Week Eight: Dynamic Loft and Approach Shots

Core Value: Perseverance

Rule of the Day: Stroke Play vs. Match Play (Rules 1-3)

Lesson: Full Swing: Dynamic Loft and Approach Shots

Practice: Full Swing, focus on driving

Application: Golf Course (Focus: putting green)

Homework: Quiz 8

Quiz 8 - ALL QUIZZES DUE NEXT WEEK, including yardage chart and ball flight possibilities

Extra Resources:

  1. Rule: Stroke vs. Match Play - refer to rules 1-3 in your rules book

    1. Match play rules

    2. Stroke play vs. match play

  2. Approach Shots

    1. An approach in golf refers to strokes a golfer makes with the intention of landing the ball on the green as a result of a full swing

    2. Types of approach shots

    3. Video

  3. Dynamic Loft

    1. If you recall our discussion of the ball flight laws from Intermediate, you might remember the five ball flight laws: clubface, swing path, clubhead speed, angle of attack, and centeredness of contact. Even though these are the only official ball flight laws, there are other factors that influence your ball flight. We will cover several in the Advanced class, but we do discuss one in Playing: Dynamic Loft.

    2. Dynamic Loft is how much loft the club has at impact. All clubs have a specific degree of loft but your swing path and angle of attack can change the loft to either increase or decrease it. It is called “dynamic” loft because it is constantly changing throughout your swing. Creating the proper dynamic loft is important to creating the optimal trajectory and maximizing carry. Too much dynamic loft can send the ball too high into the air and reduce the golfer’s distance. Too little dynamic loft can send the ball too low making the ball roll out excessively causing it difficult to judge distance.

    3. Scary Definition of Dynamic Loft: the vertical orientation of the club face at the center-point of contact between the club and the ball at the time of maximum compression.

      Simply put, the dynamic loft is represented by a perpendicular vector to the club-face at impact. On drivers and fairway woods, the faces have a slight convex shape to them, which means that the dynamic loft will be increased/decreased when struck high or low on the face. As you may infer, the dynamic loft is largely responsible for the initial trajectory of the golf shot.

    4. Video