I received this great email a few weeks ago from Ron Kriete, a Surgite from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I like it because it proves how dangerous advice can be from people who know nothing about the Peak Performance Golf Swing, no matter how well intentioned they happen to be.
"Surge, I am 70 years old with a history of back issues over the years. I switched to the PPGS about 18 months ago and lowered my handicap five shots; currently it's a 9.7 index; Plus, my back issues are gone. Occasionally I will find myself hitting a shank at a very inopportune time, of course. My local club pro, a rotational swinger , says the PPGS lends itself to shanks. One, how can I stop it and two, any basis to what he says?"
Think about this. Ron is 70 years old and more than likely, he's been playing golf all his life. He had chronic, swing-induced back problems until he switched to our vertical swing 18-months ago. Since then he's gone from a 15 handicap to just under 10. And this uninformed pro believes that his occasional shank is due to a flaw in the Surge Swing. Isn't that rich?
First off, I rarely see students who are having problems hitting hosel rockets because the vertical swing makes it so much easier to consistently hit the ball on or near the sweet spot of the club. However, when I do have students who are having this problem, there are 2-3 things that are the likely culprits. After I watch a few swings, I ask the afflicted student if they are working on anything new with their swing. Quite often, they tell me that they are trying to "add more leg drive" because some rotational swinger told them that that's what you need to do to add power to your swing. As you've heard me say countless times before, in the Peak Performance Golf Swing, we derive our power by keeping our lower body quiet while swinging our arms as fast as possible in front of our body. By excessively driving our rear leg forward or trying to Bump too much as we initiate our Forward Upswing, we will cause our upper body to collapse bringing the hosel into contact with the ball.
Another thing I hear from students is "I'm really working on my lag--I really want to crate more lag". Again, this is rotational swing theory gibberish. In the PPGS we create all the lag we need in our setup. Once we correctly grasp the club and set the proper shaft angle and hand position directly under our chin, we just swing back into the Catcher's Mitt and Up The Tree. There is no need to create more lag by cocking our wrists because that causes the club to be laid off, most likely ending up in the Sacred Burial Ground. Remember, we square up the club at impact not by rotating our body but by rotating our arms as we release the club just before impact. So it's possible that this could be a cause of Ron's shank problem.
Finally, Ron could be hitting the occasional shank because something in his swing is causing his upper body to start moving forward before impact. That could be caused by a number of things, but chief among them could be a collapsing forward knee that would pull his whole left side down during the backswing starting a chain reaction that leads to the dreaded EBRT, End of Backswing Reverse Tilt.
Whatever the reason for Ron's infrequent shank, I can assure you that it isn't due to an inherent flaw in our limited turn, 3/4 vertical swing. More than likely, it's caused by something that is a hold-over from the rotational swing that he had for decades before finding a better way to swing.
The Surge
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Comments
Avon grips, cut down clubs.
Surgites:
Decided to cut down my driver, 3W, 5W, 3H, and 4H. Really struggled with the driver this year, plus I wanted to try the Avon Chamois grips I hear you gaays talking about. Played yesterday at maple - shot 42-38=80. The grips were fabulous. I hit the cut downs pretty well. Need to get used to being closer with the driver, fanned a couple. Did not seem to lose any distance. Going to get the rest of my clubs cut down this week. Good luck DJ in the Fall Series. Good luck to all of you.
Jerry - Warren,MI
Glad you're liking the
Glad you're liking the Chamois, Jerry. Did you get the standard or jumbo? I've actually switched over to the jumbos myself. They're not THAT much bigger than standard, but enough that it just feels a little more comfortable in my hands.
I'm planning to get out to watch DJ play this week when he's here in Vegas, whichever day he has an afternoon tee time.
Grips
Rob:
I got the standard size - I have small hands. Plus Golfsmith were out of the Jumbos anyway. I really liked the tackiness and the cushion. i am playing the twilight tomorrow at maple, taking the irons in Tuesday to get cut down and regripped. Thanks for the reply.
Jerry
I didn't think I'd bought ALL
I didn't think I'd bought ALL of the jumbos Golfsmith had. ;-)
At TPC and DJ....
Hey Robert, Cindy and I will also at the tournament this week, likely Thursday and or Friday. It's a blast to watch these guys hit the ball. Maybe we'll see you out there too.
Hope to see you there. Oh,
Hope to see you there. Oh, you mentioned the other day about not seeing Derek in the Certified Professionals. I'm thinking he still is, despite that, since he and Dave Seeman are doing golf schools together in a couple weeks. ;-)
https://www.swingsurgeon.com
Thanks Brady
Thanks for sharing that bio.
