Golf Driver Swing: How to Stop Slicing

To have the ability to drive the golf ball straight using your driver from the tee box is really important, simply because it will set the tone for the whole hole you're on. A perfect golf driver swing may improve your probability to score a "Birdie" or perhaps may also find yourself in a large mess if you slice the ball into the rough or perhaps out of bounds. Slicing the ball is primarily a problem with all levels of golfers, ranging from an amateur to a pro. Slicing depends upon the particular kinematics of the shot. The rotational movement of the ball imparts a force making the ball to curve to left or right in midair creating slicing.

Though it is among the major issues that lots of golfers have, it can be resolved through continual practice in addition to perfected techniques. Below are a few tips which can be employed to avoid slicing while you take the all-important golf driver swing.

1. Griping The Golf club

Grip the golf club by positioning the left thumb in line with the shaft of the golf club, and curl the other fingers around the shaft making sure that they are aiming toward your right eye. Grip the club firmly and when you have the club in position, the first three knuckles of your left hand ought to be visible. Your forefinger and thumb should really create a 'V' formation that's acute enough so the forefinger points to the right shoulder. This type of golf grip is known as a strong golf grip, and it's extremely important to have a strong grip instead of a weak or a neutral golf grip to prevent slicing the ball.

2. The Angle Of The Backswing And Downswing

6 Simple Tips To Cure The “Over The Top Golf Swing”

Do you swing “over the top? If you don’t know what it is, it is a move that is common among the majority of amateur golfers, and the result is usually a slice or a dead pull depending on your clubface position at impact.

The Over The Top Golf Swing The over the top golf swing is a premature movement of the upper body before the lower body in the downswing. The upper body actually gets ahead of the lower body causing an “outside to in” golf swing. This path is the least desirable in golf.

Take a look at the picture and you get a real clear idea of what’s happening in a correct golf swing and an incorrect one. Look at the top (incorrect) one. The golfers has pulled his club what too far inside on the take-away, and how to compensate by coming over the top in the downswing

There are many causes of this swing fault, some of which are physical and can be easily corrected, and some that are mechanical and with the right swing thoughts can be fixed.

1) Drop your arms. I used to swing over the top years ago, and I tried everything to correct it, including lessons with no success. Then I was watching one of my taped videos of Nick Price and saw how his arms seemed to drop in place in the downswing.

I ran to the range and tried it. My first move from the top of my swing was a dropping of my arms, the rotating. It worked! I couldn’t believe it! I just cured that dreaded swing fault with one swing thought. Give it a try!

2) Rotate down. Here’s another swing thought I’ve used if this swing fault creeps into my swing during a round. I think of rotating down to the ball. Not out! Down. I maintain my spine angle, so I’m not literally dropping down, but I focus on rotating through that golf ball.

3) Improve rotational flexibility.

10 Power Tips for Women

Looking to gain a few yards off the tee? Consider these helpful tips.

Swing around your body

 

When you're taking your practice swings on the tee, swing the clubhead several inches off the ground. This encourages you to swing more around your body (rather than up and down), which will help increase your clubhead speed and add distance. And when you're at the range, spend more time with your driver and woods than the rest of the long clubs in your bag. You'll be hitting these clubs more frequently than your 5- or 6-iron, so give them a good workout.

Give yourself room to rip it

Set up with a wide stance, ball forward, weight on your right side and a tilt in your shoulders (your head should be to the right of your pants zipper). Then hold the driver far enough away from your body to allow for a big, powerful swing. My rule is that the butt end of the club should be at an open-hand's distance from your body.

Resist with the hips

A major source of power is the winding of the upper body against the resistance of the lower body. The more you turn your shoulders relative to your hips, the more momentum you create for the downswing. The hips unwind naturally and the shoulders follow, generating power through the hitting area, like a slingshot. To help feel the separation between your upper and lower body, turn your right toe in at address about 20 degrees, and swing. This will prevent your right hip from turning too much on the backswing.

Swing through, not to, the ball

Most slow-swinging amateurs slap at the ball or try to scoop it up into the air, which causes the clubhead to slow down through impact. There's no gradual buildup of speed, which is a defining trait of good tempo. To learn how to accelerate the club through impact to a full, balanced finish, practice swinging with your headcover on your driver. The additional resistance on the clubhead will force you to drive it through impact into a full finish, and will teach you how to use tempo to generate more speed and power.

Shift your weight

From Arggh! To Ahhh! – 5 Steps To Successful Meditation

Does meditation feel like a kind of torture to you? Is the act of sitting still to ‘silence’ your thoughts worse than getting a root canal? If you’re answer is ‘yes!’ then I want to assure you right now: you’re not the only one. Lots of folks give up meditation before they’ve even really begun for one of 2 reasons: 1). They’re aiming for the wrong goal; and 2). they’re expectations of ultra-bliss are, let’s say, a tad too high. If you want successful meditation – a practice that stills the mind (not to a dead & continual silence, but to a calm and steadfast place) and soothes the soul, then have a look at these 5 steps.

The 5 Steps to Successful Meditation

Step One – Commitment & Frustration

Commitment and frustration are the 2 words to keep in mind when you first begin your meditation practice. Why? Because you’re more than likely going to experience a whole lotta mental distraction, which feels totally frustrating. This is where plenty of peeps give up even trying to meditate. The antidote is to make the commitment to sitting there anyway. Also, give up on the idea that you’re going to clear your mind of thought, because it ain’t gonna happen – not yet, anyway. But, when you make a commitment to sitting anyway, you open a door to, as Eckhart Tolle describes, ‘spaciousness’ of the mind.

Step Two – Become the Watcher

After you’ve spent a few days or weeks dealing with the ‘monkey mind,’ you start to simply watch that neurotic, internal chimp. This watching is a very different thing than the getting ‘hooked’ which happens during step one. When you begin to actually watch your thoughts, you become more ‘neutral’ about them – and about your life! You start to experience a greater sense of equanimity and peace within. Will you still get ‘hooked’ from time to time? Sure – and sometimes more than others. But the more you sit, the less frequent or intense these bouts become.

Step Three – Spaciousness Begins

Zazen Instructions

Zazen is the form of meditation at the very heart of Zen practice. In fact, Zen is known as the “meditation school” of Buddhism. Basically, zazen is the study of the self. The great Master Dogen said, “To study the Buddha Way is to study the self, to study the self is to forget the self, and to forget the self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things.” To be enlightened by the ten thousand things is to recognize the unity of the self and the ten thousand things. Upon his own enlightenment, Buddha was in seated meditation; Zen practice returns to the same seated meditation again and again. For 2,500 years that meditation has continued, from generation to generation; it’s the most important thing that has been passed on. It spread from India to China, to Japan, to other parts of Asia, and then finally to the West. It’s a very simple practice. It’s very easy to describe and very easy to follow. But like all other practices, we have to engage it on a consistent basis if we want to discover its power and depth.

We tend to see body, breath, and mind separately, but in zazen they come together as one reality. The first thing to pay attention to is the position of the body in zazen. The body has a way of communicating outwardly to the world and inwardly to oneself. How you position your body has a lot to do with what happens with your mind and your breath. The most effective positioning of the body for the practice of zazen is the stable, symmetrical position of the seated Buddha. Sitting on the floor is recommended because it is grounded. We use a zafu – a small pillow – to raise the behind just a little, so that the knees can touch the ground. With your bottom on the pillow and two knees touching the ground, you form a tripod base that is natural, grounded and stable.

Burmese Position