A Golfer’s Worst Mistake

By Joe Davidson 1 Comment

The worst mistake a golfer can make is to mis-diagnose what’s wrong with his or her golf swing. If you mis-diagnose your problem you wind up changing something that is right making your swing even worse and not fixing the actual problem. You will then be caught in a never ending loop of changing things to try to fix your swing but only by luck will you change “the right thing”, the actual thing that is causing your swing problem.

Fortunately, Symple Swing is simpler than other golf swings and because it’s so much simpler that it’s much, much easier to figure out what you’re doing wrong. Yes, you can still make mistakes with Symple Swing but now it’s much easier to correct those mistakes and get back in the short grass. Most of the time you should be able to identify what went wrong with one or two practice swings.

The key is to be objective and solve the problem systematically. Don’t beat yourself us saying you’re a bad golfer or anything like that. Just focus on solving the problem.

The Steps to Solving A Golf Swing Problem

1. Check your address position. A correct set up is very important with Symple Swing.
Go through the Symple Swing Diagnostic Checklist http://simplegolf.com/blog/full-swing/basics-full-swing/symple-swing-checklist/
That gives you over 20 step by steps things to check.

2. Step two is to figure out is the upper body or the lower body is causing the problem. For example, a slice (or a hook) can be caused by either the upper body or the lower body. If your slice is caused by your lower body and you start changing your grip because you think that’s what’s causing your problem, then you’re going to be in really big trouble.

To figure out if it’s the upper body or the lower body causing your problem try hitting some balls with your feel together (weight on the front leg). That pretty much eliminates the lower body action. If you hit balls with your feet together and you are still slicing then it’s likely (not 100% but probably 95%) that your problem is with your upper body (torso, arms or hands).

So if you hit balls with your feet together and your problem goes away then it’s likely your problem is with your lower body.

3. Lower Body
If you problem is with your lower body the first thing to do is re-read The Symple Turn – A simplied lower body motion for the golf swing. http://simplegolf.com/blog/full-swing/lower-body-action/the-symple-turn-a-simplied-lower-body-motion-for-the-golf-swing/ That will solve most of the lower body problems.

4. Upper Body
If you problem is with your upper body the first thing to do is make sure you are on-plane on your backswing and your downswing. Do the Swing Tracks Drill http://simplegolf.com/blog/simple-short-game/swing-tracks-drill-insures-youre-on-plane-everytime/ That will immediately tell you if you are on-plane (or off-plane).

5. Use the Simple Golf Support System
Submit a question through the Simple Golf HelpDesk http://www.SimpleGolf.com/helpdesk or on the Simple Golf Forum http://simpleswing.forumco.com or give us a call at 203-794-4900. We are here to help you be successful with Simple Golf.

Summary – When you have a golf swing problem do the following.

1. Go though the Symple Swing Diagnostic Checklist.
2. Hit some balls with your feet together
3. Review the “Symple Turn”
4. Review the Swing Tracks Drill
5. Use the HelpDesk, Forum or phone for help

Joe Davidson
Simple Golf

Single Plane Swing Or A Two Plane Swing?

By Joe Davidson Leave a Comment

Definition of a Single Plane Swing.

Very few people understand what a single plane swing is and there really is no such things as a two plane swing. Sometimes the swing plane seems as mysterious as the plane on Fantasy Island. We’re going to talk about what the swing plane is, how it works and why it’s so important?

You’ve probably heard about two plane swings and single plane swings. And you’ve probably heard phrase like dropping in the slot, flat swings and upright swings. We’re going try define those terms and to answer some of the common questions about the swing plane.

The center of your swing is the socket of your left shoulder (for a right handed golfer). Why do I say it’s the left shoulder not the right shoulder or the spine. That’s because at impact it’s the left side of the body controlling things. It is the left side (upper arm and forearm) that’s in line with the club shaft at impact. The top most point of the left side involvement is the left shoulder.

The left shoulder being the center of your swing arc is one of the two points that define your swing plane. That’s the geometric plane that ideally your club follows on the backswing and downswing. The other point that defines the plane of the swing is the ball. So if you draw a line from just under your front shoulder to the ball at address you’ve just defined your swing plane. That plane indicates the position you want the club to wind up in at impact. Being On-Plane means you are on the desired plane of the swing (about 45 degrees). The swing plane is usually pictured as a large sheet of plywood or as a large sheet of glass as Ben Hogan did in his most famous book. Viewed from overhead the swing appears to be an inside to square to inside motion.

: Here the white circular swing trainer indicates the correct swing plane.
When viewed from above it seems to be inside to square to inside.

