I am new to the forum, so forgive me if this subject has been previously discussed. Sometimes, I flat out top the ball when I try to move the lead shoulder and triangle "up" in the forward swing. Are there some common causes for this?
Yes, the cause of topping the putt is delivering the putterhead too high thru impact, which happens from one or several of the following "flaws" in technique:
a) lifting the putterhead thru the impact zone with the muscles of the forearms and upper arms altering the angles at the elbows, shortening the distance from pivot at base of neck to bottom / sole of putter from what it should be thru impact (too short, too high);
b) missing the bottom of the stroke and getting there too early, so that the putterhead does not get to its lowest point in the stroke right where it started at address behind the ball, and instead you bottom out and therefore start the putterhead upward too soon and too far behind the ball;
c) the pivot at the base of the neck rises before impact is started and finished, usually due to peeking or to making a bad stroke path thru impact closing the path to the inside with the lead shoulder pulling back from parallel (which throws the base of the neck out of square closing to the inside and may also throw the base of the neck "up" when combined with lifting the lead shoulder while also pulling the putt to the inside).
Which of these are occurring in your stroke is up to you to sort out.
The positive approach is to develop sounder technique so these flaws never occur. The above flaws are all STROKE flaws that occur dynamically during the movement. Don't lift thru impact, don't miss the bottom, and don't rise up with the base of the neck. But the best cure for the MOVEMENT flaws is in the setup at the beginning, which arranges the movement in advance. Getting the correct setup is 75% or more of sorting out (in advance) what happens in the stroke movement.
ANTI-TOPPING SETUP:
Avoiding the movement flaws that cause topping is all easier if you also hang the arms fully but with relaxed weight (as opposed to sticking the arms down straight) so there is not really any "play" left in the distance from pivot at base of neck to sole of putter at address. This way, not lifting and bottoming out beneath the neck (without fear of stubbing) and holding still at the base of the neck all come together effortlessly, as the sole of the putter cannot stub the ground since the exact bottom at setup is as low as the sole can reach during the stroke.
This means that the only way you can stub the putter is to dip or lower the pivot at the base of the neck during the stroke thru the impact zone or before, so the neck staying at the starting height keeps the neck still. In other words, stay down on the putt until the stroike is complete and the putterhead has cleared past the lead foot before allowing yourself to look up and peek, and also do not pull the lead shoulder out of parallel to the target line thru impact, but keep the shoulder rising vertically from the ground thru impact and keep the hands swinging the same distance out from the thighs the whole time, not drifting inside closer around the thighs thru impact.
Knowing that the sole cannot stub also allows you to avoid lifting the putterhead thru impact, and instead allows you to let the putterhead sink back to the bottom beneath the pivot at the same place the putterhead rested at address, not earlier or later (right or left) of the true bottom of the stroke arc.
SET UP TO THE STROKE BOTTOM NOT TO THE BACK OF THE BALL:
Topping can also be cause by playing the ball too far forward of the bottom, but this notion causes confusion. It is never really that the ball is too far forward and instead it is that the bottom of the stroke does not reoccur where the setup placed the putterhead at address.
Golfers never setup with the putterhead matching the natural bottom of the stroke but with the ball way off from the putterhead at address closer to the target with a gap of 5-6 inches. What they do instead, which is a flaw, is look at the ball and then put the putterhead right smack behind the ball even though the top of the body and center of the body and center of mass of the body are all aiming the REAL bottom of the stroke not where the putterhead is located behind the ball but significantly left bor right of the putterhead position at address. Then when the stroke is made, the golfer either manipulates the bottom to get a good impact or fails to manipulate the bottom and the bottom happens too soon, resulting in a topping. If the bottoming out of the stroke is happening too soon, the stroke as a whole is tilted into the ground, so this also fosters lifting the putterhead thru impact to avoid stubbing into the big ball Earth.
