Weird Ah Ha moment with a fade...

So I have played both types of shots of a fade and a draw. Natural swing when I was younger led to a lot of draws and sometimes big push hooks. Slowly moved into hitting more fades.

I have taken a few lessons and become more consistent with ball contact with some swing changes but seem to be streaky. Do to some loss of distance I have been trying to get back to hitting my draw which they also encouraged.

Anyways I was playing yesterday after having 4 or 5 straight rounds where I could not get off the tee without a pull hook or massive push slice forcing me to hit 3 to start a hole. I seemed to be all over the place in trying to match face and swing path to get my draw. Sometimes Ott, sometimes way inside.

So I started yesterday's round thinking of playing my old fade with the idea of the club face closed to the target but open to the swing path. Aim down the left and let her rip.

Played more of an open stance and holy hell did I have a great day. There were some drives that started more right than I wanted to but only hit one pull hook all day. Saw maybe a slight decrease in roll out of about 5y but hard to tell bc of recent rain. Things felt more comfortable and more in control to me. Still played with a strong grip but every drive was near center and irons were coming out hot. As I moved down the set to around an 8i things naturally went back to a draw with the same stance.

I guess the point of the post is just to say not to change what comes natural for those looking to get better. Unless it's a massive Ott move or something play the fade if that's what you do, or the draw if that's natural. I've had some years of frustration by trying to fix the natural flight of my ball when in reality both are playable.

Now to get out there and film it so if I lose my way I can refer back to it.

If your natural swing is repeatable and gets you a repeatable ball flight you can account for it with your aim and strategy. You can score pretty well if you can eliminate 1/2 the trouble spots on the course. Sure its helpful to be able to work the ball both ways depending on the layout of the hole but just play smart on the holes that don't fit your swing. Limit high numbers and score well on the holes that fit. Like you said we all stray from 'our' swing to varying degrees and the challenge is getting back to it.

Yes this is exactly it. I constantly wanted to work the ball both ways all the time while hitting one shorter and straight will usually suffice on the courses I play vs trying to always hit a big draw or something. Just want to be on average sub 80 which is more than doable with a one way miss I feel

I’d kill to hit a fade. I’m a lefty and my miss has been right as long as I can remember. A few years ago I somehow acquired a fade for two days and I hit every fairway and found the course to suddenly be wide open, where I had always found it tight otherwise. I’ve never been able to recreate it, no matter what I’ve tried.

When I try to fade it, it makes my pull hook even farther right and curves even more...or I hit a big time push slice. So naturally I’ve stopped trying to hit them.

I just recently went through George Gankas’ section on shot shaping, and my mind is now blown. Path is made up of swing direction, angle of attack, and vertical swing plane. So I think I have an inside out swing direction but an “upward” angle of attack...so those should somewhat cancel each other out. But for me at least, they do not. My ball position is too forward though, which makes the path more out to in. So if my path and my AoA are already out to in, and I lined up right, seems all I would need to do is have the face a little right of the target and I should be hitting fades all day long.

But it ain’t working that way...so I’m going to have to study my swing habits a bit more to understand their effect on swing direction.

Honestly if you have a range I would just head there and put two alignment sticks down. One along your swing path/feet right of the target and one at the target. Clubface should point between them and favoring the target.

Drop some balls mid right thigh and start hitting 5i. Mess with the ball position until you can get it.

It's helped that I have more than enough depth in my backswing and need to consciously make sure that my hands work up in the swing as well or else I get too far around my body.

Food for thought man

Yep, very similar to how Gankas teaches it. Right now though my start lines are off, so I have to get that fixed first.

Thanks for the suggestion!

I'm a lefty and have a fade bias. I rarely play much on the right side of any fairway. It would be great to have more variety in my shotmaking but...I gotta play with what I got. I can trust the fade bias.

Had same issue and these 2 things really helped:

1) Hit bucket after bucket of 100yd fades at a specific target with my pw-8i (normally 140-170 clubs). My hooks were caused by lack of club face control, in to out path, and hanging back trying to hit up on the ball. Hitting an 8i 100 yds with a fade is the exact opposite of that.

2) Tee your driver very low and have the feel of swinging down on it (you won't be but it will keep you from hanging back and flipping)

A fade is setup. Aim left, flare face a few degrees. If you're having trouble, you're pulling accross it. Aiming left is enough.