Blocked Shots Or Bad Alignment?

Keith, I agree this would be another great daily for Surge to cover. I am blessed to have my wife Cindy who has become really familiar with Surge's teachings and she knows what to look for in my alignment practice. I had a real challenge with my shoulder alignment and after becoming aware of it I have my wife stand behind(down the line ) and check my alignment for me. She'll look for three things in particular. #1 that I am parallel left of my target. #2 that my left arm is visable thus indicating that I am in the master set up position with my right /back arm down and relaxed with the inner elbow pointed at 11/12 oclock and # 3 that my shoulders are in line with my feet, knees, and hips. I had (and still have) atendency to align my feet right and my shoulders slightly open left. A big part of the cure is the one Surge harps on all the time, and that is getting my feet parallel left sufficiently. When my feet are aimed  left of the target enough it is easier to have my shoulders more in line.
Frankly, it would be great if you could have someone that could stand and watch this things for you both on the course and at te range. Meanwhile you can use a mirror (or wndow reflection) and always use alignment sticks or a clubs on the ground when you practice. Additionally, Don't be shy about laying a club at your feet on the golf course AFTER you think your all lined up for your shot but BEFORE you hit it, not just after.

Dave, thank you for your observation. I've now searched Surge's blogs and found one of 6/2/2009 (USA style) in which Surge says the point selected should be no more than 1 foot ahead of the ball. I'll give this a try and see if I 'feel' my aim is OK. It truly is a 'feeling' only on the tee. I don't have a problem on the fairways - but that could be because I don't use the 'near-point' alignment there. I just aim at my target. Thanks again for your comment. 

Watched the latest live Don show today great show by the way.

Things that I picked up for me watching this.

Watching Greg make the setup and swing with the swing tech and showing a 70 degree shoulder turn and saying to start the BUS by turning the shoulders and rotating the arms is going to help me because 1. I over turn the shoulders way to much because of old rotational habits and 2. rotating the arms I never really concentrated on this but started paying attention to this Tuesday at the range and it got me a lot of effortless power with out over swinging and hitting that magical place called the slot.

Don made a comment at one point that this swing is more of a arm swing and I agree.
What has worked for me and Don actually did this in a video a while back talking about players he has worked with that are converting from rotational that's been taught to turn, turn, and to turn some more that they may need to feel like this is a arm swing in the BUS to keep from over turning the shoulders which I agree with.

These are the things that I am going to work on the rest of the year to tighten my game up more. 78 - 82 is getting awfully boring after a couple of years of doing it. I would like to get in the 60's a few times sometime in my life and be a mid 70's player so I can play in the big boy's bracket on my tour.

Brian, what you are "feeling" on the tee, is most likely part of the optical illusion that is part of most tee boxes. Over the last 6 months, as part of a Statistics course that I took, I surveyed the tee boxes of 93 golf courses in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. Of 7114 tee boxes (an average of 4.25 tee boxes per course), 89.69% of the tee boxes were pointed somewhere other than the center of the intended landing area. In most cases (88.55%), the tee boxes were aligned to the left of center. The reason for this is to supposedly accommodate the majority of recreational golfers who slice the ball and tend to align their shots with the tee box rather than a target.

I have to be careful on the tee to align properly to my target or all my nice straight shots end up in the left rough or further left. I hope this helps with your "feeling" and enables better tee shots. PMGAS and keep it vertical.

Les, that's a super creative idea!

I realize this lesson is about blocked and right shots, however.

 I just watched a short clip of Woody Austin showing (in his opinion) why most folks pull shots right. I think you'll find an interesting parallel to Don's teaching.

 Problems arise when we start the FUS with the shoulders and not the lateral hip move, which we call the bump. Woody explains this rather well.

 I am finding it very interesting that more and more lessons from outsiders, have bits and pieces of the PPGS philosophy attached to them. If only they would put all those various pieces together, they would see the entire puzzle more clearly.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
PMG

Try the NXT aka NXT Extreme, it is more compressible (I believe) than the NXT Tour and obviously the Pro V1, I get good results from an easy swing.

