Feel Versus Reality

Is this Nate the club fitter? Hey buddy.

Thanks Robert for the feedback, very helpful. Cheers, Craig

I do a few things when I'm playing well that all go together to end my setup and start the swing. In my head, I sing one of my two tempo songs (for those just popping in, those are either "The 59th Street Bridge Song" or "Three Little Birds") while I'm getting aligned and in position. Then I accordion down to address blowing out my breath, firm up my right abdominal muscles and start the back swing on the line "feeling groovy" or "gonna be all right". By the time I've finished either of those phrases, I'm in my T-finish watching the ball fly at the target (hopefully).

Lynn

Thanks pal.

We all appreciate your prayers.

Dick

For the stretching and loosening up, you may want to check Bruce's site: www.therolfergolfer.com or search for "Bruce Chaffin" in the archives where you should find several videos of helpful exercises for golfers.

Robert, it seems so simple does'nt it. The ball is just sitting there waiting to be struck. What an appearantly easy yet totally mystifying game.

Dan, To add to what Robert mentioned below, you can also (unless your in a country that prohibits) go to youtube, search for SwingSurgeon and then subscribe to the channel there
and actually watch them there before they get here...oh yeah, you will have to set-up an account on youtube but that's so easy a boilermaker can do it.When I forget to watch one there but chose to do so here,I do as Robert suggests and start it, pause it and then come back in a few moments and watch it without delay.I have no trouble watching any from my desktop at home but occasionally have to start/pause here at the hall because I'm using a wireless router to get my internet link from down front offices.
Boog

Congratulations! We do get in our own way far more often than anything else, don't we?

I used a slight and I mean slight right knee nudge to initiate the start to my swing. From static to motion in the backswing.This was as a rotational swinger. When I changed to the PPGS swing late last year, I kept that as the start motion. It should be said that the 'nudge' is almost 'a twitch'.Even being heavy loaded right, it does not seem to compromise the set up or the swing itself or break any Surge taboos that I know of.
My thoughts and prayers are with those in Mo and Ok, especially Dick and his family.

Boog

Thanks for your concern and prayers.  It could have been so much worse.

If we think we have it bad, all we have to do is look around us and we find folks that are much worse off.

Semper Fi,
Dick

I actually don't see the relevance as to what make Don's camera actually is, but thanks for mentioning it Davis.

Surge, thanks for todays video. The pictures don't lie do they. The video tape can be so revealing as to what we are really doing in our swings.
Thanks for the clear point that we need to get into the right set up and swing so we can feel the  right things and then we hope the right swing that  feels right too becomes our reality. 

haven't seen you in a while Don ... nice to have you back.  Like the shadow practice ... gives instant feedback.

Gerry

BEWARE SPEED BIT. Before downloading Speedbit, check out some of these problems others have had with it.

http://fileforum.betanews.com/...

I put up another video today after practicing the swing for about 20 minutes until it started to feel right again. I couldn't see much difference from yesterday. I created a snapshot of the set-up position, looking down the toe-line, loaded it into PowerPoint and added all those nice little lines showing the angles and positions of everything. What I saw was not what I felt.

The good things first: My arms were hanging straight down. My feet, knees, hips, and shoulders all seemed to be aligned parallel left. I was bent at the hips instead of the waist. The butt of the club was over the toe line.

The not-so-good: My chin was way forward of my hands, which means my hands were too close to my body. My upper body was leaned out toward my toes too much. No way to keep balance properly.

I am obviously not doing the accordian move properly. I think that is due to my on-again/off-again knee problems. They do not bother me while I am swinging, unless I get a lot of knee flex. Then, I have trouble keeping them level and the left one especially moves a lot.  Something else to work on :-(

Richard

Thanks for your concern for us out here.

This is never the forum to argue religion.  To each, their own.

Those of us who believe in our Lord draw great comfort from knowing our brothers and sisters in the Surge Nation are praying for each other.  I also appreciate the concern and good thoughts of those who chose not to believe.  I am not one to ever try to force my beliefs on others.

Life, like golf is full of choices.  We all make them every day.  Choices have consequences.  The good thing about most choices is that we can change our mind at any time, right up until death.  I have a personal relationship with my God.  That is the choice I made, and I am sticking with it.

