If you have any of my instructional videos or manuals, then you've heard me talk about my 5 secrets and rules of the Peak Performance Golf Swing. My daily video blog offers a lot of good material regarding the swing, but it's merely a platform to spread the word of the PPGS and to address questions from the Surge Nation.
To understand the PPGS to a point where your game will really see vast improvement, I urge you to visit Surge's Shop to browse my full length videos and other instructional materials we have available such as training aids and online lessons. All of our videos can be instantly streamed or downloaded right to your computer, which means you'll have access as soon as your purchase is complete. If you'd like a hard copy, we offer DVDs as well.
For those of you who may not know the 5 rules of the PPGS, I'm going to outline them in today's daily video as requested by Bill Fraser. I'll also list them below so that you can refer back to them if necessary.
For more information, please visit Surge's Shop.
Hi Don, I should know the answer to this question but I don't. Just what are the 5 rules of the Peak Performance Golf Swing? Thanks for your efforts to make us Surgites better golfers.
Bill Fraser
I sometimes call these 5 secrets as well. They're secrets at first because people have never heard them. But, they become rules once you understand the Peak Performance Golf Swing. Bookmark this page if you would like to refer back to the video or the rules listed below.
5 Secrets/Rules of The Peak Performance Golf Swing
Rule #1: Golf is a game of angles, the fewer the better. The two biggest angles I talk about are with the wrists and the knees. You should not break or cock your wrists at anytime during the swing. Also, your knees are your levelers and stabilizers. The more they move, the less control you will have of your golf swing.
Rule #2: Palms perpendicular to the ground throughout the swing.
Rule#3: Turn only to the toe line. Once you turn to the toe line, it's all lift.
Rule #4: Swing up to the T-finish. Do not hit down on the ball. Avoid the swing thought of "hitting down."
Rule #5: When you hit a bad shot and you say to yourself, "What did I do wrong?" the answer is, "WHO CARES, Do the next one right!"
Get these down and you'll be hitting the ball much more solid and straight, consistently, and shooting those lower scores! Play by the rules that are built on physics and physiology and you'll become the player you want to be!
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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Comments
BACK SWING HELP
Hi Don
I am making a secondary move on the backswing which brings my club to a parallel position before swinging forward. This is what happens. I take the club back into a good vertical position with my chin slightly touching my forearm. Instead of just bringing the club down from here I go up further like I am loading for a hard swing which is making club parallel. Is there a drill to combat this tendency or can you clarify how I can eliminate this aspect of my backswing.
Thanks in advance for your input.
Earl Flynn
Top of Backswing
Hey Earl,
Outside of the obvious: That you are not triggering your forward swing by ringing the upside down desk bell with your thumb at the top of the back swing, and that you are not keeping your wrists firm, you can click on any of these articles for more information.
https://swingsurgeon.com/search/node/ring%20the%20bell
Right elbow position on FUS
Hi Don
Your instructor out west here captured on video that the angle between my left arm and the clubshaft is almost straight well before hitting the ball, and my right elbow is almost straight. Compared to your swing in the same position, your right elbow is tucked into your right side and the clubshaft is angled skyward.
Don, for my whole golfing life, I have tried and not been able to get my elbow tucked, clubshaft angled, when my left arm is parallel to the ground. Just cannot do it. Personally, I think that is what separates us from yous guys!
Any thoughts on how to achieve that position? None of my many many instructors over the decades has been able to teach it.
Louie Kish
Do the Pledge of Allegiance
Hi Louie, I always recommend that people (such as my brother and in-laws) get the videos as they are like going to school, a FUN school. You learn so much. Perhaps one of the easiest ideas Surge described was the position at the top of the BUS. Surge says stand up straight, take the pledge of allegiance or "I swear to God" in court, then, bend over in a golf position and bring your left hand to your right. That is the top of the swing. You will notice that your right elbow is pointing to the ground. The next move is the bump and gravity drops the club down maintaining the angle as you swing the club forward. The elbow comes back down to the body until your hands/arm rotate to meet the ball face on.
