Customer Reviews

The LAWs of the Golf Swing: Body-Type Your Golf Swing and Master Your Game

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book does not get as much advance play as some written by top players or the "guru of the month", but it should be in every serious player's library. Too many golfers (myself included), have spent years twisting ourselves into pretzels trying to emulate Davis Love or Tiger Woods when we swing. If we are built more like Craig Stadler or Jeff Sluman, we are in for some heartache (and probably backache as well). This wonderful little book demolishes the myth that "your fundamentals" must be precisely the same as Faldo's...or Tiger's...or anyone who doesn't have your physical attributes. A brilliant primer on why you are your own best guide to building "your" swing. (Suttie has a degree in biomechanics and is a top teacher as well). Do your golf game and your back a favor and develop "golf your way".

The one book I hope the guys in my foursome never discover. I love them, except on the golf course. The is no one correct golf swing for every player. Just check out what three different books tell you about the grip. None of them agree. With this book you match your body type to a basic swing type. Arc for the tall heaver player, width for the broad chested player and leverage for the tall skinner player. Book covers it all grip, setup, alignment, take away and downswing keys. As no one is a perfect body type gives you a map on what to add to your swing to achieve your goal. Now if I can just find a book to do for my putting what this one has done for my swing.

If you have read several golf instruction books or magazine articles about the full golf swing, then you have surely noticed that they don't all say the same thing. They give conflicting advice. Sometimes the conflict is more apparent than real, because different teachers may use different words and images to try to convey the same ideas. But in other cases there are real conflicts in the advice. For example, should your 5-iron ball position be two inches inside your left heel, or in the center of your stance? Should you use a strong grip or a neutral grip? Should you start the backswing with a one-piece takaway (arms, hips and shoulders together) or should you lead with your hands? Should you start the downswing with a hip-slide or a knee kick or what? And do the hips lead the arms or should they start together? Mike Adams et al help you sort out all of this conflicting advice and find the swing that is best for you. They describe three different swing types ! (Leverage, Arc, and Width [with two variations of width]) and explain which setup and swing elements go together successfully, and which elements cannot be successfully combined ("magic versus tragic" combinations). Your correct swing type depends mainly on your body build, and also on your flexibility. Once you understand your ideal swing type, you can fine tune it according to your typical ball flight pattern. In the two months before I bought the LAWS book I had been trying to learn to swing like Jack Nicklaus as described in his Golf My Way book. I wasn't having much success at it. The LAWS book explained why: I'm not built like Jack, and I'm not as flexible as he is (or was). I am rebuilding my swing in a way that isn't too different from what I had been doing naturally before I tried Nicklaus, but with the LAWS advice I am getting rid of some incompatible setup and swing elements and replacing them with compatible elements. The LAWS advice has already! led to better, more consistent drives and full fairway sho! ts, and I expect further improvement as I continue to practice and fine-tune my swing. LAWS is the most valuable book on the full swing in my golf library. My father bought LAWS recently, and he says he wishes it had been available 40 years ago.--Bill from Bangor

I won't go out on the limb and say you will be happy if you are a reader with an average build. The potential problem is that if you are a mixture of two body types this concept will become quite confusing. What I do know is that if you are stocky, with a broad chest and a lack of flexibility, you need the custom made suit this book provides. I am confident that for you, it will be the best golf book you can buy, by a WIDE margin. In fact, I predict it will allow you to make more progress in hitting the ball than 4 or 5 hours of private lessons from most competent golf pros that issue teach standard techniques to non standard bodies. This means this book is worth 10 times the price they are asking for it at Amazon.com.

Excellent book. Suttie, Tomasi, and Adams do a great job explaining how the golf swing really works. Most great teachers would agree with the material presented in this book-It is the only book I have read that dosen't contradict what another book says. I compared the book to Golf My Way, and The Modern Fundamentals of Golf and both correlate with what The LAWs of Golf Teaches. In his book, Hogan writes, the shorter your arc the more quickly you need to get your left hip out of the way." That fits quite nicely with the LAWs Theory. The book also adds to the theory that the golf swing is a chain action, which was proposed by Hogan in his book, by telling how the position of the left foot influences how quickly the energy in your lower body is transfered up through the club. As a tall flexible arc player this book has helped me understand my game for once. Now I know why I have a tendency to come from the outside and have fixed that amazingly quickly with the help of the Laws model. In my opinion the book is a must for every golf enthusiast.

