Golf monthly looks at the different elements of a golf swing that affect the loft you should play on your driver. With a level attack angle and an attack angle of 3degree up, i averaged more than 20 feet of consistency in dispersion compared to swings with the attack angles of 5degree up or 3degrees down. How to create an upward angle of attack for more driver distance. Attack angle myths and misconceptions adam young golf. Fitting drivers for attack angle dlance golfdlance golf. Launch angle is determined by the clubs loft angle and the angle of attack at impact. Kyle morris driving attack angle tips golf channel. Before i get into specifics of how to shallow your golf swing for more consistent shots, its important to understand the why behind it. He is playing a 6 degree lofted driver but his angle of attack is positive 5 to 7 degrees. Below, well get into why you should be paying attention to attack angle, and what you can do to make important adjustments.
In english, angle of attack is the direction the club head is moving up or down at maximum compression. The head of the driver should hit the golf ball at a slightly upward angle. Golf clubs require a different angle of attack depending on the club in order to hit a quality shot. Drivers, angle of attack, spin axis association of golf. Having a positive attack angle does not guarantee maximum distance. Club head speed also plays an important factor in attack angle. The attack angle is a measurement of how steep or shallow your clubhead is moving through impact, and it has a direct effect on how much distance you are able to generate with the driver. But the same club can produce very different launch angles in the hands of different golfers based on the other factors. This quest was a great mystery until the trackman launch monitor was invented. For example the numbers below are from some 8irons i hit. How to create an upward angle of attack for more driver. You can add all of the loft in the world to a driver, but you wont be changing the angle of attack. When the ball is hit on the upswing, the shots launch angle is greater than the driver s measured loft because the heads loft is tilted upward by the swing.
In this article, i want to shed a little more light about how i practice with skytrak since many of us are heading into the golf offseason, and interest in home golf simulators and practice tools is increasing. The attack angle, a measurement of how steep or shallow the clubhead is moving relative to the ground through impact, plays a vital role in how much distance youre able to generate off the tee. Simply put the definition of static loft is the loft on the physical club itself. This angle will generally change and become less steep or downward the longer the club we play. First, if we take a frontal view of the golf swing, the shape of the swing looks like a. Most amateurs fall somewhere between a 4 and 6 degrees down with the driver. And now we know from experience that it is possible to get more driver distance and that it comes from understanding the affect of angle of attack a. Improve your angle of attack with golf drivers video by. I will highlight a few key areas on how i practice effectively with skytrak, and more importantly, have fun doing it.
The biggest influences on angle of attack are the swing radius, the swing plane and the low point position. Many factors affect launch angle, including swing speed, the angle of attack how the clubface approaches the golf ball and clubface position at impact. With the driver, you ideally want a positive number so you are hitting up on the ball, reducing the spin and therefore maximising distance. If you dont shallow out your golf swing on the way down, its nearly impossible to make consistent contact at impact. Angle of attack is a crucial element in the golf swing. And notice how the the attack angle has turned positive along the way its now 3. Understanding that dynamic loft is 85 percent of your balls launch angle and angle of attack is 15 percent of your balls launch angle, we now see that the dynamic loft of this shot hit was a touch too low. This gives him a 11 to degree launch angle which is perfect for his ball speed of just over 200 mph. Golf channel academy lead coach kyle morris explains how to improve your driving swing path for greater distance and accuracy. Trackman defines the angle of attack as the vertical direction of the club heads geometric center movement at maximum compression of the golf ball.
The angle of attack in the golf swing is one of the most critical pieces to understand if you want to become a ball flight master. Often we find most amateurs will swing too steeply into the ball, between a 4 and 6 descending blow. For example, when hitting a driver, its important to have a positive angle of attack to achieve the most distance. With shorter irons you want to see a negative attack angle so that you are hitting down on the all. Now when i hit a driver, if i want to maximize my distance, its best that i have a positive angle of attack, so that the club head is traveling on an upward motion as it comes in contact with the golf. With your driver, you want to positive angle of attack hitting up creating less spin on the ball. With the driver, if your current shot trajectory is lower to much lower than the majority of other golfers using the same driver loft, you likely have a downward angle of attack. The answer is yes, you can it has to do with the golf swing angle of attack that you are using to strike the ball. Causes and fixes for negative attack angle trackman golf. Probably the biggest single factor on angle of attack is the position of the low point relative to the golf ball. Attack angle is simply the angle of which you are attacking the ball at. For example, many drivers have a loft stamped on the bottom of the club head such as 9.
