Keeping on Plane Setup Station

[addamsmith]

This is the cheapest swing plane board you will ever buy

Hi Guy's
I thought I would post what I do with my students to practice keeping on plane and withg this set up station you can do other drill's as well that I will add to.
This is what you need to make the 3 peice station.
Okay,you need to get only three 6 or 7 feet metal tube. I use white so it shows up on the pics and video well.
If you want to get six of them do so because we will be using them later on to make a full swing plane set up station.
First
Take the first tube and lay it on the ground as if you where using it as a aiming tool for your feet to target.
Next
Take one of the other tubes and set up to the ball with say a 7 iron, take your address position and stick a tube in the ground directly behind your ball and while staying in the address position lay the shaft on your right shoulder ( picture 1).make sure the tube is in the ground now at the end of the first tube that is laying on the ground stick the other tube in the ground on the same angle as the one that you have set up that you rested against the shoulder.
The ball to the shoulder tube is now the perfect swing plane (shoulder plane)
Now take the tube that you rested against the shoulder and stick it in the ground about 6 inches on the other side of the tube ( picture 3)
Next put the next 2 tubes in the ground as shown in the pic and angle in the ground as shown with both tubes now in the ground in both pics.( pic 3 & 4)


First Drill
The first drill is to take your set up and take the club back between the tubes so that the club is parallel to the ground as shown in pic 2.
Do this drill while setting up to a ball as show.
The idea of this drill is to not hit the tubes on the takeaway.
This drill will give you a great takeaway every time.

I will add to this post more drills to do using the set up station.
I want all my students here to get these tubes for extra drills will be sending to you.
I hope you can understand this if not call me on 0400767011 and I will talk you through it.
Addam

[addamsmith]

Also with this drill you can slowly close off the 2 tubes and make it tighter and much harder.
Addam

[McCoy]

Interesting. Maybe I might try this new "practice" thing. I certainly haven't given it much thought before and hurling abuse at my golf clubs hasn't brought the results I've been after.

I'm impressed that you got Craig Parry to pose for the photos.

[markTHEblake]

Good work Addam.

[dougkpga]

I don't understand why there is such a big emphasis on plane.

Plane has to go with width.

How can you get the proper width if you just swing your arms up on plane?

[Toolish]

Interesting that someone who quotes Hogan in his signature doesn't understand why there is an emphasis on plane?

Sure it is not everything, but it is a good place to start...swinging your arms on plane will require some sort of orthodox body motion unless the swing is short or the player is very flexible.

[dougkpga]

I didn't say plane wasn't important. But if it doesn't go with width, all you do is swing down on plane narrow and have to flip. Or block it if you dont release the hands. The hands get stuck behind the chest and they tend to throw out if you dont make compensations to start the downswing.

[addamsmith]

I beleive the plane is one of the more important things in a swing and in every style of teaching they at some point talk plane.
Every DVD, Video, Book I have veiwed or read including hogans books talk about the importance of the plane. I can name hundreds of players,teacher that not in there scripts about plane and the importance of it.
Hogan, snead, iron byron, harmon, leadbetter, hardy, flick, doyle, manzella, Blake, woods, Blah blah blah
The start of a good swing comes with a good takeaway. If you take it to much inside or outside on the takeaway you have changed the plane and that will change the impact.(unless you get it back on plane)
Width is very important to, so with this drill to get width when starting the first drill put a golf ball behind the club and as you start your takeaway push the ball back along the ground as you take the club up to the point shown in the picture.( now you have width in the takeaway).
Moe norman had a great way of getting width in the takeaway and that was to start 15 inches back behind the ball but he still stated the importance of swing plane.
This post is to help with players to get a better plane. Starting with a good takeaway and this will maybe help someone acheive it without having to spend hundred on a swing plane board.
Addam

[dougkpga]

Of course plane is important. It creates path of the clubhead. But if you don't have width you don't create enough room to allow the clubface to square up naturally. This causes blocks and flipping and relies on timing to square the clubface.

If you try to create width by pushing a golf ball back with the arms, it doesn't create the correct pivot and so called weight shift. Also at some stage you have to lose connection in the swing.

If you push the golf ball (or block of wood etc. back with the arms, your left shoulder dips, the right hip is pushed up and makes the weight go to the outside of the right foot. This doesn't have to be obvious to affect your swing. You can disguise it with another drill like putting a golf ball under your right foot or just trying to keep the angle in the leg with a shaft, but they are just band aid cures.

The tendency from there is to fight the upper body transferring the weight. Which in turn causes the over the top move (pulls and cuts).

You have to compensate by dropping the arms or trying to get the lower body to do something unnatural all in a fraction of a second in the downswing. If the hands dont square up its the block or the hook.

These problems sound familiar?

The trouble with isolating plane and stating its importance is that fixing plane with a plane board or equivalent and fixing width with a drill is they are just more band aids.

Unless you understand pivot (the role of the hips and shoulders) and the relationship of the arms and hands and the DESIGN OF THE GOLF CLUB (which no one talks about) you will be stuck with compensations.

If Brisvegas reads this, I would be intrigued to find out if he has fixed that flying elbow.

[BrisVegas]

no.

