The most common thing I see when I watch a golf “guru” trying to sell their particular argument or swing mechanics is the Strawman Fallacy.

I see it time and time again, and this is something you can watch for, to amuse yourself, if you happen to watch someone attacking something as “wrong,” and how their way is better or the correct one.

If you’re unfamiliar with that term, here is the basic overview from Wikipedia, with what Jimmy Ballard did trying to sell something Hogan did or didn’t do in his swing highlighted:

A straw man fallacy occurs when someone distorts, exaggerates, or oversimplifies an opponent’s argument to make it easier to knock down. Instead of refuting the actual point, they attack this fake, distorted version (the “straw man”) and pretend they have defeated the original claim. [1, 2]

When you see what I mean, you will know why I call this stuff out when I see it, because they are selling snake oil and using famous players or swingers to do so.

First, Ballard says that you can’t be in a position with the hips and legs leading the upper body and with the spine tilting away from the target, which we already know is exactly what every great swinger has done:

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I can use the exact same pictures from yesterday, with a little gif. of Ballard “explaining” his genius, to completely invalidate the straw man he builds to try to knock down.

First, the gif. of what Ballard says will happen if you find yourself in this position on the down swing:

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And there is your straw man, because I challenge anyone on this planet to show me a swing where Ben Hogan got to this position and then stopped his down swing rotation and merely flipped at the ball.

Show me anyone, really – who rotates from the top to the halfway down position and then stops the rotation and flips at the ball?

No one.  Even someone who “flips” the ball is still rotating towards the target as they early release.

You can even see it, as I have promised to use only the two comparison photos from yesterday to prove my point.

The first shows Hogan in the same position as Ballard with the left arm:

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Notice however that Hogan’s shoulders are still fairly closed to the target at this point, because he’s in the middle of rotating to the target halfway down – that’s why we call it “halfway!”

He did not arrive at that position with his shoulders nearly square to the target line as Ballard is doing above, and he still has a full wrist cock where Ballard would have you believe that, instead of continuing the rotation and releasing naturally to the swing bottom, Hogan was trying avoid stopping his rotation halfway down and having to flip the club through.

I agree that this would be ridiculous, but it only makes Ballard ridiculous because Hogan never had a problem squaring his clubface – he was a hooker whose problem was squaring the face too early, not that he couldn’t!

Now, look at what Hogan actually did:

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You see that?

From closed shoulders to the target line and square hips to the target line, Hogan has come into impact with squared shoulders, a vertical left arm and open hips (which means that he has obviously continued his rotation toward the target from halfway down) and his right arm has extended with the release of the left wrist angle, to bring the club to the swing bottom and square the club face.

Hogan even says it in the clip where I have it to start at 00;21 when he’s at the top of the back pivot:

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What does he say?

… you move the lower part of your body – not your shoulders – the lower part of your body, letting your arms and hands follow, bringing you into position to hit… then you release at the bottom.

Not this:

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Again, here is your straw man fallacy – invent something Hogan never did (stopping his rotation halfway down to impact), and invent a problem that Hogan never had (squaring the club face), and create a completely ridiculous straw man to knock over.

So, yet another “expert” on the Ben Hogan swing who is either outright fabricating something about Hogan, or has absolutely no idea what Hogan was doing with his swing – it’s either one or the other, friends, and there is no third option other than it’s both.

And I would really love to see this video Ballard claims to have of Hogan doing these drills in 1956 at the Masters, before every swing…