[Yoda]

Am I right in saying from the top the right arm traces a straight line through the ball for a hitter action? So if I painted a straight line placed the ball somewhere on the line my right arm would look to trace down that line?

In order to insure a precision Delivery of the Clubhead into Impact, both Hitters and Swingers use the Right Forearm and #3 Pressure Point to Trace a Straight Line path through the Ball (5-0; Glossary/Right Forearm).

For Swingers, this Straight Line Delivery Line is almost always the true geometric Plane Line -- the Baseline of the Inclined Plane -- which is usually the Target Line as well. Tracing the Plane Line automatically produces a Clubhead Path that orbits in a curve through the Impact Point and Low Point. Thus, the Plane Line has a curved Visual Equivalent, the Arc of Approach (2-J-3-A), and the Clubhead covers this curved path through Impact. Since the Plane Line (or its curved Visual Equivalent) is an 'On Line' procedure, the eye directs the Clubhead through that point on the back of the Ball where the Plane Line passes, i.e., the middle of the back of the Ball. In this instance, the 'painted line on the ball' you referenced would be aligned along the Target Line.

Hitters, however, often use an alternative Delivery Line; namely, the Straight Line Angle of Approach drawn through the Impact Point and Low Point (that exist on their respective parallel Plane Lines). This is the linear Visual Equivalent of the Plane Line, the Angle of Approach (2-J-3-B), and the Clubhead covers this straight line path through Impact. This a 'Cross Line' procedure, and the eye directs the Clubhead through the inside-aft quadrant of the Ball (and thus across the Plane Line). In this instance, the 'painted line on the ball' would be aligned across the Target Line. [Note: Swingers monitoring the Down Plane Delivery Path of the Hands -- not the Delivery Line of the Clubhead -- would also align the 'painted line' cross-line.]

So, the Right Forearm and #3 Pressure Point -- the Right Forearm Flying Wedge -- always Traces either the Plane Line or the Angle of Approach Line. With the Plane Line procedure, this causes the Clubhead itself to likewise Trace the Plane Line and at the same time, to Cover the Plane Line's curved Visual Equivalent, the Arc of Approach. In contrast, as stated above, when utilizing the Plane Line's linear Visual Equivalent -- the Angle of Approach -- the Clubhead does not Trace the Angle of Approach. Instead, it Covers it (2-J-3-B) (and, in so doing, steepens the Plane Angle). Otherwise, there would be an 'Angle of Approach to the Angle Approach', and this is a geometric impossibility.

A player who Traces (not Covers) the Angle of Approach with the Clubhead will actually have Closed (per 10-5-E) his original Plane Line. And this will have destroyed that true Geometric Plane Line (2-J-3) that was the very basis of the Angle of Approach procedure itself. The same would be true for a Swinger attempting to approach the Arc of Approach from the 'inside' -- there is no 'arc of approach' to the Arc of Approach. In other words, there is no 'visual equivalent' of the Visual Equivalent.

Bottom line: For a precision Clubhead Delivery into Impact, Hitting or Swinging, the player can always choose to Trace with the Forearm, Pressure Point and Clubhead the true geometric Plane Line. Alternatively, he can choose to Trace with the Forearm and Pressure Point and Cover with the Clubhead one of its two Visual Equivalent Lines, the curved Arc of Approach (usually Swinging) or the linear Angle of Approach (usually Hitting).