*jaw drops* Is this really true???

[BadGolfer]

No wonder my back swing is so bad and, quite honestly, painful to do. I've been trying to make my arms swing back most of the way, but is it really true that they just hinge upwards like that? Or is he exaggerating in the video?

[grantc79]

Pretty much spot on.

[kennay92]

Pretty much spot on.

what he said..

[James_Black]

I don't think about swinging that way.
I'm not sure if it's a good idea either, I tried a few swings and I was hitting slices.

[Shorty]

I don't think about swinging that way.

So what are you suggesting? That you should have on shoulder turn?

Steve Bann is one of the best coaches out there. He is merely pointing out a fact, not making a suggestion.

[iacas]

Fairly accurate. If you're a one-plane swinger you don't lift the club up, though - you simply maintain a straighter left arm (I wish he had in the video) and fold the right elbow. The folding the right elbow is more what lifts the club up - I'm not a big fan of lifting the club up with your left arm like he does.

So a one-plane swing is "fold the right elbow while maintaining a straight(ish) left arm, then turn about your spine between your shoulders."

BTW, folding the right elbow 90° will pull the left arm across your chest. That's why you never truly "keep your hands in front of you." The left arm DOES move to the right on the backswing relative to your chest. You can try that for yourself - stand up, grip a pen or something, and fold the right arm while maintaining a straight left arm. Add a shoulder turn (and some hip turn) and you've got a one-plane backswing. Lift your left arm off your chest if you want and you've got a two-plane backswing.

[Zeph]

The left arm straightens, so the arms do move sideways relative to the torso. If you only hinge the elbows, the hands would stay centered on the torso at the backswing, which they don't. The left arm would also be bent.

Also, I would recommend not lifting the arms as he does on the video. It separates the arms from the body and can cause all sorts of trouble. Keep the arms connected to the body. A good drill is to put a coint or something in your arm pits and swing without dropping them to the ground.
I would do it like this:

Stand up with the club in your hands, straighten the left arm to around 95%. Then, bend the right elbow to 90º. If you try bending it further than 90º, the left arm will start bending again. If you do this without rotating the upper body, the arms will have moved sideways with the left arm across the chest.

[saevel25]

To me on plane is on plane, i really could care less how someone gets there. Furyk is the prime example, his club is basically pointing straight up in the backswing, but he reroutes it downward. Fred couples does the same, he has a reroute into the slot. I think lifting like that makes it easier to reroute if you need to because if you reroute down then you will come on an inside out plane, but if you take it the other way you would need to keep it the same or you will reroute over the top.

[DavidFehertysBike]

Yeah, thats generally what happens. What can be a danger in this is applying the idea in its pure form without thorough practice. I dont know how to accuratly explain what i mean, but you dont want to consionously lift. Thats a one way ride into steep city!

[James_Black]

So what are you suggesting? That you should have on shoulder turn?

I'm just stating that you shouldn't consciously bring the club straight up and turn, it doesn't work.

[grantc79]

I'm just stating that you shouldn't consciously bring the club straight up and turn, it doesn't work.

Sure it does.

I'm with Iacas in which I don't recommend doing it by pushing the left arm but there is nothing wrong with lifting the club and letting a good shoulder turn take care of the rest.

[Tiger Spuds]

Works for him.

[KimboSlice]

I seem to remember Haney trying to get Barkley to swing like this on their show. Come to think of it, Haney tried to do this with Ray Romano because Ray was initially taking the club too far to the inside on his takeaway.

[BadGolfer]

I think I have already been doing this to SOME extent when I swing, but I can't wait to get out to the driving range now that I consciously know what to do.

Kind of a weird parallel, but when I was teaching myself a certain juggling trick, I couldn't get it for weeks. Then I watched a video that put the arm motions in a whole new light and I realized how to do it, even though I had technically been just about doing it all along.

[Rexx]

This is one of my "go to" suggestions for a lot of people asking for advice. Arms move up and down, shoulders turn. As others have pointed out, this isn't 100% accurate -- there is still some left-to-right movement of the hands relative to the shoulders/chest caused by the left arm staying straight while the right elbow bends to ~90 degrees. However, I've yet to see anyone that has been moving their arms too much laterally completely stop even when adapting this move. They usually are still going too far, but are at least in a better position. It's one of those corrective moves where you need to feel like you are overdoing it just to get closer to optimal.

[B-Con]

I tried to keep the three points from this video in mind today at the range. It really helped me not cup my wrist and helped cure the slice I've been fighting with my 7i and 5i. I've had a lot of trouble with my 5i this year, and today was the first day I hit it long and straight.

My driver was a different story, but all in all, I wish I'd seen that video a long time ago.