Birth of “The Dave Way”
A Simple Golf Slice Cure Is Born.
Eventually and obviously I came to the realization that this
slice was KILLING my
game. In the “Why We Golf” section you learned the reasons why I
currently play golf… well, back then I could honestly say that I
would
not have met any of those criteria for teeing it up.
I decided to look for help. This led me on some crazy journeys.
The first path I chose was the “toy” path. Yep, you know the one.
I can’t count the amount of money I poured into all the cheesy
"super golf slice fix"
gadgets... it makes my head hurt. If you combine all the toys I
tried,
they may have produced a stroke or two difference on my score
card...
for a round.
Here are some of the Gizmos my friends and I have tried:
Straight-jackets
Weighted golf clubs
Anti-Slice Drivers
Wrist splints
Machines that put lines on golf balls
Lasers that attach to the club
Tons of PVC piping around my body
Clubs that bend, whip around, or break in the middle
Clubs that are “perfect”
ETC, ETC, ETC...
You get the point.
I’m sure they all have their usefulness in some respects, but I
think
the key to fixing a slice is in the swing, not in a toy. I believe
these
gizmos could be useful after fixing your swing… maybe to improve
distance or swing tempo… but not to cure a slice.
The second path I chose was the “professional lessons” path.
Now if someone was to speak to me for a few minutes about
improving their game, they would take from my advice that I am
anti-
lessons. And that is not totally the case.
In fact, the manual you are reading at this very moment is a golf
lesson.
What I am against is expensive lessons (by your local golf
professional) that do not cater to your golf lifestyle, your golf
swing
and your overall golf talent and ability. I am against any form of
“canned” lessons that try to turn your swing into a top tour pros
swing.
What am I for? Lessons that are simple and easy to learn. I am
also
for golf instructors that focus on making the game fun for their
students… and are not teaching simply to make money. I am not for
instructors that are teaching just so they can be called a golf
professional.
I love golf instructors
that make their lessons
Interesting and
Enjoyable
Although the toys and the lessons made a small dent in my slice,
my
scoring was atrocious… even a few strokes worse.
The toys were very uncomfortable and they did not help my swing
when it came to real shot situations.
I was blocking shots to no end and I don’t think I’ve topped more
shots in my life.
And the lessons had my grip and posture so out of whack (compared
to normal) that it took me months before I wanted to play golf
again.
And of course when I went back to playing, my slice was right
there in
the mix again.
That’s when I began collecting all the knowledge I could on the
golf
swing... from books to magazines to videos. After weeks of
research,
I sat down and compared my swing to all the information I
collected.
What I found was that 85 to 90 percent of the information was
about
changing grip, posture, or stance. As I learned before in the
“lessons
path” I did not want to waste my time on these aspects… at least
not
until I figured out how to correct the guts of my slice.
The other 10 to 15 percent of information included 100 or so tips
to
improve the swing.
This brought me back to my local range and there I tried to
incorporate all these tips into my swing. I started to see a
little
improvement in my ball flight, but the simple fact was that I was
thinking about it way too much - before and during the swing.
By this time I had put so much money and effort into trying to fix
my
slice that it started to become somewhat of a pet project for me.
Let
me rephrase that, it became an obsessive project. I was not going
to
stop until I came up with 1 or 2 or 3 easy thought processes that
would cause my golf ball to go straight.
So I broke down exactly what each of these 100 or so tips were
affecting. What I discovered got me very excited.
Basically, out of those 100+ golf tips and exercises, I’d say
about
75% to 80% (in one way or another) were designed to counter three
flaws
in the golf swing. Here are the culprits:
Faulty Impact Angle
Untimely Shoulder Alignment
Excessive Arm and Wrist Movement
We will go over these flaws in more detail in a minute.
Since I realized that all of these tips could be incorporated
into just a
handful of concise, simple golf slice tips,
I started to create one drill for each of the flaws above;
integrating all the tips I had learned about each flaw into one
simple
exercise.
After a few months spent on the range, I had the steps and drills
that
you are about to learn.
And needless to say, I
started to hit the ball as straight as could be.
Almost immediately my golfing buddies were asking me how I
improved my swing, and how I started shooting so much lower in
such a short amount of time.
This led me to training one friend after another with the new
system I
had developed. And although they felt like they were getting the
deal
of a lifetime (all they were paying for was their range balls) I
was
using this time to focus on each step. Constructing the steps so
they
were simple and easy to learn… with the main goal always in the
forefront of my mind - making sure the drills were instantly
effective.
drives and after a couple of minutes of practicing 2 of the drills, the
student would be pounding the ball as straight as an arrow.
I do have to give credit to one of my buddies (Evan) for
coming up with the systems name. We were playing a round together
and he asked me for a tip on driving the ball straight. At that
time he
had a pretty bad slice. I pointed out the over-action in his arms
and
adjustment he should make to his impact angle. And as usual, after
a
couple of practice swings he hit the longest, straightest drive of
the
day. Of course I was used to the systems instant success, but he
was
amazed it was that easy.
The first words out of his mouth were…
“The Dave Way”
Needless to say, the phrase stuck.
time to focus...
To correct your golf slice for good,
the next chapter is going to get a bit technical.
Let's roll.