Reducing your positive AoA with the Driver.

[rusty_Wedge]

I've seen plenty of youtube videos with drills to hit up on the ball with a driver to create a positive AoA.  For example, add some spinal tilt and place a head cover in front of the ball.  

Does anyone know of a drill to help reduce your positive AoA?  My AoA is +8* and my dynamic loft was +10*.  I worked on some drills with an impact bag, and towel to release the club head a bit earlier and got my dynamic loft to the +15* to +18* range but my AoA is still in the +8* range.  Does anyone know of a drill to bring that down a bit to the +2* to +4* range? 

[Sean124]

What’s your AoA if you tee the ball low and set up like you’re hitting a 3 wood off the deck?

[rusty_Wedge]

1 minute ago, Sean124 said:

What’s your AoA if you tee the ball low and set up like you’re hitting a 3 wood off the deck?

I'm actually going to give that a try when I go to the trackman studio later today.  Using those indoor golf tees I've been using the No 6 and will look for a No 5 to use.  When playing on course my actual tee height is more on the lower end so maybe that's why I've been getting wonky numbers.  Can't wait to hit the course again once the weather gets better. 

[getitdaily]

My very 1st thought was to kick up a tiny grass tee and hit driver after driver off the deck on the range. Hit your driver off the deck like it's a 3i...

[rusty_Wedge]

1 minute ago, getitdaily said:

My very 1st thought was to kick up a tiny grass tee and hit driver after driver off the deck on the range. Hit your driver off the deck like it's a 3i...

Thanks for the suggestion.  Going to try teeing it lower.  

[Sean124]

2 minutes ago, rusty_Wedge said:

I'm actually going to give that a try when I go to the trackman studio later today.  Using those indoor golf tees I've been using the No 6 and will look for a No 5 to use.  When playing on course my actual tee height is more on the lower end so maybe that's why I've been getting wonky numbers.  Can't wait to hit the course again once the weather gets better. 

If your setup and tee height makes you miss the ball when you swing 8 up, I bet you stop swinging 8 up pretty quickly. 😜

[DLiver]

I have the same issue. What works for me is to keep my right shoulder high through impact.

[Ri_Redneck]

I keep one of these in my bag for when hitting off mats. Use a real tee and set the height where you want it.

 

https://www.amazon.com/FINGER-TEN-Driving-Outdoor-Practice/dp/B07FSMQV75/ref=sr_1_6?crid=SSQPT9RM6COA&keywords=tee%2Bholder%2Bgolf&qid=1706892314&sprefix=tee%2Bholder%2Bgol%2Caps%2C428&sr=8-6&th=1

 

BT

[getitdaily]

23 minutes ago, rusty_Wedge said:

Thanks for the suggestion.  Going to try teeing it lower.  

My suggestion is to not tee it up at all...go to an over exaggeration. Driver off the deck and take a divot...

 

 

 

[rusty_Wedge]

21 minutes ago, DLiver said:

I have the same issue. What works for me is to keep my right shoulder high through impact.

Thanks.  I'll use this swing thought. 

[rusty_Wedge]

8 minutes ago, getitdaily said:

My suggestion is to not tee it up at all...go to an over exaggeration. Driver off the deck and take a divot...

 

 

 

Thanks.  I'll try this for the exaggerated feeling. 

[CSagan]

Tee it lower

Spine vertical at setup, not a lot of tilt away from the target.

stay centered, move left coming down. 
 

max is a good model to look at. I’m sure you have a ton of shoulder tilt and teed up high. 

[Kenny Lee Puckett]

...simply moving your ball position backwards in stance could be a start towards decreasing your AoA.

[Kenny Lee Puckett]

and FWIW lowering and lowering the tee height could possibly introduce a whole other set of problems. an overly low strike pattern on the face causing low initial launch angles and high spin.  🤮

[ac6]

Having the feeling of re-centering earlier might help, since lowering the tee & putting it back in the stance is not going to help that much if you are trying to level out the swing with the hands and upper body only and could actually end up with you hanging back even further because you feel like your low point needs to move back (it doesn't). I tend to get too far out over the trail foot in the backswing with long clubs, which I can save with driver since ball is up on a tee but which causes major issues with fairway woods off the deck. The feeling I want to have is that at P3 I'm as far out right as I will be--probably 75-80% of my weight in the middle of my trail foot. From there I feel like arms lift up, the hips move toward the target and at P4 I am fully coiled but weight 50/50. Do you feel like during the backswing you're starting to re-center your weight before the backswing ends? Or is 100% of your weight on your back foot at the top of the backswing? 

