ZEPP Hand Plane/Club Plane Explanation

[oiler45]

I've got a ZEPP swing analyzer and I'm confused about the plane data from my swing. I'm hoping one of you swing experts out there can shed some light on this. My analyzer consistently shows my hand plane to be very good - always between 0% and +3%- which shows my hand plane on my downswing very closely matches my hand plane on my backswing - so far so good. The problem is my club plane is consistently +8% to as high as +15% which indicates I am coming over the top with my club as my downswing plane is quite different than my backswing plane. I am confused as to how this is happening - if my hand plane is neutral how can my club plane be so different? Am I casting or is it some other explanation ? When I look at my swing on video it is hard to tell the difference but the ZEPP data is very consistent with these numbers.

Thanks for any insights  ...

[SirFuego]

It took me a while to understand the Zepp club plane because it is defined pretty vaguely.  There were two primary conclusions I came to:

1) The club plane seems to be based on the takeaway relative to the impact area.  What the club does in transition or the beginning of your downswing does not seem to affect the club plane calculation.  So if your takeaway is too far inside, club plane will likely be higher than perhaps it should be.  If your takeaway is too far outside, club plane will likely be lower than perhaps it should be.  I verified this by exaggerating my takeaway to be too far inside/outside and trying to re-route the backswing to make the swings otherwise normal.  I would also look at the 3D view of the swing and rotate it so it would be like you placed a camera directly above the ball, I would notice positive club plane values for a downswing that obviously came into the ball from the inside.  However, I noticed that the takeaway was slightly inside that, so it was resulting in a positive club plane.

 

2) The impact area used in the club plane calculation seems to be greatly affected by impact with a ball/mat.  That said, this could be due to the mat I'm using because it can definitely "grab" the club, so this might not be true for all types of mats.  However, when I look at the impact zone from above, the impact zone would look like the club would jerk to the left immediately after impact, resulting in a positive club plane.  With a practice swing where I try to hit down on the mat, I wouldn't really see that and it would register a negative club plane.

 

That said, I found that when my hand plane was fine, my wrist positions would be the primary influencer of what the club plane would say.  For me the wrist positions were the symptom, not the cause, of my over-the-top move, though.  I'm just saying that if the wrists aren't moving "correctly" that you can get a high club plane with a good hand plane.

 

Ultimately, I tended to focus more on the actual 3D view of the swing rather than the actual club plane and hand plane numbers.  I was more concerned about if the club was shallowing in transition -- which like I mentioned above doesn't seem to be directly impacting the club plane calculation.

 

I did play quite a bit with the grip settings in the profile.  I moved them to the extremes and didn't really notice much of an impact on the numbers it calculated, so I never really could figure out what, if anything, the grip setting value actually did.

 

 

Edited September 16, 2020 by SirFuego

[oiler45]

Thanks for your reply SirFuego. The ZEPP "Tips" videos seem to contradict your explanation as they don't really mention impact as the primary influence on club plane. Your explanation does sound plausible but I'm still not sure I understand how my hand plane can be fine and my club plane can still be "off".

[sprcoop]

I don't know anything about Zepp other than what is in the advertising.  But... I would think you could change club plane without changing hand plane by what happens in transition.  Move the club head inside or outside with motorcycle move or cupping wrists at the top or whatever and still move hands on the same plane but the club starts from a different position at the top changing it's plane.  Just spitballing here.

[oiler45]

Yes - that image does make sense to me. Like I mentioned - I don't notice anything different when I view my swing in slo mo but maybe I am changing my club direction in transition. Thanks