Swing plane vs. swing path

I was on the practice tee the other day and i asked my student what he wanted to work on. He said he wanted to swing the club on a better plane. I asked him what meant but he couldn't give me a definitive answer. Swing plane is a term used by many teachers and golfers, and if you've been around the game, you've heard it too. What is a swing plane? Every piece of golf literature describes the swing plane as an imaginary line the golf club travels on. I don't like the term "swing plane". This leads to believe the golf club travels on an identical path on the takeaway and downswing. The reality is it doesn't. Analyze the best players in the world for yourself. I like the term "swing path". Chasing the "ideal swing plane" is futile. The real question is: what is the ideal swing path and does it exist? My answer is: there is no ideal swing path. Matt Kuchar has a flatter swing path than Keegan Bradley. Webb Simpson has an in to out swing, while Fred Couples has an out to in swing. They are all consistent ball strikers who have won at every level. Every golf swing has idiosyncrasies. These idiosyncrasies are not always swing flaws that have to be eliminated. They are simply a different way to swing the club. Some swings do need tweaking and improvement will be achieved with the right help. The best players in the world don't have perfect swings. Learn to swing the club on "your" path.

Joel Michaud
The Academy at The Canadian Golf Club

I've read a lot about this topic before but never realized how it affected my swing until now. Teachers never mentioned this to me, but on video I saw that my path was too flat on my irons and caused me to lose distance with the irons. I am taking the irons back more steep now and hitting straighter|farther.

Also, it's ok to be flatter with the driver than the irons. ;)

The driver swing will automatically be flatter than the iron swing simply because of the difference in club length. The extreme example is imagine swinging a club that is 10 feet long and how flat that swing would be. If you do happen to notice your driver swing and iron swing travel along a similar path, try standing further away from the ball with the driver. Glad your changes have worked

2nd round of testing out my new plane and i shot my best score of the year (77). irons now going much straighter.

If it is essential that, at impact, the club head has approached the ball from the inside, the hands are slightly ahead of the ball and the club face is slightly open, there is an ideal swing path, for each individual. Since a golf swing is the motion of 17 levers and their respective fulcrums, physics says that there is an "ideal mechanical advantage," and a bit of research will confirm this.

Therefore, the closer one moves his club and body, to the IMA, the higher the probability of a good shot. Back swings like Kuchar's, one extreme, or Furyk's, another extreme, are well away from their ideal plane, and require some form of compensation to move their arms back closer to this plane. Kuchar moves OUT, while Furyk loops his arms back while using a necessary, but excessive leg drive, and both play very well.

So while being obsessed with swing plane is not good, working towards what is ideal, is. Ball flight tells you how close you are to your ideal swing plane

I like to base my swing theories on the principles of simple physics, and everything I've come across speaks of a double pendulum system (arms and club), with two pivot points (shoulders and wrists). What are the other 15 levers? Also, my interpretation of a fulcrum is a fixed support about which a lever pivots, like the base or pivot point on a teeter totter. I didn't realize the golf swing had fulcrums, what are they? What are your sources as I'd like to read more about this.

Golfpro78, I am not a good golfer, a good teacher or a good kineisiologist. It seems to me that I am supposed to get leverage from coordinated movements of 2 ankles, 2 knees, hips, shoulders laterally, shoulders vertically, 2 wrists, two forearms ... I don't know if it gets to 17, but there are things pivoting all over the place, and pivots need something to pivot against. I doubt you and BCMist have a profound theoretical difference. You may have a definitional difference at most.