If you enjoy Moe Norman stories or advocate his simple golf swing – you will probably be interested in hearing about my Top 5 Single Plane Discoveries for 2017.
Each year I learn more about Moe and his amazingly simple golf swing. What might fascinate me, even more, is how much of a genius he was. His insights about the golf swing were direct and straightforward. His messages sounded crude at the time, but as I continue to do research and dig into his golf swing with modern technology, I am discovering that twenty-three years later, he was more accurate than ever
Let’s take a look at my top 5 discoveries of 2017 and what Moe said about them over 20 years ago.
1) The address position is never square.
Moe said, “It’s a game of straight where everything’s crooked.”
Once again Moe was right on. While we align our toe line to the target and square the clubface, the body is open to the goal. We often call this “square” but in reality, other than the club face being perpendicular to the intended target, nothing of the body is parallel to the target line.
Moe Norman Overhead View
Interestingly enough, when I asked Moe how he aligned a golf shot, he always said: “Line up the club face, aim and fire.” He never mentioned the feet or shoulders.
No surprise here but the backswing is two parts.
Moe is right again when he said “IN and then UP “ when he described the movement of the backswing.
We’ve always taught the backswing this way, but this year we quantified it with 3D motion analysis equipment. While the two parts of the backswing are blended into one motion, data shows that the upper body “separates” from the lower body during the backswing motion creating two distinct movements. It is difficult to see but easy to feel. My latest video “Inside the Single Plane Swing” describes this movement and teaches how to feel it.
Single Plane Golf Swing Top View
3. Inside the SPS is a breakthrough concept. Feel is real.
Moe called his golf swing ‘The Feeling of Greatness” for a reason. It’s all about feel. This became more evident with our bestselling DVD for 2017 – Inside the Single Plane Swing. Subtitled “Feel your Swing,” SPS students have been raving about the latest instruction insights. Based on the concept of standing inside Moe Norman’s body while he moved and felt what he felt, the Inside the SPS DVD allows you to focus on the sensations of motion. The instruction is a “first” of its kind and proving to be one of the greatest of all time.
4. Less is more. Shortening the backswing produces more rotation – go figure.
If you asked any Single Plane Instructor “Have you ever lengthened a backswing?” They would answer with a resounding “no.” Students often think that a longer backswing creates more power. But as science once again proves, golf defies logic.
Quantifiably, a shorter backswing improves the amount of rotation in the backswing to impact total. In other words, when you shorten the backswing rotation, you can rotate more at impact. Together – you can produce total rotation.
A recent student was producing 90 degrees of shoulder rotation going back and only 10 degrees of rotation at impact – going forward. A total of 100 degrees. By shortening his backswing to only 75 degrees of rotation going back, he was able to get 35 degrees of rotation at impact – going forward. A total of 110 degrees.
By doing so, his hands were able to lead, and he produced more speed at the proper moment of his swing – impact.
5. A ball against the wall stops the hips from a fall. (Sorry but I felt like I had to make this one rhyme.)
In describing the backswing, Moe said “Stabilize and Energize” Well, you just can’t energize if you don’t stabilize. That’s because the hip rotation in the backswing is a critical factor to proper spine tilt and body rotation.
If you take an exercise ball and place it between your lead hip and the wall, you can move into your backswing and feel how the bone stays forward as you rotate. I call this the “wall-ball” drill. Again, the wall-ball exercise helps you feel the movement of the lower body as well as the stabilization of the trail leg.
Graves Golf Wall Ball DrillWall-ball is definitely one of the best new drill discoveries of 2017.
Have you seen Sandra Carlborg? She won the Women’s national long drive championship. You can see her Single Plane swing here: Sandra Carlborg on the Golf Channel.
I did a little research and found that she has adjusted her swing to the Single Plane since 2014. Here you can see her swing from 2014.
Sandra Carlborg 2014
If you look at her swing this year (2017) where she wins the women’s National Long Drive Championship, she has lifted her swing into a Single Plane at address.
Sandra Carlborg Single Plane
She hit her winning shot 349 yards. You can see an as significant lift in her hand position creating a Single Plane with her arms and club shaft.
Comments about Sandra and this article – We want to hear from you:
It’s Coach Todd here. I have my coaching hat on. I’m not here to discuss your swing technique. I’m here to talk about you. We need to have a heart-to-heart.
I get worried this time of year because we plan our spring schedule, and our schools fill quickly. We have limited seats. Then I hear later in the year that students missed out, and they wait an entire year to come to a school. A whole year! That’s way too long.
