Width Swing: MA2 (Muscular Advantage 2)

Why Your Golf Swing Sucks -- John Rahm

 

Single-Plane Swing: How to Start Learning

The way to learn any new swing is through hitting half-swings. Here are the benefits: (1) Less to go wrong (most errors in the golf swing happen in the full swing), (2) Build your golf muscles (hitting half-swings will not be easy because, even if you've played a lot of golf, you haven't developed these important muscles), (3) Hitting power comes in the half-swing area (if you try to hit hard from the top of the full swing, you might hit left, hit a big slice or miss the ball entirely), (4) You have to learn how to hit the ball hard (smooth syrupy golf swings are Pro Only), (5) You warm up on the practice range with half swings, (6) amateur golfs should  at most, swing with a 3/4 swing to retain control and from 1/2 to 3/4 is not that far when you take your new swing to the course(see Moe Norman below), (7) you need to know what to do when you are playing poorly (return to the half swing until you figure it out) and (8) You need half swings on the golf course if you are within 50 yards of the green or are in the woods and have to hit out or need a half shot with a mid-iron or a hybrid.

Moe Norman's basic 3/4 (full) swing was not that far from the half-swing, as you can see in the graphic above.

If you think these half shots are not useful, the photo above is of Bryson hitting from 77 yards in the 2024 US Open (which he won, see the entire rounds here). Half-shots are essential for scoring and these are not fluffy, lazy swing shots. They are hit forcefully to put spin on the ball and you have too develop your golf muscles and practice to calibrate these shots.

 

I could go on, but most amateur, recreational golfers won't like this. They want to hit the ball as far as possible and skip the intermediate steps.  That's why there are a lot of mediocre golfers.

Practicing half-shots is easy: get to the short-game area and start working. I'll go through Bryson's video above and make some comments.

 

The Single-Plane Golf Swing

 The "single-plane" swing in golf seems to date back to Moe Norman, Graves Golf and the Golf Machine. The current LIV Tour player who has done the most to popularize the swing is Bryson Dechambeau. His swing sequence is presented above(with some of my annotation in heavy red) taken from the article 2024 What Makes It Work? Bryson DeChambeau Golf Swing Analysis. I have been working with this swing since 2021 (I take a year off during COIV-19) and I can report some of what I have found.

Bryson's swing is, arguably, the most athletic swing in Golf on the Pro Tour  right now yet it is also the simplest--with obvious benefits. Bryson is also one of the longest drivers on Tour which takes away the criticism that the Single Plane swing does not generate enough power.

The really unique feature of the swing is that the hands are high at address rather than low with the arms hanging loose from the shoulders.

Hogan and the MA2 Golf Swing

 

The graphic above (from Hogan's 5 Lessons) really sums up the MA2 (Muscular Advantage 2) Golf Swing from the Laws of Golf. Just a quick summary: if you like to lift weights and gain both muscle and fat easily (Endomorphic Body Type) and you do not look like Craig Stadler or you are just an older, less flexible golfer, your are an MA2. The MA2 golfer has to make some changes from the canonical tour player golf swing which (in my opinion) does not fit many recreational golfers body types. If you learned golf by reading (maybe Hogan's 5 Lessons or Jack Niklaus' Play Better Golf or Arnold Palmer's Play Great Golf) you will need to make some adjustments to what you have read for your personal body configuration (a point Lee Trevino makes in the introduction to the current edition of Hogan's 5 Lessons). Here are some suggestions for the Hogan system.

Arms and the MA2 Golf Swing

 

The MA2 (Muscular Advantage 2) player

Scott McCarron: Reverse-K Setup and Standup Move

I have followed professional golfer Scott Mccarran  since he started on the PGA Tour in the 1990s, first at the now defunct Greater Milwaukee Open and just recently at the Tucson Conquistadore Classic now that Scott is on the Senior Tour. To me, Scott always had a beautiful swing and hit the ball a long way, but I never understood how he did it. Now, we have him explaining in his own words (video here) how he does it. I also took some practice round video at the Tucson Conquistadore Classic to compare the verbal explanation with his actual on-course swings. 

The notable parts of Scott's swing explanation are his setup using the Reverse-K position and how he starts his swing using the standup move. If you are a Stack and Tilt player (see my comments here) you will be familiar with the standup move and will also find the Reverse-K setup position an important modification on the Stack and Tilt setup position. If you are left-anchor golfer (using E. A. Tishler's method here) you will also be interested to know that, at least at the Tucson Conquistadore Classic, E. A. Tischler was coaching Scott McCarron during the practice round and on the practice tee.

These face-on still images were taken from a video I recorded during the practice round at the Tucson Conquistadore Classic (video here).

These down-the-line still images were taken from a video I recorded during the practice round at the Tucson Conquistadore Classic (video here).

E. A. Tischler photographed as I said "Hey, I've read every book you've written on golf" which wasn't completely accurate (he has written a lot of books here) but got his attention. 

UPDATE: Another Scott McCarron secret: CBD (here).