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The Consistent Golf Swing Plane

  • The Consistent Golf Swing Plane

    A big tennant of the one plane golf swing is to return the golf club back to the same position it was at (in terms of the shaft plane line) at address. That's what Moe Norman and Ben Hogan did.

    But let's see how the top golfers in the world today fear as far that is concerned.

    Pictures of the top ten golfers today (12th August 2012) are below with their setup positions, compared to their impact positions.

    1. Luke Donald

    2. Tiger Woods

    3. Rory McIlroy

    4. Lee Westwood

    5. Webb Simpson

    6. Adam Scott

    7. Bubba Watson

    8. Jason Duffner

    9. Matt Kucher

    10. Justin Rose

    So 10 of the top 10 golfers in the world DO NOT return the clubface to the same plane line that they started at at address.

    Why did I show you that?

    Because I believe the plane line should be more vertical than a one plane swing, and not as vertical as a two plane swing. Somewhere in the middle. A great model I'm going to show you in a mintue for this, is Louis Oosthuizen.

    But these imact pictures begs the question... are they trying to do that?

    The answer is no!

    Because it's been proven that the golf swing is moving way too fast at impact to consciously do anything. So what is happening at impact is this...

    The forces are so great at impact that the hands are being pulled up. That's just a natural occurance of the modern, powerful golf swing.

    So that got me thinking how it would be good to swing on a plane that is similar to what happens at impact. Because you can talk all you want about one plane and two plane swings (in terms of the backswing and shoulder plane, left arm angle etc.). But at the end of the day, it's what happens at impact that matters.

    So my Consistent Golf Swing Plane theory, is to swing back so that at the half-way point in the golf swing the club shaft points down at the ball. Then at the half-way point in the downswing, the clubshaft again points at the ball. I'm now going to show you this theory in action in one of the best swings on the planet.

    Louis Oosthuizen is the 2010 Open Champion and has a golf swing that many believe is one of the best among professional golfers. So let's put my swing plane theory to the test, and I'm going to draw a line through his setup at address right through the middle of his back.

    Setup

    Half-Way Back

    Half-Way Down

    Impact

    Follow-Through

    Pretty damn good swing, with a very consistent swing plane!

     

    Louis Oosthuizen - 22 Degrees Difference

    Compare that to Moe Norman and Jim Furyk. Extremes of a one plane and two plane swing:

    Moe Norman (One Plane Swinger) - 0 Degrees Difference

    Jim Furyk (Two Plane Swinger) - 48 Degrees Difference

    And if you split the difference between those extremes you get 24 degrees. Louis Oosthuizen at 22 Degrees Difference is almost bang in the middle.

     

    Having a consistent golf swing plane will help you to hit straigther, longer and more consistent golf shots. So if you lack consistency in your ball striking, working on making your golf swing plane more consistent can only aid you in improving your ball striking consistency.

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