It is time for another golf lesson!!! But first, as a side note, I hope that you all find this blog to be interesting, and I sincerely hope that my golf lessons will guide you on your journey in becoming a better golfer! I hope that you will take what you learn in my golf lesson blog posts and bring them to the practice range. In order to advance your skill level as a golfer, it is so important to be practicing the RIGHT techniques, and I am confident that the material you find in this blog will help you lower strokes, and help you to become a much better golfer!
In this weeks lesson, I will talk about the proper swing plane, which is an extremely important swing topic that every golfer must truly understand. Many amateur golfers struggle with keeping the ball in play, and much of this has to do with the swing plane. If you struggle with the dreaded "slice" or "snap hook," this lesson is meant for you! Enjoy!
"Swing plane" is defined as, "An imaginary surface that describes the path and angle of the club during the swing." This may all seem like gibberish, so simply put,the "swing plane" is the path that you take to swing the club. It is so essential in the entirety of the golf swing because in almost every occasion, the swing plane effects the direction and the overall outcome of the golf shot.
I started working with my newest student, Steve, about 3 weeks ago. Steve and I have been working very hard at manipulating his swing from the traditional "Over-the-top" swing (which 9 time out of 10 will produce a "slice") to a more effective "inside to outside" swing. Thankfully, Steve is so passionate about the game of golf, and is an extremely quick learner and hard worker, and we have already seen tremendous improvements through just 3 lessons! Below is a video of Steve's swing as of the 3rd lesson:
Although the video speed is very fast, you will notice that Steve comes "over the top" on his downswing. So, let's get down to business! The first thing that Steve and I had to work on was his takeaway, i.e. beginning of his back swing. Here is a picture that will help describe this:
First of all, Steve has GREAT posture here - you can see that his back is angled straight and he is not hunched over - this is ideal. Now, you will notice the red, yellow, and white lines that I have drawn into the picture. The white line represents the ball line, and this is important to visualize because many amateur golfers either take the club back outside the ball line, or too far inside the ball line. The red line represents a club path that would be taken back too far inside the ball line. Our ideal takeaway is represented by the yellow line, in which Steve has performed perfectly. Essentially, we are trying to get Steve to take the club back on the yellow line, and get him on a proper plane from there. Now that we understand the proper take away, let's talk about the swing path, which is shown in the pictures below:
BACK SWING
DOWN SWING
The picture on the left shows Steve's swing path on his back swing, which is what we have spent a lot of time working on up until this point. You will notice that not only are his arms and hands taking the club back on an ideal plane (represented by the white line), but the shaft of his club is also on that same line. THIS IS PERFECT, AND AS A GOLF INSTRUCTOR, I AM SO IMPRESSED THAT STEVE HAS PICKED THIS UP SO QUICKLY (STEVE, YOU ARE ALMOST THERE BUDDY!)! Steve's swing plane on his back swing is perfect, but where Steve get's himself into some trouble is on his down swing, which is shown in the picture on the right. As you can see, Steve has now gone from his ideal swing plane (represented by the blue line), and is now "over the top" of that blue line (represented by the red line). The result of Steve coming over the top and now on the path of the red line is that the club will now come from outside of the ball line to the inside of the ball line, ultimately causing him to "slice" the ball, hitting a shot that starts left of his target and spins to the right.
Yes, Slicers, this is why you slice the ball!!!
Now, what should a proper swing plane look like, and how do we get the proper swing plane? Below is a picture of an unknown golfer that has an effective swing plane throughout the entire swing:
As you can see in the picture, the golfer has taken the club back (backswing) on an ideal plane, and has stayed on that same plane (including his shaft) all the way through impact. Ideally, we want to see Steve get his downswing on the same plane as his backswing, OR have his down swing come inside the plane line, NOT over the top of it. Now, the best way to achieve this is to just simply break your swing down slowly when you are practicing, and force yourself to bring the club back inside this imaginary line. I want you to imagine these lines when you are practicing, and do your best to stay inside the line on your downswing. ***It is always helpful to stop yourself at the top of your swing, check where you are, then try bring the club back inside the line***
To finish, Steve had asked me towards the end of our last lesson which professional golfer I felt had the best swing. This is always a difficult question to answer because there isn't really a "perfect" swing. Each and every pro golfer has his OWN swing, and with tons of practice they have been able to make it effective. You should have this same philosophy as a golfer- that even if you may not have the "prettiest" or "perfect" swing, as long as it is effective and you continue to repeat the same effective swing, you WILL see improved results! BUT, for the sake of answering Steve's question, in my opinion, professional golfer, Adam Scott, has one of the most fundamentally sound, effective swing's in professional golf today. I have provided a link to a slow motion video of his swing below:
(While watching this video, refer back to the swing plane thoughts that we have discussed in this weeks lesson, and see how well Adam Scott does this!)
TAKE THE THINGS YOU HAVE LEARNED IN THIS LESSON AND PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE! Also, if there is a part of your game that you would like me to discuss in a future lesson, please feel free to tell me in the comment section of my blog, and I will do my best at incorporating it into a future lesson blog!
Til' next time,
The Golf Guy
P.S. I'd like to thank Steve for allowing me to use his swing as an example for this lesson, and more importantly, I'd like to thank him for all of the hard work, commitment, and passion that he has put into each and every lesson! You'll be beating up on the guys in your league on the course in no time!
Great breakdown of the swing!
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