You see…if you do not get your club on plane, you will have to make additional compensations to hit the golf ball. Most likely with your hands in the form of a flip, or handsy release. This adds a timing component to your golf swing, in which sometimes you might hit it good, and others you’ll hit it terrible.

Your swing plane is dictated mostly by your address position (see below pic of Hunter Mahan). At address, you would draw a line from the clubhead, through the shaft, continuing up through y0ur body. This is the plane you should be coming into when you impact the golf ball. There is some variance as to being a little above that initial plane, or slightly below it, but you must keep it in a tight range either way.

If you look at the 2 pictures of Hunter Mahan, who is considered one of the best ball strikers on tour, in the halfway down position, he is slightly over the plane, which is completely acceptable. And, if he where slightly under that plane, that would also be acceptable.

The problem occurs when you are dramatically over or under the plane.

What’s The Solution?

If you’ve read any other articles on this site, you’ll know I’m a big believer in the use of training aids. Especially the ones that allow you to hit balls while using them. This is the fastest way to improve your golf swing plane.

I have seen success in my own swing using the golf swing plane trainer. If you’re frustrated with your results, I’d recommend taking a look at this training tool by clicking on the Learn More button below.

You see…I have hyper mobile elbows and shoulders, and as that was very good for my javelin throwing days, in golf I’m finding it’s not so good. Especially in the left elbow.

After nearly 20 years of studying the golf swing, taking hundreds of lessons, buying all the instruction DVDs, etc., I recently came across a fault that I think may change my entire golf swing, so I hope by writing about it, it may help you as well.

I had my son take a quick picture (after a workout) to show you how my left elbow hyper-extends.

So what happens is, at address I basically lock it (without knowing it until now), which hyper-extends it and creates a ton of tension up into my left shoulder. Now going back, that might be okay, but coming down into impact this is a major problem.

You see…the left elbow needs to be able to bend (release) shortly after impact to achieve the proper release of your hands, as well as maintain the connection to your body with your upper arm.

I want to make perfectly clear that your left elbow should not overly bend in the takeaway, or at the top of your backswing, but it also, should not be locked (hyper-extended) like mine either.

So the best of both worlds is to feel like the elbow is soft (just slightly bent a fraction) at address; during your backswing, and definitely coming down and into impact, and beyond.

When I came upon this revelation, I realize this was causing a “jammed up” feeling at impact (see image below) with my left shoulder scrunching up into my traps, and it was actually blocking my release of the club.

At this point in the golf swing (impact), my left elbow should start to bend, and the upper left arm re-connect to my side for my club to swing back to the inside naturally. As you can see in the above picture, this will not happen with a locked, hyper-extended elbow.

When I let my left elbow bend at this point, my hands release easily and naturally, and my left upper arm comes back in close to my side with the club freely swinging left around my body.

I am quite excited to go out and work on this, as I know in my gut, improving the motion of my left arm in my golf swing will help me compress the ball, and take a nice dollar-sized divot, “after the ball”.

Want To Learn The Correct Connection For Longer Drives

Along with this swing change I’m making, I’m using the golf swing connection aid to help me learn the correct feel of my left arm staying connected to my body coming through impact.

Most amateurs (myself included) have never learned the very fine movements of the lower arm, wrists and hands through impact, and when you do, you’ll be amazed at how different it is from what you’re doing now.

We’re going to focus on the critical area of 2 feet before impact, and 2 feet after impact. Take a look at pre-impact below. Notice how the right upper arm is connected to body, with the right elbow directly in front of the hip.

The lower right arm (forearm) is rotated counter-clockwise, with the right wrist bent back on itself. This is a very powerful pre-impact position, loaded with a ton of lag.

This is a position you can work on in front of a mirror in your home or office. Get in this exact position, and look at it intently in front of the mirror, then look down at it to get a different view of it.

I want you to really feel this position. Get it implanted in your brain. The more you can get this in your head, the better it will automatically happen when you swing.

