Perfect Golf Swing: A Critical Review

 

June 2010: I have added a new review paper to my website - see "Ball Flight Laws" in the miscellaneous topics section below.

May 2010: I have added a new review paper to my website - see "Critical Review: Mike Austin's Swing Methodology" in the miscellaneous topics section below.

March 2010: I have revised/rewritten my "backswing chapter". The original chapter was published in February 2007, and this new revised version represents a major revision, which incorporates my newest golf instructional insights.

January 2010: I have added a new review paper to my website - see "Book Review: The Stack and Tilt Swing - Michael Bennett and Andy Plummer" in the miscellaneous topics section below.

December 2009: I have added a new review paper to my website - see "Book Review: The Slot Swing - Jim McLean" in the miscellaneous topics section below.

November 2009:  I have added a new review paper to my website - see "Understanding The Club Release Phenomenon - The Endless Belt Concept" in the miscellaneous topics section below.


Click on any of the hyperlinks to rapidly navigate to the relevant section of this review.


The modern, total body golf swing


Miscellaneous topics - listed in reverse chronological order 


Video lessons



Introduction:

 

This website consists of three sections. The first section is a free online review of the modern, total body golf swing.  The second section is called "miscellaneous topics" and it has many review papers on different aspects of the golf swing, and it reflects my latest thinking on the golf swing, with a major emphasis on golf biomechanics and golf mechanics. The third section is the swing video lesson section and it includes video lessons on different aspects of the golf swing.

 

Introduction to the main section of my golf website


I first started this golf instructional website in February 2007. At that time, the only section that existed was the main section on the modern, total body golf swing. That section comprehensively covered the traditional/conventional golf swing in a variety of different chapters (eg, backswing, downswing, impact etc.). Originally, the contents of my chapters was based on traditional golf instructional teaching as promoted by golf instructors such as David Leadbetter, Jim McLean and the "Swing Like a Pro" authors, and also on books written by professional golfers such as Ben Hogan, Nick Faldo, Tiger Woods and Ernie Els. The modern, total body swing style is simply the traditional/conventional swing style used by the majority of professional golfers, and it includes the classic swing subtype (used by golfers like Phil Mickelson and Sam Snead who allow their pelvis to rotate more freely in the backswing).

Two major changes have occurred in the past 3 years. First of all, I read Homer Kelley's book called The Golfing Machine. Homer Kelley had an unique, and very complicated, method of describing the golf swing in terms of its mechanics, physics and geometry. I think that many of Homer Kelley's TGM-ideas make much more sense than the vague ideas expressed in traditional golf instruction books. I subsequently wrote two major review papers summarising many of Homer Kelley's key TGM concepts - i) How to Power the Golf Swing and ii) How to Move the Arms, Wrists and Hands in the Golf Swing. I also subsequently started to revise my original basic chapters, so that they would include a great deal of TGM instructional material. Originally, my basic chapters were targeted at an audience of beginner/developing golfers. However, my revised chapters have become much more detailed/complicated during the past two years (2008-2009), and I now think that they are primarily useful for serious golfers (and golf instructors) who are deeply analytical, and who want to independently self-modulate their own swings.   

The second major change that occurred during the past 3 years is that I have increasingly focused my attention on describing the biomechanics of the golf swing. As a retired physician with a MD degree, and also a BSc degree with majors in anatomy and physiology, I believe that I know much more about human anatomy, human physiology and human biomechanics than all the famous professional golf instructors. I have used this knowledge to write a few review papers that describe different aspects of the biomechanics of the golf swing, and these review papers are listed in the "miscellaneous topics" section.

