How to stop fading?

[Golfman91]

hi!

Recently, I have been hitting my driver very straight and far, but the last round, I was fading it hard to the right after the ball travelling about 150 yards straight.

The day after I was taking lessons with the pro, but it didn't help much.

Do you have any tips for not hitting such a big fade?

Thanks!

[iacas]

Do you have any tips for not hitting such a big fade?

It's called a slice. Go ahead, you can say the word. We won't think less of you.

Stop leaving the clubface so wide open. Why you're doing that nobody here could accurately say (unless they get lucky and guess correctly). Check your basics.

[pshizz]

when swing through the ball, your club should start from the inside and go to the outside, this will help correct the fade. I know because then i was slicing it badly i was coming over the top and cutting across the ball(outside to in)

[Golfman91]

Thanks!

PS: I'll try saying it! hahaha. SLICE!

[GolferDot]

unlikley to be over the top if it starts straight, over the top will start left, like mentioned previous, start with the fundamentals first. One other thing to try is swing a little easier, could just be a little bit of lost timing.

[Righty to Lefty]

hi!

Everyone talks about the things that are symptoms such as you are coming over the top and you are not swingin from the inside but they never talk about the cause. The simple fact is that something on your body is hindering you from properly releasing the club. Something whether it is your shoulders, hips, etc. is keeping you from performing the correct swing. If you said that you were hitting a straight ball then your body was allowing you to get into the correct positions that we all know are necessary to hit a straight ball and even a draw. Have you ever noticed that at the beginning of the season after a long break your swing feels great and you hit nice draws and then after the season goes along you start to hit your normal fade/slice. Your body when it was allowed to rest had much less of a muscle imbalance between your left and right side. Well over the course of a season one side of your body became very flexible while the other became strong depending on whether you are right or left handed. NO MATTER HOW MANY SWINGS YOU TAKE OR HOW HARD YOU TRY TO CORRECT THE ONLY THING THAT WILL WORK IS A FITNESS PLAN. You need to restore the proper muscle balance by stretching and weight training. I have dealt with this both right and left handed and so I speak from experience. I combat it by playing right handed throughout the week and then playing left handed on the weekends when it really counts. I run, do yoga, stretch constantly, take step aerobics, whatever it takes to keep myself in balance. You have to be aware of what is happening. If you have tightness in your hips and lower back I almost assure you that your ballflight has changed for the worse. This is a problem because you lose crucial separation between your upper and lower body which creates lag. Whenever you are having a problem use the symptoms ( coming over the top, swaying, reverse pivot, losing spine angle, slice) to diagnos the real underlying problem which is usually a muscle imbalance between the righ and left side of your body.

[GolferDot]

Everyone talks about the things that are symptoms such as you are coming over the top and you are not swingin from the inside but they never talk about the cause. The simple fact is that something on your body is hindering you from properly releasing the club. Something whether it is your shoulders, hips, etc. is keeping you from performing the correct swing. If you said that you were hitting a straight ball then your body was allowing you to get into the correct positions that we all know are necessary to hit a straight ball and even a draw. Have you ever noticed that at the beginning of the season after a long break your swing feels great and you hit nice draws and then after the season goes along you start to hit your normal fade/slice. Your body when it was allowed to rest had much less of a muscle imbalance between your left and right side. Well over the course of a season one side of your body became very flexible while the other became strong depending on whether you are right or left handed. NO MATTER HOW MANY SWINGS YOU TAKE OR HOW HARD YOU TRY TO CORRECT THE ONLY THING THAT WILL WORK IS A FITNESS PLAN. You need to restore the proper muscle balance by stretching and weight training. I have dealt with this both right and left handed and so I speak from experience. I combat it by playing right handed throughout the week and then playing left handed on the weekends when it really counts. I run, do yoga, stretch constantly, take step aerobics, whatever it takes to keep myself in balance. You have to be aware of what is happening. If you have tightness in your hips and lower back I almost assure you that your ballflight has changed for the worse. This is a problem because you lose crucial separation between your upper and lower body which creates lag. Whenever you are having a problem use the symptoms ( coming over the top, swaying, reverse pivot, losing spine angle, slice) to diagnos the real underlying problem which is usually a muscle imbalance between the righ and left side of your body.

During the season muscles are used on both sides of the body and the swing promotes an increase in flexibility.

Yes an over the top move is a symptom, but a symptom of many things not just in-flexibiltiy.

[Righty to Lefty]

During the season muscles are used on both sides of the body and the swing promotes an increase in flexibility.

What other things are there? Any athletic move is determined by the coordination, flexibility, and conditioning of the muscles that support it period. There is nothing else that can affect it. I bet he can trace the swing path to hit a straight ball in slow motion but when he goes to make a real swing your still gonna hit a slice. Your brain can't even overcome these muscle imbalances. You can tell yourself to stop coming over the top all your want but it's not gonna change until you address the cause. I am an Exercise science major and so I've spent a ton of hours on this and then my body has gone through it and so I'm not just giving unbacked advice. 99% of amatuer golfers will never reach there potential because they never maximize their fitness which gives them the fewest factors impeding their swing. Sure muscles are used on both sides of the body but one side is subject to more force than the other because golf is a one sided sport like tennis ( look at the difference between the forearm that holds the racket and the other one) and baseball. It's like doing dumbell benchpress with 10 pounds in one hand and 50 pounds in the other. Over time you will create asymmetry between the two. EVERY movement we make and how it is made is determined by muscle and it's effeciency, coordination, and stamina. Or lack there of.

