Slicing is probably the biggest swing flaw in golf. I run into players on the course that slice all the time. Many players taking golf lessons from me slice. And newsletter readers are always asking me to provide golf tips on correcting a slice. Needless to say, slicing does little to help your golf handicap. But if you’re a slicer and you’re determined to eliminate it from your game, you first need to know why you slice.

The root cause of a slice, as I’ve often written in my golf tips, is an open clubface at impact. The solution is simple-at least on paper. Change the open clubface to a square or slightly closed clubface at impact and you’ll rid yourself of the problem. However, depending on factors like, your build and your suppleness, the reasons why your clubface is open at impact may be quite different from those of another player.

One professional instructor broke down slicers into four types- the “pull-down twister,” the “one-way turner,” the “one-piece up-lifter,” and the “up-and-down bobber.” While some instructors might disagree with the breakdown, it’s useful when it comes to talking about slicing. Once you know the type of slicer you are, you’ll find it easier to correct the problem. It’ll be like taking a free golf lessons from a professional teacher.

The “Pull-Down Slicer”
The Pull-Down Slicer features a dominant left side. Usually, she’s easy to recognize on the course. She positions the ball too far forward at address, sets her left hand even or slightly ahead of the ball, and positions her right hand on top of the left. Her left arm is overly tight and rigid. At the start of the swing, she pushes the club straight back along the line of play and uses an arms only swing. The result: an outside-to-inside swing path, with the clubhead trailing behind the hands.

If you’re a pull down slicer, the easiest way to overcome this flaw is hitting balls with the right arm only-a drill I’ve discussed in my golf tips. Position the ball inside your right heel, which sets your right hand and your right shoulder lower at address, and encourages you to swing from inside along the target line. You’ll have to really cock your wrist to do this, but the added wrist cock helps you square the clubface.

The “One-Way Turner”
The One-Way Turner has difficulty pivoting fully during his swing. It may be because of his build. He’s usually overweight, has a big chest and/or short arms, or is just not supple enough. Whatever the reason, he’s just not able to make a full shoulder turn or an uninhibited swing. Men seem to fall into this category more than woman.

One of two errors usually occurs with this type of slicer. He tries to square his clubface on the downswing by turning his body too much, which leaves his clubhead far behind the ball and the clubface open at impact. Or, he makes a feeble attempt to route the club onto the correct path with his arms, resulting in an outside-to-inside swing. Either way, he slices.

Some players just can’t make a full turn. If a big turn isn’t possible, learn to play a controlled fade. I don’t usually recommend this in golf instruction sessions but sometimes there’s no recourse. A couple of adjustments at address help. First, open your stance and aim left. Second, strengthen your grip by turning both hands to the right, promoting more solid contact.

The “One-Piece Up-Lifter”
Frail women often fall into the category, but you’ll find men in it, too. The problem: setting up to the ball too upright, which generates an upright swing, since the club feels lighter that way. The swing also has too little body rotation. And the arms become disconnected from the body causing the club to travel along an outside-to-inside swing path.

If this is your problem, bend more at the hips. Now take some practice swings, making a conscious effort to “flatten out” your swing. Try swinging the club around your body more and cocking your hands earlier than you usual. By swinging around your body and cocking your hands, you’ll correct the outside-to-inside swing path. You’ll also generate more clubhead speed, resulting in more power.

The “Up-and-Down Bobber”
Tall people usually fall into this category, but you’ll find short people there, too. Regardless of your stature, it results in poor posture at address. So you end up being either too upright in your stance or too bent over. By being too upright or too bent in your stance, you instinctively make mid-swing adjustments that lead to a slice.

To eliminate this type of slice, correct your posture. To escape a too upright posture, bend more at the hips. At first, you’ll feel you’re too close to the ball, but in time you’ll get used to it. To escape a too bent over posture, set your spine more upright at address by bending at the knees more and widening your stance slightly. At first, you’ll feel too far from the ball, but like the too upright golfer, you’ll get used to it.

If you’re a slicer, you probably fit into one of these four categories. The key is figuring out which one. Once you know that, you can make the proper adjustments and rid yourself of your slice once and for all and probably improve your golf handicap.

This Article is provided courtesy of Jack Moorehouse who is the author of the best-selling book How to Break 80

Some people say that fixing a hook is easier than correcting a slice. Perhaps it is, but personally, I think they are equally hard to fix. To me it seems that the person with the hook struggles just as much to correct it as the person with a slice works to fix the slice. To correct a hook, you need to make some adjustments to your swing and you need to practice those adjustments until they’re ingrained.

