The Impact Zone: Mastering Golf's Moment of Truth Paperback – April 3, 2007

I am a 9 handicap and this book felt like it was written for me. I hit a lot of balls during the Summer and have too many days where I feel like it is my first day playing. I have read several other popular golf books and watch endless golf instruction on YouTube (my favorite channels being Craig Hanson, Athletic Motion Golf, and Porzak).Recently it occured to me that I need to focus more on making quality and consistant contact. But how? Randomly at the range, my father advised me to try looking at the ground in front of the ball as opposed to the ball itself. This was because without the ball I could easily take a nice forward divot but my strike was sporadic when the ball was in view. I instantly was striking down on the ball and compressed 30 or 40 balls beautifully. I entirely ridded myself of fats and thins in that moment. The next day, it was not working quite as well in my favor. I realised it was now harder to "unsee" the ball even when looking in front of it. I needed more help but was on the right track.Seeking help with golf ball compression I found this book as a recommendation in a YouTube comment somewhere. So I ordered it immediately. 'The Impact Zone' perfectly describes how most of us golfers are focused on the wrong things. The "Dynamics" presented in this book are essential. In the last week I have focused on these "Dyanmics" and have hit about 1,000 chip and pitch shots (barely getting started) and have made huge improvements to my overall ball striking.I highly recommend reading this and committing to hitting whole buckets of nothing but chip and pitch shots if you are striving to contact the ball better. As the author states, it might be frustrating at first but push forward.Last thought. This book does not cover every position and movement in the swing. You will likely want to expand on your swing knowledge much more. But this is the core of it all. If you are like me and have good knowledge of the positions and feels but need something more. This is probably it.

Having suffered from early release and loss of lag, I found his instruction fairly simple to help correct this. He wants a flat left wrist and an aiming point forward of the ball so that the bottom of the divot is about four inches forward of the ball. He believes that a golfer should become proficient with the shortest swings before the short swings before attempting the full swing. In this respect, lessons that I took 10 years ago started with chipping with a flat left wrist and a forward shaft lean. He takes a step more forward, start with a flat left wrist in putting. This really helped my putting. I found that this book in conjunction with Mike Bender's "Building a Life Long Swing" to have done more to improve my swing than a host of other books, DVDs and lessons. Clampett believes that style or swing construction is not as important as controlling the five dynamics of the swing. Let swing dynamics drive your swing, not style. All golfers are different so modeling a pro's swing may or may not work for you unless you can maintain the dynamics. After all, the way the club meets the ball is the most important part of the swing.The book's failings are illustrations that are too small and not enough, and for some, there are too many Clampett stories, although some have a point.His drills for making divots forward of the balls works hand in hand with Bender's impact drills.The $20 spent for these two Kindle editions of both these books will be some of the best instruction you can get. There are lots of drills.As I said, my swing has greatly improved while only getting started with the books -- I still have gotten to the full swing as I am still working on improving my pitch shots. Clampett wants you to have a very good, repeatable pitch shot before you work on the full swing.Although the books are short, you must resist the temptation to go from step one to step five while skipping steps 2, 3, and 4!

