It’s time for some more golf terms for beginners. Previously, I have done editions on club anatomy, ball flight patterns, the golf course, and bad shots.

The swing itself is a fairly simple action with a LOT of complexity in the actual movements. Sometimes beginners don’t even understand what it means to stay on plane. For this installment, we’re going to take a look at the idea of swing plane and some of the concepts surrounding it.

Swing Plane

Once you understand what it is, it seems so simple. But, visualizing it is tough.

If you remember the word plane from your geometry class in school, you’ll recall that it’s simply a flat surface, like a pane of glass. In golf, we refer to plane as the flat “surface” (at address) starting from the ball and moving up through the hands and behind the player.

Here’s a photo I doctored up to show it:

The white line represents the imaginary pane of glass we’re talking about. It extends back toward the camera and forward toward the target, with the golfer standing in a hole in the center.

When we talk about an on-plane swing (or one-plane swing), we’re talking about the club, hands, and shoulders staying on or parallel to that plane throughout the swing.

Keep in mind that when the player reaches the top of the back swing (in an on-plane swing), his hands, club, shoulders, and club won’t be touching that imaginary line I drew. They will be above it, but will still all be parallel to it. This is because his arms are connected to his shoulders and the plane passes through his waist and lower back at address. What is important is the relation of hand, left arm, club, and shoulder planes to each other at that point of the swing.

(Update: when I initially wrote the paragraph above, I hadn’t read Jim Hardy’s books on the subject.  What I learned is that, in fact, the club, left arm, and shoulders will be on the same plane.  What I didn’t understand is that in the one-plane swing, the player is more bent over at address.  Therefore, the plane of the shoulders is less “flat”.)

The angle of the plane itself depends on several factors, but height and body type are two big ones. The angle of the plane with relation to the ground can vary widely between individuals and the angle captured in the image above is the plane for that specific individual. It can be a flat plane that is more close to horizontal, or it can be an upright plane that is more close to vertical.

There are a few ways to describe when the swing leaves the original plane. Above the plane simply means that the hands and club get over top of it, following a different, more upright plane, and below the plane means they got below it and follow a flatter plane that is closer to horizontal.

The term laid off is often used to describe being below the plane, where the club gets on a much flatter plane.

There are a couple schools of thought about whether the swing should be carried out on a single plane where the arms, shoulders and club stay on one plane, or if there are, in fact, two planes, where the hands and shoulders swing on different planes at the top of the swing.

For more information about picking the right set of fundamentals for your own swing, Jim Hardy covered the subject in the September 2007 issue of Golf Digest in the Breaking 100/80/90 section.

Jim Hardy is pioneer in these concepts and believes that there are two distinct sets of fundamentals for each. He believes each player is either a one-plane swinger or a two-plane swinger (with the arms and club on a more upright plane and the shoulders on a flatter plane) and that both types have different fundamentals that shouldn’t be mixed.

This is something that you should work with your pro or coach to figure out. Hardy has a book on the subject (more than one, actually). Click here for details from Amazon.com.

Hopefully that clears up the basic ideas behind swing plane. Click the glossary category for more information on terms used in golf.

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Further Reading:

Picking The Right Swing for You (GolfDigest.com)
The Plane Truth for Golfers Master Class (Amazon.com)
Jim Hardy Golf (JimHardyGolf.com)

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