Today's topic stems from my own observations of late. I've been noticing that a lot of students have an abrupt, short finish. They aren't swinging up to the T-finish position, which means they aren't recoiling and relaxing either. This is a big issue because cutting off your finish is really bad for your back.
Some shots call for an abbreviated finish, like playing in the wind and having to hit a knock down shot. But many of these students aren't trying to hit knock downs. Instead, they're trying to save their back because they're worried swinging up to the finish position will hurt them.
I cannot stress how incorrect that is. They're actually accomplishing the complete opposite of their intentions because stopping so abruptly kills the fluidity of motion. All your muscles will tense up because you're slamming on the brakes instead of cruising to a stop.
The Peak Performance Golf Swing is THE BODY FRIENDLY SWING, so there's no need to worry about cutting off your finish to "save" your back. The reason I created this swing was to play pain free. Stick to the parameters and fundamentals of the PPGS and you won't have to do anything to compensate for back pain!
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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Comments
Guilty as Charged Surge : - (
I have sometimes been guilty as charged with this problem : - ( Usually from trying to take the skin off the ball in the FUS! A timely reminder Surge.
Wonder why sometimes my left floating rib area gives me a hard time. Perhaps this is part of the problem. The cure is to 'Just do it right'. The body friendly swing is the only one for me.
Thanks again for your tip of the day Surge. It is a point which will cause pain and grief to Surgites and other golfers who commit this awful sin
: - (
Have blessed Easter Surgites where ever you are.
DH in Noahs Ark land NZ
Good reminder
Surge,
Getting to our T finish is a good thing (as you say unless we are hitting a specialty shot like a knock down). I am among the guilty who often don't get to that beautiful finish. I in fact marvel at these pros who have that crazy wrap around finish. though I'm fairly flexible and still practice yoga I think my spine might snap (lol) if I finished with the club head wrapped around my face! Focusing on our good finish is a great standard though. Always appreciate the reminder and the benefits. Surge did a few outstanding tips on the subject in the past like this one.........
https://www.swingsurgeon.com/daily-video-tips/focus-t-finish-position
Abrupt, Short Finish, bad for your back
That was a great reminder. Thank you.
A small change of subject, but yet the focus, will still be the back. You should run a contest and offer a box of balls to the person who can name five players
from both the PGA and LPGA tours who doesn't have or didn't have back problems. I bet there is more then a good chance that the box will be gathering dust. Has anyone been paying attention to the Pro Tours, both ladies and men's ? The majority of the conversations are about who is playing with a bad back, who had to withdraw or not play or is making their first start after being out with.....a bad back. Then of course there is the when will Tiger return conversations. Through it all, not one word as to what is the cause of the back problems. Just look at a slow motion video of a pro golfer's swing and observe the unnatural positions that they put there backs, shoulders and hips in, just to generate the force needed to swing a club 115 ++mph. But yet, it's the only swing that is taught by 99.9% of the teaching pros. They act as if there is no other alternative swing which can produce the same or close to the same results as that which is harming their bodies on a daily basis.
John Brennen
why is this happening
Don, My first time out this year and I played 9 holes. I had a very hard time when using the irons off the grass, getting the ball to have an upward trojectory. The ball was always line driving or grounders.
I can't figure it out because I've been at the range repetedly prior to the round hitting off the mat, and the ball flies high and straight with the club just kissing the mat ( bacon Strips ).
Is there that much difference from mat hitting to actual ground hitting? Could it be that I'm wearing golf shoes on the course and sneekers at the range? I would appreciate any assistance you can offer.
PS.Your ppgs swing feels great, I had no lower back pain.
Thank you Don.
Joe S.
why is this happening?
Joe S,
I have a large range mat on my front deck [patio] and use it for swing practices-can't use balls on it due to lack of room to do so. I alternate between that and the grass on the front garden. On both it 'burns' the grass/arificial grass without taking a divot. Transfer that to the course and the shots are in the main lately have been longer, high and straight. So what are you not doing or doing when you go to the hallowed turf of the course? When this happened to me I went back to basics-RoyReeds GBSAPS set up-Grip-Ball Position-Stance-ALIGNMENT-Posture-Swing. You could possibly have your rear hand [if you are a righty or a lefty] too far under the grip and/or too much in the hand, in an unconcious effort to get the ball airborne. You could be using arms and hands without co-ordinating them with the body using the bump too much or not at all! Are you 'popping up like a pop tart out of a toaster' soon enough on the FUS. At one time I found that I was using hands and arms with little if any shoulder turn and found myself 'flicking' at the ball and ended up with 'worm burners'.
