What Causes a Golf Slice?

Everybody has sliced a golf ball at some time, even Tiger woods, but if you understand what causes a golf slice, then you will be better prepared to deal with it when it happens to you.

The effect of a golf slice is that the ball starts off in the right direction after you hit it, but then starts to turn right. This right hand curve then gets more and more severe until the ball lands a long way right of the target. If you are left handed, the effect is the opposite, and the ball curves to the left. The rest of this article will apply in the opposite way for those of you who are left handed golfers.

Thats the effect, but what does it mean in numbers? By how much will my ball land away to the right? In order to understand that you also have to understand why the ball moves as it does, and what causes it to do it. Lets look at the last one first. What causes your slice?

You will slice a ball because you impart a clockwise spin on it when you hit it. When the ball leaves the tee, or the lie, and it is spinning in a clockwise direction, then it will slice it will curve out to the right. There is only one geometric condition in which that can happen, but there are two basic ways in which you can create that condition. To understand that, you have to envisage in your mind the plane of the club face in relation to the direction of your drive. Write a diagram down on a piece of paper if it helps. It might be easier to understand that way.

The direction of your shot is the direction in which your club is going when it hits the ball and follows through. This might or might not be towards the intended target that is irrelevant to the slice. The plane of your clubface is a straight line drawn across the face of your club at the moment of strike. Ideally, that line should be straight across the ball, or dead square to it. A perfect shot is when the direction of your shot is straight at the target, and the clubface is square to that direction.

The ball then goes straight to the target with no sidespin. There will be a backspin, since golf clubs are designed to impart a backspin to the golf ball in order to make it travel farther (more on that later).

You spin the ball if your clubface is not square to the direction of your shot at the moment of strike. This will happen whether or not your shot is in the right direction. It is the angle between your clubface and the direction your shot that matters. If your shot is straight to the target, but your clubface is open when you hit that ball, that is if the clubface has not quite straightened up, and is pointing backwards, when it hits the ball, then you will impart that clockwise spin. The clubface will swipe the ball rather than hit it straight on.

The second way to spin the ball clockwise is if your clubface is straight on to the target when it strikes the golf ball, but you are driving across the ball, from right to left. In that case, there is still an angle between the clubface and the direction of your drive, slicing the ball, and putting that clockwise spin on.

When a golf ball is spinning through the air, the dimples are designed to accentuate the effect of air pressure. That is the reason for the backspin that your clubs put on the ball. The dimples increase the effect of air pressure between the top and bottom of the ball so that there is more pressure on the side that is spinning towards the direction of flow: the bottom of the ball that is spinning forward. The top is spinning back (hence backspin). This forces the ball upwards and so extends its period in the air, and thus increases the length of the drive.

However, if you spin the ball sideways, the same principles apply. In the clockwise spin imparted by a slice the left hand side of the ball is spinning in the direction of travel, and the right hand side away from it. Just as there is more pressure on the bottom of a backspun ball, there is then more pressure on the left hand side of a sliced ball, and the ball is pushed to the right. It doesnt happen right away since it takes time to happen.

Have you ever seen a drive in slow motion? The ball travels slightly upward for a while and then starts to increase in elevation. The same happens with a slice. It travels almost straight for the first 80 100 yards, and then heads off right. Over 200 yards it moves 7-8 yards for every degree that the clubface is out of line with the direction of your swing, so if you are four degrees off (not a lot!) your ball will land 28 32 yards right of target. How many greens or fairways will you hit then?

Thats what causes your slice, so now you should be able to work out ways to get your clubface closed quicker, or to be more accurate with the line of your drive. That, however, is another subject.

This article was brought to you by CapitalistLife.com, your best resource for earning, keeping and enjoying wealth. Visit us to learn more about Golf.

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FIFA World Cup 2006 England Glory - 1966 / 2006

It surely has a nice ring to it and would be a dream come true for the plethora of England fans who have never yet witnessed the creator of the beautiful game bring home the goods.

Although England have a pretty favourable group, with Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago, and the dreaded Sweden; they will come through the group stages to the finals and then, with a bit of luck, stomp all over the opposition with verve and tenacity; if Wayne Rooney keeps his head that is.

As well as being a serious contender for the coveted Golden Boot Award, if England do indeed progress, Wayne Rooney is the key to Englands success in World Cup 2006 and the rest of the team and world know it. The guy is a physiological freak in terms of the sheer power and depth of attack in his possession and will simply rip through the best defences that any of the worlds toughest may throw his way. He already proved this in Euro 2004, Portugal, where he was a constant worry for the opposition and, of course, does so every week at Old Trafford.

Wayne Rooney is simply one man, though, and cannot do the job alone; he will need pace man magician Michael Owen at his very best, Beckham curling em in sweetly from the right, Frank Lampard bulldozing through the middle and Mr Sven Goran Eriksson not doing his usual trick of messing with formations and pulling off players at the wrong moment. In fact, England hasnt had such a brilliant compilation of players in years; its whether they can gel at the right time and do what the England rugby lads did in 2003.

One thing is certain though and perhaps will never change; anyone and everyone faced with England, ups their game rate by a noticeable margin. It seems that everyone wants to beat the Auld Enemy; hardly surprising beings as the country with the once largest of empires has, at one time or another, trounced on or been instrumental in shaping the modern world as we know it. It seems logical that someone would want to get their own back by beating the national football team.

Many of the England naysayers believe that the England team lacks the personality and passion to bring home the cup. Although a personality is great for the cameras, the one ingredient that is surely more important is playing the game of football and scoring goals, and with the current England line up we have the best chance since 1966. Roll on World Cup 2006

Denise Austin S Pilates And Yoga Trainer Systems

Inexpensive PCs as CNC Machine Controllers

Part I, Utilizing an off the shelf PC as a CNC Controller

There are two main groups that can take advantage of todays low cost PCs as an effective and inexpensive CNC controller.

Retrofits to existing CNC machines with outdated or proprietary controls in need of service.

Shop built and home built CNC machines.

Inexpensive PCs can cost as little as $150.00 and yet provide a dependable and effective CNC machine controller. Some sources to consider for obtaining such a system are outpost.com and dell.com. Oupost.com is an outlet for Frys electronics. They have one PC on sale ranging from $150.00 to $199.00. Several have successfully used this PC in conjunction with MACH2 CNC controller software.

Tradeoffs: Price vs. Quality. With the lowest cost PCs there a tradeoff in performance, quality, and reliability. The manufacturers of these machines use low cost hardware in their manufacture and they make compromises in the design of the systems to keep their costs down. Inexpensive hardware translates directly to a higher failure rate and more difficult to obtain manufacturer support. This can be a deciding factor by itself if you rely on this machine for production.

Design compromises which are common in low cost PC have an impact on performance. The primary concerns are: insufficient memory, the use of shared memory, and on-board graphics devices. The primary hardware requirements for a PC based CNC controller are sufficient memory, and sufficient processor speed. You can see that the compromises present in these systems are in direct opposition to the requirements for CNC controller.

At the bottom end of the Inexpensive PC market there are off the self solutions that will function well as a PC based CNC controller. As with all things, you tend to get what you pay for, so the buyer is advised to be aware of the requirements and limitations that are in play.

Part II in this series of articles will examine an alternative to buying an off the shelf solution and explore building a PC to meet your specifications.

Tampa Yoga Cl