Skill Drills with Meredith Kirk: Hula Swing Plane

Meredith:           All right, everyone. Today we’re going to work on your swing plane. I have two alignment sticks and a hula hoop. This is going to be a lot of fun.

                                What I want you to do is I want you to get a hula hoop. You can just place it around your neck here, on the back of your neck. What you’re going to do is you’re going to walk into two alignment sticks that you’ve placed in the ground. I’ve already set mine up for my plane, but what you can do is if you stick two in the ground, go ahead and put your hula hoop down to rest on the sticks. What you can do is get in your address position, pretend you’re gripping a club.

                                At that point, you can move these alignment sticks up or down, depending on if you have a more upright swing or a flatter swing. I have a little bit of a flat swing, so I have mine set up for my swing right here. I love this drill. This is so much fun because what you do is you get set up here; again, the hula hoop’s resting on the back of my neck. Go ahead and get your grip.

                                Now, when we work on plane, it’s best to work on plane at the beginning of your swing, your takeaway, and then also through the swing at impact, coming through. We’re primarily going to focus on the area between the alignment sticks. Your takeaway, and then on your downswing, coming through the shot. This is going to help maintain a square club face, as well.

                                Here I am, right here. What you want to do is you just want motion out, in slow motion, the takeaway. Your hands will stop when you get to this side of the alignment stick here, your takeaway. Then, I want you to think about maintaining a square club face down and through the shot. Again, you can stop right here, right in this area, on this side of the stick. What you’re going to do is bring the hula hoop back to center and you just motion out here, and down the target line, through the shot.

                                I love this drill because it helps slow everything down. I love slow motion swings, when you’re learning a new concept, building muscle memory. It’s a great drill to do if you just want to think about swing plane. I would encourage you to motion this out 8 to 10 times. Then, when you’re done, you can just get rid of the hula hoop, you can go ahead and get rid of these alignment sticks, and set up, and actually hit some balls with just maybe a half swing, working on how this feels. I really want you to connect to the feeling of plane.

                                If you want to work on your swing plane, grab your alignment sticks and a hula hoop, and you have a self-made plane gadget that you can have fun with. All right? I hope this helps you as you work on your swing plane to hit better shots out on the course.