Mastering Ben Hogan's Swing

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A wise old timer once told me many years ago, "You gotta figure out how to get the right hip moving!". Using the extra spike on the right shoe can help.

Roger that.

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Little less right wrist bend ...

Elbow squeeze, please!

i agree with all that, here is another:

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very nice, looks like you are well fitted out for the expedition. Going to tell us any more detail of the how? What's your key/method of doing takeaway-backswing?

And any other insights would be appreciated.

Looks darn good to me OP.The only thing about Hogan that nobody seems to have matched to this day is how "around" he got on it.I mean to say his pivot,particularly the lower body,was always turning toward the target without a stall-throw.Most players have a degree of stall-throwing.Hogan had none of that whatsoever IMO.

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll jot down some thoughts on what I'm trying to work on in the next few days. There are a number of things I've learned about Hogan's swing while trying this. Here is another vid:

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Love your knuckle slider swing. lovely action, exit and finish. Are you going to tell us more about what you do to achieve all this?

i want your swing please.

Love your knuckle slider swing. lovely action, exit and finish. Are you going to tell us more about what you do to achieve all this?

i want your swing please.

Hey Pin, one thing for certain (just like you've said before), no one quite understands how much you have to get your weight (pressure) left, even with the driver, which is quite rare. Both the upper body and the lower body have to move massively left. You go left until you're going to fall over and then you have enough friction under your left foot to translate into rotation--both pelvis and your whole torso lumbar, thorasic, and even your cervical is released into rotation. But, Hogan set the tilt early in transision so you could do this and still deliver good shallow angles. A lot of Hogan copiers dig trenches.

Also, Hogan was known for plane but he did more plane shifting than anyone--in action he ignored plane entirely. His feel of tilting the downswing plane underneath the backswing feel turned out to be just this: large arm winding and undwinding, massive beta torques (jacob/nesbit). It doesn't feel anything like what I thought a golf swing should feel like.

With those huge arm windings, he had to do pelvis shifts to balance them out and deliver the club to the execution phase 2D plane at P6. As the clubhead cg goes into high speed at P5 to P6, it gains a ton of inertia, so the plane goes 2D until it slows down at P8. Then it departs and bends off the plane again.

That 200 degree arm rotation would make him look like a massive flipper if it wasn't hidden or masked in a very active pivot train form P6 all the way to the finish.

....but he can't keep that pivot train moving on the left foot if he doesn't first get crazy left with everything.

Nice work ... good progress on a difficult task! Right hip and hand actions from P6 to P8 are still the primary challenges ... they're the difference between a late finish swivel and an impact flip.

Roger that Moe, I'm still throwing it.

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love all the Hogan stuff - unfortunately efforts to copy (for me) result in straight blocks

just cant catch up....

love your work - as they say.... some time ago i gave up on trying to have a swing like Hogan because I just couldn't figure it out.

To me the most important part, and most difficult for me is the very first take-away move. It has to be so "deep" and "under" with an immediate shoulder turn to almost 90*, seems to me this is the only way to get the hands as deep as he does so early, and this move increases the spine tilt a bit as the head comes down a bit, really making a serious spine angle.

The pic is just a reference not a criticism of what you are doing.

Anyhow yesterday i was playing a match and hitting it bad as usual, on the 10th tee i needed a new swing (i normally do this 3 times a round) and rehearsed a new take-away and downswing which was so back-under-inside it was scary, then the downswing was to try to retrace this path, which meant my shoulders could not move , my image was there was half a tea cup behind my right side and the club moved up and down on the inside surface of the cup, so it was a very circular feeling, especially the downswing bit. it was so weird, i felt like i was going to hit the ball straight out to the right about 45* away from target line, which makes logical sense really because thats actually where the club should be going half way down on your downswing, so when the ball started to go straight or even a bit left i was stunned, to me it was about a 180* visualization difference about where me and the club is and what we are doing. I persisted with that even though it felt so weird and dangerous, hit the ball pretty straight but not really solid, but acceptable, parred the last 9 holes but still lost the match. Its very interesting to me because it requires a complete reversal of my ingrained mental image of whats what and where. The other thing was it actually felt a lot better, smoother and not tied up in knots as i swing down. I was thinking about it last night and the difference between most swings and this type of motion, to me it seems this motion is one continuous motion on one circular path where the usual modern swing style requires what i call lots of "changes in direction" with arms especially. i have written a lot of rubbish here over the years, this might be another!

Theres another thread about whats your goal, i'm 64yo now and 4 handicap, so entering the sunset of golfing life, my secret goal is to have a smooth easy swing, no complications, easy on the body etc, and i'd quite happy to hit a 3 iron only 190 yards as long as its solid straight and 95% reliable. It looks like i have been seduced again into finding a swing of the Hogan type, grrrrrrrrr.......

OP, i will be wtaching your progress with great interest, good luck.

hey Pin, I think you're exactly right. I'm trying to concentrate on syncing up the arm swing and pivot train right now because, without that, nothing else matters. But i do need to dive into those angles more--make them sharper. My swing still looks too much like "me".......but my swing DNA will be eradicated shortly.

since thread started - played 9 holes twice (after taking 2 wks off for summer breather)

with just "Hogan" swing principles (as I know/understand) in my head

grip/stance/posture/backswing - let it go left

its been fun!

Sweet! looking good... you can hit a 2 iron???!!!!

why can't i do that...

Sweet! looking good... you can hit a 2 iron???!!!!

why can't i do that...

Pin, nothing better than smoking a 2-iron....but it's not for the faint of heart......I'm probably only showing you my good ones. :)