Soft Draw and D-plane: correct self-diagnosis?

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macduffer

New
Hi guys -

I'm having good success with soft draw. What I have noticed is that I do have a tendency to overdraw the short irons and sometimes push/push-fade the longer clubs.

Thinking about this in relation to the D-plane, I came to the following conclusion:

With the short irons, I'm swinging more down (as a result of the shorter shaft/more upright lie) and hence more right, which will cause the ball to curve more away from the face (ie curve left). With the longer clubs, I'm hitting less down, therefore less right, hence less curve left or possible even a curve right.

Does this make sense?

If so, is the correct remedy to align my body/feet a little more right for the longer clubs (therefore promoting a more rightward swing) and vice-versa for the shorter ones?

I'd be grateful if you guys could tell me what you make of this assessment. Cheers.
 
S

softconsult

New
Seems to me that you, and others are seeking some absolute technical fix that you can precisely settle on.

In my not so humble opinion, golf doesn't work that way. Ever hear the Pro's talk about seeing what their swing tendencies are on the practice tee before the day's round? They then adjust.

So you are having this issue of hitting short irons left. Try opening the face a tad. Play around with alignment. Watch the ball flight and adjust.

There is also the little problems presented by slopes, wind, etc. Constant adjustments that defy measurement and require playing shots.

Food for thought.
 
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macduffer

New
Thanks, Steve, and I totally appreciate the point you make.
However, if a particular aspect of setup will promote a particular tendency (at least in theory) it's nice to know that.
But I appreciate that 'experimenting' is important too.
 
S

softconsult

New
H'mm. Re-read your post. It will be interesting to hear from the instructors.

You wrote, "With the short irons, I'm swinging more down (as a result of the shorter shaft/more upright lie) and hence more right, which will cause the ball to curve more away from the face (ie curve left). With the longer clubs, I'm hitting less down, therefore less right, hence less curve left or possible even a curve right."

Seems like it should be the other way around. More down should be more left because of steeper downswing path and vice-versa for longer clubs. If you do swing a wedge more to the right, it's sure easy to picture it going left.
 
J

jake2

New
macduffer said:
Hi guys -

I'm having good success with soft draw. What I have noticed is that I do have a tendency to overdraw the short irons and sometimes push/push-fade the longer clubs.

Thinking about this in relation to the D-plane, I came to the following conclusion:

With the short irons, I'm swinging more down (as a result of the shorter shaft/more upright lie) and hence more right, which will cause the ball to curve more away from the face (ie curve left). With the longer clubs, I'm hitting less down, therefore less right, hence less curve left or possible even a curve right.
Click to expand...
This is at least how I understand D-plane:

When you hit a straight push, path is already to the right. If it's a slight push-fade, is could just be open clubface with path that's relatively straight or little to the right. I just do not see how you'd get it to draw bit playing around with the path. So I would try to fix the clubface first with longer irons.

Short irons might benefit from swinging a little more left and/or more open clubface.
 
D

dannyc

New
macduffer said:
Hi guys -

I'm having good success with soft draw. What I have noticed is that I do have a tendency to overdraw the short irons and sometimes push/push-fade the longer clubs.

Thinking about this in relation to the D-plane, I came to the following conclusion:

With the short irons, I'm swinging more down (as a result of the shorter shaft/more upright lie) and hence more right, which will cause the ball to curve more away from the face (ie curve left). With the longer clubs, I'm hitting less down, therefore less right, hence less curve left or possible even a curve right.

Does this make sense?

If so, is the correct remedy to align my body/feet a little more right for the longer clubs (therefore promoting a more rightward swing) and vice-versa for the shorter ones?

I'd be grateful if you guys could tell me what you make of this assessment. Cheers.
Click to expand...

yes. aim more left for the short irons to compensate for the higher attack angle. also, be sure to monitor your ball position, as it has a lot to do with club path.
 
J

jake2

New
softconsult said:
H'mm. Re-read your post. It will be interesting to hear from the instructors.

You wrote, "With the short irons, I'm swinging more down (as a result of the shorter shaft/more upright lie) and hence more right, which will cause the ball to curve more away from the face (ie curve left). With the longer clubs, I'm hitting less down, therefore less right, hence less curve left or possible even a curve right."

Seems like it should be the other way around. More down should be more left because of steeper downswing path and vice-versa for longer clubs. If you do swing a wedge more to the right, it's sure easy to picture it going left.
Click to expand...

More down is more to the right, that's correct.

Ball curves away from the path, not face (incorrect), and it curves left (correct) with a closed clubface.

D-plane depends on BOTH path AND clubface. So changing path only, does not necessarily change the ball flight curvature, if the face happen to stay the same in relation to the path.
 
J

Jim Kobylinski

Super Moderator
macduffer said:
Hi guys -

I'm having good success with soft draw. What I have noticed is that I do have a tendency to overdraw the short irons and sometimes push/push-fade the longer clubs.

Thinking about this in relation to the D-plane, I came to the following conclusion:

With the short irons, I'm swinging more down (as a result of the shorter shaft/more upright lie) and hence more right, which will cause the ball to curve more away from the face (ie curve left). With the longer clubs, I'm hitting less down, therefore less right, hence less curve left or possible even a curve right.

Does this make sense?

If so, is the correct remedy to align my body/feet a little more right for the longer clubs (therefore promoting a more rightward swing) and vice-versa for the shorter ones?

I'd be grateful if you guys could tell me what you make of this assessment. Cheers.
Click to expand...

without doing anything else, simply aim more left with the short irons and aim more right with the longer clubs...see the results and report back.
 
M

macduffer

New
Thanks guys (esp Brian/Jim for taking time out of your busy schedules). Am going to the range tonight so will report back.
 
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