Dick

Surge

Great reminder.  The video I did for Doc for my driver was a real eye opener.  Any semblance of what I thought I was doing and reality was purely coincidental.  It's like the first time your hear voice recorded... Is THAT me?  That video has allowed me to work on things that would still be problems otherwise.  I keep it as a reminder of where I was and will take your suggestion to do another to check progress.

Thank you for the reminder.  Btw..my watusi wasn't bad for a guy who can't dance...lol.

Lynn42

Dick:  As with the many others on-line tonite, my prayers are with you and I am so glad you are okay.  Take care and stay in touch.  R2

I have a digital camera with video mode and the quality is very good for this purpose. I also have a extendable tripod. I just set this up and hit record! Go back to view the video ever so often to see where I am at, and yes it is a eye opener most of the time. What is good is you can playback whilst you are at the range. so it is work in progress in real time. Instead of getting home to view, then see your faults, then you are aching to get back out there to work on them. I do view them on my laptop and save my progress, you can then slow and pause the video to really anaylize your swing, oh and upload them to youtube so the Surge nation can view them and rip you to bits or give you advice!
I need to video myself this week to see where I am at.       

Glad you're well. I have a number of friends in the OKC area and have been sending good thoughts to everyone in the path of those storms.

You don't need to go to YouTube first and find the Swing Surgeon. Just click on the YouTube icon at the bottom right of the video and it will take you to YouTube.  Then run the video from there to see if you have the same problem.   The video is hosted on the YouTube servers. The video on this site is an embedded video, which is essentially just a link to YouTube.

Alan

Ah Mr Shadow, he does not lie.   At the range the other day I was hitting away in a bay next to an instructor with four or five oldish beginners.  He remarked in front of his students that he liked my high hands limited backswing straight through to a high hands follow through facing the target.  BUT then he then proceeded to burst my enormous ego bubble that had grown at that point by saying that (especially with the driver) "your left knee is kicking back way back too far and your left shoulder is dropping".   I muttered under my breath "yeah, the Watusi", he said "beg your pardon" and I replied "something that my coach wants me to avoid".

Anyway I took a breather and walked off to an open area with a 6 iron and took a few swings with the sun at my back and sure enough there it was.   Well didn't I let off some self recriminating slander (to myself)!

I definitely need to go more high tech than my shadow though but I need help.  I am not techno savvy in regards to video cameras and I was wondering if I upgrade my mobile phone to an iphone or an android will the video function on these phones be good enough to capture a golf swing with reasonable resolution.   Or do I need to go for a dedicated video camera instead and if so what's a good priced benchmark system?

I would like to post the video of my swing on the blog like some of the other guys, to get some constructive feedback, as I have been absolutely impressed and stunned by the improvements made by the likes of PhilNZ, Robert F and in particular the cow killer at 300 yds (tongue in cheek).

Regards, Craig

Hi Dan,

I just went through 6 months of start and stop videos that were  driving me crazy too. I finally broke down and got a new computer (mine was 11 years old) and the start and stop business is gone with a current operating system and a good anti virus system in place. What I did have was a ' boot virus' caused by who knows what my computer accumulated in the way of viruses during 11 years of business, personal and internet use..Good luck Dan.

Hi Robert,
This is something I haven't tried or tackled yet but definitely will the next time at the range. I am getting more consistent so things are coming more naturally now, I am having more trouble with the start of the down swing. getting in the slot as they say. I think I am still casting the club forward at the start of the downswing causing a out to in path which is more evident with the driver. I am reasonably happy with my irons, I just wish I could trust the driver more. Inconsistency is the word for the driver, I am never sure what the end result will be. I have tried getting a feeling of the club dropping at the top, or right elbow in the pocket but these normally result in hitting the ground.
I guess if I keep practicing it should come!   

glad to hear you;re ok.i have thought hard about typing my next comments. after all this a golf blog  BUT  since you keep mentioning  God and prayers do you ever ask yourself what sort of God would inflict such suffering on innocent people. i know he is supposed to work in mysterious ways ' his wonders to perform ' but he  sure has me baffled. ( well actually he doesnt  because i don;t actually think he exists). but each to his own eh? why couldnt he have  made a  world without tornadoes . earthquakes  etc?

 cheers richard in the uk

Alan, thanks for the correction about the embedded video. I must have been having a blonde moment. I do try to watch them on youtube since they are posted there several hours before being embedded here. Matter, of fact, I'm there now listening to a couple of tunes.
Boog

Most decent digital cameras these days also have a good video mode. I prefer that over a phone camera because dedicated cameras generally come with a standard tripod mounting screw set into the body to make it easy to add a tripod so you don't have to count on somebody else to hold the camera for you. You don't need big and fancy. You'll want one with an SD card slot so you can add storage (video can chew up a lot of memory, and SD is the most common and cost-efficient format).

