Learning To Hit A Draw Essentially Ruins Your Swing?

[phizzy30]

9 hours ago, joekloo said:

Searching Youtube and based on my experience with 4 instructors over the past 10 years, most of them talk about the "baby draw" as the pinnacle of perfect golf shots.  Over the past 10 years (55 now) I my knowledge of the golf swing has improved significantly and with my current coach, whom I have been with for 3 years now, I said that I wanted to hit a fade as that is what my minds eye see's after so many years of fading/slicing.  But get to the point where it was a little more fade and less slice.  That has drastically changed the narrative of the lessons.  For many years I had 2-3 pull hooks in the bag as I was trying to do something that my body would not cooperate with so my hands just took over.  Now I no longer have any "pressure" to move the ball R to L and lessons are going much better.

 

I agree with your post.  Skilled players who want to go single digit should really learn to work ball in both directions and understand swing intricacies.  Average Joes just wanting to shoot in 80/90's and not loose 6 balls a round need to understand their body and minimize extremes.  

I would say that learning to work the ball both ways is an advantage but there are plenty of scratch or plus cap players that exclusively play one or the other and are very successful doing so.  Colin Morikawa is a good example.  The guy plays a fade exclusively with no intention of drawing one, even on shots where it would be almost indicative to do so. 

[Louis_Posture]

On 4/13/2023 at 3:29 AM, Denny100 said:

I wanted to post this as i dont really understand the logic why coaches will want to teach amateurs a draw, OTHER THAN the fact amateurs tend to slice.

 

But thats SLICING, a SLICE isnt just a "big fade".

 

If you for example make a ploy to play a draw off the tee, you would have to shift the swing path significantly to the right (to account for the upward angle of attack of the driver), and then when it comes to the irons, the swing path would end up being massively inside out and lead to a very unstable ball flight.

 

In this example, the amateur then has to aim their clubface more and more AWAY from the target to accompany the drastically inside out swing path.

 

It makes very lttle sense to me. Its just asking for trouble and terrible shot patterns left AND right.

 

Anyone else think this?

 

Not many players hit an honest, true draw.

The usual progression is that a beginning player slices the ball and after awhile learns that aiming left (to allow for the slice) is aggravating the problem. So he starts to align his body more square to the target and eventually lands on aiming right. The aimed-right body alignment promotes a right-to-left shot which he considers a "draw" but really the player is just aiming right and pulling the pall back towards the target.

A quality-honest-true draw is the player aligning square to the target line producing a shot that takes off a bit to the right and then draws back to the target.

[SollyinGA]

I’ve always heard that you should learn to draw the ball consistently before you try to learn the fade.

 

 

[ChipNRun]

 

From talking to long-time instructors who know their stuff, most of them will suggest a trajectory that matches the golfer's tendencies.

 

Especially in helping seniors tweak their swings, often the body will have swing tendencies related to old sports injuries, or simple deterioration like bad hips. In my case, I rotate takeaway about 70* and rotate through about 90*, so I play a fade ( for about everything except driver.

 

On 6/10/2023 at 5:55 PM, phizzy30 said:

I would say that learning to work the ball both ways is an advantage but there are plenty of scratch or plus cap players that exclusively play one or the other and are very successful doing so. 

 

Ah, yes... working the ball. Anyone who understands ball flight laws should be able to hit a basic fade or draw when needed. I understand a shape preference, but sometimes a snap hook or a slap slice is needed to get ball back into play.

 

Basic "either way" should be easier on tee shots: The ground is level (hope!), and you can adjust your tee height ⛳ to whatever you want. Pretty much maximum control. It's for shots off the deck that dominant shape gives the safety valve.