Golf Information

Problems that Cause the Slice

The Push-Off: The first problem you might have is that of too much hitting and not enough swinging. This is someone who learns to play later in life. Usually this person has played other sports and believes that golf is a power sport. The long drive is often the major strength of his game. Hitters are focused on the ball.

Hitters push off with the back foot, timing the strike of the ball to coincide with the transfer of the weight to the front foot. There is no weight transfer to the front foot prior to the swing (breaking Laura's Law). This moves the center point of the first pendulum from the front shoulder back across the chest. The swing arc moves outside.

Hitters can also be very handsy (meaning they manipulate the club with their hands instead of just holding it), and lack proper rotation of the hips, torso, and shoulders. This causes swinging from the top with the hands and sends the club on an outside path from the beginning with early uncocking of the wrists. If you fall into this category you have two problems to work on. You will need to quiet your hands and get rid of your push-off.

Low handicappers can also be guilty of the push-off. It is one of the problems that develops when we want to get more power. The tendency to push off is natural. Just understand that staying on the back foot while pushing off is keeping your weight from being on the front foot where you belong. Pushing off is a technique that is employed by most amateurs to obtain additional distance. You must realize that the push-off is a lateral move covering at the most only six inches. This cannot add much speed to the swing of your golf club. By pushing off you are delaying the transfer of weight to the front side, which is a rotary move, moving in the same direction as your shoulders and the head of your golf club. The push-off is timed to transfer the weight from the right foot to the left foot just as the ball is hit. This move keeps the weight from moving to the front foot, causing the swing to come from out-to-in. Your goal should be moving rotationally and ROTATING around your front hip. In order to do so the weight must be on the front foot. Once you start making the change you will find yourself hitting from the inside with the shorter clubs within the first month, but adjusting your swing and the weight shift to the longer clubs will take as much as six months or more. Concentrate on Platform Sections Two, Three, and Four.

You are probably tired of looking for those long balls in the rough anyway.

Lazy Weight Shift: In a lazy weight shift the golfer transfers his weight to his front foot but neglects to do it before he swings. His weight moves to the front foot as he swings. This player has problems with long irons, his driver and fairway woods.

For you to improve you must make your weight shift before your downswing starts. As your club reaches the top of the backswing, release the down pressure on the right foot and rotate the hips. The front hip is the pivot point for the golf swing and the front shoulder becomes the center point of the first swing pendulum. If the front shoulder is not the center point of the swing radius when the swing starts, the swing arc will move out-to-in 0.9 degrees for every inch that the center point moves back across the golfer's chest (Laura's Law).

Alignment: In Section Six of The Platform we discussed how to line up to the ball-target line. Improper alignment can produce an out-to-in swing problem. Aiming your body either left or right of the ball-target line while you focus on the ball will produce an out-to-in swing path. This is caused by your hands and arms trying to correct for your improper alignment. Stance and alignment are closely related, and mistakes in either one make a repeatable in-to-out-to-in swing impossible. Reread both sections, Stance and Alignment, and make sure you understand the fundamentals of both. If alignment is your only problem you should be swinging in-to-out-to-in in a very short time.