Swing plane: TGM vs Hank Haney
 

I read Hank Haney today.

His description of the swing plane is actually a swing spiral - where the shaft is always parallell to the shaft plane at address.

Looking at chapter 2 in TGM, I have a question regarding the inclined plane. Is it the shaft (secondary assembly) that should be pointing at the incline plane line or is it the primary assembly tha should be pointing there?

Went to golfdigest.com and studied several swings down the line. some had swings where the shafts were gradually steepening on the way up - and gradually flattening on the way down (as prescribed by TGM?). A few had the parallell to adress clubsharft plane as prescribed by Haney - and a few odd ones weree outside these extremes.

For the last years I think I've had a swing plane as described by mr Haney. Clubshaft always parallell to clubshaft plane at address. Which means that the club shaft is moving on a parallell plane that is gradually rising from the shaft through impact.

Today, however, I worked on keeping the pp#3 pressure through impact - and to do that - I had to move the right elbow more than I use to. Wiewing this in the mirror it seemed as the club then always pointed at the inclined plane line.

Comments anyone?

Plain Info on Plane
 

"On-plane" - Except when it's parallel to the ground, whichever end of the clubshaft is nearest the ground should point at the plane line.

All this 'keep it parallel to the shaft plane' stuff is just plain nonsense. Think about that 'on-plane' definition I gave. Will that be satisfied if the club is parallel to and above or below the original shaft plane? No. It'll be pointing either inside or outside the plane line...off-plane.

You must disregard the shaft plane and instead focus on the sweetspot plane. It is drawn from the sweetspot of the club and up through the right forefinger (PP3). That is the true 'plane' that TGM describes. And remember - everything complies with the plane! All motion takes place on the face of the inclined plane.

The true TGM 'plane shift' idea centers around this. Several planes are available to the player - hands, elbow, turned shoulder, turning shoulder, and squared shoulder. I believe it is 10-6 in the book that shows these. Many people have the classic 'double shift' - they start on the elbow plane, shift to the turned shoulder plane on the backstroke, then shift back down to the elbow plane in the downstroke. The 'ideal' as shown in 12-1 and 12-2 is the zero shift on the turned shoulder plane. Just take it back and through on that plane. It's actually something I'm working on in my stroke right now - getting it to come down on that turned shoulder plane.

This Haney plane JUNK has its ROOTS in POOR understanding of CAMERA ANGLES AND PARALAX 8)

OK - I guess I'll go with the Haney plane then
 

OK - I guess I'll go with the Haney plane then


:twisted:
Just kidding.


Thanks for the comments,

Plane discussions often are misleading, you must understand the ROOT plane - the plane of FORCE.

Efficient Force is always 'on plane', it doesn't 'shfit' - the rest is a game of semantics and perspectives.

And to look at plane simply as 'mapped' to a particular body part misses the real plane of motion. Yes, those body parts are GENERATING the force, but that force is separate, in 3 dimensional space, from any body part.

In simplest terms, 'plane', the plane of force, is from 'center' to the sweetspot. We stand to the side of the ball, with a club that has an angled lie, and that makes the plane discussion much more complex than it needs to be. The 'generating parts' of the body don't lie on the 'plane of force', but the HANDS are the best link of that chain to pay attention to.

Twirl a rock on a string - do you 'shift' planes? If you did, you'd break the string. For practical application, think of your HANDS as the rock, they are your connection to sending force through the ball - the pressure points. Keep the pressure points 'on their plane' and the club will follow 'on its plane' and the sweet spot will be 'on THE plane'.

Interesting twist. But aren't we discussing Plane of Motion?

I would be the last to say that a discussion on the Swing Plane isn't complex. Given TGM it may have even been more complicated, maybe not.

One thing for sure, as long as everyone draws lines on pictures, the Plane of Motion is going to be discussed.

Re: Plain Info on Plane
 

Preselecting a TSP angle at address and considering a zero plane shift, would you comment on the location of PP3 at:
(1) address
(2) the top
(3) impact

More specifically is PP3 on the TSP angle from address to impact?

Also, can a down the target line camera angle be used in evaluating plane angles or do we need mulitple camera angles?

As an observation, it would appear that Couples as an example sets his hands on the preselected downstroke clubshaft plane.

DRW

Re: Plain Info on Plane
 

what exactly is "it"?

Re: Plain Info on Plane
 

PP3. Up and down the plane.

thanks Matt :)