Customer Reviews

Hank Haney's Essentials of the Swing: A 7-Point Plan for Building a Better Swing and Shaping Your Shots

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Hank Haney's "Essentials of the Swing" is a great full swing golf instructional book. That fact his golf swing plan is based on a a-z set of golf principles, rather than a set of tips and tricks to temporarily cure golf swing defects, puts this book heads and shoulders over just about any other golf insturction book you would find at your nearest Barnes and Noble or Borders.

I have read over 40 golf instruction books over the past couples years and this book easily makes it into my top 5 books that I would recommend if you are serious about improving your golf swing and not just looking for a few miracle cures for your slice or hook. Ben Hogan's "Five Lessons," David Leadbetter's "The Fundamentals of Hogan," (Hogan's book dissected with suggestions for improvements), Nick Faldo's "A Swing For Life," (very much influenced by Leadbetter), Jim Hardy's "The Plane Truth for Golfer's Master Class," and Jack Nicklaus's "Golf My Way" are all books worth reading 5 times or more. Although I believe Jack's swing thoughts are a little less relevant to today's golf swing, it is still a classic and great read. I find myself gravitating towards Faldo's book most often. With this said, I would lump Hank Haney's "Essentials of the Swing" in with these as a favorite.

Where Hank makes a contribution is the discussion of the swing arc and swing plane. I thought I had a great understanding of the swing plane until I read Hank's book. The idea of keeping the shaft parallel to the swing plane established at address, but at times above the orginal angle throughout the swing, seemed simple yet a new thought not presented (or presented clearly) by other instructors. His swing model is one built without any compensations and built on sheer neutral and sound fundamentals.

Hank's next best contribution to golf swing literature is the chapter on shaping shots from left to right, right to left, high, and low. I think anyone with a moderate amount of skill can replicate these swings arcs to bring their game to the next level. I favor a fade but it is necessary to learn how to hit draws, low, and high shots to become a complete golfer.

All in all, it is great book and a must read. Once you get it in your hands, I am sure you will read it many times over, I am on my 4th reading!

-John

Just read Hank's latest book and found it highly informative and excellent overall. His instruction is straight-forward and easy to follow...he obviously knows his subject and conveys it like you would expect "Tiger's Coach" to do. I believe it is a book that I will reference over and over like Hank states he did with Hogan's "Five Lessons..." and John Jacob's "Practical Golf." Both of which I have read and reference often also. I've also read Nicklaus' "Golf My Way" and of course Tiger's "How I Play Golf," two books that are also well written and highly informative. This leads me to the reason I have rated Hank's book with only 4 stars when I would rank the others I've mentioned with 5 stars. The editing and photographs in Hank's book are average at best (2-3 stars) and certainly not what I would expect from a hardcover 1st Edition. Hank and the reader deserve better from the publisher that he praises, John Wiley & Sons. While I'm not a professional writer myself, I do know how to run spell check on a document and proofread it. One example of several typos and grammatical errors occurs on page xii of the Acknowledgments. The editors didn't catch, "...when I first stared teaching Tiger Woods..." instead of "...started teaching Tiger Woods..." Furthermore, while the pictures of Hank are well done and convey what he is writing, they are all black and white and I don't see one drawing in the book that Hank alludes to in the acknowledgments: "...Scott Addison, thanks for your great work on transforming the pictures that Dom took into the great drawings in this book." I was expecting to see some high quality drawings like Jim McQueen's in "Golf My Way" or Anthony Ravielli's in "Five Lessons..." and "Practical Golf." Instead, it looks like the publisher just inserted the black and white photographs that would've been used for the drawings, into the book itself. I really hope that Hank takes the publisher to task and forces them to put out a 2nd edition with color photographs and/or color drawings, along with better editing. Finally, while Tiger is mentioned multiple times in the book (but not gratuitously), I find it odd that he didn't write the foreward or afterword...it's not like he didn't have the time last fall or winter. From what I've seen and heard of Hank on TV and in Golf Digest, he probably didn't want to ask, but someone else could have and should have, like his agent or publisher maybe? Well, perhaps Tiger will write something for the 2nd edition that I'll be looking for, and that the publishers should send to buyers of the 1st edition "gratis." Again, Hank does a great job, but others have let him down in my opinion. If the content wasn't so good, I would send the book back to Amazon for a refund.

What I appreciate about Hank is his admiration and thanks for John Jacobs, whom is the teacher that inspired my pro. They are all about essentials: grip, stance, alignment, plane, ball flight. Everytime my swing is way off, it is usually one or more of these.

Hank has so many good points every golfer can achieve much with, e.g. "The club you want to look at the closest in determining your ball-flight curvature mistake is your driver." From this one develops a plan of improvement, with looking at tendencies and paths for corrections with these essentials. More gleanings: "If you are going to get any part of your body alignment correct at address, make it your eyes and shoulders." "If you start your downswing with your upper body, the club will likely come down on too steep a plane." "Don't go out on the range with your favorite club or clubs. .... Instead, work on the clubs you are struggling with." "During Tiger's warm-up, he practices all the shots that he feels will be critical to his round that day."

Good photos throughout. For many this could be the essential book for making our golf better.

The book is best read several times, as you would read any good golf instruction manual. I like that Mr. Haney strikes a comfortable tone in his writing and gives us some insight in how he teaches golf along with his interest in defining the swing.
I understood his searching for the just the right way to explain a concept to a student, and that all of his students are working on something.
I also liked that he emphasized that changes in the golf swing take time and that too often we worry and try to adapt the latest fix instead of taking it back to the basics.

some times simple is better and that is what this book does - just great basics good for any level player

An excellent, easy to follow book about the fundamentals of the golf swing. Haney takes you step by step from the grip and alignment to the backswing and follow through. He explains things without using a lot of technical jargon although I'm still not sure what he means by "milking the club". Plenty of pictures to accompany the text helps make things clearer. Haney does a good job of explaining the "why" as well as the "how" when he discusses grip, alignment, posture etc which helps to make things stick. I'm still working on the grip he recommended as well as making my swing plane more shallow.

Thank You Hank, With all the instruction info out there, this is a Great Book to get you back to understanding how the golf game and the golf swing is supposed to happen. Clarity is a beautiful thing. A matter of fact approach (which I love). Great stuff keep up the good work.

This book is quite good. Hank goes out of his way to explain every detail of the swing to be sure it can be understood and worked on. It is understandable and to the point. It covers the swing, practice and coarse tips. The only thing it does not cover well is fading or drawing your shot. It is covered but in a superficial way. But that should be covered in a seperate book for more advanced players.

Hank Haney's Essentials of the Swing: A 7-Point Plan for Building a Better Swing and Shaping Your Shots

This is a solid golf instruction book that provides not only the what but the why of the recommendations. Hogan fans need not worry; this is no Modern Fundamentals. But it is mostly sound, straightforward and well explained. However, there is also some goofy stuff such as the material on the grip which is not a generally accepted approach. It would be nice if instructors indicated when they were advising something generally considered kooky. There is also an ex cathedra tone to the book - "I teach tiger so ask no questions." But altogether the first really decent book by Haney and one that will stand the test of time.

If one is eager to reduce strokes, do as Mr. Haney suggests in his introduction and read Hogan's 5-Lessons first. Maybe I missed something because the 7-Point Plan was not spelled out.