How To Avoid Injury

Amos, Your drives are down the fairway on a fairly regular basis. I still have'nt played for a week and a half. Continuing to focus on practicing my short game. I'm getting there. My putting especially improving. By the end of this week I hope to be ready to get back on the GC to see if I can start scoring from 125 in where it counts most.

Sounds good.

Your absolutely right Neil,
but imagine having a little of both, when I started learning
Don's way of golfing I was recovering from knee problem
I had to find a way to take the presure of my left knee
the only problem is I lost a lot of distence but all of last
year I was no longer hurting and belive me that felt very good.
I was never a long driver but I could carry about 225 I lost about
25 yards what happens is if I'm short on my drive I'm also short
on My second shots. This year again folowing Don's method I
regainned those yards without putting presure on the knee.
I think if most of us would realy paye attention to what he says
What makes it so hard to get is that  he has a way to make it
so simple I try to complicate it. This is what I think happens
when I was working on the knew swing I was tight therefore
a big lost in tempo. Fairways is where I want to be but seeing
a green inside the 150 yard marker is a great feeling.
For me the swing surgeon is made for precision but also for
distence it made a believer of me.

Ron from Qc, Canada

I'll call this my after practice report. Really getting into a groove now. Was planning on putting this morning but found I had left my putter at Los Pearls a couple of days ago. Thank God for honest people. They have it.
So I grabbed my pw, 53 and 58the and headed to the range at Painted Desert. Was hitting everything well but noticed that nearly e drugging was just a few yards left of target. Alignment was good including shoulders so I noticed that my grip was just a fraction strong. I modified the grip slightly and presto- on target. I am feeling great am much
more confident. I'm hoping to officially start playing again on Friday. Meanwhile continued short game focus with coach Cindy watching , filming and correcting me.

Off subject.  I just watched a Steve Stricker's slow motion video of his swing on YouTube.  Not sure how to link it, but try this:

http://youtu.be/fTG15cSlHHw

Seems to look very much like Don's verticle swing.  Johnny Miller says Stricker's swing is the swing of the future.  Very quiet hands and 3/4 back swing.  Some of the posts on Youtube complain that the swing is accurate, but looses distance.  I'll take accurate and lose a few yards any day.  Comments?

Strive on Steve. Like myself, we'll be ready for the "super" seniors by the time we get it all figured out! lol indeed :)

For Inner Circle Members, they're in the My Videos section. For everyone else, SuperEthanLee was helpful enough to have a functioning upload:
DJ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
and
Don http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Auto spelling on my DROID is nuts. Above I meant Los Prados and that everything was going left. Sorry guys.

Save you some work typing "one length for irons" into the search box:

http://www.swingsurgeon.com/Bl...

I really liked e-drugging. ;-)

Shoulders:  Turn to 90*
Hips:  Turn past 45*
Left knee: points behind the ball
Club at top of back swing:  Up over the tip of the right shoulder. This is about half way between 9 and 10 on the clock face.
Hips:  Has to spin and clear the hips, not bump

He's not as bad as most but it's not 3/4".  This is the same Johnny Miller that made the comment that two golfers with the same club head speed but one weighs more than the other would hit the ball further due to his mass?  I wouldn't put a lot of stock in comments of JM's.

fbg

Morning Robert. Hope things are going well for you and your home. Let me know when you may be able to possibly meet at the range again. I attempted to use muni's range in the early am a few times this last week or so but the morning sun is brutaly in ones eyes at 6am!! I still need to go in the afternoons or evenings so I can see my ball land. I'm going to head over to Painted Desert in a few minutes to experience another 1 hour putting practice on yet a different green before work. I'll be back to practicing my pw-58* tomorrow. Hope to personally 'qualify to play' by Friday out at Paiute.

Sounds like you're holding the club too tightly. Hold it like you plan to shake hands, not like you plan to crush a walnut in your fingers.

The question of distance is also the major reason for the USGA's current Tee It Forward campaign, to get golfers to discover that the game is much more entertaining when you play from tees suited to your abilities.

