Correct Posture & Dynamic Balance

Great stuff Robert, you must be heading down the right track. Keep it up mate.

 Great round Robert. I may make it there someday. Congrats!

 Try down loading this pdf. It will show where Ping grinds its custom wedges (p7) and why.

www.ping.com/pdfs/wrx2007.pdf

That is the other good point. In PPGS, we don't think about "down and through" as the down is free thanks to gravity. We're not fighting gravity trying to pull our club down behind us the way a flat, rotational swinger has to. We're letting gravity do its part to get everything moving, and then adding the oomph through the ball and up to the finish.

In a way, it's similar to the idea in judo of using the opponent's motion to flip them.

Surge and group, I started as a high handicapper, and I am still a high handicapper!  My biggest issue is even though I bring the club from the catcher's mit and up the tree, my down swing consistently goes outside to in, not sure why this is happening.  I practice with a friend who knows this swing well, I am not in the graveyard.  This is regardless of the club, however the shorter clubs are better.  I am not over rotating on the up swing.  I do golf with a few good golphers and they say I am blocking at impact, not sure exactly what this means.
Thanks!  Jim Goerges

Robert m.
Just got in and catching up on the blog. Great round Bud, keep up the good work.
Hal

 Roy,

The opposite can also be a factor. My main slice problem occurs when my weight falls back or stays back and does not get transferred to the front side/foot through the impact phase of the swing. This results in my club face being in the open position through contact. We do need to stay behind the ball, but the weight must also transfer to the front side through impact.

Ah yes, Mr. Smith....
Thank you for the 
words of golf wisdom.

I don't know if I'll ever be in FULL swing,but I have no regrets. Family always comes first on my list. Actually heading out for an afternoon round in an hour or so with a few buds. One of my favorite courses, just wish I were in a little better form.
http://www.chenowethgolf.com/i...

More than likely, you're swinging at the ball with your arms from the top, rather than letting your arms fall and swing through in the FUS. If you have any ponds nearby, go out and actually skip some rocks, then pick up a club and emulate that feeling.

For more help, if you can put up some video on YouTube (as a number of us have done, which you can see by clicking our names in the comments here), many of us will be happy to try to help more.

RM:  Along with Steve, I add my congrats on a great round.  May there be many more just like that, and even better!  And as always, hit 'em straight! R2

Sounds like your swing overcomes the lies. I'm sure the way we swing does factor in. Going to see if I can eventually have most of my divots even. From what I've seen of my normally shallow divots they are usually toe deep which indicates they are too flat. My measurements so far  with the lie machine agree. My results from yesterdays play are a vote for corrected lies, at least for me and I would think for most golfers.Either way, correct them I will because now......I can:)

You might also check your ball position and maybe try it half-a-ball further forward in your swing. That will give your hands time to square up better. Of course, if you then start pulling the ball, you know you have a swing problem similar to your first thought.

 Steve

I often refer to the urinal in the men's room as the 20th hole, as it is usually necessary to play that hole right after time spent in the 19th hole.  It has become my favorite hole on our courses. 

Just a word of caution, don't come up short on your approach shot on the 20th hole.  You could end up with wet shoes.

Dick

Sometimes "swinging easier" slows down the macro body movements, but not the hands, so it sounds like your hands were getting ahead and snapping the club through and shut. By "swinging harder" you were keeping the timing better.

 Jim Goerges,
                     I would hazard a guess, that you are not 'skipping a rockl' on the FUS. You are probably starting off your Forward Up Swing with the hands and arms leading and not allowing for the 'light' upright club to drop that fraction as you perform the hip bump, which is essential in returning the clubface square to the ball to  target line.
                     Try the one handed swing drill with your rear hand to get the feeling of skipping a rock in the downswing up to the finish. When you feel that you are naturally swinging through with the bump, then try it with both hands on the club.
                     A point also worth checking, is: Is your the crease on the fold in your rear elbow facing straight upwards? This aids in the lifting from the word go. Good Luck. Hope this helps. DH in Sunny NZ

Don,

You talk about the "bump"' but I have never heard you advise your students to PULL the club from the top of the loaded position.

