IF IT is possible to focus too much on the modern golf swing then maybe Jeff Mann has done it.
Jeff is a retired doctor who has built an amazing resource at his website, Perfect Golf Swing.
As Jeff happily admits, his analysis of the golf swing is so detailed it is not for everyone.
But for those who are interested, it is fascinating stuff.
Even though Jeff set up the website entirely himself and it has a very simple, no frills design, it demonstrates the internet at its best.
The only problem is, if, like me, you start reading, viewing and absorbing and then look up and realise several hours have passed and you haven’t even reached the top of the backswing.
As for Jeff, he has obviously spent countless hundreds of hours putting it all together – and the project is still ongoing.
The beauty of Jeff’s work – apart from the fact that it is all entirely free to access - is that he has drawn all the material together from the best teachers and resources from throughout golf’s history.
And because it is online every minute, gory aspect of the modern golf swing can be analysed not just with words, pictures, illustration and graphs, but with relevant video clips and links as well.
The amazing thing is that Jeff only started playing golf when he retired from practicing medicine in 2001.
Jeff looked around and noted there was no free online review of the full golf swing available. Sure, there are a myriad of sites offering free golf tips, but nothing detailed like this.
Jeff decided to approach it as he would a scholarly analysis of any educational subject and that’s why he decided on the no frills style of Perfect Golf Swing.
As in a scholarly review, every point is referenced to the original source, whether that is from a David Leadbetter book, a Ben Hogan video clip or an animated robot swinging at one of the modern golf clinics. And all of it is based entirely on traditional golf instructional teaching.
As an older golfer himself - and with the benefit of his medical knowledge of human physiology - Jeff knows that most senior golfers are not going to be physically able to exactly replicate the perfect swing of a golf robot or even a young Aaron Baddeley. Allowances can be made.
And as Jeff freely admits, the review will not offer a developing golfer any secret formula that will magically enable them to instantly perfect their golf swing.
What it does do for those interested is provide the basis for a thorough and in-depth understanding of golf swing mechanics.
Read and absorb it and suddenly all those seemingly disparate and (often in reality) confusing golf tips in the magazines and websites will all make perfect sense. You’ll know exactly where they are coming from.
(Illustration from Swing Like a Pro. Ralph Mann and Fred Griffin)
November 27th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Hi. Noticed your review on a web search. I checked out the websites that were linked but there was no ‘free’ version I could find. Only a yearly subscription service.
Do you have a link to the area you wrote about:
Thanks,
Tom
November 27th, 2008 at 8:10 am
The link at the bottom of the story (Visit Perfect Golf Swing here) seems to be working fine to me.
There is no subsciption service, just Jeff’s “scholarly review” of the golf swing. As he explains:
“This website consists of three sections. The first section is a free online review of the modern, total body golf swing and it is based on traditional teaching - see introduction to the modern, total body golf swing below. The second section is called “miscellaneous topics” and it has 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. The third section is the swing video lesson section and it includes video lessons on different aspects of the golf swing.”
Don’t expect the videos to be all that flash, but they are informative for developing golfers, and, like everthing else on the site, freely available.