What Causes a Golf Slice, and How to Fix it in 2 Minutes
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Desperate to know how to fix a golf slice? This is the perfect article for you. If you tend to hook the ball more often to the left, check out this article instead.
The ever annoying golf slice – when a golf ball can start in any direction, but then aggressively curves to the right (if you are a right-hander) – often right into the trees or out of bounds.
Everyday golfers try all sorts of things to try and fix their slice:
- “keep your head down”
- “keep that left arm straight”
- “start down with the hips”
If any of these things help correct your slice – you are one lucky golfer.
There is an overwhelming amount of information out there about slices, but did you know there are ONLY 3 things that can cause a slice? This post will thoroughly explain what they are, that way you have the knowledge as to what to change and fix your slice.
Your Swing Path is Too Far to the Left
The swing path is known as the direction the club is moving through impact (either more to the right or the left). What’s interesting is that a swing path that is more to the left will send the ball more to the right – it’s a game of opposites.
This can be extremely confusing to any golfer because whenever they see the ball veered off to the right and instinctively think that they need to swing more to the left. This only makes the situation worse.
Interesting fact, with a driver for every degree you swing the club to the left, the ball will actually go 4% more to the right.
If you’re not a mathematical person, let me give you a few examples;
- if you drive the ball 250 yards
- have a 5 degree left swing path (and square face)
- the ball will curve 50 yards to the right
For those that prefer a more visual example, here is a 5 degree left swing path – it looks harmless, right?
Your Club Face Is Too Open
This being said, the swing path alone does not determine if a slice happens.
Let us use the golfer that has a 5 degrees left swing path – from the example above we know that this player will drive the ball 50 yards to the right… only IF they present the clubface square at impact.
This image of impact shows a square face and a degree swing path. this is going to results in a rather big slice.
Now if the same exact player was to bring the clubface just 3 or 4 degrees more to the left with the same swing path, this is going to produce a nice face onto the target.
You do have the ability to manage a slice and turn it into a fade, simply by having the faceless open on the path.
The “out of control” slice is created by a combination of a left swing path and a clubface that is too open to the right of the swing path.
The Lesser-Known Issue – Your Strike
Not many golfers know this, and it’s mostly an issue with bigger headed clubs such as drivers but… you could be slicing it because of a strike issue.
This is a much more complicated topic called gear effect – if this is something that you want to explore deeper, Read this Article.
One thing you should always keep in mind is if you strick the ball towards the heel side of the club, the golf ball will have more curvature to the right that if you didn’t.
Gear effect is a complex and mind boggling topic, in my high level program, Next Level Golf I discuss the complexities. It’s safe to say that many day to day golfers are trying to fix their clubface path when in fact, they were slicing their drives because of a strike issue.
The Key Is to Stop Messing Around
For most of you, this is groundbreaking information. if you have been involved with golf for some times I’m sure that you heard of this topic before.
Thank you Captain Obvious! Even though we all knew this before.
The most common issue amateur golfers who know this info but haven’t been able to fix it are often too focused on things in their movement that actually don’t even relate to improving anything that we discussed.
A Quick and Easy Way to Improve Your Slice
Even though this information is obvious to me, many golfers don’t think the way I do. Here’s what you should do to improve your slices:
- Figure out which impact variable combination you would like to improve
- Introduce a drill/technique tat improves those variables – not something completely random in your swing that doesn’t relate at all.
- Utilize quality practice exercises to speed up learning.
The Bottom Line
So, this is what you need to make sure of because they all relate to getting your drives better.
- Change path – if you want to straighten out your slices
- Change face – this is if you want to turn your slice into a more functional fade
- Change strike to limit the gear-effect
In The Accuracy Plan I can show you how to do all of the above. This course looks at:
- The most powerful drill to quickly adjust any bad patterns you are doing
- Unique skill drills that help long-term mastery
- Improved strategies to manage you shots so that you are able to shoot better scores with the least amount of practice – and if you do practice that’s ok!
- How to assess and make a better decision on what to do when, where and why – known as golf IQ
Check Out the Free Video Course
If you want to improve your golf game but you’re not ready to commit to one of my premium programs just yet – why not my FREE VIDEO SERIES.
Inside I will show you:
- The one thing all golfers MUST improve if they want to get better
- Exactly what you personally need to change in your swing
- How to fix shanks and toe shots instantly
- How to change clubface direction incredibly fast
- How to change your swing path with very little technical thought
All for free. Just click the image link below to learn more.
