Who wants to cure their slice?

[bobmac]

If I understand you, it doesnt matter wether the chicken came first or the egg. You would always fix the face first?
I sometimes get a pupil who has a fade to go that way.
Leave the slight out to in swing path, and normally correct the weak grip (or strong), but what worries me if the player has a severe slice.
If you fix the face first and the player has the steep angle of attack, and out to in, the result would be a very demoralised pupil who might not come back for the 2nd lesson.
My theory is when people first pick up a club, they tend to swing out to in (for whatever reason). Then they learn to stop the ball from going left by opening the clubface with their hands at impact. This comes naturally as no-one ever teaches them to do it. 6 months later they have a lesson.
Of course it all depends on who you are teaching and how much or little they are willing to practice. My average aged pupil is over 55!
As I'm sure you know teaching methods vary from pro to pro and are constantly changing to respond to the changing needs of todays golfer.
Some purists will say Hogan was the one to copy, then Nicklaus, then Faldo, now Woods.
Thank goodness we are all different. It would be a boring world if we were all the same.
One forum...2 pros....2 different approaches
Bagzz I be the chicken, prefers a chicken curry to a fried egg

 

[forefortheday]

As a golfer who's just coming out of the "huge slice when I go at it" stage to someone who's starting to feel a more repetitive action emerging.(fingers crossed)

I've found for myself personally that my major change has been getting a lesson every month.

From a handsy steep action to one involving a bigger turn of the body,early set,quiet hands and from there on in clearing the hips just seems to make me hit the ball much straighter.

Before I used to hit from the top of my backswing after little or no rotation just pulling the club inside with my hands.

So in summary apart from my stance and a little bit of my grip the only tweak I needed from my Pro was a complete reconstruction of my swing!

It's still a work in progress but it feels like I'm moving at least..

 

[davidmac00]

Bobmac,

No, I am not saying it does not matter what comes first.

Im saying that because a golf club has a sweetspot the face/ sweetspot alignment must be fixed first as this controls plane.

That was my reason for asking about shanks. If the clubface is open (slicer open) and you teach an "in to out" path the sweetspot will be hidden behind the hosel. This means you feel the hosel instead of the sweetspot, which is then what you will swing at the ball, shank!

Hope that helps,
David McCallum.

 

[bobmac]

I understand fully why you asked about shanks, but I would be very surprised if a slicer would ever get it going in to out. The best I would expect is in to square to in or a reduction of the out to in.
I would get the pupil to hit balls of a ball above the feet lie and just feel the fore-arms rotating to square the clubface, together with the face plane tilt, they should see the ball fly straight if not a slight draw.
OR.......fix the clubface, aim right and hit the pull

 

[Cernunnos]

Bobmac, can I interject here. I was a very bad slicer at one time & over time my pro got me to promote an in to out swing path. Was hitting it great one week, well, for some months, then suddenly...

...Shank...! & its something that lasted quite some time too. One second I was creaming it, the next, it was the beginning of one serious mental block until I came out the other side.

Daft thing is now I've been layed up I've been at risk of cutting across once more. But a shank seems to be always a risk with the way I've been taught I think.

(Touch wood) I think I've come up with a feeling & a solution that hopefully prevents it re-occuring, or if it does, prevent it being a problem.

Oh & it is possible to also shank cutting across too...