I hope everyone in the Surge Nation had a great weekend and was able to squeeze in a little golf. Today, I want to share some comments that were sent in from one our female followers, TinaB.
Tina started seeing some really good results recently and wanted to share her swing thoughts with other Surgites in the hopes that it may help them like it did her. Your grip and takeaway must be correct or else you won't have much control of the club or where the ball will fly. By using a yardstick, you can easily see exactly how your swing should look.
Hi Surge,
Part 1: I haven't seen you address this in the dailies, and didn't find anything in a search on the website. I was re-reading the foundations manual (as per the blog and Mike Bartholomew), and pp. 13-15, regarding using the "front muscles" vs the "back muscles" jumped out at me! I tried the exercise you included, i.e., turning the shoulders first, and then turning just the hips. For YEARS, I have started the BUS with the front shoulder. I thought "what if I initiate the BUS with my front hip?" So I got in my golf posture, set my firm wide knees and tried it. Oh my gosh, I think this is the key to the BUS! All of a sudden I could avoid excess tension in my arms, and it was EASY to do a smooth one-piece takeaway, turn and lift. Please address this in a daily, because I think it's a turning point for me and the PPGS!
Part 2: I am using a refinement of your "notebook" drill: instead of using a notebook, I am using a ruler or a yardstick. This did several things: it allowed me to mimic the grip (last 3 fingers ONLY), I got immediate feedback that I was over-rotating the clubface in the takeaway, I learned that I actually was not turning ENOUGH in the BUS (the "club" was barely even with my toe line at the top of the BUS - both of these the likely causes of my persistent slice), it showed me what the wrists should look like at the top with the palms parallel and the clubface (yardstick) square to the target, and it showed me I was not getting back to square at impact (I was leaving the clubface a bit open). ALL with a yardstick! It's my new favorite golf learning aid! And indoor practice IS very helpful! With my mirror and yardstick I get instant feedback. Love it! :)
Maybe this can help other Surgites with their rainy day practice sessions.
Tina
I will caution anyone who tries to improve their swing by changing things in their setup and swing. As long as you're seeing the results you want and you feel like you can repeat shots, go ahead and stick with whatever swing thoughts are working, provided that they adhere to the basic rules of the PPGS. If you start seeing some negative results, you might want to scratch a swing thought and start from the beginning. Keep it simple, stick to the parameters of the PPGS, and you'll see better results in no time.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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Comments
The Hips
I stumbled across this aspect some years back in early PPGS days and found it
to be a great way of kickstarting the BUS. I mentioned some weeks back that the brain finds it difficult to kick start the motion of a golf swing, I play with my accountant every week and see his club jerking/stuttering when resting behind the ball, just prior to takeaway. I think this action also sets up the swing tempo which gives it a defined starting point, after that most other things follow in some order. The problem I found was that you have to be careful with what the hips do, ie they must turn, not slide and also I found that now and again they went forward and me thinking they were going back. I just might work on it a bit more as from memory, it did put on a path of recovery & consistency.
HATS OF TO DON TRAHAN
I have recently been following Don. What can I say about Don I will admit when I first started I thought to myself what can this guy tell me or teach me and I was all prepared to be disappointed like so many times before. Boy was I in for a very big surprise.
I quickly have learned that this guy has forgotten more about the game of golf than I will ever know. He is not only a one of a kind highly skilled instructor beyond any I have ever followed but an all around great guy... you can just tell. It just had to be said.............My 2 cents
Ron K.
Yardstick
And for you guys on the metric system, you're asking, "What the heck is a yardstick?" LOL!!
Surge's video shows how important it is to not only swing with palms perpendicular to the ground, but also to swing in front of your body - not behind - and definitely not in the SBG. Don's technique is so easy to follow that even this old Hoosier gets it.
Yardstick
We all know what a yardstick is, a method of measurement that evolved from medieval times and should have stayed there, LOL. As a young carpenter many many years ago, I got very frustrated dealing with this antiquated system and found lots of joy when metric finally took over.
Metric
Most Americans don't like the metric system (and I'm one of them).
