0to300golf

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Swinging the Driver at 80% effort?

A common enough tip given is that you should swing your driver at 80% effort. Elite golfers commonly say they swing their driver at this 80% effort level.

How true is this?

Last year (2012) on the PGA Tour the average swing speed with a driver was 112.64 mph as measured by TrackMan launch monitors at Tour events. The highest average swing speed was JB Holmes with an average speed of 125.12 mph. Bubba Watson's fastest recorded swing was 127.02 mph.

If the average PGA Tour player was swinging at 80% then their maximum speed should be 140.80 mph. This isn't the case. From my own observations on TrackMan when asking golfers to hit it as hard as they can, they rarely gain no more than 5mph speed from their 'normal' swing.

This is a good example of 'feel' versus 'real'. Golfers feel they are swinging with less effort and feel it is significantly less effort then their maximum but the reality is they are swinging only marginally less then their maximum.

A golfer with a maximum distance of 250 yards will only hit it 200 yards with an 80% swing. Who wants to hit it 50 yards less? It's very common to hear: 'I need to slow my swing down', my answer to this is 'You want to hit it shorter?'. Slowing the swing down means shorter distance.

Don't slow down, smoothen the swing out, take 1-2% off (it may feel like much more), sequence might improve, energy might transfer better, possibly leading to more speed and strike might be more centered (definitely leading to more ball speed and longer distance).

If you want to hit it further, don't slow your swing down. A swing is never too fast (unless the ball has gone too far). It can be too quick though, too quick = poor sequence. So next time don't say you were too fast, say you were too quick.

Saturday, 2 March 2013

How do I get to.....?

If a friend rings you up asking for directions to a destination, what is the first question you ask them?

You ask them, where are you now? In order to go from A to B you need to know where both point A and B are.

How does this affect your golf? If you are looking to improve, you need to know where you are now and where you would like to go to. This can be tricky just from looking at your play on the golf course.

Skills testing is a good way to find out your strengths and weaknesses independent of other shots.

Simple examples of skills tests include: hitting 10 putts from 3 feet, count how many go in, hit 10 shots from 150 yards, count how many hit the green, hit 10 tee shots and count how many hit the fairway. Now you can start to see your strengths and weaknesses a bit easier and where to focus your valuable practice time.

There are many more elaborate skills test and are great when looking for more detail. The book 'Golf's Red Zone Challenge' by Charlie King and Rob Akins has some great tests.

Don't forget, when looking to improve, knowing where you are now is a great help when deciding where you want to go.

Sunday, 24 February 2013

The Importance of the Strike Point on the Club Face

What causes a golf ball to curve in the air?

Generally speaking if there's a difference between the club path and club face aim at impact then the ball will curve in the air. For example if the club face is open to the path the ball curves from left to right and if the face is closed to the path the ball curves from right to left.

The starting point of the shot is determined by the both the face aim at impact and the club path, with the face aim having a greater influence (approx 70/30 face aim/club path). The curvature is then determined by the difference in the face aim and club path as well as the difference between the angle of attack and the launch angle(spin loft).

However there is one impact factor that can skew the expect results i.e. centeredness of strike.

Let's look at two similar shots recorded on TrackMan last year to see what can happen with two different strike points on a driver.

Shot	Club Speed (mph)	Angle of Attack	Club Path	Face to Path	Ball Speed (mph)	Launch Angle	Spin Rate (rpm)	Carry (yards)	Distance to Target (feet)	Spin Axis
A	102.5	1.8	-2.1	-1.1	152.4	13.9	2437	253.2	103.5 L	-9.1
B	102.7	-0.3	-2.2	-0.5	153.2	14.2	3075	268.2	34.8 R	7.3

So looking at the club path and the face to the path in both shot A and B, both values are negative meaning both are going to the left of the target. As a result we would expect both shots to start left of the target and to curve right to left away from the target but shot B finishes right of the target (34.8 feet right) and shot A finishes a long way left of the target (103.5 L). We would also expect that the curvature wouldn't be that much as the difference between the face and the path isn't great (1.1 and 0.5 degrees). So both shots should start left of target and curve just a slight bit more.

So what happened? The factor that gives us an idea is Spin Axis, if the spin axis is minus the ball is moving right to left and positive moving left to right. Shot A has a spin axis of -9.1, much higher than the path and face to path would suggest. Shot B has a spin axis of 7.3, higher and is positive when expecting a negative value.

