Swing Plane vs Path

Swing Plane vs Path 

The purpose of this post is to show that swing plane and path are not the same thing and that it is very important for the development of golf to be able to seperate the two. Ever wonder why golf tournaments mostly show shots down the line.  We don’t see many frontal or caddie views. This perspective does put the target in view which allows one to be more involved in the shot, but there might be another reason and that is we love to see the golf swing in terms of plane and not path. It is much easier to see swing plane anyway and we find this very pleasing to the eye.  That is until we encounter a Jim Furyk a John Daley or Ryan Moore. How is it that these swings work at all? Here is how:

Purpose of Swing Plane

The reason we swing the club on some wonderfully congruent plane in the backswing is to get the clubshaft at right angles to the line of the shoulders at the top of the swing, what Mike Adams, a top 50 Golf Magazine instructor, refers to as crossing the tee at the top for by doing this the cub is in position to straighten down. The reason we don’t put the club on some wonderfully congruent plane is for the same reason, to cross the tee at the top; However, these golfers will transition to this condition. All clubs complete a circle and as long as golfers adhere to this law the swing will work. This means that the club can swing back outside and shut as it will open up to square in the downswing or one can swing back inside and open as it will close back to square in the downswing. These circles are used so as to facilitate or offset what the body can and cannot do. Example: buying time, space or offsetting how the right arm folds in the backswing.

Pleasing vs. unpleasing

Some circles are closed meaning that these swings go back and down on relatively the same plane: pleasing.  Some circles are open as they go back on one plane and down on a far removed plane either above or below the original backswing plane: possibly unpleasing. Phil Mickelson has a very long backswing with a small transition for downswing: pleasing. John Daley on the other hand has a very short backswing with an incredibly long transition to setup his downswing as does Jim Furyk, Sam Snead or Ryan Moore: possibly unpleasing. All these golfers are crossing the tee at the top, some at the completion of their backswing, others at the completion of their transitions.

Downswing plane

The goal of any golf swing is to hit the ball flush at the intended target with velocity, consistency, desired shot shape and trajectory. This is achieved by swinging the club down on a desired plane and path striking the inside, back or outside of the ball. Let’s create an incline plane and have the bottom of this plane, a base line, aimed at the target. From here we will look at what happens when we swing the club down this plane to impact and beyond. At first the sweet spot of the clubface will travel from inside out and down, until it reaches the bottom of the arc, impact, where it will now travel in the direction of the target and level.  After this the sweet spot will travel left of the target and up. 

The difference between plane and path

Swing plane vs path. Path then is simply the direction that this sweet spot is traveling and requires only two points of reference: a starting point and a next point. Connect these two points with a line and you will have the direction the club is traveling on. This line of direction then can be out to the right, it can be to the left. It can be both down or up. It can be steep and it can be shallow.  And it can be combinations of these.

Plane on the other hand requires three or more points of reference. As soon as we do this we leave the two dimensional world of a line and enter the three dimensional world of height width and depth also know as the incline plane, a good reason why they are not the same thing. A plane can be easily demonstrated by holding a score card with three fingers, with each finger representing a point.

The only time plane and the path are the same is in a brief moment of singularity where they merge as one, each sharing in the responsiblity of both shot shape and trajectory know as impact. 40/1000th of a second later the club begins its path back up the incline plane to the left. With our existing incline plane impact is at the bottom of this arc and level to the ground. This means that we will be sweeping the ball and hitting it at the target as long as the clubface is square. At this time everyone could be happy. 

"Pay homage to the D plane" James Leitz

Given this existing incline plane if we want to hit down on the ball we are required a new bottom of the arc, one that is further back on the plane, where the path is directed more down. But impact is now with a sweet spot that is being directed out to the right. Solution, shift the incline plane to the left the amount necessary to achieve a moment of impact where both the face and path are at the target, Viola. This club is still working from the inside before impact and it well certainly work more to the left than the previous swing with the original incline plane. But most importantly, we can now see that by shifting the incline plane left, like this, does not put the golfer over the top! If we want to hit up on the ball, as with the driver, shift the incline plane to the right. We could say for the same but opposite reasons. 

Here is a common misconception of putting someone over the top as a result of a different type of incline change which is by steeping it in the downswing. Go back to the original plane and notice that the base of this plane does not change regardless if you shallow it or steepen it. The path will change as it will be more in to out with a more shallow incline, less into out with a steeper, but at the bottom of the arc the face and path at impact are still at the target. This means that if a golfer goes back on a plane and then over this plane in the downswing, as so many golfers do, it is not necessarily over the top. It is just on a steeper incline than the backswing plane. This phrase, over the top, probably needs to be changed. Let’s redefine over the top as: when the center or top is over or past the lower center.

So the next time you see Phil Mickelson going back on the left arm plane and down on the shoulder plane he is not over the top. With Sam Snead back on the right arm plane and down on the shoulder plane or John Daley back on the shaft plane from an early turn and down on the shoulder plane or Bobby Jones or Nancy Lopez, know that they are doing this for a reason and that they are not over the top.  Because Henrik Stenson goes back and down on the same plane does not make it better or worse it just makes it Henrik Stenson like.

Embrace the “D” plane