How did you fix YOUR slice? - Page 4

Great thread.  The way I cured my slice was to adjust my hip movement at the beginning of the downswing.  Ideally I want my upper body still facing a little bit away from the target when I drop my hands on the downswing.  But my lower body is much stronger than my upper body, so when I fired my hips to face the target on the downswing, they went too quickly.  My upper body was facing towards the ball when I was lowering my hands, so the only thing I could ever do was "come over the top" and swing outside-in and cut across the ball.

 

So I slowed my hips at the beginning of the downswing, which allowed my upper body to face somewhat away from the target when I dropped my hands, and now I swing on the correct path when I make contact.

 

The way I slowed my hips was to have a lateral movement/bump/slide/move them towards the target at the beginning of the downswing without them spinning towards the target very much.  And then after that bump, I can spin my hips as hard as I want and my swingpath is correct.

 

This "2 speed hip turn" is my swing thought on just about every shot unless something unusual has been creeping into my swing.

 

By the way, here is a helpful video that demonstrates this, as well as having a wonderful drill:

 

Hope this helps.  I'm really excited about my game now, and can draw it, fade it, hit it straight with any club in the bag.

I stopped playing for about 30 years. When I picked up the game again, I had this gentle draw to die for. 

It is by no means cured but today after my round I hit a few range balls and tried something.  For me it was never a problem with hitting the ball in the centre whether the club was open or closed.  I almost always had a slice even when I closed my club by a few degrees.  I realized it must be because of my swing.  I was coming to over the top, so I tried that drill where you put a towel or glove under your left arm pit and dont let it drop on your back swing.  Boom hit about 10 in a row straight and long.

 

Worked today anyways I'm sure tomorrow it won't

Fixing the Slice

Hey everybody, I'm new here but have been lurking on this forum for a while reading up on everything I could. I do need some advice though, maybe even some drills or instruction to fix the dreaded slice. I'm about a 12-15 handicap and can hit the ball a long ways but the problem is that my slice off the tee and sometimes in the fairway is causes major problems in missing fairways and losing much needed yardage.

 

For those that have had the problem that I currently have could you help me out? I played baseball for many years and I think that is the route of my problem. So if you guys have any tips, suggestions, or drills it would much appreciated. I want to buy some new clubs but I figured it would be pointless if I can't find a way to fix the problem with my game. Obviously the next step after this would be lessons so if you guys can maybe save me the time and money I would greatly appreciate it.

 

-Nick

Some of the things you guys are talking about didn't make to much sense to me until I saw this video today, named ball flight laws.

 

After slicing two balls into the right side lake on hole 13 Saturday, I spent some time on the range.  What finally worked to fix my slice was thinking about swinging in a circle on which impact happens from the inside (see rudimentary top-down diagram below).  The green, inside-out circle is centered closer to my left side, approximately where my hands begin.  To achieve the green circle, I really need to turn my hips and stay over the ball, rather than swaying back.  Unfortunately, the red, outside-in circle seems to be ingrained in my swing.  I have a habit of swaying and not fully turning my hips.

 

I need a lot more time to get used to the new swing path.  I hit plenty of really nice, powerful draws, but also some push-fades and some hooks.  Timing the clubhead release is a much different when hitting from this new path.

I fixed my slice by taking the club back more to the outside on the backswing. Took a lot of range time, but after a few months, my entire swing looks different and now I fight hooks, especially when I'm tired.

 

Lot of great tips on this thread!

I was a real bad slicer.  I'm in my late 30's and in decent shape but I could only hit my drives about 150 yards max . .and also with about 50-75 yards left to right.  If I hit 100 balls at the range, I would hit nearly 100 slices (all except a few mishits or skulls, etc). 

 

I sliced for a few reasons.  I took it back way too inside, did not have good sequencing - especially in first part of backswing where I lifted the club away with my arms.   I did not turn enough, either.  My grip was too weak also. 

 

I fixed all of these things by fixing my left wrist.  If I make sure my left wrist doesn't cup at all then all these other bad conditions can't exist.  If I don't turn enough, for example, my left wrist will cup.  If I take it away too inside, my left wrist will cup - or try to.  So I learned to swing such that my left wrist did not feel like it wanted to cup.  I think that's key . . I didn't force my left wrist to be flat . .I changed my swing so that my left wrist naturally was flat. 

 

Now my slice is a distant memory.  If I hit 100 range balls I can nearly gaurantee there will be no slices.  Tops, thins and hooks . .yes!  But no fat shots and no big slices!

