Golf is a great sport because it can be played by people of all ages and gets you outdoors for exercise and social interaction with friends and business colleagues. But it can also be a frustrating game because of the difficulty of hitting that little white ball with any degree of consistency. The most common problems golfers have is the tendency to “slice” the ball.

A “slice” is the term use to describe what happens when a right handed golfer hits the ball so it has a very unimpressive curve to the right. As any reasonably knowledgeable golfer will tell you, the slice is the result of “coming across” the ball with an “outside in” swing. As the club moves towards the ball, the club strikes the ball in a slightly “open” position (facing slightly to the right). This action puts clockwise sidespin on the ball and as it moves through the air it curves to the right. The reverse happens with a left-handed golfer.

Exactly the same thing happens in baseball when a right handed batter hits the ball down the right field line or a left handed batter hits it down the left field line. The ball curves away from the field towards the foul line. This slicing action also happens in other sports where a bat or racquet is used to strike a ball - sports such as tennis, ping pong, racquet ball, and cricket. And even in sports where simply throwing the ball with clockwise sidespin makes it curve to the right - think of bowling, lawn bowling and curling for example.

In golf a slice is almost always something the golfer dreads and wants to eliminate. That’s because a slicing ball doesn’t go nearly as far because of the energy lost by the spinning, curving ball. The result is even worse in windy conditions where the increased wind resistance exaggerates the effects of sidespin. When you hit a slice into windy conditions the ball will appear to “balloon” up into the wind and sometimes appear to be coming back towards the golfer.

In spite of all the magical cures touted in magazine articles and golf videos, the only way to cure a slice is to learn to hit the ball correctly - with a square club face that is moving on a natural arc from slightly inside the line of flight. That’s because there is such a natural tendency to begin the swing by throwing their shoulders out at the ball. That gets the clubhead out there on the wrong side of the target line of flight - on the “outside” - and the only way to actually hit the ball from that position is to bring the clubhead back inside at an angle towards the ball. Hence the term “coming across” the ball.

Most beginning golfers have a difficult time understanding and visualizing this process. They think they are swinging on a perfectly square line straight through the ball and down the intended line of flight. But an experienced golfer who has already learned all about slices from his own struggles with the game can usually tell an outside in swing from 50 or 100 yards away without even watching the clubhead at all. There are certain moves that are so typical of a slice that they can be picked up almost immediately by an experienced golfer or golf instructor.

Which is exactly why a golf simulator can be such a valuable help in the struggle to overcome a slice. You have probably seen commercial locations that offer virtual rounds of golf, or facilities in some of the larger golf equipment chains that have an area that allows the buyer to try out golf clubs before making an expensive purchase.

Equipped with sensors, cameras, and a big-screen display, a golf simulator translates the details of a golf swing to ball motion on the display. Once the data on your particular swing is collected, you can view the results on a display. You can see an accurate representation of your swing, the actual flight path of your ball, your club face angle at impact, and exactly where and when the ball begins to turn, given all the variables that went into a particular swing. Most of the better units allow you to hit an untethered ball, and virtually play golf courses from all over the world.

If you are serious about curing your slice, there is no doubt that taking a analytical, objective look at your actual swing is the place to start. And there is no more effective way to get that kind of swing analysis than with a golf simulator.

A good home golf simulator system will let you work on your game for hours and hours till you groove the correct swing path. It will give you all the analytical tools you need to improve your swing. The better units will tell you your clubhead speed, your clubface angle at impact, your clubhead’s angle of approach to the ball, and how far the ball would have gone out on a real golf course.

Of course the technology cannot simulate the foul weather, wild winds, and rugged terrain that come into play on a real golf course. But perhaps these are factors that you can do without when you simply want to concentrate on grooving a new more effective swing.

Using a golf simulator is a great way to cure your slice. A Dancin’ Dogg home golf simulator gives you everything you need to improve your game. You can play golf in your home on some of the best golf courses in the world.

By N2H