Set Up Changes To Affect Ball Flight Curve
Shot Shaping/Adjustments
- Set Up Changes
At this point, you should have a fairly established “stock” swing. But unfortunately, that stock swing is all you need for the driving range. Your stock swing with each club will produce a certain distance shot with a certain predictable curve. The bias for this swing is a slight draw to a straight shot. When you start talking about playing golf, then, on occasion you must learn to adjust your stock shot to hit different distances and account for different lies.
For a fade. Keep in mind that for hitting a stock fade you are going to have to get the clubface open to the path, and the path going left of the target. OR you can have the path open to the target and use your normal draw path. The advantage of this is you don’t have to make very many changes, the disadvantage, is that it will result in a push fade, which can be a hard shot to hit low and could be tough for getting out of trouble.
Set up changes for a fade. You can get the right results by either strengthening or weakening your grip. To hit a pull fade or a true fade, you are going to want the ball to start left, so closing your grip a hair can help with that, and you are going to want the path to be even more left than where the ball starts, so moving the ball position up a little bit will help. If you are going to keep most things the same and hit push fades, then weakening your grip a hair can do the trick as well.
The set up changes to hit a draw would be to move the ball back a bit, and strengthen or weaken the grip accordingly, and to close (aim right) the body to the target line
As a summary, this video helps you learn how to hit draws and fades on command.
Shot Shaping/Adjustments
- Set Up Changes
At this point, you should have a fairly established “stock” swing. But unfortunately, that stock swing is all you need for the driving range. Your stock swing with each club will produce a certain distance shot with a certain predictable curve. The bias for this swing is a slight draw to a straight shot. When you start talking about playing golf, then, on occasion you must learn to adjust your stock shot to hit different distances and account for different lies.
For a fade. Keep in mind that for hitting a stock fade you are going to have to get the clubface open to the path, and the path going left of the target. OR you can have the path open to the target and use your normal draw path. The advantage of this is you don’t have to make very many changes, the disadvantage, is that it will result in a push fade, which can be a hard shot to hit low and could be tough for getting out of trouble.
Set up changes for a fade. You can get the right results by either strengthening or weakening your grip. To hit a pull fade or a true fade, you are going to want the ball to start left, so closing your grip a hair can help with that, and you are going to want the path to be even more left than where the ball starts, so moving the ball position up a little bit will help. If you are going to keep most things the same and hit push fades, then weakening your grip a hair can do the trick as well.
The set up changes to hit a draw would be to move the ball back a bit, and strengthen or weaken the grip accordingly, and to close (aim right) the body to the target line
As a summary, this video helps you learn how to hit draws and fades on command.
Video Transcript
1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.080
In this concept video, we're going to talk about fine-tuning your stock-full
2
00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:07.000
swing for certain shot shapes.
3
00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:10.490
And in this particular video, we're going to talk about setup changes that can
4
00:00:10.490 --> 00:00:12.000
affect the curvature.
5
00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.980
Now, the dangerous thing here is with setup changes, we're assuming that all
6
00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:17.000
else is equal,
7
00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:21.000
meaning you're making the same general movements as your stock-full swing.
8
00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:27.550
So, as a refresher, the golf ball is going to start roughly where the face is
9
00:00:27.550 --> 00:00:29.000
pointed at impact.
10
00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:35.000
So, if I put a little magnet there showing where the face is pointed,
11
00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.000
and this steel shaft on the ground is going to represent my target,
12
00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:43.000
well, wherever this is pointed, when I make contact with the golf ball,
13
00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.140
so if it's pointed like this, it would start to the right, it would start to
14
00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:47.000
the left.
15
00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:51.000
Then the curvature is going to be dictated based on the path of the club.
16
00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:54.000
So, this orange stick is going to represent path.
17
00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:00.190
So, here's my target. If I had the path going across like this, this would be a
18
00:01:00.190 --> 00:01:01.000
slice.
19
00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:07.000
If I had the path going across like this, this would be a draw or a hook.
20
00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:13.790
Okay, so our stock-full swing is going to roughly, if I can make a good one
21
00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:14.000
here,
22
00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:17.000
we're going to have our one-piece takeaway, we're going to set the club,
23
00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:21.000
we're going to have the Jackson 5 transition, we're going to come down,
24
00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:26.000
as we're coming down, what you'll see is it tends to favor a path that is
25
00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:30.000
pretty close to neutral or just slightly out to the right,
26
00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.000
with a face that is pretty close to square or just slightly to the left of it.
