Question:
You had exactly one of the things i had. I like to call it bad swinginitis. My instructor straightened it right out for me. he made me do a drill at the range and it goes like this. stand looking away from the range with the tee a bit away from your left foot about at the base of your pinky toe. for me it was about 18 inches out. then i set up with my torso twisted way left with my head at the ball. then take your shot. I cant remember what exactly it does, but it sure worked good for me. But the easiest way way to correct a problem you have is see a pro and hell fix it for your particular needs. sincerely Neil
Response:
Try the book, "The Four Magic Moves To Winning Golf" written by Joe Dante in 1960. I’ve had the same slicing problem for years. I read this book last year and have been practicing what it advised. Since then I’ve been playing games of golf more than once a week and probably have genuinely sliced 4 or 5 times all year!! With me, my slice was related to how my hands were positioned through the swing. Once I read the book and figured out what I was reading and how I was actually swinging, and put into practice the book’s advise, my slice went away. Now, more often than not, I hit a bit left now, if the shot doesn’t go straight. When I saw the word "Magic" on this book I just couldn’t resist. This book is still in publication. I found it at a Barnes and Noble last year. Go ahead, give it a try. You might just be amazed. — Craig Wiper http://www.sonic.net/~craigw http://www.mp3.com/artists/26/tung_n_gruve.html http://zebox.com/artists/mesadude.html
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – The last 3000 balls I hit went 30 degrees to the right. I’ve tried everything I can think of to correct it. I tend to hit outside in, sometimes atrociously (I’m going to knock the big toe off my left foot one of these days). I can consciously correct it and take a straight divot, but I leave a lot of hideous left-pointing divots too. But that doesn’t seem to be the whole explanation for my blowing balls to the right. My straight divots blow to the right too. By the exact same amount. If I aim 30 degrees to the left of my line, I _still_ blow the ball 30 degrees to the right of my line. I haven’t hit a ball straight down the range in two months. This is starting to make me nuts. Is this ringing a bell with anyone? What on earth am I doing? I’m hitting the ball in the right place on the clubface, though I’m getting the oval ballmarks you would expect from an absurdly open face. I think it must be in my wrists. But darned if I can find it. My right wrist isn’t collapsing. I’ve tried every experiment I can think of about different ways to cock my wrists or release em, or don’t cock and don’t release em, or every other combination. And this is what’s so maddening. No matter what I do, no matter how willfully I disrupt my motion, I get the exact same damn shot. I’ve tried crossing my forearms with all my strength. I’ve tried crossing them so much that I think I should be blowing the ball backwards. Nope. Apparently as I go through the ball at full speed I’m just not getting my hands and forearms where I think they’re going to be. No matter how hard I try. I’ve tried overactive lower body, stiff lower body. Big shoulder turn and little. Once I go to the full swing, I’m still laying the club wide open by the time I hit the ball. The slice from all the right-winging is maybe less than you think. More of a fade than a slice, though its a fade on a shot going 30 degrees to the damn right. My 1-iron goes about 230, which isn’t much less than I ever got out of it when the ball went straight, so its not the usual distance-killing slice. Which is puzzling. Why isn’t this idiotic shot slicing more? I have a neutral grip. I can’t seem to find a comfortable strong grip, which is maybe a clue, but darned if I know what it means. My stance is narrow, backswing slow. I’m told my swing overall looks good. My head stays behind the ball. If I don’t get this fixed soon, I’m afraid I’m going to become a club thrower. Mo
Response:
I went through the same thing. For me, it was definately the grip. I had a neutral to weak grip that required me to intentionally manipulate my wrists and forearms to get the clubface square. On good days, my timing was great and I hit decent shots. On bad days my shots would range from super banana slice to a wild duck hook. I had played with this grip so long that anything stronger just did not feel right. Setting up with the clubface closed is almost the same as using a stronger grip. Of course, you have to cope with the psychological factors of looking at the closed face during your setup but I am confident that the stronger grip will help. I was watching/listening to Johnny Miller one day and he was saying that one of things that separates good ball strikers from bad strikers is the length of time the clubface is square through impact. For the typical good player, the clubface is square much longer than for the other players. So, the probability of hitting a shot headed towards the target is much greater. Look at the natural way your arms and hands are positioned when the hang next to your body. That is where they naturally return at impact in a nice relaxed swing. Butch was talking about this on TGC and advocated using this as a guide to putting your hands on the club (grip strength). The next step is then to get the swing path corrected. Fixing the grip may get you motivated again though. kelvin.
