I recently taught a series of golf schools in Florida and had a great turnout. We've got a lot of Surgites from that area and one of them decided to invite me down a day early to play a round of golf. We played with another golfer named Eddie, who is 78 years young. Eddie is still a fantastic golfer with one of the best grips I've seen, which is why I wasn't surprised to learn that he had just shot 71 the day before.
Shooting your age is a big time accomplishment, so all the credit in the world goes to Eddie. While we were playing, Eddie made a comment that I've got really fast hands. He meant it as a compliment, as he was very impressed that my speed is still currently where it is. I'll be honest, I'm no where near as fast as I was even two years ago, but I can still swing my arms relatively fast.
I was glad to hear Eddie say that, because that's what my arms are supposed to look like during my swing. The Peak Performance Golf Swing is all about your arms. That's where your power comes from. Your clubhead speed is determined by how fast you can swing your arms, while maintaining a relatively quiet lower body.
As with anything though, you don’t want to swing so hard that your whole swing falls out of sync. Sometimes your muscles can become too tight this way, so you have to find the correct speed to mucle engagement ratio.
I'd also like to thank you all for your kind words regarding Malcom Rawle. We have passed on your well wishes.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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Comments
Arm speed
I am a convert to the Surge Swing Programme and I would like you to kknow that I have always found it difficult to suppress the body motion in order to get the arm speed correct. I am 70 yrs of age playing to a Handicap of 9 (was 7 before knee surgery) on the best Championship course in England, if not the UK. Thanks to Surge and Doc Griffin( who fitted me with correct clubs) I am now competing with guys half my age - albeit I have a good short game! When I swing slowly and smoothly the ball goes 20/30 yds further ( but the brain doesn't recognise this). Anyway, when you get to my age you have 2 factors pulling for you that the younger guys don't have - 1) you've been there before and 2) your short game has been developed so that you know what you can do. Won a 4somes the other evening giving 7 shots to guys 20 yrs younger - but they couldn't Putt!
Arm Speed
Surge,
Good topic for me. In the swing I hold my head still until I see the club hit the ball. I think that is correct. Yes? However, for me, the result is that I am normally hitting off my back foot. I also have a very strong problem with finishing the swing even when I concentrate on doing so at the driving range. I have recently started to make a very slow back swing in order to aide in accelerating the forward part of the swing. In my case, accuracy is not a major problem distance is. Anything that would help increase my swing speed would help. I think I should be able to fairly reliably hit a pitching wedge 100 yds . At the moment I can't count on more than maybe 80. Suggestions?
Back foot
I have also had problems with hitting off the back foot. I think its mainly from going after the ball to much & trying to give it a bit extra. You will always find it hard to get to a good T finish, when hitting off the back foot, as your weight needs to be on the front foot. A few things that I have found to help the back foot syndrome are. Narrow your stance a bit to stop over swinging, as you will loose your balance if you try to. slow the back swing down a little, as you said, but not too much, or you will loose your tempo. Try to make a smooth transition at the top, from back to forward swing, with a free fall from the top,& hit the power button once your hands reach about hip height. Keep the weight on your back foot over the arch of the foot ,& try feel the weight on the inside of the hip, I have found , makes it easier to do the bump. If you go to the top right of this page, you will find a search box where you can type in anything, like "hitting off back foot" & you will find a whole heap of information that's been covered in the past.
I don't know how you can increase your swing speed, but would recommend getting fitted by a PPGS fitter to get clubs that suit the swing you do have.
Good luck with your game.
Back foot comment
Thank you for the reply. I have tried most of what you suggest. I haven't seen any significant improvement from doing so, however.
BTW, Physics says that the more you accelerate the faster you will go. I wonder why in PPGS we are told to just let our arms drop from gravity in the first part of the down part of the swing. It would appear that, if some muscle were applied, acceleration would increase and therefore more club head speed at impact would result.
physics
The dropping in from the top and gradual acceleration is not exclusive to the PPGS but is common to most better players. Many recreational players waste most of their muscle and effort as they start down. By the time they reach the ball no meaningful speed is delivered through the ball.
