Daily Video Blog

Is Your Takeaway Ruining Your Swing Before It Starts?
Is Your Takeaway Ruining Your Swing Before It Starts?
Authored by: Brady
Posted on: 5 May 2026

You've probably been told your whole golfing life that you need to keep moving before you swing. Waggle, forward press, rock the knee — whatever it takes, just don't stand still. Surge heard that too. He just never agreed with it.

His thing was this: if you're pressing forward to start a swing that needs to go backward, how do you make that feel exactly the same every time? With every club, every lie, every round? After a while, you start to realize — you can't. That little forward move changes just enough, just often enough, to mess with your timing without you ever knowing why.

What Surge taught instead was to come to a full stop before starting the swing. Feet planted, waggle done, one last look at the target — then still. From there, a simple three-count: squeeze the grip equal in both hands, press the knees out slightly, and go. The toe of the club moves first, the arms follow, and the club finds its way back up the plane. Nothing fancy, just quiet and controlled... Read More

Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 12 September 2011
Comments: 37
This past weekend I was at Odessa National Golf Club with Dave Seeman to conduct a three day golf school. The ladies out numbered the men, and all of them came ready to work. As is usually the case... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 11 September 2011
Today's tip stems from remarks made recently by JSmith who was commenting on my recent post titled "Does Baseball Lead To A Bad Golf Swing?" He wrote: "Surge--I love your site and your lessons. I... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 10 September 2011
Comments: 19
Today I'd like to stay on the subject of Forward Shaft Lean because so many Surgites had questions and comments regarding the daily I recently posted on this topic. You all know my #1 Surgism: "The... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 9 September 2011
Comments: 100
Today I want to begin by talking about an initiative co-sponsored by the PGA of America and the USGA called "Tee It Forward" and then I will tie it all together with some comments recently made by... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 8 September 2011
Today's tip stems from comments made recently by two Surgites, Randy Freisinger and Joe Scocco (a.k.a. Randy Freisi and Joe S.) during a discussion of The Proper Amount of Turn (07/30/11). "... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 6 September 2011
Comments: 65
Today's tip continues a discussion we've been having about forward shaft lean (FSL). As I said recently, you have to have a degree of FSL in order to hit a good shot. However, too much FSL can... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 5 September 2011
Today's tip stems from a comment RustyKiwi made a few weeks ago. Rusty suffers from near constant back pain due to years of physical abuse and he wrote to thank me for giving him the ability to... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 4 September 2011
Comments: 47
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 3 September 2011
As we head into the Labor Day Weekend here in the States, I want to take time to talk about an important subject. Recently, George Yeung posted a question on the blog asking what he could do to... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 2 September 2011
Comments: 20
Today's video stems from a question we got on the blog a few weeks ago from Merv MH, who just turned 88 years-young. Merv says that a shorter backswing game is all he can do at his age and that he... Read More