So what caused this to happen? The strike point on shot A was on the toe and the strike point on shot B was on the heel. There is a gear effect with the driver, toe shots curve right to left and heel shots curve left to right. This is caused by the clubface rotating around it's center of gravity on off center strikes.

Here's a link to Brian Manzella's forum with a discussion on gear effect.

http://www.brianmanzella.com/golfing-discussions/14569-off-center-gear-effect-driver-impact-affects-d-plane.html

Also note that there is little gear effect in irons.

What does this mean for you?

Just be wary of your strike point before analysing your swing. These two swings were quite similar but gave wildly different results (138.3 feet apart!!). Also, as we see in shot B an out to in path with a closed clubface can still lead to a left to right shot. Generally some would suggest closing the clubface to cure a slice but this wouldn't work in shot B.

Also a swing and strike that would cause a result like shot B with a driver would end up left with an iron.

Sunday, 17 February 2013

High Launch, Low Spin - How to lower the spin

One of the main mantras that is seen for extra distance is High Launch, Low Spin. So for extra distance we should look to increase the launch of the drives while also lowering the spin. This is true for a lot of golfers but not all, some need to increase spin, while others would be better served by lowering launch. A better mantra would be 'Optimise', i.e. seek out the optimal launch and spin for each player. For a player with 100 mph club head speed, optimal is around 14 degrees launch and 2500 rpms spin. For lower swing speeds these figures are slightly higher and for higher swing speeds these figures are slightly lower.

However for the purpose of this blog post, let's look at ways of reducing spin.

Change Ball

The easiest and cheapest way of reducing spin is to use a different type of golf ball. For example the Titleist ProV1X in general spins less off the Driver than the ProV1, the NXT Tour and Velocity spin even less and solid two piece balls such as the Pinnacle even less again.

Club Head Design

The next way to lower spin is to use a different club head. Clubs with less loft spin less. Also clubs with higher and closer to the face center of gravity reduce spin. These type of clubs normally have a deeper face. A good illustration of these points is the difference between the Titleist 913D3 and D2. The D3 has a deeper face with the center of gravity higher up and closer to the face, this promotes a lower launch with less spin, D2 is shallower and also has the center of gravity lower and further back in the head, promoting a higher launch with higher spin.

Shaft

One of the common ways to look to reduce spin is to put a low spin shaft in the driver. Interestingly Tom Wishon states, from his testing, that the difference between the highest spinning shafts and the lowest spinning shafts is only 700 rpms. Some golfers look for exotic expensive shafts to reduce spin but a similar reduction can be achieved by changing ball.

Sometimes, changing the ball isn't enough so some of the shafts that will reduce spin are slightly heavier (75 grams and up), overall flex is stiffer, and the bend profile of the shaft has a stiffer tip.

Some examples of these type of shafts are:

Oban Kiyoshi Black
Fujikura Speeder VC 7.2
Fujikura Rombax 7Z08
Graphite Design Tour AD Di7
Mitsubishi Diamana 'aHina
Matrix 7M3, F7M2 LTD
Aildila RIP

Some golfers tip the shafts by 0.5 or 1 inch to stiffen the tip even more.

Strike Point on Club face

With the gear effect on a driver head, striking the ball higher up then the center of the club will both increase launch and lower spin. A quick explanation of gear effect is; on off center strikes the club head rotates around it's center of gravity, on woods toe strikes will try to move right to left, heel strikes left to right, bottom strikes launch lower with more spin and top strikes launch higher with less spin.

Swing Technique

The impact conditions which cause spin are spin loft times club head speed. Spin loft is the difference between angle of attack and dynamic loft. When spin loft or club head speed is increased spin is increased. We're not looking to decrease club head speed, as we would like to hit the ball further. So we would look to decrease spin loft to decrease spin. The easiest way to decrease spin loft is to change the angle of attack. For example if we go from hitting down to hitting up on the driver we generally see a decrease in spin loft.

Some ways to hit up on the ball include teeing the ball higher (also might help to strike higher on the face), moving the ball further forward in the stance and keeping the head behind the ball.

If you have any questions or comments, please ask or post.

Sunday, 3 February 2013

Under Competition, Your Brain Reverts to the Familiar

Last weekend, I attended a coaching seminar given by Dr. Rick Jensen and Henry Brunton. If you ever get a chance to attend a talk by Henry or Rick, please do, you won't regret it. They have a lot of knowledge to pass on.

This story comes courtesy of Dr. Rick Jensen.

