I was thirty years old when I learned Homer Kelley's Rule 11(L)(2), taught to me by Lynn Blake, a participant in Kelley's own master class. It changed my teaching more than almost anything else I've learned. I wish I'd found it twenty years earlier.
The rule: the clubface must trace a straight baseline, or be parallel to it.
What the Laser Shows You
I demonstrate this with a laser mounted on the club. Even though the clubhead appears to swing on an arc — because the swing plane is inclined — the shaft traces a straight line relative to the ball. It's directly relevant to putting technique too, not just the full swing.
The Baseline, Defined
The baseline is the line running through the ball to the target, extended infinitely behind the ball as well. Think of furniture resting on its base — a table, a couch, a golf bag. The baseline is the base your swing plane rests on.
Here's the part that surprises people: the plane's angle can change — steeper for a wedge, shallower for a driver, driven by how far you're standing from the ball, not just club length — without ever changing the baseline itself. The baseline is fixed. The plane resting on it can tilt.
Why does this matter? Because the club orbits your body the way a planet orbits the sun. The more centered and consistent that orbit, the more accurate — and the faster — the club can move.
Your Dominant Arm Should Lead the Takeaway
Most instruction tells right-handed players to lead the takeaway with the left arm. I push back on that, and here's why: your non-dominant arm doesn't know where the plane is. It pulls the club off-plane almost immediately. Think about any precision task in your life — writing, throwing, striking something. You use your dominant hand. The takeaway should be no different. I prefer guiding it with the dominant arm.
The Three Loading Patterns — and Where They Come From
The way a player loads the club in the takeaway ties directly to their grip type, and it's the root of the three swing patterns I teach:
- Side-under grip (rear post): trail hand placed under the grip, producing a more horizontal loading action. If the lower body engages too early here, the club comes off the baseline fast — this type needs a quieter lower body in the takeaway.
- Side-on/neutral grip (center post): the trail hand loads more diagonally. If the hips rotate too early, the club gets pulled under the plane — this type benefits from a slight hip delay.
- Side-cover grip (front post): the hips engage actively right away, and the hands cock more vertically as the pivot transports the club upward. If the hands try to initiate instead of the hips, the club gets pulled under the plane early.
One caveat on the popular "one-piece takeaway" advice: if your arms aren't properly aligned at address first, a one-piece takeaway tends to pull the clubhead under the plane — which often shows up later as coming over the top in the downswing.
Find Your Way, Not "The" Way
If you've spent years fighting a move that "everyone on YouTube" says you should make, that resistance might be diagnostic, not a discipline problem. Your body may simply not want to move that way. There's not one way. What we're really doing is discovering your way.
Want to know which loading pattern your body naturally prefers? Take the free In-2-It Golf Swing Diagnostic.