenged the movement Hunter struggled with; the other made it easier to experience the timing and release. A comfortable drill is not automatically useless, and a difficult one is not automatically better.

Piers also widened Hunter’s stance during the drill work, then explained why both the challenging loading drill and the easier lead-side/release version mattered. Keep any width adjustment small and coach-led rather than forcing a narrow or wide stance you cannot control.

Compare the versions by what changes in your swing and shot – not by how hard they feel. If a drill only produces a better rehearsal, keep the shot small until you can carry more of that movement across.

Let the arms release without fearing left

Hunter had learned to associate releasing the club with a shot going left. From his old, steep delivery, holding off the finish could feel like the safer option. As the delivery changed, that familiar protection could get in the way.

Piers wanted the arms to keep moving and the club to release through, instead of Hunter stopping the arms because a freer finish felt wrong. A strange release feel is not automatically a bad release. Judge it alongside the club delivery and what the ball does.

Practise that freedom with a gentle teed shot after the loading-and-transition rehearsal. Notice the start line and curve. If the ball goes left, do not immediately decide that all release is bad; have the delivery and clubface checked together. Equally, do not try to fix the old steep approach by rapidly flipping your hands. Piers’ release cue followed the earlier changes – it was not a substitute for them.

Can you see the target comfortably from the new stance?

Before Hunter moved towards the smaller stance stagger, Piers checked whether he was comfortable looking towards the target. The discussion included eye dominance and an informal exercise looking through a circle made with the hands, first towards Piers and then towards Ally’s camera.

Piers was considering whether Hunter’s preferred eye would make the changed stance uncomfortable when looking towards the target. His concern was that the nose could get in the way of the preferred view from that setup – not that eye dominance had caused the steep delivery.

The responses were not clear enough to label Hunter definitively left- or right-eye dominant. The practical point was narrower: a stance that helps the swing still needs to let you see and align towards the target comfortably.

When you try a different stagger, check that comfort before hitting. If you feel you have to twist awkwardly to look towards the target, tell your coach and adjust the setup together. Do not adopt a rule that a particular dominant eye means you must always use an open or closed stance.

Piers wanted Hunter to understand these checks well enough to practise without him standing beside the ball. That includes knowing when a drill is helping the movement and when the setup needs adapting.

Take the movement towards your normal iron swing

The next step was to reduce the exaggeration. Hunter worked towards a normal-width stance while keeping the trail-load and torso-delay feel. His left, lead foot was still a little nearer the ball line than his right, trail foot, but the stagger became much smaller. That was Hunter’s practice setup, not a stance every golfer must adopt.

Piers also used a teed ball and the challenge of clipping it without a big divot. That was deliberately difficult for Hunter because he was used to a steep delivery and deep turf contact. A high tee made the clipping task more conspicuous. It was a practice exaggeration, not a fixed tee-height rule.

He also adjusted Hunter’s lead hip towards the target at setup while still asking for the torso delay in transition. Those were separate jobs at separate moments. Do not interpret keeping the chest back briefly as keeping the pelvis and pressure on the trail side throughout the swing, or copy Hunter’s setup adjustment without checking whether it fits you.

Do not turn that drill cue into a rule that irons should leave no divot. Piers was happy with a small divot as Hunter moved towards a more normal shot. The task was to reduce Hunter’s exaggerated downward strike, not teach every golfer to avoid the turf.

Keep the swing small enough to check the movement. If the upper body starts rushing again, return to a rehearsal, then try another gentle shot. Hunter found delay the upper body more useful than get the arms down quicker. Use the feel that helps you make the intended change, rather than piling both into your swing.

These rehearsals need no purchased aid. For optional practice equipment, browse our full-swing training aid collection or explore the wider Training Aid products range.

Judge delivery and predictability

The final down-the-line review showed a shallower club delivery, with the club moving into the intended zone. Hunter’s hands were still a little out, and there was further work to do on his loading. He also reported picking the ball up more cleanly.

That is the standard to bring to your practice: a movement you can verify in an actual shot, alongside contact and a more predictable start line and curve. Compare the original and later down-the-line views at a similar stage of the downswing; a top-of-backswing image and a delivery image cannot show the same change.

Keep the clubface in that review, too. Piers pointed out that a golfer slicing with an open face still needs that face relationship addressed. A shallower path alone cannot promise a straight shot. Hunter’s loading-and-delay progression is not a complete diagnosis for every slice.

Hunter and Piers left the longer-term draw-or-fade choice open. First, they wanted a better delivery and something Hunter could repeat. You do not need to decide that every good iron must now be a draw.

For in-person help, explore MMG Golf Schools. You can also learn about Full Swing and the lesson venue, The Grand Golf Club.

Over-the-top iron swing FAQs

Should I stop turning my chest to shallow the club?

No. Piers used a brief delay for Hunter’s early upper-body move, then asked him to turn and release through. Holding the chest back indefinitely is not the task.

Which split-stance version should I practise?

Use the version that lets you explore the intended movement with control. Hunter’s harder stance challenged his trail-side load; the easier stance helped him feel the turn and release. Judge transfer to a small shot, not difficulty alone.

Should my irons leave no divot?

No. Hunter’s teed, no-big-divot challenge was an exaggeration for his steep strike. A small divot was acceptable as he moved back towards normal shots.

Do I have to hit a draw to stop coming over the top?

No. Little draws were a corrective task for Hunter, not a permanent shot-shape requirement. The aim was a more neutral, predictable delivery before deciding which shape suited him.