Negative angle of attack with Driver

One quick question (and sorry if this has already been covered) but when I was watching Joe Miller and spoke to him afterwards he seems to aim a fair few degrees (approx. 10 degrees) right of his target, while I appreciate he is in the extreme of the +AoA catagory if I was to take

I have a very similar problem with my trackman stats so enjoying reading this. Some great tips from the_coach, many thanks.

One quick question (and sorry if this has already been covered) but when I was watching Joe Miller and spoke to him afterwards he seems to aim a fair few degrees (approx. 10 degrees) right of his target, while I appreciate he is in the extreme of the +AoA catagory if I was to take a -4ish AoA to + 2 or more would I have to factor in aiming a little right to accompany what seems like a pull on the line he is setting up on?


If we take Joe & the other Remax guys out of the equation, simply because of the extreme numbers involved 130+mph, most differently a 50" long Krank, at just the odd degree more loft than your 4º putter, although the same principles (physics) apply, it can still muddy the waters some.

Golf always tends to be counterintuitive some, so this is pretty weird stuff to most folks the first time they here it all, not that easy to get your head wrapped round it any. But ...... quick question, but physics doesn't really allow a quick short explanation, sorry.

So looking at say a -4AoA with driver. (assuming here all swings find a centered contact so no complications with "d plane"/"spin axis 2" come in to play at all)

If you were looking to hit a very slight draw to target you'd pretty much be able to aim face to your end target at, call it zero, body parallel to that target line, given that you deliver a slightly open face angle to impact because the swing path is coming from very slight inside it's also moving outwards to the ball in swing direction, given that the swing is an arc on an inclined plane around a fairly centered axis. (again assuming a correctly sequenced ground up lower body led swing sequence) With that downward attack angle of -4º your swing path is back out (rightways) to ball then left inside & up, & you'll get your very slight draw say 10-12 feet approx.

This happens simply because for approx every 1º down AoA means that downwards swing direction is naturally also going to make the club head travel approx 1º outwards, so in effect -4º downwards is also moving the swing direction 4º outwards, rightways as the club head travels to the ball.(to the right side of the zeroº ball/target line) Club face angle approx 1º open, -4ºAoA, swing direction of the club head outwards (to the right) will be also 4º, this gives you the soft draw, but for every -1ºAoA you also lose approx 7 yards of distance so some approx 30 yards distance lost in total against a level 0º AoA through impact.

Any upward attack angle, (I'm speaking only here of driver off of a tee) because the ball has to be a tad more forward in the stance (part of the 'static' set-up requirements along with a few other things I detailed before in the earlier posts here) So this upward AoA is contacting the ball further away from lowest swing arc point means the this arc through impact is also going to be going a little ways more to the left, in it's swing direction.

So this means if you are hitting your +2ºAoA & want to hit draw to the same target as the previous -4ºAoA swing from the same Teeing point, because now at +2º the swing direction is now going to be traveling slightly further left again in swing direction.
So at address you're going to have to be aiming face & body a ways right of end target point, to produce the same shaped draw. (but you've then got the 30 yards longer to factor in, plus every 1º up gives you approx 6 yards extra distance from level, 0º AoA, so +2ºAoA is another 12 yards, making approx an extra 50+ yards in overall distance assuming the same SS)

So as a controllable 'soft' draw works out always at a swing direction of 4º right of the 0º ball/target line (with a face angle of around 1º-2º open to target but the swing direction always more open to (right) of target line.)
& because of the swing direction is now a ways more left because of the upward 2ºAoA, you'd need a swing direction open to (to the right of) the ball/target line of approx 6º.

So you'd aim at target to hit soft draw with a -4º AoA, but with driver it would be some 50+ approx yards less in overall distance than the +2ºAoA.
But for that +2ºAoA you'd have to aim body, so swing direction some 6º open (to the right) of the same ball target line as the -4ºAoA swing to get the ball drawing to the same end target though now you'd get that approx extra distance of 50+ yards.

Bet ya, you wished you'd never asked now!! :rofl:

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