You're Correct!

Being on plane during your back swing will really help you to improve your golf. Keeping on plane will allow you the opportunity to hit the golf ball further and much more accurately, so it is definitely something to work on improving.

Your swing plane is the angle that the club head travels around you on. Swinging on the optimal angle allows the club head to travel straighter along the target line through impact and also allows it to swing back towards the golf ball at the best angle to strike the ball crisply and with most power and speed.

The best way to check whether you are swinging the club head on plane during your back swing is by setting up an alignment pole so that you have a reference line to observe whether you are moving the club head on or not. To set the alignment pole up correctly, take up your address position. Push the alignment pole into the ground by the club head so that it replicates the angle that you have set the shaft of the golf club at, to the ground.

Move about a yard to the left of this pole (if you are a right handed golfer) and keep the club head in line with where the pole has entered the ground. The pole is now showing you your swing plane and if you now swing your golf club back away from the golf ball, you can see whether the club head is travelling back around you on the angle of the alignment pole or whether the club head is dropping below this line, resulting in a flat back swing, or rising up above the pole, meaning you have a steep back swing.

Working on keeping the club head travelling around you at the angle of the alignment pole will produce a back swing that is much more on plane and you will strike the ball more consistently, experience an improvement with your shot accuracy and also see an improvement in your shot distance.

It is really important to swing the golf club back so that the club head travels around you on plane and at the optimal angle to deliver it back to the golf ball on, for consistency, accuracy and shot distance. Just swinging the club back will not ensure this. Practise swinging on the correct plane to improve your golf.

Swing plane is extremely crucial during your golf swing. The plane that you swing the club head on influences the direction of your shots, the crispness of the strike and the distance that the ball travels. Dont guess if you are on plane, work on swinging the club correctly and learning the feel of the correct angle so that you can reproduce it out on the golf course.

There are several check points that can be used to know whether you are on plane or not during your back swing. However, your back swing should be a flowing motion, not one that stops and starts in certain places. Therefore, use the alignment pole and simply turn your head to look at it so that as you move smoothly on your back swing, you can actually see whether you are on plane or not.