Graves Golf School Chipping Instruction
If you are planning on coming to a GGA school, you need to register now. Don’t wait. I don’t want you to miss out. If you haven’t made up your mind yet – I have some profound unsolicited advice for you. If you plan on attending a GGA School, we expect you to –
Raise your standard and your expectations about your golf swing.
That’s right. You need to stop accepting your current golf game. Right now you are taking it to easy on yourself. You agree to mediocrity. You complain that golf is hard and you struggle every year but you don’t do anything about it. It’s time to do something. You need to change. It’s time to get some real results. Now. Let me ask you.
If not now, when?
Look, you and I aren’t getting any younger. We are on the same trip – traveling on the same planet – our ship is headed in the same direction. The only opportunity we have is today. It takes time to make changes, and you need to start now.
Graves Golf School Notebook
By the way, this isn’t just my advice. This guidance was given to me by Tony Robbins a few years ago when I was sleeping through my life. His no B.S. approach woke me up, and he was right. I was accepting mediocrity and making dozens of excuses about why I wasn’t successful. I was telling myself lies, and I believed them. Things like “I don’t have the time” or “I’m just not strong enough.”
Today I am involved in one of the most successful golf schools on the planet – because I raised my expectations. I stopped making excuses. I raised my standards. Thank you, Tony.
He showed me that the things I was telling myself were B.S. I know because I went to work and overcame them. I realized that my beliefs, the stories I was telling myself, weren’t right. Once I realized this, my entire world changed.
Single Plane Golf Instruction
But, you know what the best thing about it was? It helped the people around me too. That’s right. When you raise your standards, the people around you grow their standards also. Their lives get better because I decided to stop suffering. It’s a win/win! But it only happened once I stopped telling myself lies.
I’m telling you that right now, at this exact moment, you are lying to yourself about your potential – and you are suffering because of it. I promise.
So what are you going to do about it? Here is an excellent place to start. Let’s find out what you are telling yourself about your golf game.
1. Old dogs can’t learn new tricks.
I’ve heard this one thousand times, and I’ve taught hundreds of old dog’s new golf swings. I witness hundreds of transformations at the schools. We get thousands of testimonials each year from golfers who were transformed from learning the Single Plane Swing. I promise that you will learn something new within the fifteen minutes of a golf school or I’ll give you your money back.
2. I don’t have the time.
You know it as well as I do, you always have time if you want to have time. I told this one to Tony, and he said that it wasn’t that I didn’t have the time it was that I didn’t want it bad enough. Heck, twenty-three years ago I drove across the United States to watch Moe hit balls so I could learn his swing. If you want something – you do it. It’s that simple.
3. I don’t want to change my swing – it will take too long.
This excuse makes no sense to me. Would you somewhat suffer forever than make a few changes? Do you want to look back at your life and say “I should have?”
4. I don’t like to practice
At one-point, practicing wasn’t fun anymore. Tony told me was asking the wrong question. He then asked – “What if you loved to practice. What if you couldn’t wait to get up every day and get to the golf course to practice?” What would your life be like? What would your golf game be like?
Not only do we lie to ourselves, we ask ourselves the wrong questions. Instead of saying “I can’t do something” ask yourself “What if you could? “. This simple change in how you frame things changes everything.
Bunker Instruction at the Graves Golf School
Here’s the deal. I want to help you. The entire GGA Team wants to help you and see you succeed. We will do everything in our power to help you – if you will raise your standards and see us.
I want to come to a school, and I want to be tough on you. Why? Because I want you to raise your standards, I want you to change and I want results.
I’ve taught thousands of students the Single Plane Swing of Moe Norman. One thing that is consistently true about learning Moe’s swing is the importance of the Address position. Moe was right when he said:
“If you haven’t got a good address position, you haven’t got anything”.
– Moe Norman
Moe also said, “give yourself a chance“.
As I continue to research the swing, Moe’s comment is glaringly more exact. Why? Mostly because the effects of a bad address are now measurable. I can quantify the mistakes and find the causes. Many times the reasons are at the beginning of the swing – address position.
I hope that this article will help you understand that you must consistently check your address position. There are quite a few elements to it including the alignment of the feet, hand position, arm and leg position, spine tilt and bend and rotation. It can quickly get off track.
As usual, I don’t mean to overanalyze the address. It’s very simple. As I always say, just model Moe. But even modeling Moe can be tricky – because what you see can be deceiving. What you see is not still what you feel. Take for example the tilt and bend of the spine.
There are two tilts of the spine, the forward angle which is toward the golf ball and the side bend, which is the tilt away from the target. The trick is that you must have both inclinations to position the shoulders correctly so the arms can extend in the proper position.
Here is a picture of Moe at address – side bend (away from the target) is 20 degrees.
