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Fix Your Flip
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Many golfers struggle with adjusting the face to path relationship The movements that change the face to path relationship the most are flexion/extension of the wrists. Flexion of the lead wrist/extension of the trail wrist will close the face-to-the-path. Extension of the lead wrist/flexion of the trail wrist will open the face-to-the-path.
Many path problems are a compensation for a face to path relationship compensation. An outside in path can help an open face start the ball online. And an overly inside out path can help speed up the rate of closing. Learning to close the face earlier in the swing allows for a more neutral path.
Tags: Not Straight Enough, Draw vs Fade, Drill, Intermediate
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The drill is playing with face and path.
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So a lot of you have one specific face to path relationship that you like and that's a great
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way to play golf.
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But learning how to adjust the face to path relationship is a great way to understand
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your ball flight, it's a great way to understand variety in the release, it's a great way
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to understand the overall movements we're trying to build here in the golf swing.
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So to play with face to path, basically what we're going to do is we're going to try
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to extremes.
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We're going to really close the club face and then use the path to make it go relatively straight
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and then we're going to really open the club face and use the path again to make it go
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relatively straight.
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Now we're probably going to have very different loft so it's going to go different heights
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and it's going to fly different trajectories but overall we should still be able to get
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it to launch fairly straight just by playing with this face to path relationship.
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If you're used to being more of an over the top slicer it's going to feel very weird
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to have the club face close to the path and still try to get it to go straight and if
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you're a giant draw or hook of the golf ball, if that's your normal tendency then you're
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going to struggle when we get the club face more open and you have to swing a little
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bit left.
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So I usually do these in 9 to 3 or half style swings but to adjust the face to path or major
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options are going to be these wrist movements here so flexion extension possibly some
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pronation supination down at the bottom but primarily flexion extension to adjust the
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face to path relationship.
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Our other option is to change the grip in our hands but for this drill for playing around
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with this I want to do it mostly with your normal grip and just by doing different wrist
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combinations.
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So most of you are probably used to having the club face to pretty square and just keeping
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that square relationship something like that.
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So what we're going to do for the first one is we're going to really close the face and
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then we have to swing on an exaggerated end-out path so that when it passes the ball the
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super closed face is pointing at the target.
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So I'm going to go to waist height, close the face a lot and then use a path swinging
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well into out to make it launch straight.
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If I were to close the face to the path and then do just a normal path you can see that
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that would launch very much to the left.
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So that's why we've called this playing with the face to path relationship because we want
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to get used to being able to work in this larger range.
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So I'll do that again.
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You're going to go to about waist height, close the face as much as you can you can see.
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Now when I did that I do want you to notice the club head didn't move.
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If the club head moves then I'm adjusting the face to path relationship and the path.
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The club head stays in place.
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I'm adjusting the face to path relationship.
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So I take it back to about waist height, close the face and then try to use an exaggerated
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end-out path to get that thing to launch straight.
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And I'm hitting off a tee just to make it easier for contact because when I start adjusting
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the path that drastically if I'm coming way from in to out.
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I don't know if you heard that but it'll be very likely that I'm going to bottom out behind
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it because the more that I move the path in and out the more it moves the bottom of the swing
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backward.
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So now we'll do the opposite.
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So we're going to get to roughly the same starting position where I'm going to bring
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it to about here.
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But then instead of closing the face we're going to do what's going to feel uncomfortable
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with me we're going to open the face.
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So now if I were to use more of a neutral path this thing would basically hit a little
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flop shot that goes way off to the right.
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So what I want to do instead is I basically want to come over the top to get this to launch
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closer to the target.
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So I take it back.
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So I'm going to open the face and then I'm going to try and come way over the top to get
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this thing to launch straight.
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One of these may feel much easier for you to do and that reveals what your swing tendencies
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or your swing biases are.
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For example you can see that I'm having a much easier time coming from the end out position
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that is my natural tendency is to have more of the club face close to the path and swing
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a little end out which produces a powerful draw but it limits my short game.
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If I get here open the face it's very uncomfortable for me to swing a little bit more
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to the left that's part of the reason why I tend to struggle with the short game because
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that doesn't feel quite as comfortable for me.
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So playing with face to path can help you understand your natural tendencies how to adjust
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them with just the changing the face to path relationship and then ultimately give you some
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references and some feelings that you can use when you're then taking it back to training
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your full swing.
