Golf-FAQ.com

what attack angle in golf iron

by Prof. Lula Schoen Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
image

Attack Angle is defined as the vertical (up-down) angle at which the club head is moving at impact. Positive means hitting up on the ball while negative means hitting down on the ball. The amount that a golfer must hit down on the ball depends on how vertical the golfer's swing is.

Full Answer

What is angle of attack in golf?

Angle of attack is the amount a golf club is ascending or descending into the golf ball at impact. With irons, the angle should be negative (descending), with driver positive (ascending). An inefficient angle of attack can cause poor golf shots by affecting such things as launch angle, spin rate and energy transfer.

What is the angle of attack on a 6 iron?

It’s about a 1:1 ratio. However, with a 6 iron, as the vertical swing plane is steeper, moving the low point position forwards by an inch will tend to make the angle of attack 1.5 degrees steeper. It’s a 1:1.5 ratio.

Should your attack angle of attack be up or down?

If you are hitting down through impact, as you often would with an iron, you’ll have a downward angle of attack. On the other hand, if you are hitting up – such as you might do with a driver – your attack angle will be upward through impact.

What is the best launch angle for a golf club?

Use a shallow angle of attack (e.g. 0 to -3 degrees down) and let the club’s loft and head speed deliver the spin needed when you want the ball to check up. There is an optimum launch angle for maximum distance.

image

What is a good attack angle with irons?

Parente found that hitting down on the ball at 7 degrees, which is typical of a tour pro's attack angle, would give the average golfer 10 to 23 more carry yards with a 7-iron and 16 to 26 more total yards. The other two angles tested were -1 and +2, common amateur approaches into the golf ball with an iron.

What should attack angle be for a 7-iron?

To illustrate the importance of attack angle, I took two swings with my 7-iron. As you can see from the data at right, an attack angle of -2.7 degrees resulted in 165.5 yards of carry and a total distance of 174.7. Not bad.

What angle should my irons be?

Matching the lie angle of clubs to the specific golfer is one of the goals of a clubfitting session. Lie angles almost always range from the mid-50 degrees (in drivers) to the mid-60 degrees (in short irons). In irons, the range is typically from 59 or 60 degrees to around 64 degrees.

How do you find your attack angle in golf?

Your angle of attack in the golf swing – often referred to simply as the attack angle – is the upward or downward motion of the club as it approaches the ball. If you are hitting down through impact, as you often would with an iron, you'll have a downward angle of attack.

What is a good attack angle?

A typical attack angle of the barrel on a flyball is +20 to +35. We try to have an attack angle of about 10 degrees. Most professional hitters have a consistent attack angle between +8 to +12 degrees. Most amateur hitters struggle to get through the ball and have a negative attack angle.

What is a good launch angle for a 6-iron?

16.9 degreesThe standard assumption for launch angle comes from the TrackMan Optimizer. For the driver, a club speed of 94 mph, attack angle of 0 degrees, and optimized carry results in a launch angle of 13.6 degrees. For a 6-iron, a club speed of 80 mph and mid-trajectory results in a launch angle of 16.9 degrees.

Does 1 degree upright make a difference?

Yes it will make a difference, I play 2 degree upright and +1/2. If your hitting the ball left all the while (I am guessing your right handed) won't be to do with having the lye angle to flat.

What does 3 degrees upright mean on a golf club?

An upright lie angle means that the angle between the shaft and the ground is larger than it should be, making the club shaft more upright compared to the ground. If a club is too upright for your swing this means that during the swing, the heel of the clubhead will be lower than the toe.

What does 2 degrees upright mean on a golf club?

Two degrees upright means that a golf club has a lie angle that is two degrees upright of standard. The standard lie angle is going to differ depending on the club you are talking about and the manufacturer.

What is a good smash factor for a 7 iron?

Launch monitors give values that typically range from 1.3 to 1.4 with a 7-iron, and 1.44 to 1.52 for drivers, depending on the model, head weight and launch monitor in use.

What is the angle of a 7 iron?

A typical loft angle for the 5-iron is 28 degrees, while the 6-iron is 31 degrees and the 7-iron weighs in at 34 degrees.

What angle of attack produces the greatest lift?

The critical angle of attack is the angle of attack which produces the maximum lift coefficient. This is also called the "stall angle of attack".

What is angle of attack in golf?

Angle of attack is the amount a golf club is ascending or descending into the golf ball at impact. With irons, the angle should be negative (descending), with driver positive (ascending). An inefficient angle of attack can cause poor golf shots by affecting such things as launch angle, spin rate and energy transfer.

How to find angle of attack?

