Instruction
Gear Effect Basics: How off-center hits cause slices and hooks
On the lesson tee, I frequently hear players say that the club twisted or slipped out of their hands at impact. So I ask them, “Why do you think it twisted?”
They usually explain that they did something to cause the club to twist or slip. This shows me that most golfers still don’t understand what is really going on at impact, which often leads them to try to fix an issue that never existed.
Have you ever noticed that this twisting of the club never happens when you flush it down the fairway or at the pin? That’s a big clue as to what’s causing the issue.
Line It Up
Both golf balls and golf club heads have what we call a center of mass (COM). This is the point around which the mass of the club head and the ball is evenly distributed, and can be thought of as the middle of the club head, as shown below.
When the COM of a club head and ball line up at impact, we get that great feeling we call “hitting the sweet spot.” But what happens when we don’t hit the sweet spot?
The Twist
Think about what would happen if a car collided with a lamp post. If the car and lamp post were to line up perfectly for the collision, the car would stop dead in its tracks. But if the car were to hit the lamp post with one of its headlights, the car would spin off violently. The same thing happens with a golf club at impact.
If the COM of the ball and the COM of the club head do not line up perfectly at impact, the club head spins. For example, if the ball were to be struck on the toe of the club, the point of contact on the face would twist around the COM of the club. That would open it up in a clockwise direction (for a right-handed golfer).
In the graphic above, the club head (moving right to left across the screen) hits the ball on the toe, causing a clockwise twisting in the direction of the white arrow.
How violent is this twisting? Watch the video below I made of some off-center impacts.
You can see that the twisting is quite dramatic, and it sends a lot of vibration up the club shaft and can actively twist the club in golfers’ hands no matter how tight they hold it.
It also leads many golfers to believe that they twisted the club actively, which wasn’t the case. This often leads golfers to grip the club tighter and tighter in an effort to stop the twisting. It’s futile, however, because there is a massive amount of torque created at impact. Further, a tighter grip can cause the swing to become less fluid and kill speed and coordination, leading to more off-center shots.
Curves
Hitting off-center shots also does something interesting to the ball at impact.
During the violent collision, the club head and ball can act like a pair of gears. So while a toed shot causes the club head to open up clockwise, the ball is twisted counter-clockwise (more accurately, the spin axis of the ball is tilted slightly more to the left). This causes the ball to have more draw/hook spin, or less fade/slice spin, depending on the impact conditions.
While it might seem counterintuitive at first, a club head that is opening at impact can cause draw shots thanks to what’s called “Gear effect.” The opposite is true as well: shots hit off the heel actually close the face, creating a shot that has more fade/slice spin or less hook/draw spin. Gear effect is also massively heightened when golfers have a wood or hybrid in their hands for reasons I will explain in an article that will be published at a later date.
Spin Doctors
Gear effect is vital to understand if you are to fix your own swing and ball flight issues, because not understanding it could lead to you trying to fix the wrong thing.
For example, say a player were to make a great swing, presenting the club head with a neutral path and a neutral club face at impact. In theory, this would hit a perfectly straight shot.
If that shot were struck out of the heel of the club, however, the shot would start left and slice off to the right, leading the player to believe they had come over-the-top and cut across the ball. I often see this self diagnosis on the lesson tee when the exact scenario occurs. This player will then go off and attempt to fix the over-the-top move, which was never the issue in the first place.
“YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHEN A BAD SHOT WAS CAUSED BY A POOR FACE/PATH COMBINATION VERSUS SIMPLY TOE-ING OR HEELING THE BALL.”
Actions You Can Take
Most people take for granted that they are hitting the sweet spot, yet I consistently see it as one of the main issues with the vast majority of golfers. For that reason, it is vital that you build both an increased understanding of what you are doing at impact (through feedback and awareness), as well as an increased ability to improve it.
So here is a simple exercise I get all my players with strike issues to do. Even players without strike issues should do this occasionally, just to make sure no poor patterns are creeping in unknowingly.
Step 1
Mark a range ball with a dry erase marker pen.
Step 2
Place the ball as shown. You can tee it up or lay it on the ground. All the matters is that the dry erase marker dot is on the back of the ball facing the club head at address.
Step 3
Hit the shot, and check your club face to see where you contacted the ball.
To be great at something takes consistent practice of the fundamentals. Golfers hear so much about the fundamentals of grip, stance and posture, but they are worthless if they don’t strike the sweet spot. So when golfers become aware of their faulty contact point and get to work on fixing it, big improvement often occurs — to their swing and to their scores.
Starting taking a marker pen with you to the range if you want improved consistency, extra distance, better feedback and more awareness about your strikes. It will allow you to better diagnose the causing your poor shots so you can eliminate them from your game.
Editor’s Note: Adam is Author of the amazon bestseller “The Practice Manual,” where he discusses some of these concepts and more. You can purchase the book here.