27
00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:39.220
So, it will cause you to hit pretty much a straight shot or a slight draw or a
28
00:01:39.220 --> 00:01:40.000
slight fade,
29
00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.000
depending on your grip strength and your motorcycle.
30
00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:47.680
So, now, if I have a slight draw and I need to curve the ball, say, around a
31
00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:48.000
tree
32
00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:53.460
or to try to take advantage of a dog leg or to attack a pin that's tucked
33
00:01:53.460 --> 00:01:54.000
behind a bunker,
34
00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:58.660
I'm going to have to make changes. Let's talk about the setup changes that we
35
00:01:58.660 --> 00:01:59.000
can make
36
00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:03.310
to cause it to curve more left to right for a right-hander or right to left for
37
00:02:03.310 --> 00:02:05.000
a right-hander.
38
00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:10.000
So, to make it go more left to right for a right-hander, we're going to adjust
39
00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:11.000
things to the left.
40
00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:19.540
So, in order to make it curve, I'll just put the orange line to represent the
41
00:02:19.540 --> 00:02:20.000
path that
42
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:25.000
I want the club to go on, and then this white stick here, or the yellow one,
43
00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.600
that's roughly where I want the face pointed, that will make a ball that will
44
00:02:29.600 --> 00:02:30.000
curve,
45
00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:33.000
and the difference between these two is going to adjust how much.
46
00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:44.000
So, if I take my normal setup, the things that will make me curve the ball more
47
00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:46.000
to the left with setup
48
00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:50.270
would be to open my stance, so now I've got my stance roughly pointed in the
49
00:02:50.270 --> 00:02:52.000
direction that the club is going to be swung,
50
00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:55.530
but if I didn't change anything else, I would just, and now I have a new
51
00:02:55.530 --> 00:02:56.000
straight shot.
52
00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:01.000
So, I would have to move the ball slightly forward and open the club face.
53
00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:06.160
Or the way to think about it easy is to get the ball to curve to the right, you
54
00:03:06.160 --> 00:03:08.000
're going to shift things to the left.
55
00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:11.170
So, you're going to move your stance to the left, you're going to turn your
56
00:03:11.170 --> 00:03:12.000
hands to the left on top,
57
00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.090
which is a slightly weaker grip, and you're going to move the ball slightly to
58
00:03:16.090 --> 00:03:18.000
the left or towards the target.
59
00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:23.000
If you wanted to make the ball curve to the right, you would do the opposites.
60
00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:29.170
So, now I would have a club or a path that was coming more into out like so,
61
00:03:29.170 --> 00:03:34.000
with a face that's pointed right of the target, but left of the path.
62
00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:41.730
So, if I want the ball to curve right to left as a right hand golfer, I'm going
63
00:03:41.730 --> 00:03:44.000
to move stuff to the right.
64
00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.690
I'm going to shift my stance slightly to the right, move the ball a little bit
65
00:03:48.690 --> 00:03:50.000
back or to the right,
66
00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:55.000
and I'm going to turn my hands to the right or get a little bit stronger grip.
67
00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:59.660
The reason that the stronger grip is going to make the ball curve more to the
68
00:03:59.660 --> 00:04:04.000
left is when my arms extend out in front of my body,
69
00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.620
because of the speed of the club, it's going to have a certain alignment like
70
00:04:07.620 --> 00:04:08.000
so.
71
00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:13.000
The more that I turn my hands to the right, when it straightens out, like so,
72
00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:15.000
it's pointed more to the left.
73
00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.110
Once it gets that guarantees my curve to the left, the stance adjustments will
74
00:04:19.110 --> 00:04:22.000
help me control where the swing direction is.
75
00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:25.000
The difference between the two is going to create the curve.
76
00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.140
So, those are some of the easy ways you can play around with shot shaping just
77
00:04:29.140 --> 00:04:30.000
from setup.
78
00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.510
But again, the assumption here is that everything else in your swing stays the
79
00:04:33.510 --> 00:04:34.000
same.
80
00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:38.150
In the advanced video, we're going to go over the movements that we can do to
81
00:04:38.150 --> 00:04:40.000
help curve the ball even more.
82
00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.430
These are what you can practice during the famous nine shot drill to dial in
83
00:04:44.430 --> 00:04:46.000
what your neutral is.
Have questions?
Ask Mulligan for helpSet Up Changes To Affect Ball Flight Curve
Shot Shaping/Adjustments
- Set Up Changes
At this point, you should have a fairly established “stock” swing. But unfortunately, that stock swing is all you need for the driving range. Your stock swing with each club will produce a certain distance shot with a certain predictable curve. The bias for this swing is a slight draw to a straight shot. When you start talking about playing golf, then, on occasion you must learn to adjust your stock shot to hit different distances and account for different lies.
