Find What Works For You

Well, I have to say that I have little frame of reference to speak to this as I can't imagine what letting the lead arm dominate is like or how you'd even hit a ball with power with the lead arm and hand.  I'm trying to equate it to hitting someone back handed or a round house or even better, a back hand shot in tennis to a forehand smash.  I think you have to go with what works but if you can get the trailing hand "educated", you'll have more power.

thanx Surge, it just keeps getting better! Just got in from Tuesday club comp with a net 67 (3 under h/cap) 3 holes cost me 7 shots (1 was 3 of t) so other 15 cost me 6 shots so if any one in any doubts get the manual and videos, take your time and it will come, Inlast 3 weeks shot 2 net 65, a 66 an today 67, my 15.5 is coming down. Im no analyst of my swing I just follow yor mantra daily. Would appreciate more on short game though as this is where it really counts!
Thanks Again

The reply below is to all but put under Steve's post. 

I'm assuming you've purchased and watched the short game videos? The most important part is controlling wrist action. You may be getting too handsy on chips and pitches which will lead to all sorts of problems. On standard chips the angles between your left forearm and the club shaft should never change, and you should practice controlling the release on pitches to control the distance.

One more quick point--while you do "stiff wrist" the chips, making sure the left wrist stays firm, you do rotate the arm as you take the club back. You still want to get it toe up in the mitt.

Do you only practice your swing on the course? If so, you're not only likely making the game slower for everyone else, you're not giving yourself the benefit available by getting it out of your head that golf can only be taught or learned on a golf course.

That, and perhaps we need a new cliche for the Internet era to remind people that you don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Lucus Glover?

Hi Tlohneb,
Please let me know how did you finally come to master the Surge swing.
I´ve been working on it for over 6 months and have not yet found consistency.  I play golf two to three times per week all year round in Argentina.  Some days I achieve a good score for my level of play (100 to 110 strokes over 18 holes), but most days I leave the course with the feeling that the Surge swing does not work for me (my score being over 120 strokes).
I have all Surge´s instruction material since October 2010 and watch his daily videos on the Internet which are very good, but I have not been able to translate this into consistent golf which in my case is only hitting the ball straight 140 -150 yards, which is not very far.
Hitting the ball straight 150 yards would result in a score of an average double bogey (i.e. 72+36 = 108 strokes).  This is all I ask for and this would satisfy me.
I would appreciate any help you could give me.
Jack Hill

What a great advantage to use the dominant arm for golf. The swing's release doesn't have to guard against the trailing hand causing it to cup through impact. The skipping the stone is a visual cue to get the body in position to let the arms swing parallel to the aim line from the back corner of the swing to the front one.

Feel free to let the front side arm dominate. Once the bump lowers the arms into the L position as shown on page 102 in the manual the dominant fore arm rolls roughly 180* to the position shown in the pictures on page 104. The plane of the arm needs to be parallel to the aim line during the sequence. At impact try to imagine the impact fix which has the grip of the club ahead of the club head as shown by the picture on page 102.

The image of throwing the frisbee may help a bit with the arm motion but it won't help with the 180* dominant arm rotation. I would swing with just the forward arm and club only and monitor that it is swinging parallel to the aim line.

I'm tired of the "back porch".  When are you going to get back to a golf course?

Dick A.

Sometimes the other DJ(Dustin Johnson) wears a beard and his hands get really high on the backswing.

Dan, that makes sense because of a lefties dominant forward hand would be making a frisbee like move. Genious.

Boogm:

   I have never uses a scythe, but i have worn out a couple of swing blades.

   Amos

Hey Jack,

Have you videoed yourself swinging and/or tried practicing in front of a mirror. Especially starting out it may be a very good idea for you to take the images from the Foundations Manual and tape them up next to a mirror and try to place your own body in the positions Don shows there. Then start slowly moving from one to the next as smoothly as you can. Over time you'll be able to speed that process up until you're moving through the swing near full speed. Then you go out and hit balls trying to duplicate that feel.

I though I heard the announcers mention that it was Jim Furyk whose swing looks a lot like the Surge swing when seen face on.

i am playing better than ever since your porch lesson re lag and since your video lessons i have been golfing for many years. Ron Herman

Robert

LOL..Not really.  It just means I'm a country boy who is old.  Better to be inspiring than expiring I suppose.  My son-in-law has his annual father's day scramble set for this friday (normally about 10 four man groups).  Swinging a scythe is a perfect visual for helping me to swing without coming hard off the top and fits with my tempo of one BUS and two FUS.

He and his buddy are the bombers that get us off the tee and they count on his dad and I to get us home with the short game.  He aced the 3rd hole in the scramble 3 years ago.  Reminds us all that golf is a game of memories to last a lifetime.

Wish me luck and I'll file a full report when I get back from Pa. 

Lynn42

Doc, I seem to recall an article from Golf Digest way back when, that Seve was credited with, something along the lines & I may be paraphrasing a tad " Use the right hand for power". It made a lot of sense for me back then, in my gangly,loose and more upright days before the flat plane rotational craze took over the golf world.