The government made a big attempt to push it but they finally pretty much gave up. In time it will take over on it's own. We already have to buy metric wrenches and sockets because so many things we buy are made elsewhere.
I could never imagine Peter, Paul, and Mary singing 500 Kilometers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwB2A9HHaCU
Peter Paul & Mary
Reminds me of the song "Happy Together" with the line "If I should call you up, invest a dime, and you say you belong to me, I lose my mind." No kid today knows what he meant by "invest a dime." It's been a long time since I've seen a pay phone.
I can't remember, is the CFL field 110 meters or 110 yards long?
Dimes, songs, and football fields
I heard the Jim Croce song "Operator" today and thought the same thing at the end when he says "and you can keep the dime".
A CFL field is 100 meters.
Yards
CFL field is 110 yards, the league started in the 1950's, while we didn't adopt the metric system till the 1970's.
Field
I knew that field I saw on TV one time looked 29" too long. ;-)
Metric
Steve, I know the feeling and it was the same with currency with us, the current generation is always affected the most, it's the following generations that adapt more easily, but when you have to find the precise area that is measured in yards, feet, inches and fraction of inches, it's a nightmare. in My early years we just converted these to decimals, which made it much easier.
Nightmare
I've built a lot of things in my life with our system and never had a problem or a nightmare.
Yardstick?
JK,
Served as an RSM [Regimental Sergeant Major] in the British Army and served in Germany [using the metric system for years before the system was 'forced' on gullible Brits], and hate it with a passion. Still have a pace stick which opens at 12"; 15";21";24";27";30";33" and 40" and locks in place. This to allow measurements peculiar to foot drills and cermonial distances,for parades etc. All that is by the by. 39" inches, give or take is a metre. Now who carries one to measure their distances on the golf course? Were I or anyone taller than I to stride out at 1metre intervals, the majority could experience of a 'split wishbone' ; - ) Not a pretty thought.
New Zealand also has the metric system : - ( The first thing I do before playing a course here [unless the tee boards show both systems]is converting metres to yards. As luck would have it, I bought a ruler in China for another project, which is 50 centimetres long and have used it previously for the grip checks. The 5metre tape measure I have has both measurents on it.
Good on the good ole US of A giving it a kick into touch! Then with all the rain down here at the moment, maybe we should be measuring using cubits like Noah did when building the Ark,ie, the distance from finger tips to elbow, in the days when a cubit was:
18"
24 digits
20.57 fingers
4.5 hands [still used for horses]
6 palms
2 spans.....etc Choices, choices, choices ; - ) Simple isn't it? hahaha!
Personal preference is for the old Imperial system.
Now will off and get my 50cm ruler for the grip check session : - ) Ooops sorry my 18.75" ruler hahaha.
DH
Old habits
Old habits are hard to break when things change. I tend to use both systems of measurment when it suits. If I'm doing a job, I work in metrics, but still call timber 6 by 2 or 4 by 2, as its easier than 150 by 50 or 100 by 50. I'm happy with meters on the golf coarse, but will always use pounds to weigh a fish, as its much more impressive. Looks like you sent all the wind up this way, as its pretty stroppy outside at the moment. You can have it back now.
Old habits
Hi Russty,
As luck would have it, it stopped raining a short while ago and for the moment it is calmer than for a while : - ) I can sympathize with you up north if it is anything like our last few days. Better weather is on the way-so say the Met bods. Hmmm! We'll see ; - ) In China it was gongji and jin for kg and 500gms and it was wise to carry a weighing scale with you on going to the markets ; - ) One good thing they did there was they paid us to collect our re-cycling items: paper, cardboard, plastics,polystyrene,tin cans and any other metals. Again your scale ensured they were bit ripping you off when collecting it.
