Curing pushes, push-hooks and push-slices

As with everything in life, without proper preparation it's impossible to produce the necessary shot in a particular situation. With poor pre-swing preparation there is absolutely no way that you can swing a club with unhurried grace and hit the ball firmly on the sweet spot of the clubface.

Once you've mastered pre-swing preparation, including grip, aim, alignment, posture and ball position, it's time to learn the ball flight law: the ball starts to travel where the clubhead goes and continues flying straight or curves to the left or right at the end depending on the clubface alignment at impact.

There are nine types of ball flight: straight, straight-slice, straight-hook; push, push-slice, push-hook; pull, pull-slice, pull-hook. Ball flight tells everything about your swing, helping detect and fix the roots of swing errors.

Having a good grasp of ball flight law, you can nail the causes of unwanted shots by simply identifying their shape _ where the ball starts to travel and then which way it curves at the end. Here are some ways to keep push-related problems at bay.

Push

It's a severe misunderstanding to regard a push to the right of the target as a slice simply because both shots fly to the right of the intended spot. A push should not be included in the slice family. It belongs with the hook. A push is a blocked shot resulted from swinging too much from inside the ball-target line to outside but a slice is caused largely by an out-to-in swing.

A push can result from the ball position being too far back toward the right foot in your stance.

You'd better place the ball slightly forward toward the target. That presents little chance of swinging on an excessive in-to-out path.

Similarly, allowing your lower body to slide too far to the left toward the target at the early part of the downswing causes the club to drop behind your body, leaving you with no option but to swing severely from the inside.

To prevent a push you are better focusing on turning your chest or belly or both toward the target through the shot.

Push-hook

Advanced golfers oftentimes fight a push-hook, where the ball starts to the right and then curves severely left at the end of its flight.

A push is thrust upon you when the clubhead works on an in-to-out swing path with the clubface remaining square in relation to its path at impact. A push-hook results from the same in-to-out swing path but the only difference is the clubface alignment at impact is closed.

An immoderately in-to-out swing path, coupled with a closed clubface, causes a pull-hook.

Players suffering from a push-hook would be better adopting a slightly weaker grip and trying to maintain a side tilt of the spine created at address throughout the swing. That allows not just swinging down on the proper path and plane without closing the clubface, but also accelerating the clubhead speed through the ball without worrying about a hook.

Push-slice

The roots of a push-slice are an improper clubhead path that is too much from inside to out and an inappropriate open clubface alignment. The ball starts right, then curves further right. A push-slice is the opposite of a pull-slice. An out-to-in path of the clubhead through the shot is typical of a pull-slice.

Without a doubt, the root cause of this error is an open clubface at impact but other crucial factors are improper grip, ball position, stance and body balance.

To fix this fault you need to move the ball a little forward toward the target and keep your body, particularly your shoulders parallel to the ball-target line. Positioning the ball too far back toward your right foot in your stance causes the ball to start flying to the right.

Also crucial is to improve upper body rotation and decrease lower body movement during the forward swing. To encourage upper body rotation it's as well to keep the center of gravity behind the ball both at address and impact. Focus on turning your chest or belly toward the target through the shot without excessive lateral hip movement to the left toward the target at the early stage of the downswing.