That's why buttery swingers like Freddie Couples and Erie Els look like they are not muscling it at all from the top because they're not. Here's the important point, the speed we seek happens at the bottom of the swing and gradually gathers. This is why the swish practice is the simplest and perhaps the best way to increase your speed and distance.
Secondly allowing the club to get into the right position at the top and then dropping into the slot won't happen if we start assisting that process by adding power too soon. When golfers go out and over the top it is often because they were too aggressive from the top. And we are reminded the best swings start from the ground up with the bump.
Reread Kevin's comment. This past year he overcame a physical challenge and recently shot a (76?). Trust me I'm paying attention to his words! Increasing speed is counterintuitive to what physics may have you think.
"Slot"
It really doesn't make a difference if using a one plane swing or a two plane swing the one major fault that always stands out like a sore thumb with higher handicap players is that they never get back down to the lower plane because they are hitting AT the ball from the top of the swing.
The first part of the downswing is merely getting the body in position to deliver an efficient blow.
With a one plane swing the right hand is going from being the bottom hand at the top of the swing to the top hand at halfway down.
With a two plane swing the right hand is always at least slightly on top so all one really has to do is have the patience to allow the club to lay off slightly as the arms fall to the lower plane and the weight is being transferred.
Once on the lower plane there isn't a nickle's worth of difference between a two plane swing and a one plane swing.
Hitting directly AT the ball from the top of either swing is a guaranteed swing of less than maximum efficiency.
With a two plane swing hitting from the top can get really ugly with bad weight transfer timing, a shaft above plane when it's supposed to be on the lower plane, and out to in through the impact zone.
This is one of my favorite videos. It explains the one plane swing but with just a little imagination it's easy to think of just lifting straight up with a vertical club once leaving the lower plane and LETTING it fall back down to that lower plane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izp9Jrirk1Q&NR=1&feature=fvwp
For a two plane visual the closest arc on the ground would be more of a straight line. Takeaway on the lower plane, lift on a vertical plane, and get back down to the lower plane. Then, and only then, deliver the blow through the ball.
P.S. Always remember that what you "feel like" you are doing and what you "think" you are doing is probably not what you are actually doing.
Also remember that changing a swing is no easy task. Takes much slow motion work (months or years) for the swing change to become the new normal.
A quick tip and a few efforts is not going to change a swing to any substantial degree (just doesn't work that way).
Arm Speed increased
Increasing your arm speed requires the opposite of what most people think. You have to get rid of the stress and excess tension in your upper body. I have discovered, over the past few months, that doing a few practice swings by starting at the T-Finish and swinging a relaxed pendulum to the top of the BUS and back to the T-Finish helps to relieve the tension. When I feel that I am trying to swing TOO HARD, the pendulum takes HARD out and puts FAST in. I practice this every day even if I am not going to hit any balls or play a round. Rehearsing a consistent swing without the ball and using that swing when the ball is in the way will give you the results you are looking for.
Swinging hard loses distance; swinging relaxed makes the ball go farther. It is one of those oxymoronic facts of life. If I get a chance this weekend, I will make a video of the routine and post it on YouTube.
Kevin
Arm Speed Increased
Thanks for the reply. I have been concentrating on speed not hard. However, your idea on the practice swing is interesting. I'll give it a try.
The World Is Flat
Hi Surge,
I recently read a short article in the June, 2014, issue of Golf Magazine by Johnny Miller, called "The World Is Flat". He discusses about the flat swingers like Mike "Radar" Reid, Fred Funk, and now Zach Johnson who have been and are the most accurate drivers on Tour. He then discusses the vertical swingers of the 70's and 80's and the painful reverse C that you had to do to make the move work. He also analyzes the very flat swing of Matt Kuchar and how successful it has been. He even says that the vertical swing has to work against gravity more after impact than a more flat swinger. At the risk of getting your ire up, I would enjoy hearing your response after reading this article, discussing each of the points that Johnny makes. I think it would make a good daily video.
