Hitting a Power Fade is All About Controlling the Club Face (Video) - by Pete Styles
Hitting a Power Fade is All About Controlling the Club Face (Video) - by Pete Styles

So we’re going to now work on how to hit a power fade. We’ve looked at the benefits of it, now if we look at how we hit it, it’s really all about understanding the relationship between the swing path and the club face position at impact. And if we can understand how to control the club face, we can control the amount of curvature and the amount of shape on the shot. So a power fade is generally going to be caused by a swing path that’s left of target and the club face that is less left of target. So effectively the club face is open in relation to the swing path but not necessarily open in relation to the target. So if we look down the line here and this is the direction we’re going to try and hit the ball, so down between these two ropes if you like. If the swing path was out swinging and coming across, coming left, that would set the ball out with a bit of left to right spin if the club face was more open.

So let’s say I want to set the ball off just inside this left hand rope. I’m going to point my club face just inside that left hand rope. That would then sort of make 85% influence if you want to get technical, the club face creates 85% influence over where that ball would start. So if the club face is down the left hand rope, that’s pretty much where the ball is going to start. But then if my club swing is more left than that, so my swing is coming more left than the face then the ball will move away from my swing path because my swing path was aggressively left, my club face was less left. The ball starts on the club face, moves away from the path and that’s how I create my power fade. Now often we’ll see golfers come a bit unstuck because they swing left intending to create a power fade but then they shut the face. So if we were swinging left by 10 degrees down this left hand side of the fairway but then I also put my club face 10 degrees left, it’s square to path, the ball just goes dead straight. It goes dead straight 10 degrees left and goes for miles by the way, just goes booosh, straight down the left side. Then one says, oh I thought only that was down the middle. But you were swinging left and shut the face. So of course it’s going to go straight down that left side. So hitting a power fade is all about understanding keeping the club face open in relation to the swing path to the correct degree. If the club face was too open as in it was pointing the right hand side of my intended fairway, so let’s point the club face down that right hand side too much and then swing way left, the ball would jump out to the right and then move further right, that’s your slice or that’s your block slice should I even say that you know big balloon out right and then goes further right. Not a power fade because we said power fade starts left of fairway and comes back. So we got to be able to consider how we keep that face a bit more open during the downswing. So from the top of the swing, we’re coming out to it and swinging left and we need to hold this position for impact. We’re not having the right hand hooking over and smothering it and hitting that low left hook. We’re almost going to feel like we’ll holding off the finish position here. It can sort of feel like a punch or even a pitching technique while we don’t let the hands whip over and release. But it’s an out to in, slightly held off finish creating that nice left to right shape. Hitting a power fade is all about controlling the path to face relationship. Hold off the face to hit the power fade.
2015-08-12

So we’re going to now work on how to hit a power fade. We’ve looked at the benefits of it, now if we look at how we hit it, it’s really all about understanding the relationship between the swing path and the club face position at impact. And if we can understand how to control the club face, we can control the amount of curvature and the amount of shape on the shot. So a power fade is generally going to be caused by a swing path that’s left of target and the club face that is less left of target. So effectively the club face is open in relation to the swing path but not necessarily open in relation to the target. So if we look down the line here and this is the direction we’re going to try and hit the ball, so down between these two ropes if you like. If the swing path was out swinging and coming across, coming left, that would set the ball out with a bit of left to right spin if the club face was more open.

So let’s say I want to set the ball off just inside this left hand rope. I’m going to point my club face just inside that left hand rope. That would then sort of make 85% influence if you want to get technical, the club face creates 85% influence over where that ball would start. So if the club face is down the left hand rope, that’s pretty much where the ball is going to start. But then if my club swing is more left than that, so my swing is coming more left than the face then the ball will move away from my swing path because my swing path was aggressively left, my club face was less left. The ball starts on the club face, moves away from the path and that’s how I create my power fade.

Now often we’ll see golfers come a bit unstuck because they swing left intending to create a power fade but then they shut the face. So if we were swinging left by 10 degrees down this left hand side of the fairway but then I also put my club face 10 degrees left, it’s square to path, the ball just goes dead straight. It goes dead straight 10 degrees left and goes for miles by the way, just goes booosh, straight down the left side. Then one says, oh I thought only that was down the middle. But you were swinging left and shut the face. So of course it’s going to go straight down that left side. So hitting a power fade is all about understanding keeping the club face open in relation to the swing path to the correct degree.

If the club face was too open as in it was pointing the right hand side of my intended fairway, so let’s point the club face down that right hand side too much and then swing way left, the ball would jump out to the right and then move further right, that’s your slice or that’s your block slice should I even say that you know big balloon out right and then goes further right. Not a power fade because we said power fade starts left of fairway and comes back. So we got to be able to consider how we keep that face a bit more open during the downswing. So from the top of the swing, we’re coming out to it and swinging left and we need to hold this position for impact. We’re not having the right hand hooking over and smothering it and hitting that low left hook. We’re almost going to feel like we’ll holding off the finish position here. It can sort of feel like a punch or even a pitching technique while we don’t let the hands whip over and release. But it’s an out to in, slightly held off finish creating that nice left to right shape. Hitting a power fade is all about controlling the path to face relationship. Hold off the face to hit the power fade.