The Critical Role of Angle of Attack in Optimizing Driver Performance - Part 1 

At the last AGCP Roundtable, Eric Hogge - Head Pro at the PGA Center for Learning and Education - showed some interesting driving data for PGA and LPGA pros:

  PGA Driving Data:

    average club head speed = 112 mph

    average angle of attack = -1.3 degrees

  LPGA Driving Data:

    average club head speed = 94 mph

    average angle of attack = 3.0 degrees

No surprise that the ladies have slower swing speeds.  But why the big difference in Angle of Attack?  Well, my theory is this - many of the PGA pros do not lack distance because they swing fast.  But they want to know how far their ball is going when the hit their drives.  And a downward angle of attack reduces roll out.  The ladies, on the other hand, do not hit the ball as far.  So for them, creating an upward angle of attack gives them more distance which they need - relative to their swing speeds.

How much of a difference can Angle of Attack make?  Eric - courtesy of TrackMan - provided me the data in the following 2 charts, and this difference can be large:

If you look at the data for a 105 mph swing speed, carry distance and total distance can be improved by at lest 20 yards for angles of attack varying between -5 degrees and 5 degrees.  For a 90 mph swing speed, a similar distance distance improvement is possible for this range of angle of attack.

Tom Wishon - the guru of Custom Club Fitting - wrote an excellent article describing the importance of Angle of Attack and its role in club fitting.  Here is a link to that article:

     Tom Wishon Article on Role of Angle of Attack

The meaning of all of this for you?  Well, this data shows that there is large potential for improvement in how far you hit your drives depending on your driving launch conditions.  You should consider finding out - through Launch Monitor analysis - what your present driving parameters are in terms of swing speed, launch angle, and spin - and see how your results compare to the data in these charts.

Next Month we will discuss what types of swing changes would be necessary to allow you to create a positive angle of attack with your drives - and also to reduce ball spin.  Just a little hint though - as has been discussed before - a Forward Ball Position is part of the key! 

In my November 12 blog post, I talked about my views of the elements to achieving lasting putting success:

• Being custom fit for a putter that truly produces good aim and speed control;
• Learning what your actual Putting Stroke mechanics are - both the good and the not-so-good elements;
• Developing a well-thought-out process for making Changes to your Putting Stroke that will improve performance;
• Practicing the changes and making habits out of those changes; and
• Trusting the changes once you have made them habit - Letting Go.

For most I believe it is easier to understand how to do the first three items as opposed to the last two - making changes into habits and trusting the changes when playing golf.

Carey Mumford, Clear Key Golf (Clear Key Golf) is one of golf's best kept secrets in the arena of creating habits from skill development and "playing on automatic."  If you look at his bio (Carey Bio) you will see that he has years of experience helping PGA professionals to improve their knowledge.  He lives in Crossvile, TN; we have corresponded for about the last 5 years or so.

Carey and I have been part of an interesting LinkedIn conversation on "What are the Elements of Great Training to Improve Your Putting Stroke?"  As a result of this discussion, he agreed to provide me with a group of documents for you to read on developing habits, how to practice, and how to make use of habits in your golf game.

But first a fundamental definition, because you will see the term Clear Key used in his documents.

A "Clear Key" is the name given to any systematic thought process that prevents thinking about the mechanics of an action while that action is taking place. 

With that said, I hope you enjoy reading some of these documents on how you can create habits from your golf practice and use those habits on the golf course!

How Learning Takes Place 

32 Ball Practice Drill 

Training Aids 

Golf's Fourth Dimension! 

Clear Key Instructions