The Swing is Smooth and Flowing

Tue, 03/15/2011 - 19:45 -- Don Trahan

A smooth and flowing swing is essential to keeping your swing on plane. Visualizing what that looks like can keep your game on track.

As you all know, Secret #1 in the Surge Swing is '€œGolf is a game of angles. The fewer the better.'€ Angles create over-movement and the more movement you have in your swing the more difficult it becomes to get the clubhead back to the ball square and solid. Not to mention all the extra energy you burn and all the stress and strain you put on your body.

As you practice your swing, visualize the path a roller coaster takes as it climbs to its peak and then plunges straight down before quickly coming up. It'€™s the track that keeps the coaster riding nice and smooth. Well, the same thing happens when you take the club into the catcher'€™s mitt and up the tree and then transition into the forward upswing, following a vertical swing plane through impact up to the T-Finish.

Images like this can help you feel the swing as you prepare to take your shot. Then, once you feel the swing...swing the feel!

Keep it vertical,

The Surge!

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Comments

CharlieY's picture

Submitted by CharlieY (not verified) on

Robert F--thanks for the post. You're doubly right about the "ouch" word, except that it really "OUCH!!!!!) A wrong move, and I'm screaming my head off to get help. Right now, my morphine drip isn't workig at all. Maybe you can let me borrow your pooch. I hear they are really comforting to hospital inmates,

Steve UK's picture

Submitted by Steve UK (not verified) on

I like this imagery Don - I tend to hit at the ball rather than through, but think that this idea of a smooth roller coaster ride might just help - will try later at the range. Thanks for the tips.

Steve UK

Keith Kent's picture

Submitted by Keith Kent (not verified) on

This is done by the RSS feed button(orange square), If you click on this and subscribe it will add the page to your bookmarks and automatically keep that bookmark updated. So surges new blog posts will drop down in your bookmark! Quite cool really, I have just recently discovered this with my website.
Regards Keith

Robert F's picture

Submitted by Robert F (not verified) on

The problem may be with your local network. Try watching other YouTube videos not from SwingSurgeon and see if you can. If not, it's possible that YouTube is blocked on your local network. If you're in an office, the IT people may have it blocked. If you're at home, you may have to check security settings and such. Or you may need to update your software. It's possible that your browser has an outdated Flash addon.

Dick Lee's picture

Submitted by Dick Lee (not verified) on

Jackoz

I see what you mean. I guess we could combine the two ideas and say the hands should start at the toe line. I find that when I choke down on my clubs my hands are still just outside the toe line. Have you noticed the same thing, or does that work for you?
Dick

Lynn42's picture

Submitted by Lynn42 (not verified) on

Charlie,

First things first, buddy. If your Dr is as good with you spine as Surge has been for my game, then your in good hands. I pray he is.

Wish I could report that I've mastered "just let the ball get in the way", but I've played a little tennis and baseball so the hit instinct always seems to creep back in. I don't play tennis at your level and doubt I play baseball at Steve's level either, but I understand the hand/eye coordination just "HIT" it issue. I've found for me it is something I have to remind myself about all the time. Something that worked for me yesterday was 2 thoughts as I was setting up:
1. Swing thru the ball 2. Make sure to swing all the way to a T finish. Was it perfect? LOL..I wish, but it was better. You just have to keep keeping on.

I'm told I'm a bit of an A type, lol, Irish/Scottish genes no doubt. So, my attitude is I'm gonna keep doing it til I get it right and hope the good Lord gives me the time to make it happen. Fell better, Charlie.

LynnF

Lynn42's picture

Submitted by Lynn42 (not verified) on

Robert

You are absolutely right. I try to find what works best as far as tempo. I've figured out that it's somewhere in the middle between Surge and me being too relaxed and and getting sloppy. My key is to find the top of the swing without too much tension and then just drop the club down and speed up to the T finish. Sounds simple enough. Now I just have to figure out how to do it consistenly. When it works the rotation at impact is on the money and easy as pie.

LynnF

CharlieY's picture

Submitted by CharlieY (not verified) on


LynnF42--hope you find my reply here to your "just lst the ball get in the way" comment. That could have been it, but if so, I can't maintain it. I tried it last fall when we had a good discussion on the topic, and worked fine one time and not again. It seem I've played too many racquet sports pewwhere eye-hand coordination is key to performance ans Ijust can't tone it dow. The way the first five holes went, though, felt like the method you cite, so l
Perhaps I need to use a little of it. Thanks again.