Imagine attending a five day running school. The first day, your running is evaluated, your times are recorded, technique looked at etc.. The second day, a new running technique is introduced, running backwards. This technique will turn out to be more efficient, use less energy, put less stress on your joints, give you a better posture and eventually you will run a lot faster and longer backwards.

For the rest of the school you learn this new technique and practice it. At the start it's a bit awkward but towards the end of the week, you're getting the hang of it, starting to enjoy it and are running better and faster backwards. You go away happy and think this will be great for your running.

The following weekend, you head off on a long awaiting hiking trip to the Yellowstone National Park. You're having a great time with your family, the scenery is fantastic, the hiking is challenging but very rewarding when late on the first day you come across this

So what do you do? You run as fast as you can away from the bear. Would you run backwards? Unlikely. You would run forwards because that's what your brain is most familiar with. It takes a lot longer than a running school of 5 days to master a new running skill.

What does this have to do with golf?

A player's weakest skill tends to break down under pressure. What does it break down to? It reverts to the familiar, the player's most common prior ball flight for example. Under competition, the body will revert back to what it knows best, and if a player hasn't developed or trained a new skill effectively enough, the old pattern will often show up.

How is a Skill mastered?

There are four steps to mastery.

1) Understanding Cause and Effect

2) Supervised Practice

3) Transfer Training

4) Play

It takes time to go through all these steps. When you're out playing and a new swing change isn't quite working, it just means that you haven't gone through all the steps required to master it. It doesn't mean you're choking or the swing change isn't right for you. There's no need to go back to step 1 and look for another swing fix. Consider that Tiger Woods has gone through numerous swing changes in his career and it has roughly taken him 18 months to get comfortable with the changes. If Tiger takes 18 months, practicing numerous hours a week, don't be too harsh on yourself if it's taking a couple of months for you to fix your slice.

If you would like some more information on the Four Steps to Mastery, read Dr. Rick Jensen's book 'Easier Said then Done' or contact us here at Drive Golf Performance to find out how we coach to mastery.

Tuesday, 8 January 2013

Which Ball To Choose?

There are numerous golf balls on the market. This begs the question which one to choose? Are the premium expensive balls better? Or will a value ball work?

A good way to choose is to hit a pick a few balls, hit some short shots and putts to see if you like the feel on and around the green. From the ones you like the feel of, hit a few tee shots and then pick the one that goes the furthest.

Late last summer I hit 3 shots with 11 different golf balls to see which one went the furthest. I recorded the results on the TrackMan 111 launch monitor. I used a Titleist 910D3 9.5 degree driver with a Graphite Design Tour AD Di-7 for all the drives. It was about 23 degrees C, with a following wind of about 10mph.

The golf balls I tested were the Titleist ProV1, Pro V1x, DT Solo, Velocity, NXT Tour, NXT Tour S, the Bridgestone Fix, B330s, B330rx-s, the Taylor Made Penta TP5 and the Srixon AD333.

Here are the results.

Ball	Ball Speed	Launch	Spin Rate	Carry(yards)	Total(yards)
Penta TP5	154.6	14.2	2702	273.1	296.4
Pro V1x	156.5	13.7	2725	271.8	295
Velocity	153.5	14.4	2875	269.9	290.2
B330 RX-S	155.5	12.4	2732	263.5	289.8
NXT Tour S	153.9	13.9	2764	264.3	286.4
Pro V1	155.6	13.3	3271	264.7	285.5
B330S	155.8	11.8	2958	256.4	284.1
DT Solo	155.4	11.7	3982	259.4	283.9
AD333	151.9	15.0	3249	256.4	282.5
NXT Tour	154.7	12.4	3693	257.4	281.3
Fix	152.1	13.8	4145	246.3	276.2

The first thing to notice is there was a following wind which added to my normal distance. There was a significant difference between some of the balls 20 yards between the TP5 and the Fix. As expected the lower spinning balls went the furthest, especially with relatively consistent launches.

The top two balls TP5 and Pro V1x had a significant 5/6 yard advantage over the rest, both work well around the greens and so from the exercise the choice was narrowed down to just two for me and either would work pretty well.

Probably would have expected the ball with the highest speed (Pro V1x) to go the furthest, the TP5 going further could be explained by the small sample size(3 balls) and potential for wind gusts on the day.

A ball to note was the Titleist Velocity, half the price of the premium balls but similar distance. It's slightly livelier around the green, so probably would work well in softer conditions.

If you would like to try this exercise contact us at Drive Golf Performance. It's a similar price to a dozen golf balls and well worth the information.