Skipping the rock is not a HAND MOVE DRILL.  It is the bump drill to start the transition from back swing to forward swing.  It has nothing to do with dominate, non dominant or otherwise. It is simply to get you in the proper position to move through the ball and get the club face coming on on on and square. It has nothing to do with how the hands act or whatever.  In other words, it has nothing, repeat, nothing to do with the hands.  Skipping the rock is BODY movement. Try thinking of having someone standing next to you on the target side and you simply want to bump them with your forward hip (not hard but a tap, this is the bump move)

As for hands, the forward hand is the rudder, it directs path, the trailing hand is power and the hitter.  It is the force of the swing. The hands work together for timing and release.

Mplunk, I hope you read this. I am reviewing all the basics from all of Don's videos. Do you own and have you seen the JUNIOR BLUEPRINT VIDEOS? I am currently reviewing them and watching his lesson given to Austin (age 16). It apply's to your question of front arm use specifically and covers other key points that I feel would make a huge i mpact on yopur progress. If you don't have this video series  BUY IT. Watch it and you will be amazed at the ton of wealth therein contained on proper swing mechanics with all theses kids and over 4 hours of video. It worth well beyond whatever they are cjarging now for this series. Let me know.

Surge I especially liked your use of one hand to ingrain the skipping with a club in iether then both hands together. I'm doing more drills like this latey without a ball. It helps to 'groove the move' over and over. this along with butt on the wall, the doorjam and working with my swingtech are all helping. I also ordered the swingrite from Doc a couple of days ago and am looking forward to using it to as I have a fresh start on getting the correct moves back and through. 

Yeah he does. Looks like a nice scruffy low country boy. I get the image of some one who likes going out into the country side and enjoying camping and getting close to the land. When you do that shaving is not on top of the things that are important

 The Golf Channel was just showing Rickie Fowler on the driving range. A couple of spots behind him was a tall, lanky guy (not DJ), whose swing looked very Surge-like - vertical, 3/4, recoil/relax. I couldn't tell who it was, but the swing was quite obvious compared to everyone else swinging.

Amos, me too and I notice they don't make them as sturdy as they used to.

As Surge said to Jim (in the video) you can build your swing around your top hand (left) instead of your right hand(that's on the bottom. It's your power hand, the one you have the greatest touch and sensitivity so as Surge said we need to open up our minds and find what works for you.
This was actually intended as an added thought for MPLUNK above.

The guy I saw was Johan Edfors, Swedish player. He reportedly uses Stack-and-Tilt, but from the videos that I have seen on YouTube, he doesn't seem to conform to any particular style. In an interview, he commented that the swing he uses on the driving range is different from what he does on the course. His driving range swing is closer to the Surge Swing than rotational, but his on-course swing is almost pure rotational with an attempt at S&T. I guess that is probably why he is a very streaky player.

Buck,
    I've found that, in general, the catcher's mitt & tree work fine for me for most shots.  The trick is that you must remember that because you're starting with a limited turn, half and quarter swings are going to be shorter than you're probably used to (in the mitt and no lift is a pretty good quarter swing for me).  Also, I seem to recall that when I first tried this, I struggled with the problem of decelerating the clubhead in an attempt to compensate.  To resolve this I resorted to a trick I use to control my distance on long putts --- shorten the backswing and lengthen the follow-through. The shorter backswing limits how much power I can put into the shot and the longer follow-through ensures that I don't decelerate the head through impact (probably the #1 cause of mishits on chips and pitches, in my experience).

Dick A,
I would assume tomorrow and making more in one session than I make in a day & I make pretty good for a boilermaker. I'll take all the pro bono tips the man has to offer, be they from the back porch, course, or the deli section of the supermarket.
Happy golfing,
Boog

Ah, the memories a scythe brings back & your right, Richard, perfect example. I grew up using one on those with my Grandfather and also a swing blade. Little did I know then that I was using one of Harvey Penick's  favorite training aids.

You are so right Lynn. It takes seconds to hit that "shot" of the day or shot of a lifetime.Then we reflect and talk about it for years. After all is said and done all we have is our memories. That is why we always seek fun memories with the people we love so we have lots to warm our old bodies in the winter of our lives. Wow., did'nt mean to get that deep but it's all true.
The ones with my Dad and now ones with my kids and wife are the best.

Indeed Lynn, GOOD LUCK IN PA. GO GET 'EM PAL!

Richard

Good point.  Dad taught me how to use one back in the day.  It's also  a great way to, as Surge says, "Let gravity be out friend".  Anyone who has ever used a scythe knows you don't force the downward motion off the top.  You just gave me a great visual to eliminate trying to "hit" off the top which is something I seem to fight all the time.

Lynn42 

What's a scruffy low country boy?

Phillip

Never.

I agree.  Besides, what difference does it really make?  Even if he was hitting shots down the range, the camera would lose focus on the ball so fast you could barely tell what line a shot started on.  If the back porch makes it easier for Don to make these for us, I don't care where he's standing.