Straighten out your ball flight by understanding the proper time to open your hips in the downswing
If you’re someone who has struggled with a slice over the years, you’ve probably tried numerous different drills, swing changes and who knows what else to help get your ball flight straightened out.
But sometimes those ‘fixes’ don’t actually work and unfortunately, are swing fix myths. After measuring hundreds of swings, we’ve nailed down what can really help any golfer correct their slice. Director of Teaching Quality, Brad Skupaka, shared a tip on Golf Channel’s Morning Drive to talk about just that. However, slices can get complicated and we need more than a 90-second segment on Golf Channel to explain everything in detail.
Busting slice myths
As we’ve stated many times before, golf is hard and slices are one of the factors that make this sport so difficult. So when someone finds an ‘end-all-be-all’ fix their slice, that doesn’t mean it works across the board. And the one we’re talking about today is when golfers try to open up their hips in the downswing too early. This can actually encourage a more out-to-in path, which we all know can make a slice worse. Opening up your hips pushes your hands out which leads to the undesirable swing path.
Keep ’em closed
So we busted that myth, but then what are you supposed to do with your hips on the downswing? The best golfers in the world keep their hips closed to the target almost all the way from the top of the backswing to impact.
But for slicers, Skupaka recommends when first trying to implement this into your swing, that the more closed your hips are to the target in the downswing the better. The best way to think about this is if you imagine your tailbone is aimed at the target longer. That’s really just trying to encourage your hips to stay closed or aimed towards the right for a longer period of time.
At first, this change might result in pushes or overdraws but doing this will promote an in-to-out swing, which is the goal when trying to eliminate a slice. After some practice, the ball flight will start to straighten out and you’ve found yourself a slice fix that actually works.
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