Edited February 2 by ac6

[MonteScheinblum]

A lot of good advice given.  Don’t think I saw anything that wouldn't be helpful…….however, you have to choose the correct one/two that address why you hit up too much.  If you choose the wrong one you could really screw things up.

 

Here’s a hypothetical.

 

You drop the right shoulder and hit up too much because the shaft is too vertical in transition.  If you keep the right shoulder high, which can be excellent advice very often, you’d be level AoA and hit it horribly. .  

[jj9000]

We're about 15 to 20 responses in and I'm really disappointed in you guys.

 

The obvious answer here is to buy a lower lofted Driver.

 

Come on guys...do better!!

[iacas]

5 minutes ago, jj9000 said:

We're about 15 to 20 responses in and I'm really disappointed in you guys.

 

The obvious answer here is to buy a lower lofted Driver.

 

Come on guys...do better!!

 

I'm still trying to figure out how he hits it anywhere with a spin loft of about 2°.

[Valtiel]

4 hours ago, getitdaily said:

My suggestion is to not tee it up at all...go to an over exaggeration. Driver off the deck and take a divot...

 

 

 

Sergio showing us all the correct way to use the bounce with the driver. 

[PuffyC]

I'd first start by doing something simple and move the ball back in your stance. Just play around with it and see how it affects your numbers and ball flight. With that high of an AoA, if you tee it down you're going to start catching everything off the bottom of the club face (which I'd bet you're doing already) causing your spin numbers to skyrocket and killing your distance. If the ball is in the right position but you're AoA is still too high, my next guess is you're staying back on your trailing foot and not shifting your weight. YouTube has some great drills on that, you'll just need to watch a few and see which ones click. If your ball position is right and you're shifting your weight, it's almost impossible to hit up 8*. 

[rusty_Wedge]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.  I went to the Trackman studio last night and my driver started working again with less drastic AoA.  Here is what I did:

 

-Lowered my tee height.  Nothing drastic like driver off the deck but I just used a #5 instead of the #6 of those indoor plastic tees I'm sure you all have used before.

 

-Placed an alignment stick perpendicular to my ball and target.  Again, nothing drastic like moving it way back in my stance but lined it up just inside my heel like my instructor showed me in the past. 

 

-Focused on proper weight shift toward my lead side and not hanging back.

 

That is all it took to lower that AoA and get my spin loft up to where my ball flight was good again.  Crazy what happens when you go back to basics.

[chollier986]

4 hours ago, rusty_Wedge said:

Thanks for the replies, everyone.  I went to the Trackman studio last night and my driver started working again with less drastic AoA.  Here is what I did:

 

-Lowered my tee height.  Nothing drastic like driver off the deck but I just used a #5 instead of the #6 of those indoor plastic tees I'm sure you all have used before.

 

-Placed an alignment stick perpendicular to my ball and target.  Again, nothing drastic like moving it way back in my stance but lined it up just inside my heel like my instructor showed me in the past. 

 

-Focused on proper weight shift toward my lead side and not hanging back.

 

That is all it took to lower that AoA and get my spin loft up to where my ball flight was good again.  Crazy what happens when you go back to basics.

Jumping over from my duplicated thread.  Thanks for posting your feedback.  I’m 99% sure mine is driven by lack of weight shift and hanging back.  When I move the ball back in my stance, it just makes it worse.

 

 

[rusty_Wedge]

29 minutes ago, chollier986 said:

Jumping over from my duplicated thread.  Thanks for posting your feedback.  I’m 99% sure mine is driven by lack of weight shift and hanging back.  When I move the ball back in my stance, it just makes it worse.

 

 

You're welcome. I didn't move it back intentionally per se, just made sure it was in the right spot with the alignment stick.  I suspect it had moved up in my positioning and I didn't notice because I haven't been using alignment sticks while hitting indoors this winter.  Normally on the range I use alignment sticks religiously.