Question:
I went for a lesson today with my primary interest being fixing my slice off the tee. My secondary concern was that I have a pretty steep swing and with my irons that means fat shots are chunks. Although I knew the odds were slim, I was hoping she would be able to spot something immediately and have me booming nice draws in no time. Didn’t happen. The first thing she did was have me hit some wedges and it was pretty ugly. I was hitting low and right and didn’t know why. A few minutes later I was hitting some nice, crisp, high, and straight wedges. What she did was have me slow down my tempo–especially the transition. I was swinging like my intention was to drive the ball to China right through the planet. I eventually ended up swinging with what felt like 80% effort but I was making good contact and the ball was flying. I switched to the 7 iron and had the same result. Every once in a while I’d get quick at the top and not get a clean hit. But as long as I tried to build the speed on the downswing and not unleash it from the top, I had good success. So she found something to help what I considered my #2 priority. Time for the driver. Ugly…Ugly…Ugly. When I’m playing I usually hit balls that start down the middle or a little right and then start turning right. Sometimes the club face is square to my inside out path and I’ll push a serviceable one to the right. The really ugly ones are the inside out swing AND a face open to that path. I wasn’t hitting any of the ones that start straight—every thing was going right. So after watching me swing awhile and changing my ball position back a little, she gave me this diagnosis. My swing path was good, ditto for weight shift. My problems were that I just didn’t rotate the left hand back to the position it was address, and that I had a tendency to "stand up" just as I was making impact. My time was up so she suggested I work on a couple of things. One was to take a lot of practice swings and hit balls doing the toe-up to toe-up swing starting with a wedge and working my way up to the driver. I really need to ingrain the feeling of turning the arms over. The other thing was something else that has been mentioned here by a couple of folks–try hitting deliberate hooks. I won’t get much chance to work on it before my trip so I will probably get a good chance to see what the right rough is like on one of Jack’s courses; however, I’ll be working on it a lot once I get back. BTW, it was quite amazing to watch this young woman swing a golf club. Her shoulder turn was easily 110 degrees. I don’t think I’ve had that kind of flexibility since I was 12 years old. Dave Clary/Corpus Christi,TX http://www.geocities.com/texasp38 RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/claryd.htm
Response:
Dave, re "I really need to ingrain the feeling of turning the arms over." Any chance that your grips are too big and that inhibits your ability to turn the shaft over? Due to arthritis I re-gripped using oversized Winn Grips. I’m starting to wonder if that solution fixes my arthritis at the expense of hitting most irons to the right. I noticed the other day that if I closed my iron face a lot at address…then I was able to hit the ball well and straight when I swung fully. That’s a bad fix (band-aid) for the problem if it IS just the size of the grips! — regards, RichG
Response:
Dave, re "I really need to ingrain the feeling of turning the arms over." Any chance that your grips are too big and that inhibits your ability to turn the shaft over?
No, don’t thinks so Rich. My original set of clubs came with oversized grips, but I’ve gone to a "normal" grip on all the one’s I’ve built or had ordered. I had a particularly lousy driving game today and my partner said my left was on top of my right well past impact. Frustrating day today… that string of high 80’s and low 90s a while back is feeling like a distant memory. Dave Clary/Corpus Christi,TX http://www.geocities.com/texasp38 RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/claryd.htm
Response:
Hmmmm I got the same advice from my club pro, just today. He wanted me to turn my hands over through the swing to straighten it out. I hit a few that were straight but overall it seemed risky – how do you know how much to turn them? Also, it took so much brain to concentrate on it I don’t think it will ever get natural for me. puttster "Dave Clary" My problems were that I just didn’t rotate the left hand back – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – to the position it was address….. I really need to ingrain the feeling of turning the arms over
Response:
Hmmmm I got the same advice from my club pro, just today. He wanted me to turn my hands over through the swing to straighten it out. I hit a few that were straight but overall it seemed risky – how do you know how much to turn them? Also, it took so much brain to concentrate on it I don’t think it will ever get natural for me.
