One Plane Swing

My pro instructor at PGA Store taught me the fundamentals on this swing by accident. He said he did not believe in 1 or 2 plane swings but taught me a good drill to "feel" a good swing instead of thinking so much about mechanics. This was the "baseball" drill where he tells me to imagine the ball is teed up to knee height and swing naturally like baseball somewhat. This gave me a good feel about weight shift and using upper body/arms together as well as maintaining or actually increasing right knee flex on backswing. Now I don't have any swing "thoughts" I just practice hitting the imaginary ball at my knees before each swing and just focus on hitting the ball solidly this way and I have had much success. I just found out this drill is a very important basic of the one-plane swing.

I tend to agree on your instructor's view. I have watched carefully the swings of Ernie Els, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh. They are said to be one plane swingers by most people. But only to a point. When they go into their downswing and drop their right elbow into their right side they are no longer on a single plane. It is impossible for them to be on the same plane they started on. Their right should has dropped and their club is laid off on a flatter plane than the one they started on. A pure one plane swing would have your backswing, downswing and follow-through exactly the same. I don't believe anyone can do that consistently, even if they tried.

What plane are you referring to when you say that it is not possible to swing on the same plane in the backswing and downswing?

I think that many golfers swing on the same plane during the backswing and downswing eg. Adam Scott - see http://jeffmann.net/AS-FivePositions.jpg

Jeff.

Regarding the Adam Scott photo.

The portion of the swing that I am referring to is that part where the right elbow has touched the right hip. Nowhere during the back swing does this occur. If your backswing and downswing were identical you would not touch your right hip at all and you would be on the same plane. This may be nit-picking somewhat. When the club drops into the "slot" on the down-swing it seems to me that the upper portion of the right shoulder drops down towards the right hip....however, on the backswing the right elbow is several inches above the hip and thus on a different plane. That's kind of how I see it. All-in-all I believe the approach that Hank Haney is teaching i.e. the one plane swing is the best way towards simplifying the golf swing. The "KISS" principle is at work by this method...Keep it Simple. IMHO the "Single" plane swing has some flaws but it comes closer to being the best way to play this game called golf. I have an old book by Carl Lohren called "The one Move to Better Golf" published by Golf Digest in 1975. It is basically descibes the "one plane" method but was not called that back in 1975. Also, in Hogan's "Five Lesson's" pages 88 and 89 describes the two swing planes as well. Just food for thought that's all. I am not trying to start an arguement. Just making a point.

I am not surprised that the right elbow doesn't track the same way in the backswing and downswing. The backswing starts from the top-down, while the downswing starts from the bottom-up (lower body first and upper body second). However, the clubshaft passes through the same points (as that Adam Scott photos demonstrates) and the clubhead path can be the same - see Aaron Baddeley's clubhead swingpath at http://jeffmann.net/AB-clubheadpath.jpg

Jeff.

cmays

I agree with the idea of simply swinging the left arm across the front of the chest in an angled swing, to a point opposite the right shoulder.

However, I think that many golfers incorrectly think that the clubhead swingpath will exactly follow the hand swingpath. In truth, the hand swingpath is much steeper than the clubhead swingpath.

See - clubhead swingpath at http://jeffmann.net/AB-clubheadpath.jpg

See - hand swingpath at http://jeffmann.net/AB-HandmovementComposite.jpg

Jeff.

hi cmays
how can the plane stay the same when you have a little movment of the hips forward to the target and the elbow of the right arm drops more to the hip, and there is a lot more weight shift to the left side too on the downswing, it may be close to a one plane swing but it cant be the same plane back and forward if you do any of the above and most pros do all of above.
i still think hogan has it right in that the plane changes on the downsing.
bill

hi cmays
i think i understand, you mean if the plane changes into a flatter plane on downswing the hands still stay in the same angle on the backswing and downswing, is that what you mean.
bill

thanks cmays
bill

I think much of the confusion is by thinking of a plane as opposed to a plane angle.

When addressing the ball the club lies on a plane between your hands and the ball, it is an angle that changes with longer and shorter clubs. If you made a backswing maintaining this angle the club would not get above waist height. To enable us to get the club up higher creating more distance in the swing we raise our arms at the end of the take away and make a 90 deg shoulder turn.

In a one plane swing the club is still raised but lies on the same plane angle as address with the left arm approx in line and covering the right shoulder. In a two plane swing the arms are raised further and create a steeper angle at the top (two planes).

We then have to drop the arms from the top in the downswing to get them back on the same plane formed at address and the end of the takeaway. From here the club is released on plane into the ball.

In the one plane swing the spine is normally bent forward further thus allowing the arms to be lower at the top.

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Best Regards
Brian

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Funny o'l game!

I find this to be pretty cool-don't know if it's been posted or not.


http://www.golfdigest.com/instructio...ingplane1.html