If you are reading this article you are probably a fairly good golfer already or you are more of a “mechanic” rather than a feel player and you want to know everything there is about the golf swing in the hopes of building a solid swing. Getting right down to business there are basically two issues to look at. First, what is the proper or best golf swing plane? Second, how do you get your golf swing on plane?
Quickly for those who may be a little uncertain as to what is meant by a plane, picture a sheet of paper. When that paper is lying flat on a table it is essentially a horizontal plane. If you pick up the paper at one end and let it hang straight up and down that is a vertical plane. The plane we are talking about when it comes to the golf swing is the path traced by the golf shaft from the address position to the top of the backswing and all the way through to the finish. If this description needs more clarification let’s say for the sake of argument that the plane at address is about 45 degrees (halfway between horizontal and vertical).
Many professional golfers actually have a two plane golf swing. You may have heard announcers talking about how they re-route the club at the top of the backswing? If this is your livelihood and you can spend hours everyday working on it that is great but for the average golfer the goal should be to have a one plane golf swing. This will make it much easier to develop a repeatable and consistent swing.
Ok, so what should that swing plane be? It is not possible to describe the ideal plane as so many degrees because different height players will have different swing planes – the taller the player the more vertical or upright the swing plane. Rather every golfer as a certain spine angle when they address the ball so the ideal swing plane is best described as being perpendicular to your spine angle.
The key question then becomes how do you get your golf swing on plane? Well, you need fixed reference points to have any chance. The first is that you need to try to maintain the same spine angle throughout the entire golf swing – do not straighten-up as you make your backswing and then have to dip back down as you approach the ball. This is a mishit waiting to happen. The second piece of the puzzle is to try to swing your arms, shoulders and chest as a unit. If you stop swinging your arms as soon as your core has stopped rotating on your backswing you will eliminate the temptation to manipulate the club with your hands to get the golf shaft parallel, or create more angle or any other number of “ideal” positions.
A good way to try to get a feel for this is to try to keep your right elbow close to your side throughout the entire backswing. You can use the golf glove drill suggested in Simplify Your Golf Backswing For More Consistency to learn what this feels like. The “flying right elbow” worked fine for Jack Nicklaus but for the average golfer it can cause many headaches – and poorly struck shots!