Why You Need This:

Have you ever wondered how the bombers on tour can hit a 300 plus yard Power Fade? I had the same question for years.

Then one day I was watching some of the biggest hitters on the PGA hit fades with their driver and it dawned on me…

They AREN’T hitting “outside in” as I had been taught to hit a fade.

They were hitting from “inside in.”

I will explain to you how this happens and how you can use a trailing force of the club to hit a fade farther than you ever thought possible.

What's Covered: How to hit a power fade without swinging over the top and losing distance.

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 5:07

Video Transcription:

 Hi guys, and welcome back, today we’re going to talk about the power fade.

It’s a widely misunderstood shot, and it all ties back in to when we talked about the speed drill, and how that club follows the force that I’m putting into the handle and how the mass of the club head is going to want to release if I’m doing things correctly.

So even when we’re hitting a fade, we still want the head of the club, the center of mass of the club, to be trying to catch up to the hands so that club is going to release out in front of our body.

The only thing we’re going to do differently, is we’re going to go ahead and hold open the face a little bit, so that we don’t roll it over.

So let me go over really quickly again what the speed drill is, how it’s going to help you to get speed.

So when I’m going to my target, let’s imagine I’m going to this first white flag right out in front, this blue flag actually, the white post.

But if I’m coming down perfectly on plane again, and the plane of my club is when we go from the hosel of my club up through my elbow at address, my right elbow, and that’s going to give me my club lean.

Now if I’m coming down and I’m perfectly on plane, my club is going to be very, very consistent as we’re coming through.

If my club gets a little inside the plane, it’s automatically going to want to release out to the right, and the face is going to want to roll on over.

If I’m to the outside of the plane, so if I’m coming over the top, an over the top swing, now my face is going to want to fall back and come open.

So this is people that are hitting a slice, it’s a big moving slice, a big divot, so don’t get a lot of distance and you really struggle getting a lot of power into the slice.

That’s when the club head is outside this plane.

So to demonstrate again how this works, if I had the club inside this plane, I’m putting the force of the handle towards the target, and I pull on this handle, you’ll see how that club head wants to kick out.

It wants to release out toward the target, it wants to turn on over and kick out.

If I do the opposite, and my face is outside, the center of mass is outside the direction I’m putting the force, it wants to kick in.

So people that are struggling with a big, weak fade, or a weak slice, that’s what’s happening.

Your club is coming over the top, and then as you’re coming through this face is falling back away from the target, it’s actually slowing down as it moves away from the target, and the face is rolling open like this.

So it’s going here, and then rolling open.

If we want to hit a power fade, what that means is, as we’re coming to the inside we’re going to be slightly under plane, our club head’s going to be slightly inside the plane here.

And then I’m going to pull my hands back in to the left, and at the same time I’m going to hold open the face as my club releases. So my face is still a little bit open here.

What that’s going to do is that’s still going to get the acceleration of the club coming through contact.

My club’s going to want to kick out this way. But since I’m holding open the face and pulling back in to the left, as I’m coming through contact, my club face is actually working back in to the left as I’m coming through contact.

So for a long time it really confused me as to how the big hitters, the JB Holmes, or Bubba Watsons, how they’re hitting that fade with so much power, but then I realized they’re still getting the release of the club shaft.

They’re getting the release of the club head because they still are slightly under plane, that they’re just pulling their hands back in to the left and holding off to get that fade.

So if I do this correctly, what you’ll see, and sorry I don’t have my slow motion camera out today.

But what you’ll see is I’m going to be a little under plane, and then I’m going to pull my hands back and to the left, I’m going to hold the face a little bit open, and I’m going to get a fade but it’s also going to be very powerful.

One last thing to key in on here, if we’re going to play a fade, normal ball position is off the logo of my shirt, or my left ear.

I’m going to play that ball about a half a ball forward in my stance.

That way as I’m coming into contact I give my club time to work back in to the left.

So let’s go ahead and try this out. Of course now I have it set up where I can demonstrate this.

So even though my club head is going to be working right to left across the ball as I’m coming through impact, and my face is going to be open.

Because the club head in relationship to my hands is inside my hands, or as that club is working inside my hands, that club is still going to kick forward which is going to still allow me to get that good amount of power.

So if I do this correctly, what you’ll see here is that ball will start out a left of that flag, and I’ll still have a lot of power on this, and it will be a nice solid hit shot.

There you go, so that faded, that started probably you know, 10-15 feet left of the stick, and faded back in to about 5 feet to the left of the stick, so had a nice little fade on it.

So good luck to you guys, that’s how you do the power fade, I will warn you it is a bit of an advanced technique.

This isn’t for everybody, it’s not going to be for a beginning golfer.

We don’t need to know how to hit the power fade, and the draw, and all that kind of stuff.

But as we get more advanced, and we get closer and closer to getting that scratch handicap, we can start learning to hit the ball both ways, fade, draw, high, and low, and you’re going to have complete control of your game.

So good luck on the power fade, I’ll see you guys soon.