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.

Slicing happens when a right handed golfer hits the ball so it has a uncontrollable 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 sweeps across 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.

In many sports curving the ball like this is an important part of the game. Ping pong and tennis players, for instance, want the ball to curve as it approaches their opponent and then bounce off the paddle or racquet at an odd angle making it more difficult for the opponent to control the return.

In golf a slice is almost always a negative thing the golfer wants to get rid of. 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 almost 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.

Beginning golfers often cannot properly visualize what is happening with their swing. 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. These tendencies are so universal that an experienced golfer can pick them up almost immediately.

Which is exactly why a golf simulator can be such a valuable help in the struggle to cure a slice. You may have noticed 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.

There are now even high quality units that you can set up right in your home. Rather than spending hundreds of dollars at an indoor driving range or virtual golf facility for an hour or two of practice every week, you can have your own quality golf simulator right in your rec room, basement or garage.

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.