This Never Gets Old – The Shaft Impact Plane in the MCS Golf Swing

I have been reviewing the vast quantity of swing clips that I shot with the assistance of The Welshman back in the spring of 2017 for the “E = MCS” swing video, and they truly have withstood the test of time, regardless of my earlier opinion.

One thing I love to look for (and I’m never disappointed on a good swing) is that shaft impact line and how the body and club interact with it when you watch a swing down the line.

Basically, if you build the proper MCS address and swing freely, you should see certain things.

I have two different swings here, the real time and slow motion:

I particularly like the silky smoothness of a swing (Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, anyone) when it is performed with mechanical-correctness, and this below clip has enough silkiness for my liking:

This is the Ben Hogan pivot, with the straightening (but not locking) trail leg and very low heel lift on the back pivot, but still a full hip and shoulder turn.

Now, here is what I’m talking about with regards to interaction with the shaft impact plane:

  1. At the top, my leading or left arm is on plane with the shaft impact plane,
  2. When I am swinging down, the shaft will touch that plane, perfectly aligned with
  3. The plane at impact.

Another thing you see is that, once my shaft aligns with the impact plane, the my hands never leave that line coming into impact:

Notice how after my shaft touches the plane line, how stable my head is as the hips and legs leverage the club down and I extend my right arm into impact.

7 Iron Shaft Impact Plane

It’s not just with the driver – all of my good swings have this hallmark:

Now, let me ask you – if you get this setup and action down correctly, and you have the club face square at impact (proper grip with the face square at address will ensure this), what are the chances of missing much with your shot?

It really is just like shooting free-throws, once you have the action grooved:

Even if you don’t nail it perfectly, you are talking about very playable misses unless you’re trying to skirt trouble and miss on the unsafe side.

When you look at the real time swing, you can see that there are no manipulations nor compensations – once I’m in motion, I’m just pivoting back and then swinging down and through.

How much easier is this than the ten-positions-to-hit instruction for just the down swing from the Modern Golf Swing characters?