The "Over The Top" Elimination Barrier Drill

Eric Barlow places the pathpal just outside the lead leg — not at the ball, but in the exit zone where the club travels after impact. This position catches the club if it swings too far left through and past the ball. To avoid hitting the device, the club must exit more to the right, which means the downswing path has to be shallower and more inside-out. It's a simple placement that creates immediate, consequence-based feedback on the most important part of the swing path.

A pull happens when the club travels on an out-to-in path with the face square to that path — the ball starts straight left and stays there with little curve. It shares the same root cause as a slice: an over-the-top downswing that sends the club outside the target line. The difference is face angle — an open face produces a slice, a square face produces a pull. Eric's drill addresses the shared root cause by forcing the club to exit right of the pathpal, which requires an inside-out or neutral path to accomplish.

An excessive leftward exit is the natural result of an outside-in swing path. When the club approaches from outside the target line, it has to cross over to the inside after impact — pulling left through the follow-through. Golfers often mistake this for a release problem, but the exit direction is just the club finishing where the path sent it. Fix the path on the downswing, and the exit takes care of itself. The pathpal placed outside the lead leg gives you a clear reference for where "too far left" actually is.

When a physical barrier blocks the leftward exit zone, the body automatically searches for a path that avoids it. That self-correction almost always produces a shallower, more rightward exit — which means the downswing had to approach from the inside. The body makes this adjustment instinctively rather than consciously, which is why physical barrier drills are so effective for path changes: they bypass the analytical mind and trigger the motor system to find the correct movement on its own.

It's effective for both, because both stem from the same over-the-top path. For pulls — where the face is square to an out-to-in path — correcting the path with this drill will immediately straighten the ball flight. For slicers, correcting the path is the first step; once the path is more neutral or in-to-out, the open face that was causing the curve becomes the isolated variable to address next. Eric's drill is the right starting point for either miss because path is always the foundational fix.