Now that you have this ingrained, lets take it to the “moment of truth”…impact!

Look at the below picture and see what the right lower arm (forearm), wrist and hand has done.

In looking at the above picture, you first must realize this golfer has rotated (pivoted) through impact, to get to that position. This was not an independent move of just the arms.

Look at how much the hips and shoulders have rotated to get there. This is critical to know when you do this drill in front of a mirror. With that being said, one of the only changes in these 2 positions is the extension in the right elbow, which nearly straightens the right arm.

But also notice the turning down of the last three knuckles of the left hand. This is very much a Ben Hogan move (bowing of left wrist at impact) which produces amazing compression on the golf ball.

Doing this drill will “educate your hands” as to the exact motion for a powerful impact. I’m confident to say, most, if not all amateur golfers have not achieved these positions, and when done correctly will feel quite different.

Want To Speed Up Your Learning

In the above pictures, the golfer is using a unique golf wrist release aid that is not on any other website but this one.

Because my schedule is so busy, I only work with a few golfers here in Scottsdale, in their homes. I do not have a fitness studio, so I come to you. You don’t need a fancy home gym to do a golf fitness program.

I have time in my schedule for 1-2 golfers who are serious about their golf game, and improving their golf swing power. I normally work 2-3 times per week with each client to oversee, and guide them with their golf fitness results, as well as work with them on their swing issues that are affected because of physical issues.

I’ve studied golf swing biomechanics for over 15 years now, so I can blend mechanics and fitness to eliminate swing faults and improve ball striking and consistency.

If you’re looking to improve your driving distance and golf swing consistency, and want to find out more, you can contact me and I will discuss your goals and how I may help you.

“The dog waggling the tail”

If you think of the above statement, you can directly apply it to how your arms move in your golf swing. The body should control the arms, not the arms control the body. When you apply the pivot of your body into your swing, you will be amazed at how consistent and powerful you hit the golf ball.

Golf Swing Takeaway

One Piece Connected Arms Swing Takeaway

Look at the picture of Hunter Mahan I took from a youtube video. Hunter has one of the best swings in golf, so it’s a good one to model.

Look at the yellow triangle I drew between his shoulders, arms and hands, and look at how there is no independent movement of any these.

Your shoulders (upper body) pivot back rotationally to start your backswing. They do NOT move to the side, nor do you pick the club up with your hands (premature wrist cock), or an early bending of the right elbow (which is what I do).

Golf Backswing

Connected Arms Golf Swing

I want you to look at Hunter’s right elbow for a second. It has not started to bend even this far into his backswing. He has not picked up the club with his hands or arms.

Look how wide his swing is, which produces a ton of power. And also notice the separation between his arms. Look at all that space in there!

A common fault for amateurs (I do it), is we bend the right elbow too soon, which picks the club up, creating a vertical swing, that gets steep and off plane. So again, you are only thinking of continuing to rotate your shoulders at this point, no independent hands or arm movement.

Top Of Golf Swing

Hunter Mahan Top Of His Golf Swing

Again, with a longer club like driver, it would get to parallel, but the body and arm positions (and shoulder rotation) would look about the same. The left arm might be a bit higher at the top.

If you could see his right elbow it still is not bent that much, which makes it very easy to just rotate down into impact without having to time a release of his elbow. It’s not even close to 90 degrees bent.

So you can see that the arms are going along for a ride all the way to the top, driven by the pivot of his upper body, over a very stable lower body.

The slight bending of the right elbow as he gets near a full turn is what gets the club to that perfect position at the top. He has not lifted it with his arms away from his body.

Golf Downswing Arm Motion

Hunter's Connected Arms Post Impact

When you stay connected in your golf swing, you are in perfect sync to rotate the heck out of your upper body. You’ll be on plane coming down, with a lot of lag.

Look at the through swing of Hunter Mahan (picture to right). It’s a mirror image of his early backswing (takeaway).

