Leslie King
The story of The Swing Factory begins in the 1920’s when Leslie King started to develop his theories and method of teaching. As an aspiring young club professional, he wanted to move on from the imitative tradition of learning and teaching golf, and decided to apply a more principled form of analysis to the golf swing. For five years he followed the greatest players of his age around the course, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles on an old motor bike to watch them play on his days off from work. With out the modern aid of video tape or video cameras to help him, he had to rely on his quick eyes and his extremely sharp analytical mind.
After five years of careful research King defined what he called ‘the basic model of the golf swing and it’s defining principles’. His findings are documented in ‘The master key to success at golf’ and Golf Instruction Kit - Leslie King’s famous ‘free arm swing method’.
Gary Player won The Open in 1974 after taking advice from King and says:
Leslie King, the founding father of the Swing Factory method, was one of the greatest students of the golf swing."
King's method of teaching consistently produced international players, national and county champions and most of all it provided a release from 'trial and error golf' for thousands of average players. This methodology has been used to teach the great players and celebrities of our day, including Sean Connery, Michael Bonallack, Britain’s most successful amateur golfer; Juli Inkster one of the greatest woman golfers of all time and David Leadbetter, the most influential coach of modern day golf.
Michael Bonallack, now Secretary of the R&A and the British Amateur Champion in 1961, 65, 69 and 70, was taught by Leslie King. Michael wrote the forward to the only instructional manual written by Leslie King. He opened his introduction with:
My only regret in having lessons from Leslie King is that I did not have them sooner. From my very first visit I realised that here was a teacher who had only one way of teaching .... no gimmicks....no modern fads.... just a straightforward and uncomplicated way of consistently repeating an action to swing the club into the back of the ball and along the line of flight." - Michael Bonallack
