The clearest and most effective of teaching tools

Golf: Gary Moran reads an instruction book that covers the basics of the golf swing and its effect on ball flight

After several weeks of psychology, caddies' tales, wannabe professionals and teaching by parables, it is time for this column to get back to basics. If you are ever suffering from paralysis by analysis, if every adjustment seems to compound your troubles, then might we recommend The Golf Swing Simplified by John Jacobs. You may need to go to the library or onto the internet to get a copy but it will be worth it.

Peter Kessler presented Golf Academy Live and Golf Talk Live on The Golf Channel for five years. At the end of the stint, he calculated that approximately 600 different professionals had passed through the studio dispensing over 30,000 different tips.

The Golf Swing Simplified is the antithesis of Golf Academy Live. It is a book of just 120 pages that is big on diagrams and short on words but each and every sentence from the pens of Jacobs and co-author Ken Bowden is carefully constructed.

There are no gimmicks, no towels tucked under the arms, beach balls squeezed between the knees or swinging in a barrel. It is golf boiled down to basics then boiled down again. No waste.

It opens with the declaration that "the majority of the world's 35 million golfers never play the game as well as they could because they have no idea, an incorrect idea or an incomplete idea of what they are trying to do when they swing a golf club".

Spend a couple of hours looking out at the first tee of your local club and ask yourself if you can honestly disagree. According to Jacobs, the behaviour of the ball is determined solely by four impact factors: the direction in which the clubface looks (clubface alignment); the direction in which the clubhead travels (path of the swing); the angle of inclination at which the clubhead arrives at the ball (angle of attack); the speed of the clubhead.

Understanding the correct confluence of impact factors is half the battle but everything happens too fast for a golfer to see what occurs at impact.

Fortunately, everything can be diagnosed from the flight of the ball. If your tee shots start to the left and then curve miserably into the trees on the right then the path of the swing must be across the target line from right to left and the clubface must be aligned to the right of the swing path (i.e. open). Every wretched shot (and every good one) can be explained by the impact factors in similar fashion and all variations are explained with lucid text and excellent diagrams.

The second half explains how the grip ultimately determines the clubface alignment, the set-up determines the path of the swing, and posture affects swing plane and angle of attack. Get them all right and a free and powerful and accurate swing will follow. If that's not happening, diagnose what is wrong from the flight of the ball, make the recommended adjustments and get back on track. The ability to do so is, in Jacobs' opinion, fundamental to playing to your maximum potential. "Without it, each swing lacks focus; occurs in a vacuum; is little more than a hit-and-hope experiment."

Given Jacobs' achievements, it would be foolish to disagree. He played in and captained Ryder Cup teams, was a brilliant teacher who coached Walker Cup teams and top professionals and was a driving force behind the creation of the European tour.

"I ever so much wanted to be the best player that ever was. I realised I taught it better than I played it," he once said.

If he had played it as well as he wrote this book, he might have won the Grand Slam.

The Golf Swing Simplified

by John Jacobs with Ken Bowden