He has a perfect triangle between shoulders, arms, hands and club (connected arms). You can see he is still directing his swing with his pivot of upper body motion, not independent arms or hands.

If you can just think of swinging the triangle back and through, even with just partial shots to see how connected and solid it feels.

Here’s A Quick Way To Learn And “Feel” A Connected Arm/Body Golf Swing

I am a huge advocate of golf specific training to improve swing consistency and power. I’ve been using with a lot of success, the Connected Golf Swing Trainer, as I wear it when I hit balls to really feel my arms staying connected to my body as I swing the club and make contact with the ball.

You can click on the picture below to find out more!

Connected Golf Swing Trainer

At address, depending on the club you’re using, creates a specific shaft angle. From a down the line view, if you drew a line from the bottom of your club where the head is, up the shaft and through your body, that is your shaft plane line.

Golf Swing Takeaway Tip

When you take the club away, it should be with your shoulders, not an independent hand or wrist movement (like I use to do). If you take the club away independent of your shoulders and upper body, you will quickly get the shaft off plane, and the club disconnected from your body.

A common fault is to have the club get further away from you in the early part of the takeaway. If you do this, you will then have to make a drastic drop to the inside coming down, which is an “added move” you shouldn’t have to do, if you were on plane going back.

So your takeaway tip is to take the club back 12-24 inches with no wrist cock, and the upper body doing all the movement. No hands, wrists or even elbow bending at this point.

A good checkpoint is to stop at about 2 feet back in takeaway, and look down at your clubhead. It should still be pointed at an extended target line directly behind the ball.

Backswing Continued

Another checkpoint is when the clubshaft is parallel to the ground. Your club shaft should be parallel with your target line. The toe of the club should be nearly pointing to the sky.

At this point, you’ve basically continued rotating your upper body, arms, hands and club back in “one-piece”. With no independent hand, wrist or elbow action, and your upper arms staying close to your body, with no separation.

Halfway Back In Your Backswing

This may be the most important checkpoint in your backswing to make sure you are on plane. I do this drill in a mirror almost daily.

When your left arm is parallel to the ground, you should have completed your wrist cock, with a slight bend of the right elbow, as you’ve continued rotating back. If you’ve done this correctly, the butt of your club will point at an extension of your target line, about 3 to 4 feet behind your golf ball.

Make this halfway back swing, stop and check if you are on plane. Do it 10 times without stopping, with the last 2 having your eyes closed to be able to “feel” what it’s like to be on plane at this point in your backswing.

Top Of Your Backswing

If you got to the position mentioned above, then all you need to do is finish your shoulder rotation and you’re in a perfect top of the backswing position that is on plane, and ready to come down into impact with a lot of force and compression.

In a future article, we’ll talk about how to stay on plane in your downswing.

Golf Swing Plane Trainer

Here’s A Fast Way To Get Your Backswing On Plane

As you may have read in a previous article, I’m a big believer in the use of golf swing trainers, and the one I have used with much success is the Golf Swing Plane Trainer.

Click on the image to your left if you want to get an on plane golf swing fast!

I’m not talking about weight training like you see in your local gym, but what I am talking about is simple, easy, and effective golf exercises at your home.

Tubing Resistance Training

One of the most affordable and portable pieces of resistance equipment you can use for golf is resistance tubing. This is the rubber band looking stuff with handles. This is fantastic as you can attach it to a door and actually make golf downswings, as well as backswings, which will strengthen all your golf muscles to enhance your driving distance.

You can also do a lot of core rotational exercises that will really build up your long drive muscles. The versatility of this piece of equipment is what makes it my number one pick for golf training programs.

Dumbbell Training

My second choice for golf training equipment is dumbbells. They are quite affordable and portable, and all you need is a couple of pair to be able to complete a golf training program.

Being able to use each hand independently is very import to be able to work all ranges of motion that are specific to your golf swing.

