Guest post by Golfshake ambassador Andrew Pickenan.

This is a difficult book for me to review as I am proud to say that I have had a very small part in its early development.

A couple of years ago I won the chance to go to La Manga in Spain and receive a week’s coaching from the author of the book, Adam Young and David Leadbetter.  I got on really well with Adam, and discovered he had a manuscript prepared based around his blog page but he was not sure if it would make a book. Having had some minor works published myself I offered to help by proof reading the draft over the winter.

Once I saw his first draft I knew it was a valuable piece of work and was ground breaking. This week is the books first anniversary of being published and I don’t think any of us expected it to have been quite as successful as it has proved to have been.

The Practice Manual is an international best seller, having reached the top of the charts (amazon.com sales rank) in the USA, the UK, Canada, Germany and France, and for good reason – it is unlike any other golf book on the market.

“The Practice Manual” has taken the body of research in motor learning and explained it in a practical and simple way which every golfer of any level can apply. By learning golf in a way which is more compatible with our brain, we can set ourselves up for lifelong success at this difficult but rewarding game. If you are serious about getting good at golf, this book is a must have for every golfer’s library.”

I particularly like the way that the book is broken into separate sections.

Section One describes learning theory and what are the optimal ways to learn and why. I found this an excellent resource as it becomes easier to learn if you have a better understanding of the learning process.

Section Two describes an action plan. It sets achievable goals within a practice regime. If you have been guilty (like me ) in the past of making time for the practice range only to “scrape and hit” 100 balls and thinking that it was doing me some good, then this is the book for you.

Section Three is a series of examples. It explains how to arrange and organise a schedule to maximise both performance and learning.

Each chapter within the book is as a stand out article and it is easy to dip into and out of the book. Each chapter has a summary making it easier to recap the learning.

Does it work?

My son took up the game 23 months ago and has dropped from a handicap of 24 to 9 in that time using a lot of the thoughts and principles based in the book. He had no engrained bad habits like his Dad but still a great improvement nonetheless.

This is not a standard golf instruction book and I would recommend that you visit www.adamyounggolf.com to get a much clearer idea as to the style of Adams writing and thinking.

For me it is the best golf guide in my library and I go back to it regularly for review.

I totally recommend this book. Don’t just rely on me check out the testimonials of much better golfers than me on Amazon. Also, Martin Hall recently inducted this book into his famous golf library on The Golf Channel, saying

“If you are a golf professional, you need this book. If you practice, you need this book. If you want to get better at golf, you need this book”. There couldn’t be a better recommendation from such a highly regarded instructor.

For more information and to order visit www.adamyounggolf.com