Saturday, April 27, 2013

The Stack and Tilt Golf Swing - Great for Experienced and Novice Golfers!

The Stack and Tilt Golf Swing
In this section I will go more in depth on the Stack and Tilt golf swing from the previous section The Stack and Tilt Hybrid Golf Swing and Weight Shift.  I suggest reading this section first, then slightly tweaking these ideas by following Sean Foley's advice because of how Stack and Tilt can stress you back more than Foley's "hybrid" version.  Do not think that the ideas below are wrong in any way!  Credit to AM Golf Associates LLC.  The majority of the text below is from Michael Bennett and Andy Plummer's book: The Stack and Tilt Swing.

Introduction:
Most instruction today teaches moves that lead not only to a slice but also to hitting the ground behind the ball, which has inhibited the development of players and the game itself.  Golfers are either learning the wrong things, or the right things in the wrong order.  Why aren't their games improving?  It boils down to no consensus on the basic physics of the game (such as what makes the ball go where it goes) and to no universal language for golfers to communicate the moves they're making or the shots they're hitting.  Consequently they're forced to use vague cliches such as: "I swung too fast" or "I looked up."  Thus Golfers become frustrated with the lack of direction, their games regression, or improvement that comes too slowly.  See Adam Young's blog for more information on the learning curve: The Ups and Downs of Learning. Here's a quick snipet:

In this graph, the player started out with very low performance, but increased it by the
end of the session. But between session 1 and 2, some of the learning was lost/or the player 
is not as warmed up at this point. They are still better than the day before, and have potential
to push the boundaries further today, as long as they practice with patience 
and realistic expectations during the initial stages of the session.



Remember, geometry and physics are the same for everyone; the anatomy of the individual player's body dictates the actual swing mechanics.  We came to our conclusions and devised the system you're about to learn not just by studying how certain professionals hit the ball, but by applying the rules of science.  Then we found evidence of these principles in the game's best players, past and present.  Stack & Tilt keeps the body centered over the ball during the backswing and through the shot.  There is no guesswork as to where the club will be at impact, no requirement to locate the ball through precise timing.  With Stack & Tilt you simply favor your front foot at address and stay there throughout the swing, with no weight ever moving to your back foot.  The first fundamental is hitting the ball solidly, and that comes primarily from controlling where your weight is during the swing.  If your weight stays in place, contact is predictable; if your weight moves back and forth, it is not.  This is the most important and most observable difference between the traditional swing and the Stack & Tilt.  Swing technique varies greatly, even among the best players, but solid contact is the essential first ingredient.  If you can learn to hit the ball solid consistently, you'll progress quickly.  The goal is to develop a swing that hits the ball the longest, the straightest, the most often.  We often hear that every golfer is different and, therefore, needs a different swing.  We disagree, because the rules of geometry and physics are the same for all golfers, and it is the golfer's job to conform to them and to predict them.

Golf's Real Fundamentals:
From what has been mentioned in this blog and from what other instructors have mentioned around the golfing world, most if not all amateurs have the preconceptions that the fundamentals of golf are a complex plethora composed of: grip, stance, ball position, posture, alignment, tempo, "square at impact," etc.  However if you look through the golf swings of the best that have ever played, you will find that there is no "correct" grip, stance, ball position, posture, alignment, and face to path numbers at impact because almost all of those great players: from Jack Nicklaus to Greg Norman to Ben Hogan to Arnold Palmer to Gary Player to Lee Trevino to Nancy Lopez to Annika Sorenstam, held the club in a non neutral manner, had a varying open or closed stance, had the ball positioned forward or backwards, had a "bad" rounded back or a "good" flat backed posture, and hit a push draw, a pull cut, a straight block, etc.  So are all the fundamentals in this blog bogus?  Well, I would say that although these "fundamentals" that I've posted on are not the industry standard by any means, these will give you a better chance of hitting the ball consistently solid and in a straight direction.  Read Introduction and Understanding Ball Flight.  The Stack and Tilt guys said it best: "The golf ball does not know if the player is fifteen or seventy-five years old, it does not know if you are fifty pounds overweight.  All it knows is what the club tells it at impact."  


