In past posts we’ve reviewed some of the top senior golfer YouTube golf swing coaches. While none of these swing methods represents the Holy Grail of senior golf technique, each of them have a huge number of followers who have found their methods successful.
My introduction to a body friendly golf swing began more than 15 years ago when injuries and advancing arthritis began to affect my enjoyment and success at golf. At that time I found online videos offered by Don Trahan who went by the nickname of “Swing Surgeon.” He advocated and taught a system of the golf swing that was body friendly. That hit home with me. I became a student of his methods.
Don Trahan, the Swing Surgeon
The Legends of the Green golfing channel recently did an interesting video on Trahan’s golfing journey: The Half-Swing Heretic Who Changed Golf Forever
While Trahan trained as a PGA golf coach using generally accepted methods, he eventually reached a point where he was not happy with his own golf game. And he was experiencing a pain in his back that was resistant to however much therapy he tried. He was eating Ibuprofen like they were M&Ms during the golf season. The pain was always there and never went away. . . except in December, January, and February when he generally stopped playing golf. But as March came around and he began swinging the club to get ready for the golf season the pain returned. After some trial and error, he concluded the source of his problem was the conventional golf swing. That began his exploration into golf swing mechanics and human physiology and the development of what he branded as the Peak Performance Golf Swing.
The Science behind the three-quarter, limited-turn golf swing
Don consulting a number of experts to apply an understanding of physics and physiology to the golf swing, culminating in his participation in a bio-mechanical study to assess if his three-quarter, limited-turn golf swing developed as much club-head speed as a full, parallel backswing which was the PGA standard at the time. The results, which later was published in the February 1998 issue of Senior Golfer magazine, revealed that his club head speed was equal to the PGA standard and in addition placed significantly less stress on the spine, hips, and shoulders. His suite of golfing methods was shown to be based on facts and science.
According to Don, the swing he developed is not only body friendly, following this system allows a golfer to hit the ball solid, straighter, and longer.
Although Don passed away in 2024 you can still find an extensive collection of his golf swing videos on the Swing Surgeon Golf channel
And on his original Swing Surgeon website you can read Don introducing you to his swing methods.