Golfers of all skill levels are always searching for tips that might help them improve their games. I try and provide a comprehensive outlook on learning the Peak Performance Golf Swing, but I also like to share little tricks of the trade that I've developed or been told over all my years of teaching and playing golf.
One tip that I don't believe I've shared with the Surge Nation is how you can use a towel to help with your alignment. I've used towels before to demonstrate things such as arm position and swinging vertically, but you'd be amazed at how your alignment can really improve with this simple tip. I credit Michael Bartz with reminding me to share it.
Surge was going to tell us his alignment tip or check he does when he is at the motel.
Thanks,
Michael Bartz
With just about any question that comes up about a swing issue, I almost always have to bring up alignment as a potential swing problem. You have to learn to stand up parallel left of your aiming line. Sometimes when I find myself in a hotel and wanting to work on alignment, I will use a towel.
Sometimes I don't have my alignment sticks with me. If that's the case, I'll grab a towel. Most mid-sized towels in a hotel are perfect for me when setting up with my 7 iron. After laying it down on the ground, I will draw a crease in it on the floor for where the ball position should be and line up my toes on the edge of the towel.
You can also practice your 90 degree walk in after aiming the towel at a target. The whole idea here is that alignment is critical to your swing and this is a great way to practice it in any place that has a towel.
I've only had one student in the last three years of golf schools that was consistently lined up correctly all day long. That means it's a bigger problem than most golfers realize considering the amount of students that have come through our schools.
In addition to this tip, I think that The Ultimate Alignment Video is a must have for your video collection. Completely devoted to alignment and over an hour in length, this video is honestly the best way you're going to learn how to always have correct alignment. People who have already purchased the video tell me it's one of, if not, the best videos I've ever released. Just imagine playing golf and never having to worry that you're not aimed at your target. Golf is so much more fun when you're confident that you're going to hit the ball at your intended target every time you set up to the ball.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH A PREVIEW AND/OR PURCHASE THE ULTIMATE ALIGNMENT VIDEO!
The last thing I'll mention on this topic is that you must remember that square alignment means that your toes, knees, hips, shoulders, and eyes are all parallel left of your aiming line. If you're a lefty, then they all must be parallel right. Remember that and you're on the right track.
Keep it aligned!
The Surge
If you can't view the YouTube video above try CLICKING HERE. You must allow popups from this site for the link to work.
Comments
Light bulb moment
Surge,
While watching your presentation today I thought of a way we can easily see how the parallel lines move further apart (visually) as we look further from the ball and closer to the target with both the alignment sticks and even more so with that towel. It can be noted that although the towel is 100% parallel when viewed from above or from Don's view as he looks at it, as we see it from the camera's view the lines move away from the far end of the towel to the end of the towel closest to us. Have I lost you yet? Stay with me friends for a moment please.
If you take two pieces of paper (8x10's for example) and hold one in your right hand with one edge along Don's towel on the foot line side and the other in your left hand on the ball/target line side of the towel you will quickly notice that the bottom inside edges of both pieces of paper run gradually away from each other.It should look somewhat like a pyramid shape now with the top of the pyramid above Surge's head and the bottom (wider part) of the pyramid below his feet running left and right of your computer screen. What's my point? If you extend those lines out 100 yards or more this now becomes not inches but yards further apart. I know you each have different learning modes, ie., visual, auditory, kinesthetic, ect.. so hopefully the majority (except for the most dense and or stubborn, lol!) will understand the logic.
Surge has said it many times that these parallel lines actually become further apart as they get further away from us when determining what parallel left is for us on the golf course. "One inch off can mean 10 yards for every 100 yards". All this becomes really clear for those who buy and study Don's outstanding 'Ultimate Alignment' video.
This again is why most never get alignment correct at Surge's schools and lesson's. It also gives us one more way to understand how and why we need to aim 10,20,30 or maybe 40 yards left with our feet to actually be parallel left of our target when setting up.
In the frame
I relate the optical illusion that two parallel short line segments appear to point at objects further apart as you attempt to extend them into the distance with the idea of a frame. If you hold up an empty frame in front of you, how much "fits" inside the frame depends on the relative distance between your eyes and the frame and whatever objects you're viewing through the frame. If you keep the frame a fixed distance from your eyes, the further away the objects you're viewing through the frame are, the further apart they can be and still be in the frame.
framing our shots
Well put Robert. I often 'frame' my degree of parallel left using my hands held in front of me in the shape of a goal post (American football) where index fingers are pointed vertically and the thumb tips touch horizonally as I have the right index along the aiming line and left parallel along the footline then looking though that space down field I can come really close to getting the toes alinged at that left point in the distance. While this sounds complicated and time consuming it actually only takes about 15 seconds or less. Surge says in the UAV that the toeline becomes the determining factor as to whether we are correctly aligned initially. Then we square everything else from toes to head.
My point with the first follow up on Surges towel (hotel room) alignment was that from the carmeras eye we can see the lines get further apart as they get further from the golfer. This is why the rail road tracks is not a good comparison. We know that a rr track seems to get ever closer to a converging point in the distance. Parallel lines for a golfer are the opposite and get further apart in the distance. This a point of understanding that is critically vital if one is to ever understand and set up in correct parallel left and pass Surges alignment test and get it correct on the golf course.