Exercise Ball Training

You’ve seen these before. The big beach ball that people sit on in front of their computers, and for most people gather dust in their garages. If that’s you, blow off the dust and put it to good use.

The great thing about an exercise ball is all the core stabilization work you can do on it. This can be in tandem with dumbbells, tubing or even weighted medicine balls. And, if you spend a lot of time in front of a computer, this ball should be your chair, as it strengthens all your spinal erector muscles, as well as lower and upper back muscles, which will greatly benefit your golf swing by improving golf posture.

 Medicine Ball Training

The medicine ball goes back hundreds of years, and even today, plays a major role in the training program of most tour players. They all use these medicine balls for again, core work, as well as swing work. Doing “wood chops” is very similar to your golf downswing, but by training with a heavy medicine ball, you are developing explosive muscles, specific to the motion of the golf swing.

3 Minutes A Day For 30 Days To Increase Your Drives 20 Yards

I hear time and time again, how golfers say they are too busy to do a golf exercise program. I’m not hear to call BS on that, but instead tell you about a unique, golf training ebook that has one golf-specific strength or stretch movement a day for 30 days.

Click on the image to your left if you want to find out more.

The hips play a crucial role in not only power, but also how well you strike the ball on a consistent basis. Because the hips are part of your lower body, they are also part of your foundation or support to the ground.

There are several things the hips must do in your golf swing, but like anything else, overdoing it can also cause big problems. Getting this right should be of the utmost of importance to you if you want a powerful and consistent golf swing.

Hips Must Rotate

Because the golf swing is rotational, the hips must rotate too! It can be quite misleading to see the minimal hip rotation of the younger players on tour, and how much their upper body rotates, but this is not possible for most golfers, especially the ones over 50.

Your hips need to feel free. They need to easily rotate back and through during your swing. As long as you rotate your right hip back (behind you) during your backswing, without the right knee moving sideways, you’ll have maximum hip rotation, that creates a lot of coil in your core aread.

During the backswing your left hip ONLY responds to the rotation of your right hip, it does NOT independently rotate, nor does it cause the left knee to kick in too much during your backswing.

Golf Tip: In your takeaway, focus on your right pocket going directly behind you as much as it can.

Level Hips Throughout Golf Swing

I am currently working on this. If you rotate properly into your right hip, your hips should remain level, allowing you to make a downswing that is on plane, and compresses the golf ball.

If you’re like me, you may slide off the ball during the takeaway, then your right hip gets higher than your left at the top of your swing, causing you to come up, and back out of the shot to even make contact with the ball. If you hit thin shots, off the toe, you may be making this mistake.

Learning To Pivot In Your Golf Swing

I am a believer that the pivot of your body (hip rotation, and upper body rotation), is what hits the golf ball (think Hunter Mahan). If you have made a proper turn of both your lower and upper body going back (pivot), all you need to do is unleash this pivot coming down and through. I know it sounds easy, and it’s not, but you can make it that simple when you learn to make a proper pivot in your golf swing.

The Easy Way To Achieve The Correct Pivot To Hit Longer Shots

For most golfers, myself included, it is very difficult to make physical changes by just pounding golf balls. I use an aid that teaches me the proper feel of a powerful pivot. When you click on the image below, I want you to watch the video on that page. It may very well change your game forever!

One area I am really working hard on in my golf swing is my knees. I have what you would call over-active knees. They move too much, causing me to get off center with an improper weight shift, which results in many different mishits.

If you’re struggling to make solid contact with the golf ball, you might want to take a look at what your knees are doing in your swing. The lower body is the support structure of your golf swing. It provides the stable base to swing at up to 100 mph, and not get off balance.

Your feet are the only connection to the ground, so they must be firm into the ground. And right above your feet are your…knees. Unstable knees make your support structure very unstable, which then causes swing faults like lateral sway.

