Greg Norman's "The Secret"

My "secret" arrived today. Unfortunately, I was careless and didn't notice that the accompanying video is a VHS tape, and my VCR is long gone. But there is a "quick start" pamphlet that gives the essentials of how to practice with the thing.

I put it on and adjusted the straps so that they're fairly snug, then took a 9 iron and went outside just to swing the club for a while. The cupping of the right wrist really is pretty extreme, so when you set up the shot, you have to do so in a pronounced forward press. I started to swing the club, beginning with just a half swing to get the feel of it, which is very much the same as Greg's right-hand drill. Then I gradually increased the backswing and the follow-through, and the result was *very* interesting, even with no ball.

First, although the Secret holds the right wrist in the cupped position throughout the swing, the wrist strap is a fairly strong elastic, so the hand can pull against it and straighten a bit. And when I got closer to a full swing, this is just what I felt happening. That is, I could feel my hand stretching the wrist strap and therefore uncupping the wrist *a bit* right around the point of impact. The wrist was still cupped, but a bit less so, at impact.

Second, since the Secret makes "casting" or breaking the left wrist quite impossible, it literally forces the rotation of the wrists through and after the impact zone. You just have to, and the result is a higher finish than what I'm used to. When I first saw pictures of the thing, I thought it would lead to some awkward or even painful position in the follow-through if the right wrist couldn't uncup, but I was wrong. You can swing right through and it feels fine.

Third, and maybe most important, because the wrist stays cupped, the Secret forces the hip to rotate around, especially as the swing gets bigger. Otherwise you just can't swing the club. This really took me by surprise, but I could feel the hip torque and it was a new sensation for me.

I took 20 or 30 swings wearing the Secret, and then took it off and tried swinging the 9 iron without it. I *felt* that I was doing it much the same way as with the Secret on, but of course that's not yet tested. For that matter, I don't yet know whether I'll be able to hit the ball at all with this thing on. But judging just by the feel, I think I will.

I hope I get some time to hit a few at the driving range tomorrow, but I'm not sure that'll be possible. When I do, I'll post the results of my experiments.

__________________
Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

Hey Todd,

I agree with your assessment. Since you can't watch the video, you are not really missing much. Greg Norman gives some little hints but nothing that you can't live without. One thing he does say that I think is important is that you should not "fight" the Secret. In other words, when you feel you are pulling away from the secret and stretching the elastic, I try to relax and not fight it. I think that is important as per his instructions.

For me, this has been one of the best training aids I have used. Like you said, it practically forces you to rotate the wrists and "hit the little home run".

Keep me posted.

Chessbum...

Was thinking about getting one of these for a while - after seeing Greg's right hand drill and reading this thread I finally went on eBay and bought one. I've been wearing it around the house today for the first time and I have to say it's making me realize there are muscles in my right forearm I didn't know I had! Pretty uncomfortable stuff.

I haven't hit any balls with it yet, but I have been swinging a club with it on. What Todd said is spot on - there is no way you can cast the club with this on (definitely my biggest problem) and it forces you to open your hips to get the club square in the hitting zone.

Interested to hear how you're experimentation with it is going Todd - is your ball striking improving?

Today was my first opportunity to try the Secret at the driving range, and the experience was not brilliant. Anything beyond a half swing chip shot was a disaster. I hit a bucket of 85 balls, mostly with the PW, but trying out a few other clubs too. It just didn't get any better, and I have no idea what was wrong. I was shanking, topping, chunking, you name it.

I was so discouraged I decided to get another bucket (after taking a break and having a soda) and practice without the Secret. At first, things were just as bad, as I feared, but after about 10 balls I began to hit okay. So I don't know if the Secret was causing problems or I just needed 95 balls to warm up today.

But don't base anything on my experience, since I'm an exceptionally bad golfer and it means nothing if something that helps others doesn't help me.

Nobody came over to me to ask me to share my Secret!

__________________
Todd
Philadelphia, PA
USA

The reason the pro tells you to keep your head down is so you can't see him laughing. ~Phyllis Diller

In improving my game / swing over the past years, I've tried many methods, including the similar technique that the secret seems to encourage. However, I find this exaggerated right hand angle only beneficial in chipping. Instead, I follow instructions from an old Jack Nicklaus's book, which tells you to set up with a straight left arm, ball just inside your left heel for all clubs (just narrow your stance according to which club you use), and wrists should be straight on the back swing. If you rotate with your hips, and shoulders, your wrists will naturally cup, and return at the point that is required to hit the ball square.

Cheers.
Lee.

Shame! Here's a question for you though - I find that when I swing with it on, the muscle in my right forearm really starts to ache. I don't know if you find the same thing...

Assuming the secret is teaching the correct technique, this suggests to me that the muscles in my forearm that I should be using in my golf swing are not the muscles I normally use.

I haven't had the chance to hit any balls yet as I'm recovering from some broken ribs, I'm just swinging gently indoors. But still, I notice that to keep the right wrist cupped throughout the swing requires quite a bit of right forearm strength....

Viewing my "normal" swing on a recent video lesson I had, it's clear that my natural tendancy is to cast the club at the start if the downswing. Perhaps the reason I do this is simply because I've never really built up the muscles to properly swing the golf club - it's painful to keep the wrist cupped, so I resist from doing it.

One thing that I think is common in all good golfers (and I'm happy to be contradicted on this) is strong forearms - think of Palmer, Nicklaus, Hogan and Woods - they all have powerful looking forearms.

