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Hit it farther with the right attack angle

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If you have ever had a lesson or a club fitting using a launch monitor, you have heard the term “angle of attack.” Simply put, angle of attack is a measurement of how much a golfer is hitting up or down on the ball at impact.

With different clubs and under different situations, golfers can utilize a positive or upward angle of attack, one that is more level, or even a negative or downward angle of attack. With the shortest clubs, a golfer’s AoA tends to be more downward. A golfer’s middle clubs are not quite as downward (but still down), and their long irons, hybrids and fairway woods are almost level (but still down). The the AoA with a driver should be more upward, however, for maximum benefit. As always, there are many situations where these AoA numbers can be altered for different effects, but the general outline I just described is usually the way it works.

Most of the time, amateurs have an AoA that is too downward with the driver. This can be caused by a faulty set up, poor swing path or an improper pivot motion through impact. If you possess some or all of the swing flaws above then your driver will have a launch angle that is too low. This generally results in flat, low drives that rely more on roll than carry to achieve distance. Sometimes this can be a good thing, such as when golfers are playing in heavy winds or when the ground is very hard, but with the agronomy on most golf courses today, golfers need to fly their drives as far as possible to achieve maximum distance.

In this article, I am going to explain how a golfer’s set up can influence AoA so that they can optimize their driver’s ball flight ad overall distance.

How to raise your AoA

Higher Angle of Attack

As stated, most amateurs tend to hit too much down on the golf ball causing low ball flight that usually results in decreased distances. If this describes your game, then follow the changes below and your angle of attack will change from too much down to more of an ascending hit. Life off the tee will be much better!

  1. Tee the ball up as high as possible.
  2. Play the ball more forward in your stance.
  3. Tilt your spine away from the target slightly at address.

Whenever a golfer tees the ball up higher, they will automatically raise their angle of attack because it’s much easier to hit up on the ball when it is teed in this manner. Hence, a lower tee height will cause the ball to come out flatter — more on that later.

Playing the ball more forward in your stance tends to raise your AoA because the swing bottom is just under the left shoulder, and if you play the ball in front of your left shoulder you will hit more up as well.

Finally, tilting your spine away from the target at address alters the low point of your swing and causes you to hit more “up” on the ball, ensuring a higher AoA.

Now let’s examine the data on the Trackman showing a ball hit with these setup changes with a sample student.

Capture2

  • You can see that the attack angle is now 5.1 up (the average amateur needs at least 3 to 4 degrees up!).
  • The launch angle was 17.2 degrees, which is not too bad for a ball speed of 147 mph.
  • The dynamic loft of this shot was 18.8 degrees, giving us a carry distance of 255 yards.
  • You can finally see that the landing angle is 41.5 degrees, which shows this ball is landing at just under a 45 degree angle. That’s good for roll.

These simple set-up changes caused the ball to launch higher and carry farther; not bad for this level of player. Now let’s examine the opposite end of the spectrum.

How to lower your AoA

If you are one of the rare golfers who tend to hit too “up” on the ball, or you want to hit the ball flatter due to wind and/or course conditions, then follow these simple setup changes and your angle of attack will be slightly more downward.

Lower Angle of Attack

  • Tee the ball slightly lower — you should only see half the ball above the face of the driver at most.
  • Move the ball back in your stance slightly so that it is more centered (you will have to experiment with this option — there is no magical ball position, just the one that works for you).
  • Center the spine at address so that you are more “over the top of the ball at address.”

By lowering the ball’s tee height, you will instantly lower your AoA and thus flatten your ball’s flight — this is great for hitting tee shots into the wind or for maximum driver control.

Whenever you move the ball back in your stance, you place the ball behind your forward shoulder (which marks the low point of the swing). This new position will decrease your AoA. As stated earlier, this should be a very minor change. Putting the ball too far back in your stance at address with the driver can cause major issues with distance and control if you overcook it!

By centering the spine at address, you place the eyes directly over the top of the ball, not behind it, and this makes people hit more down on the ball.

Now let’s examine the data on the Trackman showing a ball hit with these setup changes with a sample student:

Capture

  • You can see that the attack angle is now 3.0 down.
  • The launch angle was 4.7 degrees, which causes the ball to come out much flatter than usual.
  • The dynamic loft of this shot was 6.7 degrees, giving us a carry distance of 202 yards.
  • When the ball comes out flatter, you will see that the landing angle is also decreased at 17.2 degrees — this causes the ball to roll a mile.

These simple setup changes caused the ball to launch much lower, but as you can see distance is usually compromised.

