The inside path to better golf

I read Mr. Kostis' book many years ago and recently reread it. He builds a golf swing from a mini-swing up to the full swing. Numerous photos and swing drills throughout demonstrate his swing philosophy. Modern books tend to emphasize the big muscles controlling the swing, but Kostis shows how this can lead to the typical outside-in swing plane. He 'ties' the hands and wrists to the lower body movement, and the shoulders to the hips. The arms are supported by the movements of the lower body. The author writes clearly; he tells the reader how to make the movements and shows with photos what those movements look like. Unique camera angles from above give a fresh look at the golf swing. Having read many books on the golf swing, I would highly recommend this one. There's no fluff here, just well-written teaching that will have you drawing the ball instead of slicing.

Peter Kostis and his cowriter have produced a valuable addition to the golf literature. A strong theme of the book is the concept and practice of bringing the club from the inside as opposed to the outside and over the top swings that most of us develop as amateurs. His approach is very refreshing in that he talks about the function of the hands and arms and emphasizes their primary importance in the swing. This aspect of the book is very strong and such treatment of the subject is very hard to find in other text books which tend to concentrate on the body and neglect the essential work of the hands and arms. The only weakness of the book is that it gets vague when discussing the legs and lower body. Also it should be mentioned that the text is not a particularly easy read: it certainly has to be studied a few times but it is well worth the effort. Strong features of the book are the numerous well highlighted photos, emphasizing the textual description and an abundance of good, no-nonsense drills which are used in a staged manner to gradually build up from a small swing with the hands and forearms to a full swing using the entire body. All in all a great effort, and I wish Peter would write another book with more swing thoughts and drills for the lower torso and legs, that would round out a thorough knowledge of the swing very well for any serious student of golf.

I am very glad I stumbled across this book (had never heard of it before). This book is built around some truths which I think are common sense, but I haven't found as part of an instruction book: 1. Not all successful swings look the same. They don't need to look the same, as long as the fundamentals are addressed. 2. A swing should be built in stages, giving the golfer a chance to master one aspect before adding the next. Kostis goes on to break down the different aspects, including large, clear photos and a number of drills to work on each step. I've read books by Hogan, Leadbetter, Pennick, McCord, Love/Toski and others. They all have value (esp. liked Leadbetter's Perfect Practice book). But the methodology in Toski's book has worked great for me.