Get ready to throw away all your instruction books...

[jeffy]

I just spent an amazing day with LPGA hall of famer Carol Mann, who does some teaching among her many activities. What she told me today was more important than all the previous instruction I've received, read or viewed in my 35 years of golf.

She shared with me some of what will be the basis of a new book written by her ex-husband, Jim Hardy. Golf Digest will be running a feature on it soon. I don't dare try to explain it right now (I'm still digesting a lot of it) but at a minimum I can say that it will make sense of many, many of the apparent and real contradictions that plague instruction.

Stay tuned.

Jeff

[Sgt_Slaughter]

I just spent an amazing day with LPGA hall of famer Carol Mann, who does some teaching among her many activities. What she told me today was more important than all the previous instruction I've received, read or viewed in my 35 years of golf.

She shared with me some of what will be the basis of a new book written by her ex-husband, Jim Hardy. Golf Digest will be running a feature on it soon. I don't dare try to explain it right now (I'm still digesting a lot of it) but at a minimum I can say that it will make sense of many, many of the apparent and real contradictions that plague instruction.

Stay tuned.

Jeff

cant wait. any idea when it will come out???

[taipanli]

Man! At least give us some idea of the essential basis of his theories!

[tsg4tch]

I just spent an amazing day with LPGA hall of famer Carol Mann, who does some teaching among her many activities. What she told me today was more important than all the previous instruction I've received, read or viewed in my 35 years of golf.

She shared with me some of what will be the basis of a new book written by her ex-husband, Jim Hardy. Golf Digest will be running a feature on it soon. I don't dare try to explain it right now (I'm still digesting a lot of it) but at a minimum I can say that it will make sense of many, many of the apparent and real contradictions that plague instruction.

Stay tuned.

Jeff

I have played with Carol...she knows the golf swing and how to explain it.

[jeffy]

The book is called "The Plane Truth" by Jim Hardy and will be out in April. Publisher is McGraw-Hill. He has been lecturing and conducting teaching seminars based on it for the past two years.

Today was my second day with Carol and I am starting to digest the teachings but there is no way I'll try to explain them here. What I will say is that the watershed contribution of Jim Hardy is the explanation of: (1) the respective characteristics of two distinctly and fundamentally different ways to the swing the club (nearly all golfers use one or the other method, though there are some VERY notable hybrids); (2) more importantly, the swing requirements to play well using either method; and (3) most importantly, WHAT CANNOT WORK using either method. It

is this last part that I think most of us will find most fascinating because it will answer the question "well, this is what [insert name of favorite golfing legend] does, but why, when my teacher tells me to do it, I totally lose my game". No doubt it is because the swing methods of the "golfing legend" and you are not the same.

OK, what are the two methods? One is a swing where the shoulders and the arms are aligned in the same plane at the top of the swing, and is called a "one plane swing". The other is a "two plane swing" where, as you'd expect, the arms and the shoulders are aligned on different planes at the top of the swing, nearly always, but with at least one notable exception among tour players, with the shoulders on a more shallow plane then the arms.

In short, moves that work for "one-swing players" are disastrous for "two-swing players" and vice-versa. Sadly, until now, precious few in golf, let alone nearly all professional teachers, fully understand all the differences and the mutually exclusive moves. So, if you have a two-plane swing like David Toms, Davis Love, Tom Weiskopf, Greg Norman or Tom Watson, trying to use a dramatic weight transfer like one-plane legends Ben Hogan or Lee Trevino would be tragic.

Strangely, although so many great ball strikers are one-plane (Hogan, Trevino, Snead, Boros, Knudson, Venturi, Mickey Wright, Moe Norman, the old Tiger, Ernie, Annika, Michelle Wie, Vijay, Jay Haas, Kenny Perry) nearly all amateurs are two-plane. No wonder there is so much confusion!

I've said enough for now; perhaps I'll have more to add tomorrow, my third, and very, very sadly, last day (for this trip!).

Jeff

[vokester]

trevino wasnt one plane. he took the club way outside on the backswing and back in on the downswing.

[Sgt_Slaughter]

this book is going to be interesting. going to have to make sure i have money to buy it,lol. thanks for the info.

[alk3]

iam in no professional position to comment, but this doesnt sound too far removed from the golfing machine?

[hue]

iam in no professional position to comment, but this doesnt sound too far removed from the golfing machine?

Brian Manzella David Toms former coach of 10 years and an GSED in TGM has this to say on the subject

http://homepage.mac.com/brianmanzella/.Pub...ompletejunk.mp3

http://www.manzellagolfforum.com/forum/top...p?TOPIC_ID=1905

[socal]

The book is out...been out since March 3rd.

Can get it from any online retailer like Amazon.com, walmart.com (always cheapest), BN.com, etc.

Vokester,

The "plane theory" has nothing to do with the shaft plane. As someone said earlier, it refers to the left arm and shoulders at the top of the swing. They are either on the same plane or not.

[jeffy]

hue wrote:

Brian Manzella David Toms former coach of 10 years and an GSED in TGM has this to say on the subject

I checked out Brian Manzella's commentary today and found it very disappointing; all he does is quibble with terminolgy. If anyone cares, you can view my back and forth with Manzella at the links hue included above.

