About two months ago, Ritchie Cleary left this really good self-diagnosis on the blog:
"Hi Don,
Played 18 holes on Monday and ended up with a very sore left knee. The Surge Swing was working very well for me and was getting very close to the flag with my irons. I think I will try with a bit more flare of my left foot next time and see if that will eradicate the pain. I was really watching my 'bump' and that may have put more pressure on my knee. Thanks for the advice."
I think this is a really well thought out diagnosis, particularly since it predates my most recent blog posts on this subject. Ritchie is right on by thinking that adding more flare to his feet may be the key to easing the pain in his left knee.
As you know, we teach students to flare both feet a minimum of 30 degrees while keeping both toes on the toe line, parallel left of their target. The purpose of the flared feet is to allow our knees to flex and to rotate a bit during the swing. This keeps us dynamically balanced all the way through the swing as long as we don't let the knees get outside of our feet. If that happens, you're going to end up on the ground!
If we don't allow our knees to rotate, they will tend to lock up, creating way too much stress on our ankles and knees and this can radiate upward into our hips, back shoulders and neck. The locked knee position is a hallmark of a rotational swing and is the reason so many amateurs and professionals have joint problems that impact their performance. Tiger is the poster child for what can happen if you don't keep your knees flexed as you swing.
And as I've said a million times before, this swing has a set of parameters that allow you to experiment to find what works best for you. For me, I normally play with both feet flared about 45 degrees. I find that this helps me to keep from over rotating in the BUS and the FUS and that really gets me to a perfect T-Finish with my entire body pointing at the target.
A key to remember when determining how much flare is best for you is that up to about 45 degrees or so, you want to keep both toes on the toe line, pointed parallel left of your target line. However, as is often the case, every "rule" has an exception.
You'll remember a few weeks ago DJ revealed that his new short game coach had advised him to increase his flare to 55-60 degrees, which DJ found really helped. If you decide to experiment with this extreme amount of flare I think you'll need to bring your forward toes off the toe line or else you'll find yourself falling forward. Again, I urge you to experiment to find what position works best for you--it may be that all you need to do is make a tiny adjustment to find your optimum position.
Regardless of how much you flare, you will soon find that if you have knee or other joint problems like Ritchie has, keeping your knees flexed and rotating just a bit will eliminate the pain and allow you to hit solid shots straight down the fairway.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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