[cypressperch]

to think that someone is going to come along with a way of looking at the golf swing that is truly revolutionary. There are many who have studied the swing and written down what they have found. Ben Hogans book is the most famous and has proven its place as a truly great book. There is nothing in John Jacob's books (including THE GOLF SWING SIMPLIFIED) that goes against Hogan. The Jacobs book is my golf bible because I do think it simplifies things as much as they can be.

Hardy mentions Jacobs, but I do not believe that Jacobs would go along with the idea of two sets of rules about how to swing, one for one-plane and one set for two-plane swings. The idea that a two-plane swinger should be more of an arm-swinger and a one-plane swinger more of a big muscle swinger just does not hold water for me. David Toms is a two plane swinger and he has his arms and hands along for a ride created by the coiling and uncoiling of the big muscles. The golf swing is a turning of the hips, a turning of the shoulders, and an arm-swing ("two turns and a swish"). Jacobs takes that simple explanation of the swing and builds on it to help anyone create a good swing and he never makes a distinction between one and two plane swings. Differences in swings are more the result of physical differences and tendencies of individuals who can be following the very same set of golf fundamentals. Hardy's dividing is not necessary, and for many it has mixed things up unnecessarily.

Having said all that, some seem to have benefitted from Hardy's book. I would not be surprised if those benefits came from the parts that are no different than what has earlier been written about the swing rather than all this stuff about different planes.

One thing that got me about Hardy was when he said that there are two types of swings. One is the one-plane. Any swing that is not a true one-plane swing has to be a two-plane swing. Given that, I would suggest that Vjays swing is about as close to a one-plane swing as there is but it actually comes up a tad short of being a true one-plane swing. This would make Vjay's swing a two-plane swing like Tom Watson's in a very strict sense. I just do not think Hardy has a truly different concept that is helpful. What I believe is the truth is that there are fundamentals of the swing that one can learn and that this learning will lead naturally to a "fundamentally sound swing." Our swing may not end up looking like Hogans or Retiefs or Byrons or JOnes, but it will be a good swing and it will be OURS.

Sincerely, Cypressperch