Learn and Enhance Swing Plane
What is it?
Making an effective swing plane is allowing the body to swing the club around itself naturally. I like to use the phrase ?swing plate?. If you imagine the circular measurements of a dish or plate it is very easy to see that our golf club can travel on one level completely around us. Imagine a polo player swinging the club to hit the ball in this picture below. What would happen if the player swung off-plate? The poor horse would get knocked out!
The swing plane is illustrated here with a dotted line representing the path the club will travel around the body. Mobility joints like the shoulders and wrists, are the two key manipulators here while in motion. If these joints are flexible and can move with ease the club should travel on the circular plate. Think of these joints as swivels on a door hinge, if they are stiff or tight the door will not open without force or manipulation.
Enhance Swing Plane Full Swing
How?
Take a hanger and place the pant-fold side laying across and down the rubber end of the grip. As shown in the picture above, Mike Breed from the Golf Channel demonstrates that the hanger is held to illustrate the plate in your hands. Remember the plate is the flat imaginary surface that wraps around our body to which the golf club should travel on for a natural golf swing. While holding the hanger with the longer pant-fold side, make a back swing to see and feel the plane of the golf swing. At the top of the upswing your hanger should be level with your forearms pointing at about a 45 degree angle. If you see the hanger coming out of your left forearm, then you are on plate, if you cannot then your wrists or shoulders are manipulating the angle of your plate. Notice the picture below, the gentleman?s top of the up-swing with a proper turn of the arms hands and club on the plate. The view of the right swing is an illustration for the mobility joints of the shoulders and wrists manipulating the club?s path on the plate, which in turn causes injuries and poor consistency due to the unnatural state of the plate.
Learn about the swing plane-Chip Shot
Why?
Chip shots are close range shots that are taken around the green. There are many different trajectories the ball can fly to the hole from this distance, however all of the shots must have a club path that remains on the railroad track. This is called bringing the club straight back and through the ball. The clubface must maintain the same angle the entire length of the swing to achieve higher consistency of your intention. This allows the clubface to remain square and the ball have a centeredness of contact.
How?
Step 1. Achieve a comfortable set-up for a chip shot by placing the club face at the ball with an open half-width stance.
Step 2. Take a small step towards the target with the target closest foot. See picture here for a righty. Notice the arms and club are extended in a lower-case ?y? position.
Step 3. Maintain this position straight back and through down the railroad tracks towards your intended target. See the picture here for a lefty.
