slice turned into a snap hook???

[Caddyshack]

does anyone know what could have caused this? i have been working on fixing my slice (high fade actually) and suddenly today i was snap hooking everything, i never hook! any ideas??
Signed
Very Confused

[clonewars222]

Your hands are probably going too fast now. You're trying to turn the clubhead so that it doesn't slice, so now your hands are turning before you even get to the ball. Just swing naturally.

[JackLee]

Maybe incomplete backswing and/or right side takeover. Body movements not leading.

[TempoIsKey]

Is it a snap hook or a pull hook? An over the top move can produce a slice if you don't get the clubface back to square or a pull hook if you get the clubface closed at impact.

[golfdad]

to be able to correct a slice means the person changed the plane of from outside- in to inside- out, more or less. for many it is a new territory,,,to approach from the inside. invariably, situations will arise where one has to question how much inside is too inside, or what happens if it is too inside?

one thing for sure, it is very unlikely to slice anymore, but couple other things may happen.

for instance, if the club face is not squared and stayed on the inside-to-outside path, a pushed shot may result. somehow i don't see that very often, perhaps because of instincts in the last moment to "help" with wrists.

on the other extreme, if the club face is squared "too early"---often as a reflex since one knows that inside path otherwise will push the ball straight to the right. to compensate for that tendency, one should "correct" that rightward path with a left aimed clubface. unfortunately, rarely do we end up with a resultant straight shot to the target. because the club is too left sided aimed during impact, hooks result.

many people talk about controlling the clubface during impact. my opinion is that it is very difficult to do or do well consistently. it takes a lot of talent and althletic ability. another approach is to avoid obscessing over it and not try to control it. tiger in a recent article in one of those mags talked about it as well, where he maintained that whereas some pros can play with active wrists during impact, he has tried to avoid it because he cannot achieve high accuracy.

the take home message for me is that we tend to give our wrists too much control and in doing so we snap a component of a dynamic chain which involves the whole body from the ground up. we have disrupted the chain by trying to control the wrists. we play with overactive wrists.

perhaps a better thinking is to influence a natural occurring of the squaring of the clubface. i feel that even with an overly inside approach, if the left side of the body leads the downswing, the BODY may naturally squares the clubface, through centrally driven large muscles. (if you will, think just the opposite of what nadal does in tennis:) the hook may turn into a reasonable and acceptable draw.

we talk about upper and lower body synergy and sync. my opinion is that even if we are on the right track with upper body swing plane and club face, the final outcome very much depends on the proper left sided momentum from the hips and legs. to me, improper weight shift needs to be evaluated along with a too inside approach.

couple things i would encourage to try:

1. try to imagine one is contacting the ball 3-4 balls ahead of where the balls is. this mental picture often triggers the mind and body to act more correctly.

2. try to hit some shots from entreme inside to outside and see what it feels like. if one's final aim is to hit in the middle, might as well know the extremes. gradually, one finds ones own proper plane,,,not outside, but not too inside.

3. forget about wrists and clubface for now:), if you have a good grip.

[flatom]

Early release will produce both a slice and a snap hook depending on your clubface being closed or open at impact.
Just loosen up those hands and arms, take a decent shoulder turn going back and try to retain the wrist angle into impact.
That's all there is to it.