I am not a professional golf instructor, who is dogmatically trying to promote a single particular golf swing ideology. I am primarily a keen student of the golf swing and I am trying to understand all the different ways that a golfer can execute a full golf swing. My review papers are based on my personal understanding of different swing style patterns, with a major focus on detailing their different sets of biomechanical/mechanical principles. I have written a number of review papers that describe TGM left arm swinging, TGM hitting, and my personal version of right arm swinging (using either an active pivot action or a reactive pivot action). I have also written critical review papers that dissect alternative swing styles (eg. S&T swing style, Mike Austin swing style) or controversial swing concepts (eg. Jim McLean's X-factor concept and the endless belt concept). Although I have been greatly influenced by Homer Kelley's TGM concepts, I have increasingly come to believe that his TGM concepts are too arbitrary and too intellectually-limiting, and I increasingly believe that he doesn't discuss all the ways that a golfer can efficiently execute a full golf swing. Homer Kelley has only described two major methods of executing a full golf swing - TGM left arm swinging and TGM hitting. During the second half of 2009, I became increasingly convinced that there is an alternative method of efficiently executing a full golf swing that combines swinging elements with hitting elements, and it contradicts Homer Kelley's belief that one should not combine swing elements with hitting elements in the same swing. I plan to write a major review paper on this alternative swing style (which I will probably call "swing-hitting") in mid-late 2010. Individual golfers will then be able to decide whether swing-hitting works better for them than the basic TGM swing styles (left arm swinging, and hitting) or the different variants of the right arm swing methodology.

Starting in late 2010 (or 2011), I plan to start writing a number of review papers on the short game.


Introduction to the swing video lesson section of my golf website


When I started this website in February 2007, I didn't even own a video camera, and I originally had no intention of producing swing video lessons. However, I have subsequently come to realise that swing videos are a powerful teaching tool because it allows a beginner golfer to see the "body moving in space". I therefore started to produce a few swing video lessons in late 2007 on important swing faults and concepts. My swing video lessons are produced in a single session and they do not include any further editing. They are therefore encumbered by inadvertent statement-errors and incomplete descriptions. This website also does not have the bandwidth to host my lengthy swing video lessons, and I therefore had to divide each swing video lesson into many segments (each segment lasting <10 minutes) so that I could freely post them on U-tube. Most of my swing video lessons are not listed in this video lesson section, because they primarily supplement the information in my review papers, and they are therefore listed in the relevant review papers.

Viewers of my swing video lessons must realise that I have many physical handicaps (particularly spinal inflexibility problems due to spinal surgery, and a number of shoulder joint inflexibility problems). I am therefore not able to execute a full golf swing in an uncompensated/correct manner. Viewers of my swing video lessons must therefore ignore the many swing flaws present in my visual execution of the golf swing, and viewers must concentrate their full attention on my verbal descriptions.   


Personal golfing background 


I only started to play golf when I retired in 2002. I couldn't break 100 for the first few years, despite a fair number of lessons from different golf instructors. I decided to independently study the golf swing in great depth in 2005, and I read numerous golf instructional books in 2005 and 2006. My knowledge of golf swing biomechanics/mechanics increased exponentially during the years 2007-2010. I have subsequently used that knowledge to self-improve my own golf swing. I am now playing to a 6-handicap and I frequently break 80 - despite my lack of athletic skills and physical inflexibility problems. My best-ever score for 18-holes is 70.


Goal of my golf website


My free (non-commercial) golf website is devoted to golfers, who are also deeply-analytical, and who also believe that they can self-improve their golf swing through an independent study of golf swing biomechanics/mechanics. I have received many appreciative e-mail messages from website visitors, and these messages have confirmed by "belief" that a motivated golfer can radically improve his golf swing and ball-striking ability - by acquiring a much better understanding of golf swing biomechanics/mechanics. These e-mail messages have made me feel that the thousands-of-hours that I have spent working on this golf website has been a worthwhile, albeit labor-intensive, endeavour.

Jeffrey Mann.

Revised introduction: May 2010. 



Website design, text size, spelling, photos and copyright issues


Website design

I have deliberately chosen a very simple website design, so that this review will have a scholarly, book-like appearance. I have therefore decided to mimic the design, and functionality, of my medical education website's clinical problem-solving guidemaps at http://jeffmann.net

I frequently use hyperlinks in this review, and the hyperlinks will enable readers to rapidly navigate to a relevant section, or subsection, of the review. A reader merely has to click his "back button" to go back to the original spot in the review.

Although my website's design is simple, I have used my Photoshop skills to produce high quality composite photographic images, that should enhance a reader's ability to appreciate certain golf swing instructional points.

Text size

The text size is user-controllable and a website visitor merely has to use his browser's text-size control function to make the text size smaller, or larger.

A website visitor can even change the text's font style using his browser's font control function.

Spelling

I have arbitrarily used both the "english-style" and "american-style" spelling of words, and I am very inconsistent in my spelling pattern from day-to-day. 

