The two numbers at impact

• Face angle is where the club face points at the moment of impact, compared with the target. Pointing right of the target is open, left is closed (for a right-handed golfer).
• Club path is the direction the club head is traveling at impact, compared with the target line. Moving out to the right is in-to-out, moving across to the left is out-to-in.
• Face to path is the difference between the two: where the face points compared with where the club is going.

Start: mostly the face

The ball starts close to where the face points, pushed a little toward the path. That is why a ball can start right of the target even when the swing feels like it went left: the face was open.

Curve: the face compared with the path

• Face closed to the path (pointing left of where the club is going): the ball curves left. A little is a draw; a lot is a hook.
• Face open to the path (pointing right of where the club is going): the ball curves right. A little is a fade; a lot is a slice.
• Face matching the path: no curve. The ball flies straight in the direction it started, on target or not.

The bigger the gap between face and path, the more the ball curves. A strike off the toe or the heel also bends the flight, so the same face and path can curve differently on a mishit. For a left-handed golfer, swap left and right throughout.

Common shots, decoded

Shot (right-handed)	Starts	Curves	What usually happened
Draw	Right of target	Back left	Path to the right, face a little closed to the path
Fade	Left of target	Back right	Path to the left, face a little open to the path
Slice	Left or straight	Hard right	Path well to the left, face very open to the path
Hook	Right or straight	Hard left	Path well to the right, face very closed to the path
Push	Right	Straight	Face and path both pointing right
Pull	Left	Straight	Face and path both pointing left

Seeing it in your own swing video

Video does not measure face angle or club path; a launch monitor does that, and Impact Reel does not claim to. What video does well is show you the result and the movement that caused it, swing after swing:

• Where it started and how it curved. Film down the line (how to film your swing) and add a shot tracer. The start direction and the bend are there to read against the table above.
• The path into the ball. Add the shaft start line at address, then step frame by frame through the downswing in slow motion. A club head that comes down under that line and out to the right is moving in-to-out; one that comes down over it and across is moving out-to-in.
• The face. At 240 fps, step to the frames just before and after impact to see how the face is turned. At 30 fps the face is usually a blur.
• The pattern. Star the swings that flew the way you wanted and add a note to the ones that did not. A pattern across a bucket says more than any single shot.