The Stack and Tilt Fundamentals
1) hitting the ground in the same place every time
2) having enough power to play the course
3) matching the clubface to the swing to control shot direction


Fundamental 1 - hitting the ground in the same place every time


We start many of our lessons by scratching a line in the ground and having the student straddle the line as if it were the ball, try to take divots on the target side of that line.  Many students don't recognize that the low point is coming behind the ball.  Second, once they see the problem, they don't know how to control it.  The old cliches: "I got quick," "swung too fast," "came over it" aren't the most accurate terms to describe this inconsistency.

The first factor that contributes to the location of the low point is where the body weight is at impact.  We measure the weight by locating  the swing's two centers - the center of the shoulders (above the sternum) and the center of the hips or pelvis.  If the swing's dynamic center, which is the combination of the shoulder and hip centers, is back too far, the swing tends to bottom out behind the ball.  If the dynamic center is forward, the swing tends to bottom out in front of the ball.
The second factor is the width of the swing arc as controlled by the angles in the wrists and forward shaft lean (as seen from face-on view).  Simply put, the more the shaft leans toward the target, the better chance the club will hit the ground farther forward, because the swing radius reaches its full length later.  Conversely the more the shaft leans back, or away from the target, the longer the swing radius gets before it reaches the ball, and the farther behind the ball the club tends to hit the ground.  Many average amateurs violate all of these principles and have to make compensations: ie: early extensionover the topdisconnection (chicken wings).  They move the centers back too far off the ball and are not sophisticated enough to realize how forward and how fast they have to move them to make up for it.  Also they unhinge the wrist early in an over the top move to get the low point somewhere near the ball.

Fundamental 2 -  having enough power to play the course 
The second fundamental that is common to good players is generating enough power, inslightly varying degrees, to play the course effectively.

The first power element is the path of the hands and the club moving inward - around the body as opposed to upward - on the backswing.  Moving the hands and club on a circular arc conserves "angular momentum" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_momentum which is basically the rotational velocity around a particular axis (in golf - the spine).  This dynamic is evident in many sports, ie: field-goal kickers in football - decades ago, field goals of thirty or forty yards were considered long, because kickers used a straight line approach.  When that technique gave way to the soccer-style method of approaching the ball on an angle, allowing the torso to turn and the leg to swing in an arc, kickers started regularly making fifty-plus-yard field goals.


Approaching the ball on an angle generates much more power, allowing the torso to turn and leg to swing on an arc (conserving angular momentum).
Arms are more in and the club swings back on an arc!

The second factor in creating power is the spine angle changing from flexion (tilting forward to extension (straightening up) throughout the swing to create additional clubhead speed and launch.  It is this principle that allows the golfer to use the ground as a springboard, much like a long jumper pushing off the runway.


Simply put, on the downswing the golfer should slide the hips toward the target and straighten the knees and the forward tilt of the body to catapult the shaft.  This extension or elongation of the spine allows the golfer swing the club into the ball more powerful.  For clarity, we tell many of our students to raise the belt (Straighten the knees) and tuck the butt under the upper body to finish (elongate the swing).

Compression into the ground on the backswing and start of downswing (while maintaining weight ratio on left and right foot). And then

the extension of the arms and legs into the ball while raising the belt and "jumping up" to an

     upright, extended finish


Fundamental 3 - matching the clubface to the swing to control shot direction
The third fundamental is developing a predictable pattern of projecting the ball toward the target by controlling the clubface and the swing path.  It is here the golfer uses the variables of grip, stanc, alignment, and so forth, in a familiar way to hit the ball as intended.  The best players have mastered the first two fundamentals - low point and power - so direction control becomes the factor that determines success at the top levels of the game.  On tour, where solid contact and power are prerequisites, the ability to control curve and trajectory creates wide gaps among players.  Remember in understanding ball flight, the clubface gives the ball the initial direction while club path in relationship to that clubface gives the ball a tilted spin axis (resulting in hooks/ fades).

Working on these three fundamentals in order is the fastest way to develop your shot-making skills.
  