Robert

I agree.With forged clubs I have been told if you play and practice a lot to get them checked twice a year.There are some outlet stores out there that claim they are good at bending lie angles and the such that will not bend cast clubs because they are afraid of breaking them that happened to me once and I went to a fitter builder that bent the lies for me but he would not bend them more than a couple of degrees.

Sounds like somebody maybe trying to sell DONnAZ a new set of clubs,   

Help - Played for over 40 years & managed most of them at 4 & 5 h/c. I then get two new knees and now I'm off 10. Loss of power (OK - I'm 68) but most of all I fail to get the elevation on the ball (Well with most clubs, Driver to 6 iron). This is so frustrating. Can you please suggest some remedial action.
E G
Wales - UK

Amos,

I agree.  Long par 4s or par 5s that involve long forced carries will ruin a good round in a heartbeat for for me.  I've learned to take my medicine in most cases and just layup to a distance that I feel comfortable with rather than risk a big number.  I've found "playing it forward" has helped and I'm able to take a few more chances with a reasonable chance of success. 

Very nice link T. You are so right about seeing more and more instruction that has elelments of Surge. My favorite is the learning center on the Champions Tour on Wednesday nights. As Surge says, we are much better off watching the 50+ guys from his era which were much more vertical and believe in many of the same fundimentals. They actually discussed alignment the other day and Gary Koch gave a fairly good demo emphasising we not aim our feet at the target. 

shortgamewizard
I totally agree with you on the short game. My blow ups come from full shots which pop up every now and then which are pulls and pull hooks that usually end up in trouble or OB.
The latest fiasco on my home course I was even par with 3 holes to play a par 5 , par 3 and a par 4.  I pulled tee shots on all three holes for a bogey, bogey, and a double shot 4 over 74 not complaining about the score but these kind of flair ups are holding me back and their are days that it might be 5 or 6 holes that's why I say I want to tighten up my swing.
Sometimes its about how good your bad shots are not how good your good shots are to shoot low scores. Usually when it falls apart I think I revert back to rotational thoughts and swing out of my shoes.
Watching Greg swing in that live video and were his front shoulder stops maybe equal to the ball my front shoulder finish's close to my back foot at the top of the BUS at times and hence the pulls.

Eric, I think you've come to the right place for help. First, let me ask you, have you already purchased the basic instructional downloads that include the Foundational manual and PPGS swing fundamental videos? If so you already have most of your solutions. If not I will tell you that your 'help' from this site is limited. The daily suggestions and video blogs are designed to suppliment those already informed golfers who are converting to this 'body friendly' swing method. You will find "free" help here by looking at the archived articles found in the "search" word area to the right side of this page. Helpful but limited, especially if you don't have the fundamentals first. Did you have a rotational swing that needed alot of support and body torque? This is a mostly arms swing where as traditional golf swings today are body powered. So this one will be more doable for your legs. One thing you can do if you're still deciding to 'buy', is watch the 44 minute "Surge show 'live' "
by clicking on the link at the top. There in toward the later half of this presentation Surge answers a question by someone with similar knee issues. I will also leave you with an aditional daily from the archives to view. Then we hope you will completely buy into this program because a half hearted effort will limit your progress. Good luck.http://www.swingsurgeon.com/DailyVide...

First the back hand/front hand positions don't need to be written in stone. I use the classic back hand low with the front hand fore finger overlapping the last 3 fingers of the back hand.

No matter how the hands are placed, the back stroke is pulled by the back hand and the fore stroke with the front hand. With the wrists not hinging sideways nor the fore arms rotating. The sensation is in the hands and the muscles on the bottom and inner side of the arms are the actuators.

For the optical here is a trick that came to me from some where. Take a club or an aim stick and hold it so it aligns with the target line and covers the ball. If you tilt your head left enough the ball will start to appear above the shaft to the right eye and below the shaft to the left eye. If you tilt to the right enough it will be visa versa. Or you can keep your head as it would be at address and tilt the club so the shaft points left and then go the other way where it points right and the ball starts peeking out above and below the shaft.

