Arm Rotation during downswing

[phi530]

Hey guys this is my first post so be gentle.

Just really started picking up the game the last 6 months or so.  I decided to take a lesson and while I'm sure there was many other things wrong with my swing the instructor told me my biggest problem was having a open clubface at impact causing big slices and shanks.  He told me that my biggest problem was not rotating my forearms (specifically my left) on the down swing to close my clubface through impact.  This worked for a while but I have noticed now I have been pulling the ball dead left a lot and creating some nasty hooks especially off the tee.

My question I guess is do I need to rotate my arms on the downswing or should I concentrate on just keeping the clubface as square as it was at address. He had told me that when you hit the ball you actually want the club face to be more square then it was at address but I can't seem to find that advice anywhere online.

Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[mvmac]

Yeah so this becomes the problem with fixing the clubface and not the club path.  Most people that slice/fade the ball do it with a clubface aiming LEFT of the target.  The clubface is open to the path.  So by manually closing the clubface, you've just matched it to the path, which is across the ball, resulting in the pulls.  All you need to know about the ball flight laws here

http://thesandtrap.com/b/playing_tips/ball_flight_laws

Then check out this thread for Key#2 drills. Most players that come slice it have very little or not enough weight forward at impact.  You would fix this by keeping the left knee flexed longer on the downswing.  More weight forward would get the path less left, maybe even to the right.  So I wouldn't worry about the clubface being square, I'd work on getting my path rightward by how the weight transfers on the downswing.

http://thesandtrap.com/t/61376/5sk-video-thread

[GaijinGolfer]

You do need to rotate on the downswing and trying to keep the face straight wont work because the face needs to close through impact.  Im working on the same thing lately myself and I find that the feel I need is that the back of my left hand faces the target as impact.  I used to hit a lot of pushes, which was causes by the back of my left hand facing right of the target at impact.

Probably what you are doing now is overdoing the rotation and it will just take some time and practice to dial in just how much rotation you need.