Toe-Up Drills For The Takeaway

Maintaining our swing and keeping it vertical takes repeated vigilance.
I go between letting it go and being less mechanical to re examination and repair. Find the balance we must. I have still averaged scores in the mid 80's but am enjoying it as much or more than ever because of a deeper sense of mellowness and appreciation for my health and blessings to be able to play and really enjoy each day. Still, I have a fire in my belly to get better and break 80 again if not frequently. More convinced than ever it's the chips and putts that will get me there. That'll be my focus for 2012.
PMG and become a SGW (short game wizard) 
 

Ncorkrum,

Sorry, but it's like the Mafia, once you're in, there's no getting out. LOL

Actually just check near the bottom of your next email, and you'll find a spot that say's click here to unsubscribe.

Happy New Year.

Agree with your philosophy Jack. Practice and seeking to improve our ways on the range and at home and then simply do our best to enjoy ourselves on the course regardless. This attitude has lead to more good shots too because of not over reacting to a poor shot and being able to refocus and calmly play the next. The saying goes, "we don't play golf to relax, we relax to play golf." 
 

I'm not certain, but I think he means that he keeps his left heel off the ground through the practice swing, which keeps the left hip from over-rotating. Not something you'd want to do in an actual swing, clearly.

Thanks Surge for your generous free advice.
I would also like to recommend Derek Hardy's Tissue Box drill which helped me a lot. It is currently listed as "On, on, on" but when try to play it a message says "removed by user.' Not sure what is the problem but if you want to re-list this drill I have a copy on my hard drive and could send it to you.
For me I try to focus on the forward wrist throughout my swing and not the club. (Making sure it is on the toe line) I like Derek's point that the club face will be pointing slightly downwards at the mitt because we are bent over. If I point it straight up at the mitt I almost always lay it off at vertical and have trouble bringing the face square at impact

Steve-
Thanks for another great....takeaway. (no pun intended).

Your thoughts are well articulated and focused.
I've especially benefitted from your "in the slot"
comments. I never really gave that much consideration
prior.  It's now a crucial part of my swing.

Tide vs Tigers should be an epic battle. Sure many in the Nation will think of you during that game.

SG

Thx Don..I gotcha 100%..now back to the range;)Happy New Year

Lex

Don, I have a question to the initial turn. I understand it is an approx 60-70° turn around the spine, hands stay perpendicular. Champagne drill. After that it is all arm lift. Correct? My question is, does that initial turn until the arm lift differ from a typical rotational swing (beside the different set up), or is it similar?

T

I agree with you and Steve. When I get into trouble with this swing I take to slow / smooth of a back swing another words to slow of a tempo for me.

For me when I do this swing correctly I need to swing the club back into the
mitt and up the tree with what FEELS like a arm swing this gets me the shoulder turn of about were Don is.On the start of the FUS my bump FEELS like it starts when my hands FEEL like they are maybe hip high but in reality they are probably shoulder high.

When I get these Feels and not focusing on turn the ball goes long and straight.

When I revert back and focus on the body turning its not good.

Practicing the set up and alignment routine has helped me be able to no longer have to work on those during play. Getting the funamentals to a point of being natural is what practicing does for me. This improves my chances of taking it from the range to the course.  
 

Bob, sometimes when I'm having trouble executing toe up, I also have to think "tuck and lift". But as Steve said, you're only passing your elbow through that position. I find concentrating on thumbs up more helpful than toe up. I can feel thumbs up as a part of my arms, but have to peek to check toe up.

Dale

I was hitting some hitting some dandy shots, guess it was one of those video tells you something you don't know moments and I may be overwhelmed in the thinking that I was a lot closer to the Surge swing than I really am. You know what I mean. I remember the first time I used the Surge swing my only thoughts, keys or whatever we want to call them was "thumbs up" in the BUS and "down the line" in the FUS and had pretty good success. Today I went with none and was just swinging,pretty well, but the positions I have become accustomed to weren't there but the ball was going to my target way more than less. Maybe I just need to  clear my head and sleep on things,something like a Bama victory in the championship game. :)

First off I have to say I am sorry.

But I am confused sort of I was under the impression that we started the back swing with a one piece takeaway meaning the hands, arms,shoulders,hips start the club back together. In the video the thought of the club head starts back first how do we make this happen a rolling of the forearms or setting of the right wrist I have to be missing something in this video are some were. I never have a problem getting to toe up I am just curios if I am turning to much at the beginning.

I am just wanting to make sure I am doing this correctly not trying to be argumentative . So don't holler at me. 

Steve hit on the really crucial point of hitting the slot in his post above. Look at the recent swings in V1 and identify the angle of the shaft as it hits the slot on the downswing. The bump should flatten the shaft angle from the top down into the slot angle. Too much or too little will create all sorts of pandemonium in the flight of the ball.

Surge, thanks for covering the basics of the initial take away. It is so easy to get it wrong and over turn or under/over rotate hands. The best of your thoughts for me was the visual of your watch and back of glove emblem. That shake hands thumbs up of the back hand also ties in perfectly as it's all straight up from there. I will work on these among other drills because I still have the tendency to allow my hands to rotate back into the SBG. Steve and I talked about how that back (right) hand needs to control the lift in order to get it vertical from that 9 oclock position to the top.
PMG

Roger, one of the key feelings of the one piece takeaway is that we lift with the hands, wrists and arms from the shoulder sockets. This helps us maintain the wrist angle established at address and avoid the wrist cock. Little turn and alot of lift. I'll leave this great artical that may help. A key though here in is that Surge has the "sense and  feeling" that the toe of the club moves first. See third paragraph.http://www.swingsurgeon.com/Home/BobS...