Yeeeeeha! 3:48pm and the sun has finally broken through. A good sign indeed. Hope your weather improves as quickly. Keep on swinging and hitting the ball more consistently straight and longer. DH
Metric system
Our family moved to the Bahamas in 1972. I was 15 years old and then attended a British high school. Welcome to the metric system. Was challenging for sure but I picked it up over time. Some memories were running the 110 meter dash and thinking I was speeding when going 70 kilometers per hour. Of course driving on the left side of the road (instead of America's right) was really trippy. Thought I we were gong to head on other cars at any moment. Everything seemed backwards for a while. Having said that, for a boy living on a Caribbean beach for 4 years was the highlight of my very adventurous journey on this rock called earth and the most eye opening and greatest days of my life. So having a Head master (instead of a Principal) and the metric system taught to me by Welsh, English and Scottish teachers was well worth the sacrifice. The bigger challenge actually was learning to understand and speak the Bahamian tongue which was half English and and broad mix of "ada tings mon".
Metric System
Robert,
By the time the metric system came in in UK I had already served in Libya and Germany for over 8/9 years, so was used to the system and driving on the 'wrong' side of the road : - ) As for languages and accents, I am blessed with being a mimic. The only language I have problems with is Chinese. West Indian,Indian,German,French,Italian,Solomon Islands Pidgin, Russian accents.....and many others, I don't have a problem in mimicking them straight off! Can be a lot of fun sometimes.
This small world is indeed a marvelous place. It is we humans who ruin it usually ; - ) Golf included hahaha. DH
Patois
Island patois does take some getting used to, the way words are randomly grabbed from other languages or mis-hearings of those other languages. And, of course, every island has its own patois to an extent. For me one of the funniest things living in Grenada for a while was the fact that Grenadians call bananas figs. Figs they call "Trini figs."
Still never got the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road, so I just walked or grabbed a bus where I needed to go. :)
Simple and telling
Tina,
Congrats on Surge covering your thoughtful method of the modified notebook.
Seems that yardstick (meter stick) idea really shows where the hands,grip and swing are at different points. Thanks for sharing it. I have fooled around with that idea before and it tells me i am doing several things wrong, lol! I'll need to give it another go soon. I have golfworks 48 incher made of metal and that will work too though longer and heavier.
Thanks again and keep up the good habits. We never stop going back to basics.
Robert M.
Simple and telling
Robert,
At Grammar school, our woodwork master had a 6'foot steel ruler, which was used on the derierre of any pupil who fooled around during woodwork lessons. Thankfully that was one of the few classes where I didn't end up rubbing my posterior for being 'naughty' ; - )
GBSAPS and back to basics every time does the trick. Looking forward to coverage of the Shriner's in your neck of the woods this weekend coming.
Hit 'em consistently straighter in Las Vegas DH
Woodwork Master
Just one question,DH. In said application of his 6' steel ruler, was your woodwork master using a rotational swing or was he vertical? ;0))
Woodwork Master
Lynn,
He was a small guy,but boy could he wield that thing. He had a finger missing on one hand and often wonder if the ruler had done it ; - ) Reckon he was more vertical than rotational hahaha!DH
Yardstick
Great visual of preferred swing. Thanks
That's a new one on me, Excellent tip
Loved the yard stick tip, never heard that one before. Just found your site today so will join your youtube channel too.
cheers
Metric system and time
Interesting in this blog subject we have discussed linear, weight, and volume measurements with the old Engligh (current US) and the worldwide metric system. But with all the measurement conversion, TIME and geometry are two things that have not changed. There are still 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. Curious why time never converted.
Same with geometry. There are 360* in a circle. Why not 100* on a metric? A 90* angle as we know it could/should be a 25* or 25% angle on a metric system.
I suppose the brain could handle only so many conversion in a lifetime.
Jeff P.
Metric system and time
JKPassage,
The part you mention about geometry reminds me using a prismatic compass whilst in the Army. Mils to me, did nothing for me at all. I am conservant with both systems. "Saying to other soldiers at briefings, "Go north for about a thousand yards then bear 45* west for ....etc. Painted a pretty clear picture. Using Mils paints no picture at all especially when you don't have a compass. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. On our course there are F/way markers at 90mtrs-135mtrs and 180mtrs. Call me picky, but I still think 100-150-200yds is the bees knees ; - ] DH NZ