Ball Flight and clubface and path

Practice
#1

I am using the skytrak and have found that even when I hit the ball with the center of my club, I am still seeing the ball move a bit right to left with a spin axis moving right. I thought I have heard that regardless of your path if you hit the ball square at impact which I assume is center clubface you should produce a straight shot?

I know that a ball that moves right to left (right handed golfer)as a result of a clubface open to the path, but if you hit the ball in the center of the clubface is that still the case?

Thanks in advance for your input

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#2

You’re talking two different things. Center of clubface contact is good, and is likely to produce the highest ball speed. However, side spin is governed primarily by the relationship between face alignment and clubhead path at impact. If you’re getting right-to-left curvature, your face is pointed to the left of the clubhead path. A minor effect on sidespin is gear effect on off-center strikes, most noticeable with “woods”. In general, contact towards the toe will produce a little draw spin, but its a less important factor than the face/path relationship.

This is the opposite of reality, face open to path will produce fade spin.

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#3

Thank You Dave, I re-read my post and meant that if my ball is moving right my clubface was open. So, even if my clubface is hitting the ball on the center of the club, I am still most likely coming in to the ball with my face somewhat open?

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#4

That’s the way I’d interpret it. And generally, the ball will start about where the face is pointed, and curve away from the path. So if your shots start straight at your intended line and then curve right, your face is aligned correctly, but your path is right-to-left.

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#5

I like the visual clarity of understanding the ball flight laws from this YouTube video:

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#6

I’m Adam Young’s book, he mentioned that 75% of ball flight will dictated by club face impact and 25% influenced by swing path.

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#7

I have a question for you. What is it you are trying to achieve? If you are consistent with your flight and distance in general (your stock shots) that’s actually a good thing. DJ plays L to R, ZJ plays R to L. If you are looking for a Str8 ball, on a consistent basis…doesn’t exist! I play for a push draw with fw woods and driver, irons mine go L to R 10yd fade with a long iron, about 5 yds with short irons. Wedges do in general don’t do much, maybe a little L to R. Then there’s the miss hits. I get my fair share every round. I just try and manage them. Here’s my advice and you can take it or leave it. Unless you want to put in a ton of work to consistently alter your swing and work with a coach and start from scratch. (Which I did this year, I put in 18 hours a week for 5 months and purchased equipment to go along with those changes. If you’re able to keep it consistent and on the grid. I don’t think you can ask for more. Only you can be the judge of that

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#8

First of all I want to thank everyone for their thoughtful replies to my post. Now turning to your question, as to what I am trying to achieve, it is not so much as to what I am trying to achieve as it is trying to understand why my ball was moving left to right (slicing more often than not) when I hit the ball on the center of my club face. After reading everyone’s replies I now have or think I have that understanding, and with that knowledge, work on getting a more consistent ball flight.

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#9

The video upthread is very good for understanding the “new ball flight laws” concept. Adam Young has a fairly well-packed with knowledge blog post on it too, if text is better for you than video. As it sometimes is for me. He also gets a bit into low-point and divots, in that post.

Golftec’s chart, laying out the permutations of face and path: https://golftec-wordpress.s3.amazonaws.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Ball-flight-laws-shot-result-chart.jpg

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#10

I’m glad that you’ve learned a bit about the modern understanding of the “ball flight laws”. Just my personal opinion, I’m not sure the use of a launch monitor is all that valuable for most players, as long as you can practice outside to an open range. As you’ve seen, and as the reference to Adam Young’s website shows, you can learn a great deal about your clubhead path and face alignment simply from watching the flight of the ball. To me, a launch monitor is really valuable for clubfitting, and as a tool to evaluate progression in clubhead speed, but for path and face alignment, the ball will tell you what you need to know.
Of course, I’m an old guy, I tend to use the minimum amount of tech stuff that I can.

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#11

By the way, I am an old guy too! I can tell you that I have used the skytrak to really dial in my wedge distances from the convenience of my home, which has definitely helped me improve my game from 100 yards in. For me, the purchase has been well worth it. Thanks again for your input.

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