I’d like to give some answers here, why is it so hard to change the flight of the ball
In no particular order….
- Your current movements are actually serving you quite well. What do I mean? Well I have met many slicers who consistently hit the centre of the fairway. The ball starts left (for a right hander), then moves right and finds the centre of the fairway most times. Yes, it would help your game to hit it straighter as a less curved ball will most likely fly further. However, lets go through the changes this player will need to go through
Aiming
The slicer aims comfortably to the left to varying degrees, often with shoulders, sometimes feet and club and often all three aiming way to the left of their eventual target. Now a straight shot, or a dreamy draw will start with some or all of those elements aiming right of the target. Can you imagine what this feels like to the common slicer?
Dreadful….
Considering many slicers play to a good level, everything they have done to this point has served them well enough. Not perfect, but well enough. Its a bit like most of our diets, if its well enough to keep us getting up and not feeling to lethargic, its good enough. We don’t all eat like champions every day. If its good enough, its very difficult to make a consistent drastic change that makes performance suffer in the short term.
Club release
Slicers have their clubface pointing more to the right than where they swing, simple as that really. There could be many reasons for a movement through impact such as previous sports, injury, family and playing partners (yes we end up copying who we grow up with, especially juniors) plus lots more. These two factors make it more difficult than we would like to make a change.
However, what CAN WE DO to move from a persistent slicer to a straighter hitter or even a draw player
Experiment and play in a safe environment, away from a scorecard and critical friends
Go to the range and do some extreme moves, try and start the ball right and hook it, try a hookers grip, aim way to the right do all this mad stuff and throw expectations out the window for some of the time.
However, this is just a part of practice. Do not attempt those swings in competition until you can do it in practice. Which leads me to the next step
If you can’t hook a ball and the goal is to just hook one (must start right and then move left) then count how many balls it takes for you to complete the shot. When it becomes easier, how many can you get in a row? Then increase the difficulty further.
So we have Play (experimenting), then measure and then we finish with performance
This is where we try and put that to the back of our minds and score a task trying to do our best. Not trying to hook it on purpose, but as those skills become a part of your arsenal… I’m pretty convinced the slice will soften and you may just hit the odd draw when you least expect it
Let me know how you get on