Golf Swing Slice
Undoubtedly, slicing that ball is not what you took up Golf for. You watch ESPN and you see Tiger Woods win his ‘nth green jacket’ and you say to yourself that looks easy enough to do. And so you give it a go.
You drive over to the nearest sporting goods store to get your own set of graphite-composite clubs, a nice pair of golf shirts, shorts, shoes and the cap to match. You’ve also paid for a year’s membership at the local country club, so you’re all set.
You’re at the course now, you’ve got both feet planted firmly, check your posture and then you aim and swing – baam! What looked like a perfect straight drive down the course now starts to swerve horrendously to your right.
A fluke maybe? So you try again, then again, and again, and after your umpteenth swing, you begin to ask why the ball is doing what it’s doing and can it be fixed.
Is it a problem with your swinging technique? Are you using the right equipment? All these questions start to emerge and you drastically search for answers.
After all, a ‘curve ball’ is NOT an asset if the sport you’re playing involves the use of a club and not bat.
That curving ball my friend, is called a ‘Slice’ in golfing jargon. This is characterized by the unintended curving or swerving direction that a ball takes while in flight. Thus, causing you to miss the intended target.
Don’t fret this happens to almost anyone who’s swung that club. And it’s more to do with posture, grip and stance more than anything else. The type of equipment you use will have little to do with the slicing effect on your swing.
There are a couple of different types of slicing. Although basically, the effect is the same, you miss the target and end up with a higher score.
So you ask, how many types of slices are there and what are they? Although the figures may vary, there are at least 3 forms of slicing. All the rest are just variations of these 3 and produce more or less the same effect on your swing. These are:
Straight Slice
An initial straight path characterizes this slice once the ball is hit. However, midway in its flight, the ball will swerve either to the right or left depending on the individuals swinging hand. This is the most common type of slice; since most golfers aim to drive the ball straight through the course and take great pains in ensuring the downswing path is straight.
However, even with a perfect aim for the downswing, if the golf club hits the ball with an open clubface, this will cause the slice. So the goal is to not only hit with a perfect downswing but to ensure that the clubface is ’square’ once it hits the ball.
Pull Slice
The downswing path for a push slice starts from the outside going in, and also includes an open clubface. Thus causing the ball to fly towards the left upon impact, and then gradually swerve to the right. This is due to the ’spin’ generated by the open clubface hit on the ball.
Push Slice
This last form of a slice is characterized by an inside to outside swing path plus an open clubface hit. Again this produces a spin on the ball upon impact, but this time the ball flies immediately to the right. But due to the additional spin generated, the ball will swerve drastically to the right even further.
Based on the information we have discussed about the various forms of the slice, the only common denominator between them is that they will always include an open clubface hit.
At its most basic, an open clubface will not induce much of a spin on the ball to cause it to make an extreme turn. However, if combined with an improper downswing, the effect will be destructive enough to cause the ball to entirely miss its target.
So the key here is practice, practice and more practice. Correcting a slice cannot be done overnight and the learning curve is different between each individual. But if you’re willing to put in the work to fix the problem, you will be reaping the reward in the end. A perfect game may not be too far out of the horizon.
You might not get in the PGA tour, but at least you’ll enjoy the game more and that’s a reward in itself.