I enjoy your daily tips very much and your devotion in helping people with their game of golf.
Ross Dean
golf mag article
Mr Dean I believe you would get better response if you would go to customer support at the top and send Don a direct e-mail. He would respond more quickly.
OK.
Hal
Swing Faster NOT Harder
Swinging Faster does NOT mean swinging Harder!
Go to the driving range and hit 5 ball as hard as you can.
Then hit 5 balls as fast as you can swing (you can start normal and try to increase the speed with each swing)
Notice the difference?
Fast arms and hands
There were a couple of good questions and comments here. I would love to address them over the next couple of days but limited on time at the moment.
did want to say I agree 100% with Surges observations on speed. I have actually gotten longer over this past year. I don't feel like I am doing anything different. Been a Surgite now for over 5 years and am hitting my irons crisper and further than ever. I am actually using the same set of clubs I was fit with by my PPGS fitter in California 4 years back. I think that along with a good fitness routine I am just getting more and more comfortable with everything Don teaches. It's all finally becoming automatic. Hold the lower body and then let it all go in the forward swing. The forward upswing is where it all happens. playing 3 days a week doesn't hurt:)
Nice to hear more golfers commenting.
Golf on!!
creating speed
Both Russty and Kevin and Alan have good advice. Getting off the back foot and creating more speed are good goals. Surge has covered both topics many times.
As Kevin stated. tension is a speed killer. Getting over focused on keeping our head still kills speed and contributes to not finishing on out front foot. Why? because much of our attention and tension is kept above the shoulders. Though the center of the swing is at the sternum just below the neck we need to allow the head to follow the arms through impact. You'll see that Surge never holds his head still after impact only until then everything flows to the finish with all weight transferred to the forward foot.
Another way to develop speed is to practice the swish acceleration move. I will leave one of our videos on that.
https://www.swingsurgeon.com/daily-video-tips/swish-test-distance
Equipment and fitness matter for speed too;
https://www.swingsurgeon.com/daily-video-tips/how-increase-your-clubhead-speed
Finally, one of our golfers commented on how he should be hitting his pw 100 yards. I should normally hit my drives 280 yards too but I average around 250 now with and occasional a bomb that's further. Point is that we do reach a point where we don't hit certain clubs as far and maybe need to use a 9 iron to get the pw distance. So being realistic with what is our reality and the fact that the ball doesn't care what letters or number are on that club is what matters. What club helps you get it in the hole sooner from 100 yards? Just hit that one and mean while keep working on our fitness, swing fundamentals and strength and speed then perhaps some distance may return.
Creating Speed
At the risk of being burned at the stake for heresy, I don't believe that fitted clubs will make a major difference in distance. Accuracy yes. Distance no. If I should go to a club fitter and the result, as expected, would be buy a brand new set of clubs, I believe that I would be faced with the question "Is it worth $1000 to gain 5 yards?" At the course I play, $1000 is 25 rounds. I would rather play the 25 rounds. Perhaps when I reach the point that I hit clean shots 95% of the time or better, my opinion might change but even then is an extra 5 yards a club worth $1000?
$ to create speed
Your question is intriguing. I surmise that the answer is, "It depends." If I planned on playing a lot of tournaments with the object of winning them, I would probably consider $1000 worth the extra 5 yards. But, since I do not, at present, play any tournaments, and only play golf rounds randomly, I agree with you that $1000 is difficult to justify. Having said that, 8 years ago, I spent over $1500 for "custom-fit clubs." If I had a do-over, I would willingly part with $1000 to get "properly fitted clubs" from a PPGS-certified fitter; not likely anytime soon.
fitted or not
Been racking my brain trying to recall but the comments about a $1000 for 25 rounds of golf rather than getting fitted sounds very deja vu.
I'm nearly certain it was the same commenter a couple years back. I'm at that stage where I don't remember last night's dinner but can remember a comment on this blog from way back. Does this mean the more things change the more they stay the same? Hmmmnn.....
Any way it seems clear you'll never get fitted. And that's okay. 25 rounds eh?
