Golf Instruction: David Ledbetter’s New Alternative Swing
By Sam Adams
I am always researching golf instruction in order to find better ways to help people enjoy this wonderful game. Today I came across a tweet from @GolfDigest and it showed a brief film clip of David Leadbetter’s new concept called the “A Swing” method. It is also the title of his newest golf instruction book, “The A Swing: The Alternative Approach to Great Golf“.
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As I watched the video clip and later his YouTube video I kept being struck by the amazing similarities between the A Swing and Jim Furyk’s swing. Can it be that Jim Furyk has had it right all the time?
I agree completely with David’s comments on the down swing. He is absolutely correct on what needs to happen and where the club needs to be. The back swing, however, does walk a fine line trying to avoid being a “reverse loop“. Basically the only difference between the A Swing back swing and what Furyk does is the right elbow. Furyk lets it extend away from the body and Ledbetter keeps it tucked in close which is the only thing that prevents the reverse loop. A reverse loop is taking the club outside the line on the back swing and looping or dropping to the inside on the way down.
This can help a lot of people. The main thing it does is it keeps someone from “fanning” or rotating the club open on the take away/back swing and that is definitely a good thing.
I have never been critical of Jim Furyk’s swing because it has helped him play some great golf for a long time and it is definitely capable of producing consistent golf shots. I have also so stated on more than one occasion that whatever theory anyone has about ball striking should be capable of accommodating Furyk’s swing. I just never thought I would see someone like David Leadbetter promoting something so similar to it.
“I have developed the A Swing with every type of player in mind—an evolution of what I have learned through the years teaching the world’s best players—a simple, easy to repeat approach to great golf.”— David Leadbetter
At any rate my hat is off to David for offering this as a viable alternative to the so called “traditional golf swing”. He claims that it is supposed to be easy to learn and very low maintenance. Sounds like something everybody out there is looking for.
Here is an excerpt from his website: “The A Swing—A stands for Alternative—is a simple way to swing the club, which follows biomechanically sound, scientific principles, and only requires minimal practice. The A Swing has been thoroughly tested with a wide range of players, from tour level to beginner, junior to senior, and the results overall have been nothing short of dramatic”.
If I have learned one thing over the years and it is there is no way to come up with anything that will help everybody, but there are ideas and concepts that can help many people. This one might be worth taking a look at.