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Path For Contact, Face For Control

Most swing issues have a face & path component. As I often tell my students, the ability to do some on-course troubleshooting can be a huge help to your round and overall game. As a general rule, contact issues are going to be related to a path problem, such as a club path that is too much from the inside or outside. On the other hand, issues with direction or start line, are going to be related to a face problem, whether it be too open or closed. Ultimately, understanding how these two variables relate to your good and bad habits, will allow you to take more "ownership" of your game and hopefully, give you the ability to make some adjustments mid-round.

Tags: Fundamentals, Poor Contact, Not Straight Enough, Member Question

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This video is path for contact, face for control.

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So I had a student on here who asked if there was a quick way he could on the golf course

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determined if it was more of a face or a path problem.

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So as you can imagine, most golf problems or golf swing issues have a face and a path

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component.

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So they might have the path coming way into out or they might have the path going way out

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in and a face that is either too open or too closed.

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So it can be challenging to figure out where to start.

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So as a general rule, there are always exceptions, but as a general rule, if you are having

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contact issues, then your path is off.

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If you're having contact issues, then there's a path problem.

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If you're having contact issues, it's path either from the down the line, getting too much

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in or too much out to in or getting too flat for the club or too upright for the club.

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Or it could be from the face on camera too much of a low point behind the ball or too much

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of a low point never getting down to the golf ball.

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Those are all path issues.

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And if you have a path issue, you're not going to make solid contact because essentially

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a good solid shot results from having a relatively neutral path.

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So if you are struggling out on the course and it's mostly contact issues run through

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your role decks of what are my normal path tendencies and what are some of my normal

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path solutions, those are probably the better place to start.

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Now if you're having more of a direction issue, let's say it's either hitting big poles

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or hitting shots that slice a whole bunch or hook a bunch.

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If you're having more of a direction issue, then I tend to think more about the club

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face.

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Again, both each situation is typically going to have a path and a face component to it.

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But if the main problem is contact is usually path, if the main problem is more direction,

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then it's usually club face.

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Common club face issues are either not getting it closed early enough, not having it closed

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gradually enough or using the path to adjust for a club that basically never gets

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closed.

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So I could either not close the club face and stand up to kind of flip it and I could

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get really big blocks or hooks or I could never close the club face and so I just

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swing left enough so that it's pointing in the direction of the target but I hit a

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lot of thin shots, I have really steep contact especially with the driver.

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So ultimately your goal is to figure out a face and path combination that gives you

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good low point in direction control but if you're struggling out there on the course

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or if it's more of a long-term struggle and you're trying to use video to help diagnose,

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you can use your feedback to help guide what you see on the video.

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If it's more contact, look at path from both face on and down the line and if it's

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more direction, look at face control especially from about shaft parallel here until

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shaft parallel through there.

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Hopefully with some practice, you'll be able to dial in both.