The A Swing: The Alternative Approach to Great Golf

264 Pages·2015·13.8 MB·English

by  David Leadbetter and Ron Kaspriske

The A Swing
THE ALTERNATIVE APPROACH TO GREAT
GOLF
DAVID LEADBETTER
Ron Kaspriske
WITH
FOREWORD BY MICHELLE WIE
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS NEW YORK
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Table of Contents
Copyright Page

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This book is dedicated to my family—
my wife, Kelly, and children, Andy, Hally, and James—
who always inspire me to be the best.
FOREWORD
DAVID LEADBETTER HAS BEEN MY golf instructor since I was thirteen years old,
and when I think back on our countless practice sessions and
tournaments working together, our greatest successes came from our
shared passion to reach my goals. At times in my career, setbacks and
injuries have dampened my desire to practice and play. I bet you’ve had
bouts of frustration with golf, too. Believe me, I know how infuriating
this game can be. But instead of letting those frustrations get the best of
me, we focused on that passion for the game, and that helped me win
the U.S. Open at Pinehurst in 2014. Obviously, I felt nervous in trying to
win that tournament—especially in the final round. But you know what
else I felt? I was excited. I woke up on the morning of the final round
and was so excited to get out there and play, with total belief in my
abilities. I had a lot of fun. When the tournament was over, I couldn’t
wait to play the following week. Practice, too. I love going out there
hitting balls and working on my game now. So my advice is that if your
game has got you down, it’s time to make some changes to get your
passion for golf back.
One thing that has made golf so much more enjoyable for me is
knowing more about my golf swing—it’s helped improve my
consistency. I’m hitting my driver with confidence. I’m hitting more
greens in regulation, and I’m giving myself more chances for birdies. I
know I’m more consistent now because my swing has become more
efficient and reliable. There’s not a lot of wasted motion. I focus on
getting into a solid setup, fully coiling my body during the backswing
while keeping my arm swing nice and compact. I am then able to swing
back down into the ball with everything moving in sync. We’ve worked
hard on these principles, and they are the same fundamentals that make
David’s A Swing so effective and such a great option for so many golfers.
I’ve learned from David that no two golf swings are exactly alike, so
what matters is finding a way to swing the club that makes it easy to
repeatedly hit good golf shots. When I was growing up, I worked hard on
my overall game, and my having plenty of power made golf relatively
easy for me. But as I got older and my body started to naturally change,
so did my swing. Part of the change came from dealing with injuries, but
I also started to overthink things. The game became a lot harder as I
tried to achieve perfection. But now I know that you can’t be perfect.
Instead, you should develop a technique, believe in it, work on it, and go
out and play the game your way. What I have worked on with David is
based on efficiency and an understanding of how my own swing works,
and I know what to look for if something goes wrong so I can quickly fix
it. Trust me when I say that you can’t play good golf if you are focusing
on swing mechanics the whole time—you have to simplify things. The
goal is to be able to stand over the ball and know you’re about to hit a
solid shot, straight to your target. That’s the case now with my swing.
Sure I hit some bad shots, as every player does, but I don’t worry about
losing my swing. I focus on my basics and just go out and play. That’s
what David’s teaching is all about. He’s always looking for a simple
approach to improve a player’s confidence and make the game more
enjoyable.
I’m sure many of you know my journey in professional golf has had its
ups and downs. But David and I never gave up on fine-tuning my game,
so that it held up to the scrutiny of a final round in a major. You might
never reach that plateau, but I believe you’ll find your own level of
success if you follow David’s advice in this book and give the A Swing a
try. If you do, I know you will have less frustration and you’ll find it a
lot easier to play consistent golf. Now go make some birdies!
—MICHELLE WIE
INTRODUCTION
I’ve been teaching this game for over forty years and
have worked with golfers of all abilities. It doesn’t
matter whether I’m coaching someone trying to win a
major championship (I’ve coached nineteen major
championship winners), or someone that simply wants
to break 100; for me the thrill has always been to see
that golfer succeed. That’s why I’ve developed a
different approach to swinging the club. I call it the A
Swing, as in the alternative swing. The A Swing follows
sound scientific principles; while visually it does not
appear that different from a traditional swing, it is a
far easier way to hit the ball consistently. I created it
out of empathy for golfers who have struggled to reach
their goals with traditional swing techniques. In the
ensuing chapters, I will detail what makes it work,
how simple it is to learn, and why it might just be your key to
playing consistently better golf. Before I get to that, let me further
explain why I developed the A Swing.
I believe golf is the most difficult sport to master. You might for a
while have the recipe to playing well, but it never seems to last. One day
the swing feels smooth and effortless—the ball is sweetly struck and the
shots are consistent. The next day, the motion can feel awkward and
labored—the ball seems to go anywhere but where you intend. This fuels
both the mystery and allure of golf; we are not sure what to expect. It
happens to all golfers—the complexity of the game makes it tough to be
consistent, especially at the recreational level. Why is this, and why do
we put ourselves through this kind of stress playing the game? What
keeps us coming back? I think it’s because it is so exhilarating to hit a
well-struck golf shot, where the swing feels fluid and everything goes
right. Despite the game’s numerous complexities—from the physical
requirements of the golf swing; to being in the right frame of mind; to
the dizzying equipment options; to the ever-changing weather
conditions; to the varying course layouts, grasses, and lies; to the sheer
number of different shots that need to be learned—we somehow,
sometimes, find a way to execute good shots. Every time we tee it up, we
live in hope that this happens. Why is the game so elusive, we often ask
ourselves.
Most golfers have learned through experience that their times of
hitting the ball consistently well are fleeting. These are soon replaced by
the times of frustration at playing poorly. I think that’s the real issue for
most golfers. They know they can hit good shots and play well at times,
but are so inconsistent they get frustrated, not knowing what they’re
doing wrong, trying several fixes, and often going from bad to worse.
Even if they do know what the problem is, they typically don’t have
enough time to fix it. The pros have the advantage that aside from their
talent, they practice for dozens of hours every week, more than a
thousand hours each year, working on repetition. Most everyone else
who plays the game simply cannot afford that time commitment. And
don’t forget, even if amateurs do find the time for practice, a lot of it
should be spent on the all-important short game.
The odd lesson, swing tip, or equipment change can help make up for
that lack of time, but statistics show that most recreational players don’t
improve because they can’t put the hours in to perfect the traditional
approach to swinging a club. Even more troubling is that the more
golfers become aggravated with their game, the less desire they have to
play and practice. Think of how frustrating it is to invest time, effort,