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – The last 3000 balls I hit went 30 degrees to the right. I’ve tried everything I can think of to correct it. I tend to hit outside in, sometimes atrociously (I’m going to knock the big toe off my left foot one of these days). I can consciously correct it and take a straight divot, but I leave a lot of hideous left-pointing divots too. But that doesn’t seem to be the whole explanation for my blowing balls to the right. My straight divots blow to the right too. By the exact same amount. If I aim 30 degrees to the left of my line, I _still_ blow the ball 30 degrees to the right of my line. I haven’t hit a ball straight down the range in two months. This is starting to make me nuts. Is this ringing a bell with anyone? What on earth am I doing? I’m hitting the ball in the right place on the clubface, though I’m getting the oval ballmarks you would expect from an absurdly open face. I think it must be in my wrists. But darned if I can find it. My right wrist isn’t collapsing. I’ve tried every experiment I can think of about different ways to cock my wrists or release em, or don’t cock and don’t release em, or every other combination. And this is what’s so maddening. No matter what I do, no matter how willfully I disrupt my motion, I get the exact same damn shot. I’ve tried crossing my forearms with all my strength. I’ve tried crossing them so much that I think I should be blowing the ball backwards. Nope. Apparently as I go through the ball at full speed I’m just not getting my hands and forearms where I think they’re going to be. No matter how hard I try. I’ve tried overactive lower body, stiff lower body. Big shoulder turn and little. Once I go to the full swing, I’m still laying the club wide open by the time I hit the ball. The slice from all the right-winging is maybe less than you think. More of a fade than a slice, though its a fade on a shot going 30 degrees to the damn right. My 1-iron goes about 230, which isn’t much less than I ever got out of it when the ball went straight, so its not the usual distance-killing slice. Which is puzzling. Why isn’t this idiotic shot slicing more? I have a neutral grip. I can’t seem to find a comfortable strong grip, which is maybe a clue, but darned if I know what it means. My stance is narrow, backswing slow. I’m told my swing overall looks good. My head stays behind the ball. If I don’t get this fixed soon, I’m afraid I’m going to become a club thrower. Mo
Response:
I have a neutral grip. I can’t seem to find a comfortable strong grip, which is maybe a clue, but darned if I know what it means.
It’s your grip. AND your swing path. Stop practicing your faults and take a lesson or three. -joseph
Response:
I had played with this grip so long that anything stronger just did not feel right.
Yes, grip changes feel EXTREMELY unnatural, especially to people used to hitting the ball with a poor grip. -joseph
Response:
The last 3000 balls I hit went 30 degrees to the right. I’ve tried everything I can think of to correct it.
How about a lession from a pro? Some one who knows what they are doing can look at your swing and figure out what’s wrong (grip, stance, takeaway, swingpath etc). I have a neutral grip. I can’t seem to find a comfortable strong grip, which is maybe a clue, but darned if I know what it means.
