How to Find Your Perfect Golf Swing

Amazon.com
Smith, the guru behind two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, offers a simple suggestion to get your swing on course: find your own. If it seems obvious, the sad truth is that it's obvious to all subsets of the human species other than golfers; golfers tend to want to ape the mechanics of whoever's on top of the leader board for the week. Smith preaches that you begin with an honest assessment of your own skills and ability. From there, his instructional tees up theory, drills, and exercises geared to getting you into what he calls the "ideal impact position"--the connection of club face to golf ball--so that regardless of whether you resemble the liquid Fred Couples or the spastic club hacker, you can at least strike the ball with confidence. Smith fills Swing with useful photos and understandable mechanics, and ends with an agreeable chapter on lessons he's learned through the years from others, including such pros as Janzen, Jack Nicklaus, David Duval, and Phil Mickelson; good teachers should always tip a tam to their own sources of inspiration. --Jeff Silverman


From Booklist
For every laser beam duffers launch, they can count on 10 times as many shanks, slices, hooks, and plain old to-hell-with-its. Such flailing does not breed contempt for golf, only an immortal search for a book as old as the sport, the instructional. This one explains the mechanics of the full swing; players excavating sand, stubbing chips, or three-putting every green must consult another pedagogue of the practice tee. Not a head doctor intoning spiritual "swing thoughts," Smith is a levelheaded observer of an average golfer's typical mistakes. Some errors stem from adages ("Keep left arm straight") that golfers have grooved into comfortable-feeling but flawed swings. Smith critiques these, then underscores the perseverance necessary to groove a proper technique. The balance of the book breaks the swing into its component parts, with the usual demonstration pictures of pros and the author himself. Smith's teaching talent permeates every paragraph with useful insights and practice drills, giving intermediate hackers hope of redemption. A solid lesson plan. Gilbert Taylor


Book Description
Praised by everyone from sports writers to professional golfers to weekend duffers, Rick Smith's golf clinics are so popular that there is a two-year waiting list to attend them. How To Find Your Perfect Golf Swing cuts out the waiting time. In this clear, concise book, Rick Smith shows you how to customize your practice, play, and equipment in the way that works best for your body type, natural ability, and skill level. His unconventional methods for setting up and swinging, as well as his famous practice techniques, are fully explained and illustrated with drawings and four-color photographs. Enlightening case studies pinpoint the mistakes of average golfers and well-known PGA stars such as Jack Nicklaus, Lee Janzen, Billy Andrade, Rocco Mediate and include specific solutions to common swing and shot-making problems. Smith's profiles of the PGA players with the best address, the best takeaway, the best at-the-top-position, and other models of expertise, will spur golfers along the path of improvement and help them achieve new levels of excellence.


From the Inside Flap
Praised by everyone from sports writers to professional golfers to weekend duffers, Rick Smith's golf clinics are so popular that there is a two-year waiting list to attend them. How To Find Your Perfect Golf Swing cuts out the waiting time.

In this clear, concise book, Rick Smith shows you how to customize your practice, play, and equipment in the way that works best for your body type, natural ability, and skill level. His unconventional methods for setting up and swinging, as well as his famous practice techniques, are fully explained and illustrated with drawings and four-color photographs. Enlightening case studies pinpoint the mistakes of average golfers and well-known PGA stars such as Jack Nicklaus, Lee Janzen, Billy Andrade, Rocco Mediate and include specific solutions to common swing and shot-making problems. Smith's profiles of the PGA players with the best address, the best takeaway, the best at-the-top-position, and other models of expertise, will spur golfers along the path of improvement and help them achieve new levels of excellence.


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In this easy-to-follow, fully illustrated guide, Smith shows you how to hone your swing by customizing your practice, play, and equipment in the way that works best with your natural abilities and skill level. He walks you through his concepts for setting up and swinging and teaches you his proven practice techniques. From the initial positioning, to the backswing, to the moment of impact, Smith's suggestions are outlined in clear, concise language and enhanced with simple practice tips that will help you identify your personal weaknesses and polish your skills on your own time. What makes How to Find Your Perfect Golf Swing a truly valuable learning tool is the wealth of photographs and artwork that help relay more clearly Smith's instructional messages.


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