Golf Driver Swing Plane, How Can I Improve It? (Video) - by Pete Styles
Golf Driver Swing Plane, How Can I Improve It? (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now if you want to try and improve your swing plane with your driver, first things first let’s understand what swing plane is and now I’ll give you some tips on how you can improve it or change it if it’s not quite right. So looking from the back on angle here, this is my golf ball, my target is now down through this wall area here, if I was making my backswing the path that the club takes and the angle the shaft sits on, this is what we talk about as being the swing plane. Now we can have it on plane or off plane and off plane it can go two ways. It can go steep or it can go flat, so looking from the camera angle as you are there, the golf club that sits out, this side comes up is too steep so like a Jim Furyk if you like he picks the golf club up very steep out this way. And the golf club that comes around and flat in this way and comes down too much more like a Sergio Garcia we would often talk about that as being too flat. Now I’ve mentioned two people Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia you might be thinking, well hang on a minute Pete they are top golfers, they are world class Ryder Cup major winning golfers one of them particularly.

So how can too steep and too flat still produce good tee shots? Well you know they manipulate a little bit on the way down, so they take it offline and Jim Furyk particularly drops it back onto the line and then hits the golf ball. Now it works for some people but it’s not what we want to try and learn, if you are in the process of learning this game let’s go ahead and try and learn it the best way we can, and learn it properly. So here’s a couple of checkpoints to make sure your backswing particularly with your driver is on plane. As you set up to the golf ball, normal address position would be good and then turn the shoulders, and if you start with turning with the shoulders and bring the club back without too much manipulation, you should get to a position here where the shaft of the golf club is pretty much pointing the same direction as your toes, it’s also the same sort of distance back and forward as your toes. So I have turned it back, it sits nicely on my toe line. Then looking from the camera we can see that the club head sit pretty much directly on top of my hands, so that would be classed as on plane it’s on top of my hands, that’s outside the line, too steep and that would be too flat inside the plane and too flat around this one. So that’s checkpoint one is hit level, shaft parallel to the floor, parallel to the target, club head looking on top of my hands if there was a mirror where the camera is. Position two for an on plane backswing with the driver, left hand for the right handed golfer, center of this turn and right in the middle of the chest and the shaft points down to the golf ball line, golf ball line is ball is the target here, extending back and my club handle wants to point at that line. Again too flat where does that point to? It points over there too high. Too steep where does that point? It points down too low. Perfectly on plane points of the balls of target line, turn that nicely to the top. But once you got at point one, point two, point three we’ll find its own way because you are on the right plane very rarely do we see a golfer get to hit correctly and then go loopy one way or loopy the other way, once we’ve got, one two let three just happen and now you are on plane. If you can trace the same line coming down, then soon you’ve gotten an on plane backswing and an on plane downswing, that’s going to look pretty good. Now the reason why we need to look at the plane of the swing particularly with the driver is its different to an iron and that’s purely the length of the golf club. If you go ahead and take a very, very short golf club you got a lot near to it a lot more tilted over now the plane of the swing the same checkpoints but the plane of the swing is a lot steeper and a driver would be a lot flatter. So it’s important you don’t try and make exactly the same plane of swing with your short irons and with your driver but also understand that the position you’re spine angle is in, by being more tilted with the short club, and more outline with a longer club, the spine angle will give you a guide on the plane of the swing. So if you make the normal turn without too much sort of fighting manipulation you should find that your driver swing is on plane. Two pieces of kit you need for this, you need your driver and you need a mirror, practice with your driver and your mirror and you’ll get the plane of your backswing bang on. 2014-11-04

Now if you want to try and improve your swing plane with your driver, first things first let’s understand what swing plane is and now I’ll give you some tips on how you can improve it or change it if it’s not quite right. So looking from the back on angle here, this is my golf ball, my target is now down through this wall area here, if I was making my backswing the path that the club takes and the angle the shaft sits on, this is what we talk about as being the swing plane. Now we can have it on plane or off plane and off plane it can go two ways. It can go steep or it can go flat, so looking from the camera angle as you are there, the golf club that sits out, this side comes up is too steep so like a Jim Furyk if you like he picks the golf club up very steep out this way. And the golf club that comes around and flat in this way and comes down too much more like a Sergio Garcia we would often talk about that as being too flat. Now I’ve mentioned two people Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia you might be thinking, well hang on a minute Pete they are top golfers, they are world class Ryder Cup major winning golfers one of them particularly.

So how can too steep and too flat still produce good tee shots? Well you know they manipulate a little bit on the way down, so they take it offline and Jim Furyk particularly drops it back onto the line and then hits the golf ball. Now it works for some people but it’s not what we want to try and learn, if you are in the process of learning this game let’s go ahead and try and learn it the best way we can, and learn it properly. So here’s a couple of checkpoints to make sure your backswing particularly with your driver is on plane. As you set up to the golf ball, normal address position would be good and then turn the shoulders, and if you start with turning with the shoulders and bring the club back without too much manipulation, you should get to a position here where the shaft of the golf club is pretty much pointing the same direction as your toes, it’s also the same sort of distance back and forward as your toes. So I have turned it back, it sits nicely on my toe line.

Then looking from the camera we can see that the club head sit pretty much directly on top of my hands, so that would be classed as on plane it’s on top of my hands, that’s outside the line, too steep and that would be too flat inside the plane and too flat around this one. So that’s checkpoint one is hit level, shaft parallel to the floor, parallel to the target, club head looking on top of my hands if there was a mirror where the camera is. Position two for an on plane backswing with the driver, left hand for the right handed golfer, center of this turn and right in the middle of the chest and the shaft points down to the golf ball line, golf ball line is ball is the target here, extending back and my club handle wants to point at that line. Again too flat where does that point to? It points over there too high. Too steep where does that point? It points down too low. Perfectly on plane points of the balls of target line, turn that nicely to the top. But once you got at point one, point two, point three we’ll find its own way because you are on the right plane very rarely do we see a golfer get to hit correctly and then go loopy one way or loopy the other way, once we’ve got, one two let three just happen and now you are on plane.

If you can trace the same line coming down, then soon you’ve gotten an on plane backswing and an on plane downswing, that’s going to look pretty good. Now the reason why we need to look at the plane of the swing particularly with the driver is its different to an iron and that’s purely the length of the golf club. If you go ahead and take a very, very short golf club you got a lot near to it a lot more tilted over now the plane of the swing the same checkpoints but the plane of the swing is a lot steeper and a driver would be a lot flatter. So it’s important you don’t try and make exactly the same plane of swing with your short irons and with your driver but also understand that the position you’re spine angle is in, by being more tilted with the short club, and more outline with a longer club, the spine angle will give you a guide on the plane of the swing. So if you make the normal turn without too much sort of fighting manipulation you should find that your driver swing is on plane. Two pieces of kit you need for this, you need your driver and you need a mirror, practice with your driver and your mirror and you’ll get the plane of your backswing bang on.