Daily Video Blog

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: 9 June 2011
Comments: 130
In the Surge Swing, you keep that angle between forearm, wrist and shaft you had at the top of the backswing as long as possible during the transition. That will lead to more clubhead speed, power... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 8 June 2011
Comments: 4
The other day, when I was talking about avoiding hitting the ball high on the clubface, I didn'€™t mention tee height. Is tee height important? Definitely. But is it the most important... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 7 June 2011
Comments: 95
It always hurts me to see a golfer walk up to the tee with driver in hand, plant his feet a mile wide and attempt to muscle his way to the ball. He'€™ll slide and I can almost hear his back crunch... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 6 June 2011
Yesterday I talked about how overactive shoulders can cause you to come over the top, creating a cut. As is often the case, our Director of Club Fitting Operations, Lynn "Doc" Griffin, had... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 5 June 2011
Comments: 128
There'€™s been some really exciting discussion about avoiding going '€œover the top'€ in the forward upswing (downswing, impact and followthrough). I always visualize that motion as skipping a... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 3 June 2011
Comments: 200
  Because of all the interest I'€™m going to continue one last time with the position of the arms at address. We got a good suggestion from the blog about just walking up to the ball and, with the... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 2 June 2011
Comments: 117
There'€™s been a good deal of discussion on the blog about positioning the arms in addition to over-reaching. One comment reminded me of the old golf days when I was new at teaching. It had to do... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 1 June 2011
Comments: 42
Boy, when I did a video on reaching for the ball and all the problems that caused we got slammed with great response and good questions. This is kind of a reminder and how to keep that from... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 31 May 2011
Comments: 60
Got a question about a problem of transferring a good practice swing to the real thing. Leo feels he'€™s making good a practice swing but doesn'€™t apply it to the one that counts. That can be a... Read More
Authored by: Don Trahan
Posted on: 30 May 2011
Comments: 114
On this Memorial Day, I would like to take time to thank our nation's military men and women, past and present, for their strong sense of commitment and and their unflinching willingness to... Read More