Learn The Basic Form In 30 Minutes

  1. With a middle iron, hit ten balls, focusing on keeping the weight on the front foot
  2. Hit the next ten balls with the weight forward and the left shoulder turning down on the backswing
  3. Hit the next ten balls with the weight forward, left shoulder down, and the hands swinging in
  4. Hit the next ten with the weight forward, shoulder down, hands in, and the butt tucking under the torso through impact
  5. Hit the next ten with the weight forward, shoulder down, hands in, butt tucked, and arms staying straight to the finish.



The New Tour Swing

How it works

We love it when a tour player comes up to us and says, "Hey, you're working with so-and-so. I saw him on the range doing this," and he mimics a backswing with the spine tilting way left. We love it because that's exactly what a good backswing should feel like.
The swing we teach looks different because the body never moves off the ball. Keeping your weight on your front foot is the simplest way to control where the club hits the ground, which is the first fundamental of hitting the ball. Golfers who shift to the right on the backswing have to make precisely the same shift back to the left by impact. That complicated maneuver is the biggest source of frustration in the game today.
Stack & Tilt relies less on timing.  Golfers have long been taught that the body turns back level and the arms swing upright.  The problem there is that if the arms lift off the rib cage going back, they have to get back on the body for the downswing so everything can moving together through impact.  This blending of the horizontal turn and vertical arm swing is a difficult maneuver for most golfers.  Stack & Tilt keeps the arms on the chest throughout the backswing and downswing, creating a flatter arm swing and much more repeatable motion.

Setup

Centers over the ball



Picture two points, one midway between the shoulders and one midway between the hips. These are the swing centers, and they should be stacked, setting the spine vertical. The grip is neutral, the weight 60-40 on the front foot.
Here Aaron is hitting a 5-iron, so his ball position is just ahead of the middle of his stance, directly below the centers. This over-the-ball posture pre-sets a rotary swing with no shift to the back foot.

Halfway Back

Hands move inward



The spine tilts toward the ball at address, and when the player swings back, that tilt moves to the right. So to keep the spine over the ball, which is the goal, the player has to tilt to the left during the backswing. The first move going back is this tilting action. It causes the shoulders and hips to turn on a steep downward angle, the right leg straightening and the left knee flexing forward.
As the left shoulder turns down, pointing almost to the ball, the hands move on a circular arc around the body, not up and away, and the arms stay on the rib cage. When the left arm reaches parallel to the ground, it should be angled 40 degrees inside the stance line. To golfers who've been told to swing back along the target line, this will feel way too far inside.

What It Feels Like

The hips are level at address, but because the spine tilts toward the target going back, the right hip turns much higher than the left. It should feel as if the right hip is moving up and behind the body.




At the Top

Body stays centered



The spine should be vertical at the top, which makes the player feel tipped over the front leg. This tilting toward the target happens continuously during the backswing. At the top, the weight on the front foot has increased slightly.

Many golfers are told to resist with their hips as they turn their shoulders on the backswing, as if they were coiling the body like a spring.  The problem with that is that few people are flexible enough to hold their hips in place and make a significant shoulder turn.  This model frees up the hips to maximize rotation, because that allows the shoulders to turn fully.  When the hips turn 45 degrees, the shoulders have to turn only another 45 to get to 90.  Look at great players like Nicklaus, Stadler, Coling Montgomerie, Tom Lehman - all have had great careers but don't measure up to the flexibility standards that some people consider essential.
The upper body is now full of torque but remains straight up and down—picture the twisted double helix of DNA from high school biology. Here Aaron is tilted a few degrees to his left, which is the feeling a player should get. The arms stay low and inside, because they're moved by the rotary motion of the body; no lifting off the rib cage. The head stays in place, so the ball remains centered in the player's vision. If the head shifts, it has the same effect as the ball moving and inhibits solid contact.  

What It Feels Like

Imagine you're making a left-handed follow-through. Grip the club like a lefty and swing through, feeling how the right side stretches and the spine tilts back. Then take your normal grip and feel that same stretch on a right-handed backswing.







Halfway Down

Weight moves left



The entire body starts the downswing together. More weight immediately moves to the left foot, with a distinct leaning into the left knee. Remember, the priority is to get the swing centers in front of the ball at impact. The hips start to turn back to level, and the legs reverse roles, the left leg straightening and the right leg flexing.
The turning body is supplying the initial acceleration, so the player must maximize rotational speed. The hips have limited turning capacity when they're tilted, so they have to come out of their tilt to keep accelerating. The move that releases the hips is a springing up of the lower body, where the butt muscles push the hips upward and toward the target. The player has to feel as if he's jumping up as the club comes down.

