golf swing

It’s Not Just Me

July 19, 2013 by admin

What if I told you that one of the best “conventional” golf teachers in the world today said this: “Modern golf instruction has a long way to go”, “Moe Norman had as perfect mechanics as any person who has ever played and more players, even tour players, should swing like him”. Does this catch your attention?

When I say that Moe’s swing is easier, has less moving parts and all golfers can learn from him, my perspective is biased. I believe everyone should swing like Moe. But then again, I am “Little Moe” and why would I say anything other than Moe’s single plane, the way I play, is the best way? However, when Jim Suttie, a top 100 instructor who might be the only PGA Professional instructor with a PHD in Biomechanics says it, I think it’s time for all golfers, of all levels, to listen.

I recently had the pleasure of spending the day with Jim Suttie, who everyone calls “Doc”. Doc has forgotten more about golf than I have ever learned. He’s been teaching for almost 40 years and coached some great players including Paul Azinger, Fred Funk, Mike Small, Chip Beck, Kevin Streeleman, Jeff Sluman and dozens of other players have taken instruction from Doc.

It is no surprise that Doc and Moe were good friends. Every winter as Moe migrated south to Florida, he would travel through Pine Needles, and stop by the academy where Doc would watch him hit balls. As Doc put it, “there was nothing more fun than to just sit back and watch, Moe was a great showman”. In 1992, Doc shot a video with Moe hitting and answering questions about his swing. In one part of the video, Doc tells Moe that he swings on a Single Plane. I would credit Doc for recognizing Moe’s Single Plane setup before any other teacher. With his background in Biomechanics this makes sense – Doc has a great sense of the mechanics of the golf swing – even with Moe who was considered awkward and unconventional.

I find it more than a coincidence that Moe was awkward and unconventional yet is considered biomechancally perfect by a Doctor of Biomechanics.

So where does this leave you – the aspiring golfer who is sifting for and easier way to get better at golf? There is no doubt that golf instruction, in its current state is confusing. Even Doc thinks so. He will agree that most people are watching television – learning the “swing of the week” from the latest PGA Tour winner. “The answers aren’t out there. Moe was the closest to perfection of anyone I have ever seen” says Doc. He would agree that many people don’t want to look different but to get Moe like results, you need to take the unconventional leap. Here are some of the main differences between conventional golf and Moe’s Single Plane Swing:

Conventional golf teaches a narrow stance with rotation/Single Plane Golf teaches wide stance with less rotation

Conventional golf teaches an upper body speed with a rotational lower body/Single Plane Golf is upper body speed with a stable lower body.

Conventional golf teaches a straight lead leg at impact causing stress on the back/Single Plane Golf Teaches a flexed lead leg taking stress off of the back

Of course, the key is what Doc refers to as the biomechanics of getting to impact – the most important part of the swing. Doc says that the key to future instruction must be about getting to impact, and finding the easiest way to get there. This is the key to great ball striking. And by the results that Moe produced, it is evident to one of the best teachers in the world that Moe was the best.

Improve Your Move – Its Like Dominos

January 6, 2013 by admin

Improving Your Move

Are you a consistent ball-striker when you play golf? Or, like so many golfers, do you have back problems? Do you slice the ball regularly? Do you sometimes hit the ground behind the ball – hitting it fat? Are there times when you hit the top of the ball hitting it thin? I bet you didn’t you know that improving the movement of your hips and legs (lower body) could fix any and all of these problems.

Here is a picture of Moe Norman at Impact. What I want you to notice is that his lower body has moved both downward and laterally toward the target. You can see the flex in his knees. There is one extremely important understanding that I want you and all golfers to know: how you move your lower body (from the hips down) affects your spine movement – and spine movement is absolutely central to every single movement of your body.

I want you to think of the movement of the body during the swing as similar to dominos stacked into a line. Once you put the first domino in motion, there is a chain reaction. This chain reaction of one domino affecting the next one in line is similar to what happens when you begin the movement of your lower body during the swing. Once you move your legs and hips, you position the lower spine which then affects how you are able to move every other part of your body including your shoulders, arms, hands and ultimately – the club.

There is a critical connection between your lower and upper body

In this anatomical picture, you can see the hip flexors (muscles attached inside the hip joint) attach to the inside of the leg bone (femur) and the attach on the inside of the pelvis. If you look closely at the pelvis, you can see that the lower spine is attached to the pelvis in the Sacrum area.

