About L.A.W.s – Full Swing Golf Academy

Dr. Jim Suttie (Phd Biomechanics) is widely known as one of the best teachers in the world.

According to Golf Digest Magazine 'Doc' stands in the top 15 best golf instructors in America.

In the year 2000 Doc was voted USPGA Teacher of the year. He has coached more than 150 USPGA/European tour and LPGA tour players. Some of these include Chip Beck, Loren Roberts and Paul Azinger.

Doc Suttie has 2 academy's in the United States, one at Cog Hill, near Chicago and the other at Twin Eagles in Naples, Florida.

There is also 1 in Europe, in the Netherlands at the Exclusive Goyer Golf and Country Club run by PGA Professional Adrian Morley.

There are only two golf academies in Australia teaching the LAWs method, one of which is the Full Swing Golf Academy.

Doc is the author of 2 books, Your Perfect Swing and The L.A.W.'s and Principles of the Golf Swing.

Through Doc's Phd in biomechanics and long years of study of the golf swing, he has founded the groundbreaking L.A.W.'s method which is based on the movement functionality of 3 different types of golf swing: The Leverage Swing, The Arc Swing and The Width Swing.

What are the L.A.W.'s?

In most sports the body fits the athlete by the chosen sport. For instance, in athletics a sprinter has a muscle toned and a good proportioned body; a marathon runner has a wiry body with normally longer legs for taking longer strides; a front rower in rugby has a stocky upper body, with powerful legs used for pushing in a scrum. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule.

A golfer however can be any one of these body types or some sort of combination. A great part of success in golf can be determined by a good match: How good the swing technique is matched by the physique and the limitations of the golfer. e.g. Flexibility, range of motion, power. These are determined with some simple tests to determine the model the player best fits in to.

The Leverage Player

The Leverage Player has an average build where the arms and legs are symmetrical with the rest of the build of the body. The player has lot of flexibility and there can be some fat deposits on parts of the body, but generally they are of average build with average height with an average height/weight ratio for example; 1.75cm and 70kg.

The swing would look very rotational.

A good example of a Leverage Player would be Ben Hogan, Stuart Appelby or Zac Johnson. [most lady golfers and juniors fit in to this category]

See photo album Leverage Player for full sequence from front, and along the line.

The Arc Player

The Arc Player is normally on the tall side, very flexible and a thin chest area. Often with long arms and longer torso region capable of creating a lot of power with very little effort. With a length / weight ratio of around 1.83cm and 75kg.

The swing would look a lot like a circular or arc like swing.

A good example of an arc type swing would be Jack Nicklaus, Davis Love 3rd or an Early Tiger Woods swing before he hit the gym.

See photo album Arc Player for full sequence from front, and along the line.

The Width Player

The Width Player normally has a bulky chest and short strong arms and legs. Often not very flexible. The tendency for this type of player is a low length / weight ratio (but often heavy for their length) for example: 1.72 and 82kg.

The Width Player will have a shorter swing with often an upper body swing which looks like punching.

A good example of a width type swing would be Darren Clarke, Craig Stadler or Peter Senior. [most senior golfers would fit in to this category]

See photo album Width Player for full sequence from front, and along the line.

Hybrid Players

In reality, we wouldn't come across a pure leverage, arc or width swing player very often. For the most part golfers have a 'hybrid' swing type. A hybrid swing would be a combination of 2 of these body types. A good example would be a Leverage-Arc swing is Sergio Garcia; Arc-Leverage is Adam Scott; and a Leverage-Width, Greg Norman.

Every swing has its own 'fundamentals'. The L.A.W.'s academy custom fits everyone's swing to the 'flexibility of the player’s dominant power source'.

For example:

The Leverage player get's it's power and swing speed from body rotation and centrifugal force.
The Width player is stronger in the upper body, arms and hands.
The players dominant depth dimension: leverage (depth),arc (height), width (wide)
Matching swing elements. What are matching swing elements? In short if you do A then you have to match that with B. There are hundreds of matching swing elements.
- Short backswing = strong left hand grip
- Steep backswing(high) = weak left hand grip
- Lots of leg drive in downswing = higher backswing
- Fast hip rotation in downswing = flatter backswing

For a player to reach his / her maximum potential their swing needs to be matched to the body type.

A lot of golfers are mismatched and therefore will never play to their full potential.

This is one of the reasons you need a Qualified L.A.W.'s Instructor.

See photo album Hybrid Player for full sequence from front, and along the line.