The biggest problem that most golfers have when it comes to training is knowing what they actually need to work on in order to improve their golf game. There are so many things that you can work on and in order to be able to work on your game you first need to diagnose what kinds of problems you have so that you can attempt to fix them. By no means is fixing a bad golfing habit easy and you may even need the help of a professional or amateur golfer just to point out the things that you are doing wrong so that you can fix your golf game and golf as you are supposed to. Although there is definitely no perfect way to golf, there are certain habits that you might have that can certainly increase your score. Having something like a slice, backspin, forward spin, too much power, accuracy issues and even duffing issues are all things that can add to a higher score than what you are looking for. Below is a breakdown of these issues, as well as what the most common mistakes are that cause these issues to take place.
Slice:
Slice is something that gets tossed around a lot in the golfing world and it basically means that when you are shooting the ball, you aren’t shooting the ball straight. Often times the ball will leave the club normally and it will look like it is going to be a good quality shot. Once it gets high up into the air the ball will sharply hook in either direction and then continue on course towards its new off centre destination. Unfortunately many golfers avoid the issues causing their slice to occur and actually adjust their line in order to try and fix their slice. This may be an easy fix, but it is not going to make you a better golfer and it is much harder to be accurate this way because when you actually manage to shoot a straight shot, it is not going to be headed towards your target destination. There are some very common things that cause a golfer to have a slice and many of them are relatively easy fixes.
The first thing you should check if you have a slice is where you place the ball between your legs when you are lining up to hit. If you are hitting an iron then the ball should be close to the middle of your stance, if you are using a wood then it should be close to the inside of your front foot. After checking to make sure that you have the ball in the proper position the next thing you are going to want to check is that you are using a proper grip on your club. It is generally recommended to wrap your pinky finger between your index and middle finger so that you don’t have slippage during your swing which can result in a slice.
The next thing you are going to want to do is make sure that the head of your club is in the proper position when it makes impact with the ball. Make sure that you have the tee at the correct height so that the “sweet spot” of the club is going to be the spot that makes contact with the ball. In general a slice occurs when you hit the ball on your downswing. If you want to get rid of your slice try making sure that you catch the ball during your upswing.
The actual swinging motion of the club is generally the last thing that can cause a slice. Generally if you have a slice as a result of how you are swinging, you are either rotating the club too much in your hands or not rotating it enough. This can be the hardest thing to improve and it is most definitely going to take a lot of practice hits in order to straighten yourself out. In order to explain to do it in the simplest way; you basically have to square up the club face as you swing by turning the club from the toe towards the heel of the club in order to make it centered at the impact point. Depending on how far you are turning the club this can contribute to a right or a left hook as it will hit on either side of the sweet spot of the club just enough to put a spin on the ball and turn the ball.
Backspin:
Although this is a technique that many golfers strive to learn, some people actually have some major issues with backspin and they don’t know how to get it out of their golf swing. If you have this problem it can be a real pain. You could have your ball right next to the pin and then see it roll back twenty feet into an area that is difficult to putt from. Most often times a backspin happens when you are using a short iron or a wedge to hit the ball. In order for the ball to backspin you are definitely hitting the ball very high in the air. Backspin is luckily a fairly easy thing to fix because you have to have the ball too far back in your stance in order for the ball to be able to backspin. When you place the ball too far back it forces your club to hit the ball down and creates the spin. Most of the time when you are putting backspin on a ball you are going to notice that you make a divot in the ground a bit in front of where the ball is sitting and this can be your tell-tale sign that you are doing something wrong.
Although it is likely that the above scenario solved your backspin problem there are a couple of other things that may be causing your backspin to be an issue. One of those things is the ball that you are using. A ball can actually have a fairly big impact on the spin and generally speaking a ball that is 90 compression is going to have more spin on it than a ball that has 100 compression. If you are unsure about ball compression it is basically a measure of how much the ball compresses against the club at impact. A ball with high compression is meant more for long distance hitters that have a faster swing while a low compression ball is meant for people attempting to drive long distances that don’t have as fast of a swing.
