How Can My Spine Angle Effect My Golf Swing Plane? (Video) - by Pete Styles
How Can My Spine Angle Effect My Golf Swing Plane? (Video) - by Pete Styles

The swing plane of a golf swing is this description of how the club moves around the body and the type of arch it moves on. Now, the spine is important in creating and maintaining that sort of consistency of the swing plane. The easiest way to understand a swing plane to start with is this idea that if I just put my arms out to the side and rotate around my body, my arms move around me on a plane and if I do that from this angle they move around me and if I tilt my body forwards and then rotate my arms they now move round on a tilted plane, an inclined plane and this starts to look a little bit more akin to a golf swing. So my arms can move around on this inclined plane.

Now if my spine angle changes, my plane of golf swing changes. Again if I do this exercise and I stand up, my plane is very flat and around my body. As I start to tilt more forwards my plane gets a lot steeper until it’s really like up in the air vertical and straight down inside the golf ball. So it’s important that during my golf swing I maintain a consistent plane of swing and therefore I maintain a consistent spine angle. If during my back swing my spine angle increases and I stand up because as a lot of people with poor flexibility do, and then make my down swing from here, my swing would be outside the line and over the top which would cause a slice in the golf swing effectively. So it’s important that we turn and maintain a plane and then in the down swing turn and maintain the plane by maintaining the spine angle. So if you could practice with the video camera placed where this one is or with a mirror behind you and when you’re making your swing watch to maintain the spine angle. Turning back maintaining the spine, turning through maintaining the spine; looking this way, turning back maintaining the spine, turning through maintain the spine angle to maintain the plane. Stand up, you’ll get flat. Too steep, you’ll get too steep in the plane as well. Too inclined spine you’ll get too steep in the back swing. So maintain your spine angle to maintain a good golf swing plane. 2014-08-13

The swing plane of a golf swing is this description of how the club moves around the body and the type of arch it moves on. Now, the spine is important in creating and maintaining that sort of consistency of the swing plane. The easiest way to understand a swing plane to start with is this idea that if I just put my arms out to the side and rotate around my body, my arms move around me on a plane and if I do that from this angle they move around me and if I tilt my body forwards and then rotate my arms they now move round on a tilted plane, an inclined plane and this starts to look a little bit more akin to a golf swing. So my arms can move around on this inclined plane.

Now if my spine angle changes, my plane of golf swing changes. Again if I do this exercise and I stand up, my plane is very flat and around my body. As I start to tilt more forwards my plane gets a lot steeper until it’s really like up in the air vertical and straight down inside the golf ball. So it’s important that during my golf swing I maintain a consistent plane of swing and therefore I maintain a consistent spine angle. If during my back swing my spine angle increases and I stand up because as a lot of people with poor flexibility do, and then make my down swing from here, my swing would be outside the line and over the top which would cause a slice in the golf swing effectively.

So it’s important that we turn and maintain a plane and then in the down swing turn and maintain the plane by maintaining the spine angle. So if you could practice with the video camera placed where this one is or with a mirror behind you and when you’re making your swing watch to maintain the spine angle. Turning back maintaining the spine, turning through maintaining the spine; looking this way, turning back maintaining the spine, turning through maintain the spine angle to maintain the plane. Stand up, you’ll get flat. Too steep, you’ll get too steep in the plane as well. Too inclined spine you’ll get too steep in the back swing. So maintain your spine angle to maintain a good golf swing plane.