The muscles that are attached to the pelvis attach to the legs and the spine. This is a critical juncture of your body – what I call the kinetic link. You can see by the numerous muscles and attachments that if you improperly move the muscles of the legs and hips, you directly affect the spine.

This critical connection between lower body and upper body – centered around the hips – is the focus of our latest instructional product – the “Improve your Move” (IYM) Training Video.

Groundbreaking Instruction

If you want to hit the ball better you must move the golf club better and faster, what we consider on-plane. Improving your lower body move gets to the causes of your golf swing problems which makes our latest product the GGA “Improve Your Move” video instructionally ground-breaking. I haven’t been this excited about an instructional product since the best-selling Single Plane Solution Video. Why? Because this video is more than just golf instruction, explaining the mechanics of what to do.

This video shows you how to train the movements you must have during the golf swing. The IYM video trains you, making it a “doing” video.

Good instructional videos show you the important mechanical movements of the swing, the IYM video goes beyond the mechanics, and shows you exactly how to train the movement behind the mechanics. Similar to difference between understanding how the pieces of a motor works, and being the motor, the IYM video demonstrates that you are the motor of your golf swing and now you can start fine tuning yourself for perfect movement.

Here are some of the areas covered inside the IYM Training video:

Specific exercises to help you gain the strength and flexibility of your lower body including: the Knee Roll, Advanced Hip Roll, Squat Stretch, Chair Twists, Leg Swings, Forward Leg Raises, Side Leg Raises/Side Leg Swings, Arm Circles, Arm Swings and the Side Step exercise.

Also included are golf training exercise including: Single Plane Training and Position and Movement training using the PVC Stretch Drill, Weight Shift Drill and Elbow to Hip Drill.

To enhance your golf position training you will also learn to train with the PVC positions including Positions 0-2, Position 0 to 3 and Position 0 to 4 drills. You will also train with a golf club mastering your backswing with posture training. And to master what Moe called his “vertical drop” we have designed the “bag in the chair” drill to help you train the movement of the lower body to get the trail hip forward allowing the arms to drop vertically.

Then, to help you understand how the legs move you laterally, you will learn the “Step Swing to Impact” drill which will Train you how to move into your lead side. All of these drills will help you reach the purpose of the IYM video – which is to separate the upper body from the lower body.

I firmly believe that there is no better training to help you become a better ball-striker (get to impact) than mastering your lower body move. Yes, the grip, hand action and arm motion are very important but nothing will advance you further than if you Improve Your Move with the lower body training found in this video.

Consistency is the Main Factor – Not Distance

November 24, 2010 by admin

Recently, Tim and I visited the Titleist Performance Center in Carlsbad California. I consider the Titleist Performance center the “Mecca” of golf. It is a golf performance dream where you can get fitted for Irons, Drivers, Fairway Woods and Wedges. The fitting/practice area extends approximately 50 acres with expansive lush practice fairways and practice greens. Once side of the facility is dedicated to consumer testing while the other part of the facility is for the tour players. Inside the building, you fill find infrared and doppler radar systems to analyze golf swings and ball flight spin rates. Literally, if you are a golfer, you will want to visit the Titleist center at some point.

Tim and I made the visit so that we could get completely outfitted with the latest Titleist technology. In the process, I learned about spin rates, launch angles, smash factors and all of the factors that make the ball fly long and straight. And thanks to Cliff Walzak, I learned what makes a good player. Of course, we spent all day with him and he told stories of various tour players, club head speeds and ball striking exploits. But it wasn’t his stories of famous players that I found the most fascinating but his experiences and research on how he can “predict” who will be a good player.

Cliff sees hundreds of aspiring players who travel from around the world to have their swings tested, analyzed and club fit. To do this, he uses a Trackman Doppler radar system which tracks ball speed, spin and flight to determine and optimize perfect ball flight. What Cliff said amazed me. It wasn’t how far a player hit the ball that really determined whether he could play at a high level. What Cliff said determined “potential” and “high performance” attributes was the consistency of ball speed. Let me explain.

Ball speed is a function of club-head speed and compression of the golf ball. What Cliff has noticed throughout the years, is that great players, when striking all of their clubs, produce consistent ball speeds. For example, when hitting a driver, good players ball speeds will range from 150 to 170 miles per hour. But what makes them great players is that they consistently produce these ball speeds on every swing. In my case, I consistently produced approximately 151 mph ball speed while Tim was approximately 160mph. The key was our consistency.

