Sneakylong The A Swing and what Joe Nichols taught are not the same thing. They are not really even remotely close to the same. Almost the opposite, at some points in the swing.
The A Swing says to take the club back very steeply, standing the club essentially completely upright (this is somewhat similar), but then to make a loop, shallowing out the club as much as possible so that you can swing from the inside.
Joe taught that physics makes the club want to shallow automatically, so the golfer should not only NOT shallow on purpose, but should FIGHT the shallowing by feeling like he is standing the club up again on the downswing.
This part is essentially exactly the opposite of what the A Swing teaches. Joe's rationale for attempting to stand the club up on the downswing was that many golfers end up "stuck" with the club too shallow and too far behind them, which requires perfect timing and/or manipulation to return the club to the ball in the proper position. Joe was trying to get players to keep the club "out in front" of them.
Leadbetter and his laughably ridiculous "A swing" actually ASKS the player to purposefully get the club way behind and essentially "stuck."
I think Joe Nichols was really onto something. I think what Malaska is teaching makes a lot of sense. I find Leadbetter's stuff to be frightening, and I do believe that his ideas are what ruined Lydia. (That and that crap with the fingers that they do on the greens.....I forget what they call that stuff. She was naturally a great putter and had a nice feel for reading greens until she adopted that garbage.)