My swing theory, slice and hook

[jfrain2004]

Hi,
One of my golfing buddies posed the question last wknd why his weak shot ( He's a big big hitter but stuck at 13 the past while ) is a fade/ weak slice while mine is a weak hook. Looking at his swing I figure he's swinging seriously fast, far faster than I could ever swing and stay in control. My swing would be what I would call a granny swing, any slower I would get done for loitering on the tee box. I slowed things down last year and have gained inmeasurable consistency at the expense of maybe 10 yrds distance but hitting 12 - 13 fairways.

Here lies my theory, what I call a fast swing is not the speed of the club head but rather the speed of your hands relative to your body, so fast is where your hands pass out your body, slow being where your hands lag behind. So if my theory holds the reason "fast" swingers tend to slice is cause they're arms are so fast they cause an out to in swing while me with my slow swing will in some cases have my hands too far behind my body an thus too much of an in to out path and thus a weak hook.

As I rarely lose a ball with my weak hook shot I would prefer it to a slice and so would my buddy, but does my theory hold any water as I don't want to go telling a man to slow it way down without offering a good explanation.

[sonicblue]

Too many variables. Slice/hook is generally clubface angle, push/pull is generally swing path, while weak/solid is clubface contact. I can hit a weak pull slice, a weak push hook, a solid pull hook, etc.... My cursory bet is, your buddy is hitting a pull slice (fast swings generally get over the top and outside-to-in), you're hitting a push hook (slow swing is more likely to come down from the inside, but then flip the hands and hook). Just guesses.

Either way, what it comes down to is, IMHO, each of you is swinging with your arms out of sync with your body, and/or just using the arms/hands way too much. Whether you're making weak contact is probably just ball position relative to your swing path. No matter how fast you can move the clubhead, you need to stay connected and balanced, and then make sure the ball is positioned properly to contact the clubface well.