The other day at my son’s tee-ball game, I noticed that most of the kids struggled with making solid contact. Their swing planes didn’t align with the ball on the tee. (Leave it to a former golf pro to be thinking about golf while watching baseball!) Swing plane is so important in both sports, yet it seems few people fully understand why. Let’s start with tee-ball and work our way to golf.
When a baseball is on a tee, good contact must be ball first because hitting the tee consistently is a sure fire way to become a soccer player. Players also want the ball to launch upward, avoiding weak grounders. This means the barrel of the bat must travel on a plane that moves through the ball and continues upward. Too often, players swing downward, as though chopping wood, a motion that won’t result in solid contact or favorable ball flight. Swing plane becomes even more critical when facing pitched balls, where the bat's plane must align with the trajectory of the incoming pitch. To achieve this alignment, the bat must "shallow out," or move downward from the batter’s ready position.
In golf, chopping wood with your swing is equally problematic, yet surprisingly common. I believe this is because most golfers seem focused solely on hitting the ball, while skilled golfers are trying to hit their target. When aiming for a target, your swing plane naturally aligns with your intended outcome, which typically isn’t the ground beneath your feet. The chopping motion results in a steep, inefficient swing plane. So, how can we interrupt this pattern and shallow out the swing?
One approach is to watch one of the countless videos online about shallowing the club—I’ve done it. Alternatively, you could take the club to the top of your backswing, let it drop to your waist without turning, and hit balls from this position. If that sounds overwhelming or you don’t visit the range often, consider this: you want the sole of your club to interact smoothly with the turf beneath the ball. How can you accomplish this? How can you align the club with the turf? You guessed it—shallow out.
