Single Plane Golf

Successful and Satisfied Students – Graves Golf’s only Mission

December 27, 2019 by admin

If I had to summarize the success of Graves Golf this recent testimonial says it better than I ever could – and makes every bit of our efforts worthwhile.

Hi Tim,
I am going to send you two emails. The second has to do with my swing trainer. But before I forget to do this, I want to say a couple of things. I attended the one day single plane training in Anaheim with Pat on September 27th. And I just followed up with another one on one session with Pat on Tuesday, Christmas eve. I was the only student at the all day session. At first I was concerned about being the only student, but I just wanted to tell you what a fantastic time I had. This experience was supplemented by my 2nd session just a couple of days ago. I wanted you to know, which I am sure you do, that I think Pat is tremendous. He is smart, patient, funny and absolutely a tremendous representative of your golf philosophy and your company. Time literally flies by when I am with him. He constantly refers to you and to Todd regarding the positions, the process, how to practice, how to score better, etc. You have a great person in Pat working for you. And of course, he has no idea I am writing this to you. On a 2nd note regarding using your system. I picked up golf again exactly 20 months ago when my then 19 year old son stared working at a local golf course. I had played in my early 20s, but stopped for over 30 years when I started my company. I am now 65 and am an absolute fanatic of the game. I tried multiple different web training sites and took lessons from a pro on how to increase my swing speed. All of these were not only not helpful, the swing speed coaching just about ruined my low back. I stumbled across one of Todd’s YouTube videos regarding how a shorter backswing will produce better results. From there, I have completely adopted the system. I now regularly hit the ball further than I have ever done in the past. I make much better contact and much more consistent contact that I have ever been. I see improvement in my swing almost weekly. My scoring still sucks, but I am beginning to focus much more time on my short game, so I know the results will come. I know everyone says to concentrate on your short game, but when you are hitting every drive less than 200 yards, as I perviously was, you have to improve that part of the game as well. I truly love hitting golf balls now. I have so much more confidence that I will make solid contact and the ball will go (for the most part) where I am aiming, that the overall confidence in my game just keeps rising. Thank you and Todd for this. It is a great system, your videos and all of the content on the web site and YouTube are great as well. If you ever need a reference, I’m your man. Cheers,Nelson Greenwood

I am proud of the Graves Golf team is always working to help our students find their fastest path to great golf. As the earth makes a final rotation for 2019, it makes for a great time for reflection. Speaking of rotation, let’s go full circle to the beginning of the year and review five great moments.

7. The Feeling of Greatness – 28 (more) Interviews

Heading into our second year of production, the Feeling of Greatness Documentary is entering into Post-production after the team, lead by Barry Morrow – Academy Award writer for Rain Man and Producer Nathan Edwards, acquired twenty-eight additional interviews of Moe’s family and friends. You can find out more about the Moe Norman Documentary at www.thefeelingofgreatness.com.

Website: http://www.thefeelingofgreatness.com

6. The AAI Golf School

With the help of Paul Monahan, Graves Golf’s Performance expert, the Alert Attitude of Indifference School (AAI) has become one of our most popular offerings. Here is what students are saying about the GGAAI school:

Student: Rich R.

Just a short note of appreciation to Paul, Chandler, and yourself for a wonderful experience at the recent Alert Attitude of Indifference school in Phoenix.
You recall that I questioned the value of the school and was not certain that it was worth the time or money.
The exercises, drills, and practical applications were extremely valuable to apply immediately and build on in the future.
If anyone is doubtful about the value of the training – I suggest they visit with some of the folks who have attended the school.
A former doubting Thomas
Again thanks for a wonderful experience
Rich R

Student: Jack G.

I am a 69 year old low teen handicap golfer who is “stuck” to get the next 5-6 shots off my handicap. If frustration and confusion are part of your game, the tools acquired at the AAI School instructed by Paul Monahan with assistance and coaching from Tim Graves and Chandler Rusk – May be for you………I now have a toolbox that will provide me the skills to get out of my own way (Stop Overthinking), replace frustration with gratitude and get back to the basic concept of why I took up the game 40 years ago – To Have Fun!!! Isn’t that why Moe was so successful? Because he “played the game” and had fun!!
You will leave this school with a new appreciation of yourself, your life and your golf game.
Jack G
To find out more about the next GG AAI School – you can visit the school pages here: http://moenormangolf.com/schools/2-day-alert-attitude-of-indifference-school/

5. Todd Graves YouTube Channel

Moe Norman and the Single Plane swing expand to YouTube this year with the Todd Graves Channel. The channel gained over 10,000 subscribers in just four months. The channel is a great creative outlet for teaching people about the uniqueness of the Single Plane instruction.

http://www.youtube.com/c/ToddGravesGolf

4. Excalibur and H3

On a mission to help golfers lower their scores by improving the most important scoring part of the game, Tim Graves developed the Excalibur and H3 putting trainers designed help you implement the Graves Golf fundamentals.