T Medley's picture

Submitted by T Medley (not verified) on

Keith, I sort of discovered it by accident. Steve informed me about the site yesterday and so today i just figured i'd start playing with the links or aspects at the page site. I figured out how to get it bookmarked for the RSS feed with automatic updates as you say, i can now toggle between it and the dashboard with one click and i also discovered i can adjust the number of held past comments to 100 instead of the 25 count. Good stuff !!!!!!

Walter's picture

Submitted by Walter (not verified) on

Thanks and congratulations for your daily tipps. I have enjoyed each and every one of them over many, many months now - and profited a lot in my game. This latest one, about the rolling coster image when trying to develop a smooth and flowing swing, was yet another highlight. I had my wife watch it, too, though normally she's doesn't care for "theory" for her golf, as she calls it, and she was both impressed and amused - by the lively, engaged, convincing way you presented your thoughts. Fun to watch, and most helpful again. Well done!

Lynn42's picture

Submitted by Lynn42 (not verified) on

Jack

LOL..Trees have green on em.

LynnF

Lynn42's picture

Submitted by Lynn42 (not verified) on

Charlie

I think my clubhead speed actually increases with 75% effort. It makes the release at the bottom almost natural and easy. If I muscle up I have a tendency to hold on and either release late or not at all and we all know those results are not going to be good...lol. The key for me at least is finding the right combination and being able to repeat it.

LynnF

Ris46's picture

Submitted by Ris46 (not verified) on

Surge - great analogies and great choice of words. So impressive how you can break down the complicated mechanics of an efficent golf swing into simple clear and memorable words and motions. In watching you I pondered the possible benefit of my having a short club for frequent indoor limited practice, be it in a small residential space or my office, away from people and furniture. Any thoughts on that? Clearly it should only be used occasionally, but it might help me reinforce the concepts you teach when I otherwise could not use a normal sized club. Just a thought... (I do realize you have it primarily for a teaching aid.) Thanks again for the excellent instruction! I continue to follow you, as we used to say in the Infantry, "follow me, I am the infantry!" , "follow me, I"m the Surge!" might also apply.

tiptoeskst's picture

Submitted by tiptoeskst on

T and Robert:
The comments feature to the left worked with the old blogging format. It's not compatible with DISQUS. It will be going away. This is true of the comment count on the main blogging page as well. Hope that helps.

Swingsurgeon Tech Crew's picture

Submitted by Swingsurgeon Te... (not verified) on

I can help you. Send me your login information to brady@swingsurgeon.com.

Dick Lee's picture

Submitted by Dick Lee (not verified) on

Hey guys

The video is working fine on my end. Are we going to get back the previous post from members? I can see the comments posted to me on the left but I can't find them on the blog. I agree with Robert, if the comments box is left at the top, people will post a comment or question without reading to the bottom.

Thanks for all your hard work. We appreciate your efforts for us.
Dick

P Brough's picture

Submitted by P Brough (not verified) on

edited test

Robert F's picture

Submitted by Robert F (not verified) on

I'd gladly loan him to you for a few days, CharlieY. He's good medicine. His name is Whiskey because he's a hard licker.

Swingsurgeon Tech Crew's picture

Submitted by Swingsurgeon Te... (not verified) on

If the you tube video stops, sometimes those require a little reloading.... This is the tech guy BTW, not Don himself ;)

Steve Smith's picture

Submitted by Steve Smith on

The old site had a separate recent comments page that contained the entire comment instead of just a partial comment. The partial comments to the left were certainly useful but not as good as seeing the full comment. Many times someone in their comment will change subjects or refer to something that may be of interest to someone, or even directed at an individual other than the person being addressed originally. I've noticed these things brought up later in the comment often go unnoticed and unanswered.
I hope eventually this site will have a recent comments page. As of right now the only way to keep track of recent comments and try to give someone a timely answer is to keep reading the entire blog over and over.
Discus will send an E-Mail if a reply is addressed to a person but a great many questions are answered by someone other than that person being replied to.
Edit: Never mind. I found a page like that at this link.
http://swingsurgeon.disqus.com...

Dick Lee's picture

Submitted by Dick Lee (not verified) on

Robert

How do I get my picture back up? Am I going to have to fill out all those boxes every time I post before I can submit the comment?