Instead of focusing on turning your hands over on the downswing, you might want to think in terms of rotating your left forearm back towards the target line once your arms and hands get back down to about waist level. It will have the same effect as trying to turn your hands over without that risky focus on the hands. And you don’t have to worry about how much to turn them. It would be pretty hard to overdo it. Let the turning forearm square your wrist. You don’t have to work from the wrists back up. Remember that any thought about the hands after you’ve taken your grip is frought with peril. — Don Porter Web Page: http://www.datacruz.com/~dporter
Response:
For a while I played large grips. I could still snap hook it with the best of them. I just had over active hands. dsc
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Dave, re "I really need to ingrain the feeling of turning the arms over." Any chance that your grips are too big and that inhibits your ability to turn the shaft over? Due to arthritis I re-gripped using oversized Winn Grips. I’m starting to wonder if that solution fixes my arthritis at the expense of hitting most irons to the right. I noticed the other day that if I closed my iron face a lot at address…then I was able to hit the ball well and straight when I swung fully. That’s a bad fix (band-aid) for the problem if it IS just the size of the grips! — regards, RichG
Response:
Hmmmm I got the same advice from my club pro, just today. He wanted me to turn my hands over through the swing to straighten it out. I hit a few that were straight but overall it seemed risky – how do you know how much to turn them? Also, it took so much brain to concentrate on it I don’t think it will ever get natural for me.
I can see that as a drill to give you a feeling… but as a full time swing key… I don’t know about that. dsc
Response:
My swing path was good, ditto for weight shift. My problems were that I just didn’t rotate the left hand back to the position it was address, and that I had a tendency to "stand
Question? Do you conciously rotate the hands away on the takeaway… ala fan the face open? That has been one of my problems… I printed a picture of a fan and put one of those circle slash things on it and taped it to the top of my driver for about a month. 
I think I need to do it again. up" just as I was making impact. My time was up so she suggested I work on a couple of things. One was to take a lot of practice swings and hit balls doing the toe-up to toe-up swing starting with a wedge and working my way up to the driver. I really need to ingrain the feeling of turning the arms over. The other thing was something else that has been mentioned here by a couple of folks–try hitting deliberate hooks.
I would rather shoot for a feeling of doing absoultely nothing extra with the hands and forearms… Quiet hands usually work much better. I won’t get much chance to work on it before my trip so I will probably get a good chance to see what the right rough is like on one of Jack’s courses; however, I’ll be working on it a lot once I get back. BTW, it was quite amazing to watch this young woman swing a golf club. Her shoulder turn was easily 110 degrees. I don’t think I’ve had that kind of flexibility since I was 12 years old.
I think as a genereal rule, women are more flexible than men… at least… that’s how it seems. dsc
Response:
I went for a lesson today with my primary interest being fixing my slice off the tee. You might want to check out the current issue of Golf Digest ("7 tips to cure your slice", or something like that).
Yep, I read it about an hour before my lesson and I told the pro about it. I thought my primary problem was the first one that Haney describes and that appears to be the truth. The last one has been a topic of discussion here at well–the cupped left wrist at the top. All stuff I’m gonna work on when I get back from my trip. Once I start playing in Thailand I’m forgetting all that stuff. If it goes in the rough I’ll just munch on fresh pineapple and let my caddy go find the damn thing! Dave Clary/Corpus Christi,TX http://www.geocities.com/texasp38 RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/claryd.htm
Response:
I went for a lesson today with my primary interest being fixing my slice off the tee.
You might want to check out the current issue of Golf Digest ("7 tips to cure your slice", or something like that). Most of the advice is similar to what’s been given in other responses here, but it’s nice to see some photos. The two things that seemed to help me most are getting more extension at the start of the backswing, and the left hand rotation to square the clubface at impact. – cja
Response:
Ken Venturi had some good advice – pretend that, at impact, you’re smashing your watch [worn on the left wrist] against a wall. Hard to leave a clubface open if you ’smash you watch’. Use your imagination if you wear your watch on your opposite hand or leave it in the bag during the round…
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hmmmm I got the same advice from my club pro, just today. He wanted me to turn my hands over through the swing to straighten it out. I hit a few that were straight but overall it seemed risky – how do you know how much to turn them? Also, it took so much brain to concentrate on it I don’t think it will ever get natural for me. Instead of focusing on turning your hands over on the downswing, you might want to think in terms of rotating your left forearm back towards the target line once your arms and hands get back down to about waist level. It will have the same effect as trying to turn your hands over without that risky focus on the hands. And you don’t have to worry about how much to turn them. It would be pretty hard to overdo it. Let the turning forearm square your wrist. You don’t have to work from the wrists back up. Remember that any thought about the hands after you’ve taken your grip is frought with peril.