Let’s take a look at the various ways to fix a hook:

Use a slicer’s grip
If you hook the ball, it may be due to excessive hand and wrist rotation through the downswing. So instead of hitting the ball with a squared clubface, you hit it with a closed one. If that’s why you hook curing the problem is to adopt a slicer’s grip. At address, instead of having the two folds in your hands between both thumbs and index fingers pointing to the right shoulder (right-handers), point both folds more toward your sternum. The change not only prevents a closed clubface at impact, but also encourages you to get more of your body into your swing.

Turn and burn
Another reason why you may hook is that your body fails to turn during your swing. When the body fails to turn, the clubface closes too fast, causing the ball to hook. If that’s the case, the way to cure the problem is simply to speed up your turn to the target. Increasing your body’s rate of rotation delays the closing of the clubface, eliminating the hook.

Equipment changes
A third way to fix a hook is to make some equipment changes. For one thing you could fatten your grips. That makes it more difficult for you to over-rotate and hook the ball. Another thing you might try is shortening the shafts on your club. The shorter shafts make you stand a little more upright. You may lose some distance doing this, but it’s better being on the fairway short than out of bounds long.

Any of these three approaches will correct your hook. The trick is discovering which one works for you. That’s the one you want to practice until it becomes second nature.

This Article is provided courtesy of Jack Moorehouse who is the author of the best-selling book How to Break 80

Every so often you’ll see a player who normally doesn’t pull the ball suddenly hit a pull hook. Various swing flaws cause this problem, and one of the most common is front foot spin. You correct this swing flaw by working on your footwork and your body rotation.

Correcting this problem isn’t hard. To ensure that your front foot remains planted, move your weight onto your left toe on the downswing, and then begin rotating your body. This move slows your body rotation, so you don’t turn too quickly. Below is a drill that helps correct front foot spin.

Front Foot Spin Drill

To stop front foot spin, you must improve your body rotation and your footwork. First, stick a shaft in the ground just to the left of your forward hip. Now take the club back to the top of your swing, and then bump the shaft with your left hip at the start of the downswing. As you bump the shaft, you should feel your weight transfer to your front foot though the hitting area.

Focusing on your footwork also helps. When you swing, your weight moves from the toes at address, to the right heel at the top of the swing, into the left toe on the downswing, then finally to your left heel. Next time you’re at the range or the club, take some practice swings focusing on your footwork. Soon, using the right footwork will become second nature and you won’t have to focus on it any more.

If you’ve ever wondered why someone who normally doesn’t pull the ball suddenly does, front foot spin could be the reason. By moving your weight onto your front toes, you’ll eliminate this problem.

This Article is provided courtesy of Jack Moorehouse who is the author of the best-selling book How to Break 80

Fact: Over 90% of golfers will never be able to compete with you if you can do 3 relatively simple things (disregard putting for now).

1. Stay out of trouble with your driver (notice, I didn’t say smash the ball 300 yards down the center of the fairway).

2. Hit 70% of the greens you face from 150 yards in (in other words, learn to control your 8 iron and down).

3. Chip the ball within 20 ft of the pin, almost every time (regardless of what you may think, this is not that tough).

That’s it. It’s my honest belief that the above 3 items are the best places to start, if you want to truly score better.These tips are meant to be a guide to help you lower your scores on the course through means that most people don’t practice. The goal here is for you to round out your game, and for you to take advantage of my fact above.

How will these tips lower my score?

Pretty simple really. The tips are designed to be incorporated it into your game, and move on to the next. That’s the way you get better at anything, right? Implement 1 step or change at a time. Reading an entire book on golf won’t do anything for your game if you don’t implement any of it. That’s why I designed “The Simple Golf Swing” the way I did, because it’s easy to implement. So the key will really be implementing just one step in your game per week.

So what is it that’s really causing problems with your driver? Is it a slice, a hook, or just flat-out inconsistency? Well the good news is that, regardless of what problem you are fighting, there are a few things to incorporate into your game that are sure to help you. If you’re the golfer that’s saying right now, “I’ve battled a slice for 25 years”, then this is not going to be the undisputed end of your problem. But you CAN reduce the slice or hook, which will help you score better.

