Angle of attack with driver. Going to 4-5 up to -1 to 2 AoA.

[Pnwpingi210]

Greetings.

 

This offseason I’m working on reducing my angle of attack with driver.  Anyone have any good articles, videos, information to getter a better understand (philosophy) of what’s required to do this?

 

I’ve done a lot of work to better understand path and face control and have been moderately successful at that.   Struggling a little on how to get and undertand of how to hit less down with driver.

 

my stock driver shot currently is very neutral path and face and 4-5 up.  I’d like to get to -1 to 2 and play a driver with more loft.

 

 

[MonteScheinblum]

Almost always involves a lower tee height and staying in left tilt longer for a righty.

[Jtgavigan]

Why do you want to do this?

[Pnwpingi210]

2 minutes ago, Jtgavigan said:

Why do you want to do this?

Little more spin, little more control.  I also like the look of looking down and seeing a bit more loft.  I’m playing a fade off the tee and I think that’s a little easier to hit not hitting up so much.

 

right now I’m play between 7.5-9 degrees of loft. 

[Pnwpingi210]

8 minutes ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Almost always involves a lower tee height and staying in left tilt longer for a righty.

That makes sense.  
 

I had not thought about the left tilt.  So are you saying to stay in left tilt longer into the transition and downswing?  (I did a quick YouTube search for left tilt and Monte and didn’t see anything.  Trying to self serve as much as possible)

[MonteScheinblum]

58 minutes ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

That makes sense.  
 

I had not thought about the left tilt.  So are you saying to stay in left tilt longer into the transition and downswing?  (I did a quick YouTube search for left tilt and Monte and didn’t see anything.  Trying to self serve as much as possible)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CNatYqNjTTs/?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

[MonteScheinblum]

1 hour ago, Jtgavigan said:

Why do you want to do this?

Because hitting up 5 is fools gold.  Way too hard to match face/path/sweetspot/target when you hit up more than 2 or 3.  There’s a reason tour average is down 1 to level.

[Pnwpingi210]

4 minutes ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Because hitting up 5 is fools gold.  Way too hard to match face/path/sweetspot/target when you hit up more than 2 or 3.  There’s a reason tour average is down 1 to level.

Yup.  I actually hit a lot of fairways, but don’t generate quite the smash factor I should.  My smash is generally between 1.45 to 1.47 on trackman with little curve.  I’m hoping getting hitting down a little more on the ball gets me better compression.  

Edited December 6, 2024 by Pnwpingi210

[Jtgavigan]

12 hours ago, MonteScheinblum said:

Because hitting up 5 is fools gold.  Way too hard to match face/path/sweetspot/target when you hit up more than 2 or 3.  There’s a reason tour average is down 1 to level.

So, you're saying that the 7° in to out and 7° up that I was hitting with earlier this fall was a problem? 🤣

 

I have been trying to neutralize my path and not hit up so much also, but can't see myself hitting down. The 2 to 3 degrees up seems more ideal with driver.

 

I found I was aiming too far right with too high of a tee to try to ensure a draw. Hit a number of low spin hooks that way. Moved the ball up, lowered the tee height slightly and have been driving it pretty well.

[LongNwrong27]

13 hours ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

Yup.  I actually hit a lot of fairways, but don’t generate quite the smash factor I should.  My smash is generally between 1.45 to 1.47 on trackman with little curve.  I’m hoping getting hitting down a little more on the ball gets me better compression.  

If anything it’ll be the opposite. You’re heading to a land of higher spin loft ie less compression which entails lower smash. 
 

Why does it have to be such a dramatic change? You could go from +5 to +2 and that would prob be more playable while not giving up a ton of yardage.  -1 from +5 would be pretty significant especially if you aren’t a high speed player ( which you may be for all we know. )

[Pnwpingi210]

26 minutes ago, doctor220 said:

If anything it’ll be the opposite. You’re heading to a land of higher spin loft ie less compression which entails lower smash. 
 

Why does it have to be such a dramatic change? You could go from +5 to +2 and that would prob be more playable while not giving up a ton of yardage.  -1 from +5 would be pretty significant especially if you aren’t a high speed player ( which you may be for all we know. )

Got it.  Well I definitely don’t want to get less efficient than 1.45.  Part of the reason I’m doing it his is control, part of the reason is I want to get 4-6 mph ball speed I’m leaving on the table.

 

id be happy with 1-2 aoa.  I gave a range to not be super prescriptive.   My driver is sitting at 118 on course swing, 120-123 max effort in trackman.  I’ll probably add about 5 mph over the offseason if this year is anything like previous years.
 

 

Edited December 7, 2024 by Pnwpingi210

[phizzy30]

4 hours ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

Got it.  Well I definitely don’t want to get less efficient than 1.45.  Part of the reason I’m doing it his is control, part of the reason is I want to get 4-6 mph ball speed I’m leaving on the table.

 

id be happy with 1-2 aoa.  I gave a range to not be super prescriptive.   My driver is sitting at 118 on course swing, 120-123 max effort in trackman.  I’ll probably add about 5 mph over the offseason if this year is anything like previous years.
 

