quote:
Originally posted by mc4jc2003
I appreciate the quick response. I found though today taking the club at the angle Toms takes the club it is hard to control the spin. on full shots i was spinning them off the green. the steeper descent onto the ball is causing more spin than i need. it seems my arms are starting my downswing and I believe its not the best way to start my downswing with this type of arc. its gonna take work to get my body to sync up. I need help.
Brian is obviously better qualified to respond, but here is my crack at it. Since I've been taught by a Jim Hardy disciple (his ex-wife, LPGA Hall of Famer Carol Mann), I'll use Jim Hardy terms.
What you have found is very interesting as well as very consistent with what Jim as well as what notable two-plane teachers such as Manuel de la Torre, Laird Small and Jim Flick teach: in a two-plane swing, the downswing is driven by the arms and the body responds. de la Torre's book Understanding the Golf Swing is a generally excellent manual for a two-plane swinger (although his advice of starting the downswing with a pull of the upper arms arguably steepens the downswing, which two-planers don't need). Also, investing in Hardy's book The Plane Truth is probably worthwhile as it has a lot more detail than the GD article.
If you find you are too steep, you need to add width to your downswing. My particular favorite when I was a two-planer is to extend my right arm AWAY from my right side on the downswing. Tom Watson (very much a two-planer) has a visible casting motion on his downswing. Starting with the body or moving hard to the left side will steepen the downswing, what you don't want. Staying back a little on the right side (as is apparent in the Toms sequence when compared to Vijay's), or at least keeping the feeling that weight is centered on the downswing (as de la Torre teaches) also adds width. By the way, Hardy believes that the challenge of "synching" the arms and the body is a major disadvantage of a two-plane swing, something Tiger seems to be discovering as he moves from a one-plane to a two-plane action. However, a two-plane swing arguably puts less stress on the left knee, so Tiger is likely to persist with the two-plane in order to prolong his career.