Leverage at Impact

In a study that lasted more than eight years, we discovered that professional golfers and good amateurs consistently delofted the club during impact an average of eight degrees. There are four degrees of manufactured loft difference between clubs. Thus, a good player applies the club in such a way that they use an eight iron with the loft of a six iron at impact.

 This is true no matter, who is holding the rubber end of the club be it man, woman or child. It is not a player’s strength or speed that is the issue, but simply an understanding of how to make the “tool” provide the most mechanical advantage. To deloft the club at impact it is necessary to make sure that the hands are ahead of the club head and the shaft is leaning well forward as you hit down on the ball.

This is a huge problem for people not because it is hard to do but because it is so counter intuitive. When someone looks at a golf club it just seems that their task would be to hit the bottom half of the ball to make it go high and far. However, that is not the case. Take the example of a beach ball. If we wanted to make it travel its furthest, it quickly becomes evident that to hit the ball forward the center of the ball must be moved forward. Now envision a lofted club striking a ball this big. The only way to attack the center of the ball with the center of the lofted surface of the club head is to deloft the club, which means the handle must be forward at impact. If we do not do that the lofted face will strike the ball below center and move the center up and not forward.

De- lofting the club at impact takes care of the vertical application of force, but there is also a horizontal force component built in to the design of all golf clubs.