A student named Jim Wiley sent in a comment that stopped Surge in his tracks — and it's worth sharing with every golfer who's ever struggled with consistency.
Jim made the case that a more vertical swing is easier to repeat because it removes one of the trickiest timing requirements in the rotational swing: squaring the clubface at impact. He backed it up with three analogies. Bowling — try taking the ball around your body and releasing at exactly the right moment. Rock skipping — go straight back and through, or good luck controlling where it lands. And landing a plane approaching the runway from the side, having to time your turn perfectly just before touchdown - known as crabbing. All three hit home, but that last one is especially sharp. The plane is still moving fast. So are you at impact — accelerating as hard as you reasonably can.
Jim closed with this: "If we could swing like a Ferris wheel, we wouldn't have to worry at all about squaring up at impact."
That line opens up a bigger question. Is there a perfect golf swing?
Think about it for a second before reading on.
The honest answer is: yes and no. No, because every golfer's body is different — height, flexibility, posture, age. A one-size swing doesn't exist for humans. But in the real world as God created it, yes. There is a perfect golf swing. It's a Ferris wheel. It stays on plane at every point in the rotation. It never has to square up because it's always square. And it has a massive, stable base — because the last thing you want is that wheel wobbling when you're at the top.
That's exactly why Surge taught wide knees with outward pressure. A sturdy base. So you can swing on the most vertical inclined plane your posture allows — not a Ferris wheel, but as close to one as the human body permits.
When the swing goes straight back and up, gravity brings it straight back down. The club stays light. God created our arms to swing in front of our body — up and down. That's the design. Compare that to a big rotational swing, where the club gets heavy, the turn fights gravity, and the muscles work against the way they were built to move. God did not create our bodies to operate at their best against gravity. Pitchers who throw over the top have the fastest pitches — gravity is with them. Sidearm pitchers don't have that same horsepower. Same physics, same body, same principle.
The goal isn't perfection. The goal is to get as close to vertical as your posture allows, keep the base solid, let gravity do the work, and trust that what goes straight up comes straight back down. Play by the rules — the rules of physics and the body God gave you — and the solid contact, less pain, and lower scores will follow.
Have you ever thought about your swing in terms of the Ferris wheel? What clicked for you — or what's still not clicking? Leave a comment below.