Pushing everything right

[Chas]

As mentioned already, there are a few possible causes. Myself, I was fighting a big push with the driver for at least a year - almost never a slice, just a big push that I knew wasn't alignment-related. Well it's clear to me now that this was due to a seriously inside-out swing plane, i.e. going too far inside on the backswing and then (inevitably) too far out after contact. This will either result in a push (if "uncompensated") or, if compensated for at the last millisecond with fast handwork, a Big Hook (duck or duckless).

Here's one tip (* Patent Pending *) that I thought of all by myself (at least I haven't read it anywhere). It might sound a bit silly but trust me it really works:

On a nice sunny day (sorry you guys in the U.K., what can I say? ....), orient yourself in relation to the sun so that when you swing the club you clearly see the glare of the reflected sun off of the head as it moves through the hitting area. Works best with irons of course, but also works with the woods as well. You see a sort of blurred brightness: your clubhead moving through at high speed.

Now you can actually SEE where your swing plane is: inside-to-out, outside-to-in, or heaven forbid right-down-the-middle. You might be shocked by what you discover!!

AND, you can do it in your back garden - you don't need a ball to work on your swing plane, just some decent weather (so come to SoCal .. ).

I've been working on keeping the arm "triangle" maintained as I rotate in the start of the backswing and that has done wonders for my swing plane and overall consistency. The dreaded Super-Push has gone! At least now when I'm off line, I'm not so far off that I'm hunting in bushes or waiting for people to play through on the next fairway to the right. I really hate when that happens.

[Divot Tool]

. . .

Some things to check:

Man, these two fellas know their stuff! They're hit the nail on the head with the hip slide. I too have been suffering from big blocks to the right for the past 2 months and this is the main cause of it. I find that as I start my downswing, my hips are too quick. Instead of a small bump (towards target) and rotation of the hips, my hips slide toward the target and rise. This changes my spine tilt, and ultimately a push is the result because there is no way that my hands/forearms can square the club. I'm making solid contact on the face of the club, but not truly compressing the ball, more of a slapping feeling. The sad thing is that I'm pushing every club in my bag and it is seriously affecting my distance control. Currently, I'm working a few things to alleviate this. The first thing is restricting the slide, instead turning the hips. I recently read an article in a golf publication, by Martin Hall I believe. He discusses the idea of hiding your left side from the target on the downswing. To suppliment this, I've been studying videos on youtube.com of tour pros, more specifically Adam Scott, Anthony Kim and Ernie Els. From what I've noticed, have very little lateral movement with the hips, but tons of hip rotation. Ernie seems to unwind so beautifully from the top with very little lateral movement (the least of the 3). Secondly, I'm trying to start the downswing with a less vigorous move (think Ernie Els) or as $2 Nassau iterated this feeling of letting the arms fall. I still have a lot of work cut out for me. All the best.

[Divot Tool]

Whenever I push the ball it's because I don't finish my follow through completely. . .

From my experience, my hips slide too much toward the target instead of rotating. I cannot release the club nor follow through because my hips are still in the way. Just a thought.