As an amateur golfer you would be well advised to look at a flat swing plane, which would fall in the category of a one plane swing. Hogan, with a flat plane, was the best ball striker of all time. The upright swing plane is wrong for the average golfer! It tends to lead to many serious swing faults, but a golfer with great coordination who can practice a lot can make it work with compensating movements.

Obviously, there has been plenty of good golf played by professionals with upright swings. The problem is that an upright backswing plane requires a golfer to manipulate the club into the correct (flatter) plane on the downswing. This manipulation, or correction, requires timing and coordination, which has consequences regarding consistency. No one can have perfect timing all the time.

For tour players who practice and play every day, the penalty to consistency is relatively small on a shot to shot basis. As for amateurs manipulating an upright swing plane into a correct downswing plane, the point is moot because so few can make it happen. That is why the average golfer fights coming over the top, and hits shots fat and thin on a routine basis.

When Tiger Woods first came on tour his swing was too closed and too upright. He ran away with the Masters by 12 strokes in 1997 with that swing and then decided he needed to change his swing to improve. The changes he made basically resulted in a flatter and more correct backswing plane in which he now goes back on a plane that is much closer to his downswing plane. After initiating the changes, and after finally getting used to them, Tiger has come back to thoroughly dominate a PGA Tour that no one thought could be dominated and is clearly #1 in the world. Tiger improved tremendously by flattening his swing plane, getting much closer to his ideal plane (ideally, where the club goes back in the same plane as it comes down—no manipulation necessary).

Ben Hogan's golf swing and Tiger's swing changes and the resulting successes are pretty strong proof that a flat swing plane is a great path to take!

It's no wonder that after about two or three years of playing, most golfers reach a point where no matter what they do, they just can't improve beyond that level. In fact a lot even go backward as they get overloaded with all of the different golf theories and golf instruction. Basically, their physical ability has taken them as far as they can possibly go with their faulty swing and no matter how much they practice and play, that's likely to be as good as they're going to get for the rest of their lives!

Hogan's swing was more natural, in a biomechanically correct sense, than that of any other golfer who has ever played the game. If you look at how the body works in other sports where correct biomechanics come more naturally, and apply those motions to the golf swing, you'll probably be heading in the right direction. Hogan references other sporting motions such as throwing a baseball sidearm, and hitting a baseball.

For true improvement to occur, you have to forget about what the ball is doing and focus on teaching your body the key fundamental movements of a biomechanically correct golf swing. Of course, you first have to develop an understanding of what a correct swing is. Once you've done this, then you go out and practice...and practice...and practice, in order to get the results you desire!

The bottom line is, that, if you will let me teach you what it means to just swing the club and how to do that, you will get the high quality, repeatable results you are looking for. I would love to help you improve your game without having to go through what I had, to get there. I have explained how to accomplish this in "The True Golf Swing".

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