Owning one’s Swing

 

I always thought that when people talked about “owning one’s swing”, they meant something like this:
To know the what, the how and the why of your swing inside out, and being able to perform accordingly. When it comes to your swing, there can be no unanswered questions. Nothing can stand in the way of you and the most efficient motion possible given your physical and mental capabilities.

I found this interesting quote in an old article about George Knudson:

“What is it that allows a golfer to own his golf swing? When you consider there might have been only three or four in the history of the game, the answer isn’t as complicated as you might think. 
It means repetition of the highest level.
It means a swing plane that is not rerouted and does not change regardless of the club.
It means impeccable posture and perfect balance.
But most importantly, in the cases of Hogan, Moe and George, it means a perfectly square clubface approaching impact that remains square through the shallow, long and low action after impact. One need just look at pictures of the three of them in action.”
~ Irv Lightstone, 2006 (source)

So Irv looked at what (he thought) were the similarities between the golfers who supposedly owned their swings.

So in the end it comes down to this:
Perfect execution of perfect technique with perfect consistency.

In my opinion, achieving this can only be helped by really knowing the what, the how and the why of your swing.

Or else just beat a lot of balls.

Yet another Hogan vid

Here is some rare footage of Mr. Hogan practicing at Colonial CC, only 10 months after his tragic car accident.

Quality Hogan Vid from Shell's Wonderful World of Golf

Multidimensional Hogan Video

Hogan’s Chipping Technique

Hogan practicing his chipping skills.

Here we see Ben Hogan practicing his chipping. Note the unorthodox technique he uses in this video. When I first saw this I immediately thought that it might be a good way to play short chip shots. I like that there’s very little moving parts, which would help consistency. Also, the fact that the wrists have to do the bulk of the work allows you to go at it a little more aggressively and really trap the ball against the turf.

Technique

On the way back it looks like he uses a combination of bowing and turning of his (left) wrist. Below you can see what I think that he’s doing with his wrists. Note that the forearms may or may not participate, depending on the length of the shot.

Address (left) and end of ‘backswing’ (right).

On the way down simply pull the club through using the pivot while performing the exact opposite of the move you made in the backswing.

There is a document floating around on the internet which supposedly contains transcriptions of letters that Hogan wrote to friends. I seriously doubt that it really is Hogan who wrote those letters. But anyway, since it contains a few paragraphs about this chipping technique I thought I’d share it anyway.

Here it is:

"The Hogan Letters: Written by Ben Hogan 7-20-78
---

As to your inquiry about chipping I haven't explained it to you because you've never asked and I thought perhaps you had no problems with them. The best method that I have ever used was explained to me and demonstrated by Bobby Jones many years ago when I was a neophyte golfer. It has proven to be invaluable in salvaging pars from fifty yards into the green, and I have yet to find a better method. With a little practice it will give you accuracy and you can hit it to the pin with assurance that you will have an excellent chance for a one putt and a par.

Snead stole it from me when we were playing together in the Tam O'Shanter in Chicago and the rascal went on to win the tournament. Snead is very observant of other golfers unique or special shots and watched me knock one up to within four feet on the second hole from twenty-yards. The ball floated up hitting about 10-feet and rolled like a putt right at the cup. He didn't say anything but on the sixth hole, a 540 yard par 5, he was about 25 yards from the green and he pitched one up using my technique and almost holed out, but had only a two-foot putt for a birdie. "You see," he said, "us mountain boys learn fast, and are not as dumb as you think." Since then I have revealed it to Trevino and of course Dickinson. It has salvaged a list of pars for them.

The basic idea (and now we get down to brass tacks) is to take a normal square stance (not open or closed) and a good grip (V's of left and right hand pointing midway between chin and right shoulder with the club face square to the line (be sure to not open or close the club face), then take the club back turning the hands clockwise 90-degrees bending the right elbow which folds as the hands move up in a short arc all the while keeping the upper part of the right arm in the same position as it was at address (in other words the upper part of the right arm does not change position in relation to the body). Very little movement of the legs is involved if any (keep knees flexed and limber). Keep your eye on the ball and swing the club head down to the ball. The hands will automatically revert to the position at address and will move the head of the club head (a nice delayed clipping action).

