Common Golf Swing Problems

Without a doubt, the most common golf swing problem is the tendency to "slice" the ball. If you are a right handed golfer and your shots are constantly curving to the right, then chances are you have a slice.

Many golfers who slice the ball have tried unsuccessfully for years to cure this swing fault. Even experienced golfers who play 100 rounds or more a year will admit that the slice is always there waiting to rear its ugly head.

Slicing is caused when the golfer puts sidespin on the ball. If the ball is hit so that clockwise rotation is put on the ball it will curve to the right. Counter-clockwise spin will make it spin to the left. Ball spin is a feature of most games played with a ball, but in golf it is more critical than in most other games because you are essentially aiming the ball at a target. And it is obviously a lot more difficult to hit a target when the ball is curving.

Spin is imparted to the ball by the way the clubhead is moving when it strikes the ball. If you slash across the ball with a right-to-left motion you will put clockwise spin on it and the ball will curve to the right. A clubhead striking the ball with left-to-right motion will make it spin counter-clockwise and make it curve left.

For right-handed golfers a moderate amount of clockwise sidespin results in what is called a "fade". Throughout the history of golf, many golfers at both the professional and amateur levels have intentionally played a fade. Jack Nicklaus, for instance, made the "power fade" his shot of choice, at least throughout most of his professional career. And because he recognized that most amateur golfers have a tendency to slice the ball, most Jack Nicklaus designed golf courses favor left to right movement on the ball.

Golfers like Nicklaus did not just play a fade because it was their "natural" shot shape. For many expert golfers a fade was considered a safer shot than any of the alternatives because it was considered easier to control. Ben Hogan, for instance, fought his entire career against hooking the ball. A hook - or more accurately, a "duck hook" - veers off to the left (for a righty) and dives sharply to the ground.

As a result, Hogan would try to always play down the right side of the course, essentially blotting out the left side from his field of vision. And in his famous book of golf lessons called "The Fundamentals of Golf" Hogan advocated a swing motion that produced a slight fade. Lee Trevino, another successful golfer of the 60s and 70s, famously said "You can talk to a fade, but a hook just won't listen."

One of the characteristics of a fade is that the ball flies high and lands soft. So if you are coming into a hard green with a long club, like a 5 wood, hybrid, or 4 iron you have a much better chance of staying on the green than you do with any other shot. The alternative is to play a "draw" where you try to make the ball fly slightly right to left (for a righty). You try to "draw the ball in" towards your target. However, if you are hitting into a hard green with a draw, chances are it will roll through because when it strikes the ground the spin will be exaggerated and the ball will "run".

Most amateur golfers don't have to worry about these subtleties because all they are trying to do is hit the ball straight. Rather than learning how to play a draw here or a fade there, their mission is just to keep the ball in play. Often that means working with the talent you've been given. And in many cases that means simply trying to keep their slice in the park.

Generally speaking, the longer the club, and the less loft on the clubface, the greater will be a beginning golfer's tendency to slice the ball. That's why so many amateur golfers find the driver so difficult to hit. They have a very tough time getting that long club around so the clubhead is passing straight through the ball. Instead they throw their shoulders and arms out as they swing and the clubhead gets "outside the line". The only thing they can do to actually hit the ball is to "come across" the ball at an angle. And that gives the ball the dreaded slice spin.

There are two major problems with a slice. First, it curves like crazy, so the only way a slicer can get the ball into the center of the fairway is by "starting it out over the cornfield" as we say in our neck of the woods. That means they aim quite a bit to the left and hope the ball will slice back into the middle. This is like trying to get rid of your smoking habit by smoking two packs a day instead of one.

The second problem with a slice is that it loses distance. Because the ball has so much sidespin any amount of wind at all will make it rise quickly, curve to the right abruptly, and then continue to roll to the right when it hits the ground. As a result, most golfers who tend to slice the ball try to compensate for this lack of distance by swinging harder. That just makes the problem worse because usually "swinging harder" means throwing their shoulders and arms out even more as they swing in a herculean effort to smash the ball as hard as they can.

The majority of golfers have a very difficult time visualizing all of this. They think they know what they are doing. They think their swing is a beautiful thing to behold. But in fact it may be ugly as heck and what they think they are doing is not really what is happening at all.

Most golfers go to the driving range occasionally and try to work on their swing. Or at least they think they are "working on their swing". In fact what they may be doing is grooving the very errors they are trying to get rid of. As most serious golfers will tell you, going to a range or an indoor virtual golf location and just pounding out balls is not a very smart way to practice.

That is why a golf simulator can be such a valuable tool in the struggle to overcome a slice. You may have noticed commercial locations that offer virtual rounds of golf, or facilities in some of the larger golf equipment chains that have an area that allows the buyer to try out golf clubs before making an expensive purchase.

These simulators are equipped with sensors, cameras, and a big-screen display, and they translate the details of your golf swing into ball motion on the display. Not only do you see a surprisingly accurate representation of your swing and the actual flight path of your ball, but you also see your club face angle at impact, the path your clubhead is taking when it hits the ball, and exactly where and when the ball begins to turn, given all the variables that went into a particular swing.

If you are serious about analyzing and curing your slice, there is little doubt that taking a analytical, objective look at your actual swing is the place to start. Sometimes consulting with a golf instructor is the best way to do this. But if you have a fairly good idea of what you are looking for then there is no more effective way to get that kind of swing analysis than with a golf simulator.

There are now even high quality units that you can set up right in your home. A good home system will let you work on your game for hours and hours till you groove the correct swing path. It will give you all the analytical tools you need to improve your swing. The better units will tell you your clubhead speed, your clubface angle at impact, your clubhead's angle of approach to the ball, and how far the ball would have gone out on a real golf course.

Before you know it you'll be hitting it long and straight down the middle.

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