The Open Stance is what cures every golf swing. If you’ve been following my work on the subject, you know I’m looking for someone who can disprove my assertions… ANYONE. However, to this point and after ten years, I’ve been unsuccessful in my search.

I stay hopeful, though. I suspect my life would be immeasurably easier if I didn’t have to watch the championship golfing world win with an Open Stance without anyone mentioning it by name. But, then again, that is the very evidence that I’ve struck a very important nerve within the instruction/teaching/coaching industry.

Things are coming together in the OSA world! Look for my new World Headwaters location in January.

Best Wishes,

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

I’d Never Heard of Bertrand Russell, Only Russell Brand

Are Butch Harmon and Sean Foley reading my website?

This Is Why Gurbaaz Mann Is The World’s Best Club-Fitter

If you have ever wondered how to set our plane on THE plane, this is a snapshot of that longer explanation. In order to completely explain our process, I’d have to spend time connecting all the disciplines involved from Physics to Need, and back again. I can certainly indulge the thirsty in practice, but this is a blog, so let’s clip the string a bit to make it more easily digestible.

Every swing has a plane of its own. However, our downswing plane is the material plane. Our backswing plane is important, but not essential to our shorter discussion format. Therefore, lets make this easy…. We have to set our plane on the target plane at impact for optimal shot-making.

The downswing plane is steep, optimal, or shallow, which means outside in, square, or inside out along our plane. Also, we are able to swing ‘over’ the target plane, ‘on’ the target plane, or ‘under’ the target plane with any combination of qualitative differences, depending on set-up. However, none of these are empirically tied to set-up, feet, hips, shoulders, or positioning of any kind. Again, we are looking for simplicity.

Every discussion of “Swing Plane” is ultimately measured by the “Target Plane” – regardless of what we do from set-up to strike. Hearing golfers talk about how their swing works always gives me a chuckle, because the laws of Physics don’t care about how its done if the player’s goal has been met. It’s just that sometimes, one golfer will have a lesser goal than another, that’s all. However, Physics is the base of all informed explanation.

If our set-up is closed, we have to steepen to correct. When our set-up is Open, we have to shallow to correct. etc, etc. What we have to determine is our goal and our knowledge about reaching our goal.

Setting a goal is sort of the easy part. Goals are part dreams and part desires. This is where ambition lives. Knowledge, however, is why you are here. Knowing how the natural laws apply to sending a golf ball out into the air to accomplish our goal is our challenge. Therefore, let’s talk about optimization.

Optimal shots have certain qualities, which are: maximum distance per individual, accuracy as defined by small distance and directional dispersion that is repeatable, and adaptational adjustments for natural elements. However, each golfer has optimal shots, subjectively. The temptation among elitists is to judge someone else’s result by their own goals. That’s why The Open Stance Academy asks a student to provide feedback on improvement- so we never get ahead of the student’s mental process. We engage our students in their knowledge base first, and then introduce corollaries, or bridges, to expand our shared experience.

Optimal shots also occur regardless of set-up philosophy. But, only shots struck from an Open Stance encourage optimal ball-striking with the target plane and optimal shot-making in mind. As previously and constantly mentioned in prior articles, books, and submissions by me, the Open Stance set-up philosophy necessitates certain structures that enhance repeatability, extend physical health and longevity, and create power. All are built into adapting our movement to our set-ups, and our ultimate goal of better golf.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

The Secret in The Open Stance

Our Frame May Change, But The Plane Does Not

The Longer You Stay On The Plane, The Further It Will Take You

The Open Stance Academy is expanding south! Indeed, the greatest idea to ever be uttered in the world of golf and its promoter, John Wright, are growing. He is spreading his philosophy and his talent into the southern US. Can you feel the Earth moving?

This was always an eventuality. It was never in question. Now, Founder John Wright has found partners of like mind and enough resources to create the world’s premier golf learning destination. Expanding with help is always better than expanding alone. Details to follow.

“Always Try New Ideas – Butch”

This Is Why Gurbaaz Mann Is The World’s Best Club-Fitter

Set-Up Philosophy Can Create or Destroy Golf Swing Efficiencies

Sorry, I was away for a week. Did anything happen in the golf world since then? I just saw Patrick Cantlay used his Open Stance to win the Tour Championship. HMM, WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED!!!!!

Also remarkable that his closest chaser, Jon Rahm, ALSO EMPLOYS AN OPEN STANCE SET-UP!!! Hellooooo! Open Stance Wins… again. Please tip your waiters and waitresses. I’ll be here all week. Thank you and good night.