This is not absolutely precise as I would like, but will generally give an indication of where the optical alignment is. The root of the problem of bad optical alignment is when the club is gripped the back hand is lower than the front one. This in turn drops the back shoulder lower than the front one. This causes the head to tilt so the back eye is lower than the front eye and bam! You are lined off to the right for righties and left for lefties.

For Roger below I feel that pain. I too have a tendency to over rotate get into the SBG and hit all manner of shots that strain my ability to limit the damage control with the short game.

Hi Surge, What is the best way to practice and importantly check your alignment?

Obviously the 'H' and alignment sticks etc but what about the hips and shoulders which I struggle to get aligned at times. It is very difficult to check when on your own as obviously your eyes are closer to the shoulders, hips and even on video is difficult due to camera angles.
I try and put the club across my knees, hips and shoulders to check then try and set up without wrongly getting out of alignment! then really take in the visual aspect looking down to try and ingrain what being correctly aligned looks and feels like.
Regards Keith Kent

Thank you, Kevin. I know exactly the point you are making. Our Greenkeeper seems to take delight in placing our tee boxes pointing anywhere but the right direction. So we have got used to ignoriring that and take great care with our aiming.
When I started using this near-point method this 'feeling' that I was aimed left caused me to check and recheck with my friends many times, and they all agreed my aim was right. And, as I mentioned in my earlier posts, I don't have a problem on the fairways, nor did I have one in my last round when I reverted to aiming down the fairway.
One thought that has just come to me is that some 3 months ago I had a new lense fitted in my right eye as I had lost my long distance focusing ability. I now have near-perfect vision in that eye (I have always been right eye dominant), and intend having my left one done in a few months time. I wonder if the much improved vision could be producing this 'feeling'? But, then again, I didn't have the problem last time out.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

Brian

Surge, hopefully repetition is a good teacher. You have repeatedly told us that poor alignment is the cause of 95% of golf swing problems. Obviously most of us hear but don't liston and act on this advice. I have finally started to religiously follow your advice about laying a club down to check my alignment on the golf course (not just on the range). I have also been doing this BEFORE I hit my shots on the golf course. Why? Because this is what you had me do during your visit here in Las Vegas. I've alraedy gone over this in a previous blog but will reitorate again. You had me pick my target, line up parallel left and then before swing you ask me if I THOUGHT I was parallel left of that target. I'd say yes, you would have me put a club down at my footline and back off and look to see if my 'mental' alignment was in harmony with my physical reality. For the first dozen times I was always aligned further right than I thought I was.
Gradually I started to "get it" correct. How many of you are doing this? I venture to say few or  none because you just don't want to or don't want to do this in front of your foursome on the course. You may feel it takes to much time and it "makes you look foolish" or something. If the shoe fits wear it. Personally I don't give a rats ass who's watching if it can improve my game. How about you?

Amos
Thanks for your response.

Apparently he had never heard of Jack Nicklaus either. The person I molded my swing after back then and video Golf My Way.To the point of the flying right elbow and left heel coming up at the top.

I think we are kind of the same I to have left foot ankle issues also. My foot doctor keeps trying to tell me at some point I broke my ankle and going to have arthritis issues. I told him that's news to me but I did sprain it pretty bad when I was around 12 chasing some babe of all things. LOL

I have been playing with the left forward foot being more rotated also. Last night at the range I was working on it and keeping it parallel to the toe line with out a lot of success and actually moved it a couple 2 or 3 inches off the toe line and it felt a lot better and am going to keep working on it.

One of these days I am going to get a video camera and start videoing my practice sessions and keep the video when everything is going the way I want it and be able to refer back to it.

Roger

PMGV  
  

Question: Recently a Callaway rep, whome I assume is a quaified fitter was at Golfsmiths. The first thing he noticed was that my "Store Bought" clubs had a lie of -1 deg. He had me swing several time with the tape on the botttom of the club and found my lie shoud be +2. that's a full 3 deg off. How does this effect the ball flight? My clubs are Callaway Fusion wide sole, they can not be adjusted.