What It Feels Like

As you start down, imagine you're crushing a soda can under your left foot. The body has stayed centered on the backswing, so there's no need to shift back to the ball. This downward pressure on the left foot sets up the upward thrust of the hips through impact.

Impact

Lower body springs up



The upward thrust of the lower body that releases the hips—notice here the leg and butt muscles pushing forward—also helps deliver the club to the ball. Because the body is leaning on the front side, the club comes down steeply and will crash into the ground unless the swing shallows out. The pelvic thrust takes some of the steepness out of the swing.
The upper arms stay on the rib cage, and the hand path comes from well inside. The pelvic thrust allows the hips to keep turning, which keeps the clubface closing at a constant rate and the hands swinging on a circular arc. The club releases without any conscious hand or arm action. At impact, the swing centers are in front of the ball, so the club catches the ball first then cuts a divot.

What It Feels Like

Football kickers know they get more power if they swing their leg on an arc. Angular momentum (arc) beats linear force (straight line) for distance. Same goes here: The hands swing fastest when they approach from the inside.

Finish

Torso flexes forward



With the hips released toward the target, the torso flexes forward and the butt tucks under the back. Notice the spine tilts away from the target for the first time. The belt is level and several inches higher than it was at address.
As the torso stretches, the arms can extend and the hands don't drop over the left shoulder. The hips and shoulders have continued to turn toward the target. As the club re-cocks, forming a 90-degree angle with the forearms, the speed of the through-swing is absorbed. The hands are still swinging on a circular arc, because the body has kept up its speed. The so-called release is the body releasing from its forward tilt, not some manipulation by the hands and arms.

What It Feels Like

Ever notice the swing on the PGA Tour logo? That's the follow-through we teach: torso flexed forward, spine tilted back, arms extended. Forget about finishing with everything over your front leg, as many teachers say today.


Read More http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-instruction/2007-06/stackandtilt1_gd0706#ixzz2QSZcd0YF


Short Game Shots - Chipping and Pitching


The scoring shots are any approaches aimed at the green (with irons & wedges) or aimed at the hole (with wedges & the putter, and sometimes depending on the pin location your irons).  These are the key shots that will impact your score the most, so rather than whale away at the driver, why not lower your score by getting down solid chipping, pitching, and sand techniques.  It may be great to analyze your swing technique and such, but more video analysis should be dedicated to chipping and pitching!  Very few videos are out there that analyze professional players' chipping and pitching.  Next time you are at the practice range, take your video camera to the chipping green and practice bunker to analyze your technique.  While like any other area, you must practice hard at the short game to become proficient, many amateurs (even though they may chip and pitch for hours on end) struggle simply because they have bad technique.  

Quick notes about Wedges:




Tour players today are favoring more of a sweeping strike with their pitches, chips, and bunker shots.  Thus, many of them don't have too much bounce on their wedges.  From personal experience, fitting yourself for the proper wedge is just as important (perhaps more important) as fitting yourself for the proper irons or driver.  You are going to use your wedges a lot!  

Luke Donald
  • 54* Sand Wedge = 9* of bounce (low-med bounce)
  • 60* Lob Wedge = 5* of bounce (low bounce)
Adam Scott
  • 54* Sand Wedge = 10* of bounce (medium bounce)
  • 60* Lob Wedge = 6* of bounce (low bounce)


   
Chipping
The Basic Chip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz5sJeHrPMY   


Take a lower lofted club (like a PW or 9 iron) and have hands slightly forward at address gripping down the club a lot (almost to the steel because this makes the club lighter and easier to feel the distance you want to hit it).  Slight wrist hinge going back and retaining most of the angle going forward.  



The basic chip shot setup:  There is no question you can use anywhere from a lob wedge (60 degree) to a driver (about 9-10 degrees) with this setup.  However, for most golfers, know that it is easier to create spin on the golf ball with a lower lofted club (like a PW or 9 iron) which in turn will make it easier to control distance (see "pitch shot research" below).  Like a full shot, you want your hands forward slightly to get the shaft leaning forward.  It is critically important to at maintain this angle (the forward shaft lean) that you have set at address into impact.  Experiment griping down on the club further when you have a shorter shot.  




