We have a lot of recreational golfers coming to us who are frustrated about slicing their driver. Ultimately what is going on when someone is consistently slicing is that their club face is open relative to the path. This is sometimes called and out-to-in path or and over-the-top swing.

It’s pretty easy to see when you are slicing your driver and the need for a launch monitor isn’t really necessary. However, when you are working on “fixing” your driver, it’s MUCH easier to work on these drills with a shorter iron like a 7. So for this fix, grab a shorter club.

First of all, it is IMPERATIVE that you set up with good alignment. It’s pretty tough to figure out what’s going on in your swing if your alignment is bad. 99% of people who don’t practice with alignment sticks do not have good alignment. Make sure when you set up with the alignment aids, they are parallel.

Second, make sure you are setting up with a proper grip. Now you can focus on your swing path. If you are swinging the club out-to-in, chances are you feel like you are swinging the club straight at the target. So start trying to swing the club more in to out or to the right for a right handed golfer.

Chances are, the first couple of times that you try to swing the club more to the right (for a right handed golfer), you won’t make great contact. Part of the reason for this is that when you try to swing the club out to the right, you may throw your hands out away from you. However, when you do that, your entire club will be farther away from you and it’s really hard to connect with the center of the club face. So another way to think about this is to try to keep your back pointed at the target a little bit longer in your backswing as you unwind toward the target. This will help you unwind with your lower body first. This will help you shallow the club under the previous plane. Try this without a ball first to get the feel for it.

Another thing you can do is start to get more aware of the club face and feel like you are moving the toe of the club past the heel.

I’ve been playing the game a really long time and chances are, if you are new to the game, this will not come easy to you. However, if you keep working at it, it will become easier and will definitely help to fix that slice!

In order to stop scooping or flipping your chip shots, we have found an incredible training aid, the Chip Assist.

A topped shot and a chunked shot are the same thing, a topped shot is hitting the ball first and a chunked shot is hitting the ground first. But in both cases, the club is passing your hands at impact. When we try to get people to get their hands ahead of the ball, we usually use the impact bag. However, often people incorrectly swing at the impact bag and unintentionally drag the handle through impact. What we really want to happen, is we really want to get our hips out of the way of the club. It’s the same action as skipping a stone.

I often say to students, when we are learning to swing the club, we are trying to swing the club exactly like we would skip a stone. So we came across the Chip Assist tool that helps us achieve this. The Chip Assist also comes with an adapter for anyone with a smaller grip on their clubs such as juniors, ladies, or men with small hands.

When using the Chip Assist, you will set up with the tool resting on your lead hip or lead waist. When making a swing, if you tend to get scoopy or handsy, the device will correct this movement pattern by smacking you on the side.

The best way to use this tool is to accompany it with the impact bag to create both good impact position as well as getting those hips working toward the target. We want our club shaft to lead our club head. When your hip gets out of the way, you are probably going to get the hands ahead of the club face. To purchase yours: https://amzn.to/3rfggjN

Click the picture below to watch the full video.

Here’s the situation.

You are around the green and you have a basic little pitch shot. You want to loft it on the green and have it roll out very little. Most people will take out their sand wedge for this shot but how do they feel about that. Probably very little confidence. If you are lacking confidence with this shot, you may want to change your strategy a little bit.

Ideally, remember the less loft you use, the less skill you need. So, if you can putt it, putt it. If you can’t putt it, you should probably chip it. But if you need to get the ball up in the air higher or maybe have a higher skilled shot, you may have no other option than to pitch it. Most recreational golfers are going to pull out a sand wedge attempting to hit a higher lofted shot that will land softly and roll out very little. However, when executing that type of shot, the golfer is going to need to put a lot of energy and acceleration into the shot to get it to go high enough. With this amount of energy being put into this particular shot, if you make less than solid contact, the results can be catastrophic!

There’s an easier way to do this…pull out your gap wedge.

The gap wedge is what the pitching wedge used to be. The gap wedge is actually preferable to get the ball on the ground sooner and have it roll out a little bit more. You might notice that if you make less than stellar contact, you might still not be in terrible shape. The idea is that with a less lofted club, we are going to see less catastrophe with our misses. Remember, nothing beats practice. Take a dozen balls out to the range and practice chipping with the different lofted clubs. You may notice that your misses are much better with the gap wedge than the sand wedge. Let us know if this helped.

There are a few ways to use an impact bag but I would like to talk about one of the ways I like to use it. First off, I want to talk about why we use the impact bag. The first impact bag was invented by a guy named Dr. Gary Wiren. Written on the first impact bag was the words “The Moment of Truth”. What this means is that when you are using the impact bag, the moment of truth is when we strike the ball, right at impact. We really like to use the bag mostly for those who tend to “scoop” the ball, both during little shots and full shots. This is usually what happens when golfers, sometimes unconsciously, try to lift the ball in the air by trying to get under it. What we actually want to happen is to strike the ball with our handle (and hands) leading the clubhead at impact. When you see pros hitting shots on the range and during a round, their club is still descending when they make contact with the ball which is why their divot is ahead of the ball.

One of the most important principles to adhere to while using the impact bag is to swing the club slow and intentional in order to get the correct impact position. I also would recommend aiming for the center of the impact bag with your club head.

Good Impact Position!!!

Poor impact position

There are 3 drills I would recommend to do while using the impact bag. Image and description of each drill below.

Lead hand on the club only with the wrist bowed or flexed.

2. Trail hand only drill where the trail wrist is cupped or extended.

3. Both hands on the club swinging slowly and intentionally to create good impact position and weight transfer.

Ultimately, the purpose of this drill is to get you transferring weight into your lead leg early and also get a feel for good impact position.

If you’d like to purchase an impact bag, click here.