Lee Smacks a Tree

Yes, this is an academic put up. I are aware of it sounds like a loopy idea when you consider that nobody wants to smack a tree, but it is able to help you understand what phrases like "shedding the club," "dropping the membership into the slot," and "two-plane swing" imply.

On Saturday Lee Westwood hit a bad power on the primary hole at TPC Sawgrass. It ended up against a tree and Lee tried to manufacture a swing that would allow him reach the green in regulation. Here's the footage -- it suggests the real time swing (hitting the tree made him absolutely pass over the ball), observed by means of a slo-mo of the swing, then the chip out he had to accept:

Lee looks to be in good shape on the backswing, and if he had a "one-plane swing" he'd have been fine since the club would have come down on the same path (or if you prefer, plane) that he took it back.

Here's where it may get complicated. When maximum humans hear the term "-aircraft swing" they without delay count on that, at the downswing, the player's arms drop down below the backswing aircraft. This outcomes in a flatter downswing plane and in many instances it is precisely what happens. But if you vicinity your mouse pointer over Lee's fingers as they reach shoulder height, you may see that his arms retrace the identical direction on the manner down...

But the club head doesn't. You see, there's a second way to create a flatter downswing plane. Instead of dropping his hands, Lee merely pulls his trailing elbow in closer to his side on the way down. When he does, it changes where the shaft of the club is pointing -- from up over his shoulder to behind his back -- and that makes the head of the club swing in a loop behind him.

If you test his elbow function while his fingers are at shoulder stage on the backswing and then examine his elbow position while his hands reach shoulder stage at the downswing, you could see pretty a difference. Here, I've snagged stills from the video and marked the shaft in crimson. Compare his elbow positions to the white waistband of his pants:

See the difference? Although his elbow is blurry in the downswing, you can clearly see that it's lower in the downswing photo than it is in the backswing photo. In essence, Lee has flattened his backswing by bowing his trailing (right) wrist a little bit. That's part of the reason he usually hits the ball so cleanly; that slightly bowed wrist helps him squeeze (or as some players say, trap) the ball against the ground more solidly.

Alright, allow me try to sum this up so it is a piece clearer. There are ways of knocking down the downswing plane in a two-plane swing:

1. Drop your hands. You do this by dropping both elbows straight downward a bit when you start your downswing.
2. Bow your trailing wrist. You do this by dropping ONLY your trailing elbow straight downward a bit when you start your downswing. It feels like your lead arm stays in place at the top.

Both one-plane swings and two-plane swings are solid time-proven methods of swinging a club under normal conditions... but in this situation, the two-plane method cost Lee some strokes.