Does Lowering Your Driver Loft Increase Your Distance?
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- Опубліковано 6 тра 2024
- Join us in our mission to uncover the truth about lower lofted golf clubs and their impact on your distance off the tee.
In this video, we dive into the data, examining swing speeds, angle of attack, and golf ball launch angle to reveal why lower lofted clubs might not be the distance solution they're claimed to be.
We'll discuss why many golfers are unknowingly playing with clubs featuring lofts that are too low, potentially hindering their performance rather than enhancing it.
By understanding your unique swing characteristics, you can unlock the true potential of your clubs and optimize your distance on the course.
For further insights into the science behind distance in golf, be sure to check out our previous video:
How to Hit the Golf Ball Further.
• How to Hit the Golf Ba...
Stay tuned for more thought-provoking discussions, and feel free to share your thoughts and questions in the comments below.
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Thank you for starting this video with your thesis, and then going through the details, instead of starting with some prolonged lead in.
i thought you chose your loft based on your avg launch angle closes to 17* ?
Perfect timing, I have an M4 Taylormade driver set at 10º hitting it well but like everyone I want more distance and was about to lower the loft; saved me some time. I would still like to look into newer technology but will take my time with all this information in mind.
I play almost every day most weeks 6 to 5 days a week.
I have never had a problem with the rollout, but I have had problems with not hitting it far enough.
Most people don't hit it far enough for the rollout to be a problem. It is actually most of the time a plus.
For most people, the rollout you get out of a lower lofted club gets them up to and right behind the trouble.
Which is the pufect shot. When you are hitting it short, you need the rollout.
If it rolls out into the water, hit it straighter normally that is because you hit it to the left or right.
When you hit it high, you are just basically laying back, and if you're a short hitter, you are making the whole a lot harder
If you can't hit the lower lofted clubs by all means, use the higher lofted clubs. At the end of the day, you have to hit the ball, but don't worry about the rollout it isn't going to hurt you it will most of the time help you.
To say rollout is bad is not right at all. Rollout is a bonus for most people.
The only time I don't want it to rollout is when I'm hitting an iron.
Rollout is the short hitters best friend. I see the older guys on the range almost every day trying to get their drivers to go lower and rollout and everyone keeps telling them to buy higher lofted clubs.
Instead of buying higher lofted clubs, it would do you better to take a lesson to figure out how to hit the ball.
You will hit it longer with more roll out.
And you never here anyone complaining that they are hitting it to long and is making them rollout into the water.
But I here them all the time complaining about not hitting it long enough.
Too bad you are so far away. I’d be interested in your services. I’m in the Boston area. Know anyone reputable around here?
You need to soundproof that room, sound is almost unintelligible
8.5 to 9 degree driver 25 30 years ago was a hard club to hit and was a snap slice or a duck hook if not hit in the sweet spot. Same degree club today is much more forgiving…
There's a great video online from the DP World Tour showing current pros hitting older club heads.
Middle shots were still pretty good but the off center performance was noticeable.
Having said that I'm still playing a 15 year old driver that was fit for me in the US (start of my fitting excitement) and I still can't do better than that setup.
So 100mph club head speed, producing 146-150 ball speed. Attack angle of 3deg up. What is ideal loft, launch angle and carry distance to look for ? Sea level.
Thanks for the question. I'll give you a quick and a touch extended answer
Simplified answer is 13* roughly for max carry, touch less for max total distance.
You get to decide if you are playing a course where you can give up 12 yards of carry for more roll out.
However this simplified answer is often misleading and is why people write misleading articles or follow bad advice online.
The simplified answer assumes square face and swing path.
A good fitter will look at spin loft which is actually 3 dimensional (ie includes swing path). You'll also hear the term D-Plane from some companies.
These additional characteristics of your swing can make a large change in your target parameters.
Not understanding this is why many misleading articles on loft and distance exist.
It's also why so many people are disappointed when they use an online fitting tool that only incorporates a handful of parameters and the driver they get doesn't perform as expected.
I have a 65 to 70 mph swing speed and am 75 years of age if I use a 13 or 14 degree driver would I gain distance with a senior flex shaft
Thanks
We have an interview coming out in about 10 days with a client of mine who is 75. We fit her into a new driver last year at 15* and the last weekend she hit 12 fairways regularly at 230 yards. He husband who is 79 played 9 holes and hit 6 fairways and had one drive over 250 yards with a 15* driver.
I am at 4 handicap and I was fitted to a Stealth+ 8* @ 6.5* on Hzduz black 6.5 to lower call flight and I hate it. Playing at 8.75* gives me less carry and less roll but it’s more in play and has a mid flight
Hi Mike. Thanks for chiming in. I'm missing something in your comment as I think you said you were fit at 6.5 but are playing at 8.75 but have lower ball flight. If you can clarify for me I'll add a thought or two. Thanks!
@@FittedGolf I was fitted to an 8 degree head turn down to 6.5 degrees to lower the ball flight. Turning it up 8.75 degrees raises the flight and raised the spin quite a bit
@@mikewilliams1479 Hi Mike. Thanks for the clarification.
Bit longer answer below but I don't prefer when things are over simplified to make them more click bait like and as a side effect leave the person asking the question actually worse off. Hence the topic of this video :)
First piece is yep as the loft of the driver increases, the spin rate does follow.
However have a look at the chart at the 5 min mark of the video. Just freeze it to notice how you can actually have quite a large increase in spin and not have significant loss of distance.
However it is a dance as the dotted line shows you the magic "best" spin rate at each launch angle and the associated distance that comes with it.