One final thing that could be causing your ball to spin on you is the direction that you hit the ball in general; it could literally have nothing to do with how you are swinging. If you hit the ball directly towards really intense wind it can cause the spin of a ball to change direction, especially if it was hardly spinning at impact; this could definitely be the cause of your backspin. Unfortunately you are just going to have to play through the conditions because the weather is not a factor that you can change.
Forward spin:
Forward spin is an issue that many golfers come across and you may see your ball roll right on past the hole, even when you thought you had the perfect shot lined up. Unfortunately forward spin on a ball is much harder to fix than backspin because there are some factors that you won’t be able to change such as how high you can hit the ball and what club you have to use in order to reach the green. A ball naturally should roll forwards off of the club so this issue is only for extreme cases where a large amount of rolling takes place on virtually almost every hit. Everyone hits the ball too hard sometimes and there is nothing you can really do to fix that problem besides hitting is lighter the next time that you have the same type of shot. Getting into the specifics, there are a couple things that can cause you to have too much forward spin and there are steps that you can take to try your best to avoid this problem.
Forward spin can be caused when you hit the ball too high up instead of hitting it directly in the middle of the ball; if you are having this issue you probably aren’t hitting the ball nearly as far as you would like to and it is going to take a bit of readjustment to get to hitting the ball in the right place. One thing you can do when teeing off is to lower your tee a bit so that you are more likely to hit the sweet spot of the ball. Besides doing that you might have to adjust the angle of your swing or where you are standing in regards to your distance from the ball. You may even have to hold your club differently because you could need to choke up on the club a bit depending on how close you are standing to the ball.
Accuracy issues:
Having accuracy issues can be an extremely frustrating part of golf and can result in large score gains and utterly ruin your golfing performance in extreme cases. There are so many potential causes for accuracy issues and it could be something as simple as a faulty golf ball. When you experience sudden problems in accuracy it is a good idea to take it slow and make sure that you are doing all the proper motions because it can be pretty easy to get distracted and not realize that you have been standing closer to the ball than you usually do or you have been choking up too much on your clubs. If you still can’t figure out what is causing you to miss-shoot it is a good idea to ask someone to watch you hit the ball and see if they notice that you are doing something wrong.
Too much power:
Over-shooting can be a serious problem and it could be caused from a huge variety of things. If you are relatively inexperienced or you haven’t done a lot of golfing lately you could simply be using the wrong club for the distance that you are shooting. Each club is not meant to hit one particular distance, how far the ball goes all depends on your shooting technique and how hard you swing your club. If you are shooting the ball consistently too far or every once in a while you have a ball go way past your desired location you should probably consider dropping down a club and using something that doesn’t hit quite as far. If you are sure that the club you are using is the right one for the distance; check to see the type of ball that you are using. This is a good idea because a higher compression ball can definitely go a farther distance if it is hit properly and hit with a harder swing.
Duffing issues:
Duffing can be caused from all sorts of factors and it can be rather annoying when you are duffing the ball on a consistent basis or missing the ball entirely. It is important to make sure that you are using the proper swinging technique and that you are standing the proper distance away from your ball. Another thing that is important is paying attention to how long your clubs are and choking up on your clubs if you need to, in order to hit the ball at the proper height. Duffing isn’t always your fault and it can literally be caused from the terrain around you. It is important to remember that duffing the ball is even something that is done by professional golfers on occasion and with practice you can easily fix duffing issues and be hitting the ball in the “sweet spot” on a consistent basis.
One thing you may want to think about if you are running into a lot of issues with duffing the ball is if your clubs are actually the proper size for you. Although it is possible to use clubs that are too long for you. You have to make sure that you properly choke up on the club so that they are the proper length. This does add a bit of difficulty to the game and if you are unaware that your golf clubs are too long for you then you may run into this issue on a consistent basis and not even realize it.
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