Knowing the ballflight laws ISN'T important ?

Well its all about understanding

 

Could you get a kid to learn, "Ball starts were the clubface is pointing", yes. Could you describe the D-plane in a simple manor in which they can understand, probably not. Heck, i'm 28, with over 5 levels of college math, 3 levels of college physics, and an engineering degree and the D-plane is a pain in the ass to understand. I can get the ball flight laws, but D-plane is a bit confusing, I'm not thinking 3-dimensionally :p  

I'm the ultimate "feel" player. Grab stick, hit ball.....

But if someone doesn't understand what actually causes the shot shape and result they get, they'll never be able to make the adjustments necessary to correct them.

I'm a good example. I've always been able to make the ball move either way, but my draw was always a bit of a pull draw because I failed to understand that the initial ball direction is based on club head orientation at impact. Like so many, I was setting up with a closed stance and aiming the club head at the target. Once I learned how the ball actually reacts, I was quickly able to make the necessary changes to begin hitting a much cleaner, more effective push draw, even without a great deal of mechanical change in my set up.

Mechanical or feel.....you still have to understand what causes any given result if you're going to correct it when things inevitably go south.

I don't think 99% of golfers need to know the D-Plane. It's a great tool for instructors, but as I've said before, you don't stop someone from slicing by having them hit down more so the path is farther out. :P

 

The ball flight laws are simple, as you know, and though people have won tons of majors not knowing them, I still view them as an impediment. They're WAY MORE important for the weekend golfer, or the average golfer, to understand than the touring pro who has hit a billion golf balls - enough that his body learned what it has to do to produce the shot he's imagining, regardless of what his mind might be telling him.

 

The average golfer doesn't have the faith in himself to get them wrong. He sets up for a hook around the tree with the face pointing right at the tree, pulls off exactly the shot he was trying to hit, nails the tree, and gets down on himself because he thinks he must have swung to the left because the ball started there.

 

All that said, I agree with H and others that there's too much talk of the ball flight laws. Most everyone here knows it. I am proud of that fact... more people here know them than anywhere else I've seen. But sometimes I think that talking about them makes them seem complicated to others.

 

They're not.

 

And I want to stress that: the ball flight laws are dead simple easy.

 

P.S. You made a very good point about "feel" and so on. EVERYONE is a feel player. Knowing the way the ball flies does not suddenly make you a "technical" person - it simply lets you narrow in on the feels that produce the alignments you want at impact, and THAT is what golf is all about (I mean, the actual playing of it, it's about being outside, enjoying your friends, challenging yourself, and all that other bull too :D).

for me, i love knowing them.  i think its imperative for anyone who isnt just out there to drink beers and flirt with the cart girl to know them.

 

the downside is, when my game goes south, and im hitting a big push slice, i know in my head why its happening but i dont have the skill the make my body/brain correct the fault.  so thats depressing.

I would say that the point when someone should learn the ball flight laws is when they can consistently hit the ball in the air and their chief concern becomes hitting it straight(ish).

 

That's true,  unless they are able to hit a consistantly miss, then its near impossible to figure out what's wrong through ball flight laws. Amateurs can miss it right, left, top, fat, it gets bad and confusing. Its one thing i think Hank Haney had right in one regard, he always said, if he can get someone to hook the ball, its easy to fix a hook. I like the premise, i rather get someone to hit some sort of shot a lot. IF a person hits a pull slice 99% of the time, that's easier to diagnose and fix than someone how's hitting it all over the place. Just tackle one thing at a time. 

Superb thread!

 

The biggest issue for us amateur players I think is that we're not consistant enough. Learning about the fundamentals of swing path and clubhead at impact etc. would truly be important to know what needs to be corrected.

 

I played plenty of golf (30-40 rounds/year) when I whas younger but never thought about swing technique. I got down to a 7 HCP, allthough it could probably have been a 3-4 HCP if I had been more concistant. I could for example shoot a 72 round +1, and then the next day shoot an 85. The thing is I never thought of what I was doing right one day and wrong another.

 

Even though my handicap is the same today, I'm much more concistant. Not particulary in scoring, but the way I'm striking the ball. And that despite a 8-9 years brake from golf. Instead I'm now struggling with the touch in my short game. No surprise there.

 

Having some knowledge of swing dynamics have truly helped my game and made golfing even more fun (if possible).

I posted this to Facebook after writing a similar thing above:

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/5simplekeys/permalink/393612237388784/

 

 

 

 

No he wouldn't be surprised ;-)  It is changing though.  From my experience more beginners get it than golfers that have been playing a number of years.

 

Quote:

 

Only time D-Plane is really prevalent for the average guy could be for the driver.  We want to have positive AoA so if you want to draw it might need to aim right at set-up.

After one year, my daughter easily understands that the ball starts where the clubface is pointing, and she can usually correct it when she starts hitting it right (her most common miss). I don't know D-plane, but I am currently teaching her about swingpath and it's effect on flight shape. It's really not that complicated.