Golf swings fall into one of two basic types—one-plane and two-plane. Golfers with one-plane swings bend over more and swing around their bodies more. Conversely, golfers with two-plane swings stand upright more and shift their weight from back to front. Both swing types can help a golfer chop strokes off his golf handicap. Which type you use depends on your natural swing tendencies. The key is finding which swing type works best for you and mastering its fundamentals. Last time, we provided golf tips on the one-plane swing. Below we provide golf tips on the two-plane swing.

One way to think of the two swing plane types is to imagine an airplane trying to land on a concrete runway. Too much forward movement keeps you circling the airport. Too much up and down movement sends you crashing into the ground. Neither event is good. A swing like the one we teach in our golf lessons employs the right combination of forward and backward movement. To improve your golf handicap, you must first determine if you’re a one- or two-plane swinger.

What Kind Of Swinger Are You
The following drills can help you decide what type of swinger you are: First, stand farther from the ball, bend over, and hold your driver like a hockey stick. Now swing in a flatter more “around” path. Next, stand upright, swing back, and thrust your hips at the ball before your arms swing through. If you hit better shots from the first position, you’re a one-plane swinger. If you hit shots from the second position, you’re a two-plane swinger.

Ever player has his own natural swing tendency. For two-plane swingers, timing, tempo, and rhythm are key watchwords. The two-plane swing is ideal for hitting the flat-faced (long) irons in your bag, like the 3-iron and 4-iron. The two-plane swing is not so ideal when hitting short irons. To improve short-iron play, two-plane swingers should focus on golf tips designed to get them swinging on a more in-to-out swing path and on a flatter arc through impact than that of a one-plane.

Golf Tips For A Two-plane Swingers
Two-planer swingers favor a left-to-right shape for their “go to” shot. In other words, they like to hit a gentle fade. Not playing the ball forward enough—opposite the front heel—can cause a two-planer’s fade to become a weak push slice. Two-planers also need to be careful they don’t push their hands forward after moving the ball up in their stances, disturbing shoulder alignment. Keeping the hands slightly behind the ball for two-planers squares shoulder alignment.

Two-planers tend to come down on the ball steeply. That makes hitting short irons a challenge. Doing drills designed to create the feel of a longer, flatter bottom of the swing helps two-planers to improve their short iron play. Another way two-planers can make short-iron swings easier is to hit more three-quarter punch shots. Restricting the backswing and the follow-through takes much of the “up” out of the swing.

Keys For Two-plane Swingers
If you’re a two-plane swinger, keep the following golf tips in mind:

* Stand upright a little more. Standing tall facilitates the transfer of weight that your swing needs.
* Keep the hands relatively relaxed and hanging in front at address. Don’t reach for the ball when swinging.
* Push your hips through the ball to keep them in front of your arms on the downswing. This gets the club moving automatically on an in-to-out basis.
* Pull the club down with your left arm (right, if your left-handed) on the forward swing. Resist the temptation to swing your arms really fast.

There are many ways to swing a golf club. The best are covered in golf instruction sessions. But all golf swings fall into one of two categories. They’re either a one-plane swing or a two-plane swing. Neither is better than they other. Which you use depends on your natural swing tendencies. But to take your game to the next level, you must determine the type of swing that fits you. Then work on drills that help perfect this swing type, so you can chop strokes from your golf handicap.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 17th, 2011 at 1:51 pm and is filed under Golf Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.