Fix My Slice...
...from the comfort of your chair. Let me know if you see anything screwy. I'll be forever in your debt (just figuratively, I hope).
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continued...
posted by Nathan @ 3:51 PM
Saturday, April 15, 2006
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7 Comments:
Things that aren't as bad as I thought: I used to have a problem keeping my head down through impact; looks like my head is still until the club reaches parallel on the follow-through. Also, I thought I was lifting the club too much on the takeway, but it looks parallel there.
Clubhead speed does seem to be a problem; pretty slow through impact. My new swing thought will need to be "uncoil from the hips."
Anything else to chase the slice away??
Thanks,
NB
From Bob:
[silly jab about wrong-side-of-the-ball ... omitted]
Other than that, I like the take away, straight arm with the other elbow close to the body. Your head seems steady. You might drop it "down in the slot" on your downswing (like Jim Furyk) to help make sure you have an inside/out swing plane. I did notice that from the back view, your club head was open just before the impact zone. To fix that, I'd lighten the grip (as Harvey Pennick says, hold the club just tightly enough as though holding a baby bird and not wanting to either crush it in the palm of your hand nor allow it to fly away ... good advice for holding a club if by-standers are within launch distance of your disengaged/flying club!). A loose grip frees the wrists to "snap" through on impact, both squaring the face of the club and increasing distance.
Hope this helps.
from an ex-slicer ... you'll need to get on plane and create more lag to get rid of that slice. Try this ... get the club locked into a fully wrist-cocked position by the time you get club to 9 o'clock. You don't seem to cock your wrists until you get to the top of your swing which is entirely too late (you swing is also way too long ... see Stuart Appleby's swing which is nice and compact for a 6' tall guy) If you do this right, you will actually hit the ball fat on the range for about 50 balls until you can get the club on plane (inside).
let us know how it goes,
B
OK, thanks! Clarification on "long," though. The current Golf Digest says slicers have too "steep" a swing and need to make it more "shallow." I'm having a hard time getting the feel for that. But is "long" mean "steep," "shallow," or are you just talking about tempo and clubhead speed?
im a lefty also and have a horrible slice but i can control it if i narrow my stance and roll my wrist over but doing it is the hard part
Since you asked only about the slice and not about your grip [the way you are holding the club tends to limit the amount of lag you can get and is one of the reason of your slight casting and resulting slice] and balance [if you stop at the top of your backswing you will see that you are not in balance: you wife can easily push you over from your right side to your left, and more importantly you are more poised to take a step AWAY from the ball towards your left and than towards the target - note the weight distribution on the outside of your left foot, rather than on the inside where you need to have it to be able to step to your right] and muscle tightness [your wrists and hands are forearms are way too tight, and that tension prevents the wrists from freely rotating before, at, and after impact and is a factor in casting], I will limit my comments to the slice issues.
You must learn the physics of ball flight. It isn't enough to say that coming from the outside causes a slice, because that really doesn't help anyone. Know that the initial flight is dictated by the path of the golf club, and the spin of the ball (read slice or hook) is determined by the orientation of the clubface to the line of clubhead travel.
So, if you look at your swing from the rear view you will see that it appears you believe that your club needs to travel down the line of intended flight for the ball to go straight. In fact, that is not true and will cause a slice nearly every time. This is because the club is swinging on an arc and NOT down the line of intended flight. The club MUST come from the inside if you are swinging an arc. The way to prove this to yourself is to pretend that the ball is at shoulder height 12 inches away from a wall and swing the club back and forth (in tempo, please, two counts back, one count forward) until you are relaxed. You will see that the club never runs parallel to the wall, never. The club comes towards the wall, gets closest at the imagined ball, then starts away from the wall. The line of intended flight is identical, just on a slightly different plane.
If you look at the swing from the front view you can see that your rotation is not as 90 degrees as it could be. This often results in coming across the ball from the outside.
So, here's a drill. Keep the ball at shoulder height and continue swinging the club. Make sure that you are swinging on a parallel plane to the gound (you've got a fairly nice golf plane going). Loosen your grip (squeeze as if your are holding a bird) and allow the club to move from the lag position (90 degrees to the arm) at a later time by the centrifugal force of the club itself, and NOT by the force of your hands. Begin to have awareness of the flipping of your hands (loosen those wrists!) at the moment slightly before impact. If you listen carefully to your hands you will see that your clubface has been open at impact. This open club face is caused by your reaching the club out to go down the target line (casting) and your lack of sensitivity to your wrists being rotated by the centrifugal force of the club.
Good luck!
Your golf swing is great. You practice alot? Golf Instruction Online
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