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.
It seems a contradiction to say, but both of the following are true:
If you wonder how they can both be true, here’s how it is – if you asked me, which of Jack’s or Hogan’s swings I would use if I had to replicate them exactly (or try to), I would pick Nicklaus, hands down.
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.
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.
I have so many thousands of swing clips that I’ve compiled over the years between 2007-2022 that it is sometimes surprising to look back on the various models I’ve worked on.
It is beyond doubt to me, however, that my favorite ever driver swings to watch face-on are from May 15, 2015 – I hardly ever swung exactly the same way from day to day, as I was conducting swing research, but that day stands out to me as the day I nailed it.
I’ve been searching through my fairly large swing archive from between 2015-2022 and have found some archived swings from 2022 that are pretty much how I would be telling people to swing with the MCS Golf Swing model.
The years of 2023-25 consisted mostly of my investigating just about every variation of the swing with regards to grip, stance and mechanics, but as I have said, I basically had the MCS swing model figured out by 2015 and, aside from my personal journey to swing like this model, there has been very little change in said model over the years.
My only disappointment with the upcoming video will be that I couldn’t actually get out there this season to make new video clips, due to my left shoulder issues that are still plaguing me after four months.
Barring that, I am excited about this project because, although my swing model was essentially created between 2015-17 (notice I haven’t even made a swing video since 2018), the years since have allowed me to refine and conceptualize the model, so there really is no great need for new swing clips.
There is no one out there, no matter what they tell you, who swings like Ben Hogan.
There is an entire cottage industry built around “swing like Ben Hogan,” and every one of the claims is either an outright fraud or a complete misunderstanding of how the man swung.
You’ve seen lots of face-on clips of the golf swing, but not as many rear views, I would wager.
I talk a good bit about Ben Hogan’s “Perfect Pivot” action, and here is how you can identify it when you view a golf swing from the rear angle.
There are 3 things that one requires to have a similar action.
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