How to Compress the Ball

Compression, its a word that pops up within lessons regularly and rightly so, there’s isn’t many things better than striking a mid to long iron pure. But what is compression and how do we achieve it?

Compression has sometimes been misunderstood where players feel they need to hit down excessively to achieve it, and whilst hitting down is part of the equation, it doesn’t need to be excessive, for example we can compress a driver whilst hitting up on the ball!

With the help of launch monitors we can measure compression with a data point called ‘Spin Loft’. Spin loft is the angle created between the angle of attack and the dynamic loft. The smaller this angle, the higher the ball speed and the more compression, the bigger the angle the opposite is true. The more a player early releases the club the bigger the spin loft and the less compression.

The video below looks into both of these data points along with some ideas of how you can go about incorporating it into your own game to create more compression in your next practice session.