Why You Need This:

In this video, “Does Your Swing Plane Match Your Age?,” you’ll get great information on the difference between a one plane swing and a two plane swing…

And find out which is best for you as you get older.

This is the third video in my groundbreaking Play Your Best Golf After 50! course…

And the goal of this video is to present the pros and cons of the one and two plane swings.

I’m often asked…

“Which swing plane is better?”

Well, that’s actually a tough question.

Matt Kuchar does extremely well with a one plane swing.

On the other extreme, Bubba Watson scores well with more of a two plane swing.

So, does it matter which swing plane you’re on?

Yes, it does.

Especially as you get older.

As you’ll see in this video, you need to consider the pros and cons of each swing plane to find out which one is best for you as you get older.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this video:

1. How your swing plane affects the speed of your body rotation,
2. Which swing method puts more stress on your body, and
3. Why the two plane swing requires more hand-eye coordination.

Watch this video now to discover the swing plane that’s best for you!

What's Covered: How to tell what kind of swing plane you have and which makes the most sense for you individually.

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 8:59

Video Transcription:

Hi guys, welcome back to the Great Golf Over 50 series. In this one we’re going to talk a little bit about swing plane. In the past years we’ve seen a lot of information out there on one-plane swings, two-plane swings, and which one is better.

Do we want a flatter swing where it’s more of a one plane? Or do we want more of a vertical swing, more of a two plane?

So one plane, think like a Matt Kuchar, two plane would be more like a Bubba Watson with the hands really, really high. So what’s right for us, in particular I like ones that are somewhere in the middle.

If you look at Tiger Woods back from 2000, or Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy, all those guys are going to be somewhere in the middle, not a true one plane player, not a true two plane player. We’re going to go over the pros and cons of this.

Now with the one lane swing, let’s start with that. I would classify a one-plane swing as when you make the top of your backswing, your left arm – if you look at it in comparison to your shoulders -- so if I was to draw a line on my shoulder plane, my left arm would be kind of matching that shoulder plane.

My arms as they get above that, that would be more of a vertical swing, this would be flatter. This is a little bit tougher as we get older in age, because we get tighter. One of things that has to happen if you have a flatter, more one-plane swing, is that our body has to rotate a little bit harder to create club head speed.

Typically with one-plane players, you’re going to actually see steeper shoulders. So if you can imagine just like we did early in this series, if I swing back and my shoulders are here, the steeper I go, the flatter my arms will be.

That’s because I have to steepen up my shoulders to get my arms to come down into the ball. The steeper my shoulder plane is, the flatter my arm swing is, and then from there, I need to open more.

Typically we’ll see with a one-plane player a lot of rotation from the body, very aggressive swing from the top, and I’m going to get a little bit more open as I come into impact. Which is also a little bit tougher to do as we get older in age.

Our hips start to tighten up, we can’t really get through the shot as easily, so getting as open as we need to be to really do a one-plane swing effectively gets tougher and tougher as we get older.

Plus, as you steepen up your shoulders on the way back, that’s going to make it where I have to be a little bit more flexible with my body. My shoulders have to be more flexible because my arm has to move kind flat across my torso, and it’s just a little bit more difficult.

That’s not to say a one-plane swing is bad or wouldn’t work. There’s tons of players that play very well with a one-plane swing.

Just like I said, Matt Kuchar, he’s won millions of dollars with a one-plane swing, but we need to be a little bit more flexible. It helps to be pretty fast so we can create some more speed by rotating our body faster.

It also can be a little tougher on the back doing a one-plane swing, because we’re going to have to rotate back and through from this more bent over position as we’re coming back and through.

So that gets a little bit tougher as we get with age. Now a two-plane swing, or a more vertical swing, is a little bit easier.

So our arms go more vertical – actually before I get to that, I’ll say one thing I do like about a one-plane is what we talk about in The Move in the Top Speed Golf System, how you want to shallow out that club coming down, and get those arms a little flatter.

That’s really good, no matter what your plane is, that has to happen in the downswing. It’s a little easier with one plane because I’m already a little flatter, I can flatten out that club a little bit more.

Now with the two-plane or more vertical swing, the advantage of this for older players is that you can use your arms to elevate and you can get a little bit more speed just from the arms themselves.

A little bit less body rotation going back, the arm’s going to add some of that speed, and we can take advantage of that as we get a little bit older, not put as much wear and tear on the body. The disadvantage with the two-plane or more vertical swing, is now we have to let those arms drop quite a bit.

So Bubba Watson-type swing, where the hands are really, really high, the arms have to drop in to get to that move. Now he does that fantastic, but that’s just a lot of extra movement to get back down there.

If we don’t get a lot of golf balls, if we don’t have really, really good hand-eye coordination, it may not be as good to go as extreme as like you would see with a Bubba Watson.