A small hip shift happens automatically if the golfer is thinking of pulling (as opposed to hitting with the right side)

P.S. Meagher is pronounced "marr"

Rowley

Rowley
Rowley

Thanks Hal (and all others for the vote of confidence),
     BTW, I am now set up with my grinder and will likely play carefully with it and my wedges. I've been doing lots of careful research on the hoe to and effect of tayloring ones wedges can produce. I'll go at it slowly as I know I can't add any lost iron back to shaved areas! I'll practice with older less valued one first and then test the results bit by bit.

You're making me scared to go out and play with you now. ;-)

 Robert On a Roll

Way to go pal.  It is wonderful to see the time and effort you are sinking into your game and your workshop paying off.

Keep at it pal,
Dick

 My first hit on the course yesterday for 10days mate. Know the feeling. As for the torn up greens Dick. Remember you are all playing on the same course under the same conditions aren't you? NO NEGATIVE THOUGHTS sunshine. YOU CAN DO IT and WILL SUCCEED.We believe in you. Go get 'em laddie. DH

Surge: 

I have something that might help folks understand that this problem is very common to all of us, I will try to explain this the best way I can.  Try to vision that I have painted a line exactly in the middle of your body from the top of your head to the bottom of your croch, the left side will be black and the right side will be white, just like the old Bobby Jones flicks, are you with me.  The centre line is behind the ball and as soon as the centre line moves forward in front of the ball, you slice, you push, which means if your body slides at all forward that means your club face becomes open through impact zone, what our brain does is it tells us that something isnt right so our hands compensate and you get over the top and pulls to the left. My remidy is actually something a PGA retired pro had shared "Nick Faldo" and when he is back  to the 3/4 back swing, the chin touches the shoulder, he doesnt move his head but he bumps and when his shoulder goes away to the left from the chin as soon as his bicep gets to the chin; that is the trigger and at the same time he releases the hands through the ball, or better he releases his hands through the bottom of his swing. Until then I could not hit my driver or 3 wood without slicing, now I can work the ball left to right and right to left and I'm a right handed player, hopefully this helps you like it help me.

Yours truely
Birtchy-Canada.

Let me retract two of those Rowleys

Wow, beautiful golf course Terry and 80* there today.
I'm taking care of the yard and pool today. Just gave the Pool filters their simi anual cleaning and am knee deep in pepper and tomatoe plants along with all the dirt and manure! Gotta get'r done so I can play golf tomorrow.
Hope your round was fun and it's gotta be if you're hanging out with some pals.

Robert

Congrats on a great round.

Surge Nation

Today's video and question reminds me of the old adage "Some times the cure is worse than the problem."  I think of that often when I watch commercials for medicines on TV.  They go through a long list of all the great things a medicine meant to cure toe nail fungus can do for us.  But, listen carefully at the end of the warnings and you will find that this wonder drug can cause, heart attacks, blurry vision, and anal leakage.

I don't know about you, but I think I will just take my chances with the toe nail fungus.  I feel the same way with instant fixes to our swing problems.  I think we come out way ahead when we concentrate on fixing the problem, instead of trying to apply an instant fix.  They seem to always end up causing us more problems than they fix. 

More importantly, we run the risk of really messing up all that is still working right in our swing.  And, most importantly for me, we risk hurting ourselves when we play with anything that can put us back into a rotational swing path.

The last lesson I picked up from the original comment and question is a vivid reminder of why Surge tells us all the time to not watch rotational swingers on TV, or during a round.  They will get into our heads and have us swinging all over the place before we know it.

If you don't believe that can happen, I will share this little story about the youngest PGA pro at our golf shop.  He and I are friends and he is working with me to get ready for my PAT.  He has long ago stopped trying to get me to work anything rotational into my swing.  He has learned what my swing looks like when I do it right, and is pretty good at letting me know when I stray from the Surge Swing.  We played the other day and he was just having a terrible round.  I asked him what was going on with his game.  He said that as he has been giving more and more lessons, his game has gotten worse.  He said he is spending so much time watching horrible swings that he finds himself emulating those swings some times.

