slicing the golf ball

keeffo2008

Right, Here goes.

im a "cack handed" golfer playing off a 13 handicap.
At the moment, the only thing going for me on the golf course in my short game. i hit the driver, 3 wood, long irons all to the right.
the last time i went to group lessons, the pro told me he would not help me untill i changed my grip.

anyone have any advice for me???
i know 2 players with the same grip as me off of four handicaps, so i know it can be done!!??

conno16

get a lesson with a suitably qualified pro
or else just aim far left

stockdam

conno16 wrote: »

get a lesson with a suitably qualified pro
or else just aim far left

Lesson - yes.

Aim left.....err absolutely not. That's the worst advice.

I'm not sure about cack-handed golf as I have no feel for the problems but here's what I did (many years ago) to learn how to draw; you need to learn how to draw in order to cure a slice.

Get the setup correct. Don't grip the club yet. Aim your shoulders and hips to the RIGHT (say the right hand rough). Now sole the club and make it point to the middle of the fairway/target. Now take your grip but don't do anything different relative to your body; your grip should be "strong" relative to the clubface (the clubface should be closed relative to your shoulders).

So now you should be aiming right but the clubface should be aiming down the middle. Now take your swing and try to swing along your shoulder line and try to hit the ball down the right hand rough. This will be hard for you as your automatic reaction will be to try to hit the ball left to allow for your slice. If you get it correct and the ball stays straight then either close the face a bit more or else change your aim.....experiment until you get the hang of it.

Don't try to manipulate the clubface but trust the fact that your setup will promote a draw. At times you'll get it wrong and hit a wild slice but keep at it.

katnia

The easiest way to explain the mechanics of a slice is to imagine you're playing tennis. If you want to hit a draw you need to imagine you are playing a forehand return on a serve and to hit the shot right to left you need to attack the ball from the 'inside', if you can imagine that image/feeling and as you hit the ball you roll your wrists over. If you wanted to play the same shot as a slice you would cut across the ball, attacking it from the outside (this is what you are currently doing). If you have ever played tennis you should know what you need to do to get the right action/feeling. It is quite easy to hit a draw, you need to make sure you are not over-swinging and that you also stay behind the shot to enable an easy attack from the 'inside'. I hope this makes some sort of sense....I wish you well, if you are playing off 13 you won't have far to go to correct your slight problem. P.S.........By the way, I know you will have heard a lot of negatives about your grip, but you are what you are and trying to change this now at your stage will not do you much good IMO, I have discovered after many years of over analysing my game, that the best thing to do is what comes naturally and if you do this you should progress just fine. Don't give yourself paralysis by analysis....keep it natural to you and you will eventually figure it out.

conno16

should he just get tennis lessons first?
then go back to golf in say a years time.
it could work but it is clearly an unorthodox approach

katnia

I'm just trying to think of an easy way to explain what is going wrong with his swing, it's difficult to explain a golf swing by writing a paragraph, so I'm trying to give a practical explanation that he may be able to relate to....I'm not advocating having tennis lessons, just trying to put the problem into a more visual scenario so that he may get what is going wrong. To be honest, I cant really think of any other practical explanation!!

BUACHAILL

katnia wrote: »

I'm just trying to think of an easy way to explain what is going wrong with his swing, it's difficult to explain a golf swing by writing a paragraph, so I'm trying to give a practical explanation that he may be able to relate to....I'm not advocating having tennis lessons, just trying to put the problem into a more visual scenario so that he may get what is going wrong. To be honest, I cant really think of any other practical explanation!!

you described it perfectly, dont mind our troll he likes p.issing people off. Nor would I waste my time explaining yourself.

heavyballs

conno16 wrote: »

should he just get tennis lessons first?
then go back to golf in say a years time.
it could work but it is clearly an unorthodox approach

it's actually a well known thought process used by teaching pro's,i use it and it works
maybe u should take up tennis..you seem to know sweet f.a. about golf

heavyballs

keeffo2008 wrote: »

Right, Here goes.

im a "cack handed" golfer playing off a 13 handicap.
At the moment, the only thing going for me on the golf course in my short game. i hit the driver, 3 wood, long irons all to the right.
the last time i went to group lessons, the pro told me he would not help me untill i changed my grip.

anyone have any advice for me???
i know 2 players with the same grip as me off of four handicaps, so i know it can be done!!??

all the(helpfull) info from the lads won't help you,so says a bloke i know who plays cack handed,he plays off 7,i know 3 players like this and they all play with a major fade so you need to fiddle with your grip to get it to a playable level,when playing CH because you're left hand is lowest on the grip any advice regarding trying to draw the ball first won't(shouldn't)work,if i were you i'd go to the range,experiment with your grip,make sure it feels wierd at first and i bet you'll see some ball flights you havn't seen before
when you look down at your grip at address how many knuckles can you see on each hand?

stockdam

heavyballs wrote: »

all the(helpfull) info from the lads won't help you,so says a bloke i know who plays cack handed,

I guess so....that's why I said I had no feel for playing cack-handed. I'm not sure how much the hands are used and so it may be totally different to playing with a traditional grip.

GreeBo

You need to first detemine what type of slice you have, does the ball start straight and fade right, cut sharply right, start right and get worse, start left and move right etc?

Each of these has a different cause and the worst thing you can do is, for example, set your feet up to a hook to counteract a slice-inducing grip.

AdamAntsy

One handy drill I was given to cure slicing the ball for an in-out swing path was to place an empty ball bucket a club head distance from the tee'd ball at a driving range.
__
/ B\
o D <

---

swingpath
|
|

Brutal diagram but set up for a right hander. The idea is not to hit the bucket.

For an open face on impact, you need to concentrate on relaxing the grip and allowing the wrists to rotate, if your tense you can lock the wrists more and slice that way.