As any life-long purveyor of the big right miss would tell you, any number of things can lead to the block-slice. The big banana slice that soars right of right. It’s brutal to your scorecard and even worse to your psyche.
For me, the big right miss most often shows up when I am swaying within my swing. The rhythmic motion of the backswing into the violent opposite motion of the downswing can lead to a lot of unnecessary movement. Especially for a former baseball player.
Thankfully, I’ll always have Paula Creamer.
During an Adidas photoshoot last year, I asked Creamer for one thing that she always goes back to when she’s struggling. Her reset-button swing-thought, so to say. The lasting mindset she needs to square her game up again. She said she occasionally deals with swaying issues as well! My queen! I was in luck.
Creamer said that whenever she’s got too much extra movement in her swing, she thinks about barrels. As in an old wooden beer barrel, hollow in the middle and standing about waist-high. Creamer thinks as though she’s swinging while standing in one of those barrels, which keeps her from moving significantly left to right.
Think about it yourself! Lean too far right in one of those barrels and you’re toppling over. As Creamer told us in the video below, she knows how important turning is within her swing, but turning doesn’t require lateral movement. If she’s swinging within the barrel and knows how important it is to turn, there’s really just one way to do it.
She adds a little pre-shot routine where she steps backward with her rear foot to really feel that turn before she wails away at the golf ball. Simple enough? It’s worked for me plenty of times. Check out her breakdown of the swing-thought below.