If You Slice

A mistaken notion of swinging from the inside usually results in the exact opposite - an 'over-the-top' move that sees the right shoulder throw the club outside the play line, the classic cause of the slice. If that sounds and looks familiar, let me explain how to reverse the loop.

A lot of golfers have heard about the importance of swinging on an inside path, but they mistakenly believe that to achieve this they have to whip the club way inside the line at the very start of the backswing. just look at this first move away from the ball.

The hands and arms roll the club way inside the line, getting it too flat and too much behind the body. And when you make this mistake, you're left with no option but to lift the arms and club upwards to reach the top of the backswing.

There's no cocking or hingeing of the wrists to set the club up on plane. There's no 'loading' of the clubshaft, no real attempt to turn the upper body away from the target to get the left shoulder fully behind the ball.

No weight shift, no coil. No power.

Looking at this face-on, the upper body hasn't turned at all and the right hip has not moved out of the way. In short, no sign of any rotation. That lifting motion of the arms sees the club way across the line, and the momentum of that move forces the right shoulder to move forward starting down.

It's the classic OTT move - the clubhead on track to cut weakly across the ball. With the help of a couple of easy drills, let me show you how to reverse this sequence of events - and use the rotation of your body effectively.

How to Reverse the Loop

How to find the inside path

In the sequence you see here, I have exaggerated key moves to illustrate the sensations that you need to identify with in order to reverse the loop in your swing and get the club falling naturally into this inside slot as it re-routes in the downswing (right).

From the set-up, your overriding thought must be to take the club back outside the play line (i.e. the ball-to-target line). To achieve this, you will want to feel that the club is much more out in front of your body as you move it away from the ball.