Remember, you cannot have an angle of attack that is too high, nor can you have one that is too low — both compromise your ability to control the ball and gain the distance you require to play better. Take your time and experiment with these changes — remember a little change in your setup goes a LONG way in influencing your angle of attack!

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Tom F. Stickney II, is a specialist in Biomechanics for Golf, Physiology, and 3d Motion Analysis. He has a degree in Exercise and Fitness and has been a Director of Instruction for almost 30 years at resorts and clubs such as- The Four Seasons Punta Mita, BIGHORN Golf Club, The Club at Cordillera, The Promontory Club, and the Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort. His past and present instructional awards include the following: Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher, Golf Digest Top 50 International Instructor, Golf Tips Top 25 Instructor, Best in State (Florida, Colorado, and California,) Top 20 Teachers Under 40, Best Young Teachers and many more. Tom is a Trackman University Master/Partner, a distinction held by less than 25 people in the world. Tom is TPI Certified- Level 1, Golf Level 2, Level 2- Power, and Level 2- Fitness and believes that you cannot reach your maximum potential as a player with out some focus on your physiology. You can reach him at [email protected] and he welcomes any questions you may have.

13 Comments

13 Comments

  1. Pingback: Best driver 2021: By club fitters for you! – GolfWRX

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  6. petie3_2

    Apr 14, 2015 at 12:01 am

    It’s not where the first shot lands, it’s where the second shot lands that’s important. Many times a longer drive just means it’s farther OB. Straight is good.

  7. jt

    Jul 1, 2014 at 11:24 pm

    I really have a problem getting proper backspin with my driver. I used a launch monitor today and on average my Launch Angle is 14 deg, which I think is ok.
    However my backspin rate is about 1000 rpm on average after taking about 10 swings. My driver is a Ping G15 10.5 and I swing about 90-95mph.
    I have always been told I should hit ball on an upswing. Do I need to start hitting down on the ball?
    Right now I am forced to use my 3 wood on the course. My 3 wood has about 2200 rpm of backspin.

    For driver, I tee it up where half the ball is above my clubface, so it should be a fairly typical tee height.

    Any help would be appreciated, this low spin rate is baffling me.

  8. paul

    Apr 21, 2014 at 2:30 pm

    Good article. I used to practice hitting my 3 wood in the winter by painting a little ball on a rug in my garage. That got me doing very well with my woods in the spring. Problem was I always hit low shots with my driver now. If I put the ball higher I just tend to hit higher on the face.

  9. Joe Merlin, PGA

    Jul 14, 2013 at 11:47 am

    Tom,

    It’s good to see the range at Promontory is getting some use. I worked there in 2007 for a summer internship and enjoyed it. Great post, when using technology for analyzing golf swings, do you show your students the data or do you find doing so confuses them? Any other interesting thoughts you may have on this topic would definitely be welcomed.

    Best,

    Joe

  10. Matthew McFarland

    Jul 4, 2013 at 11:34 pm

    This article expresses some valuable points about the effect of AoA on driver distance. I find it to be the most common factor when dealing with amateur players who suffer from a lack of driver distance. However, I feel that this article is incomplete. You can’t discuss the AoA without explaining the effect of spin rate, and more importantly, total distance.

    There is actually very little difference in the distance in the two drives illustrated here. Most of the time a higher AoA proves to be more beneficial in maximizing driver distance, in this example, the shot where the student hit down on the ball proved to be the better outcome. It’s important to understand how altering the AoA changes the balls spin rate. The effect of AoA is mainly factored in to the final outcome of a drive by its impact on the ball’s spin rate.
    – A lower AoA will cause a higher spin rate.
    – The lower the spin rate, the less friction the ball will create when it makes contact with it’s landing surface and the further it will travel along it’s path. A low spin rate will also leave the balls flight path more vulnerable to becoming impacted by the wind.
    -A smoother surface, such as the fairway, will create less friction on the ball than a rougher surface, such as…well you know where that is.

    Imagine these two drives were hit on a course.
    If the fairway runs 20 yards right of target:
    The first drive would likely come to rest very near it’s landing point 255 yards away, in a penalized lie because it was 45 yards to the right. Meanwhile the second drive lands in the fairway 202 out and most likely rolls out to the 240 range before coming to rest in the rough.
    If the fairway runs 40 yards right of target:
    The first drive lands into the rough at a slightly high angle and gets maybe 10 yards of roll to 265. The second drive, landing 13 yards right, will most likely run its full path in the fairway. At 152mph it will have a very good chance of exceeding 265, while remaining in the fairway.

    Therefore when trying to maximize driver distance, you must evaluate the potential total distance of a shot. A golfer needs to understand the relationship the spin rate has on total distance, so they can properly utilize a high and low AoA.

