How To Shape The Ball The Opposite Way (Video) - by Pete Styles
How To Shape The Ball The Opposite Way (Video) - by Pete Styles

So if we’ve established that you have a go to shot, now let’s look at whether we can make a change to that ball flight to actually shape the ball the opposite direction. So let’s suggest my go to shot was initially a draw. My go to is coming from the inside here, hitting out to the right with the clubface, it’s aiming slightly more left down the swing path. So the face is to the left more and the swing path is to the right more, and that’s shaping the ball from right to left. So to alter that I need to change both elements, I need to change my swing path to make that more out to in, and I need to change my clubface to make it more open. So the first thing I would try and achieve is lifting the golf club up and accost the golf ball more from the outside to the inside in my downswing, and have the clubface slightly more open as I hit the ball. So that might feel like I am releasing my hands less or I am utilizing less forearm rotation through impact to try and keep the face to the right of the swing path. Now one of the quickest ways of trying to feel like I am picking the golf club up a little bit more is actually to move nearer to the golf ball.

So if I stand nearer to the golf ball I’ve got less room to swing around myself, I would feel like I have to lift the club up and come back across the golf ball a little bit more. And that could improve my left to right shape. I would however, be very, very careful of moving too near to the golf ball in case I started to make bad strikes, mishit shots, off balance and shanks and that sort of stuff, but if you’ve got a draw, turn it into a fade, steepen the backswing, steepen the downswing, leave the face to the right a little bit more. And then the opposite would go for the fade shot turning the fade into a draw, if I was a fader of the ball I would be picking it up and bringing it across with the face open, if I wanted to try and draw that shot I am going to try and bring the club more from the inside, attack out to the right, and roll the face, if the face is more left than the swing path; quick easy cheating way of doing that might be just to aim down the right side. So effectively just drop that right foot back a little bit, pointing that left shoulder down the right side as well, that should encourage the swing path out to the right hand side more, I have just got to be careful I don’t leave the face to the right, because with the fading swing, the face was open in relation to the path. If the path is now right and the face is still open I am going to big old blocks down this right hand side, so I can change my feet position, shoulder position to change my path, but I also have to do something with the clubface. So whenever you are changing from a draw to a fade, fade to a draw; understand you’re changing path, but you are also changing face and the relationship between the two. And that’s hopefully going to help you understand how you can change from your go to shot and shape the ball the opposite direction.
2015-10-16

So if we’ve established that you have a go to shot, now let’s look at whether we can make a change to that ball flight to actually shape the ball the opposite direction. So let’s suggest my go to shot was initially a draw. My go to is coming from the inside here, hitting out to the right with the clubface, it’s aiming slightly more left down the swing path. So the face is to the left more and the swing path is to the right more, and that’s shaping the ball from right to left. So to alter that I need to change both elements, I need to change my swing path to make that more out to in, and I need to change my clubface to make it more open. So the first thing I would try and achieve is lifting the golf club up and accost the golf ball more from the outside to the inside in my downswing, and have the clubface slightly more open as I hit the ball. So that might feel like I am releasing my hands less or I am utilizing less forearm rotation through impact to try and keep the face to the right of the swing path. Now one of the quickest ways of trying to feel like I am picking the golf club up a little bit more is actually to move nearer to the golf ball.

So if I stand nearer to the golf ball I’ve got less room to swing around myself, I would feel like I have to lift the club up and come back across the golf ball a little bit more. And that could improve my left to right shape. I would however, be very, very careful of moving too near to the golf ball in case I started to make bad strikes, mishit shots, off balance and shanks and that sort of stuff, but if you’ve got a draw, turn it into a fade, steepen the backswing, steepen the downswing, leave the face to the right a little bit more. And then the opposite would go for the fade shot turning the fade into a draw, if I was a fader of the ball I would be picking it up and bringing it across with the face open, if I wanted to try and draw that shot I am going to try and bring the club more from the inside, attack out to the right, and roll the face, if the face is more left than the swing path; quick easy cheating way of doing that might be just to aim down the right side.

So effectively just drop that right foot back a little bit, pointing that left shoulder down the right side as well, that should encourage the swing path out to the right hand side more, I have just got to be careful I don’t leave the face to the right, because with the fading swing, the face was open in relation to the path. If the path is now right and the face is still open I am going to big old blocks down this right hand side, so I can change my feet position, shoulder position to change my path, but I also have to do something with the clubface. So whenever you are changing from a draw to a fade, fade to a draw; understand you’re changing path, but you are also changing face and the relationship between the two. And that’s hopefully going to help you understand how you can change from your go to shot and shape the ball the opposite direction.