Moe Norman side bend of twenty degrees at address
In my opinion, the side bend is the most difficult to feel and accomplish because it is entirely contrary to the conventional address position of having your arms hanging below your shoulders. With the proper side bend, you need a few other elements including the first foot rotation and trail leg braced.
Moe Norman Braced Trail Leg and Rotated Lead Foot
Once you have the lead foot and trail leg in position, you can quickly align the club and first arm.
Moe Norman – Alignment of Lead Arm and Club
In many ways, the grip is a function of this address position. When you have the body in the proper side-bend, the lead holder lifts. This raises the first arm. When you grip the club, the arm is higher and rotated, aligning the back of the hand and wrist to the target. The trail shoulder is lower. When you lift the side to the club, it is rotated under the organization – creating an alignment to the single plane where the trailing arm aligns with the shaft.
Moe Down the Line Address – Single Plane
You can see in the Down-the-line view what Moe’s legs are straight. His lead arm is higher than his trail arm – both essential variables to the ideal Single Plane Swing.
In this position, the shoulders appear to be “closed” or pointing to the right of his feet line. In actuality, his shoulders are open at address.
The fact that his body is open at speech is significant. At address, Moe’s shoulders are approximately 15 degrees open. When he rotates to the top of the backswing, he will turn about 65 degrees. Making the total turn 80 degrees. Why is this important?
When Moe returns to impact, his shoulders and hips will be 35 degrees open – 20 degrees more than at address. By opening the shoulders through impact, the hands can lead – give the club speed and proper angles into the ball to create compression.
My suggestion is that you consistently monitor and check your address position in a mirror or by using video. The address position sets up the golf swing, and as Moe mentioned, without it, you don’t have a chance.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Originally published 2 years ago…. Now even more pertinent with Bryson’s first PGA Tour win yesterday.
Congratulations Bryson!!!
Dear conventional golfers and teachers, I’m having an “I told you so” moment. I have to admit it feels pretty good. For over 20 years I have been answering your questions and your doubts regarding the Single Plane Swing and its validity. Questions such as: “Why isn’t anyone on tour swinging this way?” or “If this is so great why isn’t everyone swinging this way?” Some even question Moe the best ball-striker to ever play the game – asking “If Moe was so great why didn’t he win a major championship”. There have been times when presenting my research and science of the Single Plane, people have attacked me saying that Moe was autistic and a savant. That nobody could swing like Moe.
Now that a Single Plane Golfer, Bryson DeChambeau is now a major champion winning the U.S. Amateur – it feels pretty good to see science (and Moe) prevail. They claim Bryson is the best ball-striker in college golf. I am not surprised one bit.
Now, I want to say something before the golf teachers start justifying that what they have been teaching for 100 years is possibly well, wrong. I want to say to conventional teachers you can’t have it both ways. You can’t claim all successful golfers as another “variation” of conventional swing mechanics. Golf swings are different – because they are mechanically and physically different. Bryson’s swing IS different, in the ways you have been doubting and questioning.
Bryson DeChambeau at address
Please, don’t try explaining his Single Plane swing with another predictable “variation of traditional golf mechanics”. Stop painting a broad brushstroke over all golf swings. Let’s face it, conventional golf mechanics don’t explain his swing starting from the beginning – his address. Bryson’s swing is biomechanically superior to conventional swings because of the way he grips the club into the hands not the fingers. Bryson aligns the club with the arms into a straight line. From the start, he has violated two basic tenants of conventional teaching; “grip the club in the fingers and hang the arms below the shoulders in an athletic position”.
Conventionally, with Bryson’s address position, there is nowhere for your instruction to go from here. You can’t explain his swing with traditional methods and how he starts and impacts on the same plane eliminating the need to move the club from two planes into impact when you claim that golfers should start with their hands low.
Oh by the way, just so you know, we have been explaining the alignment of the hands and arms for years. This is the basic principle of the Single Plane Swing. It comes down to simplifying the golf swing and eliminating much of the unnecessary movement of conventional golf swings. You must eliminate the angles at address to simplify the golf swing – exactly what Bryson is doing. You simply can’t simplify the swing from the conventional Two-plane address.
I can’t wait to read the stories of how every conventional golf instructor will try to explain Bryson’s swing. David Leadbetter and Hank Haney will probably publish a book about. Bryson winning a tournament makes it is “safe” to talk about it. I am sure that students will ask about it and many instructors in the PGA will probably change their teaching throwing away everything they have taught for the last 100 years. Just remember that Moe Norman figured this out over sixty years ago. And even though he never won a major championship like Bryson, his ball-striking make it very clear that there is an easier way to swing. It’s called a SINGLE PLANE.