A neutral grip will tend to open when you swing. But if it’s the same grip you were using when you were hitting straight, that doesn’t explain what happened. Have you tried closing the clubface 30* at address? Don’t just twist the club, but close it, and then take your normal neutral grip. Don’t think about it and just swing like you have been and see what happens. It sounds like your grip could be part of the problem, but it’s most likely not all of your problem. I’m fighting a pull to the left. It sucks. My shots either go straight, or I pull them to the left about 30*. For me it’s a over-the-top move on the downswing. One of the big causes is my right arm/wrists. If I try to swing the club with my right hand (like trying to hit with a hammer) I push the club to the outside. Whenever my right arm takes over the swing, the shot goes left. One thing I noticed when working with this is that my takeaway works backwards from the swing problem. If I take the club back more on the inside than normal (thinking this would help me swing from the inside on the downswing), it acutally made the over the top move worse. To reduce my outside in problem, I had to be sure the takeway was straight, or more to the outside. Make sure you are not doing an overly outside takeaway in an attempt to fix your inside out swing. — Curt Welch http://CurtWelch.Com/
Response:
: I tend to hit outside in, : sometimes atrociously (I’m going to knock the big toe off my left foot : one of these days). I can consciously correct it and take a straight : divot, but I leave a lot of hideous left-pointing divots too. But that While I believe in fixing the clubface first, and the path second, I can give you some advice on the path problem. Get a cardboard box, a piece of foam, or a 2foot long 4×4. Set the object just outside the ball in line with the correct path and swing. This will require that your club never gets outside the correct, forcing you to swing with an inside-square-inside path. I’ve also used foam cut with an angle, and place only before the ball, to allow a slight inside-out path. : I’ve tried crossing my forearms with all my strength. I’ve tried : crossing them so much that I think I should be blowing the ball : backwards. Nope. Apparently as I go through the ball at full speed I’m : just not getting my hands and forearms where I think they’re going to : be. No matter how hard I try. : I’ve tried overactive lower body, stiff lower body. Big shoulder turn : and little. Once I go to the full swing, I’m still laying the club wide : open by the time I hit the ball. Here’s two things to try: 1) Very very light grip. Enough to hold on to the club, but that’s it. Now make relaxed baseball swings at waist height. Just back and through, very level baseball swings. See if you can feel the club turning over naturally. If not, relax your arms more. Don’t force it, relax and let it happen. Once you’ve got that feeling, lower the swing so that it’s halfway between baseball and golf, like if you were hitting off a 2′ tall tee. If you can feel the club turning over at that height, try to just gradually lower it until you are hitting golf balls off a tee. Keep going back to the level baseball swing if needed to find the feeling. 2) Hit chip shots. Keep the club square to the line, don’t roll it open. Just take the club back a foot or two from the ball, and chip it. Now go back 3′, still keeping the clubface square to the line, and chip. Make sure to keep your grip and forearms very relaxed. Do not roll the club face open or try to force it to rotate. Stay relaxed, keep it square to the line, and just hit little swings/chips. Use the box/foam/board if needed to keep yourself on the correct line. One other thing you could try: See A Pro. A good pro might be able to find and fix the problem in less than an hour. Richard Stern http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/sternr.htm
Response:
My pro used the following to help me: 1) take your stance with the ball in the middle 2) put your feet together, maintaining proper address 3) take a proper swing maintaining your balance throughout making sure to follow through to a proper finish (most important) Key points for me are relaxed arms and shoulders (esp) , ass back (to make sure my weight is on my heels, I tend to role onto my toes) , weight distributed evenly, keep your eye on the ball, and a smooth even tempoed swing. I your doing it properly it will feel like nothing and the club will end up nicely behind your back at finish. Please note the idea here is on swing plane and a proper swing to contact the ball and not distance. By the way I am still working on my swing. My tendency is to come over the top, not rotating my arms and gettin my body up or down in the swing. My results with this tendency have been hitting the ball with an open club face and either fading the ball, hitting fat, hitting clean. This effects distance and accuracy. So now I am trying to get a proper swing developed. I constantly have to remind myself to "drop the club" and not to "swing the club", the former