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The clubs on the ground make for a series of very useful checkpoints. |
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Hands and arms passive as you gently turn away from the ball |
How to get on path and in plane
Part one
Written by Jim Christine, PGA coach
The Moveaway
From the moment you set up to the ball, golf is all about swinging the club along a natural path and keeping it on a good "plane" (or angle) as the wrists cock and un-cock to translate that movement into clubhead speed. As a coach, the challenge is getting that message across as simply as possible, and the clubs that you see here on the ground make for a series of very useful checkpoints.
The fact is, while the golf swing is by definition a rotary motion controlled by the turning of the body, parallel lines relating to the target confirm some of the vital checkpoints that we look for along the way. Get the club on plane and swing in the right direction, and you will find that you match a number of those parallel lines with the clubshaft - hence the value of placing clubs on the ground when you practise.
Let me take you through the key checkpoints to look for.
From the set-up, the first move away from the ball is one that gets the unit of the club, hands, arms and shoulders moving "together" to create some early momentum. You don't want any independent movement here, which is why this exercise is so beneficial, because with the club fed up through your hands until the butt-end of the shaft rests in your middle, you get a real sense of turning everything away together . Create your set-up, and simply work on grooving this move - the club, hands, arms and torso turning as one.
Repeat that moveaway exercise for a couple of minutes, then return to a regular stance, regular grip, and take things a stage further.
As you build on that early momentum - and at about the time the hands reach the right foot - the right elbow and wrist begin to fold and "set". The checkpoint we are looking for here is that as the shaft reaches horizontal with the ground, it is also parallel to the ball-to-target line (as confirmed by the clubs we have laid on the floor).
"Get the club in your hands with the clubs on the ground here, and your swing is in good shape"
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Reproduction of this article was by kind permission of Golf International magazine |
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