Be open to change. Without change, there is no life.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

Patrick Cantlay Won The Memorial From an Open Stance
The Open Just Won The Open
The Secret in The Open Stance

So, Patrick Cantlay and Bryson Dechambeau finished 1-2? Did anyone notice their set-up?

Hmm. Seems like their is a similarity. But, what could it be? Rocco, can you guess. John D, Jay W maybe you can see it. Garland? Baaz? Anyone? Let me watch it again, and I’ll get back to you.

Anyone Write About An Open Stance Cure Before John Wright?

This Is Why Gurbaaz Mann Is The World’s Best Club-Fitter

Patrick Cantlay Won The Memorial From an Open Stance

This article is about great wedge play and passive acceleration. In the next few months, you will hear “Passive Acceleration” used for the first time on network golf channels and in your lessons with instructors galore. Wait and see. And just as an FYI, “active” acceleration is moving the club as fast as possible with stretched muscle groups to create maximum clubhead speed, which requires effort. “Passive” acceleration is moving the minimum number of muscle groups just fast enough to stay out of the way of gravity while hitting a feel shot – like a wedge. Great wedge play requires passive acceleration.

By the time I hit wedges with Bruce Fleischer, I had taught myself to allow gravity to drive my downswing. Coincidentally, I recognized once my club was prepared, I had little else to do than stay out of the way into impact. I became VERY accurate with my wedges. Hitting the post as many as three times in a row from 60 yards – four out of five recently.

My realization was that as long as I allow gravity to create my speed, all I have to do is stay out of the way. The force of gravity accelerates an object from zero to 123mph at 9.6 meters per second squared. My acceleration stays ahead of gravity’s. Therefore, I accelerate ‘Passively’ into impact.

Often, golfers try to shorten their movement under the auspices of ‘efficiency’. Some professionals even tense their core or quads or glutes at this moment or that under the watchful eye of their guru – never realizing their drills are the reason their feel suffers. Hence, without realizing the force of gravity is a constant, passive, and therefore – most efficient, we create more work than necessary to hit short shots. In the process, we lose feel.

The key is to set up open to steepen and lean the shaft while gravity delivers on a promise made hundreds of years ago. Listening to “Experts” tell you how to move obfuscates the truth, as usual. Set up Open. Swing your leading arm along the target line, and get ready for gravity to fill in the speed variable. Next time, I’ll describe the leading arm in wedge play, unless another, more prescient topic, occurs to me.

The Key To Great Wedge Play Is Eye-solation

Why Tour Players’ Heads Move “Down” Through Impact

Ball Position With an Open Stance

The Open just won the Open. Add it to the list. One more great ball-striker won one more great US Open while employing an Open Stance – the great facilitator of great ball-striking. Greatness has a common thread in the international golf scene. Shhh. I’ll give you a hint…. It’s the Open Stance.

You see, I’ve never claimed to have invented the Open Stance Philosophy or its application. I only claim to know more about the Open Stance than anyone on planet Earth. The fact that hundreds of professional golfers have turned toward my teaching is coincidental, I’m sure. They were probably just following examples set by Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Fred Couples, Paul Azinger, Sergio Garcia, Bubba Watson, Patrick Cantlay, Rory McIlroy, Dustin Johnson, and all our greatest ball-strikers and champions…. Probably.

How is it that major champions on the PGA and LPGA tours employ a set-up philosophy without ever speaking to the world’s foremost expert on said philosophy, you ask? Because they don’t need the fine points. Their intention with their golf ball is enough to consider with a set-up change. Some of you may have read me saying, “Set up Open and hit your ball straight at your target.” That intention is as complicated as my explanation need be to improve your own golf swing to the point of pleasure and success.

However, certain people like to think in order to know. I have talked a blue streak to them on the lesson tee because I’m one of them. They are fluent, in some cases, on the mechanics of a golf swing now. For instance, I have juniors as young as ten who can answer all the mechanical connections to ball position, swing path, and ball position with regard to set-up and movement throughout our swing. These kids are learning to self-diagnose trust own their human adaptive instinct.

I tell my students they should be able to move their ball position anywhere and hit it solid because they know the required swing adjustments. We make changes, and I tell them what to expect with their short-term results, and those results appear. I tell them to miss in the appropriate direction from the appropriate set-up until their brains send the appropriate signals to move their bodies efficiently to correct their miss. The more I teach this way, the faster and more satisfied my students are with their control over their process.