For a fade. Keep in mind that for hitting a stock fade you are going to have to get the clubface open to the path, and the path going left of the target. OR you can have the path open to the target and use your normal draw path. The advantage of this is you don’t have to make very many changes, the disadvantage, is that it will result in a push fade, which can be a hard shot to hit low and could be tough for getting out of trouble.
Set up changes for a fade. You can get the right results by either strengthening or weakening your grip. To hit a pull fade or a true fade, you are going to want the ball to start left, so closing your grip a hair can help with that, and you are going to want the path to be even more left than where the ball starts, so moving the ball position up a little bit will help. If you are going to keep most things the same and hit push fades, then weakening your grip a hair can do the trick as well.
The set up changes to hit a draw would be to move the ball back a bit, and strengthen or weaken the grip accordingly, and to close (aim right) the body to the target line
As a summary, this video helps you learn how to hit draws and fades on command.
Shot Shaping/Adjustments
- Set Up Changes
At this point, you should have a fairly established “stock” swing. But unfortunately, that stock swing is all you need for the driving range. Your stock swing with each club will produce a certain distance shot with a certain predictable curve. The bias for this swing is a slight draw to a straight shot. When you start talking about playing golf, then, on occasion you must learn to adjust your stock shot to hit different distances and account for different lies.
For a fade. Keep in mind that for hitting a stock fade you are going to have to get the clubface open to the path, and the path going left of the target. OR you can have the path open to the target and use your normal draw path. The advantage of this is you don’t have to make very many changes, the disadvantage, is that it will result in a push fade, which can be a hard shot to hit low and could be tough for getting out of trouble.
Set up changes for a fade. You can get the right results by either strengthening or weakening your grip. To hit a pull fade or a true fade, you are going to want the ball to start left, so closing your grip a hair can help with that, and you are going to want the path to be even more left than where the ball starts, so moving the ball position up a little bit will help. If you are going to keep most things the same and hit push fades, then weakening your grip a hair can do the trick as well.
The set up changes to hit a draw would be to move the ball back a bit, and strengthen or weaken the grip accordingly, and to close (aim right) the body to the target line
As a summary, this video helps you learn how to hit draws and fades on command.
Video Transcript
1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.080
In this concept video, we're going to talk about fine-tuning your stock-full
2
00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:07.000
swing for certain shot shapes.
3
00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:10.490
And in this particular video, we're going to talk about setup changes that can
4
00:00:10.490 --> 00:00:12.000
affect the curvature.
5
00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.980
Now, the dangerous thing here is with setup changes, we're assuming that all
6
00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:17.000
else is equal,
7
00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:21.000
meaning you're making the same general movements as your stock-full swing.
8
00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:27.550
So, as a refresher, the golf ball is going to start roughly where the face is
9
00:00:27.550 --> 00:00:29.000
pointed at impact.
10
00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:35.000
So, if I put a little magnet there showing where the face is pointed,
11
00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:38.000
and this steel shaft on the ground is going to represent my target,
12
00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:43.000
well, wherever this is pointed, when I make contact with the golf ball,
13
00:00:43.000 --> 00:00:46.140
so if it's pointed like this, it would start to the right, it would start to
14
00:00:46.140 --> 00:00:47.000
the left.
15
00:00:47.000 --> 00:00:51.000
Then the curvature is going to be dictated based on the path of the club.
16
00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:54.000
So, this orange stick is going to represent path.
17
00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:00.190
So, here's my target. If I had the path going across like this, this would be a
18
00:01:00.190 --> 00:01:01.000
slice.
19
00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:07.000
If I had the path going across like this, this would be a draw or a hook.
20
00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:13.790
Okay, so our stock-full swing is going to roughly, if I can make a good one
21
00:01:13.790 --> 00:01:14.000
here,
22
00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:17.000
we're going to have our one-piece takeaway, we're going to set the club,
23
00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:21.000
we're going to have the Jackson 5 transition, we're going to come down,
24
00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:26.000
as we're coming down, what you'll see is it tends to favor a path that is
25
00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:30.000
pretty close to neutral or just slightly out to the right,
26
00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:33.000
with a face that is pretty close to square or just slightly to the left of it.
27
00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:39.220
So, it will cause you to hit pretty much a straight shot or a slight draw or a
28
00:01:39.220 --> 00:01:40.000
slight fade,
29
00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:43.000
depending on your grip strength and your motorcycle.