That works out to $40.00 per round. Wow, I rarely spend more than $20 -25 per round. Must be expensive where you live. We have some courses here in Las Vegas that are over $275.00 but I won't be playing them any time soon. Fortunately we have several nice GC's here for under $35. We walk Municipal in the afternoon for $11.00. That's one reason I can play 2-3 days a week year round. In the summer when temps go up over 100 the prices all come down at even some of the primo resort courses.
If we were voting, for what it's worth I have experienced that fitted clubs can give you both more accuracy and more distance.
fitted or not
Bob,
Do you recall what effect the fitted clubs had on your handicap index? How much distance did you gain? Was the added distance towards the green or absolute distance? If towards the green, the gain might have been due to less severe slices or hooks. My son used to hit tee shots in the 275 to 300 range. He was also good at having his ball land two fairways over. If his hooks and slices decreased his apparent distance on his drives would have increased without any actual increase in the absolute total distance traveled.
handicap
My apologies for not remembering your name.
Seems you gave it long ago.
My handicap since being fitted?
To be honest I have never kept up a handicap.
I would say it was about a 14 before the PPGS then within a year was about an11 (before my fitting) and now normally around an 8/9. In the past three years I have averaged between 78-83 most days. A 76 and 77 are still my best scores for 18. I managed an even par for 9 once and hope go under part some day soon. I know there are several on this blog that shoot in the low 70's. The main thing that keeps me from going any lower is putting which has actually improved the past 6 months since getting the L2.
I'm proud of my improvements. Hey 2-4 stroke improvement is huge for most golfers. After getting fit I have grown in my interest in club fitting and have the tools to build my own clubs. Golf is my hobby and passion. When I'm not golfing I'm contemplating my next round.
I'm a constant learner. I have several great how to and why books on fitting. Tinkering with different heads and shafts is fun. I really do believe that the shaft is the most important part of the golf club. Everything matters including having a good swing but golf club components matter too.
If it seems vain to you or you just can't or choose not to spend your funds on fitting that's okay.
I will give you one example. I have 7 different quality shafts for my driver. By far, the Aldila DVS 55 gram X stiff shift works best for me.
Before being fit there is no way I would ever consider anything beyond stiff and normally a regular shaft only. If not for my fitter there is no way in !ell I would have stumbled apon that shaft on my own. As Doc says what it says on the shaft doesn't mean much.
When I'm on I average around 260 off the tee and usually down the fairway. Clubs can and do make a difference. Can you play well without a fitting? Of course. Most have a choice. Some don't because of limited funds.
As I've said many times (bare with me Kevin) -
Yes the minimum all golfers should do is have their lofts and lies checked and adjusted. This will normally cost under $100.00 but is well worth the cost. It was so important to me that I bought my own loft and lie machine. My nephew who shoots in the mid to low 70's is coming over Wednesday morning to have me check his irons. I will have him hit every iron on my lie board first with tape and then we'll tweak each as needed for lies and correct gapping on lofts. Fun stuff.
Fittings
Robert,
You'll get no argument from me. I am just a card-carrying, lifetime member of Procrastinators Anonymous ;-D I WILL break down and get my lofts and lies checks within the next 2 weeks.
Kevin
lifetime member
LOL!!!! At least you're a loyal member and are taking the 12 steps! Too funny Kevin. You may recall a long time Surgite Robert Fleck who moved to the Dallas Texas area about a year back. He lived a couple miles from me in Las Vegas. He asked if I would take a look at and adjust as needed his irons that he had been using since Freddy Couples one the Players:) He'd never checked them in 20+ years and wow what a shocker. I believe it was his 3 and 4 irons that had identical lofts. That answered his question of why they flew the same distance. He also had a few clubs that were either too upright while others were too flat when we did a dynamic check on my lie board. Got them all with the lie that gave him a better shot at centered straight ball flights and we gapped each 4 degrees apart. Hopefully you'll find someone who takes pride in detail (I know the engineer in you does:). Ask them if they will not only do a thorough job checking each iron for lie angle but also the degree of loft gaps between each (the same machine checks and is used to adjust both specs). Then ask them to give you the before and after in writing if they would be so kind. The after is key. Ask for a list of the lofts and lies apon completion of the job. Remember what your irons may say on the head ie., 54* loft may actually be 53 or 55 or something else. After you get the lofts re gapped right (if needed) you will then be able to hone in on how far you hit each club with a normal full swing. This is golden. Too when your ball then flies left or right unintentionally you will know it's the operator and not the lie angle.