1. Swing Easy. 
Nothing can be better for your game than learning how to swing the club easier and make your swing more fluid. If you go to the range and concentrate ONLY on swinging easy, it will revolutionize your ability to position yourself for a good approach shot when you get onto the course. You will make more consistent impact with the ball, and it will reduce the amount of side-spin you naturally place on the ball because the club head won’t be traveling as fast or with as much force. Again, I know you’ve heard it before, but I ask you to concentrate on this for 1 week. And if you can’t physically practice it, visualize it at the office (visualization works great).

2. Switch to a low spin ball.
Lower spin off of the tee means that the ball is going to fly straighter regardless of how whether your ball moves right or left. I recommend the Titleist DT SoLo, the Precept Laddie, or the Maxfli Noodle. You can find these balls priced anywhere from $13 to $20 per dozen, and they will play a large role in reducing the side spin that you place on the ball. I realize that this all sounds over-simplified, but it’s not. If you are having problems controlling your driver, switch to a low-spin ball, and start swinging easy. When you are on the range, ALL you should be thinking about is swinging the club easy. Incorporate this into your game this week.

Tip #2 is entitled, “How to Maximize your Distance by Hitting Triples instead of Home Runs ” and it’s a great overall theory to build your entire swing around. Keep this in the back of your head at all times while you are on the course, and remind yourself of it before every shot. The result will be increased distance and straighter shots because you’ll be releasing your hands through the ball better.

Background Info:

Many recreational golfers struggle with slices, blocks, and inconsistency because they don’t know how to release their hands through the ball correctly. By “releasing your hands through the ball”, I am describing the act of maximizing your club head speed at the moment of impact, and eliminating the “outside-in” movement that creates a slice.

How You Will Benefit:

What To Do:

Step 1: Create the “X”

This means that on the follow through, you need to focus on making your forearms cross. This will ensure that your hands have released through the ball correctly.

Step 2: Finish at Third Base

Focus on pointing the club down the third base line on your follow through. In relation to where my feet are pointed in the picture at left, the club is pointed down the third base line. This is what we want.

Many golfers finish their swing with the club straight up in the air, or even pointed down the first base line in relation to their feet. Try that once, and you will feel the extreme “outside-in” movement that produces a slice. This is nothing more than a habit that can be easily broken.

So when you are on the tee next time, focus on just 2 things. Make the “X” and “finish at third”. That’s it. Swinging easy should already be grooved into your swing from the last tip I sent. Focus on these 2 tips, and you should be on your way to consistently staying out of trouble with your driver, which is the first step to scoring better.

Approach Shots

Basically, your approach shot is your shot onto the green. One of the things I like to say is this, “You know your game is improving when you start fixing more ball marks on the green” - most likely meaning that you hit it on your approach, which is your objective

Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind

• Aim for the middle of the green, not the flag. Pin placements and greens are getting tougher to stick all the time. Don’t be a sucker and go for a pin that you’ll most likely miss, which will leave you in a bunker or some other position which will add strokes to your round
• Focus on alignment, not distance.

As you know, it’s not an easy task to master the approach shot, but there are some ways in which you can drastically improve the accuracy of the shot. Alignment is the key to improving your approach shots. Most golfers don’t practice their alignment too much on the practice range, but they should.

Think about this for a minute. Generally, when you miss the green it is due to alignment, not distance. Chances are, you have your 160 yard club, 150, 140, 130, etc…

And if you hit a less than perfect shot, the ball may go a little further or a little shorter. But even if that happens, most greens are deep enough that you should be on the putting surface if you have selected the club that would leave you in the center of the green.

But…alignment is another story. If you pull the ball, more times than most you really pull the ball, correct?

When your alignment is off, it’s usually off by much more than 5-10 yards!

And if you push the ball, you generally are pushing it for much of the round, correct? Bunkers, water, and uneven lies are the obstacles you face.

How are you supposed to compete? The answer is simple. Practice your alignment.

Take your home course for example. I would be willing to bet there’s somewhere in the ball park of a 160-yard par 3 on the course. Now picture that hole. What happens if you’re 5-10 yards deep or shallow? You’re probably still okay, right?

But what happens if you go right or left? That shot, more than likely, has trouble written all over it.

David Nevogt writes golf instruction material that helps golfers of all levels reach their full potential and lower their scores. David is the author of “The Simple Golf Swing” which guarantees to have you shooting 7 strokes lower in only 1 week from today. You can find more of his golf instruction by going to The Simple Golf Swing.

