Traced a straight plane line, but.....

[01ragtop]

I have been working on tracing a plane line with no success.

I am too flat on the backswing and I bend the plane on the way down.

Until tonight.

I was struggling as usual so I decided to try the elbow plane. Everything matched on my first try.

I still get a little flat on the backswing, but the downswing matches every time.

So the problem is, as I understand it, that you are not supposed to switch to the elbow plane if you are currently a TSP guy. I hit the ball well, and who knows what plane I would naturally be on if all this other "instruction" wouldn't have fried my brain. So what would the guys who have exoerience with this recomend?

 

[Richie3Jack]

That's why there's such a mystery to the game. I trace the plane with my right forearm and didn't improve my ballstriking until I flattened out my backswing. Now my ballstriking is worlds better. Different methods work for different golfers.

Could be other components of your swing making it difficult for you to trace the plane line and hit it properly.





3JACK

 

[fronesis]

My opinion is that there's too much rigid teaching out there concerning swing planes. First there's the nonsense about one plane and two plane swings, then there are teachers that are very narrow in determining THE plane. As Brian has said many times, there are an infinite number of planes, and there are single shift and double shift swings, etc. So I agree with Richie: getting on the proper plane for you depends on the other components in your pattern, and probably on some natural feels as well.

I'm also like Richie in this respect: I need to make a flat shoulder turn and toget more "around" in my backswing. If I flatten out the backswing, then I can come back down on plane. I also really like tracing the plane line with my right forearm, but while always reminding myself to keep the left elbow pointed DOWN not out toward the target.

A LOT of golfers need more UP and less around in their swing - this is one of the components of the SD pattern. I'm just not one of them (I need a bit more rotation of the left arm flying wedge, not less). And a lot of golfers hit the ball a lot better when the shift to the elbow plane. Again, that's not me, but it sounds like it might be you, ragtop.

 

[Brian Manzella]

The Answers....

I have been working on tracing a plane line with no success.

I am too flat on the backswing and I bend the plane on the way down.

Until tonight.

I was struggling as usual so I decided to try the elbow plane. Everything matched on my first try.

I still get a little flat on the backswing, but the downswing matches every time.

So the problem is, as I understand it, that you are not supposed to switch to the elbow plane if you are currently a TSP guy. I hit the ball well, and who knows what plane I would naturally be on if all this other "instruction" wouldn't have fried my brain. So what would the guys who have exoerience with this recomend?

What I said was this:

A. If "it" ain't working, you should try everything.

B. If you trace a straight plane line where you want to, don't change plane ANGLES just to change it because someone said you are supposed to.

This goes for TSP to Elbow, or the other way around.


Got it?

 

[Richie3Jack]

My opinion is that there's too much rigid teaching out there concerning swing planes. First there's the nonsense about one plane and two plane swings, then there are teachers that are very narrow in determining THE plane. As Brian has said many times, there are an infinite number of planes, and there are single shift and double shift swings, etc. So I agree with Richie: getting on the proper plane for you depends on the other components in your pattern, and probably on some natural feels as well.

I had some problems with coming OTT on the downswing. It was just barely OTT, maybe by no more than an inch or two. But when I would get OTT, just awful shots would happen. So I worked on it and changed and improved my takeaway and started hitting it much better. But I had to take a week off from the game due to a small operation. Came back and was hitting the ball awful. Just beyond bad. Tried and tried for 3 days, couldn't hit anything. I knew I was coming OTT, but just could not figure out why because no matter how hard I tried, I would just get above the plane.

So I said to myself on the range 'let's try and get as under the plane as we can.' And I tried to think of a swing that was really under plane and thought 'well, when Tiger has to hit a big rope hook around some trees, he gets well under the plane. So let's try to hit some roundhouse hooks with a 9-iron.'

The way I went about it was to aim my body parallel to the target with the 9-iron (usually I have an open stance with the short irons) and then I took it wayyy inside and very flat and then tried to make a very big inside-to-out downswing. Immediately I hit much much better shots.

It took me a day to figure out what to do because I would try and go back to my old backswing and then try to roundhouse hook it on the downswing. But it wouldn't work. I would go back to coming OTT again. And the confusing thing was that the backswing plane in my old swing was absolutely fine. But from that 'roundhouse hook with a 9-iron' swing I realized that I work much better from a flatter swing plane. The big mystery for me was to figure out how to properly execute a flatter backswing plane, which I found out how.

Both backswings (the old one and the flatter one) trace a straight plane line, but the flatter one performs better for me and more consistent for me like night and day.




3JACK