Slicing

I know a lot of beginners suffer from this, and a lot has been asked and written about this, but I have a curious problem here. The thing is, I never had this problem from day one till the past 5 months since I've picked up golf. Right from the beginning, I have been hitting straight shots with my irons.

However, I have recently started to slice the ball, and I can't for the life of me figure out why this is so! Yes I've been trying to make adjustments to my swing (mainly trying to find out how to get that addition 30-40yds I need per club), but what could be making me turn from a straighting hitting beginner into a slicing not to beginner?

So instead of just trying to find a cure for the slice, I'm really more curious how this could have come about???

In your quest for distance, you may have started trying to kill the ball. This can promote a multitude of problems, including casting, early release, and choking the club open, to name a few.

I think a lot of the trouble with slicing begins at the very start of the downswing, especially when trying to add distance. Most amatuers think that the faster and harder the swing is, the further the ball will travel. Their tendancy is to try and muscle the ball around the course, which will add shots to your score and make you so much more tired and even more errors will creep into you game.

This extra efforts usually results in tense muscles of which the most common error is the first movement from the top - the right arm straightens too much so the clubhead goes immediately outside the plane. From there there is very little chance you will get the club back on plane.

I realise that different people have different problems with their swings, but I like to try and maintain the angle (distance) between the right hand and right shoulder as far into the downsing as possible. There's no way the right arm will be bent at impact so don't worry about that and trying to maintain that angle will help you resist the temptation to hit with the hands and get you to use the turn of the body instead. I would even recommend you to forceably maintain that angle until you get the feel of the action. You can even buy strapping (golf aids) to help you maintain the angle but that seems a little dangerous to me and may result in injuries.

I think you may have answered your own question...

Thanks guys. All those hours spent practising without a mirror, without a pro, without a video camera, all gone to waste :P Got my swing corrected by my coach last night, and I'm back to good contact with the ball. All because of one simple mistake : I was letting my right shoulder come in too early (yep in my quest to get more distance and trying to whack the ball). Consciously kept it back last night and the shots were back to normal. What really scares me now is that I would not have been able to figure it out by myself hitting 1000 balls again and again trying to get that contact, but one quick observation from my coach brought that instantly into light

That's what coaches are for, Kimosabe. Even Tiger's got one.

But I can't afford to have lessons every week I guess at the most beginner level, we'll need much more lessons and hopefully soon I'll be able to get to the level where I will only need specific sessions to correct my swing. Next week will be my 15th and last lesson that I've signed up so far.

As for seeing coaches, dont see one why will just do a quick fix. If you are going to be committed and want to improve, then find a coach that you want to stay with for a while. Get him to teach one or two things at a time so that you can work on them for a couple of weeks or so. Once you get used to that and you feel that you have done it right, work on the next thing. A golf swing has many steps before it can be done correctly so fine a coach that you feel has those right steps for you.