When we mention the term angle of attack, what we’re looking at is the direction from which the club head is approaching impact with the ball. This is how the club will influence where the ball will travel.
First, if we take a frontal view of the golf swing, the shape of the swing looks like a circle. Depending on where the ball is positioned and how we shift our weight, we will impact the ball somewhere in the area where the club is bottoming out. From this angle, we can strike the ball with a descending blow, which means we strike the ball before our swing his bottomed out. We can strike with more of a sweeping blow, which means we’re striking the ball as our swing is bottoming out with the club traveling more or less along the ground. Or we can strike the ball with an ascending blow, which means we are hitting the ball slightly after our swing his bottomed out and the club is just beginning to rise as it meets the ball.
When we say that the angle of attack is steep. This means that the club is coming down sharply onto the ball. When we describe the angle of attack as being shallow, the club is traveling more along the ground as it descends into impact.
If we look at the swing from down the target line, our approach to the ball also has three possibilities. The club head can approach the ball from the inside, which is from a place more around our body from our body side of the target line. We can strike the ball down the line, which means the club is traveling along the target line as it strikes the ball. And lastly, we can strike the ball from the outside, also known as over-the-top, where we make impact with the club head coming from an area outside of the target line.
With a swing that is on plane, the club will approach the ball from the inside or down the line. Depending on the shot we are playing and the club we are using, we can make exactly the same golf swing every time, but through adjusting ball position, we’ll strike with either a descending, sweeping or ascending blow.
In summary, the term angle of attack describes from where the club is coming as we approach impact with the ball. From a frontal view, the club can strike the ball in a descending, sweeping, or ascending motion. From down the line, the club can approach the ball from the inside, down the line, or from outside the target line. With a swing that is on plane, we can simply adjust ball position to alter our angle of attack for different clubs and shots.