darrylc
New
At the top of the backswing, if my left wrist is flat and I have a Manzella neutral grip, I tend to get a clubface that is "closed" to the swing plane. That is, it's not lying on the swing plane. It's more closed than that. Is that OK? Is the clubface lying on the plane at the top a good position to try to get in, or is it just a myth? Because I don't understand how to get there, even with a neutral grip, without cupping the left wrist. The thing is, I think it should be "closed" at the top if I take the grip properly and have the left arm flying wedge (to use an old term) at the top of my swing. Am I missing something? If I grip it neutrally as Brian demonstrates in his videos then I think (unless I misunderstand) when I hold my left arm horizontal to the ground that the left shoulder, left hand w/ flat wrist, and clubhead are all in the same plane and the clubface is lying on THAT plane. So, if I take that to the top of the swing, it seems to me that the clubface will be lying on what I will call the left arm/left shoulder plane. Right? Since the left shoulder is typically (or always) above the swing plane (unless I'm Moe Norman, or I have an extremely steep left shoulder turn in which case I still think it'll be above), that left shoulder/arm/wedge/clubface plane will be flatter than the swing plane and therefore the club will be closed to it. I use the top of the swing as one example, but there are other spots during the swing ... seems to me that the clubface has a relationship to the left shoulder/arm plane throughout the swing and not necessarily the swing plane (the good thing is they both line up at impact).
A related question is I don't think there's any point in the swing where I can just uncock the left wrist and the club will move down the swing plane. Again, because the left shoulder is above the eventual sweetspot plane, so uncocking the left wrist will release the club down the left arm/left shoulder plane which doesn't match the swing plane at any point in the swing as far as I can tell. For example, uncocking only from the top will promote a huge in-to-out swing I think. Uncocking when the left arm is vertical before impact and the club is parallel to the target line would just send the club straight into the ground. Might be an obvious statement. It seems like any uncocking of the wrist needs to be blended with the proper amount of tumbling at the same time in order to keep the club on plane. Conversely, if I just tumble only I will tend to swipe across it, so I need to blend tumble with some wrist uncocking to prevent swiping across it. The flatter my eventual sweetspot plane the more tumble I need, and the steeper the more uncocking I need, right? Still, for any orthodox swing, I always need a blending of both at the same time to release on plane (I think).
One of Aaron Zick's demos during the anti-summit (where he takes swing horizontal to the ground) got me thinking about the relationship of the left shoulder to the swing plane, and also the face. Another reason this came up for me is I used to have my hands go more out and I would get laid off. Now I'm finally getting my hands more in, but the more I get my hands in and left arm across my body on the backswing the more shut the clubface seems to get just due to the discrepancy between the left shoulder in relationship to the swing plane.
As a range drill, I kind of like the feeling of hitting shots with my right arm only. Of course they don't go too far, but I just feel like I don't know how to use the left arm properly and it gets in the way and messes things up at times since the shoulder joint doesn't really line up too well with the swing plane.
Does that make any sense? Thanks a ton.
A related question is I don't think there's any point in the swing where I can just uncock the left wrist and the club will move down the swing plane. Again, because the left shoulder is above the eventual sweetspot plane, so uncocking the left wrist will release the club down the left arm/left shoulder plane which doesn't match the swing plane at any point in the swing as far as I can tell. For example, uncocking only from the top will promote a huge in-to-out swing I think. Uncocking when the left arm is vertical before impact and the club is parallel to the target line would just send the club straight into the ground. Might be an obvious statement. It seems like any uncocking of the wrist needs to be blended with the proper amount of tumbling at the same time in order to keep the club on plane. Conversely, if I just tumble only I will tend to swipe across it, so I need to blend tumble with some wrist uncocking to prevent swiping across it. The flatter my eventual sweetspot plane the more tumble I need, and the steeper the more uncocking I need, right? Still, for any orthodox swing, I always need a blending of both at the same time to release on plane (I think).
One of Aaron Zick's demos during the anti-summit (where he takes swing horizontal to the ground) got me thinking about the relationship of the left shoulder to the swing plane, and also the face. Another reason this came up for me is I used to have my hands go more out and I would get laid off. Now I'm finally getting my hands more in, but the more I get my hands in and left arm across my body on the backswing the more shut the clubface seems to get just due to the discrepancy between the left shoulder in relationship to the swing plane.
As a range drill, I kind of like the feeling of hitting shots with my right arm only. Of course they don't go too far, but I just feel like I don't know how to use the left arm properly and it gets in the way and messes things up at times since the shoulder joint doesn't really line up too well with the swing plane.
Does that make any sense? Thanks a ton.
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