Tired of hitting a dreaded weak slice? Well, you’re not alone, but here’s a sequence of images and ideas that I am confident will help you to iron out the flaws in your swing that are causing you to cut across the ball and impart that left-to-right spin.
It’s all about connecting with a certain body language and the visual cues that will enable you to go out and shape your shots with a powerful draw.
This sequence of a soccer player preparing to deliver a right-to-left in-swinging corner (in this case Doug Parra, our fitness expert here at Champions’Gate) translates well when we apply his technique to that of hitting a powerful right-to-left draw shot in golf (speaking for the right-handed player).
The first thing to notice is the body language, specifically the way in which the soccer player initially positions his feet in relation to his target. Just look at the way he has his right foot drawn back from the target line – in what we would term a ‘closed’ position.
And it’s this alignment of the feet relative to the target that essentially prepares the body in readiness for an ‘in-to-out’ kicking action, one that

encourages the football to start right of target before curling back to the left with drawspin.
Naturally, the footballer is swinging his right leg (rather than his arms) but the principles are exactly the same if we turn our attention to the golf swing. One of the best exercises there is for golfers who habitually slice the ball is to adopt the same severely closed stance – as I have – and then experience the sensation of making a more rotary and powerful swing that very quickly gets the ball flying with right-to-left spin.
To get started, simply draw your right foot back until the toe of your right shoe is level with the left heel, but at the same time making sure that your hips and shoulders remain square to the target line.
Once you are comfortable, go to work on hitting a few balls, keeping this image of the football player in mind.
Drawing the right foot back like this invites you to turn your right side out of the way freely in the backswing and turn your back fully on the target (a move that, until now, has probably been foreign to you).
From the top, the key on the way back down is to sense that you

swing the club on the line of your feet (i.e. from in to out) and fully release your right side through the ball, the right hand and forearm overtaking the left as you turn and swing all the way to a wrap-around finish.
Very quickly you will find that practising over this severely closed stance gives you a totally new feeling for your swing.
We are encouraging what is obviously a highly exaggerated in-to-out action of the arms and the club – exactly what you need to counteract the out-to-in swing that has been causing the slice.
So go out and give this a try when you next practice.
Another great exercise that will help you to reroute your swing shape in this way is to hit shots with the ball a few inches above the level of your feet.
Again, this promotes the sensation your are looking for – i.e. replacing an out-to-in swing line with a more rounded and compact inside-tosquare- to-inside swing. For those of you who fight a slice, these drills will promote a whole new set of swing feelings – not such a bad thing when it comes to kicking your slice well and truly into touch!