Just hadn't seen him on the current list. BTW that was a nice touch adding the photos of each instructor and fitter.
Thanks!
Yeah we were intending to add some value to that portion of the website and let people know of the wealth of certified pros we have in our ranks.
Cool
Okay, we'll look for you. Not sure about Thursday but looks like we'll be there on Friday all day. I didn't ask off work this year so won't make it over week end. Gotta work dang it!!
Ryder Cup Spoiler
Maybe it's because Surge is currently in Europe, but congratulations to our friends from across the pond for retaining the Ryder Cup in stunning fashion.
thanks Surge,,,,just miss
thanks Surge,,,,just miss posting like always, seems like im not doing it right,,??
I have been playing pretty good, had to get that driver fixed again, but, this time is IT!!! Just wondering do you EVER stop working on your golf swing, talking to a friend yesterday, he is 85, still hits very well and can hit with the big boys, but he is working on his swing?? So, anyway was just thinking, do you ever not work on your swing?? :o)))))
Thanks so much, guess I will still keep at it, skip the rock and up the tree,,,love it,,,
marilyn
dmwheat4@comcast.net
Good to see im doing something right on the site,,,I'll get used to it.
Golfed today, had fun, some bad shots, but, more good shots,,,
Thanks Surge,,,
New features on the site - Comment Notify and G+
You might notice a new checkbox and radio buttons below the comment field. You now can get email notifications for your comments or the entire post. Let me know if you have problems. Also we added a lot of social media counters to the site today including some Google+ stuff. We also squashed some bugs to. We typically are doing updates to the site every two weeks.
EMAIL NOTIFICATION
I wanted to ask a couple times about the notification process, but figured I'd give it a little more time. I am glad to hear about it coming along. It certainly helps in knowing about replies directed to one's comments. I will certainly be using it. Thanks for the continued improvements, the site is very user friendly, and getting even better with each improvement.
PS: Not sure about the Radio button mentioned. I can't seem to find it.
Ditto on the kudos...
Yes I really like the e mail notification too as I am often away from a computer and at work or else where so I use my droid to keep up to date on breaks.
No problem!
We built this site on a very, very, very popular content management platform that runs many very well known websites such as ING Bank, Sony Music, MTV, Lifetime Television, even several US Government sites. Over the coming 8 or 9 months we are going to be constantly adding stuff to this and expanding the network of Swing Surgeon services we offer over the internet.
If anyone ever cares
Feel free to hit me up with all the nitty gritty details of what is running this site. I'm actually going to be publishing some papers and doing some talks at events on the work we did for this site.
running?
Was that running or ruining? Having been an editor for both graphics and print I wonder about these things. Finger mess ups are really easy and especially when typing fast.
The new site looks really clean and uncluttered which is something other sites should consider. It is a drag to have to search all over for what should be easy to find.
I would like to see a link that brings up recent comments in order and link back to the daily they are posted in. A bonus would be to be able to choose the default number of posts, increase the minimum to show more, or show all. That would make it easier to post on a comment that piques one's interest.
BTW I did click on the All comments button. Thought I had done that earlier.
Recent comments in order
That is already here SGW, it is the RSS Feed Pages available in IE, FireFox, and Chrome. I now monitor all 3. Here's the link in IE, to get them in Chrome or Firefox, just copy and paste the IE address into the address bar of your preferred operating system.
http://www.swingsurgeon.com/daily-video-tips/comments/feed.xml
RSS FEED PAGE LINKS
Internet explorer
http://www.swingsurgeon.com/daily-video-tips/comments/feed.xml
Chrome
http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/http://swingsurgeon.disqus.com/latest.rss?source=ignitionfork#stream/feed%2Fhttp%...
FireFox
http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/http://www.swingsurgeon.com/daily-video-tips/comments/feed.xml?source=ignitionfor...
Yeah I got some ideas about
Yeah I got some ideas about the comments. All those things you mention are possible. Have you taken a look at the "Track" tab in your user account area?
Running! I hope not Ruining :)
Thanks for the complements! I was entent on eliminating the menu soup that was the old site and also making it easy to navigate with mobile devices as well. The site is also written in HTML5 and CSS3 using a responsive layout - the site changes based on the width of the screen. All the content is the same but it rearranges and resizes for the screen it's being displayed on. The content management duties and the code (PHP) is all built on top of Drupal with a host of contributed modules.
