More on how to stay clear of trouble on the right (1)

To stay clear of trouble on the right, you need to know how to keep push at bay. Push, also called “block,” is a nasty shot that starts to the right and continues to fly straight along this path. Although the ball travels to the right, push shots belong to the hook family. You will have a push thrust on you if you deliver the clubhead to the ball from excessively inside the target line. This faulty move, coupled with the clubface square to the swing path, has a push thrust on you.

A push usually feels solid. Typically, better players commit this fault. Probably, you’ve moved your body ahead of the ball as you start down. That plays havoc with your ability to swing toward the target and rotate the clubface. You’ll swing to the right of the target.

If you are still wrestling with the nasty blocks, here are several tips that will save you from your despondency. You will stop finding your ball in the rough on the right for your next shot. You will also stop helplessly watching your ball going astray into the dis- astrous trouble on the right. One more article about curing the push will follow next week.

Picking your club up too steeply

Picking your club up too steeply can cause you to drop your club too far to the inside. That causes you to get your club stuck behind your body. This holds true of good players. You need to compensate for it by looping your club to inside the target line at the start of the downswing. However, adjust- ing the swing path is no easy matter. Typically, you will compensate too much, thus hitting your ball too much from inside the target line, with the clubface open.

Average golfers will yank the club down with an over-the-top move. This causes pulls and slices.

Too far inside a takeaway

If you take your club back excessively inside the target line, you’ll deliver it to your ball from inside the target line. This causes your right elbow and club to fall down behind your right hip. That will in turn inflict pushes on you if you are a good player.

Average golfers will cast the club outside the target line as they start the downswing, coming over the top. They will cut across the ball, having pulls and slices thrust on them.

Too far inside a takeaway stems from allowing your hands and arms to roll too much during the takeaway. To keep your hands from rolling excessively, imagine you’re making a long putt. You will keep your clubface staying looking at the ball longer, swinging the club along the target line.

Or, keep your clubhead staying outside your hands for as long as you can as you swing your club back. To this end, keep the angle created on your left wrist at address on the backswing. You will feel as if you are pushing your clubhead outside the target line as you swing back. This, coupled with your left shoulder turning down slightly, will let your club working on plane and on the correct path.

Allowing the club to cross the line

The sole purpose of the backswing is to align the club correctly so you can release it correctly: slightly from inside the target line. If you complete your backswing properly, the club shaft will be almost horizontal to the ground and parallel to the target line. Allow- ing the club to cross the line causes an excessively in-to-out swing path, inflicting a push on you. Finish your backswing so your club shaft does not point too much right of the target.

Tilting your right shoulder too much

If you tilt your right shoulder too much as you start down, you’ll swing too much from inside to outside the target line. That leaves your right elbow sitting behind your hip, which puts your club behind you. This, in turn, pushes you to swing to the right of the target, with your clubface open. If the clubface is square to the swing path, you will hit a straight push. If the clubface stays open to the swing path, you will have a push-slice thrust on you.

Avoid moving your right shoulder too low on the downswing to hit your ball with an upward blow. For an upward blow, you’d better take a wider stance so your spine tilts more to the right at address.