Consider your own swing knowledge. Do you know “What works for me is…” or do you know why being on plane as soon as possible in your swing is important. Do you know the difference between your swing plane and the target plane? Are you aware of personal assumptions not articulated when you talk about your golf swing? Do you have fallback voices to consult when you want to be great but also want to be original? Do you know why the Open just won the Open?

Look bud… the golf swing is a work of physical manipulation that has a empirical history. It’s been measured from Mathematics and Physics to Need and Intention and with every discipline in between for a hundred years, thanks to my research. The golf swing is a wheel, which no one will reinvent. Therefore, when you submit to the objectivity of it all, the only thing left is to understand ‘why slicks are better for Indy 500 cars than treaded tires that have more ‘character’.’ That is my milieu. See you on the other side.

John Wright – Founder

The Open Stance Academy

Patrick Cantlay Won The Memorial From an Open Stance

Our Pretending Is Ending

Why The Open Stance Controls Your Trailing Elbow

One of my students – Jay, from San Diego, okayed my posting of how he is cultivating commitment.

“Hey John,
I was reading from the book I love ‘Comfortable with Uncertainty’ by Pema Chodron. Meditation Number 87 is entitled Commitment. These passages had me reflecting on my experience with OSG.
” You can hear the dharma from many different places, but you are uncommitted until you encounter a particularway that rings true in your heart and you decide to follow it.In order to go deeper, there has to be a wholehearted commitment.You begin the warrior’s journey when you choose one path and stick to it.”
These words are so true when I think about all the differentswing temptations that confront all golfers. I am committed to the OSG warrior’s journey.
Jay”

Golfers around the world,

These are the connections I want to make to the larger world of potentiality. Jay hit on exactly that which is required of us to achieve our goals. We have to see a path (Need), choose (Intention), walk it (Religion), evaluate (Anthropology), test our path (Psychology), and tweak it in the ether (Astrology to Mathematics). We have to find our own way to cultivate commitment to our unique goals.

Our goal doesn’t change. We change. Inspiration, discipline, focused work, and experimentation on a theme yield marvelous results in all areas of a life pursuing a goal. The added benefit of it all is engagement, which I leads to achievement. And, finally – happiness.

The Open Stance is not my invention. My websites and writings about what really makes it better is. It just so happens that I’m the only golf professional on Earth who knows why. Soon, you’ll hear of others. Word is getting out. Pay close attention to prominent players on the PGA Tour who struggle. You’ll notice a common solution.

John Wright – Founder

The Open Stance Academy

Add Intention To Your Practice

Practice Making The Right Sound at Impact

Our Stance, Ball Position, and AdaptatIon Form Our Practice

1,500 hours of lessons in 2020, and the verdict is in. Golfers who employ an Open Stance improve without help. I can’t say it any plainer than that. My members and online students use me as a reference rather than a Sherpa. I carry the information they are using, but they always choose the correct path.

Teaching, as an industry, will now turn away from clever word-play of charlatan-Rex to ‘the profound’ going forward. Fortunately, I have that market cornered. Freedom is what my teaching is all about. Freedom from other voices, freedom from fixes, freedom from failure are all part of Open Stance golf.

In fifty years, golfers will look back at the past 100, and be glad they no longer chase a revolving description of what ails them and be salved by a slick salesman dressed as a golf instructor. Freedom. We have had the truth withheld from us in every discipline, on every level, and in every arena of life for longer than most have lived. Granted, golf is not the most pressing of life’s issues. But, how much longer could the ruse continue?

NO MORE! Truth will always find the light of day. Our struggles and suffering in life and golf WILL come to an end with others like myself pulling back the curtain on our heralded “Experts” and show their clothing is missing.

Now, it’s true I have broken my multi-month streak with a few days of minimal Lagavulin intake, but it gives ferocity to my veracity… or vice- versasity. By the way, I believe the Scots invented every good thing.

However, you need not trust me to do anything but speak absolute truth with regard to our golf swing. As an idealist, I could not speak of any other and live with myself. Therefore, when you Open your stance, don’t think of me. Think of Lee and Freddie C.

Trust yourself with your swing, your game, your decisions, and your process. From an Open Stance, you CANNOT FAIL to improve. Time will tell your story, so allow your improvement to begin with a trickle. Let it puddle into a silent cove of thought and response. Soon, your swing gathers into a stream of purpose and confidence, accelerating into the inevitable rapids of trial and error and, finally, settles into lipid pools of expanded shot-making skill, goal achievement, and happiness.

John Wright – Founder
The Open Stance Academy

Everyone Improves With An Open Stance! Moe Norman Quietly Pursued The Answers Lee Trevino Recommends a Flatter Swing