My Dear Bloggies,
Why do we agonize and twist ourselves with analysis when Don lays it all out so utterly simply.Feel the swing; feel the swing; feel the swing: then swing the feel. EVERYTHING else is fluff.Case in point: I've been laid up with a bad/frozen lower back for the last 4 days, something that has recurred every so often without warning  for the past 50 years. I was  able to stand up and move around a little this morning, so with muscle relaxers and pain relievers I decided to go ahead and play in a golf tournament today because my lifelong friend was in town and I hadn't seen him and his family for so a long time. It was difficult to walk very far but we had carts so I decided to try to do what I could and definitely not overdo it.  I went to the range first to warm up and saw that I could only take a half swing and not use my legs/hips at all, and that all my clubs were only going about 50% of their normal distance. Of course I was using the vertical swing, even in my enfeebled state, so the pain of swinging actually was no greater than the pain in just standing up, so I decided to tee it up and play, even though it took 10-15 seconds to put the ball on a tee or reach in the cup and get the ball and stand up again (I had to 'walk ' my hands up my legs to stand upright).Then the wierdest thing happened: for 18 holes I took my little 50% swing and swung it until I felt the 'feel'. Then I swung the feel. Nothing longer than 170 yards (driver!) the entire round. Oh yes, NOT ONE MISHIT. Did you catch that people: NOT ONE MISHIT---18 HOLES. Scored 38/39--77 and won the tournament by 10 strokes. I walked (waddled) off the 18th green using 2 golf clubs as canes.Once again, I fully credit Don with my victory. Truly all I did was FULLY resist my recurring temptation to tweak Don's system and customize it for my 'unique' situation. Granted I was truly in survival mode and pretty much incapable of doing more than one thing at a time, but I sincerely believe that anyone can find victory with the Surge Swing if they can just simply embrace the swing and philosophy and are willing to let go of a whole heap of accumulated garbage. But we do like our garbage, don't we? Why? Well, it's "ours", and besides we're so used to the smell by now, we don't even notice it (hence the use of a camera to film your swing so you can actually 'smell' how bad it is). Time and again, Don's teachings ring true. And teaching this old dog new tricks just amazes me to no end, so I will continue to trumpet his exploits and carry his banner. Carry on Surge, my Man.

just think it worth mentioning you look slimmer and younger! must be great karma over there! keep up the good work!

Thanks, for all of the responses Gang. I remember back when I first took up this game eons ago I started with a slight forward press and kept that for years. That was when I was actually pretty vertical but with a wicked shoulder turn. Then when I went flatter a couple of years before the back induced hiatus I triggered the backswing with a tapping of my left ballpad and toes ( akin to you, Amos). I noticed this evening when I broke out the sponge balls and Matt's Lab got out to shag for me I pretty much did like you,Steve, except for this one time when I went into my pre-shot routine, took my address and while trying to think of nothing, I did. Not a thought in my head and I was just stuck at address.A few moments of paralysis and I finally thought to myself..."trigger or get off the pot."

Just be careful that you're not taking so much care to have a stable base that you're forgetting to really swing. One of the other reasons the "impact happens" thought is very helpful is that a big source of the lunge is trying to crush the ball. Focusing on the ball, your body wants to move toward it. If you focus only on the smooth, accelerating swing you should avoid the lunge without losing power. Just think about getting up to that T-Finish as fast as you can.

When I started the Surge swing, I was a 14 handicap, now I'm about to become a single digit. I used to play army golf - LEFT RIGHT LEFT. My goals have been rather simplistic in nature - Hit them straight and keep them in the fairway...... good goal to have I thought. I'm now 78% FIR. My next goal is hit GIR. 72% GIR. Another goal is consistency. It's all coming together and it doesn't seem to be an anomaly that my handicap is getting lower. I like it that I can take direct aim at the target and hit the shot. Thanks Don. Keeping it vertical....

Okay, I'm going to run a poll of sorts or open a discussion, however you want to look at it.
 "Do you have a swing trigger or in Surgite fashion, How do you start the BUS?"
 or for the really keen here,
" How do you go from Static to Dynamic getting up the tree?"

eagerly awaiting responses, while whispering prayers for those in Joplin,Mo &
my Brother Dick & all of his in OKlahoma,
Boog

Robert

Thanks as always.