Hiya sgwiz---Great points and suggestions.  Thanks for the input---will give these a go in a round tomorrow.  Any suggestions on improving sand shots---especially in achieving the correct depth of entry into the sand?  This has been driving me CRAZY this year---either a fat floppy that sometimes stays in the trap or a flier that requires a long stroll to the other side of the green or farther.

LOL

We or I always find away to screw up a good round. When I first started playing and taught my self to a 8 I never lost a shot to the left. When I started taking lessons and was introduced to the rotational swing and was told I could not get any better hitting power fades of the tee I should of turned around an ran. Hind sight is 20/20.

Surge, I have a rather different alignment problem. Prior to taking up your swing, and during my initial learning period, I had no problem with hitting a straight ball. Then, as I got more into your lessons, I began to pick a point on my aiming line about 2 feet in front of my ball as suggested and then setting my feet parallel left. I have to say that I fealt I was then aiming left of my target and, sure enough, the ball went straight left. I have persevered with this for a couple of months and the problem persisted. I checked my alignment often and this was OK, but I could not rid myself of the 'feeling' that I was 'aiming' left.I also adopted the 'pick a point a few inches in front of the ball' on the putting green and began missing putts left of the hole. Yesterday, I reverted to my old method of picking a point down the fairway, or near the hole, and I only missed one fairway and sank most of my putts. For the first time in months I played to my Handicap (12). I hope you can help me overcome this confusion.     

Thanks SGW, Interestingly enough, that has been my putting grip to a tee that you just discribed. Until yesterday. As I mentioned, I am working with a new grip and grip style called "two thumbs" T. M. recomended it and I like it so far. http://www.golfputting.com/inf...

I am using the grip style pictured in photo #3 with the forefingers down the sides of the putter grip. Very odd at first but it levels out the shoulders and makes the no wrist pendulum stroke easier. It has us with the ball position in the middle. There is further explaination on the home page along with the option of installing it square or rotated the way T perfers it.
http://www.golfputting.com/gol...

I have used both methods of alignment you have described and found that it really comes down to a matter of trust. If you trust your alignment by aiming the clubhead at a distant target  and get consistently straight shots you will probably be more relaxed and just let the swing happen without any mid swing corrections. One of the things I like about this swing is that it gives you have a simple template of things to think about during the swing. If you are thinking about these things while swinging there really isn't time to doubt your alignment and make mid swing corrections. I can't give you a video reference but I recall the Surge saying that 2 feet in front of the ball was too much.  There is less distortion and I think less tendency to aim left (for a right eye dominant right hander) if the intermediate target is about 6 inches on the target side.

Depth of entry depends upon the sand conditions. Fine grain, medium, coarse. Hard medium soft. Dry medium or wet. I have five wedges weaker than a pitching wedge and use them according to the conditions I think will present themselves. Also the angle of attack is so variable depending on the lie and conditions. I use three different angles of attack, shallow, medium and steep.

Given all these options, the lie, sand condition and choice of wedge both loft and bounce have an influence of the depth of entry. Personally I look at where I want to hit the sand and let the angle of attack and the sand condition dictate how deep the club goes under the ball.

Try hitting 300 sand shots a week and play with all the variations. There is no substitute for the experience of the sand teaching you what is needed for successful results.

SGW,
Really enjoy your thoughts on the short game. I would love to hear more, especially concerning the optical alignment. I know Surge believes this is the main cause of poor alignment in the over all game but I'm sure it aplies specifically to the shorter shots too. Keep this kind of analysis coming if you will. I'm sure we could all benifit. I would really be interested in improving the visual aspect and how we can train that area of the game.

Bad alignment
Could it be that one of the problems is that when we look at where we want to hit the ball
our feet are align at that place? Should we not aling a bit left ?I am right-handed

Spaure Qc.