Jeff

[tsg4tch]

Hardy mentions one plane swings of Ernie Els(purest one planer), Michelle Wie, Ben Hogan Sam Snead, Chad Campbell, and Tiger(written before his swing changes).

Two plane swingers he cites are Tom Watson(purest two planer), David Toms, Davis Love, Karrie Webb, Nancy Lopez, and Hale Irwin.

Speaking of shoulders, that Manzella guy has a chip on his--maybe it's because he is David Toms' former golf coach. I have yet to hear any teaching pro hold up David Toms' swing as an example to follow--outside of this guy. And most teaching pros who were at the teaching summit liked Hardy's presentation.

[jeffy]

Carol Mann and I spoke a bit about Toms swing and it certainly is pretty to watch; but it has to be because he relies so much on tempo, feel and timing (as all two plane-swingers do). Davis Love (two-plane) has a very pretty swing. But a one-plane swing doesn't have to be pretty to be effective. Check out Kenny Perry, a one-plane swinger; there is nothing pretty about his swing but he is about as effective a ball striker as there is.

Jeff

[jeffy]

For those of you interested in learning more about Hardy's theories, check out the May Golf Digest which has a very nice feature article with excerpts from the book. Also, the article has some good illustrations not included in the book.

The only thing I didn't like about the article is some inaccurate hype, that also appears on the book cover, which says "all swings fit into one of these two categories". Absolutely not true; Hardy acknowledges this in his book when he makes a reference to "hybrid" swingers like Nicklaus, Couples, Gay Brewer, John Daly, Byron Nelson, who have wide, upright two-plane backswings but then drop-down to narrow one-plane downswings. Other exceptions include Johnny Miller and other reverse-C swingers who get too far under on the downswing (Vijay also gets a little under). In fact, this statement appears to be the primary basis of Manzella's nitpicking.

However, overall, I think it is a great contribution: now, when looking at DiMarco's steep two-plane swing, it is not surprising that he occasionally loses it under pressure, as he did Sunday morning at the Masters.

One thing I'd really like to know is the thinking behind Tiger's adopting a more two-plane backswing: Haney has worked a lot with Hardy, so he understands all the implications. Presumably Tiger is doing it because he thinks it will allow him to swing hard but put less stress on his left knee. However, it ought to put more stress on his timing. I'd love to know the specific reasoning. I do know that he was smoking it at Augusta.

Jeff

[eaglegolfer_06]

Today, I read the Golf Digest article by Jim Hardy. It made perfect sense to me. It showed what moves I could or could not do with my one-plane swing regarding stance width, spine angle, weight distribution, etc. I can't wait to get to the course tomorrow!

[tsg4tch]

I'm about halfway through and I think the book has helped me understand the golf swing more than any other I've read. Having said that, I think the publisher did a poor job of choosing a co-writer for Hardy. I am constantly re-reading sentences to decifer what he's saying because of poor, vague, or misleading adjectives---makes for slow reading. I don't blame Hardy because he's a golf coach, not a writer. There should have been many more illustrations to help clarify his points, too.

Overall, though, a good book about the swing(s).

[shoe295]

Jeff..great stuff...I'm curious to get the book and see how it ties in with Ernest Jone's, Manuel de la Torre's swing the club instruction.

[juststeve]

It doesn't which is curious since Carol Mann was a student of Manuel.

Steve

[jeffy]

Manuel de la Torre teaches a two-plane swing; Carol had her best years when she adopted a more bent over posture and, more or less by accident, developed a one-plane swing (10 wins in 1968 and 8 in 1969). Carol also had problems with one aspect of Manuel's teaching that caused her to become very steep: starting down with the upper arms, which is a narrowing move. In fact, a widening or casting move is more appropriate for a two-plane player.

Jeff

[Chasfau]

The Golf Digest article about the one/two plane theory says that you should not mix elements of the two techniques. Then, he goes on to say that Tiger is a mixture of two, with a one plane spine angle, and two plane left arm position. I thought he said not to mix the two. What gives?

[jeffy]

That is a very good question and I'd like to see a discussion of it somewhere...what didn't make it into the article (and I think is underemphasized in the book) is that there are several prominent "hybrid" swingers that combine a "two-plane" top of the backswing and a "one-plane" downswing: Nicklaus, Couples, Nelson, Daly. However, these players tend to adopt "one-plane" fundamentals in terms of posture, spine tilt, weight distribution and weight shift. It is possible that Tiger is trying to emulate that style of swing, but I assume he would only do so if he thought it would put less strain on his left knee yet allow him to retain his power. Hank Haney has worked a lot with Hardy, so he is very much aware of the "contradiction" issues.

Jeff

[jeffy]

I saw Carol Mann for two days last week and learned a few interesting things:

1) The Plane Truth for Golfers is currently the 2nd best selling sports book

2) A lot of golfers (including Carol and me) were having problems caused by what can only be described as an error in Jim's teaching of the one-plane swing: wrapping the arms around and behind the body on too flat a plane. Hopefully this will be corrected in his second book.

3) I've got to do a lot more conditoning to be proficient with a one-plane swing (at one point she threatened to move me back to a two-plane!).

Jeff

[kenfuji]

not to step on anyone's toes, but imho the plane concept is just a repackaged concept of upright and flat swings. nothing really new imho. just clever marketing.