OT: - Fixing a golf slice? | Page 3 | The Boneyard

OT: Fixing a golf slice?

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I believe that correcting a slice is impossible. Best you can hope for is to keep it under control. But rest assured when you think it is gone for good, it rears its miserable head. I’ve taken lessons galore as well. Different pros have suggested different cures but 2 things have worked sort of. Take the club back on a slightly inside line and strengthen your grip. If it crops up mid round like mine seems to leave your driver in the bag and when you grip the club hold tight with the top 2 fingers of your left hand. Not sure why that helps but it seems to not eliminate the problem but minimize it. Instead of hitting it across the adjacent fairway you’ll just find the rough. Or you can do what my uncle Bob used to do. Aim way left and let your slice find its way into the middle of the fairway😉
 
Zissou said:
Keep it simple.

The first response from businesslawyer is spot on.

Closing the club face is an easy fix, so let’s assume your swing has to adjust from outside-in to more insideout.

Go to a range where you can tee up in natural grass.

Tee up your ball. Then take another Tee and, on a straight line to your target, place the 2nd Tee about 3 inches in front of the teed ball. That is your straight line swing. Assuming you are right handed, now move that forward tee one inch to your right. Keep that tee high.

With a wood or long iron, practice swinging through the ball and over that 2nd tee. This is your inside out swing. You can practice this without hitting a ball, and then with hitting a ball.

Now add a few tweaks. Step just a little further away from the ball then normal, and then move your left food towards the ball (ball is forward in stance for long iron or wood). This will close your stance a bit. It will help you get to inside-out.

Now close your hips a bit. Line up to your target. Place your club on your hips and point to the target. Now pivot your hips a little so the club faces a little right of the target. This will close your stance a bit. It will help you get to inside-out.

Now slow your back swing and don’t pick up your club quickly in take away. Large arc. Only 75% back swing. Swing through the ball and over the 2nd tee.

These simple steps will likely not only fix your slice, but also teach you to shape shots on demand. You already know how to fade and slice. By learning your inside-out motion you will learn how to hook and draw. You will dial in the right motion and adjust with these simple tips.

After you are dialed in...

Need a slice / power fade on a shot? Open up your feet and hips, picture that old outside-in swing line (after you contact the ball the head goes left of that straight line 2nd tee).

Need a draw? Close the stance, close the hips, picture that inside-out swing line (after you contact the ball the head goes out over that 2nd tee that is to the right of the straight target line).

In your yard you can set up the 2 tees and with a half swing set the swing motion inside out. Just back and forth on that inside-out line.
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Here is a visual. I’m assuming your slice comes from the left path above. Outside-in.

The right path above is inside-out. I placed a yellow dot where you want to place that 2nd Tee. Just swing over the first tee and tick that 2nd tee with your club head as you pass over it.

This is a very simple drill and a very simple visualization that will help you on the course. Train the muscle memory and picture the swing line.

All of the other “tricks” can help, but this keeps it simple. If you pass over that second tee you are inside out. Holding the towel with your elbow can help, but it’s trying to do the same thing by training your take away. I think that comes naturally with this tee drill. Keep it simple and just try the tee drill.
 
freescooter said:
I believe that correcting a slice is impossible. Best you can hope for is to keep it under control. But rest assured when you think it is gone for good, it rears its miserable head.
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Jake - don’t buy into this. The fix is simple.

There are so many approaches and “tricks” to fix this common problem that it makes it feel complicated. It isn’t. Keep it simple!
 
Placement of teed ball on tee box helps influence shot shape and takes advantage of one side of fairway.

Right side placement for fade. Left side placement for draw.
 
Practice making a slow, deliberate backswing. When you put too much force in the takeaway, you could overpower the correct plane. Taking it slow prevents this...then swing normal through. You'll get used to what the correct swing feels like for you.
 
.-.
Zissou said:
Keep it simple.

The first response from businesslawyer is spot on.

Closing the club face is an easy fix, so let’s assume your swing has to adjust from outside-in to more insideout.

Go to a range where you can tee up in natural grass.

Tee up your ball. Then take another Tee and, on a straight line to your target, place the 2nd Tee about 3 inches in front of the teed ball. That is your straight line swing. Assuming you are right handed, now move that forward tee one inch to your right. Keep that tee high.

With a wood or long iron, practice swinging through the ball and over that 2nd tee. This is your inside out swing. You can practice this without hitting a ball, and then with hitting a ball.