Photos

Most of the photos come from books or magazines, while a smaller number come from screen captures of single-frame images from swing videos. I scanned the images from books/magazines using a high quality scanner, and I then imported the scanned images into my Photoshop program, where I significantly enhanced the photographic quality of the images to maximise their visual quality on a computer monitor screen. I also frequently blended two-or-more images into a single composite image using Photoshop. I also had to decide on a final image size, so that it would comfortably fit on the average end-user's monitor screen. Knowing that end-users have different computer monitor screen resolutions, I chose a final image size that would make the final image "not-too-small" on high resolution monitor screens (1600x1200), and "not-too-large" on low resolution monitor screens (1024x768). The size of the final graphic images cannot, unfortunately, be altered by the end-user to suit his personal taste. The visual quality of the photographic images is highly dependent on the resolution capability of an end-user's computer monitor screen, and good quality images will only be realised if the end-user has a high resolution computer monitor screen.

Copyright issues

I believe that it is ethically acceptable for me to reproduce images from a book under standard copyright "fair use" doctrines, considering that this review is a scholarly review. My website is totally non-commercial and totally non-exploitative, and I have consistently acknowledged the source of all book-derived images in this review. Even though I have enhanced, or manipulated, some of the images, I fully acknowledge that the reproduced images belong to the original book authors/publishers, and not to me. I am confident that book authors, and book publishers, will not believe that I have unethically exploited their work, and I anticipate that this review may actually increase sales of their books. I will also honor the wishes of any book author, or book publisher, who adamantly requests that I remove their images from my review, and I will then seek alternative images to make the same educational point.


Book recommendations


I anticipate that some beginner golfers will wish to obtain book recommendations because they find my review too lengthy, and/or too confusing, and/or too biased. I therefore offer beginner golfers the following book recommendations.

For the beginner golfer, who wants a simple book, that covers all aspects of the golf game, I recommend David Leadbetter's book "100% Golf: Unlocking Your True Golf Potential".
 


I have read all of David Leadbetter's books and I think that this is his best golf instructional book, because it covers the entire golf swing in an easily understandable, and comprehensive manner.

For the more advanced golfer, who wants to maximise his understanding of the modern golf swing, I would recommend one of my favorite technical books - "Swing Like a Pro" by Ralph Mann and Fred Griffin. 



The SLAP authors have produced one of the most scientifically-based golf instructional books devoted to the full golf swing that I have ever read. They photographed the full golf swing of many professional golfers, using a high speed camera capable of recording 500 frames/second, and they then analysed the tens-of-thousands of images using a sophisticated computer. They subsequently produced a theoretically perfect golfer, the ModelPro golfer, who has the best commonality features of multiple professional golfers. Their research findings are of great utility, and I refer to some of their findings in my review. 

The best golf book for a serious, highly motivated golfer, who wants to maximise his knowledge of the mechanics/physics/geometry of the golf swing, is Homer Kelley's book called "The Golfing Machine.


 

I first started an in-depth study of this complex book in April 2008, and I now regard it as the best book ever written on the physics/geometry/mechanics of the golf swing. Homer Kelley worked as an engineer for Boeing and he initially became interested in the golf swing as a side-interest. His interest grew to such an extent that he ended up devoting 40 years of his life to thinking about, and researching, the golf swing. He kept notes on his ideas/concepts, and he eventually published his notes as a book. Homer Kellley died in 1983 and the "rights" to his work was licenced to Joe Daniels, who now runs the "The Golfing Machine" company ( http://www.thegolfingmachine.com ). You can purchase the book from the TGM company store. You can also inquire about certified TGM instructors in your area, and formal TGM courses that will allow you to become certified as a TGM instructor.

The TGM book is an extremely difficult book to read, and understand, and it will take the average reader a few hundred hours of intense study to fully understand Homer Kelley's ideas/concepts. 

Although I am offering interested website vistors these three book recommendations, I really believe that a serious golfer will obtain the maximum golf instructional benefit by reading ALL of the chapters and review papers posted in this golf website, because they contain a plenitude of detail on golf swing biomechanics/mechanics. The amount of golf instructional material on my website would fill >1,000 letter-sized pages if printed, and I know of no other golf instructional resource that will provide a golfer with so much useful golf instructional material. 



Jeffrey Mann.

Salt Lake City, USA.

E-mail address: jeffmanngolfer@gmail.com