On the backswing there is a slight bit more wrist hinge but pretty much nothing.  Your left arm should be straight throughout the whole swing and the right arm flexes slightly on the backswing, but it straightens into impact and remains straight past impact.  A lot of the amateurs I play with struggle because they take too much wrist hinge - too much wrist hinge adds uneccessary leverage and power that is not needed for such a "touchy" short shot.  Of course on the downswing amateurs also struggle with maintaining any sort of forward shaft lean at impact which leads to really inconsistent strikes (anywhere from tops to chunks).  Accelerating through from the backswing will help maintain that wrist hinge (causing forward shaft lean) and straight arms going through.     

In summary:
  • Ball slightly back of center
  • Weight a little forward (about 70% forward)
  • Hands a little forward [at about left thigh (promoting downward strike and crisp contact with forward shaft lean)]
  • Slight wrist hinge going back (your right wrist hinges back making a cup)
  • Hold off most of the hinge on the way through
  • We are only landing the ball just on the green (maybe a yard on the green--change club accordingly) so the ball rolls up to the hole.  This makes it as simple as possible.
Pitching
The Standard Pitch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ETO0SvEBXts&list=PL2845430916F319FD 


















In this shot we will use more of the back edge of the club (where Luke is pointing to on left).  Again, grip down on the club slightly to make the club feel lighter which will give you more feel with distance control.

In Luke's words: "I'm about 15-20 yards from the front of the green and I don't have a lot of green to work with, so the shot I always choose here is the 60* LW [Note that his LW has only 5* of bounce where the standard LW has maybe 8-12* of bounce].  I like to loft it onto the green and have it roll out just a couple of feet;  I feel like that will give me the best opportunity to make this shot.  The way I do that is mostly with setup.  Most amateurs tend to get the ball way too far back in the stance with the club leaning forward too much and that exposes the front edge.  The most important thing about this shot is using the back edge/ the bounce, and that will help get the ball coming up nice and softly and come out rolling just a little bit and giving you a good chance of making this.  The way you do that is getting the ball position a lot more forward, almost off my front foot, and I'm really making sure that when I take my swing, the toe-end of the club is staying up (it's nice and open), and it's coming through staying open as well.  The left hand sort of folds nicely by my left pocket and the ball should just loft up and finish pretty close to the hole. [...]  That's always the goal, to try and hole it.  I think that if you focus on something more specific it becomes a lot easier.  If you think, 'oh I'll just try to get it around the hole to five or six feet,' that's not really focusing your mind properly.  Focus on a particular part of the hole, be even more specific and see it going in the left edge or the right edge."   

Play the ball slightly forward of your center of gravity (center of chest) and impact the club with the bounce slightly behind the ball.  At impact, you want the clubshaft to be vertical (see photo on right), so the dynamic loft and bounce is more than it would be with a chip shot.  Again, for most golfers, know that it is easier to create spin on the golf ball with a lower lofted club (like a SW, PW, or 9 iron) which in turn will make it easier to control distance (see "pitch shot research" below). You need a fairly good lie from the fairway or light rough for this shot.  

You want to impact behind the ball with your wedges bounce 

Good lie for using the bounce 

When the club is perpendicular to the ground at impact, the bounce is involved

Notice in this picture how the clubshaft leaning forward results in no bounce at impact.  With deep rough/ nestled lies use more of the leading edge.




Here is a sequence of Luke Donald's pitching action.  Notice how narrow his stance is and how softly his wrists hinge in the backswing.  Throughout the whole pitch swing Luke's left arm is straight while the right arm is soft and able to bend.

At impact the left arm is straight and the clubshaft is perpendicular to the ground. This will allow the ball to glide up the clubface to produce that beautiful low spinning pitch shot that checks up upon landing on the green.  He is using the bounce of the golf club to create that shallow angle to get the ball to glide up the face.


It's always a great idea to hold your finish on each chip/ pitch/ bunker shot until the ball stops to ingrain the feel of distance control.   