In other words, average to poor players do not produce consistent ball speeds which causes them to produce inconsistent ball flight distances – thus unpredictable yardages. The bottom line is that great players have learned to get the club to impact consistently – with consistent speeds. It just makes sense when you think of it that way.

I hate to rub salt into the wound, however, this is exactly what the Single Plane Solution is all about. When I produced the SPS video, it was really all about impact and the most efficient way to get there. You must be able to repeat impact – consistently – to be a great player. There really is no other goal if you are working on your swing.

Now to do this, you must (obviously) swing the club on plane. It makes achieving impact much easier and yes, more consistent. This is the purpose of swing plane – to get to impact – and the easiest way to do this is the way Moe did it where he started at the same place he impacted. It’s all starting to come together now – isn’t it?

Needless to say, the Titleist Performance Center was a great experience – it opened my eyes to a new dimension to understanding great golf shots. I saw my golf shots being tracked by a doppler radar. Moe would have loved to see that!

Moe’s Swing Unusual?

October 31, 2010 by admin

‘Ignorance is bliss”. I don’t know who said it but in the case of Moe’s swing, nothing could be more true.

Two years ago at a “Top 100” golf instructor dinner, I will never forget the numerous conversations in which Moe’s name was mentioned. As a matter of face, I have never been to an instructor gathering where Moe’s swing wasn’t discussed. Now how could that be? Let’s do a bit of simple deduction. Let’s look at a few facts. Fact 1: Some of the greatest golfers talk about Moe as the best ball-striker who ever played the game. Fact 2: The best instructors, including many of the top 100 teachers, talk about and envy Moe’s ball-striking ability. Fact 3: The goal of a great golf swing is to swing the club on plane. Fact 4: Moe swung the club on plane better than anyone because he started and impacted on the same plane. Fact 5: Moe’s swing was considered unconventional.

Now, after looking at all of these facts, where swinging the club on plane is the goal and the greatest players and instructors consider Moe the best – wouldn’t it make more sense that Moe’s swing is considered a standard as opposed to unconventional. There is more to my argument. Consider that back pain is one of the leading causes of injury and is the most common problem for golfers of every level and golf continues to be one of the most difficult games to learn, master and play.

Wouldn’t you think, after considering these facts, that someone might look at Moe’s swing as a SOLUTION to these problems as opposed to unusual? Well, as you know, I do. I see Moe’s swing as THE solution. The problem is that most people have been convinced, by watching golf on television, that conventional golf is bio-mechanically correct. Could it be possible that the tour players are wrong? The answer is unbelievable, yes. The tour players, at least most of them, are starting their golf swings in a biomechanically inferior position at address. How could this possibly be?

I call it the “One Mistake” where the players hang the arms directly below the shoulders – straight down- at address. Why do they do this? I really don’t know. But nobody else does either. I have talked to hundreds of instructors and nobody can explain why any player would hang the arms straight down. The only answer they can come up with is that “this is where they hang”. Logical? Not really. Because if your task is to strike a golf ball, with a golf club where the ball away from you – it makes no sense whatsoever to hang your arms in any direction other than one that is in alignment with the ball you are intending to strike.

So, logically, you should align your arms with the object you are intending to strike. So why is that so unusual?

The Evolution of Simple

October 30, 2010 by admin

Skills, such as playing a musical instrument or striking a golf ball are complicated tasks learned through repetition. The brain requires a certain amount of reinforcement and repetition to retain a sub-conscious – non-thinking action that we call “skill”. When it comes to the amount of reinforcement and repetition, there is no “simple” way to give the brain the number of experiences. If it takes 100,000 repetitions, for example, you must put in the time to give ourselves at least this many experiences. Even Moe, who I once asked why he kept practicing even at the age of 70, said “To make it (his swing) stronger.

Repetition of a task makes the skill stronger. This might seem a bit discouraging however, studies show that anyone who diligently practices two hours a day, can master any skill in five years. This evidence alone should be enough to get you off of your couch. But when you do, another question arises – “Where do I start?” And the answer to this question is the evolution of simple.