I have had a wicked slice the past few years and thought it was my face angle so I ended up making it worse and really ended up everywhere. My irons and short game are quite solid, average about 28 putts per round and usually get up and down but getting there was usually a battle..lol. When I learned finally about the ball flight laws I realized it wasn't my face but my path. I spent all winter, which for us is about 5 months of no golf, working on my swing path and learning how to hit a draw. What helped me was working on dropping my hands instead of them going more outside which was giving my a nice straight ball flight and then it turning hard to the right by 50 to 80 yards. I did a lot of video taping of my swing and looking at it closely and this year I have played a ton and have only had a few slices and all of those I knew exactly what I did wrong. I am also finally hitting some nice draws when I actually want to and have even had a few hooks which I have never been able to do. It has taken a lot of work but well worth it as I have gone from driving the ball about 180 - 200 yards due to the wicked slice to hitting it anywhere between 225-250 depending on contact. Now I can start actually working on fine tuning my swing instead of all my attention on the slice.

My Father-in-Law fixed mine.  I was swinging my driver more like a low iron, and my wrists weren't breaking.  He had me flatten out my back swing so it felt like it was parallel to the ground behind me, and swing through with more velocity.  Driving it damn near 290 now straight as an arrow and I am not a strong guy.  Also told me to forget turning my hips and just focus on transferring weight from my back foot to my front one (your hips will naturally turn anyway). 

 

 

That's amazing!  Driving 290 straight as an arrow means you are ready for the PGA tour!  When you get there make sure and let people know your Father In Law is your coach - I bet there are some pros or semi pros out there who would also like to be able to hit it 290 straight as an arrow.  Make him cut you in on his deal with Golf Channel. 

Ah!  230!  Not 290!  That's wishful thinking taking over right there :)

quick fix:

 

(note Im a lefty)

 

Move your back foot backwards 2-6 inches (play with it to see the difference) It naturally closes off your stance and closes the clubhead more at impact....

 

I do this with my driver and long irons when i'm seeing some fade im not looking for... Also the staples of taking the club back cleanly, getting your hips through the impact, having good hand pronation at impact...

 

just wondering what you mean by this. What part of the swing are you referring to? Are you talking about dropping your hand as the feel for your down swing (some say pulling the hands down) or are you referring to dropping your hands at the top of your backswing before the downswing? or something else...?  Sounds like stuff I'm trying to work on to fix my out-side in as well

Take a lesson, this will make sure you grip posture setup is correct, then take the club back straight and SWING FROM THE INSIDE a good drill is put a tee a bit in front of the ball on the target line and make sure you miss it.;-)

there are a few things that have straightened out my drives (on the range, i get back into bad habits on the course still):

 

1) i got fitted for a driver. i bought a nike dymo because it was on sale, but i never liked it. the sound alone made me despise it. i got fitted (not really scientifically, i just hit a ton of drivers) and found that with a light driver (cleveland xl270) i got the head around quicker and closed the face. i tried draw biased drivers, weighted drivers, but none of it did a thing. i couldn't believe the circle the my drives with the xl270 all ended up compared to all the other clubs i hit (which were giant ovals).

 

2) when i set up i put the driver in the middle of my stance, far behind the ball. before i take the club back i raise the head of the ground and rotate it to the back of the ball. this kind of tells me the path that i'm going to need to be on when i come back around. it's kind of like that shawn clements video where he dips his right knee before takeback to feel the followthru. (that might actually be from a video of his, i can't remember, but i certainly didn't make it up.)

 

3) no matter what, get the face square. setup helps a lot and so does finish (concentrating on finishing high instead of hitting the ball helped me a lot), but if you can get that head square at impact you'll stop the slice. some of my best drives have been ones that i've almost fallen down after hitting. obviously it's not a good plan for consistency, but the best drill to get me to my inside out, open-square-closed finish was to put a club angled left to right near the tee. my practice swings are over the ball following this line. it kind of gets me in the groove and lets you kind of cut loose, but stay on plane.

 

now, i've written all of this, but if you ever have the displeasure of playing with me you'll watch me slice my drive onto the parallel fairway (if i'm lucky enough to not have woods or water right), so take it with a grain of salt.

For me fixing a slice can be really simple. I just plan on playing a slice and my ball will end up dead straight into the trees on the left :)

The alignment sticks I got when I became a TST supported helped me a lot.  Because I had been spinning the ball to the right, I started aiming left.  I had the problem for so long that left looked straight.  So I was setting up with my feet open to the target, which made it worse, not better.  Once I got the alignment sticks my aiming error was easy to see.  I still slice it now and then, but that helped.