Changes in Club Head Trajectory and Planarity Throughout the Golf Swing

This paper investigates the planarity and changes in club head trajectory throughout the golf swing. Four male, highly skilled golfers were captured hitting 40 shots using an optical motion capture system. Planes were fitted to four phases of the golf swing for comparison across the 40 shots in each player. While trajectory variability was seen to increase from takeaway to the top of the backswing, it then decreased again leading up to impact. The correlation between the delivery horizontal plane angle and the other planes decreased the further back through the swing the plane was situated. This finding suggests that although changes to the club head trajectory in the early part of the swing may have an effect in delivery to the ball, this effect is stronger the further through the swing the change is made. This paper describes the use of a novel method for quantifying changes in club head trajectory through the golf swing.