The Steep Forward Swing

Ideally, the club should swing forward in somewhat near the same plane that the shaft is in at the beginning of the forward swing. When the swing plane is too upright, or steep, this can't happen.

In the first picture the shaft is pointing almost straight down. The second picture shows what would happen if I were to come down in such a steep swing plane—my right arm gets stuck beside my body with nowhere to go (the ultimate block) and the club is too far inside to hit the ball. I've exaggerated the problem so it's easier to see.

The third picture shows another problem of a steep forward swing path. Notice that the clubface is wide open, pointing to the right by about 45 degrees. This is an example of the arms pulling across the body (block), which I mentioned on the previous page and is directly related to upright swings.

To compensate for the block and resulting open clubface, the golfer has to find some way to manipulate the club so that the face gets as close to square as possible at impact, swing after swing. The most common manipulation for the amateur golfer is the "over-the-top" and "casting" combination, which is where the golfer pushes the clubhead outside with arms and wrists at the beginning of the forward swing, and this is much easier to do from a steep position. This motion helps get the club out to the ball and also begins to close the clubface, but is very inefficient, which is why this is the worst of all possible manipulations. A second type of manipulation is the flipping of the hands (wrists) at the ball which can result in the "chicken wing" effect a little after impact. This can be seen with golfers whose swings are really messed up and/or don't have very good coordination. However, good players are able to use the flip very effectively because of their outstanding timing (and tons of practice). The third most common type of manipulation is rolling the arms over (trying to square the club by artificially closing it). Rolling the arms over is what most instructors tell their students is a correct release, but the rollover movement is nothing more than another manipulation to counteract the block that everyone fights. Very few golfers realize they block because their manipulations cover it up!

Note: good players who have steep backswing planes flatten their planes somewhat as they transition into the forward swing. They don't get the club into the positions shown on this page, but they all still have to manipulate.

Next Page—About Over-the-top and casting

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