Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
With this swing tip, we are going to consider what best driver loft is for a lady golfer. And it’s really important to get the correct loft on your driver because loft is absolutely critical to the amount of distance that you are going to hit the ball. You need to get the ball up into the air, you need to get maximum carriage so get the ball airborne for as long as possible and the more the ball is in the air the further it’s moving forward to the third and longer that you are hitting the golf ball. And if we look at today’s leading long drive champions, when they practice they actually practice with a stop watch. And they are timing how long they’ve got the ball up in the air for. Now if they realize that it’s really important to get the ball airborne and up into the air and they are timing to see if they can keep the ball in the air for longer, then we’ve got to look at that and say well that’s important for us if we want maximum distance for the drives that we can hit. So the way that you want to think about this to get this higher launch angle, is just imagine you are in the garden and you are watering your garden, you are watering the flower beds. So if you have a look at your hosepipe and you’ve pulled it out as far as it will go and there is still a flower bed further back but you can't quite reach, you’ve got to angle that hosepipe up in the air to get the water travelling up so that it goes further and hits the flower bed at the back.
And that’s the same principle that you want to have here with your golf shot. If you angled your hosepipe down, the water is going to hit the ground too early and it won’t fly all the way through the air and hit that flower bed further and beyond where you are managing to get the water to. So if you angle the hosepipe up, the water travels further. If you angle the hosepipe down, the water hits the ground earlier and it’s the same with your driver. So we want to get sort of the when you are hitting your driver that launch angle is angling up to get the ball up into the air so the ball is flying further through the air. If the launch angle is too low, it’s going to hit the ground too early and you just won’t hit the ball your maximum distance. So if we have a look at kind of swing speeds and average swing speeds, we see the average lady golfer swings the golf club about 65 miles an hour. So all we need to know is well what loft corresponds to the best distance for that sort of swing speed. And when we look at research, 60 miles an hour we see that the best loft to give us most distance is going to be something like about 16 degrees or slightly higher. So if you are an average swing speed of 65 miles an hour, you want to get the most distance for your driver, go for a 16 degree driver because that’s going to get the ball launched at the correct angle up into the air and it’s going to give you maximum distance. Try that when you are at your golf club next have a look if we’ve got any 16 degree drivers and you’ll be surprised at how much further you hit the ball with that actual little bit of loft. 2014-01-15 Natalie Adams – PGA Teaching Pro
With this swing tip, we are going to consider what best driver loft is for a lady golfer. And it’s really important to get the correct loft on your driver because loft is absolutely critical to the amount of distance that you are going to hit the ball. You need to get the ball up into the air, you need to get maximum carriage so get the ball airborne for as long as possible and the more the ball is in the air the further it’s moving forward to the third and longer that you are hitting the golf ball. And if we look at today’s leading long drive champions, when they practice they actually practice with a stop watch. And they are timing how long they’ve got the ball up in the air for. Now if they realize that it’s really important to get the ball airborne and up into the air and they are timing to see if they can keep the ball in the air for longer, then we’ve got to look at that and say well that’s important for us if we want maximum distance for the drives that we can hit. So the way that you want to think about this to get this higher launch angle, is just imagine you are in the garden and you are watering your garden, you are watering the flower beds. So if you have a look at your hosepipe and you’ve pulled it out as far as it will go and there is still a flower bed further back but you can't quite reach, you’ve got to angle that hosepipe up in the air to get the water travelling up so that it goes further and hits the flower bed at the back.
And that’s the same principle that you want to have here with your golf shot. If you angled your hosepipe down, the water is going to hit the ground too early and it won’t fly all the way through the air and hit that flower bed further and beyond where you are managing to get the water to. So if you angle the hosepipe up, the water travels further. If you angle the hosepipe down, the water hits the ground earlier and it’s the same with your driver. So we want to get sort of the when you are hitting your driver that launch angle is angling up to get the ball up into the air so the ball is flying further through the air. If the launch angle is too low, it’s going to hit the ground too early and you just won’t hit the ball your maximum distance. So if we have a look at kind of swing speeds and average swing speeds, we see the average lady golfer swings the golf club about 65 miles an hour. So all we need to know is well what loft corresponds to the best distance for that sort of swing speed. And when we look at research, 60 miles an hour we see that the best loft to give us most distance is going to be something like about 16 degrees or slightly higher. So if you are an average swing speed of 65 miles an hour, you want to get the most distance for your driver, go for a 16 degree driver because that’s going to get the ball launched at the correct angle up into the air and it’s going to give you maximum distance. Try that when you are at your golf club next have a look if we’ve got any 16 degree drivers and you’ll be surprised at how much further you hit the ball with that actual little bit of loft.