Simple is a term often used by the golf instruction industry to attract customers. Once the customer buys in, however, he often finds himself once again confounded by the amount of effort it really takes to achieve a good golf swing. To me, the golf swing is very simple however, my learning process was not. I put in many hours and I would be lying to you if I said that it was easy. When I asked Moe how he learned to hit a golf ball so well, he answered very profoundly, “hard work, it takes hard work”.

So if you understand at the outset that it is going to take time and effort, you are then ready to realize what it means to be simple. Simple, by this definition is the difference between easy and hard. In other words, there is an easy way to do something and a hard way to do something. The goal, therefore, is to use the easy way of striking a golf ball and in doing so, you will be able to achieve a lasting, pain-free, and maintenance-free way of playing golf. Simple means longevity and when compared to “conventional” methods, just makes sense.

Moe Norman’s golf swing is simple for a number of reasons often discussed in our teaching. It’s simplicity, we call the Single Plane, is founded on common sense – the common sense of starting the club on the same plane as impact. What could be more simple than that? And because of the “start where you impact” Single Plane, there are stresses and rotations of the conventional swing are no longer necessary. But be careful. This does not mean that there aren’t any rotations in Single Plane Swing which is often the assumption of those who first observe Moe’s swing.

The fact is that there are the perfect amount of rotations in Moe’s swing. What we call bio-mechanical efficiency. Another way to look at bio-mechanical efficiency is the perfect amount of movement to achieve the task. In Moe’s case, the task was moving a golf club in such a way as to strike a golf ball with perfect backspin. When you look at the golf swing from this perspective, your task is to move the club – not strike the ball. From this perspective, simple becomes more easily understood. Simple means efficient.

With this in mind, you can now begin by modeling Moe’s Single Plane Golf swing and allow yourself to refine the movements necessary to achieve Moe like efficiencies. This means a bit of trial and error and much practice. So as I always recommend, start using video analysis to monitor your movements. This is a sure way to keep on track and short-cut the process of learning a truly Simple Single Plane Golf Swing.

I Gave Myself A Chance

March 7, 2009 by admin

“I gave myself a chance” was Moe’s way of describing how he prepared himself to play and perform his best. This was the way Moe maneuvered his golf game and his life. He prepared himself and played golf from a place of preparation and process, not an expectation.

Whenever I play golf events and tournaments, I only have one goal – to be ready. That’s it. I don’t place expectations on my score or try to hit every fairway and every green. My only expectation of myself is to be fully prepared. Then, once prepared, I go through the process of playing one shot at a time.

We are now approaching golf season and many of you are just weeks away from your first round of the year. Are you ready? If not, how do you get ready? In this article, I want to help you learn to prepare yourself to play golf.

Only one word describes the type of practice necessary to prepare yourself for your first round, the word is: FUNDAMENTALS.

You must start some fundamental/basic training practices so that when your first round arrives, you are able to play your best golf. Let me describe exactly what fundamental practice is and how I work on these fundamentals.

Fundamental practice is the foundation of a great golf swing. To start this preparation, you must first ask yourself how is your address position? This is the best place to start. As Moe said “If you don’t have a great address position, you ain’t got nothing”. How true this is and this fundamental starting position starts with your hands on the club.

The Grip

You must make sure your hands are correctly aligning the face and shaft from the two lines we describe in our Single Plane teaching. I developed the GGA Training Grip/Club for exactly this purpose. It solves my grip issues and helps me get the club-face aligned.

Learn more about the “Feeling of Greatness” Training Grip/Club HERE

Arm alignment

Furthering your address position, you must work on how the arms align the club with the body. We call this the two-line address position consisting of the club aligned with the lead arm and the club aligned with the trail arm. I usually use a mirror to check this position.

Check out the Single Plane Position Trainer HERE

Arms aligned with Body

Next, you must align the two lines with the body referring to the pivot point where the club is beneath the nose (Face-on view) and the club aligns through the mid-spine intersect™ point. These lines can only be accomplished with the proper leg position (straight with a slight bend in the knees) and the proper bend from the waist. I use a mirror to check this position also.

Stance Width/Ball Position

Next, I make sure I am standing the ideal width with the correct ball position. I developed the GGA Alignment and Ball Position Trainer to help me make sure I have this issue correct each time I practice.

Find out more about the Alignment and Ball Position Trainer HERE

After I have reviewed my fundamental address positions, I am ready to begin a few target ball-striking sessions.

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to help you start your best year of golf ever.

Please don’t hesitate to call or email us anytime.

Good Luck.

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