# Cobra Bio Cell fitting experience.



## Slime (Apr 30, 2014)

The day had finally arrived and I hurried down to Hoebridge Golf Club full of eager anticipation.


  I got there early & explained to their staff that I was there for the Golf Monthly/Cobra driver fitting, at which point they gave me a voucher for 90 balls to use on their range, which was very welcome.
  I then bumped into *BTatHome* and we went to warm up. Whilst doing so we also met Golf Monthlyâ€™s Jake, cameraman Kevin and Cobraâ€™s Joe, who proceeded to set up the equipment whilst I continued hitting many & varied shots with my current driver, grateful for the fact that I was hitting the ball pretty much as I normally would ..................... Iâ€™d brought my normal swing to the fitting, and that was reassuring.

*Sawtooth* then joined the party and it was good to meet him too. 


  All too suddenly the time had arrived and I was put under Joe's spotlight!

  Joe first got me to hit some shots with my driver, a TM Burner Superfast with a regular shaft, and the results were recorded on his laptop via TrackMan. Distance was reasonable, apparently, but dispersion was not all that!
The distance I was recording with my driver was an average carry of 219yds, rolling out to 238yds.
Dispersion varied from 20yds right to 50yds left!!! 

SHOT NO   CLUB     ATTACK    BALL      LAUNCH   SPIN     CARRY   TOTAL
                SPEED   ANG.        SPEED    ANG.        RATE
                [mph]    [deg]       [mph]     [deg]        [rpm]   [yds]      [yds]

1               99.4      -2.8         134.9      9.0         3369     200.2     224.8
2               98.6      -1.4         134.3    19.3         3128     218.2     231.7
3              102.0     -4.1         148.1    13.7         4237     228.4     239.5
4               99.8      -0.8         141.8    11.6         4355     214.1     227.8
5              100.8     -2.7         138.7    13.6         3245     222.1     240.3
6               97.1      -3.8         146.5    10.6         2335     231.0     261.9
*Average    99.6     -2.6         140.7   13.0        3445     219.0    237.7

*I know ...................... but it was cold and the range balls were soft and squidgy ................. and I'm clinging to that!


  Then he put a Bio Cell in my hands, wow, what a difference it was to hold and swing! My Superfast has a long regular flex shaft with a large, ugly head on the end. The cobra was a good inch shorter, the shaft was stiffer and the head just felt heavier. The whole thing felt shorter and stubbier than the club I was used to, and I liked it ..................... it just felt more controllable ......................... I felt that I was in touch with the club head at all times, the difference was massive.
  It was like changing from Peter Crouch to Wayne Rooney. One is willowy, unpredictable and only occasionally brilliant, whereas the other is far more reliable, much more aggressive on the ball and performed better virtually all of the time.
  As a result my dispersion immediately improved and results were recorded with various loft settings. The one that seemed to work for me was the 9.5Â° of loft with a draw bias coupled with a stiff shaft as I was typically swinging at around 97mph. We tried various loft/shaft combinations but none were quite as good as that with which we started. (To confirm this we tried that set-up again and, as before, dispersion was much better and that was all I was after. *Dispersion beats distance every time for me*). 
The dispersion with that combo was from 15yds right to 20yds left with an average carry of 232yds, rolling out to 253yds. Still 150yds short of the forum average, but not bad for me!


SHOT NO   CLUB     ATTACK    BALL      LAUNCH   SPIN     CARRY   TOTAL
                SPEED   ANG.        SPEED    ANG.        RATE
                [mph]    [deg]       [mph]     [deg]        [rpm]   [yds]      [yds]

1               96.7     -2.1         143.0      15.8        3269     231.3     246.7
2               96.1     -2.1         144.5      13.6        1825     236.9     268.8
3               95.0     -4.0         142.8      14.5        3313     227.1     244.4
*Average    95.9    -2.7         143.4     14.6        2802    231.8    253.3
*
 Oh, it also makes the right noise too, just like a good woman, not too loud â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦.. but she lets you know when youâ€™ve found the sweet spot! Can I say that?



  The stiff shaft option surprised me as, when I was fitted for my Superfast, the guy at American Golf said I suited a regular shaft and the Superfast was absolutely perfect for me! Weird thing is that my Superfast was the last one they had in stock, they were also able to offer me a few Â£â€™s off and the Superfast 2 had just been released ................... weird that!
  Anyhow, after the specs were agreed I had to choose the colour, not as easy as I thought. I arrived this morning convinced that Iâ€™d go for the red, but, after far too long, I eventually went for the electric blue, which really looks gorgeous, and, after being measured for the correct size of grip, I chose red. Blue head, black & white shaft, red grip .................. perfect.