That chart is for 85mph and given how you were fit I am guessing you are moving the driver much faster so don't use these numbers other than as an example of the relationship between optimum launch and spin.
The point being spin rate isn't quite as critical as some people present in video and articles. It's an easy one for people to connect with so it's kind of low apples material.
What is more relevant is all your D-Plane data (swing speed, smash factor, face to path, swing path etc) COMBINED with your swing tempo and release point.
All these can drastically change your optimal driver setup vs just measuring swing speed and angle of attack (what many people do with a fit).
Intuitively I'm also questioning your shaft selection. That's a 2 page conversation but simple answer is shaft imparts almost no meaningful mechanical advantage, no matter what the marketing people tell you. It's vastly more relevant to your biomechanical performance. Simple version think feel and tempo.
The right shaft gives you feedback at every critical point in the swing path triggering you to move at your most optimal speed and timing.
The wrong shaft messes with those triggers and completely unravels the swing causing slow down in head speed and poor repeatability of the swing.
Side Note: Most amateurs, even aspiring players, actually have very repeatable swing patters WHEN MATCHED with a setup that is well suited to their biomechanics. We have a short video coming out on this exact topic in a couple weeks.. We also have some coming videos with our Biomechanics Professor talking about this and some other performance topics.
I did a fit a few days ago for a player that reads very much like you are presenting. We redid his setup and just changing his shaft and the MOI of the club completely changed his feels and performance. He just played his new setup and loves it.
And BTW his setup was optimal with his 6 year old driver vs the new one from the same manufacturer. Just sayin :)
@@mikewilliams1479
PS. The shaft change for the player I mentioned in the answer below.....it was significantly less expensive than the shaft that was in the club when he walked in the door.
It was perfect....for him.
Price has no relationship to suitability.
So why do we go that way with irons.
Modern day 5 irons are 23 deg, vs 10 years ago 28 deg
Because modern irons launch the ball higher, so they have to deloft them
Hi Geoff. So there is mostly a cynical insiders answer and it's not technology. Distance sells. When you watch a video online and somebody hits an 8 iron 200 yards and stares magically at their club, that sells.
Also if you like the phrase "follow the money", today people will need hybrids to fill the gaps where they can't hit their low lofted irons (more expensive per club) and also will need specialty wedges (more expensive per club) at the top of the set.
There is almost nothing that a current head will do performance wise that a 10 year old head of the same loft did back then. The computers worked out the optimum math years ago for each design type (muscle back, perimeter weighted, aspiring players low weighted)
You'd actually be surprised even with a pure players style blade to a full player improvement club how little the spin rate and launch angle changes when hit at the same loft with the same shaft using the same ball.....assuming hit squarely of course.
This guy is not right.
Lowering your loft will increase your total distance.
Thrse people are stupid and do not get the problems actual golfers are having with so much loft.
First, I play lots of golf courses in the Dallas Ft. Worth area, and the rollout will help you not hurt you on almost every hole.
This guy must not play golf or is trying to sell high lofted clubs
Second, with these high lofted clubs, the ball is going way too high and coming down and stopping with at best 10 yards of roll. You are not losing carry unless you are already hitting the ball low with the high lofted clubs. You are actually gaining carry and ball roll.
Instead of max 10 yards of roll, you are getting 30, and you're carrying the ball 10 to 15 yards farther.
When I hit the drive, I go out and stand at where the ball stops rolling. I can almost touch where the ball hit the ground when using a high lofted club, say a 10-degree driver.
If you want longer drives, get lower lofted drivers and stop trying to high it low, just hit it hard, and the lower lofted club will make it go lower.
The only thing this guy has right is if you're hitting the high lofted clubs low, then lowering the loft will not help.
That isn't the problem with what I'm seeing on the course. What I'm seeing is that the ball is going way too high and getting no roll at all.
The only way the rollout will hurt you is if you are hitting the non roll, high lofted driver up close to the water or something and then hit the lower lofted clubs into the water.
That is not what people who want to hit the ball farther are facing. We are hitting it so far back from the water that we can't get it over the water on our second shot.
That or we are having to play the front tees because we need the 20 yards that we would get if we had a lower lofted club.
How do you know of a lower lofted clube will help you. That really is easy to figure out. Just check and see what you roll out is if it is only about 10 to 15 yards on medium firm fairways, then you need a lower loft.
If you are hitting it any distance at all, but if you are hitting it at least 150 yards in the air, you should be getting at lest 30 yards of roll
Thanks for the passionate reply! I understand when people invest in an idea and feel fired up about conflicting information. This is exactly why we've put the channel together.
Have a look at the heat chart at the 5 min mark of the video.
Too low a loft will crush your distance. That number is different at every swing speed.
Slow swing speed plus negative AoA and open club face results in high spin, high launch and short carry; in that case lower lofted driver would help,
@@harryp.1679 Hi Harry....I hope I guessed that correctly from your handle.
Thanks for contributing to the conversation!
Spin loft is 3 dimensional so it's always possible to have a swing style that requires we pull down the driver loft to overcome a unique approach to contact.
An artificially high spin loft, is very often a byproduct of a player who started with a driver that was too low lofted. In response they taught themselves to manipulate their swing in a way that increased spin loft thus making the driver more effective.
The low lofted driver literally shaped their swing to be bad in order to allow the driver to work somewhat effectively.
Not all cases in the studio but a huge proportion.
Just finished with this exact issue tonight Changed the player from 9 to 11.5* and they gained 35 yards immediately. Some of this gain was a byproduct of the loft on the driver allowing them to change to a more effective swing path improving both contact performance (smash) and swing speed.
Thanks again for participating in the conversations. Love seeing what people are thinking about.