Reaching

Have a look at the photos at http://www.golfdigest.com/instructio...ingplane4.html

It does seem to me that the one-planer is reaching (i.e., arms not hanging naturally from the shoulders but angled out toward the ball) a bit more than the two-planer, although the two-planer seems to be reaching a bit more than I would consider kosher as well. Hardy doesn't mention this in the article, however.

Watching the Golf Channel a week or so ago, I noticed the swing of Stephanie Sparks, who was playing with the club pro at a place in Idaho. To my eye, her swing appeared to be a nearly perfect One Plane Swing, but I was struck by the extent to which she reached for the ball at address, so that there was very little angle between her arms and the club shaft.

I'm wondering how typical this reaching is of the One Plane Swing.

Note also in the pictures that the one-planer's club is not soled. The shaft is angled lower and the toe is up. Is this also part of the One Plane Swing setup? Hardy doesn't say in the article/excerpt. How could you hit with an iron this way? I think you can get away with it with a teed-up ball, but if an iron isn't soled properly I think there's likely to be trouble.

The extreme case would be Moe Norman, who took the One Plane Swing to its logical conclusion. He used a palm grip so that arms and shaft would be on the same plane as well. And he reached straight out for the ball.

So, is reaching a fundamental of the One Plane Swing or not?

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

Hi Todd,

Just my own personal opinion,

I wouldn't look at that artical ever again, you should find your natural swing, for me trying to stand furthur away from the ball, hunched over stretching and then trying to swing 'flat'.

There appears to be a total mis-conception here, yes the correct swing plane is important, however you have your own natural swing plane once you learn the correct path the club should travel the height of the plane depends on the height and build of the person swing the club.

If you are 6ft 6inches standing with you feet miles apart bent over stretching for the ball in an attempt to swing flater, sorry you would look silly.

Ian Woosnam trying to swing upright would hit ever shot fat........................enough said.

My closing comments are tall players swing upright (more two plane) and short players swing Flat (more one plane) the boys in between are in between planes.

Again this is only my own thoughts.


Ian.

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Once you learn the swing, your next step is mastering golf psychology................

My spirit guides tell me that this will likely stir up some controversy.

I'm not about to change swings now that I'm just sorta getting the hang of one. I feel off-balance when I lean over a lot, and more than that, when I swing the club with any power at all I have an irresistable tendency to pull myself up from that leaning over position, causing a skulled shot or a toe shank (or both, if that's possible!). Maybe I was doing it wrong, but I'm happy to work with a more upright plane. I'm 6'1", but unusual in that more of my height is in my torso. My trouser inseam is only 30", so I'm top-heavy. This is probably why it doesn't feel good for me to lean a lot when I swing, and why I spontaneously try to right myself.

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Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

I'll agree with Ian - out of my own experience.

When I start reaching for the ball, I end up hitting off the toe. My natural swing path is closer to my body, so reaching creates toe pulls. Just like crowding myself leaves me closer to the heel (and the hosel!), so I'll often err (when I err in this aspect) towards reaching and a toe mishit.

I agree that you shouldn't read that article because I've got the book now and it goes into much more detail and the hows/whys. For a start in the book it says to have your hands below your chin hanging naturally. It never says to reach for the ball, you have the ball further away than for a two-plane swing but that is relative to each swing type. It doesn't mean you should stand miles from the ball and reach.

You could be onto something with the height vs plane thing as I'm only 5'7 and have a naturally flat swing plane.

I did note recently that my grip had snuck around to a "stronger" position. My swing is pretty upright. Now, I can only keep so many details in mind, and I couldn't remember how the grip was supposed to be, but I made a point of turning it back, so that the back of my left hand faced the target and was parallel to the club face, and that helped quite a bit. Again, I don't know if that's the "correct" hand position, but it made a positive difference.