dynamic loft vs static loft

[Hacker James]

Or my "duh" moment.

So I had been practicing after viewing some of Martin Chuck's videos where he was discussing iron play, employing weight forward, shallow attack angle, and forward shaft lean.  Things were going well with hitting a five iron into a target in a cage. Really solid hits dead center of the target. I noticed that I did not need an excessive amount of forward shaft lean, but rather just enough. Also encouraging a draw bias by having path more right than face angle. Then I switched clubs to a 6 iron. In order to get the same results, I had to use a LOT of shaft lean. It looked excessive, but I went with it anyway.  It just did not make sense to me, but day after day, same results. Then one day, both clubs were laying on my mat and I stepped on the face of the five iron to raise the shaft up so I could grab it. I did the same with the six iron and noticed how much greater an angle. It was then I realized that all this time, what I thought was a 6 iron, was really my 9 iron which had been placed in the wrong slot in the bag. One would think I should have noticed it, but I was so focused in the shaft lean and trying to get similar results, I somehow forgot to notice the obvious differences in actual lofts of the two clubs not to mention that I completely did not even notice the difference in shaft lengths.  I felt so utterly "stupid".  I guess its part of the aging process, or beginning stages of altzheimers.  The only positive thing is, I feel I have a much better understanding of dynamic lofts and how to use forward shaft lean, comparison with neutral e.t.c. depending on the situation.

 

[colin007]

i have heard of people doing this many times, and i cannot understand how.  the length of the club alone would be enough to tell me that it wasnt a 6.

[Hacker James]

oh I know. Just for some reason I did not notice although its very obvious. I guess I was used to having each club in its own bag slot. Usually, the difference in weight alone is noticeable. That's why I deemed it a "Duh" (or senior) moment.

[natureboy]

Well you got some stellar hands ahead practice trying to turn that 9 into a 6!

[Hacker James]

11 minutes ago, natureboy said:

Well you got some stellar hands ahead practice trying to turn that 9 into a 6!

You got that right!  I just could not believe it, but once I caught the error, I was able to correct it in only a couple of swings. Now my forward shaft lean is negligible and varies very little between clubs and is dependent on the shot I am trying to produce.  I've made dumber mistakes than that. It would have been more remarkable had the situation been reversed, like trying to "flop" a six iron.