Swing Plane

In this post I have revised the instruction and information to correlate with great insight from Jeff Mann and his website http://perfectgolfswingreview.net/index.html.  I highly recommend visiting his website and reading his insightful and intriguing articles on the biomechanics of the golf swing and debunking myths that many golfers and swing instructors abide by.  There is no point in trying to rewrite his material because it is already excellent work.  I do find his writing to be intense to read and digest thoroughly, so I hope to quote and paraphrase his work in order to help me and others to understand more simply.

Swing Plane:
Swing plane has been a commonly misused term in golf ever since Ben Hogan emphasized it in his book, Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf.

Many golfers have thought that the glass plane that Ben Hogan is depicted to have resting on his shoulders is the one and only swing plane that the clubshaft should track down in the swing.  "However this idea is incorrect and it doesn't represent what Ben Hogan was referring to with his plane of glass, which was in fact his left arm. In his book [1], he stated that a golfer should perform a backswing action that would keep the left arm below the glass plane throughout the entire backswing, and he didn't want the left arm to break through the glass pane during the backswing. In other words, Ben Hogan wanted golfers to avoid a steep left arm movement during the backswing, and he believed that the left arm should get across the shoulder turn angle at the end of the backswing, and that the hands should end up in a position behind the right shoulder. Ben Hogan didn't want golfers to get their hands above the right shoulder and close to the back of the neck as a result of a too-steep arm lifting movement. Ben Hogan stated that one should feel the back of the left forearm brush against the undersurface of the imaginary glass pane in the late backswing as the arms finally reach their end-backswing position" (Mann).


"Many beginner golfers, who look at this diagram, may think that they should swing their clubshaft along this plane during the backswing and downswing. There are two major problems with this swing thought:

1. it is physically/biomechanically impossible to swing the club back on that shallow clubshaft-at-address plane during the entire backswing - unless one has a very short backswing that doesn't go higher than waist level 
2. virtually all professional golfers swing their clubshaft on a slightly steeper plane during the upper half of the backswing/downswing.

A beginner golfer should therefore understand the concept of a plane as being equivalent to a straight glass pane where the base of the glass plane lies on the ground - like a sheet of glass pane being placed on the ball-target line so that the base of of the glass pane lies along the length of the ball-target line. The glass pane can then be lowered, or elevated, to lie at a certain angle relative to the ground.

To understand some common planes that are frequently used to describe the clubshaft plane when the golfer is at address, or at impact, see the following photo-diagram.

Clubshaft planes - using Aaron Baddeley as a model golfer

Note that I have drawn three plane lines - the hand plane, the elbow plane and the right shoulder plane (RSP).

• The hand plane is essentially the clubshaft-at-address plane (image 1). A line is drawn along the length of the clubshaft at address and extended through the hands. This line often hits the golfer's body at the level of the belt buckle and exits the back just above the pelvis.
• The elbow plane is a line drawn from the ball through the right elbow (image 1). Note that the elbow plane line usually exits the back at the level of the mid-back. 
• The Turned Shoulder Plane (TSP) is a line drawn from the ball to the right shoulder at the end-backswing position (image 2). 

****Many professional golfers shift their hands from the hand plane to the right shoulder plane during the backswing and this represents a plane shift swing.**** 

This is the most frequent type of plane shift seen in professional golfers: 

Backswing

hand plane => TSP 

Downswing

TSP => elbow plane 

I have found that this plane shift really does breed consistency.  Whenever I have had my hands to high (so above the TSP at the end of the backswing) I have had a hard time hitting the ball straight, and I usually end up with a push fade.  I believe that that ball flight happened because once my hands were that high, it was difficult to bring them back down into impact without having to swing across the ball.   

• There is no standard rule defining the degree of plane shift that should occur during the backswing or downswing, and it depends on many factors eg. body shape/size, degree of bent-over spine angle, arm length, body flexibility and swing style pattern. 
• In general, a beginner golfer should minimize the degree of plane shift if he wants to develop a more consistent swing that follows the same general downswing path from swing-to-swing. 
• The idea of swinging along a "single" swing plane has very little utility in a "real world" golf swing and I think that beginner golfer should adopt a different approach when thinking of swinging "on plane" during the backswing and downswing. 
• A beginner golfer must first accept the reality that it is biomechanically natural/comfortable to shift planes during the downswing swing action and he must think of the optimum method of getting his hands from point A to point B in the downswing. 
• I think that both Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan (see their swings below) are excellent role models for a beginner golfer, and a beginner golfer needs to consider how to accurately mimic their swing plane shifts. I will now describe a more practical way of thinking about how to be "on plane" during the backswing and downswing.

A practical method of learning how to swing "on plane"

Note that I placed the phrase "on plane" between inverted commas - the reason is that I am going to use the term being "on plane" in a specific way that has no necessary connection with any single plane line previously described (hand plane line, elbow plane line, TSP line). I think that it is very helpful if a beginner golfer first thinks of being "on plane" according to Homer Kelley's plane theory of being "on plane".

Homer Kelley stated in his TGM book [5] that a clubshaft is "on plane" when the peripheral end of the club (the end of the clubshaft nearest the ground) always points at the baseline of the inclined plane whenever the clubshaft is not parallel to the ground and parallel to the baseline of the inclined plane - at all time-points during the swing. Usually, the baseline of the inclined plane is situated on the ball-target line (when the golfer is aligned square to the ball-target line).

