Archive for the ‘D Plane’ category

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John Graham Golf – 4 Things You Will Learn From Me

February 14th, 2010
John Graham

John Graham

I think it is important when searching for an instructor that you try and learn what the teacher believes.  This will allow you to determine if a relationship is likely.  Here are 4 things you will learn from me if you are a long term student:

1)  Feel For The Club – Somewhere in the last few decades, golfers have become consumed with what they look like vs what the club feels like.  The club and it’s weight are substantial.  If you will only listen to what it has to say, it will tell you where it is and what it needs.

2)  Proper Impact Science – I think it is critical to understand why the ball flies the way it flies.  I have an extensive understanding of the physics behind the collision of the club and the ball.  I will explain to you why the ball just did what it did if you are interested in knowing.

3)  Speed – I think it is one the most important skills for rapid advancement in the game.  I want the clubhead to move fast.  I don’t like to see much labor to create the speed but I want to hear that magical sound of a powerful impact.

4)  Superior Green Reading – As an AimPoint Golf Certified Instructor, I can show you how to accurately read the green.  I will teach you about the complex green shapes and how they effect the roll of the ball and give you an exact place to aim for putts inside of 20 feet.

Obviously, these are not the only things you will learn when you come to Rochester, NY and take golf lessons with John Graham.  I work with players at all levels from beginners to highly skilled competitors.  I hope you will leave comments and questions below.  I will always work my hardest to continually improve my skills to help you reach your goals.  Gift certificates are available here.  Change “type” to Pro Lessons (John Graham).  Contact me at (585) 752-9606 or john@johngrahamgolf.com for lesson details and booking.

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Posted in AimPoint, D Plane, Teaching Techniques

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D Plane in the Bunker

January 11th, 2010

There was an extensive discussion this week on twitter about how do we use the d plane when in a greenside bunker.  I initiated a discussion about what influences starting direction when the club doesn’t actually contact the ball.  Did the face still have the majority impact on the balls starting direction?  There was input from golf pros from all over the world.

Here’s a video provided by James Ridyard to support his claim that the face still played the major role in starting direction.  Follow this link to see the video:  http://twitvid.com/F7002.

James stated, correctly, that the path of the club is more to right(for right handed golfers) when the club hits the sand because it’s well before lowpoint.  It doesn’t actually reach lowpoint because of the bounce and sand deflection.   D plane helps to explain why it is necessary to aim more left(even if we don’t open the face) because of how right the path is as it is entering the sand.

The general consensus was that we still believe the face has the greater impact on starting direction out of the sand than the path even though the face never hits the ball.  No reason to believe that the little grains of sand would act any differently when contacting the face.  Out twitter group will try and collect some trackman club data from a bunker and I will post that when and if it becomes available.

I still have a bunch of concerns about this topic because I believe if done correctly, the face doesn’t contact the sand until after the initial collision with the bounce.  It seems to me, that the direction of this bounce will start to move the sand first and thus play a greater role in the balls starting direction.  Then there’s the fact of turning the clubface in for a plugged ball with the ball coming out right instead of left.

Please leave your comments and opinions and let’s see if we can’t come up with the correct answer before trackman does the heavy work for us.

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Straight Iron Shots-D Plane Style Part II

December 19th, 2009

In the first blog, http://johngrahamgolf.com/blog/dplane/hit-an-iron-straight-d-plane/, I talked about general conditions that need to happen to actually hit a shot straight.

In this blog, I will provide the hard cold facts and numbers to help you do this.  Here is a link to a download that will help you.  http://johngrahamgolf.com/downloads.htm

Please, leave your name and email address to gain access to the download.  Here’s a little explanation of what the chart does and what it does not.  This chart is based on information that can only be collected by using a Trackman club delivery and ball flight device.  The chart determines the adjustment to the horizontal swing plane due to the angle of attack and the vertical swing plane.

For example, if a player hits down on the ball, the direction of the club head at impact is different than the direction of the club head at it’s lowpoint.  This chart determines how much that difference is depending on the angle of attack and vertical swing plane.

This chart does not tell you how to determine what your angle of attack is or what your vertical swing plane.  It will only tell you where you would need to aim left or right (left for down angles of attack and right for up angles of attack) if you made a perfectly on plane swing to hit it perfectly straight.

Please leave questions and comments and I will add this download to the D-Plane page.

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D-Plane?

November 29th, 2009

Let’s go back in time and talk to some golfers that are playing golf in the 1930′s and 40′s.  Let’s ask them what makes the ball curve.  What kind of answers to you think we would hear?  No internet, no d-plane talk and no high speed video or trackman.  What would they say?

Let’s think of some advances that might give us a clue.  In the late 1800′s, there was a change starting to take place from long nosed wooden heads to smaller and thicker wooden heads.  A new kind of driver was created that has a curved shape face.  Why in the world would they put a curve in the driver face that points away from the target vs. one that was curved to point the edges toward the middle.  This curve, or bulge, would lead to clubs name as a bulger.

They had noticed that shots struck on the ends of the club put a spin on the ball.  Toe shots added hook spin and heel shots added fade spin.  This spin was enough that it would curve a ball significantly away from the target even if the face was square.  By putting a slight curve in the face, so the toe pointed right of target and the heel pointed left of target, they found that the ball would end up closer to the target.
Effect of bulge
They did this because they saw the ball would start farther right before the hook spin from a toe hit brought it back.  The ball started farther right because of the shape of the face.  Over 100 hundred years ago they figured out that the shape of the face controlled it’s initial direction.

I think most golfers of the 30′s and 40′s era would say face first.  90% of the people I asked that know nothing about golf think that the face shape would control it.  I remember arguing at my PGA Checkpoint. I noticed when trying to curve the ball around the tree that I couldn’t aim the face behind the tree. I kept hitting the tree.

Is the d-plane earth shattering? No way.  It only helps with understanding what causes what.

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D Plane Speech

November 16th, 2009

Earlier this year, I gave a talk at my PGA Section Meeting on the topic of the D Plane.  I thought it a good time to review that talk.

I had prepared for the talk for quite awhile and felt very comfortable with the topic.  If you need a little review and what the D Plane is, follow this link.

I created a folder for each person that included a copy of the pages and diagrams I was planning to use.  I felt it was important that everyone be able to take the information home and digest it.

I was a little disappointed by the number of attendees but I’m not sure that many people knew what I was talking about.  The few days prior to the talk, I called another PGA member that I respected as a good teacher and had been around a while.  I was calling to ask him if he thought the topic was really necessary because I thought most people would have known about it already.  To my surprise, he had never heard of the D Plane and didn’t know what I was talking about.

At that moment, I knew I was at least a little bit ahead of the curve and that made me feel pretty good.  The really sad part is that this idea has been around a very long time but, for some reason, is still not being taught by the US PGA.  Almost all of the members that stayed for the education had never heard of the D Plane and I was really surprised when the pro I had called chose not to attend.  In fact, I was a little surprised that more people didn’t attend.

After the talk was over and I answered all the questions, a couple pro’s came up to me and asked me if I would come to their club and give the talk  to their membership.  I thought I was nervous the first time.  Speaking to a large group of people that weren’t as golf swing savy took a bunch more planning and different verbage to best explain this topic.  All in all, the talks went very well and I hope to give some more in the future.

Stick with me and I’ll provide you with the latest and greatest.

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Posted in D Plane