Golf Digest in the September 2006 issue has an interesting article about the swing plane. It’s on page 100 and it’s called The Slot Swing. It has some interesting pictures of the angle of the swing plane on pro’s backswings and their downswings. Essentially, Jim McLean defines being in the slot as being on plane at impact. He goes on define through testing that the average impact position plane is about 45 degrees and can vary a bit depending on the height of the golfer. He then illustrates the swings of a number of PGA pros who have backswing planes of 48 degrees to 85 degrees. That means these pros take the club back off plane up to 40 degrees OFF-PLANE and then they have to reroute or loop their club to get it back on that 45 degree downswing path. That rerouting is by definition a two plane swing.
At impact everyone’s swing plane is the same (relatively the same depending on height as mentioned above). The question is how to get there. There is an easy way (single plane swing) and a more complex way (dual plane swing).

A one plane swing is where you take the club back on a plane equal to your impact position (about 45 degrees) and your downswing is also about 45 degrees. I firmly believe a one plane swing is dramatically easier for everyone.

Is There Such A Thing As A Two Plane Golf Swing?

I say no. There is an on-plane golf swing also referred to as a One Plane Swing and there is an Off-Plane Swing. The two plane swing takes the club off-plane and then you have to reroute it and manipulate it to get it back on-plane during the downswing. This can

Can you be successful with a two plane swing (an off-plane swing)? Yes, sure. But it’s a lot easier to be successful with a one plane swing. Take a look at the players on the PGA Tour. Most of them grew up on a golf course. Many of them have family members who were pros who guided them All of them have spent ten’s of thousands of hours grooving their swings. They practice enough and are highly skilled enough to groove almost any swing. All of them are skilled athletes, many at several sports, or as Scott Hazledine has said, “They are freaks of nature.” That’s meant as a compliment meaning that these guys have extremely high level skills.

Unfortunately we do not generally have the opportunity to spend that kind of time or money on grooving our golf swing. That’s why we need a simple single plane swing. Unless golf is the most important thing in your life and you spend the majority of every day playing or practicing I believe you’re adding unnecessary complexity to your golf swing if you anything other than a single plane swing.

I define things a little differently than Jim McLean does. I don’t think there is any in the slot position. I just simply call that being on-plane. I don’t believe you should drop in the slot because I don’t believe you should ever be out of the slot. With your golf swing I believe you are either On-Plane or you are not. It’s that simple. If you’re not on-plane then you are OFF-PLANE either above the plane or below the plane.
Natural Golf popularized the high hands set up position. This position has the advantage of setting you up On-Plane automatically right at address. When you start On-Plane you have a much better chance of coming back to impact On-Plane. Again I believe if you’re not using a hands high position at address you’re again adding unnecessary complexity to your golf swing.

So the next question you should be asking is how you can tell if your swing is On-Plane. Video is the easiest way. Just video yourself from behind (video aiming toward the target). If you don’t have a video camera, stand with a mirror or patio door behind you. Then as you do a slow motion backswing watch where the image of the shaft crosses your body. It should cross near the level of your front shoulder.

What happens if your swing is OFF-PLANE? Usually bad things happen when you are not On-Plane.
“Above the plane” backswings usually involve lifting the club with the shoulders or the hands. The club generally gets “too vertical” meaning that the butt end of the club points inside the extended target line. If you get too steep (above the swing plane) it gets very difficult to get your downswing back on plane. What usually happens is an Outside-To-Inside swing causing a pull.

A “Below the plane” swing involves bringing the hands back too much to the inside (below the swing plane) and the butt of the club points outside the extended target line. Quite often this can result in a push or a high weak shot to the right (for right handed golfers). This can also result in a hook if the club face stays square to the target.

I believe you will see the Single Plane swing become the dominate swing of the future because of its simplicity and repeatability.

Joe Davidson
Simple Golf

The Best Golf Training Aid Ever Made

By Joe Davidson Leave a Comment

This Golf Training Aid Will Help You More Than Any Other!

I’ve seen about every golf training aid made in the past 50 years however I believe the all time best golf training aid is the small modern digital still camera. I’m referring to the type that not only takes pictures but also takes video clips (most of them do). I honestly believe that a small digital camera that takes video clips will help you more than any other golf training aid out there. The new handheld mini video cameras (the Flip, Kodak, etc.) are great too.

I now use a very small Casio camera (Casio Exilim EX-FC100) that actually takes pretty good slow motion video of golf swings. I use to use a Canon SD800 camera and it worked fine. Both are about the size of a cell phone so I can easily clip it to my belt or put it in my pocket. There are a number of other brands that make nice little cameras beside Canon and Casio (Sony, Nikon, Olympus, etc.) Just make sure you get one that takes video clips also

With my camera I can change from still pictures to video clips with the press of one switch. It has a 2 ½ inch LCD screen so it’s big enough to review a swing clip right on the lesson tee. Push the button once the camera starts recording. Push the button again and it stops.

