By now, have you have learned how to work your way around a golf course. Whether you suffer from a pull, a slice, a hook, or a push – you’ve learned to live with your mistakes, and have made swing changes to better your chances of keeping the ball in play. In this post were going to talk about two specific quick fixes amateurs try when suffering from two different kinds of a slice, neither of which work.
Fix Your High Slice
I see this quite commonly among chronic slicers – they aim left to help stay on the fairway. It makes sense, but unfortunately it’s the worst thing you can do. To aim left of your target, most players simply rotate their shoulders to the left, but this move exaggerates your over-the-top move that will lead to your higher, more looping slice. With this starting shoulder position, it’s nearly impossible to get the club back on path, and unfortunately it forces you to release your wrists prematurely, drastically reducing power.
To fix this, take a look at the picture to the right, the light-blue line represents where you should have a friend position a shaft. At address, have a friend place a shaft above your trailing arm elbow pit, and below your lead arm as shown. So when viewed from behind you should have the shaft pointing at your target. This positioning will affect your shoulders alignment. If done correctly, it should put your shoulders in a slightly closed position – which will encourage a better swing path. Changing your swing path in this way, will help turn your huge banana ball into a gentle fade.
Fix Your Low Slice
Many slicers have a steep angle of attack, which often leads to skied or popped-up tee-shots. The natural fix? Tee the ball lower of course! This decision leads to your low slice.
Angle of attack has a large affect on your ball flight and distance. Most players who suffer from a low slice have a downward angle of attack coming into impact as shown to the image at right. The ideal angle of attack for the driver is one that impacts the ball on the upswing.
In this case, your steep, upright golf swing is coupled with an out to in swing path. To correct this, you need to flatten your swing path to level out your angle of attack. The next time you suffer from this fault, head to the range, and imagine hitting a ball above your feet, or one that is teed up a foot or so above the ground. Swing more baseball-like, and you’ll help flatten out swing path.
Armed with your new swing, remember to tee the ball higher this time, and you should start hitting straighter, higher shots.