The ball should be struck crisply and a nice divot taken, which will be in line with the flight of the ball. The firmer the ball is hit the higher the arc it will take with less run as it hits. The shorter the hit the more run involved but the ball will settle down and run as a putt. It is simply a matter of practice, but one can be very bold with this technique because it minimized the amount of roll to a far greater extent than chipping with a seven or eight iron. Jan salvaged 5 pars with it and shot ? in the grocery tournament and was eight strokes up on second place. If she keeps it up they will ban her so she has to lose a couple.

See you soon sincerely

Ben Hogan”

Hogan Five Lessons Drawings Swing

Here are some drawings taken from Hogan's "Five Lessons" (First part of the swing and the second part of the swing) in 'stop' motion...

Hogan in Stop Motion

Here is a stripped down version of Hogan's swing. All the essential positions are here. 

Up in the skies

Watching Mr. Hogan hit some shots while listening to SRV's rendition of Jimi's Voodoo Chile. 
Life is Good.

Line up:
Swings: Ben Hogan
Guitars & Vocals: Stevie Ray Vaughan
Music & Lyrics: Jimi Hendrix





Well, I stand up next to a mountain 
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand 

Well, I stand up next to a mountain 
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand 
Well, I pick up all the pieces and make an island 
Might even raise a little sand 

'cause I'm a voodoo child 
Lord knows I'm a voodoo child baby 
I want to say one more last thing 
I didn't mean to take up all your sweet time 
I'll give it right back to ya one of these days 

I said I didn't mean to take up all your sweet time 
I'll give it right back one of these days 

If I don't meet you no more in this world then uh 
I'll meet ya on the next one 
And don't be late 
Don't be late 

'cause I'm a voodoo child voodoo child 
Lord knows I'm a voodoo child

Ben Hogan

From Field Hockey to Golf

Over at the Advanced Ball Striking forum there is this great topic, started by bomgolf222. It has all kinds of pictures from other sports that have similar movements (or positions) to golf. It’s also about how, in order to find the most efficient motion possible, we should learn what we can from other sports.

The golf swing is generally thought of as a very unnatural motion but I think that looking at the similarities in different sports can aid our understanding significantly.

Here are a few examples:


   

Hockey

I had been playing field hockey as a kid before taking up golf recently. Field hockey is the 10th most popular sport where I live and obviously there are many players that make the transition to golf later on in life.

If a former hockey player starts taking lessons from a local teaching pro, the pro will typically shake his head in disbelief when he sees the player hit a ball. You can almost hear him thinking: ‘Oh no, another hockey player! It’s going to take lots of lessons to turn this hitter into a swinger…’ The average pro sees the hit as something bad, probably because they themselves have been taught a pure swinging protocol.

Consider the two pictures below; the golfer being Ben Hogan and the Hockeyer is Theun de Nooijer. They are both considered to be the best players of their generations and as you can see there are lots of similarities in their movements. Hogan is a classic hitter with a very flat, pivot driven swing. Hockeyers typically swing very flat as well.



I think it would be far better for the player to embrace his hitting instincts and use them to his advantage. Hogan has clearly shown us that a hit with the hands (not arms) that is properly supported by the body can be a very effective move through the ball.

It's a shame that pro’s don’t recognize this because they could be having much better results with these players.

Ben Hogan Clips - Part 1

The best way to kick off the blog is probably to show a few clips of the late, great Ben Hogan. 

For once, let's not talk about his alleged 'secret' but just watch and learn:

This is a clip in which he is hitting balls in front of a small crowd.

Ben Hogan Swing 1953

In this shorter one you can clearly see the ball take off 'under the radar'.

Fairway wood swing

Another clip, I really like that you can see him hit from 2 sides here.

Hogan on the grid

Enjoy!