Over the last several years, golf instruction has gone through a unique transformation. The advent of 3D motion analysis, video, and ball/club flight launch monitors have proven to golf instructors that some of the “fundamentals” we were taught by our mentors were incorrect.

With the advent of Trackman and Flightscope, advanced Doppler radar launch monitors that cost upward of $10,000, we are now able to understand what actually happens during the impact interval. This has made golf instruction much simpler as a result.

Students are now learning improved fundamental motions in their own way, while instructors are not so much focused on the complex mechanics of the swing itself. For the facilities that have a Doppler radar launch monitors, such as Promontory, our students are learning under the guise of the “in my own way,” not “ in this way” type of golf instruction.

Trackman and Flightscope provide video-based instruction coupled with the data of club and ball interaction, thus correlating exactly what is going on during the swing. Think of this new technology as providing your instructor with a MRI of your current fundamentals so you both can focus on facts, not opinions.

One of the most important things Doppler launch monitors have given us are the “new” ball flight laws. In the past, golfers were taught that the ball begins in the direction of a club’s path, and the curvature of the ball was due to the face angle at impact. Now, we know that this line of thinking is 100 percent INCORRECT.

In fact, the face angle at impact determines 75 percent or more of the ball’s starting direction, and at slower ball speeds it creeps up to almost 100 percent. This has made curving the ball much easier to understand for my students, and below are examples of this fact all backed up by the data that the my Trackman system shows for each shot.

Example 1: Hitting a Fade

In Example 1, I am hitting the ball left to right, or fading the ball for a right-handed player.

The solid white line represents my target-line (directly at the flag in the distance).

The blue line shows the path of the club (negative numbers are out to in).

The red line determines the direction that my club face was pointing during impact (negative numbers mean a closed face).

You can see by the purple line that this ball began slightly left of my target (3.5 degrees left of my target-line) and faded 34.9 feet to the right of my intended target. This proves that when the path is left of the face angle (provide a centered hit on the club face), you will hit the ball left to right. Thus, if you want to move the ball left to right (for the right-handed player), you MUST have your face open to the club’s path.

NOTE: I said that the club face must be pointing to the right of the club’s path in order to hit a fade, not open to the target line.

My path was 6.6 degrees from out to in (Example 1), my face was 2.6-degrees closed and the ball moved from left to right. Yes, it moved left to right WITH A CLOSED FACE! If my club face had been open 2.6 degrees, then the ball would have curved exaggeratedly to the right. But in this case, there was only a 4 degree path to face differential — the lower that number the less the curvature. That’s why the ball only faded a small amount to the right.

Example 2: Hitting a Draw

In Example 2, I am hitting the ball right to left, or drawing the ball for a right-handed player.

The solid white line represents my target-line (directly at the flag in the distance).

The blue line shows the path of the club (positive numbers denote from inside to the outside).

The red line determines the direction that my club face was pointing during impact (negative numbers mean a closed face).

You can see by the purple line that this ball began down the target line (launch direction is 0), while my face was 1-degree closed. These conditions started the ball at my target, and moved it right to left 55.4 feet.

As you can see in Example 2, when the path is right of the face angle at impact, you will hit the ball right to left (provide a centered hit). The ball flight began very close to the face angle as described above. Thus, if you want to move the ball right to left (for the right-handed player) you MUST have your face closed to the club’s path.

NOTE: I said closed to the relative path, NOT closed to the target line. That brings me to my next point about the shot in Example 2.

You can see that my face-to-path ratio was -6.4 degrees, which means that my club face was 6.4 degrees closed relative to my path’s direction. This is why my ball started at the target and then moved left of it instead of starting right of my target and drawing back to the target.

There is a huge misconception that you must have a closed face to draw the golf ball, when in fact all you need to do is have your club face pointed left of your path. So in Example 2, if my face was more open at impact (let’s so 1 to 3 degrees), then you would have seen the ball start to the right and curve to the target — not to the left of the target as mine did in this example.

The golf swings thoughts above might seem complex due to the numbers involved, but the bottom line for you at home is to do the following:

To Hit a Fade

In order to move the ball left to right, you will need a path that is more left than the face is pointing. So if you keep the club face pointing right of the path it will curve from left to right

To Hit a Draw

Understand that in order to move the ball right to left, you must have a path that is more “in to out” than where your club face points at impact. Another way to think of it is to have the face pointing left of your club’s path — this will allow the ball to move right to left

Read More Tom Stickney II : What Flightscope and Trackman can tell you (and me)