cure your slice - Gareth Johnston - Home.

Which slicer are you?A slice occurs when the clubfaceis open to the path of the club –the direction the clubhead istravelling as it strikes the ball.Ball flights will vary but theywill always move excessively fromleft-to-right and finish right oftarget (for a right-hander). It’sextremely important tounderstand that there are manycomponents in the set-up and/orthe swing that can cause a slice.You may have just one or acombination of two, three or evenmore! The causes in the flowchartbelow that are attributed to yourparticular ball flight only TENDto create this shape. There areother fundamental faultsassociated with the addressposition: grip, clubface alignment,head position (all covered in thisfeature) that can cause the slice,either on their own or incombination with others.Remember also to check youralignment as a possible slicecause. Golfers often aim left andswing the club across the linewithout realising it to bring theball back to the target, whichdoesn’t get to the true cause ofthis weak flight. Going throughthe process below will help youget to the root of your slice – thefirst step to fixing it.Cause 1The gripA slice can often be traced back to a poor holdThe frustrating thing aboutthe slice, or many other faultsfor that matter, is that youcould get almost everythingright – swing plane, clubpath, shoulder turn – but ifthe grip is wrong, the releaseof the club is hindered andyou’re hitting wayward shotswith what feels like theperfect golf swing.Positioning both hands onthe club correctly reduces themargin for error when westrike the ball. Don’t let yourgrip let you down again.ball flight checkfaultstraight then cutsA ball flight that starts straightbut then curves to the rightcan more commonly be putdown to an open clubface andlimited forearm rotation. Theshoulders and path of the clubare generally not at fault.left-to-right curveA ball flight that starts leftof target and then curvesexcessively right of target canmore commonly be put downto the shoulders being open,creating an out-to-in path, orpoor hip turn through impact.clubface faultforearm faultshoulder faulthip fault◗ long left thumbThis hinders the ability of the wrists tohinge in the backswing and throughswinglimiting the rotation of the forearms.fault two◗ right arm underneathThe face is open due to the right wristsitting more underneath the handlerather than rotating the face. Turn topage 34 to deal with this problem.◗ holding the face openThe face stays open through impactwhen the forearms don’t rotate. For thecorrect positioning and rotation of thearms, turn to page 39.◗ shoulder forwardWhen the right shoulder moves out inthe downswing, the clubhead usuallygoes with it. Delaying the right shoulderstarting down fixes this. See page 30.◗ poor hip turnLimited hip turn through impact limitsyour ability to square the face, oftenleaving the face open resulting in aslice. To cure this fault, turn to page 36.◗ strong right, weak leftA common grip among slicers, clubfacerotation is limited with this combination ofa strong right hand and weak left hand.try thisdrilltry thisdrilltry thisdrilltry thisdrillfix◗ The right hand tennis drill promotesface rotation. Read more on page 35.◗ The left-over-right drill (p39) limits hipaction but encourages wrist action.◗ The one-hand resistance drill is aneffective slice fix. Read more on page 32.◗ This drill with two stickers on your leftleg (page 36) will improve hip action.◗ align the creasesA neutral grip gets the creases formed bythe thumb and forefinger on both handspointing to the right shoulder.weak left handThis promotes the clubface toremain open by inhibiting theability of the wrists to rotatethrough impact and release theclub correctly. The left thumbshould run vertically just rightof the centre of the handle.28 issue 280 ❘ Todaysgolfer.co.uk Todaysgolfer.co.uk ❘ issue 277 33