1. Is golf swing planar or not?
Young-Hoo Kwon, Ph.D.
Biomechanics Laboratory
Texas Woman’s University, Denton, TX
Is golf swing planar or not?
6th World Scientific Congress of Golf, Phoenix, AZ

2. Golf Performance Factors
Accuracy & consistency:
Distance
Direction
Planar Motion?
Planar motion = the simplest shape of motion
Simple motion  more accurate & consistent swing
Impact Conditions:
Motion of the clubhead (velocity)
Orientation of the clubface
Location of impact on the clubface

3. Swing Plane Swing Plane: Controversies: Mechanical Meaningfulness:
A frequently used but misleading concept
Controversies:
Different definitions
Single vs. multi-plane
Swing planarity
Mechanical Meaningfulness:
Plane of motion of the club
Directly related to the impact conditions

4. Functional Swing PlaneTB
All phases include BI. MF ED MD
New Approach:
Clubhead motion-centric
Portion of the downswing
(Kwon et al., 2012)

5. TB-MF
ED-MF
MD-MF

6. Actual Trajectory
Projected
Trajectory
Instantaneous
Rotation
Center
Rotation
Arm
Slope
Direction Angle

7. FSP & Swing Styles
Planar
Semi-Planar
Spiral

8. Shoulder-Ball Plane Double-Pendulum Triple-Pendulum Backswing Plane
(Hogan & Wind, 1957; Cochran & Stobbs, 1968)

9. Motion Planes of the Arm/Shoulder Points
L shoulder Plane
L hand Plane

10. Left
Shoulder
Right
Shoulder
Right
Elbow
Left
Hand

12. One-Plane vs. Two-Plane
Swing
Two-Plane
Swing
(Hardy & Andrisani, 2005)

14. On-Plane
(Haney & Huggan, 1999)

16. TA LB TB

17. ED MD BI

18. Rotation Center & Arm
Shape of Trajectory at BT
Smooth
Sharp

19. Sharp Transition near BI
Impact
Impact

20. A Bogey Player

21. Is Golf Swing Planar? Yes: No:
A well-defined FSP could be determined regardless of the overall shape of the swing.
FSP can be used in characetrizing a golfer’s swing.
No:
Motion planes of the arm points show large off-plane motions of the major players of the multi-pendulum model.
Validity of the double- & triple-pendulum models is questionable.

22. Thank you for
your attention!