I read an article about attack angle last week. This one spoke specifically about Attack Angle with the driver. If you’ve read this section before, you must know my feelings on Attack Angle – specifically, that it is the key to unlocking distance after ball speed. Attack angle will actually have a direct influence on Ball Speed – As Attack Angle goes up in the positive direction, ball speed will also go up with the same swing speed and vice versa if Attack Angle goes down. Impact gets very “flush”, so Smash factor increases (meaning ball speeds increased). Typically, most things written about attack angle is done at the tour swing speed or ball speed level. This leaves a fitter to guess or figure it out with everyone else. I fit 1000 players per year. I have a good feeling of where the optimal launch and spin should be for roughly any player – or so I thought. If you fit a dozen people in a season, discussing attack angle during that fitting might make you uncomfortable, and with good reason. Let’s dive deeper into this world for ALL swing speeds.

First, a recap. Attack Angle is primarily influenced by the path of the club head, and it measures the up or down movement of the club head at maximum compression. A flatter swing plane will produce a higher Angle of Attack, while a steeper plane will produce a lower Angle of Attack. We all chase a positive attack angle – one where we hit up on the ball with the driver, right? The average Angle of Attack on the PGA Tour is -1.5*. That’s weird… So Tour players hit down on the ball with the driver?? Interesting. Not all, but many do.

Understanding a little further, ball flight laws determine, for a given loft and attack angle at impact, what the launch angle will be for the resulting shot (assuming the shaft has no bearing on the club head, which it will). Put simply, loft of the head, plus the added or lost angle the head is travelling at impact will show the launch angle of the resulting shot. The reality is the launch angle will be determined partly by the swing (including the loft of the head and the physics exerted on the shaft) (about 80-85%), and partly by the Angle of Attack (about 15-20%).

Here’s a little fun. This article was written by an OEM. They started with a tour player, and said the optimal average launch angle for this tour caliber player is 17* with a -1.5* attack angle. This is based on about 1700 RPM of spin. They stated this wasn’t practical for several reasons – that little spin with a negative attack angle is not attainable, and a 17* launch angle with a negative attack angle would mean a 20*+ driver head. This much loft would reduce ball speed, increase spin, and lose major amounts of distance – basically, optimal is not attainable. To learn this how this really works, we have to play a little “if, then”. If the spin is this, then the launch needs to be this. If the angle of attack is this, then the launch and spin need to be this and that. Ready to play?

Let’s start in the middle. Your 130 MPH Ball speed, regular flex driver guy. With an attack Angle of 0*, his optimal launch is 14.1*, with 2600 spin. We probably could have figured that out based on what we see during any fitting with a player of this type. What if his Attack angle goes to +2*? His optimal launch goes to 15.3*, and spin drops to 2450. How about -2* AoA at 130 MPH Ball speed? Optimal launch goes to 12.8*, and spin increases to 2750. At -4* AoA, 11.7* Launch, and 2950 Spin, While at +4* AoA, 16.6* Launch and 2300 Spin. These are optimal figures, but do you see what is happening? As the player swings more upward on the ball, it launches higher, and less spin is required to keep it in the air. Lower has the opposite effect. Peak height for this player is 1ft./ 1 MPH of clubhead speed. In our case above, 130 ball speed assuming 1.50 smash factor is 87 MPH Club Head Speed – so an 87 foot high Apex. Your Summary:

For every degree Attack Angle changes (up or down), optimal launch angle will change by a little less than a degree, and spin will change by about 75 rpm. If a player HITS it in the air, less spin is required to KEEP it in the air. If a player doesn’t hit it in the air (read: hits it lower), more spin is needed to get the ball up to it’s optimal flight and keep it there.

Be careful not to fall into a trap here. A hook flight will have less spin and lower launch, while a slice will have the opposite. Take that into account as you look at the launch monitor data and adjust for what “perfect” would be had it been a square face and path at impact. Also, changing the driver shaft in the fitting can have a significant influence on the trajectory of a shot. keep that in mind as well. As yourself why am I seeing these numbers? Is it the loft of the head, the face and path, of the action of the shaft. For most swings, it’s ALL of them.

If the shot you are analyzing is form our 130 ball speed guy above, and it’s a fade with an right face and a left path, using a higher torque shaft on a 10.5* head, and the result is 16* launch, 3000 spin, 0* Attack Angle – is the result terrible? Ball speed dropped to 122 because of the bad impact. It carried 182. Our optimal is 200 – you’re only 20 yards from his potential… At first glance, YES, it looks awful. But, if you take the fade flight and say OK, maybe that’s 300 RPM and 1*, that gets us to 15* Launch & 2700 Spin. Maybe a 9* head or a little more stable (less torque) shaft will do the trick. Bottom line is we’re close.

As swing speeds slow to about 100 MPH Ball Speed, these numbers move to more like 1/2* and 50 RPM. As they increase to say 150 MPH Ball Speed or above, the numbers don’t deviate from this rule of thumb too much. In other words, once the player hits the ball hard enough to create strong launch conditions (call it 120 MPH Ball Speed and above), normal conditions will apply. As speeds slow, the optimal window gets smaller.

So what are the optimal numbers??

These are all at 0* Attack Angles:

60 MPH Club/ 90 MPH Ball speed (Ladies) 18* Launch, 2350 Spin (116 Carry, 40 feet high)

73 MPH Club/ 110 MPH Ball Speed (Men’s Senior) 15.9* Launch, 2550 Spin (159 carry, 57 feet high)

87 MPH Club/ 130 MPH Ball Speed (Men’s Regular) 14.1* Launch, 2600 Spin (200 Carry, 73 feet high

100 MPH Club/ 150 MPH Ball Speed (Men’s Stiff) 12.4* Launch, 2600 Spin (240 Carry, 86 feet high)

113 MPH Club/ 170 MPH Ball Speed (Men’s X Stiff) 11* Launch, 2550 Spin (277 Carry, 97 feet high)

If we go off the chart, how many guys do we see with 140 MPH Ball Speeds, 13* launch and 2500 spin hit it 220 carry? A lot, right? THIS is their optimal. THIS is their potential. Understanding and managing these expectations helps the fitting process. What if we take our 140 MPH Ball Speed player and get him to +2* Attack angle? His Optimal Launch increases to 14.5*, and his optimal spin decreases to 2400. He’ll gain a couple yards. What if he falls to -2*? Oops. 12*, 2800. He’ll lose a few. A few?? But I thought Attack angle made a big deal on distance. If this 140 MPH player can go from -4* AoA to +4* AoA with no change in Club head speed, but maintains optimal launch results in both cases, he’ll gain 13 yards of carry. In all likelihood, other parameters will be out of whack on -4* AoA swing, so the results will not be optimal, and the gain will be much bigger.

Interestingly, if we look at Tour averages, they average 10.9* launch angle and 2689 Spin, based on a 113 MPH Club head speed and a -1.5* Attack Angle. Most people would think the spin number would be lower for a tour player.

As I read, I can’t help but wonder… Are we chasing spin numbers that are too low and perhaps launch angle numbers that are too high? Lower launch and higher spin numbers may not be the worst thing… If you save the numbers above for reference, it’ll give you a good starting point for any player.

I hope this helps. Happy Fitting. Adapt, Learn, and Grow.