I received an email from one of my professional golfers, Rob Snider, who actually lives in Massachusetts and spends a great deal of time down in Florida, working on his game. Like a lot of young guys, he is trying to get on the PGA Tour. Although Rob really isn't that young, he is in his mid to late 30s, maybe even early 40s. He has had a very successful career and basically is retired now, trying to get out on the PGA Tour and then get ready for the Senior Tour in 10-15 years. But Rob sent me a question, he made a good comment. He made some points that I think are relevant to all of us here in the Peak Performance Golf Swing, and especially all of you out there that are trying to learn it. Let me read what Rob wrote.
He said, 'I played with two guys up here in Boston yesterday who have subscribed to the Peak Performance Golf Swing, and they immediately commented on how easy I made it look and how far I was able to hit the ball. Then I told them my age and they were completely blown away. They didn't hit the ball far and were kind of discouraged. I noticed two very distinct things that they were doing that could help them a lot. They were both still set up with a weak base support, and they were still making a big turn even though they thought they weren't. And this goes right into the next thing. They were both hitting at the ball and down on it. I had them watch me a few times where I opened my feet, but still very square to my target, and braced my knee over my ankles with the narrow stance keeping my nose on the ball. I simply lifted the club into the backswing and then keeping my nose on the ball and my feet planted, I swung up to the sky with my arms. This really makes me stay in the shot all the way to the finish and swinging straight down to the target line'.
Now what Rob just saw with these two gentlemen is what I see and hear about just about every day. It is obvious that this is going to be a problem. About 99% of all the golfers in the world for the last 20 years, or however long they have been playing golf, have been taught to turn, turn, turn in the backswing. You can't make too big of a turn in the backswing. And then with the advent of the rotational swing, which began in the early 90s, now when you make that big backswing turn the key is to snap your left knee and hip and turn your torso and swing and turn through the ball to the finish, which now has the chest finishing way left of the target.
No matter how much you turn in the backswing and how fast you can snap your hips, it is never enough turn in the backswing and you can never snap your hips and lower body and pull your shoulders and arms and club through fast enough. It is never enough with the rotational swings. Even many, many golfers who think they are almost feeling like they make no turn, many are still making way too much. That is why you really need to do some swinging in front of a mirror where you can take a look at your shoulders and see how much you have turned.
But the easiest thing to check your turn is when you take your set up just take the club back into the mitt and lift your arms up the tree, focusing on trying to be three quarters, firm wrists, no wrists cock, certainly not going to parallel. And when you get up to the top of your backswing just stop for a second and look down. If you could see your toes you turned too far. Because if you lifted to the top and you look down and all you see is your arm and you can't see your toes, it is a pretty good bet that you are in a limited turn and your arms are over your toe line. Naturally, if you are playing with anybody show them what you want and ask them to watch you. In this case both of these gentlemen that Rob played with were doing the Peak Performance Golf Swing so they both kind of have the concepts, and they could be helping each other. You help me, I will help you and we will watch and see.
The other major issue is, as Rob also showed, they didn't have their feet flared and in many cases, many will flare the front foot. Now this is players that have been playing for a while and have learned to play with the feet square to the aiming line, or perpendicular to it. Many begin to open the front foot and flare that one, but they keep the back foot straight or squared to the line and perpendicular to it, and even still cock or push the back knee inward, which is not what we want. We want the flared feet and the outward knees and maintain the outward pressure.
And last but not least, he said they looked like they were really hitting down on the ball and I guess they kind of admitted to it. They weren't swinging up to the mitt. The biggest thing is, I think more than anything, if you are still coming over the top, especially with the driver and maybe the longer clubs, and you could do it pretty well with the shorter clubs, the odds are you are taking too big of a turn. So, today, we will focus on that. The key is in the mitt and up the tree. The Peak Performance Golf Swing is a limited turn, three quarter backswing. Limited turn is the forward arm is over the toe line at the top of the backswing. And when you get to the top if you kind of glance your eyes down and you can see your toes, it means you turned too far or you have lifted the club too far outside the target line and have gone outside in the backswing. But that is not what bothers most people. The odds are, if you can see your toes sticking out from the outside of your arm, you have turned too much. If you can't see them, that is what you want. Your toes are hidden by your forward arm in the backswing, when you are at the top of the backswing and you are in the three quarter limited turn swing with the forward arm over the toe line.
The Surge!