In summary:
  • "15-20 yards from the front of the green without a lot of green to work with, so the shot I always choose here is the 60* LW."
  • "The most important thing about this shot is using the back edge/ the bounce, and that will help get the ball coming up nice and softly and come out rolling just a little bit and giving you a good chance of making this."
  • "The way you do that is getting the ball position a lot more forward, almost off my front foot"
  • "I'm really making sure that when I take my swing, the toe-end of the club is staying up (it's nice and open), and it's coming through staying open as well."
  • "The left hand sort of folds nicely by my left pocket and the ball should just loft up and finish pretty close to the hole."
  • "That's always the goal, to try and hole it.  I think that if you focus on something more specific it becomes a lot easier."
The Low Spinning Pitch - Pitch Shot Research


Steve Stricker
For years golfers have asked me how to hit low, spinning wedge shots and I’ve never been able to give them a confident response.  After the research I’ve put in over the past few weeks I can give them a certain answer – and perhaps even explain a few other interesting shots we encounter on the course.
In polling better golfers regarding what really good pitch shots look like, the response has almost unanimously been that they tend to be lower with more spin.  Edoardo Molinari, the European Ryder Cup golfer and former US Amateur champion was kind enough to help with the research for this article and he stated,
"I’ve watched Tiger, Mickelson and Ernie hit hundreds of 50 yds shots, I’ve played with them and they all seem to deloft the club without taking much divot."
Which I agree with by the way – the best pitchers always seem to have a knack for nipping the ball off the turf without much divot and then firing the ball in there low and spinning.  The problem with this shot has always been how to hit it low, yet make it spin at the same time….
If you hit down on the ball you’ll be able to hit it lower, but hitting down more only lowers height and does not, as is commonly believed, make the ball spin more.  So that option is out.  If we take a more lofted club to spin it more then we may get a little extra spin (although that’s not a given), but now the shot will fly too high.


Here is where we need to get a little technical and talk about the forces and angles the club is imparting on the ball at impact.  TrackMan uses a term spin loft and it refers to the vertical difference between where the clubhead is travelling at impact (attack angle) and where the clubface is angled at impact (dynamic loft). My research shows that good wedge players have a narrower spin loft (dynamic loft minus attack angle). Let’s get a better understanding of these important factors:
Attack Angle (angle that indicates if the clubhead is travelling up or down, relative to the ground at impact)
In studying hundreds of 50 yard pitch shots on TrackMan over the last few weeks I have found that good pitchers tend to not take very large divots.  Yes, they always contact the ground, but the club‘bruises’ the turf more so than cuts it.  This would indicate that the attack angle is shallow – it is down but not hugely so.  Now hold on for the following part, because this should not change the way you think about a club striking a ball: my research shows that the attack angle should be shallow enough so that the sole of the club (bounce) actually makes contact with the grass/ground before the ball.  And this occurs even on ideal hits…..




Dynamic Loft (the angle of the face/loft at impact)

Really good pitchers have the ability to deloft the club without hitting down more.  This means that the hands are in front of the ball at impact and the loft on the clubface is often more than 10 degrees less than the static loft. For example in much of the testing a 54 degree wedge would apply 41-44 degrees of dynamic loft to the ball.

Spin Loft (dynamic loft – attack angle)
This is a very important factor as it contributes to, but does not solely determine, how much spin and loft each shot will have.  If you hit a pitch shot with 42 degrees of dynamic loft and you have an attack angle of -3 degrees (the minus indicates a downward hit) your spin loft would be 45 degrees.  Common wisdom indicates that a broader spin loft (eg. 50 degrees) would create more spin and height, yet my research indicates that when it comes to chipping and pitching a slightly narrower spin loft (without much downward hit), coupled with clean contact between ball and face increases the golfers ability to hit low spinning wedges. 

An easy way to narrow your spin loft with pitch shots is to take a lesser lofted club.  My students have had tremendous results by using the lob wedge less and getting a little more accustomed to hitting a variety of  shots with the pitching wedge.

