PGA TOUR coach, Scott Hamilton uses TrackMan to demonstrate how your set up determines your potential for hitting it your farthest.
PGA TOUR coach, Scott Hamilton uses TrackMan to demonstrate how your set up determines your potential for hitting it your farthest.
Scott,
My pro who uses Trackman…he had me move my ball forward and bump my hips forward at address for the driver. Later in the year…my misses were straight pulls or a straight pulls with a small draw, and sometimes I was skying the ball. My question…is the pull a cause of the ball being too far forward…as I see it…the swing travels in an arc and I would now be swing left or is it that my clubface is closed at impact or maybe a combination of the two? Am I skying the ball because I am still hitting down? Maybe I hit down so much with my irons(which I use more)that it’s harder mentally to hit up? Need help…this is really screwing with me.
Hi William, you are indeed correct! D-Plane tells us that at the point of an upward attack the club is travelling left. However, what needs to be established is left of what? If you are swinging in-to-out your swing path at the point of contact could be left, right or straight of target, depending on the severity of the overall swing plane. If you are hitting pulls, that would indicate that your face-to-path ratio’s are near zero and you have good face control. Devices like trackman etc tell us that hitting slightly up on the ball increases our overall distance due to dynamic loft therefore most people favour setting the ball up opposite the left heel (for a right handed player). The swing should be the same in both instances, just the ball placement differs. If you are therefore pulling the ball to the right by say 10-15 yards left and is manageable (ie. the ball is not ending up two fairways along from you or OOB), then set up with your alignment right of target and swing as normal to allow the ball to drift back to target. This is of course a generalisation and without seeing your swing is difficult to know how to remedy it. I’d suggest going back to your Pro and getting back on a launch monitor and seeing what your numbers are, which will identify what fix is needed.
Thanks for the info Scott and getting back to me so soon. I’ve been wanting to go back to this pro. My ball hitting was very solid from early summer to early fall after I received the lesson.
Thanks for the info Alan. I’ve been wanting to go back to this pro. My ball hitting was very solid from early summer to early fall after I received the lesson.
Hey William. I was interested to read your post and wondered if you could tell me what kind of “stock” shot your are wanting to play for your driver. Straight, starting left and moving it back onto target or starting right and moving it back onto target?
My stock shot starts right, moving it back on target.
Of course I also aim my body to the right of the target
Hey William. You might want to check 2 areas. First, do you aim the face and attempt to return right of the intended destination. Second, your pelvic tilt angle towards the lead side at address might not be returning back to this angle or preferably increasing. This may cause you to sky it or change the clubpath. This might be due to tight muscles in the left side.
I bend my hands until the clubface is pointing right of my target.
According to the video higher launch = more distance? Why not just get a more lofted driver if it was this simple?
Hi John F. The aim is to create a high launch with low spin. By increasing the driver loft you can potentially increase the spin rate which is controlled by spin loft. You will then loose the benefit of the high launch.
Chris I understand that, was really trying to point out that creating a higher launch is not the only thing that is desirable. Reducing Spin Loft and Spin Rates goes hand in hand for longer drives, they don’t even show spin rates on the trackman screenshots, boggles me……
I realize smash factor is how good the ball is hit off the face of the club, I was taught that a perfect smash factor is 1.5 and the best a person can achieve is 1.49. Why in this demonstration is he reaching a 1.51 smash factor?
Hi Jake,
The smash factor is depending on the many different factors that are influencing the club and ball speed. The short answer to your question would be that if the ball is hit slightly on the toe, the club speed will be slightly higher than in the centre of the face because of the rotation in the face. TrackMan always shows the club speed from the geometric centre of the head, but the true ball speed. As the ball speed will be higher due to the higher club speed, then the Smash Factor will be “un-realistic” high.
The smash factor can also be higher if the club head mass i heavier than “normal” or the spin loft is very low.
As an example, a 220 g club head with a 46 grams ball, with a centre hit and a spin loft of 10 deg, then the maxSF is 1.49. If the same player then hits a shot (centre hit and same ball) with a driver that weights 250 grams and has a spin loft of 5 deg, then the maxSF is 1.54.
Niklas Bergdahl,
Support Manager, TrackMan
Best driver distance tip I have seen in 20 years. The results are pure. No need to put a bandaid on it. The result is clear. Awesome tip and easy to follow.
Hello,
Can you provide your thoughts with irons. I have lost distance only in my iron play.
Thank you!
A little misleading in the first swing, since launch angle is only 5 degrees. Someone with a negative attack angle is going to be using a high enough lofted driver to get that launch up. Yes, the spin will kill the distance, but with 180 mph ball speed (which 120 mph ss * 1.5 smash = 180 mph ball speed), if the player had the correct driver for a -5 Aoa, he’s still going to carry it probably 270.
I agree with this totally. The more time I spend on my set-up on the range – the more consistent and long my drives become on the course. Thanks for the article.