I have long argued that it is almost impossible for me learn golf. My body is simply not suited for the game of golf. Other people laughed and said it is all in my head. But this book confirms that body shape matters. And not only that. It also gives advice on how to adjust your swing according to your body shape. And it seems that no PRO is aware of this. They all teach the same standard swing. So, from my point of view, tall and thin as I am, this is the best golf instruction I've ever got. A real breakthough for me.

I am an avid reader of golf books and golf theory, and am also an avid consumer of golf lessons. I recently managed to confuse myself terribly with all of this information, much of which is conflicting. One book or instructor would suggest "A" and another would suggest a very different "B" for things like the takeaway, right elbow position, moving of the head, etc. This book explains why "A" is good for some people, "B" for others, depending on their body type and flexibility. They develop three models, leverage, arc, and width, for three different body types and levels of flexibility. No one fits any of the model perfectly, so they introduce a number of variables (foot flare, ball position, stance width, etc) that will customize the model for your physical strengths and limitations. This may sound complex, but it is the clearest and most straightforward golf book I have ever read. If you are a student of the game, you will already be familiar with many of the techniques and golf truisms they discuss. The real strength of the book is that it resolves the conflicting advice and truisms we have all heard so many times, and pins down what will work in your particular case, and what will not. I broke 80 for the first time in 3 years after reading it.

Finally a book that takes the mystery out of the golf swing.After hours of wasted time on the range and numerous books this book is the definitive on the golf swing based on sound laws of physics as they relate to the individual's body characteristics and the execution of the golf swing. If you have the patience to understand the principles and apply them you will be soundly rewarded not only with fine golf shots but the joy of understanding which is for me the most rewarding part.

This system is the REAL deal. I picked up this game 2 years ago and have gotten lessons, read every magazine tip, and seen every Golf Channel Acadamey show and have experimented to the point of nearly giving up recently as nothing worked. I felt that I knew what to do, but my body just could not do it consistently. After discovering the proper swing for my WIDTH body type, I took it to the range, not even practicing the set up, and hit the straightest shots imaginable with ease. I highly recommend this book to those players who have limited flexibilty (your shoulder turn is less than 90 degrees). I must, however, agree with some of the other reviewers of the book who accurately note that the way the book is written is fairly poor. The lack of pictures and text that contradicts what the pictures show got me rattled at first, but if you do what the text says, it will work. The benefits of a new game far outweigh the lack of editing.

With all of the tips found in books, in magazines, on TV, etc, a golfer needs help to decide which tips will help, which tips will hurt, and which tips will do nothing. This book is that helper.

The book describes how physical attributes determine how each person is able to swing a golf club. Each body type (leverage, arc, width) is suited to a particular swing. The book explains why using a single model swing to fit all body types is a mistake. I'm primarily a width player, but all of the books and magazines that I read seem to be arc or leverage oriented. Even in my lessons my swing coaches would try to fit me into the leverage player mold. Now having read this book, I understand why some of their advice worked and why some didn't. I'm now better prepared to diagnose my own swing problems. Best of all this book gives every golfer a blueprint for the swing best suited for them and a way to customize that swing.

The explanation aren't always crystal clear, and the authors should have spent a little more effort in describing how the various elements of each swing type feel. If nothing else more pictures in the swing sequences would have greatly enhanced the explanations in the book. However, after experimentation on your own or consulting with a swing coach (ie: take a lesson!), you should be able to figure out what's being described.

I finally feel I know what I should be doing throughout the entire swing and know where to change things based on my ball striking. I'm hitting the ball better than ever, but better yet, when I make a mistake I know why and what to do to fix it! I don't feel like a failure now just because I haven't been able to duplicate everything my swing coaches have suggested based on a "perfect" swing model.