  BY now it was raining pretty constantly so we were very kindly treated to a bit of lunch before taking buggies out onto the course for a photo shoot. Jeez it was cold, but Kevin, Jake, Sawtooth and BTatHome were all good company and made the weather more than bearable.
  Photo shoot over, we made our way back, said our goodbyes and set off home.
  What a good day it was, what an interesting day it was and what a pleasure it was to meet some new faces and new friends.
  With the technology that is now available I cannot stress how invaluable a proper custom fitting can be. Today was all based on facts, facts that were produced by my own golf shots, priceless.
  Iâ€™d also stress how important it is to be fitted by a competent fitter. I got the impression that Cobraâ€™s Joe was just as enthusiastic as I was about setting me up with the best driver for me rather than the approach I feel I suffered from at American Golf where Iâ€™m sure that they fitted me for the driver that they wanted to sell!

  Try the new Cobra Bio Cell, I think youâ€™ll be pleasantly surprised.

*Slime*.

Jeez, this took longer to write than the fitting took . 
Thanks for reading, I hope you found it useful :thup:.


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## Slime (Apr 30, 2014)

I tried to edit the above but took too long and the data bits are a bit of a mess.
I'll try to sort those bits out soon.


*Slime*.


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## Andy (Apr 30, 2014)

You hit the club, got fitted via Trackman and then chose your colour.

Only then you were measured for the correct grip?


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## Slime (Apr 30, 2014)

The data table averages should look more like this :

*Burner Superfast.  Regular Flex. 10.5Âº*
Club Speed --   Attack Angle--    Ball Speed    --Launch Angle --   Spin Rate    --Carry Yds --   Total Yds
         .....99.6                      ............-2.6                         .............140.7                    .............13.0                        ...............3445                     ........219.0                            .........237.7*

Cobra Bio Cell* *Stiff Flex   9.5Âº draw bias*
Club Speed    --Attack Angle --   Ball Speed --   Launch Angle    --Spin Rate --   Carry Yds    --Total Yds
        .....95.9 ...........                     -2.7 ............                          143.4                      ..............14.6                       .............2802                       ..........231.8                           ........253.3


*Slime*.


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## Slime (Apr 30, 2014)

Andy said:



			You hit the club, got fitted via Trackman and then chose your colour.
Only then you were measured for the correct grip?
		
Click to expand...

Correct.
I'm not sure how practical it would be to have each type of shaft with every conceivable thickness of grip.


*Slime*.


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## Andy (May 1, 2014)

Slime said:



			Correct.
I'm not sure how practical it would be to have each type of shaft with every conceivable thickness of grip.


*Slime*.
		
Click to expand...

So what happens if you've got hands like shovels?


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## Slime (May 1, 2014)

Andy said:



			So what happens if you've got hands like shovels?
		
Click to expand...

I haven't, so I don't know, but I would imagine they'd possibly have some way of overcoming that problem.
Maybe they'd be able to re-grip a club on site.


*Slime*.


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## Ethan (May 1, 2014)

Slime said:



			The data table averages should look more like this :

*Burner Superfast.  Regular Flex. 10.5Âº*
Club Speed --   Attack Angle--    Ball Speed    --Launch Angle --   Spin Rate    --Carry Yds --   Total Yds
         .....99.6                      ............-2.6                         .............140.7                    .............13.0                        ...............3445                     ........219.0                            .........237.7*

Cobra Bio Cell* *Stiff Flex   9.5Âº draw bias*
Club Speed    --Attack Angle --   Ball Speed --   Launch Angle    --Spin Rate --   Carry Yds    --Total Yds
        .....95.9 ...........                     -2.7 ............                          143.4                      ..............14.6                       .............2802                       ..........231.8                           ........253.3


*Slime*.
		
Click to expand...

Nice numbers, but still a negative (downward) angle of attack. Think what you could do with a Bubba type AoA?

http://www.golfwrx.com/204527/experiment-with-your-aoa-for-more-distance/


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## BTatHome (May 1, 2014)

Ethan said:



			Nice numbers, but still a negative (downward) angle of attack. Think what you could do with a Bubba type AoA?

http://www.golfwrx.com/204527/experiment-with-your-aoa-for-more-distance/

Click to expand...

I can only dream (or spend a long time practising) to change my AoA ......


