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How to hit big hooks and slices (on purpose)

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For as long as I can remember, my buddies and I would go to the practice tee, get bored quickly, and end up seeing who could curve the ball the most with whatever club we were hitting. While some people dismiss this as wasting valuable practice time, I say it’s just the opposite. Doing so helps golfers understand how to curve the ball and how to change their mechanics in order to do so.

With Trackman, we now know that the ball begins mostly in the direction of the club face at impact and curves away from the path with a centered hit. This is one of the major keys you must remember if you want to curve it and have it actually end up in play.

In order to illustrate the correct way to curve the ball, I hit my stock shot, a left-to-right fade, on Trackman. You can see the results below.

BubbaWatsonWRX

As we examine the data, you can see that my face angle was -0.8 degrees left of my target at impact and the ball launched -1.5 degrees left as well. I wanted the shot to curve back to the pin, so I made sure my path was more left than my face at impact. As you can see, my path was 2.7 degrees left of my club face, and because of this my ball curved back to the right, which is what I like to see.

Now back to curving the ball as much as you can. Here are the keys:

1. Club head speed: Without speed, it’s tougher to curve the golf ball. That’s the reason your grandmother hasn’t missed a fairway since 1972. This does not mean that you can’t curve it if you don’t have a lot of speed, but if you don’t you must use more club to help make up for this fact.

Why? See the second key below.

2. Use a lower-lofted club: Using a lower-lofted club makes curving the ball easier, because it reduces something called spin loft. To understand this, you must understand what spin loft is and what it does does.

Spin-Loft1

 

Spin loft is the difference between the angle of attack and the dynamic loft of the club at impact. Think of this angle like an ice cream cone with the point as the ball and the actual “cone” part as the vectors of attack angle (bottom of the cone) and dynamic loft (top of the cone). The wider the cone is, the less the ball will curve and vice-versa. So in order to make the ball curve more, you must do one of two things:

  • Reduce spin loft to make the cone smaller.
  • Increase the face-to-path relationship.

3. A bigger face-to-path ratio, coupled with a lower spin loft: This allows for what’s called the “D-plane” to tilt more aggressively, creating more curvature.

Remember that ice cream cone? As spin loft decreases, the cone gets smaller at the target end, which means that a 1-degree difference in face-to-path will curve the ball more than it would if the cone was larger. This happens because whe spin loft decreases, it tilts the axis of the golf ball more aggressively. So more loft reduces the maximum amount of curvature possible with the same face-to-path relationship. That’s the reason why your driver slices more than your wedges, all other things being equal.

4. A proper starting direction: What good is curving the ball if you don’t begin the ball on the right line? Too many players focus only on curvature and forget about starting direction. It leads to many players short siding themselves, making up-and-downs more difficult.

Golfers used to be taught to aim their body in the direction they wanted the ball to start, and then aim their club face where they wanted the ball to finish when they wanted to curve the ball. So what happens if you try to hit Mr. Big Ol’ Curve the old way without monitoring your starting direction?

TomStickneyWRX

In the Trackman screenshot above, I aligned my body to the right of my target and aimed my face at the pin. Here’s what happened:

  • My path was 1.1 degrees from inside to outside, yet my ball started left of the target before curving away from it.
  • You can see that my ball launched -1.8 degrees left of my target because my face was pointing well left of the target during impact (-2.6 degrees).
  • So the -3.7 face-to-path ratio caused the ball to curve, but it didn’t start in the correct direction, so I would have missed the green well left.

StickneyBubba

So how can golfers ensure that when they hit the big curveball their shots begin where they’d like? Simply go to the practice facility and set up a bucket directly in line between the ball and the pin and practice curving the ball around the bucket. Curving shots around any object, imaginary or real, will help you understand the feel you need to create big slices and hooks. If you’re using a real object, just make sure it’s safe (and affordable) to hit it!

To hit the hook shot pictured, golfers will need to aim their body to the right as shown by the sticks on the ground to some degree (keep in mind that golfers need different amounts because of their club head speed and other factors), as this helps to shift the players’ path farther right, while helping to widen the face-to-path relationship. But make sure your face is square to your alignments as shown above.

Why?

Golfers need to begin the ball RIGHT of their target, in this case, before hooking the ball back toward the pin. What I have found is that this position helps people to “feel” like they can release the club through impact to hook the ball without the it moving too far to the left from the start.

The key is to make sure that your club face, at impact, is a few degrees right of the bucket and the path is way out into right field. As the gap widens between your face and path, the ball will curve progressively more.

Enjoy hitting the big curves and don’t be scared to practice like a kid again!

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Tom F. Stickney II, is a specialist in Biomechanics for Golf, Physiology, and 3d Motion Analysis. He has a degree in Exercise and Fitness and has been a Director of Instruction for almost 30 years at resorts and clubs such as- The Four Seasons Punta Mita, BIGHORN Golf Club, The Club at Cordillera, The Promontory Club, and the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. His past and present instructional awards include the following: Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher, Golf Digest Top 50 International Instructor, Golf Tips Top 25 Instructor, Best in State (Florida, Colorado, and California,) Top 20 Teachers Under 40, Best Young Teachers and many more. Tom is a Trackman University Master/Partner, a distinction held by less than 25 people in the world. Tom is TPI Certified- Level 1, Golf Level 2, Level 2- Power, and Level 2- Fitness and believes that you cannot reach your maximum potential as a player with out some focus on your physiology. You can reach him at [email protected] and he welcomes any questions you may have.

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Instruction

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

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Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

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How a towel can fix your golf swing

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This is a classic drill that has been used for decades. However, the world of marketed training aids has grown so much during that time that this simple practice has been virtually forgotten. Because why teach people how to play golf using everyday items when you can create and sell a product that reinforces the same thing? Nevertheless, I am here to give you helpful advice without running to the nearest Edwin Watts or adding something to your Amazon cart.

For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.

Setup

You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.

While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.

Get a Better Shoulder Turn

Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.

In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.

Stay Better Connected in the Backswing

When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.

Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.

Conclusion

I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.

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Instruction

Clement: Why your practice swing never sucks

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You hear that one all the time; I wish I could put my practice swing on the ball! We explain the huge importance of what to focus on to allow the ball to be perfectly in the way of your practice swing. Enjoy!

 

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