If it can happen to a pro, what do you think it can do to our swings?  So, my advice is to take council only from those who understand and can work  with you on the Surge Swing.  Crap in, equals crap out.  We are called to be disciples of Surge, not a world of rotational swingers.

If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.  It works the same with a golf swing.

I guess growing up as a preacher's son shows through some times.  Sorry if that all sounded like a sermon.  Just trying to remind all of us, including myself, that our swing is different.  Our swing can not work with a little of this and a little of that thrown into it.

We are vertical swingers by choice, and for many reasons.

Now, go out there and make disciples,
Dick

Steve: No the weight does not stay on the right side, it starts on the right side, that helps to stop swaying, Your talking about the reverse pivot, well the stack and tilt was developed to stop that problem, your weight starts on the front foot and returns to the front foot, then it becomes a timing techneque which amatures have problems with, but again it was developed to eliminate angles and keeps things simple.  This blog should be used to experiment with also other ideas or tips, personnally i'm not totally committed to PPGS, but I use some of Surges techniques because I understand his tips. Example skipping the rock, Al Bonar uses a Tv controller , Each instructor has a different expression for that same position, it is too each student or individual how it turns the light switch on. Did Tiger woods become the best because he was with Earl, Butch, or Hank or now that he is with a Canadian instructor. None of these folks teach PPGS, but each teacher has certain positions that look more vertical, except for Hank sometimes it looks like he wants more laid off in the back swing with certain students.  2 tournements ago the golf channel was making fun of D.J. they said he looked like Tin cup hitting balls in the dark at the practice range with that apperatus around his chest.  All I'm saying is that some of Don's teachings has taken me from a high handicaper to a single digit player who now can compete in the club championship, and other small events and not be intimidated to compete, golf is truley a difficult game to master, each student interpetates things in there own way.

Steve: I'm not bashing Surge's PPGS, if it wasent for the expression like a cactus, I would have never been able to get to a good position at the top of the back swing.

Fiftytwo (before you know it),
You may be suffering from what Jonny Miller calls 'sway and stay', that is we move too far back on our back foot and then as we swing forward we 'stay' or keep our weight on that back foot.
Robert's comment is right on. So what to do? Here's a great lesson from Dave Seeman on the lateral shift;
http://www.swingsurgeon.com/Da...
Notice especially the information after the 3:30 minute mark. Narrow feet, wide knees and it's a lateral move onto the front foot as we swing up to the T finish. Focus on your lateral move and your finish. I recomend doing this several times without a ball first. Keep doing this until you can finish with all your weight on the front foot, so much so that you could be completely balanced on that foot only as you lift the back up off the ground at swings end. Focusing on a good dynamically balanced finish is an overall solution to your challenge. As Surge has reminded us, the ball is hit in the forward swing not the backswing. So preload right in your set up but think forward and at the target with a dynamically balanced finish with the weight on the front foot at swings finish.

Next time I'm able to make it back to visit family (I was born in Findlay, OH--you know, the place from the new  Dominoes commercials), I'll have to find a way over toward your side of the state so we can play a round. 

After practice session report.

Went to the range last night and it was like I never played the game in my life.
Out of a 100 balls I hit about 20 straight at the target the rest were pulls and hooks.
The easier I swung the more I hooked it the harder I swung the straighter they went.
I guess its back to the drawing board on Thursday. 

Thanks Dick. Still looking good for your upcoming PAT? Or did you already give it a go?

