Many of you might already know that I have been working with a very talented player named Reed Howard. Reed approached me about nine months ago to help him learn the Single Plane Swing.

I am excited to say that Reed, in a short time, has become a great ball-striker.

Keep in mind that Reed’s commitment is unparalleled. He is dedicated and works smart and hard. If everyone had Reed’s work ethic, you could achieve what he has. It takes discipline. If you asked me what ONE factor or quality that has helped Reed the most is HOW he practices.

Before I give you his secret, let’s take a look at his mechanics.

Address

Here you see his perfect Single Plane Starting Position where the club aligns with the trailing arm. His legs are straight with the first arm visible above the trial arm.

Top of Backswing

Here you see Reed in an entirely leveraged and Planned Position at the top – actually at the moment of transition. Notice the Trail knee stability; the club faces position and the hands at shoulder height. We worked hard on this post to minimize the rotation so the club would plane at this position of the swing.

Impact

Yes, this most critical Moment of Truth, Impact. Look at Reed’s beautiful position here where his body is opening up, but his trial foot is on the ground, the trailing arm is bent. The club has returned exactly to the address plane.

Release

We spent quite a bit of time achieving this position. The ball is already gone, so why is the release so important you might ask? This position indicates the rotations that occurred before impact. In other words, if the arms are not releasing, the are lacking rotation into impact as well. Reed would often over-rotate his torso – and counter this rotation with an under-rotation (holding off) of his arms through the ball.

You can see in this picture that his club is perfectly back to the plane and the clubface was planned perfectly as well.

Finish

Yes, the classic “Pull the Flag” finish position.  His weight is completely on the lead foot and his back is standing up – without stress.

So what are Reed’s secrets to how he built his swing?  Here is his formula.

1. Focus on the Model.
2. Start at the beginning (grip and address) and work backward. The first thing we corrected with was grip and address. This took two months.
3. Get Coaching through the entire process. I was able to Coach Reed for approximately 5 Days each month.
4. When Reed had a problem or question, he sent a video for review. He did this daily sometimes.
5. He had practice routines on a schedule. This is critical. He didn’t miss practice.
6. Believe it or not, he didn’t focus on ball-flight for the first 6 months. He committed to the model and kept working.

From my perspective.

Reed did the most important thing a student can do. He converted my teachings into a FEEL and used Rehearsal to reinforce the movement. He trained his body with Feel.

For example, if I told him to stop his rotation in the backswing, he would show me the movement and then rehearse it until he got a Feel for it. Once he got a feel for it – he would practice that feel. Then he would send me a video of his feelings to make sure it was correct.

I will send more on Reed in the next few weeks. Stay Tuned.