Ive written on here about the surreal experience I once had with a golf pro who mucked around for the entire lesson. But I was also fortunate to be taught when I was young, long term, by a truly excellent teacher. He was a distinguished pro, a former Ryder Cup captain, and he kept things very simple.

One day we talked about Ben Hogan and he said if there’s only one instruction book that you ever read it should be Five Modern Fundamentals of Golf. He then showed me this famous picture by Anthony Ravielli, of the pane of glass.

This totally clicked with me, having this simple image and set up a swing plane for me which I found worked and repeated. The only thing I tend to do wrong in my back swing is to stick the elbow out. But Jack Nicklaus often had “flying elbow” which his coach Jack Grout had to watch and correct.

Having such a simple picture at each stage of the swing is effective because pictures can stop thoughts, and over thinking can be a curse of good golf.