The first way to figure out your angle of attack is to look at the type of divots you make with your irons. If they are deep divots that dig up large chucks of turf and jar your hands and wrists, that's one sign your angle of attack might be off.

How does a club head swing?

A club head can swing into the ball on an ascending path (the club head moving up into the ball) or a descending path ( moving down into the ball). How much the club is ascending or descending, expressed in degrees, is the angle of attack (also commonly called "attack angle").

Why should the angle of attack with the driver be ascending?

The angle of attack with the driver should be ascending, because driver-ball contact should happen with the driver on the upswing for maximum distance.

What happens when you hit an iron too steeply?

When you come into iron impact too steeply, you waste much of the energy of impact by diverting it into the ground rather than into the golf ball. Launch angle: With the driver, the goal is to hit up on the ball to create the ideal launch angle. That, in turn, means greater distance on one's drives. To create this type of flight, the angle of ...

Is an ascending blow a positive or negative angle?

An ascending blow has a positive angle, while a descending blow has a negative angle. If you are a recreational golfer who plays only a handful of times per year, angle of attack is not something to worry about. But serious golfers who want to get better and post better scores need to address any issues they might have with angle of attack.

What is the angle of attack in golf?

What is Attack Angle? Your angle of attack in the golf swing – often referred to simply as the attack angle – is the upward or downward motion of the club as it approaches the ball. If you are hitting down through impact, as you often would with an iron, you’ll have a downward angle of attack.

How fast can you swing a golf club?

Depending on your skill level and strength, you may be able to swing the club into the back of the ball at more than 100 miles-per-hour. In turn, the ball may leave the club at more than 150 miles-per-hour, rocketing off into the distance. So, while the game as a whole may be peaceful, the portion of the swing that tears through ...

How to get a shallower swing?

Specifically, start by altering your ball position. If you move the ball slightly forward in your stance, you might be able to work your way into a shallower swing through impact if you were too steep before. Likewise, you can move the ball back if you’d like to be a little steeper when you make the strike.

Does attack angle matter in golf?

Does Attack Angle Matter? Simply put – yes, this is a very important topic for golfers who want to improve their level of play. If your attack angle is way out of line for what you are trying to accomplish with your swing, it will be nearly impossible to reach your goals on the course.

Is it important to hit a wedge in the short game?

This topic is just as important in the short game, both with the putter and with your wedges. However, because of the great variety in the types of shots you can hit in the short game, you will want to be more adaptable than in the long game. Sometimes, it will make sense to hit down aggressively on your wedges to spin a pitch or chip shot, ...

What is angle of attack?

Angle of attack refers solely to how the club is approaching the ball into impact. Your angle of attack could be positive (upward), negative (downward) or neutral. Having a steep or shallow swing plane does not mean you have a steep or shallow AOA.

Why do golfers think they are too steep?

Following from this, lots of golfers think that because they have an out-to-in swing that they are automatically swinging too steep on the ball. While swinging left certainly does correlate with a steeper angle of attack, there are several other variables at play.

Is a steeper plane a steeper angle of attack?

Even if we were to trace the movement the clubhead makes from hip high to hip high (the swing is relatively planar here – hence the name “Functional swing plane”), a steeper plane does not mean a steeper angle of attack (and vice versa). Plane is not angle of attack.

Does a swing plane equal angle of attack?

Swing Plane. While I said earlier that swing plane does not equal angle of attack (and I stand by it), it still influences it. It combines with low point position to produce angle of attack. While it can get very complicated, a good general rule is;

Is the left swing shallower than the right?

The swing on the left may be just as shallow or even shallower than the swing on the right (in terms of AOA). Changing swing direction often does change angle of attack in a way you would imagine – swinging more left will often make the angle of attack steeper and vice versa.

Irons Angle of Attack

Creating a negative angle of attack with your irons, you’re going to hit the ball farther and more accurately. You’ll notice a much more penetrating ball flight.

Why subscribe to GolfersRx?

Here is a how to golf video from Gene Parente of Golf Labs explaining Driver Angle of Attack . Just one of the many golf instruction videos we have at GolfersRx.com.

Experts

Quite the Chap (Colby Johannson) Golf Instruction videos and lessons to think smarter about golf.

Contents of each square

Each square is a given attack angle for a given ball speed and the chart shows for each of these-

Phil increases attack angle to outdrive Brooks

We showed here how Phil Mickelson became the oldest winner of a major in 2021 by outdriving Brooks Koepka on the long 16th at the PGA in Kiawah Island. He teed the ball high and hit up as much as he could comfortably achieve. Technically, he increased his attack angle in order to maximise his launch angle downwind.

image
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9