Are your shots veering right or left like they’re trying to evade the target? Known as “slicing the ball,” these accidental swerves are among the most common errors in golf.
There’s no shortage of companies that’ll sell you clubs, gloves, and training aids to cure your slice. If you want a straighter flight path, they claim, just tweak your grip to square the clubface at the moment of impact. But this emphasis on the hands misses a vital element of good technique: proper weight distribution throughout your swing. Without it, you’ll never have the stability and postural control to consistently send the ball where you want it to go.
We asked “slice master” Nick Bradley for his tips on fixing a faulty trajectory from ground up. Nick is a world-renowned golf instructor, TV commentator, and bestselling author of The 7 Laws of the Golf Swing and Kinetic Golf. He supports golfers at all levels through his teaching and instructional videos, and has worked with hundreds of pros, including Justin Rose and Sir Nick Faldo, as well as golfing legends Tiger Woods, Ernie Els, and Phil Mickelson.
How would you describe “slicing the ball”?
Slicing the ball is when the clubhead—and, in fact, the body—wipes across the golf ball instead of driving it into the target lines. A slice lacks power, lacks distance, and it bends dramatically to the right, assuming you’re right-handed. It really is the common cold of golf, something that 90% of beginners have to overcome at some point.
A slice is different from a fade, which is a deliberate shot that curves from left to right.
How does improper weight distribution cause slicing?
When someone is slicing, the foot pressure is generally on the toes. To use the ground as you should, you need the pressure to be more in the center of the foot.
When I work with a slicer, one of the key things is to get the player to appreciate where their balance is during the swing. All of a sudden, they cannot believe how much more heel orientated they’re becoming.
What should you be feeling in your feet during the correct movement?
In the address position, you should feel more heel orientated with your balance. So, your balance is towards the back. In the back swing position, when you reach the top of your swing, you want your weight to be going into the right heel. Not the outside of the right foot—the heel.
Now you turn your hips fully and move into what we call “transition.” As you're moving from the back swing into the downswing, you want to feel a lateral shift from the right heel into the big toe of the left foot. It’s a slight diagonal movement that keeps the body shut for longer through impact—as opposed to spinning open, which is the typical pattern of the slicer.
How do SQAIRZ golf shoes help?
When the correct fix is administered, you start to create different patterns in the foot pressure. There’s no question that the design of SQAIRZ shoes facilitate making progress with this way faster than an ordinary pair of sneaker-like golf shoes. Like any piece of great equipment, they support the full potential of what you can do—in this case, fixing the slice. Other golf shoes just don’t do that because they don’t have the substance or the science behind SQAIRZ.
What should you do if you’re struggling to improve?
You definitely need another pair of eyes. An instructor will prescribe drills that should change the ball flight. Using measuring devices, we can also establish a baseline and then see the numbers changing. Someone who slices the ball starts with what we call a negative number as a slice metric. As an instructor, you're trying to change those negative numbers into positive or zero numbers. It’s measurable from a ball flight perspective, and it's measurable from a numerical perspective.
Any final tips?
Slicers will typically stand on the right side of the driving range and hit left, which exacerbates the problem. What you need to be doing to fix the slice is standing on the far left of the driving range and hit to the top right.
Better technique starts with the right equipment. Discover how the transformational designs of SQAIRZ’s 2024 line use cutting-edge technology to deliver on style, stability, and speed for golfers of all abilities.