Good comment.
I had my clubs sorted out last year, as a beginner I was using regular shafts, and didnt think I should need any different. Regular graphite on the irons too, I thought being lighter I might be able to get a bit more speed and distance.
Since Don had underlined fitting so many times, I decided I'd have my clubs checked out. Didnt know if I wanted anything changed but it would be interesting to have the partnership of me and my clubs verified. Id recommmend doing that, pretty good value.
I went to see the same chap who fits Lee Westwood. There were strain gauges, high speed cameras and all sorts of high tech data gathering.
What came out of it? Compared to a rotational swing mines happens over a shorter distance, there is not much space to get it up to speed so things accelerate from zero fast.  My regular shaft was not keeping up and the head arrived open, regular graphites on the irons too, was not working out well.
So we changed quite a bit in the end , steel on the irons and diamana & fubuki stiff on the woods. Things are going much better since and this year has been awesome growing into these clubs now I really love them. Not that I dont hit bad shots any more, but at least when I do Im 100% sure its me.
Getting the analysis done cost cost a few rounds of golf at a good course. Well worth it.
Irons and woods only needed re-shafting. Most club heads are decent thesedays, rather than upgrading them with off-the-shelf clubs every couple of years and working out how to compensate for them, just get them fit and thats that.
I'll probably take mine in for an MOT next year, keep them "tuned" in to me.

Sounds like you have some nice clubs Eric. After tune-up they should be awesome. Mines were the modestly priced Dynacraft Prophet forged irons and cayman 3 and driver. After the tune up, they work like magic.

Like Doc said, unless you've been to a proper fitter, you are just guessing. Thats what I was doing and I couldnt have got it much more wrong :)

SGW, re reading your entry actually you teased us with several points. Tell us more about the hands in putting. You say pulling both back and through. What position of the hands and grip have you personally found to be optimal? I am experimenting with the two thumbs (hands side by sid- niether higher or lower. So far I like it alot. Terry suggested it the other day. I baught it and installed the two thumbs grip yesterday and tried it out on the practice green today with much success..

Yes I did purchase Serge's programme and have adopted a more upright swing than I had previously. In fact I have also changed my clubs - Callaway RAZR Tour, 4- Gap Iron. I also play a 3 wood + a 21 degree Hybrid = a 60 degree lob wedge. My Diver is a 12 degree Ping G10.
All clubs are fitted with Regular shafts having abandoned Stiff shafts about 5 years back. I not not play with the same ball all the time but vary between Prov1 and Titleist NXT tour. I now play on average 3 times per week. I am 5'10" and around 175lbs. After the knee replacement I regained about 3/4" in height. Thanks to both of you for you comments.

I use the same putting grip and stile also. Works great for me.

Roger, to move to a different level of scoring you need to evaluate what may be holding you back. It could be as simple as visualizing shooting lower scores. Or it could be strategy that leads to blow up holes. My unique take is to emphasize how to be a short game wizard.

To do that you need two basic skills. Hit every putt, chip and pitch down the target line and have the optical line of the eyes parallel to the target line.

For the first it takes practice. The goal is to hit every putt, chip and pitch with a speed that it does not go more than 18" past the hole which gives the opportunity for the ball to go in. No matter what the odds are statistically, every single shot is 50-50. Either it will go in or it won't. If you focus on the positive it is a lot easier to let the subconscious create a positive result.

There are subtle differences between the putting stroke and the other short game strokes.

In putting there should be no lift of the arms vertically. Nor should there be fore arm rotation or hinging on any axis. This means the mitt is more on an arc and close to the green's surface. The higher the hands the less the arc. Now the USGA has a rule that a putter needs a lie angle of 10* from vertical. As Surge has stated there is a perfect swing and none of us can achieve it due to standing to the side. Putting can achieve the perfect ferris wheel vertical angle even though the sole of the putter won't be flat which means the face angle will be slightly to the push side of the aim line. Not ideal.

Ideally the putter should be bent to the USGA limit and at address the shaft angle points at the base of the neck where the putting stroke rotates around. The club shaft should be vertical when viewed face on and with 3-4 * of loft. This will promote a more linear stroke. The lower the hands the more arced the stroke.