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## Slime (May 1, 2014)

Ethan said:



			Nice numbers, but still a negative (downward) angle of attack. Think what you could do with a Bubba type AoA?

http://www.golfwrx.com/204527/experiment-with-your-aoa-for-more-distance/

Click to expand...

Interesting link, thanks for that.
That's pretty much exactly what James had me working on a few months ago, (thanks again mate), it seems I'm not quite there yet but at least I feel as though I'm headed in the right direction.


*
Slime*.


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## Slime (May 2, 2014)

Ethan said:



			Nice numbers, but still a negative (downward) angle of attack. Think what you could do with a Bubba type AoA?

http://www.golfwrx.com/204527/experiment-with-your-aoa-for-more-distance/

Click to expand...


Ethan, great link ....................... I mean brilliant!
I took the information on board and re-read the advice that James kindly gave me all those months ago and toddled down to the range for a few whacks.
What a difference. I was really concentrating on trying to hit the ball on the up and the end results were superb.
Normally, the range balls would be pitching just past the 200yd marker with a very few actually reaching the net at the end, which is 225yds away.
Today I hit several that reached the net and, as is usual, a few 'proper' golf balls found their way in amongst the range balls. I had six and saved them for the end. Three actually pitched into the netting and three cleared it. Yup, at 225yds the balls were still 20ft in the air! I'm off to Spain on Tuesday and it can't come soon enough!
The Bio Cell is a beast.


*Slime*.


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## Ethan (May 2, 2014)

Slime said:



			Ethan, great link ....................... I mean brilliant!
I took the information on board and re-read the advice that James kindly gave me all those months ago and toddled down to the range for a few whacks.
What a difference. I was really concentrating on trying to hit the ball on the up and the end results were superb.
Normally, the range balls would be pitching just past the 200yd marker with a very few actually reaching the net at the end, which is 225yds away.
Today I hit several that reached the net and, as is usual, a few 'proper' golf balls found their way in amongst the range balls. I had six and saved them for the end. Three actually pitched into the netting and three cleared it. Yup, at 225yds the balls were still 20ft in the air! I'm off to Spain on Tuesday and it can't come soon enough!
The Bio Cell is a beast.


*Slime*.
		
Click to expand...

I tried it myself, using a bit more spinal tilt away from the ball and trying to stay behind it, and I have liked the results too.


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## Slime (Jun 4, 2014)

Just an recap/update for anyone interested!

Recap.
As I've probably already mentioned, I didn't go with high hopes as my driving was pretty poor and I had no confidence in my Burner Superfast.
All I wanted was a higher FIR percentage, distance was irrelevant.
Having told Cobra Joe this little nugget, he put together various loft/shaft combo's until we settled on the best one for me .................... and I think it was as important to him as it was to me! He was very thorough, thankfully.
Using Trackman was also very key, it just took out all the guess work and we were left dealing purely with facts. We all know the difference between feel & real ................... we dealt with real, which felt good!
It was a great experience and one I would definitely recommend for anyone contemplating buying a new driver!

Update.
I took it to Spain on my week's jolly with the lads.
I stood on the 10th tee on day one having already lost 5 balls off various tees. They laughed at my driver! That was bad!
I realised that, because my previous club had a longer shaft, I was standing too far from the ball at address.
I got that sorted and everything changed, well mostly anyway!
I lost a few more over the following six rounds but, looking back over the week, put MY VICTORY, in no small way, down to my driving.
When clobbered, they stayed clobbered, and we measured one drive at 320yards, allowing me to go for a par 5 in two! And that hasn't happened for over 20 years!
In a nutshell, I love it, and even when I hit it badly, it still looks gorgeous!


*Slime*.

P.S. My Montecastillo eclectic for the week was -1, chuffed to bits.


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## SVB (Jun 5, 2014)

Great review Slime and interesting thread - thanks!

Simon


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## Foxholer (Jun 5, 2014)

Ethan said:



			I tried it myself, using a bit more spinal tilt away from the ball and trying to stay behind it, and I have liked the results too.
		
Click to expand...

Getting the ball far away is no problem for you! Very impressive! 

Getting it close seems to be another matter! 

Disturbingly noisy PPs? 

:rofl:

Kings of Distance - and the earlier purchase of a Big Dog more suited to me than i had - was something of a revelation/revolution.

The numbers confirmed that what i was doing made even my wimpy 87-90mph thrash (a few mph less than 10 years ago) pretty much optimum!

I've since bought some long tees to ensure the +ve AoA (upward) stays!


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