Simple Swing Review

Rating:

Reviewed by 

W.Tim Grantham 

The question I asked myself as I poured over the teaching materials and videos which accompany this product is who is this swing for?

Before I headed out to the range, I needed to know who was going to get the greatest benefit out of this swing. That is, of course, if the swing worked as it claimed.

Here are my findings, both good and bad. First, you should know that this is not an orthodox swing. In other words, don't expect to turn on CBS or NBC and see a tour player with this swing. That is not all bad by any means if this swing produces solid and accurate golf shots.What I do like very much about the swing presentation is the ( dare I say it) simple steps which are laid out for the student. The producers of the material strongly recommend starting with the chipping video/manual (part of the package) because it is, in effect, a mini version of the full swing. I would definitely concur with this advice because it lets you get comfortable with the set up and grip which are unlike anything you may have been taught before.

There is no disputing the fact that hitting an egg carton full of really solid chips gets your confidence level up. You then quietly take out a slightly less lofted club and rinse and repeat. Resist at all costs the urge to let the big dog out of the kennel.

Many elements of this swing are counter-intuitive. This means that your brain would not normally figure that this way of propelling a golf ball would hold out much hope for success. Because these elements (fundamentals) are different, they will feel awkward at first. This is to be expected. In any sport or athletic endeavour, learning new moves is always accompanied by a feeling of oddness and discomfort. If you have ever ice skated, you will know immediately what I mean.

Want to begin to solidly strike the ball time after time, read this.

My experience was that the setup and grip can be learned quickly. The part of the swing that requires disciplined repetition is the backswing motion. This is undeniably a shoulder rotation swing. You will need to resist the temptation to create a lot of swing speed with your lower body.I must confess here that I enlisted a friend of mine to be a guinea pig. I showed him the fundamentals (but nothing more), and asked him to make a swing from that setup position. I really wanted to see how his brain would try to create clubhead speed.

His "instinct" was to try to swing his arms as fast as he could. The result? Not so good! Weak and erratic shots all over the lot. However, when I reprogrammed him to reproduce the Simple Swing, his ball striking got good ... really good. Actually it got so good that I ended up having to wrestle him to the ground to stop him from pulling the driver out of his bag.That must be a primal instinct, don't you agree?

Well, back to my initial query: who is this swing for? Well I just know that guys who have played for a whack of years and score in the 90's are going to be very resistant to any change. I think the golfers who are fed up with the limitations and inconsistencies of their current swing will be open minded enough to suspend judgement and give it a fair shot. When (and they will) begin to blow the ball past their golfing buddies, the trash talking will stop.

This is also a great way for a new golfer to begin because it shrinks the learning curve dramatically and makes the game immediately enjoyable. The ladies will love this swing.From my experience with trying to teach ladies, I know that achieving power and solid contact is an issue. I am confident that women would see rapid improvement using this swing.

So, in summary, this is definitely not a swing for old school golfers, but then again they probably don't use power tools. It is certainly for golfers who want to vastly accelerate the learning process.

Want to become a legitimate ball striker, read this.

My own feeling is the video materials could be a tad more user friendly, but this is more than offset by the super support that is offered. Literally, they almost come to your backyard to help you learn this swing. I am between 4 and 4 and a half stars for this product. Very good job here.