I went looking through my archive again today in search of something to which I could apply my “box theory” regarding a proper MCS setup and pivot action.
From July 2018, I found the perfect example – a very nice swing action that resulted in a massive and straight drive – but one that didn’t look quite right to me setup-wise.
It was only with hand-eye coordination and a little bit of athleticism that I was able smash this drive on line.
Sometimes, when I want to torture myself (because I really hate looking at swings and swing models that aren’t optimal), I will go back and look at how I was swinging in the early years of my swing research, and today I decided to go back to 2011.
It was the year after my first MCS swing video and I was working on the second one that I would release the following winter (MCS 2.0), and while the swing was mechanically-correct, there were some issues good and bad that I’d like to point out.
Those of you who were around last winter will remember that I had been conducting research on the right-dominant swing model and that I had concluded around that time that I had already figured out the optimal golf swing model.
It is an ironic situation in which one may find oneself when realizing that one had actually accomplished one’s mission but lacked the knowledge or expertise at the time to actually recognize the accomplishment.
The answer is very simple – I don’t actually “squat” in my swing, as I’ve said for a long time that this position is merely a snapshot in a down swing where the weight is transferring from the trailing to the leading side.
It is useful to show positions in a swing, but useless to try to teach “swing by position,” because it occurs so quickly.
I didn’t even notice something in the text from Ben Hogan’s book until after I had already published my post yesterday, but as I was glancing over it, a word in that selected excerpt fairly leaped off the screen – I was amazed I hadn’t noticed it before.
Once again, Ben Hogan absolutely muddled something up in his description of the pivot, but even if he did, I have questions to ask of the Modern Golf Swing people trying to recreate his swing.
I hate to say this, but I have never been one to avoid facts or to hide my head in the sand, and this is it – Ben Hogan clearly, most definitely heel-lifted (that can’t be argued against with a straight face), but he muddled the issue with his book and some people’s poor reading comprehension.
WAX Nation citizen AK sent me excerpts from Hogan’s book (which I have in my library, but which I haven’t read in decades other than to look for online quotes), and we found therein a likely cause of the “Hogan said not to lift the heel” legend.
I don’t often see swings these days that take me back to the “good ol’ days” of when the Modern Golf Swing had only one major flaw – the nailing down of the leading foot on the back pivot.
For years, the trend has seen the Modern Gold Swing move ever further away from the fundamentals of the Classic Golf Swing, including the setup (largely due to back injuries, I’d wager) to that stilted, stacked and tilted horror show currently unfolding.
An up the line view of one of my driver swings from when I was shooting the “E = MCS” video back in 2017 shows how you can use the Ben Hogan “Perfect Pivot” to get great consistency in your golf swing.
I’ve said before that the golf swing isn’t really a rotary or “turning” motion, rather a pivot action and a down swing, where the hips and legs drive the swing and the turning of the hips are what rotate you to the finish.
The reason the optimal golf swing is vertical and not rotary or lateral is because, as I’ve said before, you are using leverage and gravity to swing down into impact, and if your position remains laterally stable, you are golden with a modicum of practice.
I have taken a 5 iron swing and a Driver, to illustrate how purely you can strike the ball without jumping out of your shoes or breaking yourself in the gym.
I have been reviewing the vast quantity of swing clips that I shot with the assistance of The Welshman back in the spring of 2017 for the “E = MCS” swing video, and they truly have withstood the test of time, regardless of my earlier opinion.
One thing I love to look for (and I’m never disappointed on a good swing) is that shaft impact line and how the body and club interact with it when you watch a swing down the line.
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