guan tianlang's flat backswing

[garyinderry]

How does he make this work for him? I thought I had the flattest swing in the world but this kid shades it and shoots great scores.

My swing has got less flat as I swing quite a bit in the house these days and if I swung like I did (similar to guan) I would smash the stairs.

I had been thinking of going back to my super flat swing as I seem to be have shifted to an OTT motion. This has only reinforced my thinking. I am going to give it a whirl again this weekend. watch out behind me. :rofl:


[video=youtube;qjXUO6CGYzY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjXUO6CGYzY[/video]

 

[garyinderry]

[video=youtube;Hfz0T2XgXpA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfz0T2XgXpA[/video]

 

[Matty]

In the first video I'm not sure his swing is that flat - I think the camera angle is from above which makes it look flatter. His left arm seems to be in line with his shoulder plane at the top of the swing though. Happy to be told that's flat though - I'm no expert!

 

[One Planer]

Nearly as flat as mine

 

[pendodave]

I play every now and them with a guy whose swing is at least as flat as the one on the vids. I don't think his hands even get as high as his shoulders.

The thing is, he hits the ball a mile. Strikes woods and irons really cleanly. Plays off around 4, but I know he's knocked it round in level.

I know nothing of your own reasons for trying to change, but I'm absolutely certain my acquaintance won't be doing anything with his swing in the near future...

 

[Karl102]

It's not as flat as yours Gaz

 

[One Planer]

It's not as flat as yours Gaz

Matt Kuhar isn't as flat as me :rofl:

 

[ManinBlack]

Classic one plane swing à la Kuchar, with arms & shoulders rotated on the same plane. I'll bet it looks very flat because his legs are short for his height and/or he has long arms. His swing looks like mine. I am 6' tall but my inside leg is only 30½". I have two friends, one taller & the other shorter than me by 6" &, when we stand side by side with arms down, my hands are nearer the ground than the other two. This kind of swing is very reliable, to swing down all you have to do is to rotate everything hard into the ball, much less timing required than in an upright, "Two Plane" swing. Jim Hardy's "The Plane Truth" explains it all.

 

[louise_a]

One of the girls we played with in Portugal has a very short flat backswing, but she plays off 7 so it must work well for her.

 

[the_coach]

to an great extent you gotta be careful what you 'compare'

nature of any junior golfer, even in this case a highly gifted one, will always tend to swing more 'around' with the body motion.

reason behind that is the body is still developing, particularly the arms, shoulder joints, scapula etc not developed enough strength to provide support.
would expect to see as he gets older/stronger the shape of the swing to develop some so lead arm would probably be a tad higher than the shoulder plane & for the same reason (strength) his lower body 'stay' more in the shot more coming into impact.

wouldn't say the swing is overly 'flat' the position at the top, as well as strength capability & flexibility it's a lot to do to with the body height & upper/lower body proportionality

pause the dtl swing at impact look at the good shaft to arms to body relationship & look how the shaft is pretty much remaining on that plane on it's way through up to the finish.
pause the face-on swing atop & look at that shoulder rotation !! ... a good ways further than 90º .... while the hips still a ways short of around 40º!!!!

so huge range of motion through flexibility all managed through a good timed sequence of motion, downswing is really using that ground pressure into the ground to turn against.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Classic one plane swing à la Kuchar, with arms & shoulders rotated on the same plane. I'll bet it looks very flat because his legs are short for his height and/or he has long arms. His swing looks like mine. I am 6' tall but my inside leg is only 30½". I have two friends, one taller & the other shorter than me by 6" &, when we stand side by side with arms down, my hands are nearer the ground than the other two. This kind of swing is very reliable, to swing down all you have to do is to rotate everything hard into the ball, much less timing required than in an upright, "Two Plane" swing. Jim Hardy's "The Plane Truth" explains it all.

Totally agree and the book itself is excellent and explains the differences well