So if we now understand that a golf ball when it’s struck will generally have backspin on it. The club will lift the ball up into the sky and it’s got backspin on it. We've also got to consider the elements of sidespin, now sidespin is a bit of a vague term because the golf ball doesn’t actually spin sideways, it wouldn’t be able to spin backwards and sideways at the same time, but it’s a well used and commonly used and actually it’s a commonly understood term, so I will keep utilizing it. So the ball is back spinning, so if it’s got some sidespin what actually happens is the axis of the ball changes slightly and it tilts a little bit and it starts to rotate this way. So consider it’s like a set of aeroplane wings, if you're flying straight you can fly up by back spinning slightly, but also if you tilt you'd fly up and on a curve. And that’s effectively what happens with a golf ball, the axis tilts and therefore it curves. So a ball is back spinning but then it has some tilted backspin as well and it will curve in flight. And generally we see golfers who don’t want to curve the ball, curve the ball too much and then sometimes the better players are trying to curve the ball and can't curve the ball. So if we can control the amount and the direction that a golf ball curves we can either stop slicing it into the trees or as a better player you could draw it around the corner or you fade it around the dog leg. So understanding you can controlling that sidespin curve on a golf ball can be a very, very important skill.

Now we got to consider, well how does the golf ball get sidespin and what will affect this? Generally the sidespin is created by an issue where the swing path and the club face position aren’t aligned. So the swing path could be travelling one way, now swing path is the direction the club is travelling into the golf ball and then the club face is literally the direction the club face is aiming and they're not always the same and when they're not the same the ball will have a degree of sidespin. When the difference between the face angle and the path is bigger, the amount of sidespin can increase as well and the ball can start to curve off more. Now generally you'll see bigger differences when you're using your longer clubs, so it’s actually very difficult to hit a driver shot perfectly straight, even if you think you’ve hit it straight it’s generally got a degree or shape or curve and that’s created by the sidespin. Because very rarely will your path and face relationship ever be perfectly bang on the same, so the ball will generally have some curve.

So if we look at why does the ball curve from left to right, why does the ball slice, which is the most common shot for a lot of club golfers as they slice the ball from left to right? Generally speaking, that’s created by a path that is on an out to in angle, the path is going to the left and the ball curves because the club face is aiming more to the right than the path. Now the club face can be aiming left or right of target but it’s just left of the path – sorry it's right of the path to fade the ball. So the swing path is out to in and the club face is right off the path, club face we would say is open, open to the path on the ball curves. And the opposite relates to a draw or a hook where the path is to the right and the club face is to the left, we would call that necessarily a closed club face, closed to the path. So swinging to the right and the club face is aiming more to the left. And that’s how you can intentionally create spin. And I think you know trying to draw the ball, trying to fade the ball, that’s a skill for the better, more proficient golfers, but I think initially if you're slicing the ball or hooking the ball uncontrollably, understand how you need to control that, how it’s happening, how you can correct it then you can start to look at trying to improve the accuracy or even curving the ball the opposite direction. Have a little good understanding of how the ball curves and hopefully that will help improve your game.