Instruction

To Fix Your Slice, 'Slot' The Right Elbow

December 14, 2008
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Illustration: Steve Karp

There are a lot of ways you can cure your slice, but one of my favorites is to focus on the right elbow—moving it into the "slot" on the downswing. The slot is a position just in front of the right hip, where the right elbow sits under the left, the club swinging on a shallow inside-out arc.

Think of how you would swing a baseball bat at a pitch that comes in chest high. You instinctively know to drop the right elbow under the left. The same holds true for hitting a golf ball. What makes it more difficult is that in baseball your body and the bat swing on the same horizontal plane, but when you bend at the hips to hit a golf shot, the shoulders, arms, hips and club all must move on different planes.

That's why focusing on your right elbow position is a great thought for slotting the club on the correct plane. This position will soon turn your slice into a draw.

Based at ChampionsGate near Orlando, Leadbetter runs 30 academies worldwide.