I’m beginning to wonder if Ben Hogan deliberately left out the back pivot in this video clip where he describes the action of the down swing involved the hips and legs.
He doesn’t have to, of course, because if you just LOOK at what he’s doing on the back pivot, it’s obvious that he’s using the hips and legs to create the position at the top.
As I prepare to conduct the shooting for the upcoming “New E = MCS Golf Swing” video, I have found a pretty good 8 iron swing in my archives that best illustrate the setup and pivot action (with a couple of changes, namely the right-hand grip and my foot alignment).
It will be an ongoing theme – Jack Nicklaus’ setup with Ben Hogan’s “Perfect Pivot” action, and once again, I am finding my best swings to compare with the finished model are my MCS Golf Swing setup and swings from all the way back in 2015.
I have many time thought of re-editing the old “E = MCS” swing video because nearly all of it is still relevant, but the reasons I haven’t, and why I removed it from sale on the site are because I have made new discoveries since shooting that video back in 2017.
There are so few changes however, that I won’t even try to think of a new name for the upcoming video – it will simply be “The New E =MCS Golf Swing Video.”
Thanks to the Chief for sending me the news that a young golfer named Mason Howell has qualified for the U.S. Open at the tender age of 17.
That’s heady stuff, but it’s unfortunately the good news.
The bad news is that Chief included a video montage of the young man’s golf swing, and I don’t know what else to call it except a five-alarm fire with regards to injury risk.
I posted about Nataliya Guseva a month ago, with the admonition that “perfect” swings don’t ruin one’s body.
The clip was only 2-3 weeks old, but just a month after my initial post, I saw a clip of her swing posted just a day ago, which makes it little more than around 6 or 7 weeks apart – and it’s not looking good.
This swing clip that I saw online and of which I’ve made a gif. is the sweetest swing I’ve ever seen from Ben Hogan, in terms of visual quality and that really brings forth the magic of his pivot action.
For those who think Hogan looked a little thick around the waist and upper legs, you are likely unaware of his physical struggles.
One may have been wondering, why did I say that Jack Nicklaus was the closest to optimal when it comes to the golf swing, but I’m constantly talking about Ben Hogan?
That’s because of the nature of swinging – Nicklaus was far more powerful in his swing, but Hogan was much more accurate and consistent because of the pivot action in his swing.
All of this Ben Hogan talk has reminded me of something amusing that happened to me a few years back.
The funny thing is – I have never pretended or tried to swing like Ben Hogan except for in the video “The Ben Hogan Project” in 2014 in which I did wear a driving cap like Hogan for the mood.
In that video, if I recall, I didn’t even really try to swing exactly like Hogan, I just pointed out his pivot action, later known as the “Perfect Pivot” in my subsequent videos, and to debunk all of the nonsense about his swing that so irritated me after I’d taken a hard look at his mechanics.
You can call this “Why You Can’t Learn Ben Hogan’s Swing Pt II,” because I already dismantled Jim McLean’s attempt to analyze the legend’s mechanics back in 2014.
Note: I have just finished writing this posting and, having outlined everything wrong with this video, I am convinced that this very video is what everyone has been using as their blueprint to to try to swing like Hogan, either personally or teach others, or both. Including Jim McLean.
This is incredible – I would never in my wildest dreams have traced the Tiger Woods Tai Chi squat exercise back to Ben Hogan, but here we are.
I remember Tiger Woods once saying that Moe Norman and Ben Hogan were the only two golfers who owned their swings, which leaves out others like Bobby Jones and of course Jack Nicklaus, among others.
Leaving that aside, Tiger also claimed that Hogan couldn’t have played on today’s Tour because he’d be too short-hitting, which is rich, because guess who Tiger Woods has been trying to emulate since at least his Sean Foley days?
WAX Golf 