Re: Trouble off the tee (New member/first post

Try slowing down your swing with your driver. Take a slow backswing and start the transition at the same speed, focus on your left wrist bowing forward and make a steady increase in speed as you come into and past impact so that the club is pulled round into a full finish.

Also, ensure your elbows, especially your right elbow does not pull up (chicken wing) as you swing into the ball, this will open the clubface (try it). Keep a long narrow triangle between your arms and chest at impact.

Re: Trouble off the tee (New member/first post

I'm reading some hints as to your problem in your own words.

You say clearly that you slice not push. You are not blocking the ball, as a block would be from the club coming from too far inside and hitting the ball with a square face, i.e. no side spin, just pushed. You also say you pull, not hook, your 3 and 5 woods. It seems to me you have an out to in club path in your swing. With the 3 and 5 woods, because of their lofts creating more back spin to override the side spin, and a lesser out to in path than with the driver, you are pulling the ball. With the driver, being longer and more difficult to control the path, and also because you may be trying to swing faster with it as Brian says, the out to in swing will be more pronounced. You would cut across the ball producing the side spin, and there is not as much back spin (because of the lower loft) to act as a gyroscope to direct the ball straight.

Check out your path, using the "shoebox" drill, which you will find in a previous post, which you will find using the search tool above.

I'd be curious to see if this is the answer. There are then ways to fix that problem.

Ted

Re: Trouble off the tee (New member/first post

Thanks Brian and rotator for taking the time to comment. I played two days ago (Saturday) and was afraid to mess around with the wrist bowing tip before I tried it on the range. I am usually conscious of what my left wrist is doing on the backswing as I have a tendency to "break" my left wrist at the top. When my wrist breaks down, I believe that I am cupping instead of bowing. And, of course, that's not a good thing.

On Saturday when I played, I consciously remembered Brian's recommendation about slowing down the backswing (because I do tend to rush to the top) and that seemed to help alot.

I'll try the wrist bowing tip and the shoebox drill when I go to the range tomorrow or Wednesday of this week. I am playing again on Friday the 2nd. I'll get back to you with my results after playing on Friday. Thanks again.

Re: Trouble off the tee (New member/first post

Good to hear you found some improvement. For clarity: When I say a bowed front wrist I mean that the back of your left wrist is starting to lead . Like this:

Re: Trouble off the tee (New member/first post

Brian:

Do you have any tips for keeping that left wrist bowed at impact and leading the swing? I do feel as though mine breaks down from time to time. If the wrist breaks down (i.e. cups instead of bows or stays straight), what's the result? Lack of power, poor direction?

Re: Trouble off the tee (New member/first post

Brian will reply, I'm sure.

I thought it would be a valuable tool for you to visulaize from a video taken at random from You Tube of Hogan an example of how to hit through impact without flipping. Obviously, the hands have to lead the clubhead. Take a look at the two slow motion sequences late in the video. In the sequence at the beach, Hogan shows the lag maintained to the hip high delivery position, where his hands are already close to the ball position, while the shaft is still horizontal and clubhead is way back. The chip shot sequence at the end shows a shorter version of the same action.



Moe Norman explained his feeling about this aspect of the swing. He said that, as he goes to the delivery position and onwards, he feels like his hands are passing well past his body towards the target. Of course that does not actually happen, but that is how it feels to him.

A drill which may induce the feel of the lag and stop flipping might be keeping the butt end of the club tracing the extended ball/target line throughout the swing (of course, except when the shaft is horizontal and parallel to the ball/target line.

Tiger also talks about the feeling that the emblem on the back of the golf glove points somewhat to the ground as the arm rotates past impact. You can't do this if you are flipping.

The other simple check is if your right wrist maintains some of the backward bend, some of which you naturally have at address, and which you increase and maintain with lag to the delivery position, the left wrist will have to have a bow or at least be flat through impact.

I think many people look at this concept and misconstrue it. They may hold the lag all right, but then stop the hands and arms, and flip their hands into the ball, forgetting that the body and arms have to keep turning through to a followthrough and finish.


Ted