Swing Slice

[Jim Smiles]

Anyone have any ideas on how to stop a slice when using the driver off the tee? I have tried several different approaches to this, some seems to work but then it don't..

[LowPost42]

Re: Swing Slice

It's a tough go when we can't see your swing.

However, the cause is that your clubface is open in relation to the path that you're moving the clubhead on.

When the face of the club is square to the path it's moving on, the shots are straight. Club moving left, shots go left. Club moving right, shots go right. Club moving straight, shots go straight.

I'll assume you're opening the face on your backswing, probably by rolling your forearms. Try swinging the club keeping your right (or trail) palm facing the ball for as long as possible.

[GolfJunkieSr]

Re: Swing Slice

An old band aid for slicing is to take your regular stance. (Hopefully your stance is square to the target line from your feet up to, and through your shoulders) If this is your "slicing" address position then this band aid might help. After taking your normal stance, with out moving your ball location, align your club head with your chosen ball target line. You then want to close your stance, again keeping your shoulders, and hips in line with your closed stance. The important thing to remember is to keep your club in the center of your closed stance. Your club head will now be farther from the ball in this position, and will look a little open. Not to worry as the club face will now have more time close before impacting the ball. Focus on the back of the ball from this closed stance all the way through impact. The ball should fly straighter, and you might even see a draw sometimes.

What this does is give you a better club head angle into the back of the ball, while giving the club face more time to close. I do this when I am rusty and that out to in swing is causing me grief. You can dial it in by how much you close your stance.

Now if you are already in a closed stance when you slice the ball, obviously this won't help, and you will need to try something else, like seeing your local PGA pro. If it does help you, you will find that it works with all full swing shots, with just about any club. I call it a band aid because it is covering up a swing flaw, and is a short term fix

Others on here will have other info to help you with your slice, if the above does not work.

I got this from John Jacobs many, many years ago and it helped me at the time. GJS

[Sumosid]

Re: Swing Slice

KISS principle--Keep it simple simple

These are the things that I think of when ever the dreaded slice reappears.

Two things cause a slice;
1. open club face at impact.
2. cutting the ball---over the top coming across the ball from the outside causing side spin on the ball.

Avoid swinging around yourself. Sometimes we vision a inside out swing and then intuitively bring the club inside during the backswing. Once inside, to get back to the ball we have to swing around ourselves causing the over the top move. Watch the tour players and note the club path... You can get away with a bad plane easier with short irons, and the slice will get progressively worse the longer the club gets...

A quick fix for an open club face is grip adjustment. Stronger grip less slice. A strong grip will mean you will see more knuckles on your left hand if your right handed. I have noted many players are now playing very strong grips. Avoid purposely closing the face of the club at address. rest/sole the club on the ground naturally adjust the face to the target line, get your stance in line with the target, make sure your spine angle is slightly tilted back to your right foot in line with your target line, bring the club back low and straight. Make sure that you are performing the wrist cock correctly... I like to think of hitching a ride at waist height and holding a tray of drinks at the top of your swing. I have seen some people swatting the ball and calling it wrist cock---the open closed door effect of swing with the swat will be unpredictable and more often that not lead to slices because you can't get your hands turned over in time to close the face no matter what your grip is. Try to keep the wrist cocked as long as it feels natural---don't uncock at the top of the swing and get a cast.

Take a couple of half swings on the driving range from waist high concentrating on the wrist cock to the waist position, swing plane and follow through. Once they start going straight add a bit more swing length and speed... Swing at the speed that allows you straight shots for a while, before you know it your swing speed and tempo will increase but it may still feel like you are swinging at 70% or so... I hit my longest and straightest drives when I concentrate on wrist cock, swing plane and 80% tempo. If I try to muscle it through I actually start swinging slower and I am more prone to getting faults in my swing.

I hope that helps. You will see a lot of great advise on this forum that are much more detailed than the above... I like quick easy thoughts... but sometimes it is important to get indepth as we all try to improve....

[Sumosid]

Re: Swing Slice

I forgot, the 9 ball flights!!! You can find them on this forum and with a google search. They will allow you to tell from your ball flight exactly how the club is contacting the ball....

[Martin Levac]

Re: Swing Slice

The driver has so little loft that we may be tempted to twist it so that we can send the ball high. Not only will we send the ball high, we will also send it with a curve to the outside. So we try to correct this by trying to strike the ball to the left. Only to find that the ball curves to the right more than ever.

What shall we do?

The solution is to stop twisting the club to try to send the ball high. And to stop trying to send it to the left. A good way to begin striking the ball properly is to try to strike it into the ground by hitting down on it with the driver. The first time I tried that, I was surprised that the ball would not go down and wouldn't even touch the ground. It just ballooned early and went about 150 yards. But most importantly, it went pretty straight, much straighter than what I was doing before.

Straight and long.

So, I learned that even if I try to send it into the ground, the ball just won't go in and instead, it will balloon like a bad toy plane and just drop a ways away. I also learned that I can send the ball closer to where I aim when I don't twist the club to try to send the ball high. It's all good to me. So now that I don't need to twist the club and now that the ball won't go into the ground, I can just strike the ball on an even level and it will probably go straight and probably go far. So that's what I did. And that's what the ball did. It's all good to me.

If something doesn't work the way you want, try to do the reverse and see if that will work the way you want. Who knows, maybe you've been avoiding the correct method all this time without even knowing it.

[takinitdeep]

Re: Swing Slice

Play the ball off left instep, set up with hands slightly beyond just hanging from arms/shoulders while bending from the hips without rounding your shoulders(a test is to take an old shaft and put it behind your back from back of your head down your spine to your butt, light grip pressure(3 on scale of 10), hands at or just slightly ahead of ball, slow backswing while transferring weight to right foot and turning back to target, at top of swing just let your upper body unwind without using your arms/hands, and keep your eyes on the back of the ball.
Seems like alot but take it in little steps.

Anyone have any ideas on how to stop a slice when using the driver off the tee? I have tried several different approaches to this, some seems to work but then it don't..

[klaymon]

Re: Swing Slice

I found a one-step fix to my slices so far. I put my hands in front of the club face. I would hit high slicing drives without fail. Now, I've put my hands out front and I can hit about 80-90% of my drives straight.

[oldwease]

Re: Swing Slice

A good thing with the driver in particular is to feel that you get everything behind the ball on the backswing and basically stay behind the ball on teh downswing (in reality, you don't, but that's the feeling you get). This will discourage any tendency you may have to slide too far left, effectively getting too much ahhead of the ball.

So, stay behind the ball and watch it fly long and straight!