Vertical Swing Check Points

*tips his cap at the Archivist with a nod of the head*

p.s.  Maybe a daily video on the reverse pivot would help a lot.  this is a very common fault among us recreational golfers.

Hi Paul, make sure that at address that you are setup with a preloaded heavy back leg of about 60% or so of your body weight.   This will almost make it automatic that you shift your weight onto your front leg when you start your Forward UpSwing.   

Remember also that after impact that you turn your upper body quickly, hips and shoulders together, onto your flexed front leg to face the target following your arms as they swing the club up and over your leading shoulder.   Hope this helps, Craig

Remember the video where he accidentally knocked it over the railing. No wonder nobody else in the Whole World ever uses them. It's a wonder they ever sold that one to Surge. LOL

Well put Kelly.

I agree
Don says at about 4:11 in on this video to keep it as vertical as possible.

Internet explorer is horrible this a response to Kelly below

Sky:  Turn your speakers on.  R2

You are right on. To reiterate and re-emphasize:  It is the FEELING  of being vertical. The right arm RESISTS the tendency to lay off. Swing the hands down the toe line, not the club head along the aiming line. The mind is a powerful muscle.

Craig, if you haven't seen it on the tube yet, wait until you see the next house call from Doc the back wall of his shop is covered with them :)

Hey Surge,
That club you use during your comments section, is that one of DORF's clubs?  I notice that when you are standing naturally and holding the club next to you it only goes down to your knee.  For you to use that club you would have to be on your knees (hence the DORF reference)  LOL  Just wondering what club that was.
Johnny

If he used a longer club the CB would be knocked over the railing every video!

 Don,

Another great clarification of the Surge Swing. Correct me if I am wrong, but when I grip a club normally and my upper hand is almost at the butt of the club, the pinky side of my hand (left in my case) should be at the toe line. If I grip down on a club (for example, my driver which is too long), should my pinky be at the toe line or the butt of the club? I think it should be my pinky, otherwise I would be reaching an inch-and-a-half to two inches too far for the ball. What is your take? Thanks,

Kevin

Right on, Boog!  :-)  R2

Doc,

In general, I guess as a starting point, with a WTF of 34.25 which equates to a driver length of 43.5 and given that a standard ladies' driver length is 43.5, should all of my other club lengths equate to the standard lengths for ladies' clubs as well? I seem to be hitting most of my clubs better by gripping down on each club.

Kevin

Can a chainsaw serve as the 14th club? If so, does a tree then become a movable obstruction?

Right on D.

Heck, that is a FULL length club for Surge!  LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL oops, it happened again, time for a change!!!

Dragonhead:  I love your "eyes-closed drill!  Thank you for sharing it with us many moons ago.  It is extremely helpful in getting the "feeling" of the proper swing.  Have a great day and hit 'em straight!  R2

Great, great post this one, this shows you the swing as it should be in one fluid motion and Don makes it look terribly easy, the hardest part like any golf swing is putting it in proper motion with speed. This is when the mistakes are made, I totally get it and can do the swing in slow mo put then putting it in full motion is a different story.
This is no reflection on the swing itself, I guess like anything you have to practice and hope you get it ingrained so it becomes a natural movement.    

Surge, your discussion today about "pulling the butt of your club toward the ball" as a way of starting the downswing.....I've tried that and I find that it disrupts my lower body and usually results in hitting the ball a little fat.  Obviously, I was doing something wrong....but if I start the downswing with the bump...the pulling of the butt of the club through the swing seems to come naturally.  Wondering if you have receieve other feedback similar to this comment.

Thanks Surge, It is a great idea to have vertical check points. I often get caught up in my hand positions but the shaft of the club often tells the story. Seeing that "butt" of the club is a strong visual that we can feel and ingrain with practice. Todays really fits well with the 'lag' video.
You've given us another peice of the puzzle

T:  Thank you.  My response was, well, pretty lame and it was late and I was tired.  I appreciate you providing a informative, useful and educational reply.  You da man !!  R2

I rec'd no sound

MW:  Make sure you have the basic mechanics of the swing correct (GBSAPS).  Work on the "door-jamb" drill until you can really feel the correct bump.  Also, get a Swing Rite.  It will help you learn proper tempo, lag and release.  Good luck and keep working - everything will come together.  R2

Boog,

Thanks. I was pretty sure that was the case, but I've had moments of second-guessing myself of late. Usually, I win all the arguments I have with myself LOL.

Kevin

You intrigued me with the question so naturally I had to investigate.

Origin: 1905–10, Americanism ; clip2 + board

Who invented the clipboard?

The clipboard is one of those great inventions that doesn't always get much credit like the paper clip and the stapler. Even less credit goes to the inventor of the clipboard. This is probably because no one seems to know who invented the clipboard.

eagle !!

He uses often uses that shorter club while doing his teaching videos on the portch. 

No sweat. The last time I was close to your area was the summer of 1977 and it was Colorado. We drove the car to the top of Pikes Peak. We started up with the windows up and the A/C on. After a while we turned the A/C off and rolled the windows down. A while further, we rolled the windows up and by the time we reached the top, we had to turn the heat on.

Hi Marilyn, when I sway too much its usually from over swinging on the backswing and my knees move about too much, especially my forward knee.   So I find a sunny spot and make some practice swings with the sun at my back.   I look for the place in my backswing where my front knee starts to move more than an inch or two.   For me I find that on the backswing where I feel that I have stood the club up vertical and the butt is pointing at the toe line that this is the point to "ring the bell" to start the Forward UpSwing.   Even though it "feels" like its only a half swing when I look at the shadow its actually a nice 3/4 backswing.