Steve, Your comment is succinct and to the point. After carefully watching today's video, these simple drills will be getting a real run.Weather here is non stop rain at present. Just like the Emerald Isle, it is green because...... ; - ]  My wife is chipping occasionally now when we go out. Methinks she has the 'bug' hahaha. Measured her WTF yesterday and found her WTF is exactly the same as mine, hahaha. So she now has her own set of clubs etc.The Mizuno are just right for her. Next Chinese New Year around the 20th of Jan 2012 is appropriately, the Year of the Dragon! hahaha. Have a great Hogmonay and keep on PMG and explaining the way you interpret things. They help a lot. Good health, wealth and luck to you and Yours this New Year. NOW off to practice.

Nick,

If I understand you correctly this is only something you do only during a practice swing.  It probably gives you the feel of preloading heavy right.  It duplicates the feeling of hitting a ball on an uphill lie.  Surge talks about this feeling of hitting from an uphill lie, when he describes hitting from a PLHR address.A previous blogger had a similar idea that he used when PLHR for the real swing.  He had good luck preloading his weight right before every shot, by momentarily raising his front heel a couple of inches , lowering it to the ground, and leaving his weight shifted right, before hitting the ball.It didn't work for me, but it's certainly worth a try. Don't pay too much attention to naysayers. Heh, whatever works!  Many of us are looking for new ideas.

A couple of points to help your short game wizardry.

Develop a consistent stroke so you can hit on the line you want every time.

On chips and pitches try to leave a make able distance. Nothing better than having simple putts to save a shot.

Try to play the shots from the fairway or tee on the par 3s so you don't short side yourself. Easy chips and pitches go in more often.

T Medley,  the cause of the spinal infection this time was the one I had ten years ago.  Apparently, once you get one, it can come back, as a new infection, not a carry over from the old one.  The cause of the first one is the one that is in doubt.  Medical web pages say that if you bruise some tissue in your body, it becomes susceptible to bacteria so that if you just happen to have something like a bladder infection or a kidney infection (or some other large source of bacteria), the bacteria can find its way to the bruised tissue.  That's why football players who bruise a part of the foot have been known to come down with a bone infection.

Another realization about my lifting the hands instead of swinging the club in the BUS--it seems that the muscles in my arms became activated too much and prevented a repetition of a smooth BUS.  Of course, this is just conjecture based on swinging both ways,, a wider, smoother BUS versus lifting the handle too vertically once the catcher's mitt was reached.

Thanks for the post.

Don,  Best wishes for the New Year.

Great lesson today. It covered a point that I have wondered about.

To all Surgites--I just bought the Harvey Ward putting video. It is outstanding and well worth the price. I think Don's special goes  off this weekend. As an aside, I was lucky enough to have taken  some lessons from Harvey in San Francisco in the mid-70's (not putting). He was a really nice guy-patient and knowledgeable

Oh Dear,,,,

Thanks Surge, great tip!!  Got out today, little cool out 42 and some wind, the weather man was wrong!!!   Played ok, had allot of toe shots today, so, need to go back and OH, how I wish I could hit the ball good most of the time, but, it will take time, I guess??

Happy New Year!! 

marilyn

Steve

I went back to the video I shot for Doc for my long distance driver.  Ugghh, scary stuff.  Just when you think you have a pretty good idea of what you're doing it opens your eyes bigtime.  I come much closer to verticle when I concentrate on pointing my right elbow upward at setup and just concentrate on "thumbs up".

You're right Steve, nothing about bending the left arm from Surge, and I'm not discounting any of his teachings at all.  I'm just saying that you have to keep everything in context of a golf swing action. I've probably struggled as much  or more than most to convert, and one of my problems is not just swinging, but trying to manage my swing, if that makes sense, introducing muscle tension where it doesn't belong.

Robert--I made a few rather understated posts because I didn't want to make too much of the health issue.  While it is/was rather serious, there are others on the blog who have gone through much more serious treatments without so much as a hint to us.

Back to golf--you can't imagine how much weight has been lifted from my mind, now that I feel that I'm back in control of my progress.  For a time, I thought I would never get it back.  I even began to consider that the eight weeks of daily IV antibiotics re-configured my brain (too much science fiction movies).  After all, they say that illegal drugs can change the mental structure of the brain, so why not antibiotics?  Glad I was wrong.  Oh, oh, but I did find out that I can now do crossword puzzles that I couldn't complete previously.

Don
Keep it up.  Tips are great.  My Pro has told me that as I swing to the top, my grip changes making the club hood at inpack and causing the ball to go left.  I cannot seem to change it.  Any ideas.  I'm using two gloves and hand still turns.
Harry Rogers
Eaton's Neck, LI, NY
Sunset Beach, NC

This is one of the best I've seen---you must start the back swing correctly and this drill does just that--thanks

Great Post Surge. I really enjoy this swing. I'm a bulky guy (weight trainer) and although I'm flexible and can do a regular golf swing, it was always uncomfortable for me. Today's advice was spot on. This swing has really helped my consistency and accuracy.

It might make sense to have up in the BUS and plant it to start the FUS not sure if that would work.

Steve I get that. That's a non issue I generally don't even think about it. It just happens on its own. I guess the words of the thought of the club head moving first kinda of threw me a little about 1:40ish in.

It just looks like that when Don gets into the mitt his shoulders have turned way less than mine I maybe reading to much into it. .

I need to pick up a tripod can't find the one we had so I can get some video and upload it maybe stop on the way to the range tomorrow then we will see if I am anywhere close.