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Is Your Takeaway Ruining Your Swing Before It Starts?
Is Your Takeaway Ruining Your Swing Before It Starts?
Authored by: Brady
Posted on: 5 May 2026

You've probably been told your whole golfing life that you need to keep moving before you swing. Waggle, forward press, rock the knee — whatever it takes, just don't stand still. Surge heard that too. He just never agreed with it.

His thing was this: if you're pressing forward to start a swing that needs to go backward, how do you make that feel exactly the same every time? With every club, every lie, every round? After a while, you start to realize — you can't. That little forward move changes just enough, just often enough, to mess with your timing without you ever knowing why.

What Surge taught instead was to come to a full stop before starting the swing. Feet planted, waggle done, one last look at the target — then still. From there, a simple three-count: squeeze the grip equal in both hands, press the knees out slightly, and go. The toe of the club moves first, the arms follow, and the club finds its way back up the plane. Nothing fancy, just quiet and controlled... Read More

Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 3 October 2012
Comments: 55
A reverse weight shift--where you end up with your weight on your back leg as you finish your swing--is one of the biggest robbers of both distance and accuracy. That's the problem that Jerry Shulman... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 30 September 2012
Comments: 35
I received this great email a few weeks ago from Ron Kriete, a Surgite from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. I like it because it proves how dangerous advice can be from people who know nothing about the... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 29 September 2012
Comments: 7
I recently had the pleasure of giving a lesson to a first-time student named Rick Baldwin, a lefty who has been been playing golf for 20 years but has only been with the Surge Swing for about six... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 24 September 2012
Comments: 25
A few weeks ago, I spent four days in Colorado teaching a series of our one-day Performance Schools. I really like this format for a number of reasons, but perhaps the best, from a teacher's... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 22 September 2012
Comments: 16
Earlier this summer, Russ Bamber, wrote to me asking for help with a problem that I don't hear of all that often. "Don, all of a sudden every one of my iron shots pulls left? My drives go straight,... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 18 September 2012
Comments: 42
Barry Sinclair, of Western Australia, sent me this question asking for an explanation of why many golfers have difficulty hitting their longer clubs well. "Seem to hit my irons well ( just a beginner... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 17 September 2012
Comments: 37
Today's tip is the natural follow-on from the one we covered yesterday on how to grasp your club correctly to set the proper amount of forward shaft lean at address. The question is from a Surgite... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 16 September 2012
Comments: 38
Today's question from Paul Myers of Franklin, Indiana is a really good one because it foucses on a key difference between the Peak Performance Golf Swing and almost every other golf swing theory out... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 11 September 2012
Comments: 47
Today's tip is the last (at least for now!) installment of Doc Griffin's Shaft Myth series. We owe Doc and all of you an apology because this episode was to have run six weeks ago. However, for some... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 8 September 2012
Comments: 56
I asked Doc Griffin, my Director of Club Fitting Operations, to answer this question from Wilson Doyle, a Surgite from Brentwood, TN who wanted to know what the proper lie angle is for an iron when... Read More