What is vertical spin loft? Why should you care?
Well, when you find out that this factor controls a lot of the distance you get, I am sure you will be interested. Improving your spin-loft can help you launch high bombs that pierce the wind.
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What Is It?
Put simply, vertical spin loft is the difference between the angle of attack (whether the club is moving up or down at impact and how steeply) and the dynamic loft of the club (the loft of the club at impact).
In the below picture, the yellow gap between the angle of attack (pink arrow) and loft of the club (blue arrow) is small. This represents low spin loft.
In the below picture, we see the yellow gap between the angle of attack and loft of the club increased. This would be classed as having more spin-loft.
Increased Spin Loft
When the spin loft angle increases, the efficiency of energy transfer into the ball gets reduced. In other words, the ball will jump off the face of the club slower for any given club speed.
We call this (energy transfer ratio) “smash factor”.
For example;
- If your swing speed is 100mph and your ball flies off at 150 mph, you have a smash factor of 1.5 (very high).
- If your swing speed is 100mph and your ball leaves the face at 130mph, your smash factor is lower (1.3).
With increased spin loft, we also see an increase in spin rate.
This combination of lower ball speed (smash) and higher spin is a killer for distance with the driver – although it is very advantageous when hitting a wedge into a green.
Decreased Spin Loft
If you want to really smash your driver a long way, reducing spin loft will help.
By reducing the spin-loft angle, we can increase ball speed (smash factor) and reduce spin rate – potentially AWESOME for longer drives.
However…..
Why Reducing Loft Won’t Work
While most of you reading this are already holding your driver “loft-changing tool” in your hands, ready to crank your adjustable driver down to 0 degrees, be warned!
Reducing loft WILL decrease spin loft, it will also lower the launch of the ball.
Cranking the loft down on its own will reduce spin loft, but the ball won’t launch in the air.
In order to achieve maximum distance, we need a HIGH launch and a low spin rate (and max ball speed).
So, how the hell do we do this?
Change AOA
Rather than reducing spin loft by reducing your club’s loft (moving the blue arrow down), let’s increase the angle of attack instead (move the pink arrow up).
Don’t move the blue arrow (loft) down.
Instead, move the pink arrow (angle of attack) up.
By doing this, we get to maintain our high launch (because launch angle is largely determined by the loft) while reducing spin and increasing smash factor.
High Launch + Low Spin = Max Distance
How To Do This
In order to reduce spin loft to achieve maximum ball speed, high launch and low spin, we need to change just a few things.
While that is beyond the scope of a blog post, members of The Strike Plan can CLICK HERE to go straight to the video which explains this in further detail.
If you are not already a member, click the image link below to find out more about The Strike Plan.
Not only do you learn how to favorably change spin loft, but the program contains modules on
- Striking the sweet spot
- Eliminating fat and thin shots
- The Pro secret (hand path)
Click the image link above, or CLICK HERE to learn more.
luisvaldenebro
Hi Adam!
Great post and even better if you pair it with the video of the Strike Plan!
I am trying this and I am quite pleased with the distance increase but I have one question:
Buy positioning the ball further forward on my stance, I trend to block the ball to the left. Not too much, but some yards.
Is it normal? I assume that with some time I will accommodate the path/face but just wanted to ask!
Thanks in advance!!!
Adam Gray
@luisvaldenbro
I had the same problem at the beginning with a push right using a more forward ball position, to increase AOA.
I simply closed the face at address, ever so slightly and that did the trick.
It’s worth noting that because of a more forward ball position your path will be more left (right handed player). With this in mind I feel as my shoulders are slightly closed to the target and I’m swinging more to the right.
This may sound like it’s gonna make you push the ball even further but if you are hitting straight pushes your face angle is more than likely open to your target.
So closing the face slightly and having it more closed to your path will result in you hitting some drives with a push draw shape.
Not trying to make things confusing but even with the above feelings I actually still fade the ball which is my stock shot.
It’s all about experimenting to see what works best for you.
Hope this helps.
Adam
admin
HI Adam, swinging to the right more can move the low point of the swing farther back, helping us hit up on the ball. It can also help to close the face to path – so you are correct in your line of thinking.
pgcops
Adam:
I always find your post to be well worth the time to read and absorb. With the 3 tee drill can you describe the distance and perhaps the height between the tees which will help when I establish a work station.
admin
Hi pg. The middle tee has the ball on it. The first tee should be around an inch lower (and can be directly behind the ball). The second tee can vary depending on how much you want to hit up on the ball. I like to have it an inch lower than the main tee, and about 6 inches in front of the ball.
kenn
I’m confused. Trackman showed me with a Dynamic Loft of 12.1 deg, a Spin Rate of 2644 rpm, an Attack Angle of 6.5 deg, and a Spin Loft of 10.3 deg. Club Speed was 110.1, Ball Speed 158.1 for a Smash Factor of 1.44. I thought Dynamic Loft – Attack Angle = Spin Loft. What’s missing here?
admin
Great question. Vertical spin loft is dynamic loft – AOA, but total spin loft (what Trackman calculates) also includes face to path. for example, say you produced zero vertical spin loft (10 degrees AOA and 10 degrees dynamic loft) but face was 2 degrees open to path, you would have 2 deg total spin loft.
kenn
So since DL (12.1) – AOA (6.5) = 5.6, so you’re saying other factors (such as face to path) contributed 4.7 degrees of additional Spin Loft? I take it those additional degrees adds spin to the ball and increases the RPM?
Matt Wade
Interesting… I’d love to see a comparison of spin loft numbers from different shots. Like how different are these numbers in low (stingerish) shots to high shots, and what are the key success factors for each.
admin
I did a nice video in Next Level Golf this month looking at stinger shots and seeing how the numbers change.