Some people contend that when it comes to driving for power, you either have it or you don’t. While it’s true that some people have more natural ability to hit a golf ball than others, that doesn’t mean you can’t add distance to your drives. You may never drive the ball as far as PGA pro Scott Hend, who once averaged 318.9 yards through the Reno-Tahoe Open, but you can definitely get more out of your drives through an efficient, balanced swing. The key: seal the power leaks.

Power leaks, as I’ve written about in my golf tips, are physical flaws that inhibit the efficiency of your swing. Usually, they’re little things that make a big difference. Often, we don’t even know we’re doing them, so they go undetected. But string enough of them together in a swing and they can rob you of power and distance. And that, in turn, can affect both your game and your golf handicap. Let’s examine some common leaks and see how to can seal them off.

The Setup

Becoming more efficient in your swing doesn’t mean rebuilding it, just tweaking it. And a good place to start is your setup. Among the biggest enemy’s of power in your setup, as I’ve mentioned in my golf tips, is tension. You must be loose and relaxed over the ball to generate power. And relaxing during your setup starts with your hands. If your hands are relaxed, the rest of you will be also. So grab the club loosely in your fingers and relax your hands. Let that relaxed feeling travel through your arms, your shoulders, and then the rest of your body. Now you’re ready to hit.

The takeaway is the most critical element in your swing. If you’ve eliminated the tension from your hands and arms, you’ve positioned yourself nicely for the takeaway. As you do, make sure you maintain a good spine angle. That’s another power leak. If you slouch, you’ll have to compensate during your swing. Keep the spine angle set while swinging. It’s your axis of power around which everything else turns. It helps generate the torque you need for extra distance. Also, try keeping about 60 percent of your weight on your toes.

Another power leak is your right elbow (right-handers). It’s the first joint to hinge in your backswing. Keep it relaxed and relatively close to your body. As you take the club back, your right elbow folds, allowing the club to start on plane. Don’t fight it when the elbow folds and the club works up and to the inside. That’s all part of a good backswing. When you reach the top of your swing, feel the coil in your right knee, uniting it to your right hip. Don’t straighten out your right knee. That creates a huge power leak. And position the ball inside the left toe. That ensures that you’ll strike the ball on the upswing, helping produce the right launch angle.

The Swing

The most common power leak among weekend golfers is the hip slide. Instead of supporting the turning of the body and upper body, the right knee stiffens and the right hip slides laterally away from the target, creating a huge power leak. The club is out of position now. The golfer throws the club out and down from the top, creating a steep angle of descent and a downward blow. The result: a dead pull or a weak slice.

As for the downswing, the less interference from the body the better off you are. If you take the club back properly, the body stores that power, creating torque. And it wants to release that power in the downswing. If you hinder that release of power with your body, you inhibit your power, creating another leak. Instead, maintain your spine angle and stay behind the ball. Focus on keep the club extending down the target line after striking the ball. When you finish, check the balance in your swing. It’s a great indicator of just how efficient your swing was.

One other thing on power leaks. The body itself can be a huge power leak. Flexibility and core strength are the keys. Try keeping the body flexible and strong through workouts. If you have a better range of muscle movements, you’ll be in a better position to swing the club throughout the golf swing. So work on flexibility and core strength when you can. And don’t forget to do some stretching before your start a round.

Not all of us can hit the ball as far as a PGA pro, like Scott Hend. That doesn’t mean we can’t generate more power from our swings. We just need to seal off the power leaks by creating a balanced, more efficient swing. Do that and you’ll be creating the conditions necessary to improve your golf handicap.

This Article is provided courtesy of Jack Moorehouse who is the author of the best-selling book How to Break 80

Achieving consistency and power off the tee may just be the Holy Grail of golf. But combining these two things isn’t always easy. What’s the secret to achieving consistency and power? Below are five suggestions.

1. Eliminate tension on the tee

A common mistake on the tee is tightening up grip pressure when trying to hit for power. Tightening your hands and forearms creates tension in your body. Tension slows clubhead speed, which in turn drains power from your swing. To hit a ball with consistency and power, eliminate as much tension from your hands and body as possible.

2. Assume a proper grip

Check the position of your thumb on the club. Major power losses result from assuming a faulty grip, especially a grip in which the left-hand-thumb (right-handers) is fully extended at the top of the grip. This grip causes a chain reaction of faults in other areas–a too-weak left-handed grip, a faulty wrist hinge, and a shaft that swings beyond parallel at the top of the swing.

