Is the golf swing plane important and why?

Many high-handicap golfers don’t know why they can’t hit the ball solidly, but I can assure you that for most of them their golf swing plane is out of place. They are not going down and crashing into the ball on the plane. So what is this. When you prepare for the ball and put your club on the ground behind the ball, you are creating a plane with your axis, coming from the hosel of the club near the ground, going up the axis and dissecting your midsection.

This angle to the axis of the club is critical to hitting a solid ball, so you really need to pay attention to it. I want you to imagine that you need to return to impact in the same position you started in, since your hips will be slightly open to the target and your hands will be slightly in front of the ball, creating a forward tilt of the axis.

Apart from those elements, you have to imagine in your mind this concept of getting back on the ball. So no matter what you do on the backswing, your goal should be to hit impact in a position similar to tackling.

Your backswing isn’t that important, but your downswing is critical to having a golf swing “on the plane.” As you go down, the butt of your club should point (slightly above or below) a line that extends behind the ball approximately 2-3 feet.

If you were to stop and check this about halfway, the butt should point in the vicinity of this line a couple of feet behind the ball. Doing so has a good chance of hitting the shaft of the club in the correct position to break the golf ball.

The problem occurs when your hands go up (or down) significantly when you hit impact. That will make it very difficult to contact the ball with a downward shot with the irons. It is very important that golfers pay attention to this golf plane problem. The best way to find out is to get a line view of your swing on video. When you do, lift the shaft of the club from the ground (club hosel), up and through the body.

Then watch the video at high speed while going down. Slow down or pause on impact. How close to the line is the axis of the club at impact? Where are your hands? Are they in a similar place to the address? Most likely they are not, and you need to fix this if you want to hit the ball solidly and with some power.