  11. B MAC

    Jun 27, 2013 at 8:40 am

    I play off 5 and hit the ball really low I bought a nike covert driver and had to set it to 12.5 degrees and still hit it low so I left it at home after reading this I used your tips for Raising your AOA and hit it really high might even have to drop it back down !! Thankyou so much

  12. Bart carter

    Jun 26, 2013 at 4:44 pm

    Making contact with the ball is now a major achievment, with any club in the bag. Forget the A.O.A.

  13. Damon

    Jun 25, 2013 at 12:44 am

    Great article Tom. One thing I will touch on that you mentioned is that attempting to achieve a high AoA often leads many golfers to have difficulty making consistent center-face contact. Hitting up on the ball only yields more distance if sweet spot contact isn’t compromised. I’ve found steep attack angles usually correspond with over-the-top moves and when a golfer gets the path, sequence and transition working better the AoA naturally improves.

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Instruction

Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!

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Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?

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How a towel can fix your golf swing

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This is a classic drill that has been used for decades. However, the world of marketed training aids has grown so much during that time that this simple practice has been virtually forgotten. Because why teach people how to play golf using everyday items when you can create and sell a product that reinforces the same thing? Nevertheless, I am here to give you helpful advice without running to the nearest Edwin Watts or adding something to your Amazon cart.

For the “scoring clubs,” having a solid connection between the arms and body during the swing, especially through impact, is paramount to creating long-lasting consistency. And keeping that connection throughout the swing helps rotate the shoulders more to generate more power to help you hit it farther. So, how does this drill work, and what will your game benefit from it? Well, let’s get into it.

Setup

You can use this for basic chip shots up to complete swings. I use this with every club in my bag, up to a 9 or 8-iron. It’s natural to create incrementally more separation between the arms and body as you progress up the set. So doing this with a high iron or a wood is not recommended.

While you set up to hit a ball, simply tuck the towel underneath both armpits. The length of the towel will determine how tight it will be across your chest but don’t make it so loose that it gets in the way of your vision. After both sides are tucked, make some focused swings, keeping both arms firmly connected to the body during the backswing and follow through. (Note: It’s normal to lose connection on your lead arm during your finishing pose.) When you’re ready, put a ball in the way of those swings and get to work.

Get a Better Shoulder Turn

Many of us struggle to have proper shoulder rotation in our golf swing, especially during long layoffs. Making a swing that is all arms and no shoulders is a surefire way to have less control with wedges and less distance with full swings. Notice how I can get in a similar-looking position in both 60° wedge photos. However, one is weak and uncontrollable, while the other is strong and connected. One allows me to use my larger muscles to create my swing, and one doesn’t. The follow-through is another critical point where having a good connection, as well as solid shoulder rotation, is a must. This drill is great for those who tend to have a “chicken wing” form in their lead arm, which happens when it becomes separated from the body through impact.

In full swings, getting your shoulders to rotate in your golf swing is a great way to reinforce proper weight distribution. If your swing is all arms, it’s much harder to get your weight to naturally shift to the inside part of your trail foot in the backswing. Sure, you could make the mistake of “sliding” to get weight on your back foot, but that doesn’t fix the issue. You must turn into your trial leg to generate power. Additionally, look at the difference in separation between my hands and my head in the 8-iron examples. The green picture has more separation and has my hands lower. This will help me lessen my angle of attack and make it easier to hit the inside part of the golf ball, rather than the over-the-top move that the other picture produces.

Stay Better Connected in the Backswing

When you don’t keep everything in your upper body working as one, getting to a good spot at the top of your swing is very hard to do. It would take impeccable timing along with great hand-eye coordination to hit quality shots with any sort of regularity if the arms are working separately from the body.

Notice in the red pictures of both my 60-degree wedge and 8-iron how high my hands are and the fact you can clearly see my shoulder through the gap in my arms. That has happened because the right arm, just above my elbow, has become totally disconnected from my body. That separation causes me to lift my hands as well as lose some of the extension in my left arm. This has been corrected in the green pictures by using this drill to reinforce that connection. It will also make you focus on keeping the lead arm close to your body as well. Because the moment either one loses that relationship, the towel falls.

Conclusion

I have been diligent this year in finding a few drills that target some of the issues that plague my golf game; either by simply forgetting fundamental things or by coming to terms with the faults that have bitten me my whole career. I have found that having a few drills to fall back on to reinforce certain feelings helps me find my game a little easier, and the “towel drill” is most definitely one of them.

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Clement: Why your practice swing never sucks

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You hear that one all the time; I wish I could put my practice swing on the ball! We explain the huge importance of what to focus on to allow the ball to be perfectly in the way of your practice swing. Enjoy!

 

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