Solid Right Knee

To be even more specific is the back knee, or the right knee for a right-handed golfer. This is the culprit to sliding off (swaying) the ball in your backswing. I am guilty as charged. I fight this constantly, and I think part of it is my bad right knee (bone-on-bone) from a major knee injury throwing the javelin in college (tore 3 out of 4 ligaments “off the bone”).

Your right knee MUST remain in the exact position, and with the same flex as it is at from your address. It may rotate just a hair, but I mean minimal. The minute the right knee rotates too much, your weight has gone onto the outside of your right foot, and now you will have to slide laterally towards the target to get back to the ball.

This is what we call wasted motion in your golf swing.

Golf Drills For Stable Knees

One golf drill you may have seen is having a beach ball between your legs when you hit balls. This forces you to maintain knee separation during your swing, and ingrains a new feeling of a solid base from the ground up.

For about $2, you can get a ball at Target, and do this drill. You can even do it at home in front of a mirror, to make sure you are remaining stable as you make your golf swing.

You can also take a training stick ($5 at Home Depot) and insert into ground outside your right leg. There should be an angle to the stick that matches the angle in your right leg at address. Then make backswings where you don’t touch the stick with your entire right leg (even right hip).

Here’s How To Fix Right Knee In Your Golf Swing Quickly

Achieve A Stable Right Knee To Fix Golf Sway

I love to use training aids whenever I can, as it gives you the best feel of a correct move when you’re trying to make a change.

Notice how this aid keeps the right knee from moving laterally, which will dramatically improve your ball striking. This is the fastest way to cure golf swing faults like this.

Use this leg strap to fix golf sway in your swing.

The majority of senior golfers have lost a tremendous amount of strength and flexibility, which then results in a dramatic loss of yards and consistency.

Fitness On The Champions Senior Tour

I can tell you most of the Champion’s Tour players work out. In fact, Tom Kite has done several segments on the Golf Channel showing some of his golf exercises.

They have a fitness trailer that goes around with them to every tournament, and most of them take advantage of it by stretching, warming up, and strength training with the trainers that travel with the trailer, or they bring their own with them, and many times they double as their caddy.

The point I’m trying to get across is if they think it’s important, and they know it will help, not hurt their game, shouldn’t you model the best and do the same?

The Importance Of Strength For Over 50 Golfers

A lack of strength for older golfers is one of the main culprits to a loss in distance. If your muscles are weak, they don’t fire as fast, which slows down clubhead speed, and ultimately your distance.

Stronger golf muscles also protect your body from injury. A high percentage of senior golfers play in pain, or have an injury that’s keeping them off the course. Improving strength can both improve driving distance, and reduce injuries, allowing you to play pain-free golf for years to come.

You Gotta Stretch If You Want Longer Drives

Along with strength, flexibility is right up there. Tight muscles are fragile muscles. They have lost their elasticity, or simply their ability to stretch, to allow for a full backswing, and they pull on your spine creating low back and upper back pain, which severely decrease swing power and consistency.

Plain and simple, stretching FEELS GOOD!

I know many of you might be thinking that’s a crazy thing to say, but until you do it, you can’t judge it. Muscles are meant to be stretched, as our daily lives (mostly sitting) enhance muscle restriction, tension and increase pain.

Get Your Starting Point Right

One of the biggest issues I see with senior golfers when they start exercising is they go at it way to hard and fast. Even when they hire a trainer, they do too much too soon and get sore. Then the golfer gets discouraged that his game is suffering and usually quits before he can get through that “initial” soreness, and on his way to a fitter game of golf.

It is critical you accept your starting point (initial level of fitness), and “ease” into a program. If you haven’t done anything in years, then maybe the first week, you wake up and do 10 pushups and situps a couple of times. Then, after you’ve been successful, do a little more.

This is the way to be successful long-term with your golf fitness program.

Pro Tip For Senior Golfers

If you’re like most golfers you can’t afford to hire a private trainer. You’re talking about hundreds of dollars a month. The next best thing is golf fitness products. This can be a golf fitness DVD, or golf stretching DVD.