Nine Ball Flights
Also known as: the nine shot shapes, ball flight chart
The nine ball flights are the classic instructional chart combining three starting directions (left, straight, right) with three curve types (draw, straight, fade/slice) to describe every possible basic shot shape.
The nine ball flights is a long-standing teaching framework that organizes every basic shot shape into a 3-by-3 grid: three possible starting directions relative to the target (left, straight, right) crossed with three possible curve behaviors (curving right/fade, staying straight, curving left/draw). The nine combinations include straightforward ones (straight ball starting at target and holding its line) and combination shapes covered elsewhere in this glossary, such as the push-draw (starts right, curves left) and the pull-fade (starts left, curves right).
The framework predates the D-Plane model of ball flight but remains useful as a descriptive vocabulary — a shared language golfers and coaches use to describe what a shot did, independent of the underlying physics explanation for why. It is worth noting that the nine ball flights describe outcomes (starting direction and curve), not causes (face angle and path); two golfers can produce the same one of the nine shapes through different combinations of face and path, since it is the face-to-path gap and the face angle relative to target that jointly produce a given result.
Golfers often use the nine ball flights chart as a self-diagnostic and goal-setting tool: identifying which of the nine shapes represents their most common miss, and which represents their intended stock shot, gives a concrete vocabulary for working with a coach or interpreting launch monitor and video feedback rather than describing shots in vague terms like "it went bad today."
Example
A player identifies their two most common outcomes as a straight-starting push (starts at target, holds straight-ish but slightly right) under pressure and a controlled draw (starts right, curves back to target) as their preferred stock shot.
Why it matters
Having a shared vocabulary for the nine possible shot shapes makes it much easier to communicate precisely about a miss or a stock shot, which speeds up diagnosis and practice planning. SwingVantage reports the underlying face angle and path numbers that determine which of the nine shapes a given swing is likely to produce.
Related terms
- Ball Flight LawsThe ball flight laws are the set of physical variables at impact — face angle, swing path, angle of attack, strike location, dynamic loft, and clubhead speed — that together determine every characteristic of a shot's flight.
- Curve Ball FlightA curve ball flight is any shot that bends noticeably left or right in the air, produced whenever the clubface angle and swing path differ enough at impact to tilt the ball's spin axis away from horizontal.
- Straight Ball FlightA straight ball flight is a shot that shows essentially no sideways curve because the clubface angle and swing path are matched closely enough at impact that the spin axis stays close to horizontal.
- Push-DrawA push-draw starts right of the target and curves back toward it, produced by an in-to-out club path with a clubface that is closed to that path but still open to the target line.
- Pull-FadeA pull-fade starts left of the target and curves back toward it (or beyond), produced by an out-to-in club path with a clubface that is open relative to that path but closed relative to the target line.
- D-PlaneThe D-Plane is the modern model explaining that a ball's initial direction is determined mostly by face angle (not path), while path relative to face determines the curve — replacing the older, oversimplified "path starts it, face curves it" idea.
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