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Women and the One Plane Swing



Here is Nancy Lopez, Hall of Fame LPGA player who won 51 professional tournaments,

including 3 Major Championships, during her 30-year career from 1977-2007! Lopez is the only woman to win LPGA Rookie of the Year, Player of the Year, and the Vare Trophy in the same season (1978). She is considered one of the all-time great woman golfers in history.


What I find amazing is that she is clearly swinging on One Plane. If you watch video, she used

a really different forward press, where she started with her hands lower and then raised then

into ulnar deviation just prior to taking the club back....Lopez even refers to this unique move as her forward press!


Watching video of Nancy Lopez is incredible. She was supremely consistent with her shotmaking and in her prime would often blow away her competition. I'm old enough to have had the privilege to actually follow her in several LPGA events. Her tempo was amazing...slow but powerful as the below pictures illustrate. Lopez was fairly long off the tee for her era of golf. She averaged around 240 yards with her driver for her career, however, many of those years on the LPGA she was playing without the advantage of today's technology!


Here is Nancy Lopez and her One Plane Swing...

Nancy Lopez meets the definition of swinging on a single plane, as seen in the above illustration in the top two down-the-line views of her swing...that is...She is setup on the same plane as she has at impact!


  • Lopez is set up at address with her clubshaft plane on a straight line through her trail right elbow in the top two sets of pictures (Down-the-Line view).

  • Lopez at impact has her clubshaft angle matching her setup with her shaft on a straight line through her trail right elbow. At impact Lopez hips are rotating hard to the target. This means she is using rotational forces for more power.

  • Lopez's trail right heel is coming off the ground early in the downswing and on to impact, which means she is utilizing the ground forces for great power in her swing.

  • Lopez, in the bottom Face-On pictures, has her clubshaft angle at setup on a straight line from her clubhead to her lead shoulder, which is a classic One Plane Swing position! At impact she has her hands leading the clubhead through ball contact in a powerful position.


Nancy Lopez is a beautiful example of a LPGA tour hall of fame player who utilizes the One Plane Swing!


Dr. Chris Nix


**For more information on the One Plane Swing the One Plane Golfer eBook is available for sale on the home page of this site. It's a beautifully illustrated description of the One Plane Swing and how to apply it to your game.








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