Now add a few tweaks. Step just a little further away from the ball then normal, and then move your left food towards the ball (ball is forward in stance for long iron or wood). This will close your stance a bit. It will help you get to inside-out.

Now close your hips a bit. Line up to your target. Place your club on your hips and point to the target. Now pivot your hips a little so the club faces a little right of the target. This will close your stance a bit. It will help you get to inside-out.

Now slow your back swing and don’t pick up your club quickly in take away. Large arc. Only 75% back swing. Swing through the ball and over the 2nd tee.

These simple steps will likely not only fix your slice, but also teach you to shape shots on demand. You already know how to fade and slice. By learning your inside-out motion you will learn how to hook and draw. You will dial in the right motion and adjust with these simple tips.

After you are dialed in...

Need a slice / power fade on a shot? Open up your feet and hips, picture that old outside-in swing line (after you contact the ball the head goes left of that straight line 2nd tee).

Need a draw? Close the stance, close the hips, picture that inside-out swing line (after you contact the ball the head goes out over that 2nd tee that is to the right of the straight target line).

In your yard you can set up the 2 tees and with a half swing set the swing motion inside out. Just back and forth on that inside-out line.
Expand ...
Zissou said:
View attachment 66658
Here is a visual. I’m assuming your slice comes from the left path above. Outside-in.

The right path above is inside-out. I placed a yellow dot where you want to place that 2nd Tee. Just swing over the first tee and tick that 2nd tee with your club head as you pass over it.

This is a very simple drill and a very simple visualization that will help you on the course. Train the muscle memory and picture the swing line.

All of the other “tricks” can help, but this keeps it simple. If you pass over that second tee you are inside out. Holding the towel with your elbow can help, but it’s trying to do the same thing by training your take away. I think that comes naturally with this tee drill. Keep it simple and just try the tee drill.
Expand ...

Thank you. A lot of good advice in this thread. The visual is very helpful and the tee drill seems simple which is perfect for my simpleton brain. I took some swings in the yard this morning and I'm not close to hitting the second tee with my current swing. I did place another tee up and to the left which I am consistently hitting with the club, so it appears my swing is outside-in. Going to hit the range later and focus on trying to get up and over that second, right hand tee.
 
go to a swing video place. hit a lot of shots with different clubs to generate a data plotted 'baseline' swing and trajectory profiles. now you have actual evidence for what ur swing actually is instead of what you think it is. adjust accordingly with input from someone who actually knows something.
or, cheapo v2.0 advice:
address the ball comfortably. bend/bounce at the knees a few times. if you don't feel that ur in ur happy spot, move ur feet accordingly -settle in.
head down, arm straight, swing slow, hit hard. admire the result.
sooooo much of sending a projectile successfully in sport is based on 2 inputs:
hip swivel and keeping ur head down. did i mention keeping ur head down? if not, remember to keep ur head down. anybody can do that, while the hip swivel is the most 'individual' movement in sports. can't change it much if ur body says 'no.'
cheapest advice: give up some distance for accuracy -do everything in slow motion as you get rid of the maniac swing. with even average ability, you'll stop 6'n the course to death. garuntee.
i/we always tell a new face/faces in the foursome at tee-off, 'do whatever the heck you want. kick it, throw it, improve ur lie by 30 yards -whatever. makes no nevermind to me/us cuz ur here to have fun, too. just don't bring that to a betting situation cuz iffn i/we even do that (rarely), the last thing anyone needs to hear from ur 'normally a scratch golfer' baloney (lie) is a whole bunch of lawyerin hot nonsense aboot 'bbut that garbage truck noise 2 miles away threw me off!' when in florida, we just feed those types to the alligators.

only around 10% of all duffers actually break 100 on an honest scorecard.
signed, 'i always shoot in the 70s. if it's any colder, i ain't going out.'
 
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JakeTheDog said:
I line up my drive and the contact feels great. Good initial aim and then...into the rough/trees/fairway of the hole on the right. I slice nearly every time I drive the ball. There's myriad resources online for fixing this problem but everyone seems to have their own miracle fix. Just wondering if any Yarders(@mauconnfan?) have any tried and true methods they use to get a straight drive. I'm too much of a casual golfer to hire a swing coach or spend money trying to fix it. For now I'm relegated to hitting irons off the tee because then at least I hit the fairway I'm aiming for. I realize without seeing my swing it's hard to diagnose what I'm doing wrong but any help is appreciated. FORE!(> 1)
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Since you state that the initial aim is ok, you have a swing path problem. About zero percentage of all golfers take the club back and return it in exactly the same path; there will always be a loop. If you look back at the clubhead path before getting to the ball, yours is moving counter-clockwise - your takeaway is too inside then you loop over the top on the downswing. In your mind, thinking about doing the opposite. The backswing should feel outside the line and then the club drops to the inside on the downswing. Again, looking back, the clubhead moves in a clockwise direction. Feeling this will straighten you out.
 
