Note Hogan's incredible extension through the ball, and how it, coupled with his coil creates incredible power. My personal opinion is that having an active lower body such as his is an invitation to having a huge slice, because not many amateurs are strong enough to release the club fully through the impact zone. I would recommend looking at Sam Snead or Byron Nelson videos for the picture-perfect golf swing, but that's just me. Your mileage may vary, of course, and far be it from me to give you any swing advice. That's best left to your pro.
Top Golf Tips to Warm Up Your Play During the Winter Months
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Playing golf during the winter months can be more difficult. The ground
freezes over, playing havoc with your shots. You lose a bit of flexibility
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4 weeks ago
I could watch golf swing videos all day. Really. I try not to watch too many because elements of them inevitably end up in my swing thoughts, often in some kind of crazy sequence resulting in a monumental mishit. This one is pretty awesome though. The Ben Hogan swing as you point out is certainly not suited to beginning or occasional golfers, however I have a teenage niece who comes with me to the driving range sometimes, but has never played on a course and she just naturally swings that way. Of course most of her balls fly off in some odd direction, but when she serendipitously strikes the ball just right it's pretty amazing. As a result I can't get her to work on a more conventional swing for too long. ;o)
ReplyDeleteVery true - copying Hogan's swing will most likely produce a big slice. That swing was developed by a top level player who nearly hooked himself off the pro circuit.
ReplyDeleteHe weakened his grip and he exaggerated the lower body motion for the purpose of taking the left side of the fairway out of play.
Most of us don't have the timing and/or strength to pull off Hogan's move. The guy was phenomenal.
Harvey Penick's books are still the best place for beginners to start in my opinion.
In his book "And if you play golf, you're my friend", he talks about having lunch with a group of Japanese businessmen who naturally talked about their golf swings. When they described their problems, he asked if they had read Hogan's book. They said they had and all they hit was a very big slice.
Penick strengthened his grip and quieted the lower body to get him to hit a draw, which is much better for the average player.
...but it's impossible to get tired of watching that swing of Ben Hogan. Thanks for the post !