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My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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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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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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Tim Briand
Sep 1, 2015 at 4:40 pm
Adam .. This is a great article, and one that most golfers, unfortunately, will not understand, though not for the lack of explaining it properly. For those of you who wonder why this phenomenon occurs, go to Newton’s 1st Law. A object in motion tries to stay in motion along the same vector unless acted upon by another force. In short, the Center of Gravity (CG .. Adam refers to it as Center of Mass) wants to continue travelling in a straight path. A force is applied to the object outside the CG, not in line with the vector the CG is moving. The result is that the object’s CG tries to continue along its vector, but twists to accommodate the force applied outside the CG vector. If you have ever stuck your hand outside a moving vehicle and made contact with something, you know that your hand wants to give way and rotate back. Same thing here. In this example, your hand is the area of the object outside the CG (toe or heel of club) and the CG of the club acts like your butt in the seat of the golf cart (it wants to keep going in line with where the cart is driving).
As for the GEAR EFFECT… During the moment that the two objects are in contact with one another, there is surface friction between both objects. If one object in contact with another rotates, it causes the other object to rotate the opposite direction (think mechanical gears).
It should not be understated just how tremendous this force can be when accounting for ball flight.
The variation in different club designs can DRASTICALLY effect the amount of gear effect, by as much as 1000 RPMs of “side spin” depending on CG location, clubhead speed, and area of strike away from the sweet spot. The factors that mitigate or exacerbate this phenomenon are the Club’s CG, the Moment of Inertia (MOI), and the amount of Bulge & Roll on the face. Because no Doppler launch monitor accounts for these factors from club to club, it can sometimes make errors when measuring club face angle, assuming that the vast majority of the side spin was due to face/path differential, and not accounting for the variations in club design and their effects on side spin with off center hits.
Tony Neri
May 14, 2020 at 5:30 am
There are tons of articles written by well known golf instructors that say the exact opposite of what Adam stated.Off heel shots cause draws/hooks and off toe shots cause fades/slices.Like everything in golf it boils down to individuals,in most cases there are not fix rules.For example in my case every shot hit off the heel goes left and every shot off the toe goes right
marcel
Aug 30, 2015 at 8:06 pm
lessons from AAA+ coach and practice… there is no excuse.
Dugan
Aug 27, 2015 at 9:20 am
I sometimes hit a drive on the toe and immediately feel the twisting. But a majority of the time the ball goes straight with reduced distance. What gives?
TA
Aug 29, 2015 at 2:29 am
You didn’t compress the ball enough on the toe, not got any trampoline out of that area.
Tim Briand
Sep 1, 2015 at 4:13 pm
Unfortunately, TA below is not entirely correct about this. What you are experiencing is Gear Effect nullifying an out-to-in path or open face (or a combination of both factors). If the face is open relative to the path, the spin axis of the ball tilts so that the ball spins with “fade” spin which would normally influence the ball to fade. However, when a player hits the ball of the toe, as described in the article above, Gear Effect causes the ball axis to tilt and cause “draw” spin. When the face is open to the path AND the ball is struck on the toe, the net effect is that the ball spin axis stays neutral, producing a straight flying shot. However a few factors will lead to the ball not going very far, such as loss of kinetic energy transfer due to the off-center hit, as well as loss of energy transfer due to the vector of the force (swing path), not being perpendicular to the striking surface (clubface) . In short, the two factors cancel each other but produce an impact that does not efficiently transfer energy from club to ball.
Hope this helps..
P.S. I am a Master Club Fitter for TaylorMade Golf, so my entire livelihood is based on understanding these principles.
Spell
Aug 27, 2015 at 3:10 am
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertia
is why you can’t hang on to the twisting club even if you tried
Gubment Cheeze
Aug 26, 2015 at 5:47 pm
You forgot about the nails
Adam Young
Aug 27, 2015 at 12:27 am
I’ll ‘hammer’ out a new article and include them 😉
Paul Wood
Aug 26, 2015 at 5:12 pm
Nice article Adam. I like the simplicity and clarity you brought to what can be a very complex subject if you really dig into it. I like the idea of using a pink dry erase marker. May have to add that to my bag.
DPavs
Aug 26, 2015 at 2:53 pm
It’s probably also important to understand that gear effect is only going to noticeably impact the ball flight if the face of the club is square at impact. Or to say this another way it will not compensate for an open or closed club face. Also because the resultant gear effect is impacted by the further apart the COG of the ball and club are.. there is generally a good deal of it with drivers but far far less with irons .
Spell
Aug 27, 2015 at 3:12 am
Square to what? You’re not understanding the article
Dpavs
Aug 27, 2015 at 8:14 am
Spell-
Let me help clarify this for you. The answer is square to your swing path. I tried to make this clear by indicating that an open or closed face will always dominate the ball flight and gear effect will essentially be negated.
Just a note too, If you don’t comprehend what someone is indicating it’s great to ask questions but not good form to assume they did not understand.