Friction Launch (the amount of grip between face and ball and how that effects launch conditions)
This type of strike on the ball leads to a scenario where the friction between the face and the ball is far higher than normal.  This increased friction leads to a lower launch and trajectory with a substantially higher spin rate.  This grip between the ball and face is what I call ‘friction launch’ and just like the term spin loft it addresses the friction and launch of any shot.

As golfers we’ve all hit that pitch shot that comes off the face very low and the moment you strike the ball you know it’s going to grab as soon as it hits the green. Your playing partners are yelling bite and as soon as the ball gets near the hole it comes to a screeching halt!  You have just experienced high friction launch.

Please check back in a few days for the follow up post The Science Behind Superb Wedges: Part II where I’ll discuss friction launch in detail and show the results of much of the research I’ve done.






So Many Choices...
In my quest to better understand pitching, chipping, and more specifically the low spinning wedge shot I needed to watch different professional players hit a variety of shots and be able to track the data from each shot.  My objective was to understand how friction or grip between the face and the ball influenced the launch angle, height and spin rate.  I have named the measurement of this grip and it’s influence on the golf ball – friction launch.
I need to explain some fairly detailed physics as to how I measure friction launch, so bear with me.  The golf ball always launches somewhere between where the face is angled and where the clubhead is travelling – on both a vertical and horizontal plane.  The ball also always launches closer to where the face is angled than where the clubhead is travelling.  Where the ball launches between the face angle and the clubpath is primarily determined by club speed and friction between the face and ball.  I needed to measure this friction in order to see how it effected the trajectory and spin on wedge shots.
With the help of Mark Reilly and Edoardo Molinari, we came up with the following formula to determine friction launch:
(Dynamic Loft – Launch Angle) x 100/Spin Loft = Friction Launch
This formula informs us where the ball launches between the face and path. The percentage indicates how far below the face angle the ball launched. A friction launch of 0% indicates that there was absolutely no grip at impact and the ball launched in the direction the face was angled at impact.  A friction launch of 50% would indicate that the ball launched directly between the face angle and the clubpath and the grip was exceedingly high.  By the way – neither of these are possible under normal conditions. The smaller the percentage, the higher the launch and lower the spin and vice versa.
With all the various situations I tested I needed to keep certain factors constant in order to be able to detect why the trajectory and spin rate of each shot was altered.  My constants were TrackMan – to record the data; the golf club – a Titleist Vokey SM4 54 degree wedge; and the distance of each shot studied – 50 yards.  If any ball landed short of 40 yards or longer than 60 yards it’s data was thrown out.  The factors I controlled were the quality of the lie and playing surface, the grass and dirt in the grooves and on the face and the type of golf ball.

