I've been known to have a lot of "Surgisms" (as I like to call them). I believe that having these sayings helps students remember the important aspects and movements of the Peak Performance Golf Swing. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is "the setup determines the motion." That means your entire swing can be dictated by your setup position, so it's extremely critical that you're consistently in the right position.
The Master Setup Position is something I'm sure you've heard me reference before, but today I'm going to provide you with an in depth look at it. There's certain elements to the Master Setup Position that must be spot on, otherwise you can overdo it and your swing will suffer because of it.
Check out the video above and you'll get a good visual on the positional limits of the PPGS setup.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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Comments
Welcome back Surge!
I know you've already heard that a bunch but I just had to say it too. The relaxed right arm position is something I was slowly getting away from. I said slowly because my mentor golf buddy, Carl, always tells me you slowly get yourself in bad habits with your swing. Especially when you play as much as I do. I can usually tweak myself back in place if my swing feels off but lately I haven't been able to get that feeling I like. The cold just settled in where I play so it looks like a couple weeks before I can get out to test the right arm tip. That's OK really because I probably needed a break. Lot of golf this year. Plus it'll be just before our Myrtle Beach trip so I can be fine tuned going into that. 8 days and at least 8 rounds of golf. It's a blast but a little demanding. Surge's swing and tips has got me through it the last two years. Just tried the Precept laddie X balls in the cold. Loved the feel. and cheap. Thanks to Surge, another pain free year with many. many rounds under my belt. Believe me, guys and gals, it works!
Excellent question well answered.
This is a great reminder to not overdo this move and get closed shoulders. Do it "gently".
I have a technical question related to the hands and pressure points during the swing. When it comes to conventional golf wisdom, the lead/top hand has a little more pressure applied to the bottom three fingers and particularly the pinkie finger. This is supposed to help flatten the lead wrist and square the club face at impact. It is also supposed to activate the correct lower forearm muscles and reduce overall tension in the arm.
That takes care of the lead hand but what about the trail hand?
My question relates to pressure points in the bottom/trail hand. After a number of years of feeling that with a right sided takeaway, the trigger finger of the right hand was the main pressure point during the takeaway and BUS, I decided to focus on the right pinkie ( Vardon grip ) as a pressure point. I started doing this because it seemed to be a good way to correct any tendency to fan the club face open during the back swing. There is more of a feeling of keeping the club face square to the back swing swing path and it is easier to keep the palms vertical. An added benefit may be that the back arm is easier to lift, because of less tension when the lower muscles of the forearm are used more.
The Right Elbow
I woke up to the right elbow being tucked in earlier this year and it's been a big bonus in my hitting power and direction, however I had to work on it's postion for a while and found that resting it just above my belt buckle gave me more consistency in the setup and shot play, feel very relaxed when doing this as I have a very wiry and flexible body frame.
My achilles heel is still the ball that goes occasionally left and starting to think my shoulder aligment could be the issue, I'll start looking at this aspect over the next few weeks.
Master Set-up Video, 11-12-2014.
Surge,
No sound on video. Please repeat.
Bob M.
Surge's birthday
Surgite's,,,, today is the Surge's birthday.Happy Birthday Surge, hope you have many more.
Master Setup Position
Hi Don, and fellow Surgites,
Don, I'd like to thank you very much for answering my questions. Especially the one on the master setup position. Not only did you answer my question and quell my confusion, but you took it a step or two further and added more of your knowledge and experience. I have taken to hitting some balls at an indoor golf lounge. The place has a PGA simulator. I think your answer may have hit the nail on the head. Although there are many facets to the PPGS swing, the master setup position seems to be a key one. Not only as it stands alone, but also how it affects all the other PPGS positions. Not that you want to be sloppy in any of the moves, but obviously being sloppy in the master setup position is a big no-no, that can affect other things. And your explanation as I said earlier may have really put things in focus. I have been watching my ball flight on the simulator, along with the output from the computer. Most of my shots have been reasonably close to the target (for a beginner that is). My distance has disappointed me, but that may take time as I learn to pick up speed with the PPGS swing. But what I have noticed is the average shot shape for my swings is a Pull Fade. Not something horrible, but if I understood your answer correctly, overdoing the master setup position may be making me compensate for the closed position by coming over and cut across the ball, giving it a left (Pull), then right (Fade) shot. Like you said, the body is smart, so I am probably reading that I am aiming right (closed position) and my body is turning the right shoulder to compensate, which is causing the cut across.
Thanks again Don. I am super happy that you're feeling better and sharing all your great knowledge and experience with us Surgites.
Regards,
Steve
Arm drop.
Don, do we pull our arms down into impact ?
Thanks
Jim Sullivan