Long way to go, but better off today.

Dick

Surge, thanks for today's back-porch lesson.It brings into mind what we have been told so many times over our golfing lives.It was mentioned by Steve in his comment from two days ago by the  former MSU baseball coach about practicing your swing off the field and trusting your swing on the field. I also remember the great Sam Snead talking about it in length, and Robert F.(among others here) saying during the FUS that the ball happens to get in the way. Practice the mechanics on the range, home or where ever but trust yourself ,and have the confidence, to just do on the course.Once into address, swing your rhythm and watch the ball fly.
Boog

Surge Nation

I just got in and turned this box on.  I am ok.

It is a mess out here.  They have confirmed that we had 6 twisters on the ground at one time, and they are still looking at possibly 2 more at the same time.  For about an hour, they were on all four sides of me.  The closest one came about a mile from where I was doing an inspection.  One went through the town where our daughter, son in law, and 3 grandkids live.  The little town is a wreck.  They spent the time in their shelter, and are all ok.

I have not even read the blog, and won't tonight.  I am beat, going to take my butt to bed now.  I have  to get out and go help a bunch of the folks from our church tomorrow.  Several of them only have pads left where their homes stood a few hours ago.

One of the twisters was on the ground for over 50 miles.  It took out a couple of small to middle sized towns, but I am glad it did not go through Oklahoma City.  It would have been a disaster right at rush hour.  It is bad, but it could have been so much worse.  It has been a long time since I have been through a hail storm and winds like I was in today.  Mostly golf ball sized, but a lot of base ball sized too.

I just wanted to let you folks all know we are alright.  I know how we all worry about each other.

Good night my brothers and sisters.

Keep us in your prayers,
Dick

Your stop and start videos are driving me nuts.  I have called several times about this problem and was always told the problem was in my computer.  The last time i called I was told it is YOUR problem and you are working on it to solve the problem.  Thanks for the addmission, now step up to the plate and tell all of us.  I am willing to stay around until it is resolved so long I know I am not the culpriy!!!!
Dan G

I should have mentioned that I have been doing the Surge swing for 6 months now.

Amos

Good to be back with the Surge Nation.

I moved away from the twister belt when I was 17.  This is my first season back.

I still would not trade it away again.  I love it out here.
Dick

I think your camera is a Zi8, rather than an ie8.

Happy that you & yours are okay, Dick, we were worried about you & your family. We'll lift all of those in need in prayer along with the folks of Joplin. Rest easy, my friend.
Boog

3 shots of blackberry brandy!

In my prayers and thoughts You and all those good people.God Bless and keep you all safe.

2nd Visit to the Dr today for session two of 10 sessions. After the first one yesterday I noted that my mobility had increased considerably.At the finish of the session after acupuncture and Glass Globe and lighted taper cupping, he gave me the 'beating of all beatings and had my right arm going places it has not gone in decades! Slept like a log. Noted my hand can reach places it hasn't in ages. Session two was even more winding my up like a Bruce Lee victim. Then an even longer beat up, but IT WORKS : - ) Dinner calls. Stay safe all you surgites from a sore but more mobile Dragonhead in Dalian China

Boogm:

   OK -- I'll bite on this.

    For me, from the static ready position, it is very tiny push of the left (forward) toe-ball of foot region that starts the one piece rotation/lift to the toe line   But then I AM "different Amos" LOL

     I second your thoughts and prayers re Joplin, Brother Dick -- and all others in the Mid-West and South East storm'flood ravaged areas.

    Keep hitting them STRAIGHT and LONG

    Amos

Coach

You know how these folks are.  They are just picking up the pieces and taking care of things.

Everyone is helping out.  You can not imagine how great it feels to just pull up to people you don't even know and hand them all a bottle of water, pray with them, and then go on down the road to see if someone else needs a hand.

Thanks for the prayers,
Dick

Hey Boog,

Yep, if you set up properly and swing properly the ball has no choice but to go where you want it to go. And unlike most other sports, in golf you and the ball are stationary for the hitting process. You don't have to worry about contact, just about setting up properly and making a proper swing. Of course, that doesn't stop most of us (myself included) from freaking out and worrying about the ball as soon as we step up to it. It's really hard to get used to the idea that you have to not think about the ball.