Bradley - Kinetic golf: picture the game like never before

Nick Bradley is the worlds most innovative golf coach. Golf Digest

Using his deep knowledge of golf, Nick Bradley here gives the golferamateur or professionala unique new way of actually feeling the way to master every aspect of the game. In 125 amazing composite photographs, he shows you how to build a powerful and consistent game, offering insights that words alone cannot convey.

A leading Tour consultant who has worked with some of the worlds top golfersincluding Ryder Cup players; Walker Cup players; nine national champions; and European Tour, PGA Tour, and Nationwide Tour winnersNick Bradley also coached Justin Rose to the European Tour Order of Merit win in only twelve counting events, a new tour record.

Nick Bradley is a frequent contributor to the top golf publications, including Golf Digest, Golf World, Golf International, and Golf Monthly. In this book he shares trade and Tour secrets that will enhance your understanding and promote the visceral, muscular feelings of the right way to tackle specific kinds of shot-making, the golf swing, and your mind-set in various situations, helping you to vastly improve your game. He has a unique ability to boil down the very essence of swing motion and technique, blend it with a feel, and then create an image that says it all. His method transcends any verbal explanation: Take one look at an image and you will get his message.

To Marney, my consistent source of love and
support in a world that is full of change.

Nick Bradley is one of the worlds bright new teaching stars. Among the many things I admire about Nick is the way he dares to depart from the accepted norm of golf instruction. He has new and refreshing ways of getting his message across to the reader or audience that immediately hook them into the learning process.

I first met Nick on Tour during the 2006 season, when he managed the coaching of PGA Tour golfer Justin Rose. At the time, Justin was certainly not playing to his potential and had fallen to a career low of 123rd in the world rankings. Within just twenty months, Justin climbed to a career high of sixth in the rankings and won the 2007 European Tour Order of Merit. Quite a turnaround! Such a dramatic change in Justins game can be greatly attributed to Nicks ability to communicate the correct information in a very digestible way.

In this new book of his, you will see an enthusiasm and a new approach to teaching delivered via amazing imagery and a common-sense text. I know that, like myself, you will really learn a lot from Nicks latest work.

Butch Harmon is ranked No. 1 Instructor in the world by Golf Digest.

On Christmas Day of 1980, when I was ten years old, I was walking past a room with a TV playing and happened on a scene from the James Bond movie Goldfinger. In it, Bond was driving a 1964 silver Aston Martin and an Asian assailant was holding a gun on him. I stopped to see how Bond would deal with this deadly threat. The camera panned swiftly back and forth between Bonds face and his hand on the gearshift, then froze on his hand. Using his thumb, he flicked the end of the handle upward, revealing a bright red button, which he pressed. This opened a section of the roof and vertically ejected the killer.

This scene gave me a love of dramatic and dynamic images that became an important part of my life and eventually manifested itself in my golf instruction. Why, I reasoned, couldnt golf instruction be as visually stimulating as that famous scene in Goldfinger? Why couldnt it actually stimulate and inspire golfers to live up to an image they had seen? How many men in their thirties and forties have walked around hotels and airports imagining that they were the great James Bond on a secret mission? The answer, of course, is millions. A powerful and indelible icon encourages people to emulate its example.

Golf instruction should be the same. It should encourage you to fit into an image and try to sense that feel for yourself. Truly inspired learningthe wish to develop and growis most effectively generated by a source that operates at a higher than ordinary level. At its best, education is inseparable from entertainmentthey are one.

In Kinetic Golf, you will see images that I have successfully used with top players during major championships. The Ball Has Gone with the Wind, for example, shows an image of me exhaling and literally blowing the ball powerfully down the fairway. The idea for it came from the 2007 Masters Tournament, in which I had Justin Rose inhale (generating a beta wave in the brain) and then exhale in the pattern he wanted the ball flight to follow. It was a pretty successful process, leading to a fifth-place finish for him that year. You will also see an image from the swing bible I created for him, which led to his record-breaking year winning the 2007 European Tour Order of Merit in just twelve counting events. From 2009 to 2011, I consulted for Kevin Chappell, taking him from zero status as a professional to winning on the Nationwide Tour and breaking two Tour records. He went on to finish third in the U.S. Open that year. The Firing the Right Knee image was a critical tool for Kevin during this period, since he showed a lot of potential if he could only develop better dynamic balance during his swing.

Kinetic Golf is a valuable tool for any golfer wanting to get to the essence of what playing golf is all about. In my previous book, The 7 Laws of the Golf Swing, I taught you how to build the Ferrari. In this book I teach you how to drive it. No question, mechanics have to be in place, and that, dear reader, happens in the pit lane (practice ground). This book is about driving your car on the track, letting go, and allowing your brain to swim in pictures and feelings.

Id like to give special thanks to good friend and artist Lee John Rouse. Without Lee and our unique working relationship, this project would not have been the success it is. Lee, thank you so much. Thanks also to Laura Macfadyen and Marco DUva and the team at Paperhat FTP. Much credit goes to photographer Keith Jacobs, whose patience during the various shoots (and with me) was legendary. Thank you, Keith. Id like to thank James Ridyard and Justin Padgen for their input with the ball flight data involvedthese guys are the best in their field. Id also like to thank the staff at the Tobacco Road Golf Club in North Carolina. This stunning piece of course architecture by the sorely missed Mike Strantz provided the backdrop for many of the shots.

My wish is for this book to help you play your best golf through the tools with which the greatest golf has always been played. These tools are the visual and the feeling. To have a golfing inventory of shot-feel possibilities that you can call upon is an accomplishment Tour professionals around the world have mastered. This book encourages you to move away from the narrow internal focus that makes lifeless statues of weekend golfers and tournament professionals alike and into a focus that is more out there, more external.

This book doesnt have all the answers, but it does give you all the clues you need to play the game extremely well.