The Golf Swing Plane and Circle - Natural or Manipulated

The Golf Swing Plane and Circle: Natural or Manipulated?

The golf swing is a bit strange in that some of the observed behavior just happens, while other aspects are enforced or acted upon. You have the observed golf swing plane and the circle that your swing produces. What should you actively do, and what is simply happening naturally? Is it smarter to keep it natural, or do you benefit from manipulating it?

For reader context: this article is a part of the FMM Swing Academy and mostly relates mostly to the Big Arc Swinger pattern. If you land on this article, then start here instead – it provides context.

The Golf Swing Plane – Natural or Intentionally Manipulated?

Most golfers have come across the advice: swing from the inside out. More advanced golfers have been subject to: exit low and left. Both of these are in fact directional manipulations of a natural swing plane.

Any time you try to manipulate the swing plane with directional intent you are indeed offsetting the natural power creation of the golf swing. Does this mean that you can’t? No. Does it mean that you shouldn’t? Yes, kind of.

When you manipulate the golf swing, you set forces off balance, which means you have to constantly correct those manipulations through training. This is something most golfers, even scratch handicappers, deal with regularly. Even Ben Hogan, for example, manipulated the natural swing plane by opening the blade excessively in his backswing, which forced more opening in the downswing. As a result, he needed to train more than most. In contrast, take someone like Ian Woosnam, who arguably had the easiest golf swing of his generation. He could go to the first tee, in a pretty bad state, and effortlessly hit the ball. Why? He never manipulated anything. Sure, a little fine-tuning might have been necessary, but you get the point.

What I propose with the Big Arc Swinger pattern is that the swing plane that is created from using my power creating and accelerating mechanisms takes care of the plane without you having to manipulate it. In other words, there is a way to produce intentional swing planes that aren’t manipulated with hand path stimulation but with backswing position. A much easier way of producing shot shapes.

What’s the benefit of keeping the swing plane natural? You don’t offset the balance, so you need to put much less effort into keeping your swing in tune.

The Existing & Forced Circle – Is the Swing Linear or Rounded?

Swinging around yourself is common advice for golfers who lack rotation. Let’s dig into that advice for a second. If you start thinking of the club moving in a circular motion, you’re actually adding another circle to an already existing one.

Given that we rotate our bodies in the backswing, we’ve created the foundation for a natural circle (what I call the existing circle). If you then add a forced circle on top of this, you’re likely to get your arms stuck behind your body in the downswing.

The same goes for the down- and through-swing. Let’s use the downswing as an example. Let’s say you’ve performed a solid backswing that puts you in a “non-stuck position.” If you then start swinging around yourself, you’ll automatically manipulate the hand path to the left, which will offset the existing circle, causing you to come from the outside. The forced circle doesn’t help you in a sustainable way. It might, however, help momentarily if the forced manipulation matches an existing fault.

So, let’s flip the coin and look for an easier way to do it. If you are completely linear in your intentions and let the circle do its job (it knows how to do it), you won’t offset anything. The trick is to know where to aim your linear intentions. In the backswing, it’s slightly to the inside (the body takes care of the rest). In the downswing, it’s just where you came from, and in the through-swing, it’s actually not what you think. Going straight towards the target is not natural from a circle perspective. The old-timer intention of throwing a meatball into your own mouth is closer to it.

This is tricky stuff, and that’s exactly why I have a system for my swing teachings.

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