Came across an article that talks about Haney's philosophy regarding the Swing Plane / Angle.
Quote:
If David Leadbetter promotes a "setting" of the club early in the backswing, if Harmon's clients tend to swing more vertically and re-route the club slightly on the downswing, Haney preaches the pursuit of absolute symmetry from start to finish, described by some as a perfect circle. "Hank teaches a more rounded move," Miller says. "You'd think that would result in a draw, but the funny thing is, since Tiger got with Haney, he's lost his hook. I like that he's hitting the ball with a tiny fade. That's a big improvement."
Haney doesn't disagree with those impressions but is willing to expound on his process of achieving an ideal swing plane: "My idea is that there is no one 'plane' in the golf swing, but there is one plane angle," he says. "Any [backswing] short of parallel should result in the club pointing left of the target line by the same amount. If you're 40 degrees short of parallel, you need to be 40 degrees left of the target. That is the key to getting the golf club to come down with the proper rotation of the arms.
"Why would you teach re-routing the club when you can strive for perfect symmetry?" -- Hank Haney
"That's why you don't hear Tiger saying he's getting 'stuck' anymore -- because his club is no longer crossing the line," Haney adds. "People who re-route the club tend to get stuck. Why would you teach re-routing the club when you can strive for perfect symmetry? I'm not saying there's an absolute right or wrong way of doing things, but that is what I teach. There are a lot of different ways of doing it, and Tiger Woods was incredibly successful doing things differently than the way he's doing them now."