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Showing results for tags 'ball flight'.
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Hi. I have a question and wanted to see what you guys thought. Some background: I'm not a particularly fast player (e.g., low to mid 150's ball speed with driver; low 120's ball speed with a traditional loft 6i.). I used to take the club back flat, come over it initially, but jump to shallow it out. I had a strong grip and I had days where a nice push draw was achievable; other days, it was military golf. Nowadays, I play with a more neutral grip and have much less dynamic movement. I more or less play with some forward shaft lean at address and feel like I hinge the toe up quickly toward my face (to get the club more upright instead of my flat takeaway) while trying to stay more "Kevin Kisner/Charley Hoffman still." The downswing is just swing down and through the ball quickly, feeling the head of the club hit down on/cover/trap the ball and taking a nice divot like a club tracking down a hula hoop where the ball is collected on the way down. I use a simulator, so I work hard on my start line as well. I like to see a 0* azimuth/start line or there about to feel more control over the ball and I'll just adjust my aim for my draw. I mostly hit the ball relatively straight or with a slight draw or if I heel it slightly, it'll fade a bit, but nothing disastrous. I'm relatively comfortable hitting every club in my bag except driver. I'm at a loss with driver. It's so bad. Last time I played, I had little clue where to look for the ball and with my eyes, it's hard to see the ball in the air. That brings me to the issue: I hit the ball pretty solid for my speed. With driver, the problem appears to be figuring out the shape I want to play, the face angle I should have, and how I should aim. First, I'm terrified of a draw with driver. I'll hook it, push it, or maybe get the odd push draw I'm looking for. I've gone the way of the fade. I just feel like I can swing as fast as I want and not fear a disastrous shot and lose a ball. I understand the ball flight laws and I know that the face should be closed to my intended target but open to my path and that face angle for the large part dictates start line. I get that. I also know that with the ball teed up off my front foot, that will allow me to swing up and left to get my path left to hit the fade. For some reason, I feel like I swing faster when hitting a fade with driver. It feels more natural to swing left and hit the cutter. The problem is figuring out the optimal start line. Like I said, with my approach shots, I like to get as close to 0* start line as I can, even with any curve--I just pick a tree or something to the right a little and let it draw back slightly. But I really like trying to get as neutral/straight of a start line as I can--I feel more in control of the ball that way. With a fade driver, I feel like I should toe the club in (somewhere around 7 to 8:30 on the clock) and swing more left. This has given me great results--high flying, low spin fades that start left of straight and bend back toward 0*. When I toe the club in relative to 0*, I feel like I can just let it rip. It'll fade back but rarely over fades, if anything it might just hang there. Right now, I have my driver set to 8*, draw setting on hosel, and weight in the heel as well. The question: Should I, 1) like with my approach shots, strive for a 0* start line and just adjust my aim or 2) strive for a start line of a few degrees left? The problem with #1 seems to be an issue with the ball flight laws. If I keep my swing the same (swinging more left), then I feel like a face angle around 0* will result in what looks like a big push fade. But I do like the idea of controlling my start line and having it more on straight like my approach shots. However, with driver, I do not like the feeling of starting the ball straight because I feel like the ball will only go more to the right from there and I'll lose the ball. The problem with #2 seems to be an issue of knowing how far left to start the ball. For instance, during my last practice session I had start lines just a few degrees to the left (2-4* left) all the way up to 12* left. The 12* left ball was a good ball, 157 mph ball speed, with just a tiny fade on it. I guess a bit of a pull fade. The best ball I hit was a 162 mph pull fade as well. I admit, I like the pull fade feeling best. I just feel like I get through the ball better and hit it more solidly. However, it does make for a different swing and start line than all my other clubs in the bag. Also, I wonder about aiming here. Depending on how much left I start the ball, I may actually need to aim more RIGHT even though I'm playing a FADE due to the nature of the pull fade. Thanks for any tips you might have. I look forward to the responses.
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The better a player gets, the more important it is to accurately describe the ball flight in two ways (I'm leaving vertical launch from this discussion for now for reasons that will become somewhat obvious, I hope): Start line Curve This matches up with what we've always said about the "ball flight laws": "The ball starts generally where the face is pointing at impact and curves away from the path." I bolded two words there, because when it comes to what the clubhead is doing, we care about those two things with regards to ball flight: Face Path These, naturally, line up: the "start line" is governed primarily by the face and the curve by the path (relative to the face, of course). (I'm leaving off-center hits out of the discussion.) One of the more frustrating things as an instructor is when a student texts you to say "I keep missing to the left," you give them some advice based on their answers to a few questions, and then you see them and realize their answers didn't match with reality at all. For example, I'll ask about the shape of their shots, and the possible answers for a left miss include: starts right, curves left starts straight, curves left starts left, curves left starts left, straight starts left, curves right Each of those can result in a ball that misses left to varying degrees. If a ball starts straight at the target and curves 10 yards left of the target, the fix might be as simple as gripping the club a bit more open, allowing the ball to start to the right a bit more and curve a bit less. But if the ball starts ten yards right and misses left 30 yards, then that's not a problem solved by opening the face up a bit more! Each of those descriptions includes the two key pieces of info: the start line and the curve. Get these wrong, especially the start line — and the fix can be very different than what you need. The start line is the ball's initial direction. On a launch monitor like a FlightScope X3 or Mevo+, it's called "horizontal launch angle." Positive numbers are to the right, negative to the left. I don't need to know what the horizontal launch angle is to the tenth of a degree, but for a ball that finishes in the left rough there's a big difference between the type of swing you made if it starts at the left edge of the fairway or the right edge. Pay attention to your start lines. Have a buddy stand behind you on the range and tell him what you think the start line was, and then have him confirm it. Put sticks ten yards out in front of your mat at the range and learn what a right, left, and straight start line look like. Yeah, there's a little parallax there since the ball is to the side of us, but learn to see what the ball is doing. You — and your instructor — will be better for it.
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It really does make you wonder about "refurbished" balls. -
Hi - the day I joined here I found a post about contact and club face angle...the creator of the post used examples - Chuck hit closed faced and a woman whose name started with an "O" hit open face... Being a slow learner, I wanted to revisit that post and read again, but I can't find it...anyone remember where that can be found, or the author of it? Thanks..
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http://blog.trackmangolf.com/zeroing-hurting-scorecard/ Must read for golfers, here's a little bit of the blog post.
