Accuracy

Pillar 3: Accuracy — Deliver a square face/path window
(±3° path, ±2° face-to-path).

Phase 2: Golf Club- Dynamic Club Delivery

The reason I’m calling this section Dynamic Club Delivery is that sometimes you can hit good shots without being on a true swing plane. Your club can move on a helical trajectory beyond impact, and you can still hit good shots. In addition, how your body pivots during impact significantly affects the golf club’s dynamic impact alignment. Instead of reviewing all scenarios, I will present the optimal approach: delivering the golf club along a square path with a square clubface.

Hands & Wrists

Based on research conducted by Kwon, et al. 2012, “The Assessment of planarity of the golf swing based on the functional swing plane of the clubhead and motion planes of the body points”, the golf club swings on a helical trajectory, not a single plane, in the downswing. It is only through impact that the club could swing on the “functional swing plane.” However, this isn’t always the case. The golf club can still move on a helical trajectory through impact. If you have ever seen your divot go in one direction (left for right-handed golfers) and the ball in a different direction (straight), this is an example of the club moving off plane on its helical trajectory.

What is the easiest way to learn how the hands, wrists, and arms move to control the golf club? Hammering! Sideways hammering could be one of the closest movements to delivering the golf club into the ball. Jason Nall, a friend whose daughter, Hannah Grace, plays for Lee University, coined the name “flamingo drill” and gave me this golf hammer to illustrate the point.

To deliver a quality strike that drives a nail into a piece of wood, the hammer's center of gravity must align with the nail's to drive the nail straight. If the hammer strikes at an angle and the face is not perpendicular to the nail, the nail bends. The same thing happens to the golf ball. Your grip alignment determines how the hands and arms must work in the golf swing to square the clubface to the ball. The trail hand grip alignment must work with the lead hand alignment. A stronger, aligned lead hand (palm on top of the grip) requires a weaker, aligned trail hand (palm more on top). My preference is to have the trail hand determine the lead hand’s alignment to optimize wrist extension and flexion (sideways movement), and then have the lead hand work with the trail hand.

To get a concept and feel of this motion, you can take any club, stand straight up, and swing the club in front of you as if the club were lying on a table. As you move this club in an arc on the table, how much shaft rotation will you want to be adding? If the club gets square to the ball and path at impact, it really doesn’t matter. However, I do not have time to practice, so I rely on the trail wrist to move into extension on the way back and flexion beyond impact. We now cut off the table legs and allow the table to tilt downward so that the club rests on the ground. Keeping the shaft on the same plane, back-and-through motion. This is how to minimize shaft rotation relative to its path.

According to Ping Golf Science, the best players hit the ball straighter than amateurs.

To create a straight golf shot:

The dynamic swing plane is parallel to the intended target line
The club path is within +/- 3 degrees to the target line
The club face is within two degrees of the path.

This has been validated mathematically, by launch monitors, and by Golf Laboratories, through their golf robot.

The Curvilinear Pivot

The body's movement during impact significantly influences how the golf club is delivered to the ball and what the hands and wrist must do. The goal is to minimize club-face rotation, or to train yourself to recognize what a square club face feels like, and then train the system (hands, arms, & body) to do what it needs to do to hit the ball straight. This section outlines how I prefer the body to pivot during impact.

Using the lead leg as the pivot point through impact is the first body fundamental to train. As the club approaches the dynamic swing plane through impact, the golfer should feel “posting” on the lead leg. The lead leg and knee act as a stable axis while the torso, arms, and club whip through. Pelvic and upper torso rotation keeps moving; it’s now in an off-axis rotation for most swing types.

Proper lead hip pivot alignment on the left. Incorrectly entered rotation on the right golfer.

The analogy of the pelvis movement to a cam-like pivot is based on the lead leg being the post around which the pelvis has shifted and rotated. As more weight/force moves into the lead leg during the transition, the trail side begins to move in a curvilinear pattern, straightening the hand path through impact and providing stability and momentum. The lead leg becomes the functional pivot in the lead pelvis. At this moment, the pelvis is essentially hinging around the braced lead leg, creating proper timing of force transfer, allowing the upper body system to optimize its angular momentum.

The Upper Torso

Maintaining upper-torso momentum through impact is critical to club stability. If the movement of the trail side shoulder joint stalls out through impact, you will see the momentum shift into the arms, causing the lead elbow to fold up and the club face to rotate closed. If you tend to slice, this is not a bad thing as a temporary fix. If you try to freeze at impact, you force that leftover angular momentum to die in your joints instead of letting it flow through your body. That’s how golfers potentially injure wrists, elbows, the lead knee, and the lower back. This loss of angular momentum significantly affects shot quality.

Here is a clear example of Tiger attempting to feel upper-torso rotation through the ball. If the body stalls, his lead arm folds up. In keeping tension of a straight lead arm, he can feel his upper body rotate through the ball. Notice how much his chest has rotated, and his sternum is pointing left of the target.

Impact Zone

The combination of Hands & Arm Swing, Lower Body Pivot, and Upper Body rotation before and beyond impact creates Dr. Kwon’s Functional Swing Plane, allowing the club to transfer its energy into the golf ball. This is the fastest part of the swing and should initially be trained with your wedges, then progressed to your driver. Understanding and feeling the square delivery of the golf club is the key to accuracy.

Thus, a potential “feel” is to keep moving beyond impact or think that impact is two feet beyond the ball. This imparts sufficient angular momentum to the golf club for impact. To ensure the golf swing continues, the upper torso should carry the arms and club actively beyond the point of impact. This continuous rotation helps deliver the arms, wrists, and club to the ball accurately. If the upper torso stops or the lead arm folds, the angular momentum is sent to the arms and wrists, causing the clubhead to spin over the shaft. If this happens too soon, the club face will close. Maintaining a stable arm and upper torso system is not always required. Sometimes, allowing the lead arm to fold can help with certain shot shapes. However, to optimize angular momentum through impact, maintaining width will improve energy flow into the ball.

🧩 Developing Your Initial Straight Ball Flight - Accuracy

Here is an initial step-by-step process for developing your straight-ball flight. It does require the use of a launch monitor that can measure the club’s trajectory into the ball and, preferably, the dynamic face angle of the club. We will use this approach throughout your entire golf bag.

Start with your sand – or gap – wedge.
Pick out a target 20 yards away.
Start hitting pitch shots and track club trajectory and clubface angle.
1. The swing path needs to be within ±3 ° of your target.
2. The clubface angle must be within 2° of your path.
How many shots go straight?
What is your dispersion ellipse?
Track your perceptions:
1. Every golf swing needs to be linked to its (visual, auditory, proprioceptive).
2. What did the swing feel like?
3. Quick & Jerky or Smooth
4. Too far or short
5. Offline right or left
Over repeated golf swings, these links form a strong relationship:
1. We want to match the shot outcome with your FEEL and SWING to.
2. Through repetitive block practice, a NeuroMAP is developed for the shot.
3. Performing a movement predicts a certain sensation.
4. Imagining that sensation can be the movement.
Once you know the best shot, we want to store and retrieve that experience.
To act, the brain retrieves previously formed event files matching the intended outcome.
The goal (desired sensory state) serves as a retrieval cue.
Execution is achieved by activating the shared perceptual-motor codes in your memory.

There are different swing types based on the rotational pivot point, especially for the driver. The lead leg, the center, and the trail leg can all be used as pivot points in the downswing. The different pivots are also influenced by grip alignment.