Golf Ball Flight Laws, How Can I Learn From It (Video) - by Peter Finch
Golf Ball Flight Laws, How Can I Learn From It (Video) - by Peter Finch

How can I learn from my ball flight? Now in golf your ball flight by kind of watching it, by watching the shape, by watching the trajectory. You can tell very, very accurately most of the time what actually happens at the point of impact. Namely, with the clubface angle, the swing path, and the angle of attack, if you swing and you're hitting the ball from left to right, so it starts to the left of the target and it curls around to the target, so a fade shot.

What you'll tend to find is that the path is travelling from out to him, over the target line which is in this position here, out to him. And the clubface is open to the path but slightly close to the target. And that’s how you'll produce a little bit of a fade. If your hitting a little bit of a draw, the club is coming from a slightly inside path swinging out over the target line. The clubface is slightly close to the path, but slightly open to the target, and that’s going to change the spin axis and cause that right to left movement. If you're hitting it slightly low, it means you're coming on a very steep angle of attack into the ball cutting down on the ball a little bit too much delofting the club. If it's going a little bit higher than normal it means you're staying behind the ball and you're sweeping it off the surface adding a loft at the point of impact, and hitting the ball straight up in the air. Now there's so many different kind of swings and so there's so many different kind of ball flights that you can produce. What you need to do to make sure that you understand what's happened at impact, is draw a line back. So if it's gone dead straight to your target you can stop at the target bring the ball back in the air to the point of impact, and you can tell exactly what's happened. That clubface before anything must have been square to your target line when you hit it. If it's gone slightly low, you might be a little bit steep. If it's gone slightly high, you might be a little bit shallow. But if it's gone a nice height, then your hands would have been slightly ahead at impact with the iron, and you produced a fantastic trajectory. But what you can learn from your ball flight in a very short answer, is pretty much everything. Trace the ball back from where it lands to impact. Look at the flight. Look at the trajectory. And then try and figure out first of all the face angle that must have been present, and then the swing path which must support any kind of curvature on the ball. So ball flight can tell you so, so much. When trying to hit different shots, try and use the actual information that you get. Trace it back to impact, and try and figure out what you've done at the point where the ball was struck. 2014-11-14

How can I learn from my ball flight? Now in golf your ball flight by kind of watching it, by watching the shape, by watching the trajectory. You can tell very, very accurately most of the time what actually happens at the point of impact. Namely, with the clubface angle, the swing path, and the angle of attack, if you swing and you're hitting the ball from left to right, so it starts to the left of the target and it curls around to the target, so a fade shot.

What you'll tend to find is that the path is travelling from out to him, over the target line which is in this position here, out to him. And the clubface is open to the path but slightly close to the target. And that’s how you'll produce a little bit of a fade. If your hitting a little bit of a draw, the club is coming from a slightly inside path swinging out over the target line. The clubface is slightly close to the path, but slightly open to the target, and that’s going to change the spin axis and cause that right to left movement.

If you're hitting it slightly low, it means you're coming on a very steep angle of attack into the ball cutting down on the ball a little bit too much delofting the club. If it's going a little bit higher than normal it means you're staying behind the ball and you're sweeping it off the surface adding a loft at the point of impact, and hitting the ball straight up in the air. Now there's so many different kind of swings and so there's so many different kind of ball flights that you can produce.

What you need to do to make sure that you understand what's happened at impact, is draw a line back. So if it's gone dead straight to your target you can stop at the target bring the ball back in the air to the point of impact, and you can tell exactly what's happened. That clubface before anything must have been square to your target line when you hit it. If it's gone slightly low, you might be a little bit steep.

If it's gone slightly high, you might be a little bit shallow. But if it's gone a nice height, then your hands would have been slightly ahead at impact with the iron, and you produced a fantastic trajectory. But what you can learn from your ball flight in a very short answer, is pretty much everything. Trace the ball back from where it lands to impact. Look at the flight. Look at the trajectory. And then try and figure out first of all the face angle that must have been present, and then the swing path which must support any kind of curvature on the ball. So ball flight can tell you so, so much. When trying to hit different shots, try and use the actual information that you get. Trace it back to impact, and try and figure out what you've done at the point where the ball was struck.