Get more driver distance with a positive angle of attack. Understanding attack angle and why it matters for your. With a slightly upward angle of attack rather than downwarda lowerlofted driver can produce better results. Aoa is which way the club, as a whole, is moving at impact. With irons, the angle should be negative descending, with driver positive ascending. This is how the club will influence where the ball will travel. The general rule is that shots hit off the ground should have a negative attack angle, and shots hit with your driver should have a positive attack angle in order to maximize distance. Angle of attack refers to the angle the club approaches the ball especially through the impact zone. A negative angle of attack with your irons is positive. Your angle of attack is actually quite important in golf, yet this topic is often overlooked in favor of a variety of other mechanical elements when the golf swing is discussed. Accuracy, club delivery, and strike changed from swing to swing. If the club head is moving in a downward motion, it will be referred to as a. This entry was posted in angle of attack, canadian open, driver, launch angle, mcs golf swing, pga tour, rory mcilroy, vertical lift and tagged attack angle, canadian open, dj watts, launch angle, mcs golf swing, pga tour, rory mcilroy, vertical lift, wax golf on june 8, 2019 by d watts.
You can use clubhubs angle of attack parameter to achieve your optimum launch angle. An inefficient angle of attack can cause poor golf shots by affecting such things as launch angle, spin rate and energy transfer. The driver s loft should be chosen so that it complements the golfers attack angle. This week is a question about angle of attack an how to work on this when practicing from.
The manufacturer is stating that the said vertical face of the driver head is at a 9. I have found this sequence to work nicely with all golfers looking to shallow their attack angle and improve the crispness of the strike. Stroker angle of attack has nothing to do with the loft of the driver. But the golfer who can increase their launch angle with a positive angle of attack will always optimize their launch parameters to a greater extent. While this is a singular 3d value, we often split it into horizontal angle of attack or swing path and a vertical component, which we call angle of attack. Which if youre on this website is exactly what you should be striving for. Creating a negative angle of attack with your irons, youre going to hit the ball farther and more accurately. Kos upward angle of attack is typical of the lpga tour. I have been harping on this for a couple of years but this is definitely a way. The difference between an iron swing and a driver when you are hitting an iron from the fairway, a typical pga tour player will hit slightly downward into the ball. Attack angle, dynamic loft and how they affect your game. How to increase your angle of attack adam young golf. Dynamic loft what you need to know to hit better golf shots. When we do a driver optimization using trackman, we look very specifically at launch angle, ball speed and spin rates.
If you swing over the top with an outside in path, it is likely you would have a downward angle of attack. Increase distance by changing your angle of attack. The optimum loft of the driver depends on your club head speed and your angle of descentascent whether the club is travelling downwards or upwards at impact. Dynamic loft, angle of attack and your launch angle golfwrx. The lpga tours 94mph average driver swing speed is closer to the speed many golfers swing the club. Because of their higher ball speed, pga tour players average launch angle is just over 11 degrees. The large discrepancy between the approximately 11 deg of loft for the golf driver club and the 45 deg maximum range angle for a vacuum was the. One of the best and most telling pieces of technology at. Typically what we look for in dynamic loft with irons is a number that is a little less the static loft of the club attack angle. The static loft of my 8 iron is 36 degrees, subtract 6.
Improve your angle of attack with golf drivers video by pete styles so if we now understand that skying the ball up or popping the ball up off the top hedge and the leading hedge of a driver is a pretty depressing shot to hit on the golf course and it can. If you hit down on the ball, it comes off the face lower and requires more driver loft. But then we come to golf and the holy grail that all golfers seek. When we mention the term angle of attack, what were looking at is the direction from which the club head is approaching impact with the ball. Travis fulton shares why a steep angle of attack can cause you to miss hitting the fairway off the tee. Mastering ball flight is what the golf swing is all about. Get more distance by increasing your golf swing angle of. It refers to the angle the clubhead approaches the ball, looking at a swing face onwards. The loft of the golf club itself is the single biggest factor, of course. Driver loft helps determine this angle, but so does your angle of attack when you swing.