The Swing Plane has been one of the most misunderstood concepts in golf - no thanks to the amount of confllicting information that is widely available in media.

To understand what an on plane swing is, look at your analog clock from the side.
Tilt it 45 degrees.
Notice the perfect oscillation of the second hand.
Notice it stay parallel to the clockface unwaveringly.
Notice that it doesn't wobble.
Notice that one end of the second hand is always pointing to the base (the part that is resting on the ground)
The hub upon which the second hand is turning is your shoulder.



Through this thread, I hope to be able to share what a real swing plane.
When you understand this simple concept, no one can fool you anymore.
You will be able to look at swings and instead of just saying it is a one or two plane swing; say whether its off plane or not.

The plane concept should interest you as it has do with power in the swing. Swing off plane and you will always be struggling for distance.

For a swing to be considered "on plane":

1) The entire shaft must always be on the face of the plane throughout the swing, as demonstrated by my friend Bobby Schaeffer.


2) The second prerequisite for an on plane condition is:

One end of the shaft must always be pointing at the base of the plane (the plane line) or be parallel to it.



As we progress along the thread, we shall discuss stuff like plane angle variations.
Before anyone can jump in and say..."but we are humans and can't swing like a clock" - be patient, I will get there too.

nice diagram! it illustrates why we should target to have the deepest part of our divots infront of the ball (4inches as proclaimed by Bobby Clampett in "The Impact Zone")

Hi TGM, thanks for the write once again. But which is more important, the back swing or the down swing???

ok thanks.. but i tink you meant when your shaft is perpendicular for the impact dynamics for note 1???

Do they teach you all this in golf school? Because I feel that some of the local pros lack of such theory...

hmmm this shaft flex thing is very very interesting. most people distill it down to faster swing speed = stiffer flex (ppl like me) and flex actually has so much more impact on the swing. i'd love to delve deeper into this!

Thanks for the clip TGM. Pardon me but i couldn't see the ball. Anyway, I use to bring the club as in as you and that resulted in my shots having a lot of draw. SO got it corrected so now having straighter shots. Tats why i think the way every individual swing is very different, but also resulting in the same result.

I am confused. So if golfing MY way is the WAY, then what is all the fuss about some of these golf swing theories I am paying money to learn. Plse help before I burn a bigger hole in my pocket for no reason at all.

I think there is a lot of wrong information out there. I quit reading swing instruction 6 weeks back.