Breaking 100

One Plane vs. Two Plane

One-Planer

Bend over and swing around

By Jim Hardy with Matthew Rudy
Photo Illustrations By Jim Luft
Photos By Stephen Szurlej May 2008

Think of the basic one-plane and two-plane swings as models. There are lots of different variations within the models, but if you copy the basic elements of the one-plane or two-plane swing, you're going to be a pretty darn good player. Mixing them is where golfers get into trouble. Don't buy into the idea that there's only one way to play golf. If that were true, Jim Furyk and Lee Trevino should give back all the money and trophies they've won. Find the model that suits you, then work on the things that make your kind of swing better.

If you're going to live your golfing life as a one-planer, here's the kind of advice you should listen to -- and the kind you should avoid. (1) Bend over more at address. Standing tall or transferring your weight aggressively is wrong for your swing. (2) Keep your head relatively still on the backswing, which means you shouldn't be "getting behind the ball," like you've heard teachers say. (3) Your swing thoughts should incorporate swinging the club around your body. (4) You never want to feel as if you're pulling with your left arm. (5) Your downswing keys should be turning your body as hard as you can and hitting aggressively with your right hand.

Two-planer: Stand up and shift your weight; Two-planers have their own instructions they should be listening to -- and some they should be ignoring. The good advice is designed to get you swinging the club more shallow through impact and on a more in-to-out swing path.
(1) Keep your arms relatively relaxed and hanging in front of you at address, not reaching for the ball. (2) Your posture should be more upright than a one-planer's. (3) On the backswing, never listen to the old advice "keep your head still." You need to transfer your weight pretty substantially to generate your clubhead speed. As I demonstrated on the first page, you have to push your hips toward the ball on the downswing to keep them in front of your arms, which automatically gets your club moving on an in-to-out path. (4) Pull the club down from the top with your left arm. (5) Resist the temptation to try to swing your arms really fast. Timing, tempo, rhythm and balance are the keywords that are going to work the best for your type of swing.

: How to think about plane; Illustration By Christoph Niemann; The simplest way to visualize swing plane is to imagine an airplane landing on a runway. You must have the right combination of forward movement and up-and-down movement to land. If you have too much forward, your plane just circles the runway. If you have too much up-and-down, your plane crashes nose-first into the ground.