Turner to Slider

Hello!
I had been turning for my driving shots and was getting about 250 yards carry with 25% chances of slicing my drives. Lately, I have started shifting my weight more to my right leg (back) and sliding my body along to hit the shot, I have not changed any other aspects of the swing. Now, I am hitting alomost 270 yards carry and the shots are going about 10 degree to the left of my target line (I am hitting almost all fairways after adjusting for the same). I am told if I bring back the ball position slightly, this slight hook problem too would go. Please advise whether I should continue with this change... if yes than how to avoid the hooking in my new swing.
Thanks in advance for your valuable advise.

Best regards
Prakcom

Where are you positioning the ball (specifically)? If you look at the picture I have linked below many of those pros have the ball pretty far forward. Are your shots actually hooks (where they start to the right and then draw back), or are they straight left (a pull)?

If your ball position isn't more forward then what you see in the picture below then it may not be the problem, and you may want to look at the sliding as the cause of your problem.
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/254...ballposdg0.jpg

If its a hook then your lateral move may be the cause (if your lower body out races your arms then your arms get stuck behind the body comming down (and are blocked to the right - hence the starting direction) and your arms are likely to flip and close the clubface (hence the bend to the left).

If it is a pull then your lateral move may be pulling your back foot off the ground and causing your swing path to shift left.

Thanks for your reply.
My ball position is in line with my left heel and in line with the left shoulder. The shots are NOT hooks/ draw but PULLS. Today, I got amazing distance of about 300+ (I do not get much roll due to high trajectory) but again it was quite left of the target line (went to wrong fairway).

The drives with same ball position with incomplete follow through are straight but distance is compromised.

If I am able to correct this direction problem, it would bring my h'cap down appreciably.

Please advise

hi
one thing to check is that when you slid the hip that the left elbow still comes into the hip but in front of the hip bone, if the elbow trails the hip bone then you hook, i know with my style of swinging there is a lot of forward hip sway and the only time it goes wrong if my hip get ahead if the elbow in the downswing.
i also feel with my swing that the hips drive the ball and the arms follow. this if the feeling i get but may not be what really happens but its the best way to describe how it feels and it stops me form swinging to fast and spoiling my rhythm.
cheers
bill

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Your ball position doesn't sound like its the problem.

If you've tried keeping your back foot flat on the ground for longer, and that hasn't corrected the problem I suggest you check the alignment of your shoulders and hips. If your shoulders and hips are are aligned to far left then your swing path will be out to the left as well.

Hi!
Is there a possibility that I may not be shifting the weight forward in sync and it needs to be a bit faster.

If your back knee was loosing its shape, or moving outside the back foot then your weight shift back to the ball could be compromised, but I don't think that is what is happening. Since you've gained distance I have a feeling your weight is moving properly (if it wasn't you might be loosing distance). It doesn't sound to me like your having any problems hanging back (which usually results in fat shots and misses out to the right).

Alignment, grip, and lower body stability still seem like the most likely causes of the problem. Setup to your shot and then with out moving your body take your driver (or have a friend take a club) and hold it across the front of you shoulders and chest, and look at where it is pointed. If your alignment is at fault the club will be pointed to the left of your target (in the direction you've been hitting the ball).

You might find it helpful to setup in front of a mirror or window and compare your setup to the picture of Ernie Els in the link below:
http://www.golfdigest.com/instructio...os_els?slide=1
(How does your grip, arm hang, and stance with your driver look compared to Els?)

My finish is more vertical. I noticed that when I am not completing my follow-thru (follow thru stopping with hand pointing to the target basically due to right wing muscle pull) the ball is going straight and with lower trajectory (with compromise in distance).

ALso at the end of backswing the left elbow get bent slightly but the club does not overshoot the parallel.

My grip is neutral and for driver the shaft is slightly bent back (hands are behind the ball). Els has his driver centered about 2 ball lengths behind the ball and in my case I have a wider stance and the club head is about 6 ball length behind the teed up ball.