The Single Plane Golf Swing

Moe isn’t the only player to swing on a Single Plane.Today, there are numerous players that I consider Single Plane Golfers. Bryson Dechambeau and Steve Stricker are the main players that resemble what I consider Single Plane golfers on tour while I find Moe Norman as the ideal Single Plane model.

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I find Moe Norman’s golf swing model. He simplified the Single Plane even further with a few changes in his address position. Moe adjusted his spine a bit more the address to resemble the spine angle at impact.

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These placed the trail shoulder closer to the plane at address, removing rotation in the backswing and simplifying the entire swing. Notice that Moe stands a bit further from the ball. These allow him to move more downward to reach impact rather than a lifting action.

Here is Reed Howard, one of my students from address to impact.

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Reed has mastered Moe’s movement to keep the spine stable and reduce the stress on the back. When I met Reed, he had high rotations in his hand’s positions and over rotation of his body as a result.

Reed’s over-rotation of his body helped his hands lead through impact – however, the club lagged behind the rotation causing an extreme de-lofting of the golf club.  My first question was “Do you always hit it that little?”. The first thing I changed was to neutralize his lead hand position, making it neutral so he could place the club face. The swing starts from the grip. Your hands determine the rotation of the lead arm and clubface.  By changing Reed’s hand position, it simplified the motion of the first arm. From there, I could begin focusing on the rotation of his torso.

Due to his firm grip and over-rotation of his body, Reed had developed a “late hand action” in his backswing. Why is this a problem? The backswing also has a sequence where you turn your body and then the upper torso continues to turn as the lower body stabilizes. As you turn and the lower body stops, the hands hinge as the chest becomes. Having a late hook of his hands is usually a result of too much turn of the torso. Too much turn makes it difficult to time the downswing into impact.

Learning the Single Plane Golf Swing

I believe that with Bryson’s and Reed’s continued success, the light will begin to shine on the Single Plane swing mechanics. The Single Plane swing will become a household conversation and an accepted way to play golf. The golf world will analyze it and compare it to the tradition of conventional golfers.

The simplicity of the swing has its roots in biomechanics. When it comes to the Single Plane Swing, I claim and profess that the swing is easier than every method that exists and I feel compelled to prove it.

I am not saying that golf is easy nor am I saying that swinging the golf club is easy to learn.  What I am saying is that the Single Plane Golf Swing has fewer variables – making it an easier way to play golf.

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