Dick

P Brough's picture

Submitted by P Brough (not verified) on

test 2

Jackoz's picture

Submitted by Jackoz (not verified) on

Doctormanny - Check that your hands aren't getting too far away from your body at address with your longer clubs
A test -
(1) Set up with, say an 8 iron & see how far away from your body your hands are
(2) Set up with your driver & see if the distance is the same
If you keep the distance about the same with each club, the swing plane has its best chance of also being the same with each club
The added advantage of having your hands the same distance from your body with each club is that you get progressively more "preset lag" as the clubs get longer
i.e. preset lag angle = the angle between your left forearm & the shaft at setup
The above is my take on things & not text book Surge but I reckon it fits with his methodology
Cheers Jack

CharlieY's picture

Submitted by CharlieY (not verified) on

I'm sure my club head speed increased. I wouldn't say so if it was just one swing or two or three, but it was 16 swings. Drivers went about 20 yards more, 7 iron went 15 yards further, and wedges 10 yards further. I was even able to hit my 3W on the long par 5 hole. I don't put much stock into this last onem though, because my past history with the 3W verifies Doc's statment the 3W is at best a 50-50 club for slow swing speeds. I need to have a lot more hits to draw conclusions, but I guess we all have to draw conclusions some time, or we are just experimenters instead of players.

T Medley's picture

Submitted by T Medley (not verified) on

Dick, Robert may be right, but i think you can edit without being logged into discus, You should be the only one who sees a green edit link beside the like and reply links. Just click on the edit and and another box will open with your comment inside and the ability to edit and then repost it after the corrections are made. You can also edit on the Disqus site itself, but for that you must first log into Disqus proper. Good luck

Chris Holt's picture

Submitted by Chris Holt (not verified) on

Thanks

T Medley's picture

Submitted by T Medley (not verified) on

Guys, I do not know why the videos are not playing for you. They are all playing fine for me. It might just be a temporary thing during the new phase in, but keep in mind that ALL VIDEOS can still be watched at the UTube Swingsurgeon site, here is the link, in case you do not have it. Good luck

http://www.youtube.com/user/sw...

CharlieY's picture

Submitted by CharlieY (not verified) on

Hmmm, I thought I develpoed my back pain by swinging too fast or trying to hit too hard. After a rough night in the ER, it turns out to be a recurrance of a rare bacterial infection in my spine. In Hawaii for a visit, and in the ER

Swingsurgeon Tech Crew's picture

Submitted by Swingsurgeon Te... (not verified) on

Working on the comment counts to show up on the blog here. It's a bit of JS I have to try and get working.

Robert F's picture

Submitted by Robert F (not verified) on

Hey Dick,

At the top of the comments section, click on the Disqus link and register there. In the Profile section you can click to "Use my Gravatar" as long as you've registered with the same email address.

Jackoz's picture

Submitted by Jackoz (not verified) on

Yeh Dick, I reckon Greg's definition is more specific than what I wrote
I don't actually look for any position when I'm playing - I can feel if my hands are in the right position in relation to my body & try to have them in the same position regardless of club
(If it's the same every time, it feels the same every time)

If I was to try to be specific, I'd guess that my chin, the inside of my left hand (pinky side) & the toe line are all on the same vertical line
regardless of choking down or not, which may make my hands just a tad inside where Greg recommends

To relate Greg's setup to hands could be misleading if we weren't precise about which part of the hands we are referring to (the hands cover about 8 - 9 inches of the grip) but Greg's line does suggest that they should be outside the toe line

The general idea I was going for with Doctormanny was that if your hands vary in the distance from your body (or toeline), that could vary your swing plane
One swing for all clubs sounds simple to me
Let there be one variable only & let that be only the club
Jack

Dick Lee's picture

Submitted by Dick Lee (not verified) on

Jackoz

What you just sent Doctormanny fits right in with the video Greg did about having the butt of the club over the toe line for all our clubs.

Dick

Lynn42's picture

Submitted by Lynn42 (not verified) on

Charlie,

My left arm breaks a little normally due to flexability issues with my shoulders and neck so I try to reach for a little too much if I'm not careful or get too rotational. If I reach too far. either my left knee caves or I look like more of a stack and tilt guy. For me, it's practicing outward knee pressure and finding the right tempo and doing it consistently. There are good days and bad, but more good as I get into the season. I find you just have to keep at it.

LynnF

JJ_69's picture

Submitted by JJ_69 on

Actually I have a question. I'm looking for a video that I saw once of professional golf players like Tiger Woods Jack Nicklaus Tom Watson Ben Hogan it was a video of comparing all of their swings and showing the one thing that they all had in common and the video was slow motion from above from the side from all different angles. I just can't seem to find that video. Just wondering if anybody out there knows the video that I'm talking about? I would really like to see it again.

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