I gotta bad case of the slices!!!

[Shark918v]

PLEASE Help!

 

Can anyone recommend a or some good drills that will help me learn to close my club face. 

 

About 60% of my swings are either a straight or push type slice. 

 

My club plane and hand plane are good. My back swing angle is good. My tempo is good. I set up to the ball and get aligned well. My grip is above par. I just can't seem to bring my club face into square at impact. 

 

I previously thought that I was simply going in to out on my down swing. By all video accounts that was the case. So, I worked on it. I placed a water bottle about 12" in front of and slightly outside my right toes. That got my club plane on track. My hand plane has always been consistent....

 

PLEASE help!!!!

[rehmwa]

13 minutes ago, Shark918v said:

thought that I was simply going in to out on my down swing. By all video accounts that was the case. So, I worked on it. I placed a water bottle about 12" in front of and slightly outside my right toes. That got my club plane on track. My hand plane has always been consistent....

In to out indicates draw, not slice.  If you corrected to a more out to in swing, you'll make the slice worse.  I suspect you mis-wrote as your water bottle visual aid would indicate you were trying to maintain in to out.....

As for face drills, I think there are few posted here - I forget where.  But pretty much what you'd expect - good drills.  (I think about returning my left thumb at impact to where it is at setup and that seems to help with the "feel" - YMMV)

Do you have a down the line video (and a face on if you have one of those too?)

 

 

I also started going here on occasion - see what you can find:

 

Edited March 28, 2018 by rehmwa

[Groucho Valentine]

I was hoping this thread would be about pizza...

I would like to see that "above par" grip of yours. Im intrigued. Im into under par grips, myself. 

One of my big misses is a push slice too, i do it because i have a habit of aiming too far right and then I roll my hands and swing inside right along with it.  I usually correct it with an alignment adjustment. There are plenty of swing perts here, but without seeing your swing i would guess you're rolling the club face open with your arms in your backswing and keeping it there. 

[Buckeyebowman]

Have you tried just closing the clubface a little more at address? Might just be a band-aid, but it's been known to work. Also, at the local golf dome years ago I discovered something. The "turf" on the mats had subtle lines in it. When I set up square to the mat I found that I had the clubface slightly open to the target line. It wasn't much, but if was enough to cause a problem. When I squared the clubface it actually looked closed.

These are the kinds of subtle things that can sneak in over time.

[saevel25]

On 3/28/2018 at 9:58 AM, Shark918v said:

My club plane and hand plane are good. My back swing angle is good. My tempo is good. I set up to the ball and get aligned well. My grip is above par. I just can't seem to bring my club face into square at impact. 

No one hits them ball with a square clubface all the time. Every one curves the ball. So, a non-square clubface is not a bad thing. 

What shot shape are you looking for? 

[onthehunt526]

On 3/28/2018 at 9:58 AM, Shark918v said:

PLEASE Help!

 

Can anyone recommend a or some good drills that will help me learn to close my club face. 

 

About 60% of my swings are either a straight or push type slice. 

 

My club plane and hand plane are good. My back swing angle is good. My tempo is good. I set up to the ball and get aligned well. My grip is above par. I just can't seem to bring my club face into square at impact. 

 

I previously thought that I was simply going in to out on my down swing. By all video accounts that was the case. So, I worked on it. I placed a water bottle about 12" in front of and slightly outside my right toes. That got my club plane on track. My hand plane has always been consistent....

 

PLEASE help!!!!

The water bottle drill is a good one. My instructor has me doing this first-move down drill, that is basically a timing drill. You start the downswing with your arms so your elbow is tucked in by your right side. It basically is an exaggeration of kind of what is supposed to happen.

If you are on plane for an in to out path, and push slicing usually it's a contact issue. It's possibly your hitting it off the heel. Gear effect will cause a slice even if you have an in to out path. 

So try the first move down drill if that doesn't solve it, get some spray foot powder and see where you are contacting the ball on the clubface.

[MarvChamp]

9 hours ago, onthehunt526 said:

You start the downswing with your arms so your elbow is tucked in by your right side. It basically is an exaggeration of kind of what is supposed to happen.

I can second this. Plus being aware of side bend. Both helped me and will when I get back to playing. Best, -Marv

[Valleygolfer]

Will you be ok with a ball that starts down the middle and they slice out towards the right? That would likely be the outcome of getting your club face closed.

The short cut would be to aim much further left and slice it back to the fairway. There is much more needing to be addressed with your swing besides the face angle.

Edited April 1, 2018 by Valleygolfer

[onthehunt526]

1 hour ago, Valleygolfer said:

Will you be ok with a ball that starts down the middle and they slice out towards the right? That would likely be the outcome of getting your club face closed.

The short cut would be to aim much further left and slice it back to the fairway. There is much more needing to be addressed with your swing besides the face angle.

If his face is relatively square on an in to out path, I think it could be the old heel slice.

[Shark918v]

On 4/1/2018 at 2:57 PM, Valleygolfer said:

Will you be ok with a ball that starts down the middle and they slice out towards the right? That would likely be the outcome of getting your club face closed.

The short cut would be to aim much further left and slice it back to the fairway. There is much more needing to be addressed with your swing besides the face angle.

You described my ball flight to a tee (stupid pun intended). 

 

Per my Zepp II both my hand plane and club plane are spot on in the green. 

 

My my stance and aim is good. However, My grip from time to time is a bit too firm. 

 

I have used the "face tape" and foot spray method and my strike is in the sweet spot. I have also see the skid mark indicating my club face is open. 

 

All this said, what drills can I do or how can I practice closing my club face????

 

PLEASE and THANK YOU to ALL that have responded to the thread. 

