Ever wondered how you'll be hitting the ball perfect on the range before you play, and then during your round it seems your cursed with the disease of the "Slice"? Well I'm here to help. With any fault in the Golf Swing, it takes hard work and time to repair and start hitting it straight again. One word of advice before I start talking about all the ways to fix this problem, is to work on one thing at a time.
The Number 1 mistake I see amateurs make is that they will think about every little detail in their golf swing besides hitting the ball in the middle of the club face, and when they shank it off the hozzle and chunk their brand new five iron into the water. So when your trying to fix something in your golf swing, focus on one thing, whether it be your grip, your stance, or any other mental thought, focus on one thing, and not several things.
The Slice
A vulgar word in the Language of Golf terms. Nothing can anger a golfer more than to have that repetitive slice every single time you hit the golf ball and it seems no matter what you try, you cant fix it. Trust me. Ive been there, I had to work hard to get rid of my slice because my natural swing quickly got me into the bad habit of making some wrong mistakes that led me to a lot of hazards. There is hope though! and I'm here to help. well first off I'll just list some reasons that people usually tend to hit the slice.
REASONS WHY YOU SLICE
- Your Grip
- Your Stance
- Your Swing Path
- You Try to Hit the Ball too Hard
- Your Shoulders aren't Lined up Correctly
- Your Alignment is off
- Your Swinging with your Arms
These are the top Reasons of found that golfers make when they are tending to slice the ball.
REASON #1 : The Grip
The biggest reason golfers hit a slice is there grip. You probably hear it constantly how important the grip is, but it truly is the most fundamentally important key to your Golf swing. Would you build a beautiful mansion on a bad foundation? of course not! it's the same with the golf swing. If you want that big prize of the beautiful mansion, you've got to have a good foundation, the grip. You can interlock, overlap, full finger, or whatever you want, that part is you're preference, personally I use the interlock grip because it gives me a better feel of one solid contact with the club making a swing as a whole, but you can use whichever you like.
WHY THE GRIP CONTRIBUTES TO YOUR SLICE
The Reason people will slice because of their grip is because they have a weak grip. a weak grip can occur when your left hand is rolled too far to the left around the grip of the club to where you see less than 3 fingers and the same goes with your right hand to when it is rolled to far to the left around your grip. when your grip is weak, you tend to come through contact with the club face open, usually resulting in "Pushing" the ball off contact and gaining an end result of a slice.
HOW TO FIX IT
If something is weak, you strengthen it. That is exactly what your going to do here. Strengthen Your Grip. When gripping the club, the shaft should rest across the palm of your hand and when you grip the club, you should be able to see your first 3 and even 4 knuckles on your left hand, and when you place your right hand on the club, you should see the tips of your fingers rotated around the grip. This is going to feel very awkward at first, but if your grip is what is causing you to slice, I guarantee this will work.
Recap
- Strengthen your Grip
- See Three and if necessary, Four Knuckles on Left hand
- See Fingertips on Right Hand
Grip for Your Left Hand
Strong Weak
REASON #2 : Stance
Another reason you might be slicing the ball is that you have an open stance. An open stance is where your body and club face are facing the target, yet your feet are aimed left (Most likely, your left foot is pulled back). This causes you to come "over the stop" and put a left to right spin on the ball. When somethings open, you close it, which is exactly what you need to do here. Close your Stance.
HOW TO FIX IT
The best way i know to fix this is with alignment rods, if you don't have alignment rods, two clubs work just fine. simply set the two clubs/rods on the ground parallel to each other and imagine there a railroad and if you were riding on that railroad you would crash right into your target. Now with your railroad aimed towards your target, place a golf ball in between the two clubs and place your feet to where each foot is an equal distance from the first club as well as placing your club face behind the ball to where it is perpendicular to the two clubs. this is a wonderful drill to help your alignment and you can use it every time you practice! (I sure do!)
Recap
- Close Stance
- DRILL - Use Clubs or Alignment rods to form an imaginary "Railroad"
REASON #3 : Swing Path
Your swing path determines the type of spin you're going to put on the golf ball, whether you come over the top, inside out, down on the ball, your top it, you're putting a different type of spin on the ball which is directing its path. Coming over the Top is where your slice the ball, because you're placing a left to right spin on the ball causing it to go right. This is probably one of the hardest habits to get rid of, but is still very much so possible. (This was the part of my natural swing i had to fix)
HOW TO FIX IT
A way i know to fix this and the way i fixed it myself, is to try and keep your right elbow close to your body and start the downswing with your hips, forcing the club head on the inside and securing a more inside - out swing path. A drill you could use is to get a basket and place it as close to your right foot you feel you can and hit balls like this. This will force a more inside out swing path, ultimately getting rid of the left to right spin and slice!
Recap
- Elbow Close to body
- Start downswing with Hips
- DRILL - Basket in front of right foot
REASON #4 : Swinging too Hard
A very common mistake with amateurs. you feel you have to bomb it over 300 to beat your friends, when that's simply not true. ever heard the saying, "Drive for show, Putt for dough"? very wise words. the Goal of golf is to get the golf ball in the cup in as few strokes as possible. Everything in between is where we lose our heads. This is primarily the reason your probably slicing it when you get up in front of your friends after practicing all week and slice it into the woods. You were trying to be Macho Man and not on getting the ball in the fairway. When you swing harder than normal, your natural response is almost a sense of a "chopping" action where you come over the top and slice it in the woods.
HOW TO FIX IT
TEMPO TEMPO TEMPO. Tempo is the main ingredient of a consistent golf swing. Maintaining tempo is as easy as 1,2,3, when your swinging the golf club count in your head to three. you say one when you begin the swing, 2 when you start the downswing, and three when you hit the ball. for a slower tempo you could count to 4 or whatever you want, just as long as you have a constant Tempo.
Recap
- TEMPO TEMPO TEMPO
REASON #5 : Shoulders Aren't Aligned to Target
When your shoulders are open, this can cause you to come over the top, resulting in a slice.
HOW TO FIX IT
To fix this, imagine there's another Line running across your shoulders that's parallel to the railroad pointing towards your target.
Recap
- Compare Alignment of shoulders to alignment of feet
REASON #6 : Alignment
Your Alignment ultimately decides where the ball is going to start. if your aimed left, the ball where start left, and vice versa. where you go wrong in your alignment is when your shoulders head or feet are not synchronized in pointing the same direction. The only time you would want to alter this is if you were trying to control your shot to draw or fade.
HOW TO FIX IT
To fix your alignment, use the same thing i talked about earlier in aligning yourself up to either rods or golf clubs and be sure to have all of the components of your body pointing towards the same target.
You should always be pointing in the right direction. Alignment is key to maintaining a consistent Golf Swing.
Recap
- Align all components of body toward target
- Use rods or clubs to train Alignment
REASON #7 : Swinging With Arms
Swinging with your arms is the common sense thing to do right? Nope! in all actuality this is a very bad thing in the world of Golf. If you swing with your arms, you can and will come over the top, resulting in a slice.
HOW TO FIX IT
Swing with your hips! when starting your downswing you should always lead with your hips. your hips should be rotating while you lag the club behind. This move will also give you more power helping you hit the ball further!
Recap
- SWING WITH HIPS!
Well that's my seven reasons why you might be slicing the ball! i hoped it helped, if you need more help or more information just let me know, leave a comment or shoot me an email.
No comments:
Post a Comment