Slicing the golf ball is a common struggle that many golfers experience at some point in their play. Slicing often stems from an outside-in swing path. This outside-in swing path leaves the club face open causing the golf ball’s trajectory to begin left and spray right. In an outside-in swing path, your body attempts to make compensations such as trying to re-square the club face. The golfer’s outside-in swing path makes it increasingly difficult to square the club face, which results in the golf ball slicing.

There are several physical adjustments that can be made to help fix a slice such as driving your lead leg into the ground to clear your hips, creating more torso side bend, and increasing your trail arm shoulder rotation.

To Fix A Slice, You Need To Drive Your Lead Leg Into The Ground To Clear Your Hips

When you slice the golf ball, you may not be clearing your hips. When you cannot get your hips through, the club follows suit and creates an outside-in club path which produces a slice. 

Pushing off the trail foot and moving the body towards the golf ball is a common tendency for golfers to make. If the hips do not rotate, the only true movement the club can make is coming down on the golf ball. It is difficult for golfers to keep their hips square, not rotate, and still have the correct club path of inside-out. 

To fix this, instead of pushing off your trail leg, you need to exert more force into your lead leg. By placing more force into your lead leg, your ground reaction force will increase which results in more whip within our hips. When this happens, your lead leg interacts with the ground, your hips begin to come through, rotate, and clear. Your arms and hands will begin to drop, and  that is where you will achieve the inside-out club path.

Comparatively, if  you just push off your trail leg, you are just moving your body laterally towards the target. Your arms will stay stationary at the beginning of your golf swing which forces your arms to work around your body and creates an outside-in club path. If you are not driving into the lead leg, and only thinking about pulling the hands down, you are going to get trapped at your hips and lack a creation of rotation that results in necessary whip. 

Create More Torso Side Bend to Fix Your Slice

Many golfers are discussing getting more rotation and turn for their golf swing, but not about creating side bend. In order to rotate, there needs to be relative side bend in the golf swing. Side bend in the golf swing is an adjustment you can make by getting into a forward flexed position. 

Just training rotational mobility, strength, and power is not good enough. Training the side bend needs to be in your training program. This becomes important as you take the club back. If you do not achieve a relative side bend to bring the hands through and down, it traps your arms to chop down at the golf ball. The chopping motion results in an outside-in club path which is causing you to slice the golf ball. If you can increase your torso side bend to get to the side on the transition to impact, your trail arm is able to dip underneath to create an inside-out club path. 

There are many mobility drills you can complete to achieve optimal torso side bend. The more  you can work on side bend to get your trail shoulder down as you come back to the golf ball, the increased likelihood of achieving the desired inside-out club path. 

Improve Trail Arm Shoulder Rotation To Stop Slicing The Golf Ball

If you take the club back and cannot get relative rotation with your trail arm, your shoulder is probably out in front of your body. This makes it increasingly difficult to get your club path inside-out. Without proper mobility in the shoulder, the club is forced to go outside the body. At the top, your trail shoulder rotation is incredibly important for set-up. You want your shoulder rotation set-up at the top to be tucked under. When your shoulder is tucked under, you are able to achieve club lay back, which allows you to come underneath the golf ball. 

Putting It All Together To Stop Slicing the Golf Ball

There are physical aspects of the body that promote an over the top pattern. Many times, the body follows what the club can do and the golf ball follows what the club can do. If you are slicing the golf ball, you need to be executing an inside-in club path to get your club face more square. 

The challenge is, physically, many of us are not set up to do that. Not everybody is going to be able to make huge physical changes in a short period of time to abruptly delivering the club to the golf ball inside-out. Driving into your lead leg more to create more ground reaction force and clear the hips, having more torso side bend, and improving shoulder rotation will help you break habits that are causing you to slice the golf ball.

More Golf Performance Resources and Information:

Platinum Golf Performance Academy

This is a extensive package of golf performance resources, but the primary opportunity you could get involved in (if you are local) is our Semi-Private Golf Performance Training. This is a small group of golfers coming together on a weekly basis to prepare for the upcoming golf season through strength and mobility training. It is the only golf-specific semi-private training in the Fox Valley. The Platinum Golf Performance Academy is a monthly subscription with the first class being free. The class will be every Monday and Friday 12:00-1:00pm. If you are interested in participating in this, you can call 920-335-7227 or email eri@motusrx.com.

Bogey Free Back and Body Online Program

This is a self-paced golf performance program with live components. The Bogey Free Back and Body Online Program is a great option for golfers who may not be local or who would rather train in the comfort of their home. This will be an opportunity to walk through any questions and provide you with the “why” behind the training program. 

You can check this program out by clicking HERE.

Free Downloadable Golf Strength And Mobility Program

This is a downloadable PDF with 9-weeks of strength and mobility programming that will prepare your body to hit the ground running come April. The program includes video demonstrations and written explanations to help you achieve your desired goals and perform the prescribed exercises correctly. 

Download your mobility program by clicking HERE.

More About Motus Rx Physical Therapy Golf Performance

We help people hit the ball further, feel better, play as much as they want, play whenever they want, and play without feeling pain or without having to stop their round because of lack of energy. We also help with consistency. 

If you are interested in working with us, feel free to schedule a complimentary discovery session to learn more about what we do.

Schedule your discovery visit by clicking HERE.