oh oh oh ... as usual i have tons to say, mostly good.first, i think this book is meant for golfers with some understanding of the golf swing. i don't think it would be very helpful to a beginner. however, if you are a beginner, do read it, just after you've got some of the basics like grip and stance down.second, bobby clampett is interesting because he was an amateur phenom, the likes of tiger and jack, but his pro career was less than what many expected. he speaks to this in the book, saying that when he got on the pga tour he developed that dreaded "rabbit ears", a well known tour disease where players that were good enough to make the tour start listening to tour swing gurus, change swings and plummet. see, bobby, now a long-time CBS golf announcer, was a student of bob doyle, who was the main proponent of homer kelley's "golfing machine" book and teaching method. it was and is highly controversial and particularly "technical". bobby gives credit to bob and homer and states that if he'd have stuck with their teachings he'd probably have had a better career. so, it is very interesting to look at an instructional book from a great golfer who was a dedicated "golfing machine" student ... what does he keep from his years of learning from bob? how did he filter what he learned into this book?i believe the core principles of this book are PURE GENIUS and the arise from bobby's resentment regarding his movement away from what he was taught as a kid.he creates a dichotomy: there are swing STYLES and there are swing DYNAMICS. Styles are things like where you flare your front foot, your particular grip choice, whether you are shut, open or square at the top. These are secondary to the swing dynamics, and, bobby claims (and i agree), failure of teachers to make this distinction and to spend too much time on style instead of dynamics, is a failure of teaching pros.if that bit of information isn't genius enough, there is more! bobby gives us more. these are the dynamics, and he takes us though them in the natural progression from putting, to chipping, to pitching to full swing. it makes my heart flutter to think of how beautiful this teaching method is: to start the student with putting then chipping then pitching and then the full swing ... like a ballet, so natural ... each movement complimenting and building on the other. so here they are:DYNAMIC 1: flat left wrist (putting)DYNAMIC 2: forward leaning club shaft (chipping)DYNAMIC 3: loading in the backswing (pitch)DYNAMIC 4: lag in the downswing (full swing)DYNAMIC 5: straight plane line (full swing)and, even though each dynamic is taught in the corresponding swing type, each one builds on the other, so the full swing involves all 5 dynamics.and if you are a student of the swing like me, you know that LAG and a corresponding forward strike is the beautiful result along with distance and trajectory, etc. so bobby gives us with the golf swing what dave pelz gave us with putting-- a number to remember. dave pelz' was 18" (the optimal speed to him a putt is so that if it missed it would roll 18" past the whole --because of the 'lumpy donut, etc.). bobby's number is 4". 4", 4". 4" i tell you! it's the optimal distance where a divot should start in front of the ball. i will never forget it!so i do have a couple complaints: first the photos are disappointing. he uses CBS swingvision slow mo stills and, quite frankly, they suck. second, while i like some of his stories, he could have used an editor. there is a lot of repetition. these are minor criticisms and i still give it five stars.thank you bobby!!

Great book, easy to follow. Photos not the best quality but still do the job.

This book is written in a professional manner, which is yet easy to read. It explains the dynamics of the swing pertaining to the impact zone, which is the moment of the truth. Yet it teaches you how to get close to the feel after mastering the dynamics. I recommend it to golfers, struggling to develop their swings for better enjoyment of their sport.

Did you ever suspect that golf pros, undeniably more talented than most, know something you don't about the swing, in spite of all your efforts to educate yourself? The answers are in this book, which lays bare what all pros, with their diverse styles, are doing well. Bobby Clampett explains five key "dynamics" in the golf swing. This book is a must read for anyone wanting a fuller understanding of the golf swing. I sought out Bobby's book, after learning he was a keen student of Homer Kelley's The Golf Machine, a book many say is a work of genius but virtually unreadable. Using that book and learning as a youth from people who understood it, Bobby had one of the great amateur careers, and was well known to be one of the most knowledgeable pros. On top of this, he went on to a career as a CBS commentator, where he was able to observe the swings of all the contemporary greats.

I acquired the kindle version of this ebook for the price of 14 something euros. A moment of weakness, perhaps.Like so many golfing instruction books, the basic ideas are pretty simple and can be summarized in something a lot shorter than a book, even a 100+ page book. It is therefore padded out with endless anecdotes of the "when I was knee-high to a lawn-mower my teacher (provide name) told me something I never forgot ..." type.I was aware that this was going to be the case when I ordered this product, so I can't complain too much. However, the essential information in itself is invaluable, and sure to improve the swing of just about anyone with a handicap above scratch. I would like to emphasize this quite strongly. This really is the way to compress a golf ball. So on that score, it's worth buying. Mind you, some of the concepts could be better explained and the photos leave something to be desired.In short, first-class, essential concepts for proper striking of the golf ball, wrapped in a package that is pretty average and at a fairly high price for an e-book version of something that's been in print for a few years now.

I liked easy read & simple ,easy to understand instructionI'd recommend this to any golfer who wants to improveSeem this may be the secret to golf everyone is searching for