3. Maintain swing radius

Radius is the distance from your left shoulder (right-handers) to the end of the clubshaft. In other words, it is the distance from the center of your golf swing to the outer-edge. Your lead arm must be in line with or trailing your other arm at impact, known as “maintaining radius.” Maintaining radius enables you to strike the ball solidly and with power.

4. Generate leverage

Your setup determines how powerfully you swing a club in a controlled manner. First, widen your stance for stability and power. The insteps of your feet should be in line with your shoulders. Second, turn your back foot in slightly to create a coiling post for your backswing and to support your torso rotation and weight transfer. Third, flare the front foot out to facilitate downswing rotation.

5. Release the club properly

Ideally, you want to square the clubface to the ball at impact by rotating your right forearm over the left (right-handers). The result is a flat left wrist and a clubface square to the ball. After impact, your hands and arms should extend fully and your body should rotate to the left as your club remains on the target line. If you wear a glove, your glove hand should be underneath your ungloved hand. This position is the result of proper swing sequence.

These five keys; eliminate tension, assume the proper grip, maintain swing radius, generate leverage, and release the club properly, help achieve consistency and power off the tee. And that in turn produces better scores and a lower golf handicap.

This Article is provided courtesy of Jack Moorehouse who is the author of the best-selling book How to Break 80

The natural golf swing offers an alternative way of hitting a golf ball than most teachers advocate. Introduced more than three decades ago, it was developed and popularized by George Knudson, a former PGA pro turned teacher. While the natural golf swing is different, it has its proponents, many of whom praise it for its simplicity and repeatability. Proponents also praise it because they say it helps you generate a more powerful, accurate swing and reduce your golf handicap.

Golf is a Stationary Ball Game

The first principal of the natural golf swing is that golf is a stationary ball game. You don’t have to react to it, making it appropriate even for the blind. An assistant places the ball in a specific spot on the ground, and the blind golfer takes his swing. If the ball is in the right place, the golfer hits the ball. The more a blind person plays the better he gets and the lower his golf handicap, at least in theory. Being stationary, though, the ball leads many golfers with sight to hit the ball, not swing through it, which is what they should be doing.

The natural golf swing, on the other hand, promotes swinging through the ball. It holds that golf involves a swinging motion directed toward a target, and that that motion is a whole body swing, which emphasizes swinging through the ball. In other words, we don’t swing at the ball to hit it. Instead, we swing a unit, our hands, arms, shoulders, and club, through the ball toward our target. If the ball is in the right place, we’ll hit it because it is in the natural path of the swing. The club simply travels, as it will, carried along by centrifugal force and inertia, the laws of motion that guide all physical activity.

Giving Up Control

The second principal is that you need to give up control to gain control. With the natural swing, you stop thinking of swing mechanics and what the club does. Instead, you focus on swinging free and easy. The club and the laws of physics do most of the work. It goes along the natural path. You just go along for the ride, letting centrifugal force and inertia do they work.

Centrifugal force is the outward force acting on a body that’s rotating in a circle around a central point. Inertia is the property by which matter continues in its existing state, in motion or rest, unless an external force changes that state. When combined, the two effects generate a powerful, yet accurate swing based on the natural laws of physics; hence, the swing’s name. All a golfer does when he or she swings is set it in motion. And because it follows the natural laws of physics, the swing is easy to repeat. In essence, you’re giving up control to gain control.

Balance is the Key

The third key to the natural swing is balance. The most efficient way of achieving the natural swing is to create motion in which balance is a bedrock fundamental. Now many of my golf instruction sessions address the importance of balance to the golf swing. But for the natural swing, it’s everything. As a golfer employing the natural swing, you do nothing in the swing that is at the expense of balance, since disrupting it leads to a loss of control and power. Since the balanced swing is the most satisfying of all, you’ll enjoy repeating it time and time again. The balanced swing is also the most logical and simplest swing to will get the job done.

Balance. Control. Centrifugal force. These are the key concepts underlying the theory of the natural swing. If you follow these basic concepts as you swing the club, you will generate a naturally powerful, accurate swing that’s repeatable and effective, providing you control over the game and generating a lower golf handicap.

This Article is provided courtesy of Jack Moorehouse who is the author of the best-selling book How to Break 80