Check out my two old Chinese friends-Tai-Ming and Tem-Po!
Perhaps you are too athletically tense at address. This was one thing which prevented me from the proper T finish! Immediately I relaxed just a teen weeny bit-Viola! Long ,high and straight shots with only the driver still a work in progress. Have considered leaving it out of the bag altogether as the 3 x Hybrids are doing just fine.
Hope that your Easter delivers you a solution to your search for a cure to what ails your game.
DH on a SUNNY Good Friday in NZ
Hitting off the mat
DH,
I also have a space problem when hitting off my mat indoors during the winter. Small pot scrubber sponges work well for me. The ones I use are about 2X3X3/4 inches and very cheap ( about 2 dollars for a bag of ten at the local Dollar Store).
They don't fly very far but give you a very good indication of the quality and direction of the strike. We had a very long winter this year but my swing was very good and ready to go on the golf course without having hit a single ball for 5 months.
Hitting of the mat
Thanks for that Dave, I still have a couple of sponge balls and one 'whiffle' ball should I want to hit them. It is always nice to have a back up like the pot scratcher sponges : - ) I do hit balls off the grass on the front garden when chipping-It is good because I get feed back of grass marks on the clubface showing me exactly where the balls are striking It. Using the hands along the toe line in the backswing on the chips is the self same thing I now do on ALL shots. When I do have a swing practice on the mat and then on the grass I chip with every club used from SW to driver and all clubs between.It was challenging to start with but now it is second nature. Today only able to swing for 10minutes or so with a 7iron. Thinking 'Think finish' as the thought of the day.Works for me and allows me to ignore hitting at the ball, resulting in the correct T finish and recoil.
It all helps. Hopefully in the near future the weather here will improve and we can get out and hit the course running.
Thanks again for the tip-I am sure other surgites will appreciate it too.
DH and DL in NZ
Mats
jscocco.
Yes there can be a huge difference between hitting off of mats and hitting off of the ground.
If the ground is in less than ideal conditions (wet, long grass, uneven ground, ect.) the difference is magnified even more.
If it was legal to take a mat onto the course and hit all of my shots off of it my scores would easily improve by 4 to 8 strokes depending on the course conditions. It's almost impossible to hit bad shots off of a mat. Ball striking can be off by 1/2 inch and still hit perfectly acceptable shots. That knowledge leads to more confidence, which in turn leads to better swings, and then shots improve even more.
For that reason I try to hit the ball off of the ground in practice as much as possible and intentionally give myself bad lies.
Grounders
Line drives or grounders while great at the range. DH and Steve have both given you some good thoughts and possibilities. If your swing over all seems good it could be as simple as the 'p' DH mentioned- ball position. Grounders and line drives are often from 'thins'. Try moving the ball one inch back in your stance. On that account check to see that you are finishing with all your weight on the front foot. This should encourage ball first contact and may help you get solid contact and strikes. Let us know if any our ideas help. Logically it is early in your golf season and you'll figure it out. Likely it is one of the basics DH mentioned.
Golf on:)
And Surge says "
https://www.swingsurgeon.com/daily-video-tips/reasons-hitting-thin-shots
T finish
I practice the vertical swing for the last few months I was strugling but I try to realty do à nice t-finish...and wow evething fall in place and my swing in now very regular and straight ...Thanks for your daily vidéo it made me a better golfer
Normand
Montréal Canada
New subject - the "On Top Golf Swing"
Just read an interesting article in the May issue of " Golf Magazine" -- " The New Secret to impact." The article describes three different types of backswing and the third one, the " on Top Swing" resembles the upright Surge swing. They use Bernard Langer and Craig Stadler as examples of upright swingers.
The most interesting thing for me in the article was that a significant grip change is required to encourage the right hand to be on top through impact and avoid slices due to the steeper swing plane. They suggest a very weak right hand grip with the V pointed to the left shoulder and a strong left hand grip.
I was surprised that there was such a difference in the feel of impact and quality of shots, after weakening my right hand grip just a little so that the right hand felt more on top. I never would have thought that weakening the right hand would help impact.