I worked this morning.
At the closest good course, I started working a half day a week to get to play all the golf I want for free. I work as a ranger and general gofer. Was working a Pro-Am this morning and I heard some one say "Hey ya ol' fart"
Yes, I answer to that, turned around and who do you think I saw? Why, it was "DOC" He was one of the Pros playing. Got to talk a few minutes waiting for the start and I got to see him hit one tee shot while I was riding around as a Ranger. He hits it a lot further than I do. Hope he had a good round as it was wet and rainy all morning.
Don't tell him I said so, but he dresses spiffy. ;-)
Doc
Was it Doc or TEF? In either case we would not expect anything less than "spiffy". ;0)
Just to make you feel better, Mike, everybody hits it farther than I do. I played today with a couple of friends of mine and was hitting my 5H while they both hit 8 iron....lol. They're both easily 75 yards longer off the tee than I am. One of them and I have had a match play challenge going for about 5 months. Short game is the only thing that has allowed me to be 3 up after about 40 rounds, so length isn't everything, Mike.
Btw, I resemble the "ol' fart" comment. '0)
Doc
Well, he didn't sing, sooooo . . . . . . ;-)
Last Wednesday in our tourney for old folks and rangers, I took first place in my flight and won a closest to the pin on a par 3. My friend asked how come I do so well on the par 3 holes. I told him, you know, the Surge Swing. He used to watch the dailies but didn't think that was for him. His loss, my gain.
I don't think I do the PPGS very well yet, but I know the setup and aim sure has helped a bunch. When I don't overswing, the ball usually goes where I aim it.
10 free lessons/videos are still gems that all should watch
... again and again!!
Just wanted to once again thank Don Trahan for the 10 free lessons (once again available in clear videos). These same videos are what grabbed and kept the attention of who knows how many ten's of thousands of golfers 3 or 4 years ago. many (like myself) still with Surge can remember those days like it was yesterday. What an amazing promotion it was and still is. These 10 vids are not just teasers but eye opening lessons that completely turned our golf games and view of the swing around for the better. Since those early days I have purchased and practiced everything Don sells and teaches. I went from a slicing low 90's to a straight shooting low eighties to occasional high 70's player. When I re-registered for the updated sight here recently they started sending me the "10 free lessons" again. It was da'jevu all over again in a really nice refreshing way.
Thanks again Surge. You are the best and I can never thank you enough for helping me learn the swing and the game in the best way.
IF you haven't, everyone should make these gems a permanent part of your on-line library. They are priceless!
Steve
Were you been hiding ? I have not seen a post from you in a couple of weeks.
Hope everything is ok. Miss not seeing your post they are very insightful and helpful.
Steve
I was wondering the same thing, Mike. I hope everythis is ok.
OK
Before anyone else asks I am fine and playing almost too well (for me)...Probably due for a crash. ;-)
(I've crashed before). Ha ha!
Good to here from you
I have been pretty good also. The last two weekends we had to play aerated greens. This past weekend the greens were ok but needed to be mowed a little fuzzy.
Went to the chiropractor 3 weeks ago and got my left hip adjusted must of had something pinched in there. Feels better than it has in 3 or 4 years. Have not had to wear my orthotics in my shoes for three weeks.
dmwheat4@comcast.net
Thanks Surge, played today, played well, I was happy, did have a couple of to much movement with my legs, just like you said. I got a new club last week and just love it, 5 h, taylor made burner,,,,the grip is small, fits me well, I have small hands, the lengh is wonderful, im five four, I new as soon as I picked the club up. Now, I still need that darn driver,,,,got it fixed again this week,,,not going to last, I can tell already after today,,,,played at a new course today, really fun,,,I love golf,,,just have to keep skipping the rock, as I said before many times, I think of that and it helps so much...
marilyn
dmwheat4@comcast.net
wish I didn't have to put in my email address every time I post, IM doing something wrong,,,thanksss,,,,
If you are not staying logged
If you are not staying logged in then you don't have cookies enabled in your browser. I stay logged in till I click "logout" or I clear my cache of cookies.
Cache of cookies
Maybe he's like me. I sit down with a cache of cookies, a cold glass of milk, and before I realize it, the whole cache is gone. I can't believe I ate the whole thing.
Dick, can you tell I'm missing your food comments. I hope you're doing well. Hurry back.
Glad to see your post Steve, I too was wondering.
Also you can change your
Also you can change your username if you want to.