Today was my first day back at the range since September 1st of last year, making it 9.5 months since I hit a golf ball!
Fortunately, when you have a mechanically-correct swing model (the optimal one is the best to strive for of course), it shouldn’t take you a long time to find the groove again if you’ve been on a short, middling or long break.
That’s a pretty big statement coming from someone who developed a significant problem with swing plane & club impact path nearly from the moment I picked up a golf club at the age of 25.
Before I tell you why I’m predicting this, a little personal progression story first.
By the time I even heard about “swing plane,” I was already well-acquainted with the term “over the top,” because I was a left-handed person swinging a club right-handed.
As I get deeper into Mike Dunaway’s entire swing, I would love you all to see something that blows away all of the stuff you hear about the best swingers having the same shaft plane at both address & impact.
This could have huge ramifications for MCS the swing model, which is why I want to point it out, besides showing yet another example of Modern Golf Swing instructions focusing on things that have little relevance to proper mechanics.
I wasn’t disgusted with my form swinging the club after 5 weeks off when I spent a couple of days in Chicago two weeks ago and had the opportunity to hit balls at Medinah CC courtesy of my host Cory C, but let’s say I wasn’t happy about it.
That’s right – all of the people who are angst-ridden and feel you’ll never be able to swing powerfully because you “pull” the club down from the top, are actually not making the wrong motion.
It’s just that “pullers” fail to properly sequence the down swing (although a lot of it has to do with the setup and back swing pivot rather than what happens on the down swing) and pull on the wrong angle.
I took a look at my latest, nearly-there swings right arm only, and again I was struck by how amazingly neutral my swing plane is using the MCS Golf Swing model.
There are of course three types of swing planes – neutral or on-plane, steep and flat, with the neutral one of course being the preferable one, and I’ll tell you why I believe that is so.
I was correct when I hesitated to post video from last week’s swing session, because I had a hunch about something that I wanted to check out before doing so.
I got out today and made some swings on video and sure enough, I was right!
I can tell that I’m getting closer because my down swing plane is shallowing out even more, and I can show some visual proof in the form of one of my better swings last year vs the last time I was at the range.
I went from a very steep plane that appeared at some point in my swing research years, to a fairly neutral plane, to one that is actually getting “under” the plane that is my shaft angle at impact.
I went about it all wrong on Monday when I hit the range for my first swing session since last summer.
First off, I made adjustments to my action as I have been writing about, during the winter layoff, and when I got back out there, I was trying to do it all at once.
I would say that the things I’ve been showing you over the past few days would illustrate, if there is any such thing, a “neutral” swing plane on the down swing.
That would make sense, considering that if one’s hands are travelling a route that matches the club shaft’s impact plane, and the club itself matches that plane on the way down, that you would call this “neutral.”
