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How to Fix a Push-Slice and a Hook with a Driver
Years ago, I was asked for an advice to fix a push-slice with a driver.
I asked him what kind of shots he was hitting with his irons and fairway woods. He told me that he was hitting a draw that curved a lot.
You could call this kind of shot a hook. But he was hitting it on purpose. He said he wanted to make sure he didn't hit a slice. That's why he was hitting a big hook.
He wanted to get rid of his slice forever.
I think that his approach is good idea to fix your slice. It's a good idea to try to hit a hook to fix your slice.
But his problem was his driver.
Hitting Low Hooks and push-slices
He was hitting low hooks that curved quickly to the left. When his timing was good, he hit it very far. But most of the time, he was hitting low hooks.
But the worst shot wasn't those low hooks for him. His worst shot was a push-slice that crept in once in every 10 shots he hit.
The interesting thing was that this push-slice and his hooks shots were closely related to each other.
The real problem was his hook shots. He was a slicer when he started to play golf. His weak slice didn't go very far. And he was always the shortest hitter in his group.
That's why he hated a slice so much and tried very hard to get rid of it.
To do that, he tried to hit a hook. Like I said, this was a good idea to fix his slice. But the problem was he was curving the shot too much to the left.
This was ok with his irons. With irons, you can hit a hook that curves a lot. This shot will fly very far because you are delofting the iron so much.
Even with your fairway woods, you can try the same thing and still hit it far. In fact, he was hitting his 3-wood past most players' driver shots.
But you can't do this with your driver because your driver has a very little loft with it. If you try to hit a hook that curves a lot with a driver that has a 10 or 11 degrees of loft, you will deloft your driver too much. (You will decrease your loft down to the point where it's impossible to hit the shot with it)
If you decrease your driver's loft so much, it becomes hard to add proper backspin. So the ball won't go high in the air. You won't get any kind of distance as well with the shot like that.
But he didn't stop hitting hooks with all of his clubs because he was hitting his irons and fairway woods so far and he was also hitting a push-slice once in a while with his driver. This kept him to try even harder to hit a hook.
Why was He Hitting a Push-Slice?
The real reason why he was hitting push-slices with his driver was that he was unconsciously trying to avoid duck hooks. After hitting duck hooks with his driver, he tried not to close the clubface too much on the downswing and left the clubface open.
It was hard to square the clubface because he had a really strong grip (to get rid of his slice).
With his irons, he didn't have to worry about those low hooks like he was hitting with his driver because irons have enough loft. His shots were curving a lot to the left but was getting lots of distance.
But with his driver, the loft of the driver wasn't enough to hit the shot like he was hitting with his irons. That's why he sometimes left his clubface open with his driver. He was just trying to avoid duck hooks but end up hitting a push-slice.
The First Thing to Fix
In his case, the first thing he had to fix was his hook shots. But he tried to avoid slices because he hated the slice.
So I told him to try to hit the gentle draw or straight shots with his irons even though he might hit some slices.
He did so. His shots were going straighter than before. He was afraid that he might hit a slice with his new swing.
But I asked him to do the same thing with his driver.
He tired it with a driver. He hit some slices but now his normal shots were flying much straighter and much longer than before.
All he was doing was to get rid of a slice that he hated so much.
And I think it's a good idea to try to hit a hook to fix your slice. For players who are hitting slices for many years, it may be necessary to exaggerate things a bit and try to hit a big hook.
But once you achieved that, it's time to go on to the next step and try to hit straighter shots like a gentle draw.
I'm glad that he finally realized that.