I boil all this down to: setting up to the ball is wrong and causes the golfer to locate the body left / ahead of the true bottom of the stroke with the shaft leaning a little towards the target -- causing a mismatch between the putterhead at address and the bottom during the stroke; setting up to the bottom of the stroke to begin with is the cure, so never allow the ball to draw you towards it when placing the putterhead behind the ball, and instead place the whole body and bottom of the stroke behind the ball -- this is matching the setup bottom to the bottom that will occur in the stroke naturally without lifting or other manipulation. The stroke bottoming out must always occur before impact at the back of the ball begins, and also never occur too early too far behind the ball. This is best promoted by setting up at address to the STROKE bottom to begin with.
Where is the natural bottom of the stroke? Wherever the putterhead meets the ground when the arms hang naturally, the grip and "triangle" is set, and then the golfer simply bends the shoulder frame lower until the putterhead meets the ground. The golfer's bottom will always be the same location in reference to the stance and will never be back from the body center but will either be in the center of the body (sternum, throat, etc.) or closer to the target (left of center nearer the heart for a right-hander), depending upon putter design and grip form. A left-hand low grip form shifts the bottom left of center of the body and so does right-hand low. This is because a putting stroke is predominately a lead-arm (left-arm) swing, or a swing by the arm closest to the target that does not have to cross the gut and chest to move towards the target.
A golfer can experience and find the true stroke bottom by setting the form of the grip and shape of the "triangle" while holding the putterhead out in front (shaft parallel to the surface horizontal) and then bending the shoulder frame down until the putterhead sole flattens to the surface. Wherever the sole meets the ground is the true stroke bottom. The trick will come when the golfer FIRST sets the putterhead on the ground flat behind the ball and then sets up to the awaiting putterhead. The flaw creeps in because the golfer unconsciously sets up to the ball and not to the bottom of the stroke.
When I teach, I always teach "putt the bottom of the stroke not the back of the ball". A putting stroke is always the same form for accuracy and consistency WHETHER THERE IS A BALL THERE OR NOT AND REGARDLESS OF WHERE THE BALL IS LOCATED IN RELATION TO THE BOTTOM OF THE STROKE. The ball simply gets in the way, and the putterhead is placed at the bottom of the stroke arc, the golfer then putts the bottom, and the ball is a little left of the bottom and gets in the way as the stroke rises very slightly upwards thru impact AFTER bottoming out.
So, hang the "play" out of the arms at address, set the putterhead to its natural bottom instead of setting up to the back of the ball, and make a stroke that doesn't lift thru impact (the arms and hands are "dead" although fixed in a structure or shape with steady muscle tone -- the so-called "triangle" or "Y" of the setup) but stays low and grazes the top of the grass right at the bottom of the stroke, which only happens when you hold the base of the neck in place as the shoulder frame rocks down and up in the stroke without peeking and without pulling the putter closed thru impact. No stubs, no tops, just right -- solid and straight.
I think you may have missed one. Normally when I see people topping putts or anything, it comes from a break down of the lead wrist. When that happens it changes the circles radius from the lead shoulder to the lead wrist and makes the club move upward much sooner than it normally would.
Not really. Bad golfers don't flip the putter thru impact in a way that results in topping the ball unless they start the flip WAY before the back of the ball. A normal adult sets up to a putt with the top of the sternum and base of the neck about 4.5 feet (54" or so) above the ground, and with the wrists around 30-35" above the ground, and with the bottom of the putter at address ON the ground and coming forward over the bottom of the stroke about 1/10th inch above the ground. If the golfer held the putter at the bottom of the stroke and then only hinged the wrists thru impact, the circle of this stroke will have a radius of about 30-35 inches. For the bottom of the putter to rise above the equator of the back of the ball, which is 0.84" off the dirt, the geometry requires that the distance from the bottom of the stroke to the back of the ball be at least 7 to 7.5 inches.
On this website circle calcultor, choose "Segment Height and Radius" and enter radius as the height of the hands off the ground and the segment height (ED) as the height of the ball's equator (both in inches) and then HALF the calculation of the CHORD length (AB) is how far ahead of the bottom of the stroke the back of the ball has to be to top the putt with this sort of flip of the wrist.
I don't believe even BAD GOLFERS who flip their wrists thru impact do this by starting the flip 7 or more inches behind the ball. That's a LONG way behind the ball. Even a blind person wouldn't do that.