 

I went from +5 to now +1-3 AoA.  It's easier to make good contact and my driving is more consistent overall.  Same ss as you.  

Edited December 7, 2024 by phizzy30

[Pnwpingi210]

1 minute ago, phizzy30 said:

I went from +5 to now +1-3 AoA.  It's easier to make good contact and my driving is more consistent overall.  Same ss as you.  

Did your smash go up?

 

The last couple of years I’ve noticed my ballspeed is dropping a little while my path and face have gotten more neutral and my swing speed is the same or better. Spin algae dropped a little too.  
 

Looking back at trackman I was 2-3 up at when I was most efficient (1.47-1.50) a couple of years ago.

 

 

[phizzy30]

1 hour ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

Did your smash go up?

 

The last couple of years I’ve noticed my ballspeed is dropping a little while my path and face have gotten more neutral and my swing speed is the same or better. Spin algae dropped a little too.  
 

Looking back at trackman I was 2-3 up at when I was most efficient (1.47-1.50) a couple of years ago.

 

 

Smash may have gone up 0.1-0.2 so nothing significant.  

[Barische]

interesting data here. i gotta check out my numbers. i got a horrible slice.. 

[iacas]

1 hour ago, phizzy30 said:

Smash may have gone up 0.1-0.2 so nothing significant.  

 

Assuming you meant 0.01 to 0.02 there… 🤣

[Pnwpingi210]

2 minutes ago, iacas said:

 

Assuming you meant 0.01 to 0.02 there… 🤣

I’d take that bump.  Would get me to 1.47-1.49 .  
 

time to figure out a plan.

[phizzy30]

32 minutes ago, iacas said:

 

Assuming you meant 0.01 to 0.02 there… 🤣

Yes........lol

[brutus27]

5 hours ago, phizzy30 said:

I went from +5 to now +1-3 AoA.  It's easier to make good contact and my driving is more consistent overall.  Same ss as you.  

How did you do it? Lower tee and ball position?

[phizzy30]

12 minutes ago, brutus27 said:

How did you do it? Lower tee and ball position?

Changed my swing and lower tee.  

[slytown]

You may want to look into a red shaft like the Diamana or Ventus. it'll help u get that height u want.

[GoGoErky]

18 minutes ago, slytown said:

You may want to look into a red shaft like the Diamana or Ventus. it'll help u get that height u want.

No guarantee a shaft change gives a change is launch or height and could even make it worse. 
 

Shaft changes aren’t the best way to try and change ball flight. 

[Pnwpingi210]

2 hours ago, GoGoErky said:

No guarantee a shaft change gives a change is launch or height and could even make it worse. 
 

Shaft changes aren’t the best way to try and change ball flight. 

Agree with this.

 

My issue is angle of attack.

[GoGoErky]

41 minutes ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

Agree with this.

 

My issue is angle of attack.

Agree based on the numbers you posted earlier. Monte agrees too

[Jeselnik]

Maybe more lateral in BS, less lateral in DS and an athletic spine.  If you’re not built for it then don’t bother.  Watch Willy and do that, those heads have too much loft for him.

 

JNIK

Edited December 9, 2024 by Jeselnik

[Pnwpingi210]

1 hour ago, Jeselnik said:

Maybe more lateral in BS, less lateral in DS and an athletic spine.  If you’re not built for it then don’t bother.  Watch Willy and do that, those heads have too much loft for him.

 

JNIK

That guys is 8 up and hitting the ball 150 to 180 ft in the air.  Not the playable ball flight I’m looking for 🙂

[Pnwpingi210]

So a little follow up.  
 

I worked on brining  aoa down a little this am.  Using the qi 8 degree core dot head and hitting moving from a 4-5 aoa down to a 1-2 did actually improve the efficiency of strike and quality of contact.  Problem is my drives were apexing about 50-60 feet.  

I was able to play around with a 10 degree gt2 and 3 head.   Both of those heads gave me more ballspeed and brought launch and spin up.  The gt2 actually gave me a higher average ball speed and the best of the day (181 ball speed) and kept spin under 3k.  Something there, just need to spend some more time with it.

[GoGoErky]

17 minutes ago, Pnwpingi210 said:

So a little follow up.  
 

I worked on brining  aoa down a little this am.  Using the qi 8 degree core dot head and hitting moving from a 4-5 aoa down to a 1-2 did actually improve the efficiency of strike and quality of contact.  Problem is my drives were apexing about 50-60 feet.  

I was able to play around with a 10 degree gt2 and 3 head.   Both of those heads gave me more ballspeed and brought launch and spin up.  The gt2 actually gave me a higher average ball speed and the best of the day (181 ball speed) and kept spin under 3k.  Something there, just need to spend some more time with it.

Have you tried messing around with the diy setup from Howard jones?

[Pnwpingi210]

Just now, GoGoErky said:

Have you tried messing around with the diy setup from Howard jones?

I did, and it’s what helped get me to the spec I am currently playing (8 degree head or 9 degree turned down, 45 inch, d5)   It was helpful.

 

I wont make the equipment changes until I know the swing change is going to stick.  This was more of a try it, and a nice surprise.  

[tippethor]

Have you also changed how high you tee it up also?