3-Sided View of PPGS Setup and Swing

Surge,

Two questions.

1, I was under the impression that the knees were supposed to be still during the BUS.
In the video your left knee appears to move forward a noticeable amount in your BUS. Should the knees remain still or is flexing expected?

2. Are the shoulders supposed to remain parallell to the aiming line until after impact or should they turn into the shot before impact? By this I mean that the shoulders rotate to face the target together with the swing prior to impact. Obviously the shoulders don't complete the turn to the target until after impact. Are they expected to be turned something like 20 degrees toward the target at impact?

Thanks.

Don - thanks for a great video - very helpful on the visuals. I especially felt the alignment of the club at the mitt position being parallel to the target line and directly above the toe line was a good mental picture. Having the club face parallel to the spin angle and not rotated too far is also a good check point as well.

Not much golf here lately, but I did play in Florida over the holidays. Stay safe and warm everyone.

Keep it down the middle,
Jon

Surge, I thought the requests from another Surgite about visual learners were a bit over the top, so glad you didn't. The butt end stick and your alignment arrows were a great clarifier and reinforcer. Thanks a bunch. Bob in Costa Rica

This is a GREAT review! Keep up the good work.

Noticed that club is past vertical and laid off in your video. Also the left knee seems to move too much and your right arm is in front of the left at address when viewing from the back. Please explain.

Love your lessons
Bob Macosko

Surge: Thanks so much for the well thought-out video! Your visuals on the PPGS are a great way to reinforce our thought processes. You covered some very key points that are the heart of the swing. This one is a keeper to be reviewed often. I just had to laugh when you started breaking things - you REALLY get into your teaching and I certainly appreciate it!! Take care and as always, hit 'em straight! R2

Very helpful to see the three views of the swing. It really gives us a great over view of the swing and its simplicity. I am currently in the process of doing a refresher review of the PPGS fundamentals videos. It is something that I am making time for as I re-establish my limited 3/4 vertical swing. Though I consider myself very knowledgeable about every aspect of the PPGS and have been an advocate for 5 years now I have decided to start over as if I am a beginner. I am sure I am not performing the swing in the way I need to in order to truly protect my back and make sure I am really keeping it body friendly. So I am having an attitude of a new learner and really listening and reviewing all the key aspects of why, how and what.
In watching the bonus video where Surge and DJ go over the set up and swing from 4 years back I had one of those light bulb moments when they were going over the forward upswing. Surged emphasized that it was in the follow through where most of the strain can happen to the lower back. It is in the follow through where the radical high speed torquing happens. It was a reminder of why it is important to swing up and finish facing the target rather than the body finishing far left and twisting the back. A great reminder that I didn't recall from the stand point of it's effect on the body. The clear need for a 3/4, limited turn back swing (staying out of the SBG) is important but remembering that the T finish, facing the target greatly saves our back and body really struck me.
Learn and then re-learn.

Something I am probably misunderstanding but see in the video:
It appears as if the clubhead comes around the body on the swing plane to hit the catcher's mitt and then rises vertical beyond the mitt. If that were true, the clubhead would make about a 30 degree change of direction at the mitt at waist-height to shift from the swing plane to the vertical. Then it ends on the vertical rather than in the graveyard.

Are we to imagine that the catcher's mitt is right behind the center-of-swing line (Home Plate) or somewhat behind the golfer's waistline?

Long has been a question, and this video really brings me to asking.
Thanks for all you are doing!

Ted Edwards

Ted,
It's good to have questions, but no need to have them for a "long time" when the answers are handy and most have been answered more than once. Of course this would likely not be a question if you purchased the very affordable PPGS Fundamentals video and the Manual which I highly recommend if you want to have any realistic chance to understand all aspects of the set up and swing. First, here is the answer to your question on the mitt. If you watch his over all swing you will also see and hear your answer concerning the apparent change to vertical after he reaches the toe line:

https://www.swingsurgeon.com/daily-video-tips/where-catchers-mitt

You may have noted that the mitt is about two inches inside the ball line and a few inches below his knee level (see the 6:08 mark). Additionaly, Surge shows that the turn happens with almost no effort to turn. Also you'll see a difference when he demonstrates for illustration sake the turn until the toe line and then the all vertical after to the top. This can make it seem to be a two part move and two different angles. IT'S NOT. It only seems that way while illustrated. If you re-watch the whole thing and all his normal unstaggered whole/complete swings here and in all other videos it is one smooth lift from take away to the top with no change of direction. He (we) are lifting up from the moment we start the back swing Ted. Here is another way that you and any others can visualize and feel what happens,
If you have a swiveling chair (or can mimic one while sitting) do this;
First, put your hands together in a prayer or golf grip position while sitting with the hands on or just above your lap. Slowly lift your hands (the entire two arm to shoulders unit) up until your hands are at eye level. Then bring them back down. Then repeat the lift as you turn (swivel) slowly to your right lifting your arms until you have turned to an imaginary toe line. Stop swiveling without stopping the lift, yes continue to lift even though the chair has stopped turning. Continue to lift your hands to about the height of your right ear (eye level or beside your head). Notice how it appears that you suddenly changed the lift from angled (say 30* as you said) as you turned to vertical after you stopped turning? Actually you didn't change the angle of the lift. It was simply that you stopped your rotation after 70* but continued the lift and as a natural result it became purely vertically only (as it happened when you just sat still and lifted your arms directly up). So it is an illusion of purposeful direction change after we reach the toe line. BTW, I just realized this same example could be done with a club in your hands (watch out for lamps! lol:)
Again, keep in mind we are lifting (not pulling or pushing) the club from the instant we start the back swing. It is angled because we are turning and it stops being angled as we reach the toe line and no longer turn. Make sense?

Ted, thanks for the question. I love it when such questions come up because it forces me to think. I just made up that illustration today. I was also pushed to use the amazing and perhaps the least utlized tool we have. The vast library of thousands of archived daily tips from Surge found by simply putting in a word or phrase at the top right hand side of this page. Do you see it? you'll notice a blank space just below the log in words. There you'll see a small blank with a tiny magnifying glass. To find the above entry I put in the word mitt and presto this came up;

https://www.swingsurgeon.com/search/node/mitt

Then you simply click on the title that seems right, ie., "Where's the catchers mitt?" In the last 5 years Surge has covered almost any question we might dream up answering most multiple times.

I noticed in the latest video that when Surge demonstrated a full swing from the side and back that the shaft of the club was not vertical at the top of the back swing. I try very hard to get the shaft pointing straight up at the top of the backswing when viewed from the side and the back.

Should I do this or follow what Surge did in his video?? He definitely goes past vertical when viewed from the side.

I know the PPGS is a vertical swing. I think I got my question answered by going back through previous videos where Surge talks about the shaft position at the top of the back swing. I try hard to get the shaft vertical to the ground from the side or front view at the top of my back swing. I doubt that going past vertical hurts much since the overall swing is truly vertical overall. I just noticed that when Surge demos his swing he goes past vertical such that the shaft is pointing somewhat down the target line.

Bob M

My thanks to Robert Meade for the quick and thorough answer.
When I was young and a baseball player, I was the Catcher. My image of the location has been to be right behind Home Plate, higher than the knees where Surge shows it, and variable to be an aiming target for the Pitcher. That immediately sets up confusion for me.

So thanks for that link to previous videos. Even after 5 years, the questions just keep coming in for Surge! That was a really helpful link, and among his best comments within it was the Aiming Alley.

Thanks!

Thank you all for your comments on my comment. I was first introduced to the Don Trahan PPGS by my daughter-in-law, Anna (Acker) Macosko, an ex LPGA touring pro (8 year) and teaching pro in the San Antonio Texas area. She recognized how it could help me since I have had both hips and the left knee replaced and needed to change from a one plane swing. She referred me to his website over a year ago and I have been working on the swing ever since. I am 77 years old and convinced that the PPGS will give me many more years of good golf.

Bob M

Just a tip from some of my own swings lately.

I had become a little lazy with posture and my ball striking wasn't what it should be.

After experimenting around in between these ridiculous never-ending winter vortexes I figured out that my knees had become too straight at address. As soon as I flexed them just a little bit more I started hitting the ball very well.

May not mean a thing to anybody else but if you get in a slump it's worth looking at.

P.S. My legs are ridiculously long for my height anyway. ;-)
Great for running fast but not so much for golf.