The Truth About Swing Plane

December 23, 2007

Are you a one-plane golfer or a two-plane golfer? Are you sure?

In reality, there are so many different versions of what people consider one plane and two plane golf swings that it is impossible to give any comparable answer at all.

So here’s the truth about swing plane.

When we talk about swing plane, we are talking about the path of the club head. The arms, hands, shaft, and shoulders do not matter, because they do not hit the ball. Of course, the arms, hands, and shoulders are the only thing that we can control directly, and only indirectly can we control the path of the club head through the control of our arms, hands, and shoulders. This is why swing plane does not matter to you.

Useful golf instruction will teach you how to control the things that you can directly control in the golf swing, i.e. things attached to your body, in a way that will cause the club head to travel through a good swing path. This is very different than teaching you how to control the club head’s swing path. It is great to know and understand the swing path that you are ultimately working towards, but it is vital that you understand that it is an effect of dynamic body motion in the golf swing, not the cause.

Looking at video and photographs are misleading, because they all show the golf swing from slightly different angles. This will make all the difference in our perception of the golf swing. However, no amount of camera manipulation could ever make two golf swings look exactly alike.

Countless PGA Tour professionals are proof that it really, truly, honestly, and in all sincerity, is true that the back swing does not matter. The down swing matters a lot, however. This is the only swing plane you should be concerned with.

When you go out on the range, try focusing on approaching the ball at different angles. Try coming in steeper, shallower, from the left, and from the right. You will quickly see that it is not difficult to control your angle of approach, when you are concentrating on it. Professionals approach the ball from all sorts of angles, resulting in various different ball flights.

If you want to get a real sense of what swing plane is all about, watch someone swing a club (without a ball!) while standing in front of them on the target line, like they would be swinging at you.

There are all sorts of ways to get the club back to the ball. The best way for you is the way that feels like instinct. Again, I cannot emphasize enough that the golf swing came before the lines on the video footage, even for Hogan.

Written by John at 11:25 am. Full Swing