Framing Shots
Roberts,
IMHO, we amateur golfers make alignment too difficulty for ourselves with all the analysis. I have found a simple way to get my alignment virtually perfect every time. I determine my target (aiming) line, find my intermediate point on that line within 18" of the ball, and never look at the target again. I focus on the line between the intermediate point and the ball, and set my toe line parallel to that. My focus is on two short parallel lines, not how far left of the target my toes are pointed. Half the time, I can't see that far anyway. I can very easily tell if two lines less than 3' apart are parallel. I cannot, for the life of me, tell if those same lines are parallel 100 yards away.
Pick an aiming line, set the toes parallel to that line, and swing away, only looking at the target long enough to pick an intermediate point.
Edit: Putting it in context with this video, I only focus on an area the size of the towel once the opposite side of the towel is aligned with the aiming line.
Agreed
Kevin,
I'm sure you speak for the majority as far as how much thought they put into alignment. The way I do it actually takes less than 15 seconds as I mentioned up top. Not as complicated as it sounds but I hear you. It has become a quick part of my automatic set up routine. I'm sure your one of the rare ones who might be aligning correctly with the way you described. Unfortunately according to Surge most are still not getting it right. Most are still well right (if they're righties) or well left (if they're lefties). My aligning always comes back to mere inches in front of my ball(18" or less too). But for me seeing the big picture first and then getting small up close is quick and easy with practice. What I think happens for many is even if they pick the correct intermediate point and square the club face to that by the time they take those last looks at the target they dance out of parallel and get that one or two inches aimed too far right with the feet. By the time they swing, even though they are pre-focused on that spot the swing follows the body lines and off line it flies. This is confirmed right after words when we drop our club by our feet to where we were really aimed with our feet.
Those last looks at the target
... by the time they take those last looks at the target they dance out of parallel ..." Therein lies the rub, Robert.
Too many of us don't trust our initial setup and keep looking. We all need to quit taking 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. looks at the target, ending up with the toe line pointed at the target instead of the aiming line. I think that practicing the alignment with a towel, like Surge said he does in a hotel room, will help people get their focus in the box, instead of at a distant target, thereby maintaining parallel alignment.
lines crossed
' point of understanding that is critically vital If one is to understand and set up correct parallel left ' well i need help then because i don;t understand why railroad tracks appear to converge but a golfers aiming line and toe line don;t? what am i missing?
cheeers richard in the UK.
Optical illusion and the brain
It's an optical illusion based on the way our brains process visual information. It is exactly as I said, if you hold up your fingers parallel, the further away from your fingers two objects are, the further apart they can be and still be visible. If you tell your brain that you are lining up to a point 2 feet left of a flag that's 100 yards away, it will line your toes up pointing well right of that because of the optical illusion. At 100 yards, your feet should be pointed at something a good 10-15 yards left of the flag based on what you see from behind the toe line.
Parallel
It's as Robert says. Two pointing fingers parallel to each other and 6 inches apart pointed at your computer screen a few feet away and looking down each finger will have each finger pointed at each side of the screen.
Those same two fingers 6 inches apart and pointed at a house 100 yards away will have each finger pointing at each side of the house.
The guys in our Saturday game are the worlds worst about looking down the toe line and thinking that sighting down the toe line is supposed to point at the target. I hear the words "that was right where you were aimed" after any bad shot where one of them had good alignment and pulled the heck out of the ball.
I guess I'm the opposite of everybody else because anytime my alignment starts getting off it is too far left instead of too far right. Pretty common for a slicer that's getting sick of missing right all the time, but I have never been a slicer and could probably count all of the unintentional slices I've ever hit in my life on one hand.
Just today after making a video of a practice I noticed my toe line was WAY LEFT of parallel left, and I knew that the camera was right on the toe line. When I made another video and with a corrected alignment it felt like I was aiming a mile right but was actually correct.
Parallel Left
Richard,
There is only one line extending to the target that you need to be concerned with - the target or aiming line. Once you have that firmly fixed, forget about extending the toe line into the distance. The only "Parallel Left" line that you need to be concerned with is the distance between your toes. Is that line segment parallel to the line between your intermediate point and the ball? Those two segments are in your field of view at setup. You don't have to look at the target again unless you lose sight of your intermediate point.
I think all the talk about converging and diverging lines is too confusing. If you picture (or actually lay down) the rectangular towel on the ground with one long edge pointed at the target and stand on the other side, your toe line will be parallel left. If you stand at the end of the towel looking down the toe line side of the towel toward the target, you will see why the lines appear to diverge instead of converge. If you want to see the convergence, get 2 300-foot ropes, tie the ends to stakes 3 feet apart at each end, stand between the ropes at one end, and you will see them converge. However, looking at the convergence/divergence at a distance is irrelevant as I said above.
I trust this helps clear the mud somewhat.
Simply put
If set up aiming our footline at the apparently coverging point, like most amateurs we will actually be aimed right of target. Still don't get it? We have disscussed this many, many times with detailed illustrations. There is a lot of research to be found in our PPGS archives and in the paid lesson videos. Having said that, I still feel the majority will not get it. Obviously that's the case because by far the majority aside from the one or two at Surge's schools still continue to misalign. If you really want to understand it you'll need do the research and review the material.
Good luck:)
virus?
has swingsurgeon. com got a virus? anyone else getting weird emails ?
Virus
Yes it seems some advertiser keeps sending us crap. Hopefully customer service will find a way to block them.
divergent.convergant, parralel left, aiming line, toe line etc.
thanks everybody, sure is weird how something that should be simple is in fact quite difficult to do correctly. think i;ll just aim a bit more left safe in the knowledge that i;m probably aiming too far right lol
cheers richard in the uk