I do have a “real video camera” but I just don’t use it often. It’s just a little bulky to keep it with me all the time. The Canon is so small and so easy to use I just always take it with me.

I often video swings of my students because when students can actually see themselves in action it makes a bigger impression on them than me just telling them what they’re doing wrong. When the students see themselves in action the learning progresses much faster.

The video is recorded on a plug-in SD (Secure Digital) card. To use the video I can plug the camera right into my computer or take the card out and plug that into a card reader on the computer. Most of the small cameras record the video in AVI format which is a standard Apple video format that is easily read by PC’s and Apple’s. In that format it’s easy to e-mail. If the file is real big it can easily be sent using a free large file transfer service like www.Pando.com.

Here’s The Interesting Part:
As part of our Symple Swing package we send our students a Diagnostic Check list that is a list of things to check when they’re having a problem. We often ask students to video (preferably with a small digital camera) a swing or two and email us the video clip. Quite often the students video their swings AND THEN DON’T EVEN SEND US THE VIDEO. This is actually a good thing not a bad thing. This happens because when the student sees his swing (and checks the check list) he can quickly see what’s he’s doing wrong himself. He can see the problem and with the checklist quickly figure out what he should be doing Most of the time when students see their swings they can’t believe what they’re actually doing because that’s not what they think they’re doing.

Sometimes they’ll send the video in anyway just to get their diagnosis confirmed. Almost always they are right on with what they see.

You can get a high quality small camera for well under $250 and probabably well under $200. Add a $20 or so for a small tripod or clamp to hold the camera (in case you don’t have any golfing friends to help you) and you’re in business. The nice part of getting this “training aid” is that it can also do double duty taking pictures of the family. In most families that means it will be a lot easier to get “budgetary approval” for the digital camera than it would for some other $300 golf training aid.

A tip: It’s a great idea to video your swing when everything is really going well. Then, in the future when you’re having a problem you can compare that swing to a “known good swing”. That often make picking out what’s going wrong even easier. We should all keep a written log of our practice sessions but few of us do. Keeping a video log will really be helpful when trying to solve future problems.

You don’t have to be hitting balls to always see the problem. Most of the time your can just video some practice swings in the backyard and your swing problems will be quite evident.

When you video a swing you should record a couple of swings from behind (facing the target) and a couple of swings head on (with the camera on the other side of the ball from you).

I firmly believe that a small digital camera that takes video clips will help you more that any other golf training aid out there. If you’re not videoing your swing regularly I think you’re hurting your golf game.

Joe Davidson
Simple Golf

The Best Training Aid Ever Made

I use a Canon SD800 camera now and it’s a joy to use. It’s about the size of a cell phone so I can easily clip it to my belt or put it in my pocket. There are a number of other brands that make nice little cameras beside Canon (Sony, Casio, Olympus, etc.)

With my SD800 I can change from still pictures to video clips with the press of one switch. It has a 2 ½ inch LCD screen so it’s big enough to review a swing clip right on the lesson tee. Push the button once the camera starts recording. Push the button again and it stops.

Here’s The Interesting Part:
As part of our Symple Swing package we send our students a Diagnostic Check list that is a list of things to check when they’re having a problem. We often ask students to video (preferably with a small digital camera) a swing or two and email us the video clip. Quite often the students video their swings AND THEN DOESN’T EVEN SEND US THE VIDEO. This is actually a good thing not a bad thing. This happens because when the student sees his swing (and checks the check list) he can quickly see what’s he’s doing wrong himself. He can see the problem and with the checklist quickly figure out what he should be doing Most of the time when students see their swings they can’t believe what they’re actually doing because that’s not what they think they’re doing.

Sometimes they’ll send the video in anyway just to get their diagnosis confirmed. Almost always they are right on with what they see.

You can get a high quality small camera for well under $400 maybe under $300 and soon no doubt under $200. Add a $20 or so for a small tripod or clamp to hold the camera (in case you don’t have any golfing friends to help you) and you’re in business. The nice part of getting this “training aid” is that it can also do double duty taking pictures of the family. In most families that means it will be a lot easier to get “budgetary approval” for the digital camera than it would for some other $300 golf training aid.

You don’t have to be hitting balls to always see the problem. Most of the time your can just video some practice swings in the backyard and your swing problems will be quite evident.

When you video a swing you should record a couple of swings from behind (facing the target) and a couple of swings head on (with the camera on the other side of the ball from you).

Joe Davidson