[rehmwa]

9 minutes ago, Shark918v said:

All this said, what drills can I do or how can I practice closing my club face????

Plant alignment stick vertically in the ground in front of you about 10 feet away on the aim line from your ball.

Practice from a square stance to that line, try to maintain a constant path.....

• hit the ball right of the stick
• left of the stick
• try to hit the stick
• repeat

this is a face control drill, but if you can control the face direction on purpose, you'll learn to maintain it better as well for your stock shot

(I don't recall where the link is to the face drills on this site, but this is one I've used)  You still might link the crowd to your 'member swing' video - there might be more going on the really good ones here will see

[Shark918v]

8 hours ago, rehmwa said:

Plant alignment stick vertically in the ground in front of you about 10 feet away on the aim line from your ball.

Practice from a square stance to that line, try to maintain a constant path.....

• hit the ball right of the stick
• left of the stick
• try to hit the stick
• repeat

this is a face control drill, but if you can control the face direction on purpose, you'll learn to maintain it better as well for your stock shot

(I don't recall where the link is to the face drills on this site, but this is one I've used)  You still might link the crowd to your 'member swing' video - there might be more going on the really good ones here will see

EXCELLENT!!!!! This is just what I'm looking for!!

[Valleygolfer]

On 3/28/2018 at 9:58 AM, Shark918v said:

PLEASE Help!

Can anyone recommend a or some good drills that will help me learn to close my club face.

About 60% of my swings are either a straight or push type slice.

My club plane and hand plane are good. My back swing angle is good. My tempo is good. I set up to the ball and get aligned well. My grip is above par. I just can't seem to bring my club face into square at impact.

I previously thought that I was simply going in to out on my down swing. By all video accounts that was the case. So, I worked on it. I placed a water bottle about 12" in front of and slightly outside my right toes. That got my club plane on track. My hand plane has always been consistent....

PLEASE help!!!!

I don't know how your set up and plane can good and still slice. If your ball is a straight slice, your club head is square on impact. If you push, then it's open. Either way you are coming outside to in on your plane. I think you should post a video.

[Jacktgolf]

Instead of fixing the face alone, try something else.

Think about the spin on the ball. Backspin makes the ball rise, and sidespin makes it curve. If you want to fix a fade, there's only two ways to do it. 

1. You play for it

2. You hit a draw, and play for that.

That's the only way you're going to fix this.

Drawing the ball is a matter of tilting the backspin axis back to the left. If this is your focus, then after you try to spin the ball to the left for a while, you'll start hitting a draw. But even then, you still aim to the right and focus on allowing the curve to come back on target.

If spinning the ball left doesn't fix your face, I don't know what will. It's not complicated to shut the clubface. If you can twist the clubface in your hands in any direction you want to, you can shut the face at impact, it's really not that hard. Shut it at address if you feel that works, but either way, it's really not that hard.

I think your thought process is the straight shot. Forget it. None of the pros you see on TV hit the ball straight. They all work it one direction or the other, and they do it on every shot with a longer club, down to say, their 9 iron, which has enough loft to negate sidespin and produce more backspin than sidespin, so it goes relatively straight. But the longer clubs always curve, and in fact, the less lofted the face, the more the ball curves. Learn to choose a specific shot shape that you want, whether it be a draw, or a fade, high or low, and habitualize that swing. Make it subconscious, don't focus on the mechanics after you've chosen your shot shape and become used to it. Once you have a shot shape, and you consistently hit it, and you play for it, the golf swing goes out the window. You no longer need to work on it.

But shaping the ball requires knowledge of spin, so learn how backspin makes flight, and how sidespin makes curvature, and you'll easily be able to control your ball better.

[Shorty]

On 29/03/2018 at 12:58 AM, Shark918v said:

PLEASE Help!

My club plane and hand plane are good. My back swing angle is good. My tempo is good. I set up to the ball and get aligned well. My grip is above par. I just can't seem to bring my club face into square at impact. 

 

I'll guarantee that not every one of these claims is correct.

If you post a video there are expert teachers who can make a basic diagnosis. It's not good enough to say everything is great but I slice. Everything in NOT good. If it were, you wouldn't have made your post

 

Edited April 9, 2018 by Shorty

[winninggolfer]

A top online golf coach gave me this formula for fixing a slice - 

Here are the 4 things you must do to fix your golf slice in the quickest possible time…

1. Setup for a draw

2. Swing from the inside so the ball starts to the right (for a right handed golfer), or left (for a left handed golfer) of your final target

3. Contact the ball with a slightly closed clubface

4. Have equipment that encourages you to draw the ball.

In his opinion that list of 4 things is generally the opposite of what every golfer does to hit a slice.

[Shark918v]

On 4/8/2018 at 9:41 PM, Shorty said:

I'll guarantee that not every one of these claims is correct.

If you post a video there are expert teachers who can make a basic diagnosis. It's not good enough to say everything is great but I slice. Everything in NOT good. If it were, you wouldn't have made your post

 

 

Taken a few hours ago in my backyard. 

[Shark918v]

I've been using the drill that one of the nice posters (sorry can't recall who pointed me in that direction) suggested. I put the "aiming stick" out in front of me as I swing with the goal of swinging straight in line with it. It's been helping and I believe I'm learning how much my grip controls the head face as well as how to keep my head face in alignment through my swing to impact. 

 

However, I will confess this: Apparently I misread or misconstrued the description of the drill at first glance. Because through my practice I found out the hard way that the "aiming stick" should NOT be stuck vertically into the ground in front of me. Instead it should be laid flat on the ground. LOL!

 

Because if you're lucky enough to swing the hell outta your driver, and the shot is straight and low, you're bound to his the aforementioned "aiming stick." And in pulverizing said "aiming stick" it will inevitably fly some distance down range.