Purchase it here: http://bit.ly/2MxCBVV

3. The Swing Thing

This year Graves Golf Introduced the Swing Thing – a product designed to teach the proper sequence of the golf swing and one of the most difficult parts of swing motion – the release. It is impossible to swing the “Thing” incorrectly. The design helps you feel swing plane when you Plane the Chain.

Purchase it here: Right Handed: http://bit.ly/39mfMOO Left Handed http://bit.ly/39kVa9i

2. The Single Plane Life

Why do you play? Is golf important to you? This year we introduced the Single Plane Life. The Single Plane Life is a life where you have fun playing golf again which makes you enjoy your time playing golf. Great golf, fun on the course and with friends, this is the Single Plane Life.

See Tim’s video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0qCxxD2xJg

1.The Acquisition of Moe Norman

This has been an exciting year for Moe Norman as well. For the past twelve years, the Moe Norman brand has been in great hands thanks to Graves Golf. After a brand purchase arrangement with the Moe Norman Estate, Graves Golf has acquired all of the intellectual property rights to Moe Norman. Now the future is in our hands as well.

Top 5 Single Plane Breakthroughs for 2017

December 24, 2017 by admin

Hello, Single Plane Golfers.

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.

Order Inside SPS here

Webinar Top View Camera

Order Inside SPS here

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.

Nobody ever said golf made sense.

Stabilize and Energize the Single Plane Swing

Order Inside SPS here

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.

Order Inside SPS here

Achieving a Great Golf Swing

April 28, 2017 by admin

A great golf swing is a fine achievement” – Moe Norman

If you and I met in person, there is one thing that I am sure you would immediately recognize – I am passionate about the golf swing. Nothing gets me more excited than what Moe called “the purity of technique”.

Moe did his best to describe the swing: “In and Up”, “Its like a pendulum” and “My arms move underneath me”.

As difficult as it may seem to many, I continue to believe that the golf swing is simple. The body is connected as you rotate in the backswing as your arms move back and up. Then, you stabilize into your lead leg and rotate through as your arms follow though impact. The golf swing is a rotational movement as the arms move around the body. The club follows this movement and gains speed as you continue to rotate.

Moe would often hit 800 balls per day

The golf swing is only Simple if you build it properly.

I don’t believe that learning body movement is easy however. This is because a golf swing is like a house. Its a skill that you construct. It’s an art form that you practice and refine. Moe considered a great golf swing a “fine achievement”. I agree. A golf swing is an achievement because you have to earn it by moving your body.

Most students ignore this very important fact and make a mistake in the first moment they touch the grip of a golf club. They start learning to swing (move their bodies) by swinging at a ball. They want to live in the house before its built.

Teaching the body to move is an important part of building your swing.

One thing I teach my students to help build their great swings to find ways to teach themselves the movements that they are practicing. I often recommend rehearsing the movement to get the feel of the motion.

If you were a good carpenter you would most likely learn from the mistake that most aspiring carpenters make. They measure and make a cut just fraction to short – a costly mistake especially if they are using expensive lumber. They soon learn to measure twice and only cut once.

Rehearsing the golf swing is the golf students way of measuring. However, rehearsal goes beyond just measuring. It involves the bodies nervous system triggering new neuro-pathways in the same way that a child learns to walk. The key to rehearsal is to ensure that you are rehearsing the correct movement so that you can learn to feel what to do. In this way you are using movement to program the body connection to the brain.

But what exactly is feel?

I have yet to find anyone who can define feel or locate it in the body – yet everyone feels their body move. Feel is actually based on a point of reference. For example if something “feels different” you are actually making a comparison to what “feels normal”. Normal is the neuro-program in your brain that already exists. When you change your movement – it feels different because you are engaging “new” parts of your body sending signals to your brain that are outside of your familiar programed network.

Feel is when you move beyond your normal.