Anthony Kim swinging "on plane" - capture images from a swing video  

Image 1 shows Anthony Kim at the end-backswing position. At this point, his clubshaft is parallel to the ground, and parallel to the baseline of the inclined plane, which is situated on the ball-target line. Because of the imperfect camera angle, you should realize that the ball-target line (and base of the inclined plane) is parallel to his toe line, but at a slight angle to the vertical edge of the photographic image. During his downswing, Anthony Kim's clubshaft is only parallel to the ground and parallel to the baseline of the inclined plane, at one position - image 5. At all other time-points during the downswing, the peripheral end of his clubshaft (end of the clubshaft nearest the ground) is pointing at the ball-target line (or an extension of the ball-target line - as seen in image 2 if you use your imagination to mentally envisage where the dotted yellow line drawn from the butt end of the clubshaft will hit the ground). 

That means that Anthony Kim's clubshaft is always "on plane" during the downswing - even though the clubshaft is constantly changing planes during its downswing travel (from the turned shoulder plane at the end-backswing position [image 1] to the elbow plane at impact [image7]). While his clubshaft is changing planes during the downswing - going from the turned shoulder plane (at the end-backswing) to the elbow plane (at impact) - the clubshaft is moving progessively along a shallower inclined plane angle relative to the ground. Therefore, the concept of being "on plane" incorporates the progressively shallowing clubshaft movement that usually occurs as the clubshaft shifts planes during the downswing.

Stance at Address

"Most professional golfers usually stand like Aaron Baddeley at address - they let their arms hang down naturally (near-vertically) from their shoulder sockets so that the hands are under their chin, and they do not extend their arms outwards like Moe Norman (see below) thereby creating a near-straight line relationship between the left forearm and the clubshaft. Here is an example of another professional golfer adopting a traditional/conventional address hand position.

Luke Donald at address - capture image from a swing video

Note that Luke Donald lets his upper arms hang down vertically from the shoulders and his hands are below his chin 

1. usually just in front of the chin when hitting a driver
2. just below the chin when hitting mid-irons
3. just inside the chin when hitting short-irons 

• Note the angle between the forearms and the clubshaft (red lines) - it's not a straight line. 
• Note that the hand plane line (yellow dotted line) passes through his belt buckle. 

The reason why most professional golfers adopt that type of hand position is that it allows the wrists to hinge/cock easily, and biomechanically naturally, during the backswing. It is biomechanically more difficult for the wrists to hinge/cock easily during the backswing if the arms are stretched out at address and the arms/clubshaft form a straight line" (Mann).

There is a large variation in the degree of plane shift among professional golfers. Consider an example of two professional golfers.

Comparison between Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan - capture images from swing videos

The green line represents the elbow plane line drawn at address (and not impact) and the red line represents the TSP line. I have not drawn the hand plane line (which is a line drawn from the ball through the clubshaft-at-address and that line usually points at the belt buckle) in this composite photo. 

Note that Arnold Palmer has a steep shoulder turn in the backswing and he gets his left arm and hands to nearly lie along the TSP line at the end-backswing position. He then drops his hands down to the elbow plane during the downswing. 

By contrast, Ben Hogan turns his shoulders along a less steep turn angle during the backswing and his left arm is more horizontal to the ground than the TSP line at the end-backswing position. His hands are below the TSP line at the end-backswing position. Note that Ben Hogan drops his hands/clubshaft below the elbow plane line during the downswing and his hands/clubshaft are close to the hand plane line (clubshaft-at-address plane line) at impact. 

The angular difference between point A (hand position at the end-backswing) and point B (hand position at impact) represents the degree of downswing planar shift. Both golfers (Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan) have very little plane shift (in terms of angular difference between point A and point B) during the downswing, but there is obviously still a plane shift.

Theoretically, it is geometrically possible to have a zero-plane shift swing where the hands/clubshaft stay on the same plane during the entire backswing/downswing. For example, if a golfer placed his hands/clubshaft on the TSP line at address and then took his hands up the TSP line during the backswing, and then down the TSP line during the downswing, that would represent a zero-shift swing. However, I have only seen one professional golfer use a near zero-plane shift swing - and that golfer is the late Moe Norman (who has the reputation of being a straightest driver of a golf ball in the history of the game).

Moe Norman's zero-shift swing - capture images from a swing video

Note that Moe Norman bends a lot at the level of the hips at address, and that he has significantly outstretched arms. The green line represents the clubshaft-at-address plane and that planar line passes through his mid-back - it is therefore higher than the hand plane (which usually passes through the belt buckle) and it is closer to the elbow plane. Moe Norman has a short backswing action, and the composite image (image 4) shows that his clubshaft stays on that same clubshaft-at-address plane during the backswing. If I plotted the clubshaft movement during the downswing, it would nearly be a duplicate (mirror image) of his backswing clubshaft movement - it would track down that same green line. Moe Norman therefore has close to a zero-plane shift swing, where his clubshaft always moves on a single plane.

Most professional golfers usually stand like Aaron Baddeley at address - they let their arms hang down naturally (near-vertically) from their shoulder sockets so that the hands are under their chin, and they do not extend their arms outwards (like Moe Norman) thereby creating a near-straight line relationship between the left forearm and the clubshaft. Here is an example of another professional golfer adopting a traditional/conventional address hand position" (Mann).

Conclusion

Hopefully now you have a fairly solid understanding of what "planes" are and how a good swing functions in relationship to these "planes," notably: the hand plane, the right elbow plane, and the turned shoulder plane (TSP).  From here I will break up this post into another post on acquiring an "on plane" swing.

Drill 1:

Set up into a golf shot, then grip down to about the hosel of the golf club, and rest the shaft against your left side.  Focus on pointing the shaft of the club towards the target line/ towards the ball on the backswing, downswing and follow through (also see takeaway drill).

Credit to:
Jeff Mann  http://perfectgolfswingreview.net/swingplane.htm