Instruction
Understanding Curvature Control: The Simplified Version
As with most golfers, controlling the curvature of the golf ball in flight tends to be the most common issue plaguing players’ consistency on a daily basis.
While there are a ton of fundamental reasons why golfers hit shots that curve off line, the simplest reason is this:
Whenever the ball curves too much, a golfer’s face-to-path ratio was too diverse.
Face-to-path ratio determines a golf ball’s spin axis, or the amount the ball will curve in the air in general. Now, I know an off-center hit coupled with the club’s gear effect can also influence the ball’s curvature, but for the sake of this article we’ll assume a center hit to make things easier to understand.
So let’s examine the sample shot I hit above showing a big right-to-left curve:
- My target-line is the thin white line directly over the top of the golf balls I have placed at the end of the range.
- My path is 16 degrees from the inside to the outside as shown by the blue line.
- My face at impact is 3.6 degrees open — with a centered hit, whenever the face is left of the club’s path the ball will curve from right to left.
- Thus the ratio between my face (3.6 degrees open) and my path (16 in-to-out) at impact shows a difference of -12.4 degrees.
- This ball had a spin axis of -13.6 degrees, meaning it was curving left. This is shown by the purple curving line tracing the ball in flight.
KEY: Whenever a golfer has a big difference between where their club face is pointing and where their path is going, they will tend to have a big curve (as shown in the sample shot above). In order to hit the ball with less curve, golfers need a face-to-path ratio that is very low, meaning their path and their club face are mostly going in the same direction give or take a degree or two (as shown below).
In order to hit the ball with very little curvature, golfers need a path and face angle that are more in-line!
One final thought: You can alter the alignment of your body at address to make up for a face and path relationship that are in-line but a touch too much to the right or too much to the left of your target. Please do not alter your aim while you do the drill I’m describing below.
So how do we train educate our hands and body to produce straighter golf shots with less curve? What drill can you do on the range to best learn how to control this ratio?
You want to line up square to your target-line and then make full-swings in slow motion trying to hit the ball as straight as possible. Some amount of curvature is inevitable for the majority of players, but the goal is to have the least amount of curve possible while you’re hitting theses shots.
As you make these swings, please remember to hit the same shot over and over — this means hit the ball the same distance and with the same curvature tendency each time. The better you can get at this drill, the easier it will be for you to understand and FEEL how to hit the ball straighter when you go back to hitting full speed shots!
Enjoy the process and have some fun. At worst you are designing a “B” game for yourself if your “A” game is in the tank that day!
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
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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Jakub Budaj
Dec 21, 2013 at 7:58 pm
Yes, Ronald. It must.
Ronald Gailun
Jul 25, 2013 at 11:43 am
Therefore, to hit a slight draw, the club face must be slightly open to the club path?