JakeTheDog said:
Thank you. A lot of good advice in this thread. The visual is very helpful and the tee drill seems simple which is perfect for my simpleton brain. I took some swings in the yard this morning and I'm not close to hitting the second tee with my current swing. I did place another tee up and to the left which I am consistently hitting with the club, so it appears my swing is outside-in. Going to hit the range later and focus on trying to get up and over that second, right hand tee.
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It’s simple in concept, but retraining muscle memory takes repetition.
One helping hint is the short swing. Even in your yard, do those half swings or even quarter swings. Get that swing motion over the second tee. When it becomes comfortable and repeatable, expand the swing.
 
Take lessons.... Cured mine after one season's worth years ago. Losing the banana ball is exhilerating and worth every penny!
 
Another tip is to take some practice swings on a side hill lie with your club on the side above your feet. You’ll find it’s almost impossible to come over the top
 
.-.
Watching some of the Master's preview on golf channel tonight and they were detailing the overall improvement and consistency in DJ's game since he changed from a draw swing to a power fade.

As Lee Trevino said - "You can talk to a fade but a hook won't listen".

A fade or slice which travels a 1/2 fairway off center or less isn't anything to worry about off the tee.

Bigger issue to me is learning how to pure an iron to the green.
 
What helped me is this. As a left hander, I aim in my head towards left field. It seems counter productive but your body rotation which bring it back to the center.
 
Chin Diesel said:
Watching some of the Master's preview on golf channel tonight and they were detailing the overall improvement and consistency in DJ's game since he changed from a draw swing to a power fade.

As Lee Trevino said - "You can talk to a fade but a hook won't listen".

A fade or slice which travels a 1/2 fairway off center or less isn't anything to worry about off the tee.

Bigger issue to me is learning how to pure an iron to the green.
Expand ...
'Bigger issue to me is learning how to pure an iron to the green.'
i am unfamiliar with the phrase 'to pure an iron to the green.'
what does it mean?
 
ClifSpliffy said:
'Bigger issue to me is learning how to pure an iron to the green.'
i am unfamiliar with the phrase 'to pure an iron to the green.'
what does it mean?
Expand ...

When I talk about hitting an iron pure to the green I mean hitting it square in the sweet spot of the iron on the correct trajectory and a distance in the 95%-100% of how far I should be hitting it normally. When you hit it pure you almost don't even feel the ball hitting the club face.

I'm a distance control freak on the course with my irons. I can handle be offline left or right but I get pissed when I misclub and hit short or long, if I chunk a ball short or blade one long. Especially true on a par 3's where I can tee it up. Hitting the right distance is a combination of knowing the true length you hit your clubs on average, assessing course conditions and weather conditions. All of those are basic skills and don't require any specific level of athleticism or strength. It's really about being honest with yourself about your game. "What club in my bag will most likely allow me to get where I want to go with this shot?"

And if your comment of being unfamiliar was in jest, I get it.
 
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Hard to say without seeing your swing. I used to have that problem. How wide is your stance? How far from the ball are you standing? How fast is your swing! If you are actually swinging from the outside without knowing it, sometimes doing one or more of adjusting your distance to the ball, narrowing your stance a little, slowing the swing a bit, can help. If you are right handed, make sure your right foot is lined up a little bit behind the left, or at worst square with it. If none of that works, play a round with Businesslaw or just skip the round and go to the bar.
 
.-.
as a long time golfer, i agree with what has been said. start by making sure you can see at least one knuckle on your left hand when you address the ball - if that is not enough, then rotate your left hand so that you can see two knuckles, or three. then also practice with something like a towel tucked into your right armpit to keep your right elbow from flying off on its own, which causes an outside in slicing swing. and then you can also close your stance a bit and do not swing too hard - let your hands catch up the rest of the swing - let everything work together. and please, try to figure this out at the range, not on the course, for everyone's sake. plus there are now clubs that have variable weights that can help. good luck.
 
