Golf impacts - Slow motion video

Best viewed in high quality

A sequence of high speed videos recorded by the Biomechanics team at Manchester Metropolitan University to demonstrate the impact between club and ball.

Frame rate: 12,000 frames/second

Sequence order:

Sand wedge
9 Iron
7 Iron
5 Iron
3 Iron
Driver
Putter

Cameras: Photron Fastcam

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• sport
• golf
• high
• speed
• slow
• motion
• impact
• biomechanics

[BourneAccident]

tomloia... good point about the milled faces promoting top spin. I know a Hall of Fame golfer who breaks his wrists upward during contact to impart topspin. He makes an "extra" effort to keep the ball tracking instead of sliding or bouncing. He makes a slight forward press, takes the putter back with arms and shoulders all in one piece, then at the moment of impact, his wrists break upward. It's very old style putting, but effective for him.

[tomloia]

Interesting isnt it how on the putter the ball doesnt bite off the putter face causing topspin. That's why putters such as scottie camerons have a milled face to promote topspin as soon as contact is made with the ball

[whowd]

That looks like a Ping 60BZ putter.

[Brbolj]

because it is actually flying

[insanitystudio]

pause at 0:44

deformation

[kbakken1]

keestelpro:

You may have found this out already, but there is a reason for teeing it up high. The driver is the only shot where you hit the ball on the upswing. Your swing should bottom out before the ball and catch the ball when going back up.

All other shots in golf are actually hit on the downswing compressing the ball, and taking the divot after.

[webermp]

every club imparts some back spin onto the golf ball. The putter, being the least lofted club in your bag, gives the least amount, so for the split second the ball is in the air, the ball just travels straight. It isn't until the ball touches the ground that it starts to roll.

[colozat]

the ball is not sliding, it's flying, cuz when u hit the ball with a putter it doesn't roll immediately it hangs a fraction of a second in the air, but in real time vision u can't notice that.

[brittlethings]

how come the ball after being hit by the putter, seems to slide rather than roll

[keestelpro]

I think a lot of golfers place their ball too heigh on the tee. In this video the ball is hit perfectly with the driver but I still think it's safer to put the tee just a tiny little bit deeper in the ground so the ball meets the driver face perfectly in the centre.

Thanks for these great posts Biomechanics!