Are Your Shoulders On Plane?
The shoulder plane is overlooked by a lot of players. Everyone gets caught up in how to manipulate the hands and club face to try to get a consistent swing. The club face and path are certainly important, but what if you could work on something relatively simple that would control both of these pieces and undo all the harm of slouched posture, sitting at a desk, and not activating your back correctly? I think most people would be interested in that, so let’s take a deeper look at what the shoulder plane is and why you need to get it right.
A Simple Concept
A golf swing, in its simplest form, calls for a slight bend from the waist allowing the hip hinge to keep the spine straight. From there, you are attempting to rotate around a fixed axis, both back and through, while maintaining the posture. Simple, right?
Of course, it isn’t that simple, but a lot of times players over complicate it. Let’s make golf as simple as it can be. The shoulder plane needs to be consistent for each player. There is not “perfect swing” since everyone has a different body type and limitations.
You could be the person who has lower traps that work, but does not know the proper technique for the swing. The first problem is that this player typically flattens the shoulders so they are pointed well outside of the ball. This will cause the hands to lift and become “disconnected” from the body. Repeatability goes out the window because they have lost their posture. They will then try to drop the shoulders back down into the starting position. While doing this, they are also trying to bring the hands back down, or over, and have lost all control of the club face. If we can make the body work correctly to rotate the shoulders down toward the ball, you stay on plane much more easily.
The lower trapezius muscle is located under the shoulder blades. It functions to upwardly rotate the shoulder blades when the arms are lifted above the head. It also aids in retraction and adduction of the shoulder blade. Think of making a back swing and having your hands at the top of the swing. If the trap can’t perform correctly, how on earth are you suppose to get into this position without compensation?
To test the function of your lower trap, watch the video.
Assessing Your Shoulders
Let’s break down your findings, as you will fall into one of three categories. You have inhibited lower traps if when you attempted to lift your straight arm, you could not or you bent from the elbow while the elbow stayed on the ground. This means your trap muscle is shut down. We need to wake it up and make it work for us again. You have a weak muscle if you lifted your arm, but it didn’t go very high – the bicep did not pass your ear. This can be good news: your trap is working, it just needs more attention. The last category is when the trap is strong and active – the arm lifts above the ear. However, passing the test does not mean you have a good shoulder plane. Please read on.
Exercises to Improve Your Shoulders
Reach, Roll, Lift – This is the easiest of the exercises. You will notice it is very similar to our test, but I have you in an inclined position to make sure you can succeed on the movement and start working the trap without compensations. For this exercise, focus on driving the hand as high as possible and feeling the muscle work at the bottom of the shoulder blade.
I’s, Y’s, T’s – This set is more advanced and, while it looks simple, get ready to break a sweat. Lay on a stability ball on your chest. Reach out with both hands and with the thumbs up towards the air, lift as high as you can while making the letter I with your body. Work through a set of 10, then shift the arms out to a 45 degree angle and repeat the same motion. This time you should be making a Y. Last but not least, put both arms straight out to your sides and raise them straight up squeezing the shoulder blades together making a letter T. Each one of these letters works the trap slightly different and strengthens the movement.
Superman Variation – This exercise will work the lower erector muscles of the back while also improving the trap. This will help you stabilize and stay in posture while trying to work around the intended plane of motion. Lay on your stomach with both arms straight up over your head. Lift your hands, arms, and chest up off the ground. You should feel everything working from the waist up.
Office Stretch – This is a great one for you to do multiple times through out the day to help the thoracic spine and traps. Sitting tall, bend your arms and interlock your fingers together behind your head. Try to push your elbows behind your body while you look up as high as you can. You should feel a big stretch and muscle activation between the should blades.
Once you have made progress on these exercises, you should notice the back working and feeling differently. Remember, just because we fix an issue in the gym does not mean it corrects itself in the swing. Use your newfound function to ingrain a better swing and play better golf!
Tyler graduated from the University of Kentucky with a B.A. in Kinesiology, exercise science. This is the study of the human body's movements and biomechanics, so it was a perfect fit when Parsons started personal training and started looking to help golfers off the course. Upon completion ofthe Titleist Performance Institute certified golf fitness program, who are the leading company in golf specific training, he then went on to obtain their highest level of certification (TPI CGFI Level 3 FP).
After a few years of training other golfers, he connected with childhood friend, Holmes, and started training him helping protect his body and improve performance. This caught the eye of Matt Killen, swing coach for Holmes. Later the two joined up and Tyler moved to Bowling Green, Ky to work alongside Matt with Killen Golf. Since then Tyler has worked with PGA Tour players, Josh Teater, Kenny Perry, Blake Adams, and current rising star, Justin Thomas.
Along the way Tyler put his knowledge of golf and body movements to the test and started designing a program to not only increase speed, but test its limits. Spending time working on his body in the gym and performing specific key "speed" movements in the swing, Tyler jumped his club head speed from an impressive 120 mph to 152 mph. He is now teaching this program to all skill levels of players, helping from their game. His results can be seen each week as Justin Thomas tees up and delivers his blistering speed on tour as one of the pound for pound longest hitters.
- A Quick, Effective Golf Warm Up - February 20, 2018
- How to Get Started in Golf Fitness - December 19, 2017
- Are Your Shoulders On Plane? - March 14, 2017
2 Comments
Tyler, enjoyed your messages with respect to shoulders and the importance of having enough external rotation. I took your assessment tests and was able to meet the criteria indicating that I have pretty good external rotation. I would enjoy reading an article where you provide your insights into using internal and external rotation in the back swing and again on the down swing with cause and effect. It occurs to me that I have always used internal rotation in the back swing, which is probably why I tend to be a little steep with an open club face.