Thanks to all who threw me a congrats, much appreciated.
Hey Steve, I know we had a good back and forth about the true value of lie adjustments and i just wanted to say that i noticed a big difference with my seven iron just by adjusting it 2 degrees mor upright. I had been hitting it consistently too far right and making compensations in my set up to keep iut left or on target. Yesterday after the adjustment, wow, lasers exactly wher I aimed. So yes, there is something to it. I have not adjusted all my clus yet but will continue to let you know my results as I remember you said a "test study" would be good. It may not be like taking 10 golfers and watching results before and after but just an old guy and his garage and a few rounds of golf to test results! Ha ha! Anyway, I felt and saw the merit so far. Really glad I got the loft/lie machine. I'll look forward to Terry's results once he starts fooling around with it too as he bought the same toys (tools:)

I've been working on getting rid of my annual spring slice again as well. As usual, I learned again that it's way easy to forget to turn enough with the PPGS to get the left arm over the toe line on the BUS. Result, outside in. It seems counter intuitive to turn farther right to hit left . Hopefully I'll remember this time.

Dale

Sounds a lot like my game at the present Mike. I still have to wear a wrist support while playing though and hope it will improve when I can go without it. I also haven't had any range or practice time yet and am in dire need of some. Something has gone severely wrong with my supposed retirement this spring.

 Steve

I always have the last word when I find myself in a disagreement with any woman in my life.

"Yes dear."

nuff said,
Dick

Yes Steve were are all different, I was a perfessional fast ball pitcher and can relate to what your saying as I got older and started coaching I noticed that a lot of kids needed tweaking not changing, that is why Harvey Pennick will go down as being the best golf instructor in the history of this great sport. Harvey would not teach more then 1 student at a time and sometimes they say he would sit there and give out 1 small little piece of advice and voila you would be fixed. Hank Haney and other guys like that, changed and did not go with the old school teachings, they have changed guys swings and I do believe it is all too much to fast and there is no progression so once they leave these teachers they quickly loose all the things that were taught and are now for the rest of their lives going back to $1000.00 an hour or more addicted for his instructions for ever. They say Butch Harmen is old school and doesnt like to break down and rebuild a totally different swing, and at his golf school he accomidates 3 to 4 students at a time seperated from each other working on different things.  

Hey, geta look at the new sign hanging from the podium. Quite neat.
Hal

Robert
That would be my guess also. I have been told that I have really fast hands through impact and should really play a draw as a normal shot. No matter how I align the ball 90% of the time finishes on my foot line unless I use a week / neutral left hand grip with the thumb more at 12:00 instead of 1    

SURGE........THANK YOU .....YOUR LESSONS HAVE IMPROVED MY GAME IMMENSELY.  BUT FOR THE LIFE OF ME I HAVE ONE ISSUE I JUST CAN NOT SEEM TO RECTIFY.  AS HARD AS I TRY I CAN'T SEEM TO GET MY WEIGHT OFF MY BACK FOOT AND END UP BALANCED ON MY FRONT FOOT.
THIS IS ESPECIALLY A PROBLEM WITH MY DRIVER.  I'VE TRIED EVERYTHING ... PLEASE HELP.
ED

T, Just consider this your tune up for "actual" quality retirement life!
Fixing your hands, helping with family chores, learning to play golf again. Late life challenges that I'm sure you'll handle:) By Summer time you'll be in full swing.

Robert

Been a rough week for weather up here. I have not been on a course since last Thursday. Only got to hit balls twice. Both times it started pouring after only about 30 minutes. Just about the time I finished stretching and warming up, here came the rain. Looks like I might get to hit for at least 3-4 hours this evening.

The course where the PAT will take place on April 9 was supposed to punch their greens last Monday. It was bad enough that they were going to do that 3 weeks to the day before the PAT. With the rain, they only got half the greens punched. They won't get to do the rest of the greens until next Monday. That will leave only 2 weeks till the PAT.

Darn it, the PAT will be hard enough without doing it on torn up greens. But, they say it is going to happen on the 9th no matter what.

I am just going to try to stay focused on the course, and not let the greens get into my head. I will just treat this 1st try as a learning experience.

It ain't going to get me down,
Dick

Yes, nice to see the Peak Performance Golf Swing emblem proudly displayed.

You haven't heard Don say that because that's not how he advises people to swing. In PPGS he advises that we let the hands drop from the top, not actively pull them down. Although, occasionally the idea of ringing the bell has been expressed as pulling down on the rope of a church bell, but that's not the primary image Don is going for.