[GolferDot]

Alignment, now that could be a cause, does'nt matter what level you are conditioned to if you don't align straight. just one example of many

[Righty to Lefty]

Alignment, now that could be a cause, does'nt matter what level you are conditioned to if you don't align straight. just one example of many

How can alignment cause a slice? Alignment causes you to miss your target but it doesn't influece your ballflight one bit. I just used all the clues that he gave. He said that his ballflight is straight for 150 yards then it begins to fade. That says that his clubhead is actually not coming across the line and is not open at impact or it wouldn't start straight. It also says that he has something in his swing that is not allowing him to complete his swing and is causing some sidespin. I for the most part rule out his driver because he said that he hit it straight not to long ago. So what else could it be if his swingpath and clubface seem to be pretty sound because his initial launch is straight. As long as he hasn't opened his stance if all things in his swing have remained the same then what else could it be?

[GolferDot]

alignment causes a slice if your feet are open and your sholders are closed simple as that, he never used to have a fitness program and hit it straight, so why would that fix it now ?? following your theory of things always stay the same. and a fade IS caused by an open club face with a straight swing path. initial launch is dictated by swing path, tail end is caused by clubface position.

[Righty to Lefty]

alignment causes a slice if your feet are open and your sholders are closed simple as that, he never used to have a fitness program and hit it straight, so why would that fix it now ?? following your theory of things always stay the same. and a fade IS caused by an open club face with a straight swing path. initial launch is dictated by swing path, tail end is caused by clubface position.

If that were the case then his ball would start left (for a right handed golfer) and then slice but his ball start straight down the target line which is totally different. The fitness suggestion is for the long term to prevent this from creeping into his swing. If there are any exercise phisiology or kinesiololgy guys or gals out there please reply.

[GolferDot]

it would only start left if his swing path was over the top, it is physically impossible for it to start left if his path is straight and clubface is open.

[Lefty731PM]

How can alignment cause a slice? Alignment causes you to miss your target but it doesn't influece your ballflight one bit.

Sorry, but alignment can have a huge effect on ball flight. This is why so many people slice it even more dramatically when they try to aim away from where the slice ends up. Makes them cut across the ball even more.

This is one of the most fundamental mechanical issues relating to a slice.

[tm22721]

The forearms crossover release is impossible to time perfectly with the hands.

Use a body release where core rotation shuts the clubface, not your hands. To do this, try to keep the left arm attached to your body and maintain right wristcock (lag) as long as possible. The club will follow the body around and release low left instead of down the line. This keeps the hands out of the swing they need to be totally passive.

[Righty to Lefty]

The forearms crossover release is impossible to time perfectly with the hands.

I love this answer because it addresses that he is lacking in some aspect of his release and that has to be regained or he will continue to hit a slice no matter where he is aimed. In response to Lefty731PM: But if he did that in his case with his ball staying straight for quite a while and then fading that would actually be a playable power fade. He never said that he is strugglin with a push or a pull slice which bring more variables into the equation. He said that his initial ballflight is straight and then it fades which to me says that for the most part he is executing a descent swing he is just lacking that little bit of release of the club and the root of that has to be found first before alignment even comes into play.

[fluxcapacitor]

Wow. I've been off the board for almost a year, and not much has seemed to change! The reason I started reading this thread is because I'm almost the same problem. Now, I have a question. I usually fade or slice, every club except my SW. I've found 2 ways to correct this, but I'm pretty sure they are just band-aids for my swing. I either go from a neutral grip to a weak grip (i think...i'm rotating my grip to the right), or keep my nuetral grip and rotate my club face out, and then i feel like i have to exagerate the movement to rotate it back to square up at impact.

The second method feels cleaner, and I seem to be more accurate with it. The only draw back is I'll have about 8-10 nice, smooth, straight shots, then a miss hit or too. The "weak grip fix" produces less miss hits, but also less accuracy.

I know my path is straight, my stance is good. I just can't seem to square up the club face at impact unless I use these exagerated moves.

Now with all this in mind, am I doing everything wrong to fix my slice/fade problem, or am I close to the right thing.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[kfowler]

Well I'll throw in my 2 cents since I just went through this. Since you say your ball starts off straight and then fades/slices, I'll assume your on plane and leaving your club face open.

In my case, this open club face was a result of many years of an over-the-top swing. I had to leave the club face open in order to try and square the face at impact. When I finally got on plane, I was subconscious still leaving the face open. You can easily see this if you film your self down the line. A couple frames after impact, look to see if your club face is still open or closed. It should close fairly quickly after impact. You basically need to retrain your brain not to subconsciously open your face.

Here's some drills to try:
1.) Place an object about at about 10 o'clock out in front of you. When you swing, try making the club face face the object on the ground. It'll feel very odd at first and your start hooking the ball but the idea is to loosen up your hands rolling over.
2.) Another drill is the old glove under left arm. This will keep that left arm close and promote the hands rolling over.

Both of these have worked for me.