30
00:01:43.000 --> 00:01:47.680
So, now, if I have a slight draw and I need to curve the ball, say, around a
31
00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:48.000
tree
32
00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:53.460
or to try to take advantage of a dog leg or to attack a pin that's tucked
33
00:01:53.460 --> 00:01:54.000
behind a bunker,
34
00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:58.660
I'm going to have to make changes. Let's talk about the setup changes that we
35
00:01:58.660 --> 00:01:59.000
can make
36
00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:03.310
to cause it to curve more left to right for a right-hander or right to left for
37
00:02:03.310 --> 00:02:05.000
a right-hander.
38
00:02:05.000 --> 00:02:10.000
So, to make it go more left to right for a right-hander, we're going to adjust
39
00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:11.000
things to the left.
40
00:02:11.000 --> 00:02:19.540
So, in order to make it curve, I'll just put the orange line to represent the
41
00:02:19.540 --> 00:02:20.000
path that
42
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:25.000
I want the club to go on, and then this white stick here, or the yellow one,
43
00:02:25.000 --> 00:02:29.600
that's roughly where I want the face pointed, that will make a ball that will
44
00:02:29.600 --> 00:02:30.000
curve,
45
00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:33.000
and the difference between these two is going to adjust how much.
46
00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:44.000
So, if I take my normal setup, the things that will make me curve the ball more
47
00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:46.000
to the left with setup
48
00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:50.270
would be to open my stance, so now I've got my stance roughly pointed in the
49
00:02:50.270 --> 00:02:52.000
direction that the club is going to be swung,
50
00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:55.530
but if I didn't change anything else, I would just, and now I have a new
51
00:02:55.530 --> 00:02:56.000
straight shot.
52
00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:01.000
So, I would have to move the ball slightly forward and open the club face.
53
00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:06.160
Or the way to think about it easy is to get the ball to curve to the right, you
54
00:03:06.160 --> 00:03:08.000
're going to shift things to the left.
55
00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:11.170
So, you're going to move your stance to the left, you're going to turn your
56
00:03:11.170 --> 00:03:12.000
hands to the left on top,
57
00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:16.090
which is a slightly weaker grip, and you're going to move the ball slightly to
58
00:03:16.090 --> 00:03:18.000
the left or towards the target.
59
00:03:18.000 --> 00:03:23.000
If you wanted to make the ball curve to the right, you would do the opposites.
60
00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:29.170
So, now I would have a club or a path that was coming more into out like so,
61
00:03:29.170 --> 00:03:34.000
with a face that's pointed right of the target, but left of the path.
62
00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:41.730
So, if I want the ball to curve right to left as a right hand golfer, I'm going
63
00:03:41.730 --> 00:03:44.000
to move stuff to the right.
64
00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.690
I'm going to shift my stance slightly to the right, move the ball a little bit
65
00:03:48.690 --> 00:03:50.000
back or to the right,
66
00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:55.000
and I'm going to turn my hands to the right or get a little bit stronger grip.
67
00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:59.660
The reason that the stronger grip is going to make the ball curve more to the
68
00:03:59.660 --> 00:04:04.000
left is when my arms extend out in front of my body,
69
00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.620
because of the speed of the club, it's going to have a certain alignment like
70
00:04:07.620 --> 00:04:08.000
so.
71
00:04:08.000 --> 00:04:13.000
The more that I turn my hands to the right, when it straightens out, like so,
72
00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:15.000
it's pointed more to the left.
73
00:04:15.000 --> 00:04:19.110
Once it gets that guarantees my curve to the left, the stance adjustments will
74
00:04:19.110 --> 00:04:22.000
help me control where the swing direction is.
75
00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:25.000
The difference between the two is going to create the curve.
76
00:04:25.000 --> 00:04:29.140
So, those are some of the easy ways you can play around with shot shaping just
77
00:04:29.140 --> 00:04:30.000
from setup.
78
00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.510
But again, the assumption here is that everything else in your swing stays the
79
00:04:33.510 --> 00:04:34.000
same.
80
00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:38.150
In the advanced video, we're going to go over the movements that we can do to
81
00:04:38.150 --> 00:04:40.000
help curve the ball even more.
82
00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:44.430
These are what you can practice during the famous nine shot drill to dial in
83
00:04:44.430 --> 00:04:46.000
what your neutral is.
Have questions about this video?
Ask Mulligan for personalized guidance on technique, drills, or how to apply what you've learned.
Ask Mulligan