$ to create speed
Kevin,
Out of my curiosity, do you remember what effect the "custom fit clubs" had on your index? What were the before and after, if you remember. I suspect maybe one or two shots but I am frequently wrong in my guesses.
"Custom-fit Clubs"
The reason I put "custom-fit clubs" in quotes is that I made the mistake of getting them from Warrior Golf over the phone without ever seeing the fitter in person. I lost almost 40 yards with my driver, which went "dead" after 6 months. I went from hitting my old 7-iron 148 yards average to hitting the new "fitted" 7-iron 125 yards. When I switched to the PPGS, I gained back 10 yards.
Unfortunately, I cannot yet afford a new set of clubs, so I do the best with what I have. I did get a different driver - Cobra 10.5* - which gave me back a couple of yards; not a significant change. Robert Meade is always talking about getting lofts and lies checked which is something I need to do soon because I have serious gaps between my clubs.
Fast hands
Fast hands (and arms) are very much underrated in the golfing community.
With that, along with proper weight shift timing it's almost impossible to not be a fairly long hitter.
There is only a certain amount that can be done to create fast hands. Most of that is what we were born with.
Proper weight transfer sequence is something that can be worked on and improved upon albeit it's a heck of a lot easier for people that grew up throwing things as hard as they could.
My wife was in the yard one day hitting her driver and I told her she just wasn't putting enough effort into it.
She said "well you are stronger than I am" (the usual excuse).
I told her I could hit a pitching wedge farther than she could hit a driver and use almost none of my "muscle". So I took a pitching wedge, simply raised it up in the backswing, and let it fall. No exersion whatsoever. Just the weight shift that comes naturally...And hit all of the balls farther than she hits a driver.
Hitting a golf ball acceptably long is much more about timing and center impact than it is about strength. At the highest levels (like long drive competition) strength and speed separate them from the rest of us.
The casual player that complains he only hits his driver 200 yards because he has lost, or never had, strength is barking up the wrong tree. They are simply using poor technique.
As to whether fitted clubs will give more distance and if it's worth it?
It depends on how badly you are hitting the ball without fitted clubs and if a factor in that is the clubs.
If the clubs are a factor in your poor ball striking you will gain distance with better fitting clubs.
If you are already hitting the ball on the sweet spot with the proper spin and trajectory new clubs are going to do little or nothing in regards to distance.
fairly long hitter.
Steve
I agree with you about distance.
I wish I was fairly long. I have lost 3 clubs lengths of distance since my health issues started last December. Had 20 hours of surgery on my left leg in March of this year, I had the long muscle in the left side of my back removed and transferred to my left leg attached to the back of my knee and wrap around to the front of my leg it's about 90 % healed. I played last weekend both days and Sat and today this weekend. Shot 90 today with out distance 8 iron 120 yards a year ago it was 150 its awful playing like this but I decided that I am going to make the best out of it and get my scores back down in the low 70's with my short game putting. I hope the man up stairs we see fit to let me get it back distance and all after I heel completely but if not that's ok Im just happy to be here the doctors told me last year that if I would have waited another week longer than I did to go to the hospital I would not be here.
I am hesitant to transfer a lot of weight to my left leg right now and am playing mostly with a upper body swing. We will see how things progress as the days go on.
Injuries
Injuries change everything for everybody. Maybe over time you will find ways to adapt and/or get healed up.
Only you would know what your left leg can take but if it can take it you might try setting up already loaded on it so you don't have any sudden transfer.
I know if I had to pick a leg to keep my weight on, and couldn't use the other one, or transfer weight I would want the weight on my left side.