As I mentioned in the first part of this video, as you start to swing with a flatter swing plane, I’m actually going to go steeper with my shoulders. Now as I start to go with a more upright swing plane like a Bubba Watson, I’m actually going to be a little bit more upright.

So if this is my flatter swing plane, I’m going to be a little bit more upright and turning more this way as I come back and through with a more upright swing plane, with more higher hands.

Again, as I go flatter I’m going to have to go steeper this way. So it is a little easier as you go a little more upright, it’s easier to turn on the body, easier to turn as you come on through this way.

I do want to stay in my posture, no matter what I’m doing, I want to stay in my posture. But it is a little bit easier to rotate through there.

So those are the extremes. One plane, little bit tougher on the body, little bit tougher with speed. We have to be faster with the hips, little bit easier maybe to shallow out that club and to come from the inside.

With the two plane, a little bit easier on the body, easier on the hips, we don’t have to be as fast with the torso. We can let the arms do a little bit more of the work. But then we have to kind of drop that down quite a bit as we’re coming in the downswing.

Those are both a little extreme for my personal preference. I would rather see somebody not as extreme as Bubba Watson, not as extreme as Matt Kuchar, but somewhere there in the middle, which is what we see a lot of the great players.

Adam Scott, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Tiger Woods, those are all guys that aren’t one plane and they aren’t two plane, they’re just right in the middle of that.

What we can do with this – let’s go ahead and talk about the shoulders with this. If I go ahead and tilt forward, as I make my backswing, if I’m doing my shoulder angle here, this shoulder angle can hit a couple feet, let’s say three or four feet outside the golf ball as we go to the top.

As much as with the driver, I’m going to be a little more upright, as much as probably 8 or 10 feet outside the golf ball in the backswing.

In the downswing as we come to the follow through, everything will be a little bit close to the ball. We will stay a little bit more tilted as we’re coming on through with a nice blend, somewhere in the middle of there.

If I can do these practice reps where I’m practicing on the backswing, staying in my posture but my arms are kind of three, four, five feet outside this golf ball, that’d be fantastic.

As I come on through, I’m going to be a little closer to the golf ball, maybe one or two feet outside of that. That’s not as extreme as a one plane where I’m going to have to be much more here, and like this, and it’s not as flat as a true two plane where I’m a little flatter.

But that’s going to be pretty easy on the body, it’s going to help you to stay in nice posture, and it’s a great blend of the two.

So I can use some advantage of having my arms get a little higher than my shoulders, so now my hands and arms can create some speed, good lag. I’m still going to rotate my body through the shot.

I’m going to use speed from my body that I don’t have to try to rip out of it like I may have to with a one plane, and really get a lot of speed from the body. It’s a great blend of the benefits of both of those.

Then also, as I’m coming down and shallowing out the club like we talk about in The Move, I don’t have that far to go, I can really easily get that to where I want to be in the downswing.

So here’s what I recommend to do if you want to get that nice blend. I recommend for older players, players over 50, one-plane swing really just isn’t the best to go for. I know I’ll probably catch some slack on that, but that’s what I’ve seen. It’s a little bit tougher on the body. You may disagree with me, there’s players out there that are big-time one plane advocates that may not like that, but that’s just what I’ve seen from my own personal experience, from what I mentioned before.

What I would recommend, let’s do these drills to where you come back, your arms are pointed about somewhere in that two- to three-foot range outside the golf ball as you come back.

As you come through, my arms are going t be pointed just a little bit outside the golf ball, so I’ve stayed in my posture.

I’m going to let my hips clear out of the way, I do want to let them rotate going back, and rotate coming through as I’m coming in my follow through. Then I’m going to go ahead and finish my swing.

Now if you’re checking this on camera, a great way to visualize this to see which one if you’re doing this correctly, is if you go ahead and set up a camera down your toes – I’ll go ahead and scoot up here so we can see this a little bit easier.

If I look at my arm, it should be slightly above my shoulder angle. So if my shoulder angle’s here, my left arm is going to be slightly above that. If I get way up here, that’s OK, you can do that. Bubba Watson, like I said, won millions of dollars doing that, but that may be getting a little to the extreme.

If I see it matching my shoulders, that may be a little bit to the extreme the other way, we could possibly lose some distance as we get older.

Let’s pick out the plane that we like, let’s do those drills. Practice getting in those checkpoints that I showed you there, and then after you come into this follow through checkpoint, then we can go ahead and rotate up out. We’re going to be standing straight up and down, rotating through the shot.

Let’s try about 50 to 100 reps of those, just with your arms. Let’s take a club, and let’s recreate that same type of swing. Let’s see how I do.

All right, guys. Find a good plane for you, get some nice speed on those shots. Good luck to you guys.