Steve

I noticed you had a post some 3 weeks ago that you talked about you were hitting the ball from outside in. If this is the case you need to work on alignment, posture, the bump etc. If you are turning in stead of bumping this will pull your back shoulder out and over the top. With out seeing your swing it is hard to say what exactly the problem maybe. If you have a SS certified instructor in your area I would maybe take a lesson to see if you have a swing issue.

Rodger  

Ya that's getting high by e mail! I jest.

Surge Nation:

    another after action report! I know you can't wait! LOL

    It was a "mixed bag" kind of day -- a lot of good shots, but a lot of terrible ones also. And to add to the insult my usually steady short game decided to "take the day off" !!

     11 of 14 fairways, 172 yd driving average  missed 1 to the left, 2 to the right (the last one was a semi-deliberate miss because the hole opens up from that side -- it is the "good miss")

      2 Greens in regulation and 4 or 5 near misses.
      2 bunkers, 0 Sandys - and it took two tries to escape from one bunker
      3 one outts, 0 three putts for 33 putts used.  Longest putt made was 14 feet and one at 13. Total made putts = 68 feet.

       3 pars, 11 bogies
       2 double bogies and 2 triple bogies

       Score:  48 + 45 = 93   Within my "expected average" -- but near the high end

        Keep hitting them STRAIGHT and LONG

        Amos

Things are progressing, but not what one would call fun at the moment. The way stuff is right now, though, I may actually be able to join you for a 9 before 8 sometime next week when you're back to getting on the course. We'll coordinate in email.

Don, what do you think of these "Same Length" clubs?

Are you sure you're doing the correct swing in your garden? How do you know? Do you use a mirror? Video? Can you do that same swing on a driving range?

Steve, I saw in yesterdays blog you shot a 73, man there are thousands who would die
to get a score like that, most of us are just happy to break 100 or 90. From now on I'll
think of you as "Stevie Wonder", did you know that the records still show that of all those
who play golf, only 10% break a hundred, probably means you must be in the top1% LOL.

Like Roger says, if you've eliminated, for the most part, the clubs as a source of problems, it may be time to see an instructor for some lessons. Maybe you can even make it out here to Vegas for the golf school after the tournament.

Do a search in the search box.  We've covered this topic numerous times.

Amos, thanks for after-action report.Nice work on the FIRs. Always a pleasure to check out you rounds. Happy golfing

Dear Don,  Can you help me as mt fingers near the knuckle are getiing sore?

I agree Surge that a lot of poeple get carried away about distance. I play with several groups
and just about all of them hit shots way past mine off the tee, but I usually have the lowest
score at the end of the day due to my shots around the green. I can get between 180-200M
with my 3W off the tee and for most par3's, 4's and par 5's, that's good enough, if I'm short on
the very long par 4's, then I rely on my short game to get the par or bogie. When it becomes
a contest between power versus finesse, then the latter usually wins.

I love you guys (and I am not kidding) -180 to 200 with a 3W - driver 225 with carry - shooting below 100 - 11 out of 14 fairways --- all cool - me, been doing this for a year and am lucky if I can hit a 7 iron 100 yards - and yes I was fitted by a certified SS fitter...

Don,whilst doing a correct swing in the garden, I am not doing the same on the course.  Please advise.

Might be time to consider going to more hybrids and less irons.

Neil

I think that the numbers / records come from handicap systems . The only problem I have with those numbers I think they are only accurate to the handicap systems some what a lot of people do not have handicaps. Their are better players that have handicaps in the system that show 22-23 handicap they will only turn there high rounds in. I know a couple of people that did that and they play in Pro ams with local club Pro's until they get caught these 2 guys were 8 - 9 handicappers in a skins game I use to be involved in running and we kept are own handicap within the game to keep the sand bagging down they were in the handicap system at  22- 23 they were getting 15 - 16 strokes in those tournaments until the other Pro's caught on to what they were doing. 

For Steve he is a good + player I keep waiting to here at one of these Senior Tour Tournaments it be anounced on the first tee : Now on the tee Monday morning qualifier Steve Smith .