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.
There is no end to the scamming and hyping of this ridiculous new swing model that is now taking over the internet – this one purports to be the “perfect swing for seniors,” but is nothing more than the same stacking, tilting and turning and swiping.
Note: I don’t recommend seniors try this swing – I don’t recommend this for anyone of any age, for that matter – but for seniors, who tend to have less flexibility and balance than the younger set, this is an invitation to disaster.
I looked at a swing clip of mine from ’07, that you’ve all seen before, and that something caught my eye, leading me to conclude…
… that in my first year of actual swing research (I started the mission in ’05 but didn’t have a chance to really hit balls regularly on the range until ’07 due to work and family constraints), I had what the Modern Golf Swing is killing itself to replicate.
Even Rory McIlroy, one of the best players on the planet, has to manipulate his down swing because of how the Modern Golf Swing has lost its natural leverage, which is not a problem with the Classic Golf Swing.
My issues with the golf swing never had anything to do with leverage, because I have almost always swung with a Classic Golf Swing motion.
There is one thing that essential to comprehend and to believe in, for one to achieve one’s utmost potential in swinging a golf club with both precision and power, and to swing “in the box,” with no lateral motion.
That thing, friends, is to comprehend and believe the golf swing effort is over at the swing bottom.
I used to say the “the swing is over at the bottom,” but that then conjures the image for many people that “the swing stops at the swing bottom,” as if swinging into a wall or impact bag.
They are teaching absolute nonsense, and I nearly choked on my tongue when, at the beginning of the below clip, the student performed a “Turn & Swipe” motion with his head moving laterally (a big sway and turn and swipe), to have the “instructor” (I use this term far too loosely) say, “that’s how you turn your hips!”
Oh, do tell, instructor!
You turn your hips by swaying to the target rather than sliding to the target (both being garbage mechanics)?
I literally just posted a while back on how leverage and gravity provide the elements for the release of the club at the swing bottom, only to run into this clip yesterday whilst scrolling through YouTube.
I have no idea what this concept is trying to say or do, because absolutely no one in golf, even the worst of the Modern Golf Swing practitioners, does this – I suspect it’s about keeping the click count going when having run out of things to say, but people watch these things, which is harmful.
I have taken a real-speed driver swing of mine back in 2015 when I was swinging regularly and in much better shape than I am currently, to illustrate something with regards to piece-work swinging.
You’ll notice that, when you watch Modern Golf Swing instruction, you will get someone spending five minutes on describing in minute detail all of the various moves you must make for the down swing from the transition to the post-impact finish.
