When I moved to San Diego, I needed a golf coach. I liked my previous one and I liked having someone look at my swing with a critical eye. I found someone, but the interesting thing was that he had a different philosophy than my previous coach. He taught the one plane swing and my previous coach taught the more upright two plane swing. About that time, I had heard about the book The Plane Truth by Jim Hardy
The Plane Truth compared the two swings, but generally supported the one plane swing. The book is a great comparison of the two swings. It goes through both swings and breaks them down from the setup to follow through. The most important benefit of this book is that it helped me wade through the various tips in magazines and on TV. It helps differentiate which bits of advice are suitable for the one plane or the two plane swing. That made it a lot easier to decide what to work on at the driving range.
When I first learned to golf, my natural swing was a little flatter and more of a one plane swing. However, when I started taking lessons in Honolulu, my coach had me move more toward the modern two plane swing. I used it pretty well, but seemed to plateau. As a result, I considered moving back more toward my natural swing. For the most part, I hit the ball great. I was longer and even broke 80! Unfortunately, it wasn’t all easy. There were a few difficulties, especially with the encouragement to adopt a ‘flying elbow’ type of move.
I still use some of the important philosophies of the one plane swing, but I had to move away from my coach. It’s pretty tough to change your swing based on a book. In any case, the book was a useful read no matter which swing plane you choose or which one your coach wants you to adopt.