[.ca] David Leadbetter 100% Golf: Unlocking Your True Golf ... (ISBN 0062720694)

A solid offering from one of golf's best:
If you've never heard of David Leadbetter, he's one of golf's premier teachers, with a string of famous students on the tour who sing his praises (starting with Nick Faldo) and he was recently named Golf Digest's "best golf coach of all time". He also runs a string of 16 golf academies, with a home base in Florida. If you don't have any of David's other products and are interested in an instructional book, this one is a "must-buy." Its text is simple to follow and the ideas are easy to picture in your head. David purposely avoids overly technical dissertations on the swing in favor of simple explanations and drills to find the "feel" of each teaching point. The drills are simple and helpful and laid out in a very easy-to-find fashion with pictures that leave no question in your mind what you should be doing. That's helpful, as the large, hardcover book is a little bulky to take out on the range with you. I find the most value in this book reading it casually when I have spare time -- eating lunch alone, on breaks, on the bus to/from work -- and then I try the drills I can remember when I get home or out on a range. The lessons themselves run from the very fundamental -- the grip, says David, is the single most common culprit in all of golf -- to the slightly more advanced. While a lot of this material is not exactly "new," some of the drills are new and the text really sort of "sums up" David's thinking to this point. As such, if you already own other Leadbetter books and videos, you might not find too much else of value here, but if you've got the money to spend and have dogeared all your other Leadbetter books to the point of no return, there's certainly no harm in picking up this one as well.

best of Leadbetter and more:
If your golf's library does not have DL's instructional videos and/or books already, this book is definitely for you. If you have, buy this book anyway, it adds to your collection, and also, gives you new thoughts on how you can best "feel" your golf swing, and thus, unlocking your true potential as a golfer, at whatever level that may be. Rather than giving us a mechnaical breakdown of how a perfect swing should be like, which mere mortal like myself would never be able to groove a swing to remotely resemble the perfect swing, DL has given us thoughts on how golf swing should "feel" like, as well as how to groove the feel so as to be repeatable. For example, the thought on how to enable a "connected takeaway" to initiate the backswing has really helped me. There are hosts of others explanations and thoughts you will find useful.

This book can work wonders...but you have to let it flow.:
I walked into the bookstore and this book stared me in the face. Instantly I was drawn to it. An amateur golfer who has only read Harvey Pennick's LITTLE RED BOOK, I knew there was a lot of information on swing mechanics that I was missing. I picked it up. Jam-packed with large detailed color pictures and instruction that is meant to be felt and not analyzed, I knew this books was for me. I took this book home and started studying it, trying to memorize all the information I could--careful not to let any drop seep out of my brain. One thing I realized right away: this book CAN help you IMPROVE YOUR SWING SPEED while at the same time improving the accuracy with which you strike the ball. For all those men out there who think they need to hit the ball hard to hit if far, think again. Case in point: I bought my wife her first set of golf clubs three months ago. She is 5'4. When everything is grooving for her, she can hit the ball over 200 yards. I even witnessed her hit it 220 with her 3 wood. The last time we went golfing she hit the flag from 150 yards away. She says it feels like she is not even holding the club. How am I doing? I used to burn through gloves--now I'm not even wearing one. My drives are straight and beautiful. My short game has also improved: lob shots, chip shots, sand shots, putting. The biggest difference in my game is that now when I play my worst I am still playing better than I ever did before. The only thing I wished to see more of in this book was a section on how to 'work' shots. The draw and fade and all that jazz...it's not in there. However, if you want to learn to play better, consistent golf, then 100% Golf can help you do it.

Learning from the best........AGAIN:
David never fails to amaze anyone. He shows true passion for what he does and believes in. As a member of his teaching staff at David's junior academy in Bradenton, I can tell you that David goes to great measures to provide the best golf instruction possible. I am proud to be a member of his team for that reason. It seems my last review on "The fundamentals of Hogan" was percieved as a "biased" opinion. Therefore I ask you not to make judgement until you read what I feel I learned from this book. 1.) Professionalism- Short, detailed information with polished pictures. 2.) Importance of flow and character of the golf swing. 3.) Simplicity and fundamentals are best. 4.) Holistic- covers all areas (technical, mental, and physical) 5.) Great images to help build feelings. 6.) Always find ways to improve...no matter how good you are at something. 7.) All books are loaded with information and mean nothing unless we apply the knowledge. 8.) Will learn and apply eight new things next time I look over my copy of 100% Golf. Thank you for another great book David and everthing you taught me.

Absolutely Brilliant:
Having read his other instructional books, I purchased this one thinking what else can Mr. Leadbetter share. And share he did, from basics to advanced techniques. The photographs (frame by frame) were brilliant and the text were short and crisp - drills that you can take with you to the driving range to try. It would be nicer if he had a section on course management.