Making new movements is the key to change. This is why changing your golf swing is uncomfortable and usually leads to regression in your ball-striking. Keep in mind that I use the term regression only to describe ball-striking results. When you change you are improving your movement. This alters the sequencing of your body too. When you change the sequencing of your body it affects your timing into impact – thus making it difficult to hit the ball well. You will overcome this short-term regression through practice and repetition where you create a newly learned sequence that produces better results.

This takes time.

If I ever experience any frustration with students it shows in the form of impatience. Students want results but they haven’t completed the building process. They expect results when they haven’t finished the construction. When students get too frustrated my brother Tim always says:

“You haven’t earned the right to get frustrated” – Tim Graves

SOOO Simple

October 27, 2014 by admin

One of the most searched golf terms on the internet is “consistency” but few people know what being consistent really means.

From my perspective, consistency is synonymous with simplicity especially when it boils down to how you move your body during the golf swing. The goal of all golf swings is to achieve impact. Just ask the golf ball – all it knows is the moment that the club makes contact. Reaching impact where the club is square with ideal speed and direction is the real goal of anyone who swings a golf club. Common sense says that if you have twenty movements to swing a club to impact and I can make the same motion with fifteen, I can certainly be more consistent. Therefore, simplifying and eliminating the movement is what consistency really means. I also believe this was Moe’s gift to golf, if you are willing to listen. Here are the ways Moe’s swing simplifies golf and can make you more consistent.

Same Spine Tilt, Address, Backswing, Through-swing

Unlike conventional golf, Moe established his spine tilt at address. This tilt “presets” the spine for the tilt in the backswing, downswing, and impact. By establishing this tilt at address Moe eliminated unnecessary movement of the spine. Less movement means more consistency.

Trail (Right) Shoulder positioned on plane

Due to his address spine tilt, Moe’s trail shoulder (Right), moves up and down as opposed to around (conventional golf). We call this “planning” the shoulder. Moe would refer to this up and down movement of the shoulder moving on the same plane as the golf club as “like a pendulum”. Moe was great at simplifying the motions into understandable concepts and feelings.

Trail (Right) hand non rotational

Moe’s trail hand grip was placed on the club in a “non-rotational” position. Non-rotational means from address to the backswing all the way to impact, the hand does not turn. Less rotation of the trail hand means less rotation of the clubface allowing you to more easily return the club to square at impact.

Lead knee flexed, trail foot on the ground.

If you study Moe at impact, you immediately notice a major difference in his position compared to most conventional golfers. Moe’s right foot is on the ground and his lead knee is flexed. This positioning of his foot and knee reflect the perfect bio-mechanics of his spine position into impact. By keeping his trail foot on the ground and his lead knee flexed, Moe kept his spine exactly in the same tilt as he started. By keeping his spine tilted, he could move his shoulders on plane as the movement of the shoulders always follow the tilt of the spine.

The Pivot Point and Mid-spine body/club relationship at address

The simplicity of Moe’s mechanics and the simplified movements began from Moe’s address position. Moe’s setup is a platform of geometry, kinesiology, and bio-mechanics that create what I call a club to body relationship. What exactly does this mean? If you fast-forward Moe from address to impact, you see that at address and impact there is a certain distance from the ball. To be consistent, this spacing must be maintained throughout the swing. Moe accomplishes this from proper spine tilt at the beginning of the swing and proper lower body (leg and hip) movement. The club also references the lead side of Moe’s body – we call this the pivot point. This is where the club starts and impacts and can be referenced throughout the golf swing

Single Plane Golfer Summer Issue

August 31, 2014 by admin

I love our magazine. I know this sounds like I’m doting about my child but in a way, I am the proud parent of the Single Plane Golfer. What makes our magazine so great? Let me count the ways:

SPG_summer_2014.indd — Single Plane Golfer Summer Issue

1) You can carry it with you (anywhere) for support, advice and instruction

2) It is the only magazine specifically for your Single Plane Game

3) It give you real stories about real Single Plane Golfers – just like you

4) You can read instruction from the best Single Plane Instructors in the world

5) Top notch writing and editing from the most well known Moe Norman storyteller – Tim O’Connor

6) It covers all Seven Principles of the Single Plane Game – including Long Game, Short Game, Putting, Club Fitting, Course Management, Practice and the Mental Game.

There is so much to love about the Single Plane Golfer – it must be the greatest magazine in the world, I’m sure of it.

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