Hello.
I'm Brian Fitzgerald The Golf Doctor.
And today I'm going to talk about why most left handers slice the golf ball.
Stay tuned.
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So why do most left handed golfers seem to slice the ball.
Well.
I've got a theory.
Particularly in Australia where we play a lot of cricket.
And I am a right handed person.
I am very right handed.
Yet when I play cricket.
I play cricket left handed.
Now you are batting correctly when you play cricket and you are batting left handed and
if you are batting correctly you are going to have your right hand in control.
So your right hand is the strong one.
So when I played cricket and I didn't play cricket at a very high level it was mostly
school boy cricket.
I was really weak hitting it over to the right or the on side.
I was pretty strong on the off side.
And that's because my right hand was always dominating.
So when we equate that to golf.
If you are a left handed golfer but your dominant hand is your right hand.
Your right hand is basically going to be pulling that club down.
And as soon as I start pulling that club down you can see that the clubface is pointing
out to the left.
Which is open.
Which is going to impart spin that goes right to left.
Which is a slice.
So when I started playing golf on the tour.
I quickly realised that in any given year I would have to hit at least 6 shots a year
where my ball was up against a tree.
So what I used to practice every single week was trying to hit some shots upside down with
my club.
So at first I thought this was pretty easy.
I am a left handed cricketer.
But it was actually hard because my right hand still wanted to do that.
So eventually I got to the point where I could hit it decently.
I started hitting some wedges and progressed up.
So I will try and hit my right handed 7 iron.
The hardest thing here is to not let my right hand work that way.
I actually feel like I am hitting a back hand at table tennis or tennis and I am getting
my right hand to do that.
That will help square the club up.
So we will see how I go.
So there is a shot that just started slightly left and I hit it with a little draw.
And that's gone up there about 120m.
It wasn't a big swing.
I wasn't trying to hit it hard.
But I could do that pretty consistently.
But most importantly, the ball spun left to right.
Which was a little draw.
So when I started coaching for a living.
I also realised that about 30% of my clients were going to be left handed.
So I needed to try and demonstrate when I became a coach.
So I started practising each week left handed.
So the things that you can do away from the course that's going to help you if you are
in this situation is start brushing your teeth left handed.
If you walk the dog.
Hold the lead in your left hand as you walk the dog.
Start throwing the ball left handed.
Drink cups of tea, coffee, wine, whatever it is left handed.
Grab a sandwich from the plate left handed.
It's not really to make your left hand stronger.
It's to improve the link between the brain and your left hand.
Because if you are a right dominant person the link between the your brain and your right
hand is very strong and the signal between the left and the brain isn't as strong.
So if you can do those things away from the golf course.
it will make it a lot easier when you get to the course.
And as I said if you are right dominant.
just feel like you are throwing the frisbee right handed.
Or hitting a back hand.
All of those things help.
So I will try and hit one with a left handed club now.
And a nice little soft draw.
That ball has gone around 120 metres or so.
I don't hit it as far left handed as I do right handed because my left hand isn't as
strong.
But I can still hit it with a good shape.
So there is something you can do if you are a right dominant person playing left handed.
You can stop slicing the ball.
By following those few simple drills.
So do things left handed as much as you can.
Even if you stop at a set of traffic lights in the car.
While the lights are red.
Get your imaginary table tennis bat out and hit some forehands with your left hand, swap
over and hit some imaginary back hands and we put it together and we have got a golf
swing.
So that should stop improve your slice.
Thank you for letting me help you with your golf.
I am Brian Fitzgerald.
The Golf Doctor.
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