Author: WhyGolf WhysGuy
We want to preface this guide with the acknowledgment that neither WhysGuy nor anyone from the WhyGolf team claims to know everything about the golf swing. We don’t want anyone to treat what we say here as gospel. While much of what we’ll say is a reflection of decades of dialogue with PGA instructors and players, we’re always learning and we understand that knowledge about the sport of golf will continue to evolve over time.
In this post, WhysGuy will cover:
- 5 actionable tips to help you impart more backspin on your golf ball.
- The role spin loft and dynamic loft play in learning how to put backspin on a golf ball.
1. Steepen Your Angle of Attack
To apply backspin to a golf ball, it's important to understand the role that angle of attack plays. Angle of attack is the angle at which your clubhead strikes the ball.
Typically, a steep angle of attack will generally produce more backspin than a shallower attack angle. To steepen your angle of attack, it's helpful to think about striking the ball with a descending blow rather than sweeping across it.
This can be accomplished by slightly repositioning the ball back in your stance and hinging your wrists early in the downswing to create a steep motion. It's critical to keep this motion going through impact, without flipping your wrists or lifting up on the ball. Practicing with a "strike down, not across" swing will help you develop a steeper angle of attack and more backspin on your shots. If you are having trouble flipping early with your wrists (i.e., releasing the club too quickly), consider trying out the WhyGolf ArmAlarm. The WristAlarm wrist clip attaches to your glove and will beep when you flip or cup early with your wrists.
You can find a video about WristAlarm below this blog post.
2. Pick A Lofted Club For Added Backspin
Put simply, a golf shot's spin rate is a function of its spin loft. Spin loft is the difference between the clubhead's angle of attack and its dynamic loft (the effective loft of the clubhead at impact). When we grab a more lofted club, we are effectively increasing the clubhead's dynamic loft at impact, which will in turn increase our spin loft.
To increase spin loft, steepen your attack angle and grab a more lofted club. To lower spin loft, shallow out your attack angle and grab a less lofted club. It's that easy.
3. Get Ball-First Contact
When trying to put backspin on a golf ball, it is important to hit the ball first because backspin is created by friction between the clubface and the ball. If a golfer strikes the ground first, the club will skid across the surface and less friction will be imparted on the golf ball.
4. Keep Your Grooves Clean
One of the most important factors in how to put backspin on a golf ball is having a clean clubface. The grooves on the clubface produce added friction to the ball, which produces the spin required for backspin. If the club face is dirty or covered in debris, the grooves cannot do their job effectively, resulting in less spin. This can lead to decreased accuracy and inconsistent ball flight, making achieving the desired backspin more difficult.
Keeping the club face clean allows the grooves to create maximum friction with the ball, which is necessary for generating the desired backspin. By taking the time to clean your clubs after each shot, you can improve your performance and increase your chances of easily putting backspin on the ball.
5. Swing Harder
It's a fact of nature that increasing your clubhead speed will result in more backspin. If you watch professional golfers, it's always the case that the players with the highest clubhead speeds have an easier time getting the ball up in the air and landing balls softly on the greens.
When you add clubhead speed, you're also adding additional friction between the clubhead and the ball at impact. It's quite difficult to pick up clubhead speed quickly with driver, but with the right strength and mobility workout regimen, any golfer can learn to swing the club harder.
If you want to learn how increase your clubhead speed, click here.
How to Put Backspin on a Golf Ball - Key Takeaways:
- If a golfer wants to create more backspin, they should consider steepening their angle of attack, increasing their clubhead speed, keeping their grooves clean, and ensuring that they get ball-first contact.
- If a golfer wants to learn how to put backspin on a golf ball, it's critical to understand the role spin loft plays and how to affect spin loft by adjusting your angle of attack and dynamic loft.
Explore our full suite of golf training aids here.
What is backspin?
Backspin in golf refers to the backward rotation of the golf ball as it travels through the air. This rotation produces lift and causes the ball to remain in the air for a longer period of time, resulting in longer shots and greater control over the ball's trajectory. Backspin is produced by striking the ball with a descending blow and a slightly open clubface, resulting in a high level of spin. Understanding and mastering backspin is an important part of improving your golf game because it allows you to achieve greater accuracy, distance, and control on your shots.
How do I put backspin on my golf ball?
Backspin on a golf ball can help you improve your control and accuracy on the green. Backspin is achieved by creating a high rate of spin on the ball. This is accomplished by making clean contact with the ball with a descending blow, using a high-lofted club, such as a wedge, and attacking from a shallow angle. Furthermore, having the proper clubface and clubhead speed can aid in the generation of backspin. It's critical to keep your hands ahead of the ball at impact and to keep the club's loft consistent throughout the shot. By practicing these techniques, you will be able to add backspin to your golf ball.
What role does angle of attack play in creating backspin?
The angle of attack is critical in producing backspin on a golf ball. It's the angle at which the clubhead strikes the ball in relation to the ground. A negative angle of attack, in which the clubhead approaches the ball from above, is critical for imparting backspin. This produces lift, which causes the backspin. Players should focus on making solid contact with the ball while maintaining a consistent and steep angle of attack to maximize backspin. A golfer's ability to create backspin can be improved by practicing with a good swing path and impact position.
What is spin loft in golf?
Spin loft is the angular difference between the club's angle of attack (AoA) and dynamic loft at impact that determines how much backspin is applied to the ball. Dynamic loft is the effective loft angle of your clubface at impact, when considering things like forward shaft lean. The more forward shaft lean you have at impact, the lower the spin loft. A shallow angle of attack and low dynamic loft will create lower shots with less spin, due to less spin loft.
What is dynamic loft and what role does it play in creating backspin?
As discussed, dynamic loft is the effective loft angle of your clubface at impact. It is subject to the way a golfer releases the clubhead. If you flip early with your hands in the downswing, you are effectively adding dynamic loft to your clubhead. If you drag the handle and have extreme forward shaft lean, you are effectively lowering your dynamic loft at impact.
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