DPavs
Aug 27, 2015 at 8:18 am
Square to your swing path, hence my reference to having the face open or closed (at impact).
Adam Young
Aug 26, 2015 at 1:38 pm
Hi guys,
I will be addressing vertical gear effect, difference in COM locations, bulge and roll, the moveable sweet spot and effective face size in later articles.
This is just a basic primer on gear effect, as the title suggests. For most golfers, the idea that twisting is caused by an off centre hit (and not the golfer actually twisting it) is a revelation for most.
Hope it helps with fault identification 🙂
other paul
Aug 26, 2015 at 2:01 pm
Oh good. Thanks Adam. Moveable sweet spot isn’t something I have heard much about at all. Speaking of golfers not actually twisting the club at impact. A golf pro I know tried to convince me that a tour pro he talked could add or reduce loft at impact because he was that awesome. Or that he could twist his club to hit a hook or fade when he wanted. Ridiculous.
Adam Young
Aug 26, 2015 at 2:09 pm
interesting 🙂
CD
Aug 26, 2015 at 6:12 pm
Should the dry erase mark be on the inner quadrant of the ball?
Adam Young
Aug 27, 2015 at 12:30 am
That can certainly be a nice way of encouraging a more in-to-out path (for mental reasons).
Although, the part of the ball the club face strikes will be a product only of the club face angle at impact – with a more open face contacting the inner quadrant and vice versa. Not a lot of folk know that one. You can still strike the inner quadrant with an out to in path (and vice versa) if the face is open enough
Mac n Cheese
Aug 26, 2015 at 1:35 pm
This is where torque comes into play with the shaft. The lower the torque number the less twisting that occurs with a miss hit, which equates to forgiveness.
John
Aug 26, 2015 at 1:17 pm
Following a poor round in a friendly best ball tournament two years ago, I altered my grip pressure, ball position, stance, takeaway speed, hand and head position because of what I thought (think) was a poor swing path. I can remember it vividly, one poor swing, the clubface hooked right (I’m a lefty), my hands flipped over, and I was convinced I needed a major overhaul.
You may have saved my favourite pastime because of this simple, and now obvious, cause-effect explanation.
I’m a moron, bless you.
David M.
Aug 26, 2015 at 12:24 pm
That is the most neutral driver club face angle (not loft — club face angle) I have seen. Where does one go to buy that club (one that sits completely neutral at address)? All my drivers sit with slightly closed hosel angles at address – further compounding the issue of gear effect.
spazo
Aug 26, 2015 at 11:49 am
i don’t see it mentioned that this works in the vertical direction as well–it’s just not as obvious.
saevel25
Aug 26, 2015 at 12:40 pm
For the driver,
Higher on the clubface = high launch, lower spinning
Lower on the clubface = lower launching, higher spinning
For irons
Higher on clubface = slightly higher launching, slightly lower spinning
Lower on clubface = slightly lower launching, slightly higher spinning
Typically the swing paths is such that it is very very rare to get the ball high and in the heel. A steeper path is typically one that goes from out to in. That brings the toe more into play. When you get steeper you bring the higher part of the clubface into play. When you swing in to out you get shallower. This brings the heel more into play as well as the lower part of the clubface. I could say the most likely spots for the ball to hit is the upper left quadrant and the lower right quadrant, and some areas in the middle.
Teaj
Aug 26, 2015 at 1:20 pm
see cobra’s E9 Face Technology
other paul
Aug 26, 2015 at 11:45 am
You missed closure rate, and its effects. And you missed bulge in the face and how it effects the curve of the ball differently with woods and irons. Article gets a 9/10 but it is also incomplete.
Jack
Aug 26, 2015 at 1:16 pm
OMG. 99 percent of the folks on here didn’t understand gear effect and now they do. Good article Adam.
DPavs
Aug 26, 2015 at 2:33 pm
And yet they all have under an 8 hdcp and drive the ball 300 yards… amazing isn’t it?
other paul
Aug 26, 2015 at 7:35 pm
Its not to hard to hit 300, but the 8 handicap is tough to get to.
Dpavs
Aug 27, 2015 at 11:26 am
+1
Stubaka
Aug 27, 2015 at 2:44 pm
Thank you. 300 is not hard to hit. But, can you hit it straight. Then, can you follow it up with a great scecond shot that lands on the green.
I can hit my driver 300 anytime. 200 straight and 100 right. I can’t control it, hence the reason it’s out of the bag. I’d rather hit my 3 hybrid 225-250 in the fairway, than constantly losing golf balls. Golf is much more fun now grinding for par, instead of looking for lost balls.
MG
Aug 26, 2015 at 11:27 am
For driver, i like spraying the face with foot powder spray to see impact position. But yea, dry erase works better with irons due to the powder coming off when taking a divot. good article.
Adam Young
Aug 26, 2015 at 1:48 pm
Cheers MG – I also prefer the marker pen because you can see the concentration of shots. Face tape ruins spin rate, and spray only really shows the range of shots.