The Test Subject
Here are the average results attained from three professional golfers hitting 10 shots each in 7 different situations:
1. Clubface packed with dirt and grass/ProV1/off lie board (to eliminate additional matter)
  • Friction Launch 17.9 degrees/Spin Rate 4408/Launch Angle 34.9 degrees/Height 31.9ft/Carry 51.6yds
2. Clean clubface/ProV1/off lie board (to eliminate additional matter)
  • Friction Launch 28.1 degrees/Spin Rate 6501/Launch Angle 28.4 degrees/Height 25.1ft/Carry 50.3yds
3. Wet clubface/ProV1/off lie board (to eliminate additional matter)
  • Friction Launch 28.1 degrees/Spin Rate 6564/Launch Angle 28.7 degrees/Height 25.7ft/Carry 50.4yds
4. Clean clubface/ProV1/off turf/preferred lie
  • Friction Launch 31.9 degrees/Spin Rate 7178/Launch Angle 26.1 degrees/Height 22.3ft/Carry 48.9yds
5. Clean clubface/hard range ball/off turf/preferred lie
  • Friction Launch 28.8 degrees/Spin Rate 6625/Launch Angle 27.6 degrees/Height 25.1ft/Carry 50.8yds
6. Clean clubface/ProV1/off a new mat
  • Friction Launch 30.4 degrees/Spin Rate 6859/Launch Angle 26.8 degrees/Height 23.3ft/Carry 49.2yds
7. Clean clubface/ProV1/Off a tee
  • Friction Launch 30.6 degrees/Spin Rate 7259/Launch Angle 27.6 degrees/Height 24.8ft/Carry 51.2yds
Edoardo Molinari was also kind enough to submit his TrackMan data to me from the 10 shots he hit with his 60 degree wedge and 10 more with his 56 degree wedge: (the following shots were hit with premium golfballs, off preferred lies and cleaning the clubface between each shot)
60 Degree Wedge
  • Friction Launch 22.9 degrees/Spin Rate 6048/Launch Angle 36.2 degrees/Height 34.8ft/Carry 51.0yds
56 Degree Wedge
  • Friction Launch 24.4 degrees/Spin Rate 6046/Launch Angle 34.2 degrees/Height 31.5ft/Carry 50.5yds
NOTE: After a few weeks of practice Edoardo has improved his 10 shot average with his 60 degree to a spin rate of 8700rpm and a Launch angle of 26.1 degrees! There is something to this…
The deductions I took from the above tests are as follows:
  • Shots out of the rough, first cut or even into the grain lies are always going to launch higherspin less and as a result fall out the sky faster and roll more after landing – no matter how good you or your wedge is.  There simply is too much ‘matter’ involved between face and ball to create optimal friction.
  • wet clubface actually makes very little difference in determining how much friction, and thus spin, is imparted on the ball.
  • premium golfball makes a noticeable difference with the wedges.  Not only will it add distance off the tee, but it will also allow you to hit better and more predictable short shots.
  • If the rules allow you to tee the ball up – go ahead and do so.  You increase your ability to place the clubface cleanly on the back of the golf ball.
  • Hitting pitch shots off mats is a fantasy world and can only increase the ‘illusion of competence’.  No bad lies, nothing between the face and the ball, minimal consequence to heavy shots...
  • For pitch shots, higher lofted clubs do not spin the ball significantly more than the next wedge down (60*vs56*). They do, however, get the ball to stop slightly faster due to a steeper landing angle.
  • Average friction launch for a 50 yard shot is around 25%.  The lowest friction launch was out of the poorest lie (18%) and the best results came from an ideal fairway lie, a new and clean wedge along with a premium golfball (32%).
  • The quality of the lie is the most important factor in allowing a golfer to control the trajectory and spin of the wedge shot they are about to play.
Let’s take a look at the factors that influence friction launch:
The Golf Club
  • The sharpness of the top edge of the groove will effect spin, yet most of the spin on a shot comes from the roughness of the area between the grooves.
  • In my opinion the wedges that provide the highest amount of spin are the models that have the roughest surface between the grooves – the new TaylorMade ATV and the Nike Vr Pro wedges seem to do an excellent job with ‘between groove’ treatment.
  • An excellent way to improve spin with your current wedges is to have the face sandblasted with normal aluminum oxide sand.   This will provide a rougher, more ‘grippy’ texture to the face.
  • The number of groove edges that come into contact with the ball also effects backspin.  In pushing the limit of the groove rules manufacturers can now put five grooves on the surface of the ball at impact versus the traditional three.
  • Grooves channel away some of the moisture and matter from rough that gets between the ball and face – but seldom all of it.
  • The grooves and face of your wedges should always be very clean – even when you’re practicing.  Keep a towel or brush handy to clean the club after every few shots.
  • If you are serious about competitive golf I would recommend having a tournament set of wedges and a set you use in practice. Every shot you hit wears down the face which reduces friction at impact.
  • In fact Gary Player would ensure that his caddie never cleaned his wedge after hitting a sand shot – the sand particles on the face helped to create more friction between the face and ball for his next shot.
Turf Type and the Quality of the Lie:
  • When you are into the grain you will often get grass caught between the ball and the face, thus reducing grip.  A down grain shot will ‘cut’ very little grass and thus allow for clean contact and increased grip.
  • Different turf types are thicker and stronger and thus, even at fairway height, support the ball enough to keep it up and away from the grass.  This makes it easier to have a higher friction launch factor.  If you’ve ever played off kikuyu grass you’ll know what I mean.
  • When laying up on a par five understand the value of high friction launch – lay up in the fairway and don’t be greedy.
The Swing

  • This is where I am now focusing my efforts.  There does seem to be a method that DOES NOT involve a more open face, increased speed, higher launch or a cutting action that seems to produce a lower trajectory with a much higher spin rate. Stay tuned…..