'Slicing' is the most common errant shot that most of us at some point in our golf development need to fix. As a golf coach, this is the primary problem that I will fix on a daily basis. Now why do so many people slice? The main culprit for this is because we overuse our upper half. More specifically we tend to pull at the club with our hands instead of using our body on the downswing.
This issue is fundamentally due to the fact that we obviously grip the club with our hands therefore our instincts kick in and make us feel as through we need to dominate the swing with our top half. You can easily see this when looking on camera as during the commencement of the downswing, the club starts to move away from the body thus putting the swing on an out-in path. As you might know when on this particular path through the ball, the most common shot will be the 'slice. It becomes even worse with the driver as the club is lighter and longer.
The best way to think about the golf swing is comparing it to the action of skimming a rock across a river. The first thing you would do would be to turn your body and move your weight a little back with some wrist hinge. On the follow through, you would naturally take a step forward with your left foot first followed by extending your arm and maintaining wrist angle right up until the rock is thrown.
If you think of it this way, the golf swing needs to follow the same sequence. More specifically on the downswing, you must ensure the lower half (legs) moves first before the upper half. This would mean that at the top of the swing, just ensure you bump your left hip laterally to the left first followed by moving the body forward whilst turning. Once you can train the lower half to start first on the downswing, the hands will tends to stay less active and thus change the path to one that goes more from in-out. This new path will create 'draws' and straighter shots.
If you'd like any further help in fixing your 'slice', just book in a lesson with myself at David Waters Golf located on the Gold Coast at Emerald Lakes Coaching Centre.
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