******
- Verified Buyer
A brief background: I'm a 13 handicap and I've been playing for 10 years. I've broken 80 three times this season, yet all this time I had a swing that would be there one day and gone the next.Moreover, I relied on strength to "hit" the ball. Even though golf instructors incessantly tell students to swing the club rather than hit the ball, it is easier said than done. And no instruction book explains it better than this one. Ben Hogan's 5 fundamentals does talk about letting the arms go along for a ride, but it doesn't talk about weight shift and balance as the keys to a natural swing.To begin with, the reader might think there is nothing natural about the golf grip...that is true but ONLY if we are relying on our instinct to hit the ball like we've learned in baseball or any other hitting sport. That's precisely what George Knudson advises against.Whatever George Knudson teaches is indeed natural IF you decide to swing the club rather than hit the ball. Quite simply, if the clubhead were tied to a rope and you had to swing the rope without any wobbling, the clubhead can theoretically travel on an undisturbed arc and gain immense speed as it flies, taking along the golf ball or whatever else is placed in its way.The author advises against thinking about golf as a hand-eye coordination game. I completely agree. If both Ben Hogan and George Knudson (both considered great ball strikers) believe that an amateur with average hand-eye coordination can break 80 consistently, then who am I to argue. I have average hand eye coordination and I never excelled at sports. However, understanding the purpose of the game (swing, NOT hit) has changed my outlook.The first time I really got the concept and stepped on the range to apply it, I hit the absolute purest shots with minimal conscious effort. The feeling was so profound that I was upset about wasting 10 years on learning swing mechanics and getting into perfect positions rather than swinging the club. Get this book, practice the drills, and enjoy the improvement. You won't become a tour caliber player right away but you will swing smooth and easy, be less tired and achy after a practice session or a round, and have an oily/syrupy swing with minimal swing thoughts. And best of all, it will feel natural!I also wish to comment on some reviews that downplay the importance of the personal stories that the author tells...what I took away from those stories was the fact that even as a multiple winner on the tour, Knudson was concerned that he wasn't swinging the club and wanted to find a better and more consistent way to do it. All his stories simply reinforce the point that golf isn't complicated. Rather than going into the theoretical derivation of angular momentum, centrifugal force, and potential and kinetic energy, he simply shows the reader how to benefit from physical laws governing motion. And as stated before, the result of following his advice is the most effortless swing you'll ever have.