works helps while the latter does not. Good luck, Henry PS I would strogly suggest a series of lessons from a good pro (shop around, they are hard to find) – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – The last 3000 balls I hit went 30 degrees to the right. I’ve tried everything I can think of to correct it. I tend to hit outside in, sometimes atrociously (I’m going to knock the big toe off my left foot one of these days). I can consciously correct it and take a straight divot, but I leave a lot of hideous left-pointing divots too. But that doesn’t seem to be the whole explanation for my blowing balls to the right. My straight divots blow to the right too. By the exact same amount. If I aim 30 degrees to the left of my line, I _still_ blow the ball 30 degrees to the right of my line. I haven’t hit a ball straight down the range in two months. This is starting to make me nuts. Is this ringing a bell with anyone? What on earth am I doing? I’m hitting the ball in the right place on the clubface, though I’m getting the oval ballmarks you would expect from an absurdly open face. I think it must be in my wrists. But darned if I can find it. My right wrist isn’t collapsing. I’ve tried every experiment I can think of about different ways to cock my wrists or release em, or don’t cock and don’t release em, or every other combination. And this is what’s so maddening. No matter what I do, no matter how willfully I disrupt my motion, I get the exact same damn shot. I’ve tried crossing my forearms with all my strength. I’ve tried crossing them so much that I think I should be blowing the ball backwards. Nope. Apparently as I go through the ball at full speed I’m just not getting my hands and forearms where I think they’re going to be. No matter how hard I try. I’ve tried overactive lower body, stiff lower body. Big shoulder turn and little. Once I go to the full swing, I’m still laying the club wide open by the time I hit the ball. The slice from all the right-winging is maybe less than you think. More of a fade than a slice, though its a fade on a shot going 30 degrees to the damn right. My 1-iron goes about 230, which isn’t much less than I ever got out of it when the ball went straight, so its not the usual distance-killing slice. Which is puzzling. Why isn’t this idiotic shot slicing more? I have a neutral grip. I can’t seem to find a comfortable strong grip, which is maybe a clue, but darned if I know what it means. My stance is narrow, backswing slow. I’m told my swing overall looks good. My head stays behind the ball. If I don’t get this fixed soon, I’m afraid I’m going to become a club thrower. Mo
Response:
The last 3000 balls I hit went 30 degrees to the right. I’ve tried everything I can think of to correct it. I tend to hit outside in, sometimes atrociously (I’m going to knock the big toe off my left foot one of these days). I can consciously correct it and take a straight divot, but I leave a lot of hideous left-pointing divots too. But that doesn’t seem to be the whole explanation for my blowing balls to the right. My straight divots blow to the right too. By the exact same amount. If I aim 30 degrees to the left of my line, I _still_ blow the ball 30 degrees to the right of my line. I haven’t hit a ball straight down the range in two months. This is starting to make me nuts. Is this ringing a bell with anyone? What on earth am I doing? I’m hitting the ball in the right place on the clubface, though I’m getting the oval ballmarks you would expect from an absurdly open face. I think it must be in my wrists. But darned if I can find it. My right wrist isn’t collapsing. I’ve tried every experiment I can think of about different ways to cock my wrists or release em, or don’t cock and don’t release em, or every other combination. And this is what’s so maddening. No matter what I do, no matter how willfully I disrupt my motion, I get the exact same damn shot. I’ve tried crossing my forearms with all my strength. I’ve tried crossing them so much that I think I should be blowing the ball backwards. Nope. Apparently as I go through the ball at full speed I’m just not getting my hands and forearms where I think they’re going to be. No matter how hard I try. I’ve tried overactive lower body, stiff lower body. Big shoulder turn and little. Once I go to the full swing, I’m still laying the club wide open by the time I hit the ball. The slice from all the right-winging is maybe less than you think. More of a fade than a slice, though its a fade on a shot going 30 degrees to the damn right. My 1-iron goes about 230, which isn’t much less than I ever got out of it when the ball went straight, so its not the usual distance-killing slice. Which is puzzling. Why isn’t this idiotic shot slicing more? I have a neutral grip. I can’t seem to find a comfortable strong grip, which is maybe a clue, but darned if I know what it means. My stance is narrow, backswing slow. I’m told my swing overall looks good. My head stays behind the ball. If I don’t get this fixed soon, I’m afraid I’m going to become a club thrower. Mo