Bricklayer said:
as a long time golfer, i agree with what has been said. start by making sure you can see at least one knuckle on your left hand when you address the ball - if that is not enough, then rotate your left hand so that you can see two knuckles, or three. then also practice with something like a towel tucked into your right armpit to keep your right elbow from flying off on its own, which causes an outside in slicing swing. and then you can also close your stance a bit and do not swing too hard - let your hands catch up the rest of the swing - let everything work together. and please, try to figure this out at the range, not on the course, for everyone's sake. plus there are now clubs that have variable weights that can help. good luck.
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Gotta disagree on rotating the lead hand until you see two or three knuckles. There are a lot of things that can affect a swing based on height, weight, flexibility, arm length..............................

One thing every golfer can do and should do is get their grip correct. A slightly strong or weak grip of 1/2-1 knuckle is all anyone should move off the default.
 
Chin Diesel said:
Watching some of the Master's preview on golf channel tonight and they were detailing the overall improvement and consistency in DJ's game since he changed from a draw swing to a power fade.

As Lee Trevino said - "You can talk to a fade but a hook won't listen".

A fade or slice which travels a 1/2 fairway off center or less isn't anything to worry about off the tee.

Bigger issue to me is learning how to pure an iron to the green.
Expand ...
There is a HUGE difference between DJ’s fade and a newbie’s slice. DJ doesn’t need the extra distance either.
 
uconnfan68 said:
There is a HUGE difference between DJ’s fade and a newbie’s slice. DJ doesn’t need the extra distance either.
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Nicklaus was a fader.. Had more control of the ball without giving up much distance.

DJ started his career as a draw guy.. Played some practice rounds just hitting fades..Was shooting 61/62/61 playing the fade. Never went back.

Source: Golf Digest Article on DJ
 
One last thing make sure your lead elbow is pointed at your target.....
 
.-.
Chin Diesel said:
When I talk about hitting an iron pure to the green I mean hitting it square in the sweet spot of the iron on the correct trajectory and a distance in the 95%-100% of how far I should be hitting it normally. When you hit it pure you almost don't even feel the ball hitting the club face.

I'm a distance control freak on the course with my irons. I can handle be offline left or right but I get pissed when I misclub and hit short or long, if I chunk a ball short or blade one long. Especially true on a par 3's where I can tee it up. Hitting the right distance is a combination of knowing the true length you hit your clubs on average, assessing course conditions and weather conditions. All of those are basic skills and don't require any specific level of athleticism or strength. It's really about being honest with yourself about your game. "What club in my bag will most likely allow me to get where I want to go with this shot?"

And if your comment of being unfamiliar was in jest, I get it.
Expand ...
Chin.. Admire your aspirations of wanting to pure your irons into the greens.

The guys on Tour say they might pure 3 to 5 shots a round and the rest of the time they are just trying to manage their good misses with strategic course management.Don't beat yourself up too much if you're not puring it more than these guys.

Rhythm-Balance-Tempo with the right grip pressure can help in finding the sweet spot.

As they say-Golf doesn't build character-It shows character. LOL
 
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Zissou said:
Jake, how is your progress?
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Good. I'm trying to be mindful of a slow, controlled swing and a strong grip. Still trying to make sure I get aligned with that second tee. When I'm successful I definitely see a straighter shot, but I've also lost some distance. I'm focusing on mitigating that slice though. I will focus on distance when I start to feel more comfortable with the new technique. So that will probably be next year some time 😂
 
JakeTheDog said:
Good. I'm trying to be mindful of a slow, controlled swing and a strong grip. Still trying to make sure I get aligned with that second tee. When I'm successful I definitely see a straighter shot, but I've also lost some distance. I'm focusing on mitigating that slice though. I will focus on distance when I start to feel more comfortable with the new technique. So that will probably be next year some time 😂
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Once you groove the swing line, try keeping a 3/4 swing. Instead of a full arc, swing a little stronger on the down stroke from the 3/4. Slow measured back swing, strong left hand grip, strong swing through the ball. You will get the distance with clean contact on the 3/4 swing and you will be in more control.

keep it simple and get that inside-out motion over the second tee!
 
If it's a block slice, one of the simplest things to try is just really slow down the back swing.

A guy I worked with (when I mowed fairways) had a steady slice that needed a turn signal. His backswing was as almost as quick and violent as his down swing. Our boss/superintendent, who was pretty good, had him slow down his back swing and his slice became a gentle fade. Now, he still couldn't putt to save his life, but it took a bunch of strokes off his game.
 
I would like some advice on how to get to the left side better as you come through on your swing. Good golfers end up with their weight on the left heel or foot (right handed). So many of us are back on our right foot. See it most of the time. That would square the hands at impact and solve the accuracy, slice and distance problems.
 
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