Understanding cause and effect of impact
Golf is a game of degrees and millimetres and when training how to use the clubs that are in your bag we need to understand how to feel what the club needs to do to create the selected flight.
When creating a model of how the club impacts the ball we use Trackman impact data to brake this cause and affect model down to 10 variables so we understand how it works and learn to feel them on a priority basis.
We will often freeze some of the variables initially in learning to make a simplistic model of impact that's useable but not complete as learning must be relative to what you currently know and move you forward from there.
In this blog we are going to explain the variables we use to understand and learn to feel the club at and through impact. We have ordered the numbers in most commonly trained order to improve your golf swing.
1. Low Point:
With the ball on the ground we usually require a downward angle of the club which makes the bottom of the arc ahead of the impact. When the ball is sitting up or on a tee we have space to hit up on the ball without hitting ground first and therefore it is not necessary to swing down but still possible.
2. Arc Height:
Having the low point ahead gives us potential to hit the middle of the club but if we lower the arc even at the intended angle we can still hit the ground first. If we have the arc higher than intended with the same angle we will hit towards the top of the ball.
3. Arc Width:
Having the low point ahead gives us potential to hit the middle of the club but if have a more narrow (closer to you) width of arc than intended then you will hit the toe (away from the shaft) of the club and if you have a wider than intended arc of the club you will hit the heel (closer to the shaft) of the club.
4. Face Angle:
This is the biggest variable that affects direction somewhere between 60-90% depending on club used and how its delivered. This usually is trained after good contact as a ground first impact can deflect the face and sometimes directional issues are symptomatic of unintended impact. It is the rotational alignment of the club at impact.
5. Club Speed:
This combined with how you deliver the club combines to create the distance of the shot. Once we have a predictable flight we can work towards moving it further through learning to have more clubhead speed.
6. Swing Direction:
The horizontal direction of the club from knee height to knee height. In combination with attack angle this creates the club path which determines the shape of the shot. Usually but not always people have a predictable but not efficient for distance swing direction. That's why we generally work on this after we have achieved ball control.
7. Dynamic Loft:
The vertical angle of the club at impact. This has the biggest affect on the height of a well struck shot. Again this is usually a relatively stable variable to begin with and come in when efficiency becomes the goal after we have horizontal control of the ball.
8. Attack Angle
The vertical movement of the club at impact. This is very connected to low point. As the ball have already gone low point doesn’t affect the ball flight but it is easier to train and leads to improved attack angle, angle of approach and impact location with minimum thought. We tend to change the feedback to attack angle once low point skill has been consolidated.
9. Dynamic Lie:
the angle of the bottom of the shaft relative to the ground. This can marginally affect the direction of the face. It can affect how far off the ground at impact the sweet spot is depending on club fitting. Some have more upright angles (closer to 90 deg) and some flatter (closer to 0 deg)
10. Swing Plane:
The angle of the inclined plane of the swinging club. Commonly mistaken for the swing direction which is the direction of the base of this plane and not the angle. This can be again more upright or flatter depending on the player and the club used. If there is a flat or more horizontally circular swing plane and a more upright dynamic lie this will create a larger turning circle and more sudden oration of the club though impact. The flatter the plane the more attack angle affects path.
Conclusion of on the golf swing
Most people we see have a basic model of moving the club but have little spatial modelling of the club.
It is very typical for learning to start with modelling how the club works as this is the lowest hanging fruit and will produce the best golf fastest. This does not mean that movement or environmental skill could not be improved but without awareness and feel of the club this would have little effect on performance.
In order to learn this we must first understand what it is we want to learn and then create a method of learning it and feeling it as they play. The ‘Big 10’ is what we need to feel with the club in the swing. We will explore our methods of how to learn these feels in other blogs.
Find a better way to learn
John and Tom
Golfontrack
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