I guess this begs the question - if Popeye had joined the tour instead of having to rescue Olive Oyl from Bluto evey day, would he be in the World Golf Hall of Fame by now?!

I have been using "The Secret" like a madman. It has helped me get the feel for the correct swing, in my opinion. I was casting bigtime until I started using Greg Willis's Right hand drill and then "The Secret" which makes it much easier to feel what the correct swing should feel like.

I don't think having "strong forearms" has anything to do with it. You must have very little tension in your arms or you are going to always make a bad swing. If you review Greg Willis's comments about the Right Hand drill, he says that the swing should be made with the cupped right hand and that the hands can move in a vertical direction. To me, it's a matter of getting the right feel. It's something I can't even describe in words, but I know when I am doing it right and I know when I am doing it wrong.

I submit to you, that if "The Secret" is bad for your swing or instills the wrong type of swing then Greg Willis's Right Hand drill is just as bad for you. They both promote the same feel.

Comments????

Chessbum....

Hey Chessbum - I agree with you that tension is a swing killer - but if your forearms are strong and conditioned, you won't have tension in them. A strong muscle will operate far more efficiently and with much less tension than a weak muscle trying to exert the same force.

All I can say is what I feel - and that is that my right forearm was aching using the Secret - but I don't think this is a bad thing at all. In order to keep the right wrist cupped throughout the swing, you are contracting the muscle in the right forearm - essentially the Secret was giving my right forearm a much-needed workout.

Anyway, I couldn't resist going to hit some balls this afternoon in my driving net. It took a little getting used to (and I was taking it easy due to my ribs) but after five or six swings, the sensation on impact became incredibly crisp. Unfortunately, seeing as I was in a net, I couldn't see the effect it was having on my ball flight....

For me, the sensation at impact was the same as I used to get every now and then when I'd hit a shot flush and say "how the hell did I do that?" and try desperately to repeat it without success. Only with the Secret I was getting that sensation with almost every shot.

I didn't hit with anything longer than a 6 iron, so I'm not sure how it would feel with the longer clubs - but with the short irons it felt great!

I did as Greg (Norman, not Willis!) recommends and hit 15 or so shots with it on and then 5 shots with it off - happily, it really does feel like the muscle memory is being ingrained by doing it this way - the crisp sensation remains.

I agree 100% with the sentiment behind that statement - I believe that both Greg's drill and The Secret promote the same, correct ball-striking motion. I'm looking forward to going down the driving range and using it for a full practice session as soon as I can!

I couldn't help noticing that Ben Hogan, in the pictures from the the "Ben Hogan's Secret Move" thread, does not have the cupped position at impact. Of course, they're drawings and maybe don't represent Hogan's swing accurately.

Too bad for Ben Hogan, THE SECRET WASN'T ON THE MARKET YET....


haha,

Chessbum....

Ha - nice one!

On Todd's point, I do think Ben Hogan's right hand was cupped at impact (and it certainly is very cupped immediately prior to impact), perhaps not to the extent that The Secret forces you to cup. I agree that those drawings of Hogan show minimum cupping (although there is a slight angle there).

I guess since the secret is a training aid, it is trying to exagerrate the feeling of keeping the right wrist cupped. Found a nice photo of Mr. Hogan just prior to impact:

http://www.tjsrecords.com/images/HOGAN1.jpg

Look how cupped his right wrist is so late into the downswing (it would be even better to see this from behind) - his hands have almost reached the ball and yet his wrists are still fully set.

I believe that The Secret really promotes this feeling. (I thought the caption at the bottom of the photo in the link above was particularly fitting - everyone has a "Secret"!!).

If you can get into this position on the downswing, you'll be in great shape to play some fantastic golf....

That's a very cool picture of Ben Hogan.

I find it especially interesting to look at the path of the club head, which traces out two ellipses. The backswing ellipse goes out to the left (to the rear along the target line), then the downswing shifts the whole ellipse to the right by about a foot! Yet somehow both ellipses bottom out right at the ball...whew!

Yep - the downswing should always be "tighter" than the backswing. Most of us do it the opposite way.

Absolutely - it's amazing isn't it? It looks like more than a foot even - at the farthest point it looks like almost 2 feet!

I guess the combination of Hogan dropping his right elbow to the right hip bone and shifting his weight to the left opens up that much room on his downswing. Amazing.

I've actually downloaded some software recently called V1Home - it is analysis sofware that lets you draw lines on videos of your swing (like those elipses in the Hogan picture) and compare it to pros' swings etc. They have several versions, one of which is free.

I got the $40 "Premium" version, which is pretty good. I'll start a new thread in General Golf Discussion called "V1 Home" asking if anyone has any opinions on this software - I understand it's almost identical to what several top teaching academies use such as Leadbetter and Harmon....

I just received my "Secret" in the mail today. Very excited to try it out. I am a pretty bad caster on video lessons and have been actively trying to keep my right wrist hinged at impact. When I successfully do it, it is usually on a half to three quarter swing and my swing plane and divot are out to in, BUT..... I can get a nice crisp "thud" on the ball, divot after ball, and I know that's what I need to do. The problem is... when I concentrate on keeping my swing going in to out, I can't keep my right wrist hinged. Too many swing thoughts!

All your input is interesting and I'm headed to the range shortly to assess the "Secret" for myself.

Thanks!