Seeing the plane
 

While I understand the idea of tracing the plane line, and it's easy to get on a horizontal plane, my sense of whether I'm doing it right on an inclined plane has always been a little hazy. Here's something that's helped me.

Take a mirror and set it up so that it is angled about 20 to 25 degrees from the ground. By looking into the mirror from your setup position, you can now effectively see the plane (as a single straight line on the mirror). A smaller angle (approx 20 degreees) will work for the turned shoulder plane, while a larger angle will give you the elbow plane (aprox 25 degrees). If you can draw a straight line on your mirror, all the better.

Using a short club so you don't smash the mirror and gain seven years worth of double bogeys and lip outs you can now check.
- that you trace the plane line at takeaway and through impact
- that your right forearm gets on plane through impact
- that you finish swivel on plane
- that your right shoulder finds the plane at the top (tsp only)
- that your rght shoulder traces down the plane
- that you're not laid off or across the line at the top
- if your shifting (e.g. double shift) that you refind your original plane
- that you maintain a steady head etc.

And unlike with checking in a mirror behind you, you don't have to look up to check all this.

Setting up the mirror sounds complex, but it's not too hard if you just experiment with it. By adopting a smaller angle you can also practice tracing the plane line for putting this way.

Chris

ChrisNZ,
This sounds interesting and I would like to try it.

Could you please elaborate on the mirror position? I am assuming the mirror would be on your target line, but to the right of the ball? Or are you facing the mirror?

Thanks.

If you're in you address posture the mirror faces you, and is angled off the ground towards you. There is no ball, as it would have to sit on the mirror. A line drawn as if it were the target line could be drawn on the mirror. This represents the plane. If there was a ball, it would sit on this.

The idea is this: we have planes such as the turned shoulder plane, elbow plane and so forth. If it were possible to swing on the eye plane, the club would not appear to curve, but would trace a straight line.

Now imagine a picture of a golfer at setup viewed down the line/towards the target. Draw a straight line from the ball to their eyes. Draw another straight line to represent a selected plane angle. These two lines represent a beam of light reflecting off a surface. A mirror angled perpendicuar to an angle halfway between these two lines can be that surface. Now you can look at the mirror and 'see the [selected] plane' as a single straight line.

Hope this helps,
Chris

Chris you had me very excited there ...but ..how do you see the straight plane line trace unless you are on the "eye" plane.From what I understand from your description ,you will be looking between....lets say the turned shoulder plane and the "eye "plane.From address there is no way you could look along the plane line unless you could get your right forearm along the line of your eyes -and if you did your wrists would be uncocked and.....that is not a procedure .I really wanted that to work ! It would have made all our lives a lot easier:(

Don't try to swing on the eye plane - and definitely don't try to get your right forearm on the eyeline!!!!:smile:

What the mirror is doing is reflecting (or is it refracting - I don't know!) your eye plane onto a different plane. Imagine standing looking straight down onto a mirror (looking in a vertical plane) which is angled at 45 degrees to the ground. what you'll see in the mirror will be in a horizontal plane - kind of like the principal behind a periscope. The idea for this aid is the same, but your changing your "eye plane" to a turned shoulder plane, or elbow plane, or whatever.

To get the idea get a mirror and put it on your target line lying flat on the ground. Now lift up the edge which is furthest from you at address (the one parallel to your target line). Lift it up so the angle it forms with the ground is about 20 degrees or so. Put something under it so it stays there. Now take your address position so you can see your torso and hands in the mirror. now simulate a basic motion through the hitting area. See how your hands trace a pretty straight line (that is their reflection in the mirror)? The mirror may need to be adjusted slightly in terms of angle to get it dead straight depending on your height and plane angle used.

If you can do this, I think you'll get the idea.

Chris

Chris, just knocked the wall down in the bathroom -will try it when I escape from the wife!:smile:

Hmmmmm, Im not sure...I have two reservations about this...

After spending alot of time practicing indoors, one thing I have noticed is that generally if you look at your stroke in a mirror problems start occuring, mine usually come from not concentrating on a point on the ground to make sure I maintain a stationary head. If you where to do this, take the club back to where you want to check an alignment at a certain point and don't watch the clubhead go back, keep the eyes on a fixed point and then stop and only then check the mirror. It takes a certain amount of discipline do this this as we all want to see our stroke in motion....

Also I really don't like certain things relating to lines drawn on video tapes and have a feeling that this would fall under the same category because there is definately a perspective problem. Our eyes and video cameras produce a perspective view and not an orthagraphic or flat view, therefore the club to what seems like it is on a straight line maybe on plane at parts and offplane on others. If you where to use a perspective view, the only way I like to see it is if you produce an overlay of all frames - kinda like the strobe pictures of Bobby Jones but would prefer to see it at a slight angle at the side going towards the front, not dead on the side.... - I really think that the new golf stroke analysis programs should have an automatic process for this as I believe its the only way to precisely see what is happening.....

Perhaps...

But I think one advantage of this is you don't have to move your head to check your alignments. You might have to move your eyes, but that's not too bad. I actualy think you can probably just do it with your peripheral vision...

As to parallax and that kind of stuff, I don't really see it being an issue. Imagine a flat horizontal surface - like a table top - now imagine bringing your eyes in line with that surface, it appears as a virtually 2-d line. Now imagine a club moving on it - where's the perspective problem? This is what's happen when your club and hands are on the selected plane which you've set up with the mirror. I'm not sure that there can be perspective problems in 2-d!

As I said before, if you swung in the plane of your eyes to the ball, the club and your hands would appear to go straight back and through.

Chris

I'd love it to be correct Chris but after thinking about it I don't see how you can look along a line that is not in line with your eyes and get a true reflection.It may get close if the selected plane was close enough to the "eye plane "but your'e still splitting the differece between the two planes-if my understanding is correct.I think you will be viewing from above plane from the ground back up.

I set two cheap door mirrors side by side against a wall.
I grab any club for this example a 5 iron. Setup in front of the mirrors so you can see the ball and right shoulder (down the line view).

Set a broomstick/dowel (broom stick is longer) in the frame of the mirrors. The broom stick or dowel is set at the angle of the sweetspot of my club up through my desired shoulder plane. You may have to re-adjust several times to get it right.

Swing the club back (RFP naturally) and down - you could also use a double ended laser, double flashlight or dowels. Watch your hands/shaft ride up and down the broomstick. Even if your hands are slightly above/below the broomstick no matter as long as they remain parallel to the broomstick (on one plane).
I like to do the dowel drills as well in the mirror.
"LOOK, LOOK, LOOK"!!!