Given that the angle of the shaft will be unique to every individual the need to not twist or lift in the stroke is still the priority for success. The two hindrances to successful putting and other short game strokes are bad optical alignment and having the front and back hands arguing on what should happen.

Optics can be trained. Arguing hands can be quieted by pulling the stroke. Yes pulling! The dread of golfers is an advantage! The idea is pull the putter back and pull it through. No fore arm rotation or hinging. A pure swing parallel to the target line. The angles never change.

Short game strokes can work the same way. Depending on shaft lean and target line aim there are a lot of spins that can be applied to the ball. It doesn't know who or how the energy is applied. Only what is.

Sand shots need a bit more speed depending on the distance. The longer the shot the more arm rotation needed. More along the traditional Surge parameters.

That pretty much sums up how to get the ball in the hole from short range. The rest is to try not to shoot yourself in the foot by creating penalty shots or hitting the ball into situations that aren't a lot of fun.

Steve Smith;

    I have very little problem with OB and lost balls -- hard to do that from the center of the fairway! LOL   Then again, if your tee shots are only 170 to 190 yards, you better be in the fairway!
    However, water holes present and entirely different problem for me -- and account for almost ALL of my pentalties.

    Keep hitting them STRAIGHT and LONG

    Amos

Surge-On shots that don't go where you think they should go you say to lay a club across across your toes to check alignment.This is all well and good but it occurs AFTER the shot. How can you check your alignment before the shot. I can't very well carry alignment sticks to the tee-box while I'm playing

That is absolutely the problem. If you read down all the comments you'll find several suggestions on how to learn to line up parallel left. Too, read this.
http://www.swingsurgeon.com/Ho...
Surge teaches the "H" set up routine that includes the "two step."
If you buy the basic foundations manual and video download you'll learn how.
Here's another helpful discussion
http://www.swingsurgeon.com/Ho...

Generally, if the lie of your clubs is too upright you will tend too pull your shots and if they are too flat you will likely push your shots. That is unusual that your clubs can not be adjusted, usually that is one of the easuiest and cheapest fixes out there. This unfortunately is not a small matter. Probably all golfers with "store bought off the shelf clubs" have lies that are off and this causes all kinds of compensitory moves in our swing.
Even if you have custom fit clubs it is recomended that you have your lies checked every few years, especially if you play alot.

RogerfromKy;

    Apparently the instoructor never heard of Lee Trevino -- he seems to done pretty good with a power fade. 

    In any event, the power fade is the setup swing adjustment that Surge recommended to me at the Las Vegas clinic to aid in getting my weight going forward off of my rear(right) foot.  My forward (left) ankle is very weak with regards to rotational motion/resistance.
  hence mynew set up is an extremely flared left foot on the order of 70*, deliberatley placed about 2 inches to left of the paralled left toe line, but the club face added square to the targe line with the intention of swingin along the "new toe line"   Result is a high shot that starts left and gently curves bavk toward the target line.

    Much to my suprise, it also results in a longer drive, due to weight transfer in the FUS being greatly improved, although still not what it should be.   Worked great on the super wide fairways at Paiute -- needs some modification to hit the very narrow fairways at my home course.
     The other bonus from this set up is I seem to be hitting the FW much more solid and "pure" than before.

      Keep hitting them STRAIGHT and LONG

      Amos

Rf,
Read my comment below to see how Surge also suggests checking your alignment before the shot using our club. And yes you can and you should check your alignment before you hit your shots. As long as you pick the club up before your swing it is perfectly legit. Do you really care what your friends(or strangers) think of you doing this? I now do this all the time. After a while you will start to get it right and need this checking process less, and less. Then you can do it again if and when your alignment begins to slip.
   Please read my personal experience in this process below.

The more the shoulders are level, the more the optics will be aligned to the aim line. Phil Mickelson's move to the belly has cut down his shoulder lean quite a bit and gives him a better chance to not misfire on the short putts he has been famous for.