The Plane Truth (part 3) - One & Two Plane Golf Swings - A rough guide

One Plane Swings (blue shirt)

These players tend to have their spinemore bent over at address, or bend over during the swing.Their shoulders rotate on a steeper plane than two-plane players,with their arms swinging up onto roughly the same plane as the shoulders rather than an independent plane.Hence the typical 'rotary' description of their swings.These players have less lateral shift (to the right) on their backswing,while their left armdoes not disconnect fromthe chest as the club is swungmore 'around' the body.As a result, at the top of the backswing, the arms are on a similar plane to that of the shoulders, and are not as high above the shoulders as two plane players. In the downswing, arms and body then rotate together, rather than exhibiting the two-plane swinger's delaywhile the arms drop down on plane.

Two Plane Swings (white shirt)

These players tend to set upwith their spinemore upright, their arms hangingmore vertically fromthe shoulders andwith a stance closer to the ball thanOne-Plane players.Most distinctively, their arms swing independently of the rotation of their body. In the backswing, the armsmove in amore upright plane,with the shoulders rotating on a relatively flatter plane. Typically, in order to create sufficient swingwidth, the left arm 'disconnects' fromthe left chest,while the body shifts slightly to the right.At the top of the swing, the arms typically drop down before the body can turn aggressively in the downswing. Through impact, and in the follow-through, the arms and club tend tomirror the backswing, staying in front of the body and swinging upward into a high finish over the left shoulder.

TheBall flight/impact test

While readers may well identify their physical swings in terms of these One Plane andTwo Plane theoretical profiles, Hardy's practical approach begins by analysing not the swing itself but the result of the swing – namely the nature of your impact and ball flight characteristics. PlaneTruth instructors start by looking atwhether the student's swing is 'shallowandwide' or 'steep and narrow', andwhich of 15 typical ball/club contact and flight patterns that yields.

Only then do they progress to the swing itself, looking at the extent towhich the ball flight and impact are consistent or inconsistentwith the swing shape.

The Ball-flight/Impact analysis is crucial to JimHardy's novel PlusAndMinus systemof applying a positive or negative number to each fault (and the corresponding fix) according towhether it implies amove that is steep (+1, +2, +3, etc) or shallow(-1, -2, -3, etc).The aimbeing to 'net out'with a neutral (0) impact position.