Ren wrote (see)

Some of the old guys like Hogan and Hagen had flatter rounder swings like yours, they aint bad golfers, seems to be a movemnet towards going back to that style of swing too so you could just be before your time

By the way - I swing kind of the same way - I get too flat  and find it hard to get steeper, hence the interest.

I didn't say he was flat I said he was flatter than those of today which are mostly 2-plane swings. .

The golf swing is a lot more up and down now - 50 years ago it was more back and around. I.e FLATTER

I understand what you're saying, Ren, and it may be semantics, but flat has been a dirty word for many years. It's far more useful to term it one plane and two plane, I think.

It's also probably true to say most pros are reverting to a more rounded swing. The 70's two plane model with the massive leg drive led to more trips to the chiropractor than anything else. 

Flat swing is just another term for a round swing ala Hogan - I get your point about semantics but in the realms of golf I accept when talking about a pro's swing being 'flat' it's not remarking that the swing is problematicaly flat (as in TEEPEGS swing).

Swings come and go in fashion depending on the style of the worlds #1 at that time. Swings were flat hundreds of years ago then they started to go more upright - then Hogan came along and everyone laughed at his 'old school' round the body swing - then when he became #1 it was en vogue to swing that way.

The comes Nicholas who tried to get his arms and hands as high as possible, and the swing chnages to upright again.

Now there is Tiger going (more) one-plane with Hank, people are starting to go back to a round the body swing.

This thread is highlighting something that drives me mad about golf-pros. Why is there a notion about golf-swings going in and out of fashion? Can they not just make up their minds about the best way to hit a golf ball? With all due respect to them, nearly everyone on this forum does or did a job that is considerably more complicated than being a golf pro, and in all our realms of working life, justifying a decision on the grounds of it being in (or out of) fashion is totally unacceptable.

Also, why this obsession about the perfect 9 o'clock position?

to answer your 1st point, Mr R, the reason they can't decide is becasue there isn't a best way. Only a best way for the individual. There is plenty scope between the two basic patterns as long as the fundamentals are adhered too.

Perfect 9 o'clock? Because it's biomechanically the ideal place to be (and it's never a position - thats Leadbetter talk) in order to arrive at the top in balance and on plane. It has the club perfectly balanced and it means there has been no unwanted manipulation of the hands.

Mr Rubbish -

Of course people will agree that the best way is the way the best player swings - at this moment it's Tiger Woods, it's not hard to understand.

Conversly all pros do agree on the 9 o'clock position being quite important- go figure!

Re teh 9 o'clock position.

If you get this right, then completing the backswing is dead easy. I fyou are in the wrong position, you will need to make compensations that involve manipulating arms/shoulders/hands etc in an independant way.

If I was learning the swing from scratch today, then once I had got my fundamentals right (grip aim etc) i would prctice the perfect 9 oclock position until it was automatic, and then take things from there. as it is, i am probably stuck with my flat swing for life...