One of the best things you can do to help your golf is understand the laws of ball flight. I would predict that over 90% of amateur golfers don’t understand what their club was doing at impact to produce a given shot. It is a simple process. What did the ball do? What did the club do to the ball to make that happen?
Many people come to me claiming that they slice when in actual fact they don’t. Some golfers block slice. What is the difference you ask? A slice starts left of the target and spins violently to the right. A block slice starts right of the target and continues to spin further right. There is one thing however that makes this confusing. Speed. If you have quite slow clubhead speed than your slice will actually start to the right of the target because their isn’t enough speed for the path to be influential. The face is over 4 times more influential than the path.
A block slice is caused by an open face and a club path delivered too much from behind the body or from in to out as some people understand. The block slice is one of the worst shots in golf. Often it results in a dropped shot or a lost ball because the ball is flying up to 45 degrees right of the target.
The block slice is difficult to diagnose for the average golfer but two things will help you indentify the issue. The ball flight is the first thing. Does the ball fly immediately to the right of your identified target? If it does this is a sign that you might be hitting block slices.
The other thing to look at is also the divot on the ground. The divot gives us an indication of the club path. Where does the divot point? Does it point to the right of the target? If it does than you surely are hitting a block slice. If it points left than you are hitting a regular slice. The important thing is to match the ball flight to a divot.
Both the slice and block slice are terrible shots for a golfer. To fix them for good grab this golf slicing guide and subscribe to my newsletter.