Try doing the swing in slow motion, or google DJ swing at the Shriner's tournament in 2010 to view. While DJ does it incredibly as a pro, it captures what we can achieve as amateurs. I am 3 years pain free, still working on my swing, but have loved the swing since I started. Good Swinging. Kevin McCarthy
Butt end first
Hey Louie,
If you are losing your pre-set arm to shaft angle that soon you are swinging the club head out and around from the top instead of just letting the arms and shaft (butt end first) fall toward the toe line to start the forward swing.
Half swing drill
I incorporated your 1/2 swing drill into my warm-up, and had good results with it. I'm wondering if you do it with the longer clubs as well as the mid to short irons? I only did it with the aforementioned clubs, and as long as I maintained the necessary timing and tempo, it was okay. I just wanted to thank you for sharing this idea.
Drill
It doesn't matter what club I use. It's just something to help me remember a necessary point in my swing. Like everybody I go through spells where I think I am good enough to not have to practice those necessary drills that helped me in the first place. Usually one look at any video of a bad shot shows me I am off once again and have to go back to that drill. On the course I pick a spot on my toe line behind me and do a waggle (of sorts) where I extend the club behind me in that position covering that spot to get the feel of that position in my mind. As long as I am relatively close to hitting that point early enough I almost always hit a good shot. A miss inside of it is usually OK, but any miss outside of it makes a bad shot much more likely.
Refreshing 5
Thanks Surge,
It is refreshing and never gets old to hear all 5 rules repeated all together in one lesson. As a 4 year student who golfs by these great basic truths of good golf I thank you again for these keys to successful golfing.
When ever I fail in doing the first 4 I go back to the 'manual' and videos and start anew by applying #5 and just do it right. The fundamentals never change.
3/4's and down the middle :)
NIPPING THE BALL
HI DON
WATCHING THE PGA PLAYERS ON TOUR AFTER A ROUND OF 18 HOLES THEY CAN CARPET A 12X12 ROOM WITH THEIR DIVOTS. I KNOW THE CLUB SPEED SLOWS DOWN WITH A DIVOT IMPACT BUT ARE THE PROS LOOKING FOR MORE SPIN. ALL THESE LARGE DIVOTS ARE WITH IN 75-100 YARDS TO THE GREEN. WHATS YOUR COMMENT DON
THANKS
JOHN REISINGER
Divots
Not all of the pros take those big divots. Some do, some don't, and some go back and forth trying to figure out what works best.
Listen to the conversation about divots in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkyI43oEStU
On spin: They do need more spin on some of the greens they play on where they are set up to be very firm and fast (the ones that are brown by Sunday and would be dead by Monday if they didn't put the water to them Sunday night). We very seldom deal with greens in that condition because the course superintendant would be on the verge of losing the greens and getting fired.
Most of the players on top of their game do the best job of controlling the spin and would take it in a minute if they could always count on the ball staying exactly where it landed.
P.S. The more of a divot we take, the more accurate our ball striking has to be for ball first contact. Those guys are the best ball strikers in the world...I'm most certainly NOT, and I need every edge I can get so no divots for me unless the lie is terrible and dictates it. LOL
Divots
When I'm playing my best, I notice how little earth I move on each swing. It's so easy when you're in the zone. I know I'm in for a struggle when I start out moving big plots of grass, that's when I have to slow myself down, and concentrate on striking the back of the ball with an upward trajectory. Then I have make sure I don't sway forward, and top the ball. Such are the trials of the inconsistent player. But I must say I've become more consistent once I stated to adhere to Surge's principles. Mike
Left Shoulder
Hey Don, a few weeks ago a fellow golfer (6 h/c) was trying to help me and when I said I was swinging to the toeline and then up, he responded by telling me I wasn't - I was still swinging around my shoulders ! Sure enough, when I did adjust to his comment,he confirmed I was then "getting it up". Trouble is, I've now got trouble with my left deltoid muscle (shoulder and upper arm). Have you come across this problem with the PPGS ?
Regards