It is often noted that Moe Norman had a shorter than conventional backswing.  I have heard many times people refer to his swing as three-quarter.

Moe’s body tilt at address is another “domino” (see my latest product The Domino Effect) that makes his swing look shorter when in actuality, his backswing is just as long as Justin Thomas who, you might consider, has a longer backswing.  I have used photoshop to adjust Justin Thomas swing into a Moe Norman-like tilt. I think you will find the results interesting.

Before I make the adjustments, one of the things that is clearly noted is that Justin’s lead arm is bent.  This surely makes his club move further in the backswing. As a side note, Moe’s lead arm was slightly bent when he was Justin’s age.

Moe’s tilt at address, what is considered sidebend, is that most people see as dramatically idiosyncratic.  When you look at Moe vs. Justin at address you can easily see the difference in the body tilt at the start.

Now, if you add Moe’s Tilt to Justin’s backswing, you will see that his backswing is almost the same length as Moe’s.

Justin’s arms travel a bit further backward than Moe”s but you can see what appears to be similar amounts of shoulder turn. Just so you can get an idea of Justin’s swing before I added the tilt, you can see the comparison here.

With this slight photoshop adjustment, moving JT’s spine approximately 15 degrees, his backswing length and shoulder turn resembles Moe’s.  The spine tilt of the average conventional golf swing on tour is approximately 6 degrees while Moe’s averaged 16 degrees.  Ten degrees of tilt (away from the target) is one of Moe’s idiosyncratic secrets to simplicity because of where the spine must move to impact.

Here is a look at both Moe and JT at impact. The yellow line, reference the tilt of the body, is identical.

The amount of JT’s spine movement from address to impact is dramatic when you look at this sequence.

This tilt of the body is one of the ways Moe simplified the golf swing but one of the most interesting and stressful results of moving the body like JT, in the conventional manner, can be seen in this picture below.  Compare JT’s body position at release to Moe’s body position.  For the average golfer which do you think is easier to achieve and on less stressful on the body?

While I am at it, let me point out some of the stressful areas that Moe’s golf swing prevents.

JT’s lead foot rotates and lifts off of the ground as his leg straightens while Moe’s lead knee is slightly flexed into a rotated and flat lead foot.  If you look at JT’s lead foot at address compared to impact you can see the amount of rotation and stress in the lead leg and foot.

Moe’s spine tilt shows a full and more efficient backswing resulting in an easier way to impact with less stress on the body.  Each component of the golf swing relates the movement in its entirety – this IS what I all the Domino Effect.

To find out more about my latest product – The Domino Effect, Back to Basics you can purchase the DVD here.

The Domino Effect – Back to Basics (DVD)