As for the weight transfer issue, remember to start with the preloaded heavy right, about 60% of your body weight, with flared feet and wide knees with slight outward pressure.   Limit your turn and backswing, skip the rock on the lake and your weight should automatically shift onto your left leg.  Also after impact, turn your upper body quickly onto your flexed left leg to follow your arms as they swing the club up to the T finish.  

To sum up, to hit the ball well its important to swing to a proper T finish after a stable backswing.   A stable backswing is aided by stable knees, so watch your swing via your shadow or a mirror and find the limit to your backswing where your knees are fairly stable.   Regards, Craig

Never realized how much I missed this guy ! This ia as simple as it gets . .. Two days with Surge and 30 days of practice everyone should see vastly improved results . .

Two quick points that might help you with this, Belshawd. First, you pull the butt of the club down toward the toe line, not toward the ball. That's a big part of what Surge is talking about in this video. A while back, Steve Smith put a video on his YouTube showing him doing a drill with a laser pointer much like Don describes here, running the toe line with the pointer in the butt of his club. Second, Surge is talking about the feeling of the arms in the beginning of the FUS, but the sense of pulling the arms down MUST come AFTER the bump. That you have correct. Remember, though, that you're trying to run the toe line with the butt of the club, not the aiming line. That's the really, really, really important part of this video.

Keith, I highly recommend the swingrite trainer, a couple of minutes with it and you'll be amazed how it makes everything click. :)

T:  Now that is a funny story - thanks for sharing it! :-) LOL  Have a great day.  R2

A couple comments --

1) The camera isn't aimed directly down the toe line, so it's hard to be sure exactly how close to vertical Don is.

2) While vertical is the ideal, the makeup of the human body is such that "perfectly vertical" isn't possible -- a point which Don has always been very clear about.  E.g., ..."as close to vertical as possible".

That said, I think it generally helps when I think of it in these terms.  I've found that if I think about only moving my hands up and down the toe line it helps to keep me from over-rotating.  I fact, as long as I don't get too long in my backswing, when I think of the location of the hands rather than the clubhead it's REALLY close to Don's ideal of a ferris wheel until well after impact.

David, I'm reminded of a chainsaw analogy, you might have the best chainsaw in the world but if you don't know how to start it up, rev it and use it properly then you're not going to get anywhere and you can't blame the chainsaw.

Most probably you're are trying to over swing, swaying about and losing form and/or you are getting too mechanical and have lost rhythm.   Simplify things by employing the straight back and straight through approach.

With a stable lower body, (flared feet, wide knees with slight outward pressure, preloaded heavy back leg) swing straight back to a limited turn backswing with the club vertical (test by letting go of the grip, the club should drop through the hands easily).  Look at your knees on the backswing, via shadow or mirror, they should remain relatively stable.

Swing straight through to the T finish, (rotate your upper body onto your flexed front leg to face the target quickly after hitting the ball) make sure you finish with your weight on your front leg and you are facing the target.

I still go back to my eyes closed drill with the swing. It is the one where I first fealt the "weightless" club feeling, which initiates my 'hip bump'.
We tend to overdo or exaggerate everything we do, when doing it for the first time [me included]. With my eyes closed, as soon as I get that feeling of weightlessness,my only thought is FUS as I hip bump. The rest just happens. My mind is in tune with feel,sound and what my body is actually doing. Put a ball there after GBSAPS close my eyes and whoosh! it is gone. Eyes open the same result.
Dave with your statistics.  Without the Surge Nation seeing a video of your swing,it is hard to fathom what you are doing or not doing.There is a niggle at the back of my mind. I would almost bet, that you are swinging mainly with your arms and body in an un-coordinated manner. Too much attention to joining up the dots perhaps? Have you had your club shaft lengths and WTF meausurements done,or are you playing with the same clubs and shaft lengths you had prior to starting the vertical swing? Without the right tools to start with, you may be defeating yourself before you start. I moved my grip on my irons down the club grips two finger widths[as my WTF recommended] and the difference was amazing, both power and direction wise.I might add that this was a set of Ping irons I had been measured for when still a 'rotational' swinger.How long is your driver's shaft?One of mine I use now only for swing practice was 2 1/2" too long form my WTF! Down the shaft 2 1/2" and the clubhead burns he grass EVERY time. I would never play with it, when I did it was erratic and didn't perform well at all. Funny thing when I went back to my shorter [by an inch and a half]Ping driver, it performed better than it had previously.

Loved today's video and well done Dick Lee Mentioned in Despatches ; - ) Interpretation is everything. Keep it vertical long and straight. Off for a swing practice, yeeehaaa! Dragonhead

For DJ watchers, the tournament is doing split tees again today and he goes off the back nine in about 10 minutes.

Coach:

   I say -- YES! and YESsssssssssssss!   ROFLMAO

   Amos

I know you are saying to keep the butt of your club toward the toe line. But as you demonstrate and watching your swing it appears your club isn't perfectly vertical. There appears to be a slight deviation off the vertical plane.

No, thank you Kevin, I just updated my adobe to the latest X version and that sticky note & highlight function is an awesome tool to use in the manual. :)

Thanks for these checkpoints. However, I find I swing much more reliably and get more consistently good ball contact if the butt of the club points to a spot midway between my toe line and the target line at the top of the backswing and at the finish. Does this still qualify as a vertical swing? In your teaching you have said it is OK to make very slight adjustments to the Surge Swing depending on body type, etc. Is this a minor enough adjustment to still qualify as a Surge Swing?

Surge, how can I keep from swaying to much, that is what I do...IM moving my hips to much and can't stop?????   Seems like I don't have all my weight on my left foot when IM done...IM not hitting the ball good...to much body movement....

Thanks,
mw

Uh oh, at the 1:09 mark on the video I saw Surge trying to balance that damn low IQ CB on the porch railing!