Whaa? You mean you roll your hands?

[jmhunter]

So, today I had a revelation that I haven't been rolling my hands with my swing. I was trying to keep the club face straight.

No wonder I had no back swing. Thanks for all of your great threads on here, I have my first session with a pro scheduled for monday.

[kurtwainwright]

I laughed out loud when I read your thread!

About 3 months ago I had the exact same revelation. I had taken my second lesson and that's when my pro noticed it. So to fix it, my pro 'tricked' me into rolling my hands/wrists on the backswing by telling me to 'try to hook it' Well it worked and now my backswing is much better and I'm hitting fairly well off of the tee. This is something I had never accomplished before.

Before the revelation I was what ya might call a super-slicer. The ball would jump off the tee with so much spin that it seemed like it went straight for awhile then made an abrupt right turn in mid-air! Ahh the wonders of aerodynamics! I suppose it made that right hand turn because RPM's finally dropped far enough for the dimples to catch the boundary layer of air circling my ball.

So if whatever your pro tells ya doesn't work, give the "try to hook it" mental mind trick a shot.

[jmhunter]

Ya I thought you were supposed to keep the club straight, boy do I feel silly.

[Double_Bogey]

Wow, that must have felt really awkward, trying to make a backswing while keeping the club straight. Thats funny!

[iacas]

Wow, that must have felt really awkward, trying to make a backswing while keeping the club straight. Thats funny!

Yeah, seriously...

Toe up when the shaft is parallel - both on the backswing and follow-through. As a general guide, anyway.

[doublesuited77]

Yeah, seriously...

remember though to swing through the target line. A big mistakes lots of people make is that in an effort to roll their arms and they swing inside their targetline after impact and end up with a pull. (albeit with some pretty nice distance.)

[RunOfTheDill]

LOL, I had my first lesson today and this was the third thing he taught me and I'm having a lot of problems hitting the ball consistenly just yet. He told me to almost feel like im almost hitting with the toe. So when I hit the ball wants to go a little left but because of my swing it counteracts that spin. A drill he told me to try is to hit off my left foot and put my right knee about even with my left knee with my toe touching the ground about 2 feet behind. It forces you to make a good swing to keep your balance.

[jmhunter]

I'm making the transition fairly well... 1/5th of my hits hae a wild slice they didnt before. I'm meeting with the pro on saturday...

[fusioncal]

I laughed out loud when I read your thread!

I have that similar problem whenever I try to gain distance (muscle my swing) with my driver. The shot would first go off straight then it'd turn right just like when a jet fighter would do a deep turn. So, what did you do when you "try to hook" it? Did you close the club head? I've done this trick before but perhaps I didn't do it correctly because I did really hook it LOL

[kurtwainwright]

I have that similar problem whenever I try to gain distance (muscle my swing) with my driver. The shot would first go off straight then it'd turn right just like when a jet fighter would do a deep turn. So, what did you do when you "try to hook" it? Did you close the club head? I've done this trick before but perhaps I didn't do it correctly because I did really hook it LOL

The pro changed several things.

1. My grip. I had a weak grip to start. She changed it to a very very strong grip. My left thumb rests in the little valley created between my right thumb muscle and the pad of my right hand. It feels very weird, but it's effective in fixing my problem with opening my club face at impact. 2. My backswing. I have ginormous upper-body strength compared to most golfers. I was the center in my high school football team. At my first lesson she tried teaching me to swing with rhythm & tempo. "Brush the grass" she'd say. But by lesson #2, she changed her mind. I'm now on a "coil back and release" tempo. That has helped increase my distance by at least 30 yards. 3. "Try to hook it." This is what this thread is all about. I've been hacking for about 7 or 8 years now... but this is the first year I've gotten truly serious about improving my game. Until my first lesson 2 months ago, nobody had ever told me that I have not been rolling my hands/wrists on the follow-through. This was causing me inadvertently to pull the club inward during the impact phase of my swing. The result was a cross-cut on the ball, inducing a huge rate of spin. So fast in fact, that I'm sure the boundary layer of air had no clue the dimples existed until it finally slows down at about the high-point of the ball's trajectory. The dimples finally did their job then, sending the ball in that "fighter jet in a hard right turn" maneuver that you described. So by telling me to hook it, she mentally prepared me to roll my hands on my follow-through. Being a super-slicer, instead of hooking it, I hit it straight. Go figure!

[RunOfTheDill]

I have been working on it at the range the past few days and I haven't gotten it perfect. But, before I turned over my wrist i was trying to keep the clubface straight through the swing and carry the ball straight up with my club. Since i have turned it I think its really cool how hard my ball wants to go left but it doesn't

[stevestrike]

Neat thread... I was fighting a slice too, until I started taking lessons a couple of months ago. One thing I'm noticing now is how much further a draw/hook goes than a fade/slice. I don't know why this is, do you?

Also, I never understood my ballflight--the fighter jet turn--but the spin being too high to allow the ball to turn makes sense. I have a pretty high driver clubhead speed, but my swing path was classic outside in, instead of inside out.. My ball would start out nice and straight, but then suddenly around the peak of the height it would veer hard right. Nice for playing those dogleg rights, sucks for everything else.

[FutureSound]

About 3 months ago I had the exact same revelation. I had taken my second lesson and that's when my pro noticed it. So to fix it, my pro 'tricked' me into rolling my hands/wrists on the backswing by telling me to 'try to hook it' Well it worked and now my backswing is much better and I'm hitting fairly well off of the tee. This is something I had never accomplished before.

After reading this I realized this problem is very similar to the problem I had. So a couple of days ago I played a round with a slower back swing and a stronger turn of my hands and extension of my arm. Worked like magic! I finally feel like I have found a real golf swing and I am now hitting all clubs much straighter. Thanks for opening my eyes and sharing this scenario!

[jmhunter]

I think often, we avoid making ourselves look like utter asses on here, as it is a mans sport, but without the admission of mistakes, how can others learn from them.

[doublesuited77]

After reading this I realized this problem is very similar to the problem I had. So a couple of days ago I played a round with a slower back swing and a stronger turn of my hands and extension of my arm. Worked like magic! I finally feel like I have found a real golf swing and I am now hitting all clubs much straighter. Thanks for opening my eyes and sharing this scenario!

what is likely happening here is that as you roll your risks you are chaning your target line and moving it inside on the downswing. the result is likely a bunch of wild slides and pulls. by having you try to hook it, the pro is bringing your swing path back out and much closers to your target line

[Ringer]

So, today I had a revelation that I haven't been rolling my hands with my swing. I was trying to keep the club face straight.

A lot of people have come back to me with precisely the same revelation after watching my release video..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8ckECXHu4U It's funny though when I have told people who don't properly release to try and hook it. THEY CAN'T DO IT! Their bodies have been trained to simply not let it happen.

[blagrange]

I guess this is what I am doing by "flipping my wrists". I can now share the excitement of hitting bombs off the tee box.

[doublesuited77]

interesting video-- don't think i've ever heard the shake the hand analogy before.

one thing i will often do to practice the release is just swing with my hand below my waist the entire swing. it takes the momentum of the downswing out and forces you to make crisp contact.