Peak Performance Golf School, Day One: Interview, Diagnose, Prescription.

We're down here at Port St. Lucie at the PGA Golf Learning Center. We had our first session, starting at 1 O'€™clock this afternoon, for our students. This is what I call the interview, filming, diagnosis and prescription part of the school. The first thing is the interview where if found out our students were all working and studying very diligently, working hard at getting the proper setup and swing. All were from the North, so they've had very little chance to play because of the bad weather. But they are still working on it and practicing in their homes and getting out whenever possible. They all felt they were doing a pretty good job of getting the setup right and the swing. So with that they told me they were all, on average, 10 to 15 handicappers, one actually got as low as seven in season.

The thing was, they all felt that before Peak Performance, they could get good but they kept working on so many things that‚  eventually they boggled up their minds and their swings went south. They were ready to get stable and get on one track and stay with it.

After we filmed them and took a look at the video, what did we find out? Overall, they were all doing a pretty good job in the setup. They all had the wide knees with the outward pressure. they had the flared feet and they were in a pretty good athletically ready position. So setup-wise, they were all O.K.

Except one, major thing. So far in all the schools we've done, this group of guys didn't fail. They're all right handers and they were all aimed right. So we're still batting 100%. Every student that's been in the golf school has been aiming right, and group is right with the rest of them. The least right of them was about 30 yards right. Yet they've all been reading the alignment articles and they've all been diligently working on it, starting from behind, finding your spot, walking in, making the H, making sure that they're getting themselves parallel.

Yet every one of them would have bet money that they were lined up pretty well and they were all right. So alignment is still a bugaboo and I know you're all working hard on it. I'm coming up with some new ideas that might help us all and I'll talk about that a little later.

The other things we saw that were really important when we looked at all the swings was, 100% again, they were making too much of a turn and getting deep and into the sacred burial ground and the clubs were laid off. One of them was taking barely half a back swing and thought he was lifting his arms up and standing the club straight up, but he was inside and laid off. He was just flabbergasted, saying, “Wow, I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't see it.”

Compounding the backswing problem and all aiming right, approaching impact their arms were breaking down and they weren't getting to the extended straight arm position at impact and their arms were folding around their torso like a cheap chair, collapsing around their bodies and were turning to the left because they had to turn their hips and shoulders more to clear their body out of the way so they could swing their arms down the aiming line. When they collapsed around their body, it pulled their shoulders even farther, finishing with their torso way left of the target.

They were deep in the Sacred Burial Ground (SBG) on the backswing, turning real hard to clear the line, and finishing way left of the target, with low hands in a huggy bear finish. As I say, you hug your wife and kids but you don't hug yourself when you swing a golf club.

What was the solution? We had to get them all truly into the limited turn to stand the club up which wasn't too hard. They had a good idea of it and after seeing it they knew what up was. But the thing I worked with mostly on all of them was after I got them set up, was to able to swing up to the T-Finish with their hands coming up over the left shoulder into a good finish, with their hands close to their forward ear.

It was amazing. Mike, one student, actually commented, he's really hitting dead solid shots, they rocketing right up in the air, straight as an arrow, and he's like hitting it at least 10 yards farther than he was before. '€œAll of a sudden do you hear something with all your swings?'€ He said, “I'm hearing the club swish.” I said, “What does that mean, Mike? It means you're getting more clubhead speed.”

He honestly admitted he wasn't trying to swing faster, but he felt it was faster with no extra energy and effort put into it. So I ask, “Where did it come from?”

Mike's an engineer and he put his finger right on it and said, “Well, I'm now swinging the club more vertically, lifting my arms up more, so I've got gravity helping me more. With the free fall of the arms in transition, it's speeding my arms up and I can actually fell my body slowing and my arms going faster.”

Because he was more vertical in the backswing and he was finishing up higher, closer to his front ear, he was also keeping his club accelerating more up in his finish and that's where the speed was coming from.

All of them got to hitting the ball really solid, really straight and, for the most part, longer because they were staying over the toe line. They were getting vertical, with a limited turn that was helping the lift their arms more, and swing on up to the finish over the forward shoulder. It all happened because, first and foremost, the one major problem was alignment. We got them set up more parallel left so, with their body out of the way, it could stay quieter and they could swing their arms better, and they could finish straight to the target.

I stressed the finish more than anything else because if they can get to a good finish, they're going to start hitting better shots. Once we get them going to a good finish, it gets easier to fax the backswing. The brain figures out really quick, wow, this is really nice, getting up to the finish. If I can fix up my backswing even better and make it more vertical, more vertical in the back is going to make it easier to get more vertical to the finish.

These are good points for all of you and again, I keep stressing, if you hit those good shots to the right, deck your alignment. You'll probably find out you're aiming there. Still comes back to alignment. Keep working on it. I have thought I'm still working on and will come back and give it to you in the near future.

(Golf School Note: Look for details soon on our California PPGS schools at Talega Golf Club in beautiful San Clemente, May 17 – 19 and 20 – 22. It's going to be one heck of an experience. Call: 1-888-84SWING[79464] or 1-864-525-7336.)

The Surge!

P.S. In case you didn't get my email earlier today, DJ and I shot a putting drill video for you that you can see on YouTube by going here. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment there.