So great to be back swinging again, if only just practice swings at home with the Momentus Heavy Iron that I am using right now indoors.
I am not going to say I’ve cracked the Mike Dunaway model until I have actually swung and hit balls with it, but from what I am doing now, I believe I have.
It is a beautiful thing – I actually said to myself on the last swing before sitting down at the computer, “the man was a human Iron Byron with this swing…”
This is my latest line of inquiry.
It may seem counterintuitive, but that is actually true – a shorter back swing with a flatter top position CAN mean increased power translating into club head impact speed because of simple physics.
We tend to think that a longer back swing with the club going past parallel is the best way to increase club speed, but that isn’t always what happens.
Now, the thing to remember with all of my waxing poetic about Ben Hogan’s pivot actions, especially what I call the “Late Hogan Pivot,” which is the one he used in 1953 (when he won 3 of 3 majors played), you simply can not exclude Jack Nicklaus from the conversation on swinging.
This is because the optimal setup closely mirrors the exact same setup that Jack Nicklaus recommended in his book “Golf My Way.”
It is counter-intuitive to think, if you’re not used to the concept, that you swing from something other than your arms, but that is reality.
The arms are the only links to the club, of course, but they arms are swinging from the shoulders, and the mid-point of the shoulders is really the point around which the swing turns.
I have said that no one out there who mythologizes Ben Hogan actually follows what he did, nor have they any clue what he was actually doing in his swing.
Here is yet another example of such, where the fellow here (again, seems a decent fellow) uses Ben Hogan’s image in his video’s thumbnail, then proceeds to get it completely opposite of what Hogan’s swing mechanics entailed.
I have a 5 iron swing from when I shot the “E = MCS” video back in 2017, and you can see how deceptive the Hogan pivot action is with the low heel lift – but the fully turned hips provide all of the leverage power here.
I know that if I can successfully transfer the knowledge of how to perform this pivot, it will be a game-changer, even for the WAX Nation citizens of old – there is a Classic Golf Swing pivot, and then there is the Classic Golf Swing pivot, which is Ben Hogan’s.
I’ve never heard of this player, even though he he’s defending his title this weekend on the PGA Tour, but Mr. McJohn suggested I have a look at this lefty Classic Golf Swinger – so I did.
Sure enough, a good-looking Classic Golf Swing there, with load of power, and there’s only one thing in his swing that gives me a little pause watching him.
Both Jack Nicklaus and Ben Hogan had a setup that was considered “the same for all clubs,” and that is the way you want to swing as well.
I’ve been saying forever now that you want to setup more like Nicklaus did (I don’t think he invented the setup, but as the G.O.A.T., we’ll just call it the “Nicklaus” setup), and that you want Hogan’s pivot action.
Originally posted February 24, 2017 – I found this in my archives and nothing has changed in nearly 9 years…
It boggles my mind that Jason Zuback, in the early 2000’s, was around 200 mph in ball speed (Ryan Winther now holds the official record in ball speed at around 227 mph and an unofficial mark of 237 mph).
*Edit – as of today, the current world record holder in ball speed is Sebastian Twaddell, Golf Ball Speed Record Holder 2025 – 246.8 mph (Trackman).
That’s because I have actually gotten into the mid-190’s in my 40’s without having to live in the gym because of technique over muscle power, but one thing I can tell you – the clip below puts the Modern Golf Swing industry to shame.
If you were to ask me what my greatest breakthrough was in studying and analyzing golf swings (and building swing models), I would have to point to the day I figured out Ben Hogan’s pivot action.
Hogan himself stated that the proper pivot was a whole-body motion and didn’t separate the upper and lower bodies.
WAX Golf 