Golf Coaching and Swing Plane Theories

Abstract

Most commonly associated with the legendary golfer, Ben Hogan in his famous golf instruction book, the concept of swing plane is used by many contemporary golf coaches – including Hank Haney, who is Tiger Woods' current coach. While contemporary golf coaches point to flaws in Hogan's concept of swing plane, their own concepts do not fit easily with scientific accounts of swing plane, such as that in the book, The Search for the Perfect Swing, published in connection with the research carried out by the Golfing Society of Great Britain Scientific Working Party in the 1960s. There are clearly differences between ‘scientific’ and ‘teaching’ theories of swing plane. This article attempts to reconcile the science of the swing plane with the art of coaching this concept to players.