Ben Hogan's secret move

pgmetcalf,

I agree with you 100%. There are no secret moves in the golf swing that will guaruntee you hit the ball consistently every time. This article should have been labelled Ben Hogan's Secret Swing Thought. Swing thoughts are crucial, and many people need to have different thoughts.

Interesting that you mention that it is a feel that is hard to translate.


I took a group lesson this summer with 8 other people. And the instructor would say take it straight back, run your back knee through to start the swing. I wish I could have video tape the body contortions people were making. All this to say that, that was the feel that it seemed like to the Golf pro, but he just could not verbalize it good. Another pro, which I wasn't forturnate enough to get, had his student's doing all sorts of crazy drills so the body could feel the motion: which I would go home and practice instead of what my instructor was telling me. like:

Throwing a pale of water, throwing a little weight basketball, rope tied to the wasit and someone pulling you to the right while you do your take back (the feel of a stable right leg to stop from being pulled over).

In other words he did less talk and more feeling drills. I prefer these types of instructors, instead of the ones that just say, run the knee through, turn you hips, release, then ok, practice and come back next week with more money.

My 2 cents on this

Even thinking about starting the downswing by kicking in/out a knee would be disastrous for 99% of amateurs. The lower body needs to provide stablilty for the turning hips, shoulders, arms and hands

I like these feeling and image drills as well, as opposed to "checkpoint" drills. Greg Willis's "impact drill" is a very good drill for getting the feeling of getting the hip around at impact. The image drills aren't really drills, I suppose, but ways of capturing a feeling. The one you mention, of feeling pulled to the right during the takeaway, is one that I find very helpful. I get the image of someone standing on the target line, with a fishing line hooked to my club head, reeling it in. After that, the feeling of the rest of the backswing is "up", so that it feels to me as if the swing plane of the club head is just about vertical. It isn't, of course, but by swinging in a way that *feels* vertical, I do better.

__________________
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