"Ideal" trajectory with driver off the tee

[Ranchobob]

Been watching the Memorial (viva DVR) and mulling my driver versus these guys.

 

Just grabbing one off the cuff, DJ just had a drive that peaked at 93 feet. That seems low, but I don't know.

 

But the question is: is there a "formula" for ideal height with a driver? I'd guess that a lot of that answer comes from swing speed and spin rate and other items,

 

Thoughts? Data?

[swizbeatz]

Changes based on ball speed and your swing. I think 90-100 with low enough spin to have a good landing angle looks good to my eye.

[Dan Drake]

Tour average peak height is a bit over 90'. Longer hitters like DJ and Day are up near 115'+ usually.

 

Each swing speed has an optimal launch angle and spin rate for distance. Those will then dictate apex height.

[Gamble Gamble]

http://flightscope.com/products/trajectory-optimizer/

 

Good luck!

[DaveGoodrich]

http://flightscope.com/products/trajectory-optimizer/ Good luck!

 

Playing with the Optimizer really shows that launch angle and spin don't have nearly the dramatic impacts on total distance that you would think based on the typical discussions around here. A simple sensitivity analysis shows that ball speed trumps all. For example, if I use a ball speed that corresponds to a good strike for me (138 mph), medium ground conditions, and 1000 foot elevation, I can vary my launch between 12 and 20 degrees, and my spin between 1500 and 2500, and my total distance only varies between 239 and 247 yards. That's only about a 3% difference, or roughly one club difference coming into the green. This is backed by to my experience playing on courses I know well: if I strike the ball well, I tend to be in the same general area of the fairway, regardless of what driver I hit, and whether I launch it low or high.

 

 

Granted, my club head speed does not tend to produce too much spin, so high speed players probably need to work to keep the spin down within the reasonable range, but I bet if they can do that, their total distance probably doesn't vary that much with launch angle either.

[dornstar]

http://flightscope.c...tory-optimizer/ Good luck!

 

Playing with the Optimizer really shows that launch angle and spin don't have nearly the dramatic impacts on total distance that you would think based on the typical discussions around here. A simple sensitivity analysis shows that ball speed trumps all. For example, if I use a ball speed that corresponds to a good strike for me (138 mph), medium ground conditions, and 1000 foot elevation, I can vary my launch between 12 and 20 degrees, and my spin between 1500 and 2500, and my total distance only varies between 239 and 247 yards. That's only about a 3% difference, or roughly one club difference coming into the green. This is backed by to my experience playing on courses I know well: if I strike the ball well, I tend to be in the same general area of the fairway, regardless of what driver I hit, and whether I launch it low or high.

 

 

Granted, my club head speed does not tend to produce too much spin, so high speed players probably need to work to keep the spin down within the reasonable range, but I bet if they can do that, their total distance probably doesn't vary that much with launch angle either.

Ball speed is king, but it's the hardest element of the swing to improve.

 

So, let's look at a typical poor launch condition you would see out of amateurs...

• 150 mph ball speed - 3200 spin - 9* launch = 245 carry (253 total)
  

Now, fixing your launch conditions without changing your ball speed...

• 150 mph ball speed - 2300 spin - 13* launch = 255 carry (265 total)
  

That's 12 yards which is pretty damn substantial. You're talking about improving your clubhead speed about 5 mph to get that which is awfully hard to gain. You don't just go from averaging 105 mph to 110 very easily. Being that speed is pretty much a constant that doesn't change a great deal, the biggest area to make gains is in trajectory and spin.

[larrybud]

Playing with the Optimizer really shows that launch angle and spin don't have nearly the dramatic impacts on total distance that you would think based on the typical discussions around here. A simple sensitivity analysis shows that ball speed trumps all.

 

The part that you're missing is that it's nearly impossible to change something in your swing (and hence impact) that would affect only ONE data point of your ball like you can with the Traj Optimizer

 

To give a real world example: 97 mph SS, 140 mph ball speed, with a -7 angle of attack and 11 deg launch angle, with 3800 backspin= 222.7 carry distance

 

Now, you might say, man, getting down to 2500 rpm only increases carry distance 6 yards! Ah, but it would be very unrealistic in this real world example that the player could make a change that would ONLY affect backspin. The change would have to be something like shallow the AoA, which would affect 3 things (assuming solid contact)

 

1) increases ball speed to 145 because the impact is at less of an oblique angle.

2) increases launch angle to 17 degrees

3) and decrease backspin to 2500 rpm

 

All of a sudden, carry distance is 247.5.

[Gamble Gamble]

Playing with the Optimizer really shows that launch angle and spin don't have nearly the dramatic impacts on total distance that you would think based on the typical discussions around here. A simple sensitivity analysis shows that ball speed trumps all.

 

The part that you're missing is that it's nearly impossible to change something in your swing (and hence impact) that would affect only ONE data point of your ball like you can with the Traj Optimizer

 

To give a real world example: 97 mph SS, 140 mph ball speed, with a -7 angle of attack and 11 deg launch angle, with 3800 backspin= 222.7 carry distance

 

Now, you might say, man, getting down to 2500 rpm only increases carry distance 6 yards! Ah, but it would be very unrealistic in this real world example that the player could make a change that would ONLY affect backspin. The change would have to be something like shallow the AoA, which would affect 3 things (assuming solid contact)

 

1) increases ball speed to 145 because the impact is at less of an oblique angle.

2) increases launch angle to 17 degrees

3) and decrease backspin to 2500 rpm

 

All of a sudden, carry distance is 247.5.

 

Agreed - i used my GC2 to get my driving distances as far as I have ever seen consistently. All factors became better, ball speed, trajectory and back spin.

[DaveGoodrich]

If a LM is showing -7 aoa and 3800 spin, then obviously there is room for significant improvement. What I was talking about was folks obsessing about lowering their spin a few hundred rpm, etc. My point was that once you are in the "reasonable range" for launch angle and spin, then minor tweaks within this range won't make a lot of difference.

 

I agree that improving poor launch conditions is more effective than increasing swing speed (although changing aoa a significant amount isn't a trivial swing change). The "ball speed trumps all" comment was intended to emphasize the importance of more consistent center face contact as a fitting priority.