[addamsmith]

Thanks Doug
My last post was to add width in the take away. I am trying to keep it simple so people can understand what I am saying here.My way of teaching width may well be different from your and the way you add width in the takeaway is proberly very differenet to mine. If I was to simplify the take away I would just say set up and try to imagine that you are passing the club to someone standing behind you.
But I am not talking about width here. You said width is important, and it is as much as plane. But this post is regarding making something to help the plane. I think it would be great for you to post a right up on width so everyone can read it and understand what width does.
IF I was to post a explaination of the take away I would also have to start with the grip then the posture then the alignment then it would come to oh are you shoulder takeaway or a right forearm pick up type of player.
But this is not what I am trying to do here it is to show fellow ozgolf players how to make a swing plane set up station here.
When I add drill here using the set up station I will make sure I add width into it.

This is a post I read regarding plane/width/axis/ and more
Please read

Delivery paths, in TGM terms, are the different paths that the HANDS could travel during the backswing and downswing.

If you watch slow motion video of golf swings at the face-on angle, and trace the path the hands take, you will notice that some swings take a more direct, straight-line path to the ball, and other swings will have the hands traveling a circular, arcing path to the ball.

On one end of the spectrum we have the "straight line delivery path." On the other end of the spectrum is the "circle delivery path". There are a couple of delivery paths that were defined by Homer Kelly that fall in between these two extremes, but hardly get any mention at all even though they are probably the most commonly used.

Someone that teaches a swing with a lot of width and a shallow angle of approach is really teaching a circle delivery path of the hands, as someone mentioned in a previous post.

Coaches that teach a "maximum participation" type of pattern, like Ben Doyle's favorite pattern, usually teach a straight line delivery path of the hands.

The straight line delivery path usually goes hand-in-hand with a "snap" release. You'll often see reference to the "endless belt effect" that a straight line delivery path uses a "smaller pulley", and therefore generates more speed.

The circle delivery path usually is matched up with a sweep release.

Annika has a circle delivery path, she picks it cleanly, and is very accurate. She attempted to get longer by pumping iron, but it really didn't make a BIG difference because she didn't make her swing more efficient in terms of producing speed. The extra strength allowed her to use a longer shaft, which is how she increased her driving distance.

Bobby Clampett has a straight line delivery path and a snap release. Pound for pound, very very long.

This is just Golf Machine discription of the swing and its path.
Now how many different teachers are so different to this.
Stack and tilt, gary edwin system, butch harmon system, Dave leadbetter system, and hundreds of other styles are different and they would all disagree with this.

So what I am saying here is that it is so much more than plane and width and swing paths and axis and tilt and rotation and impact but this is about building a set up station.
On another note I Also teach Wing Chun Kung fu so is my style right and say another different syle from japan right. NO, it is each to there own and there is no such perfect way of teaching or everybody would be doing it.My syle suites me and works for me , Also I read so much about muscle memory and THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MUSCLE MEMORY.But in every book I read about muscle memory. Every time i see a teach aid for sale it says this will give you muscle memory.

[markTHEblake]

Can you just simplify that a bit?

not all of it, just the part after 'thanks doug'

[addamsmith]

Hi Mark
This is the point
I want it to be simple,
The hands are not truly educated until they know where the pivot is supposed to take them.
Posture/alignment/pivot/hands/plane/width/path/balance/any many more go into making a good takeaway
I would love someone to post a segment on the takeaway because others will rip it appart.

[3oneday]

Does that mean Doug has qualified for champs now ???

[addamsmith]

Don't get me wrong,
Doug has great points and I want him to post some stuff up here. he know's his stuff and I would love him to add a post regarding things like Width,Pivot and others because this is what this website is all about.
I think doug has so great points and I am in no way being negative about his imput but 100% for it.
Addam

[markTHEblake]

I want it to be simple

I am just one of those ones who cant read golf instruction, apart from the Jack Nicklaus comic book - which I must have read 20 times as a kid.

I am fascinated by the concept of TGM, but I fell asleep whilst reading the Chapter index page.

and when I get lessons from Doug, and he is explaining the theory, after about 15 seconds, I am like "for petes sake can we hit some bloody balls now".

Patience is probably not one of my virtues

[addamsmith]

The only book I ever read that made sence was the Bible
The GM book is so boring and so hard to understand, I found I keep on reading over the same page again and again.

[Ducky]

[dougkpga]

It's hard to hit balls inside at my house and its hard for a collingwood supporter to concentrate on anything that needs a bit of thought for more than 15 seconds.

That said I am very confused as to how Mark is so clever with IT stuff but the main thing is how generous the man is and how he builds bridges.

[AndyP]

I preferred your earlier wording.

[Ducky]

So did I, but I edited my post at the request of another member.

[BrisVegas]

Does that mean Doug has qualified for champs now ???

Doug qualifies. In fact, he played the champs a couple of years ago. Come to think of it, we could try and rustle up a few more pros and make this a pro-am! We got doug, addam, maybe ask Ubers, Rachel Hetherington.... mmmmm Rachel.....

[markTHEblake]

No, Ozgolf is for hackers only. We dont want anyone coming along and stuffing up the whole event by playing well.

[Jono]

Hey Mark,

How come Doug can't fix your tendency to hang back on your right side?

[markTHEblake]

Doug can, but Mark doesnt listen to his teacher, nor does he practice.