I was doing my usual tour through YouTube yesterday and posted about how the art or knowledge of the natural swing has been lost – it’s even more than that – the Modern Golf Swing has evolved.
It seems to me that lesson of the X-Factor wrecking lower backs has been taken partially to heart by the Modern Golf Swing world, and the swing theory has evolved, or devolved, if you will – back to the days of Stack & Tilt.
It occurred to me, watching things come across my YouTube feed earlier in the morning, that the knowledge or art of natural swinging has been lost, and the culprit is clear.
You simply can’t make a mechanically-sound golf swing with the leading heel nailed down and the hip turn being restricted, so instead of solving a simple problem by removing it, people are getting further and further adrift from proper mechanics in trying to solve it.
I’ve already highlighted the insanity that is golf “instruction” on YouTube, and I ran across this fellow we’ve already discussed with his “to swing like Ben Hogan, don’t do anything Hogan was doing or saying” video, however…
I really don’t know what to say about this video, and I’ll admit that I only watched the first minute, because I couldn’t listen to it any longer – this fellow violates every sports principle, and when he started talking about swinging like a pitcher throws, I was out.
One of the problems you find in the modern golf swing methodology is that whole “straightening the left leg” concept, of course, ostensibly for generating leverage and thus speed and power in the impact phase.
This is leading to a generation of golfers who will suffer from knee ailments as they inflict incremental damage on that leading knee with the hyper-extension you see in many power swingers. Continue reading
I originally posted this about Jack Nicklaus back in 2016 after KidCharlemagne had sent me the quote, and Scott from Arizona sent me a screenshot of the actual page taken from Nicklaus’ book “Golf My Way,” so why not re-post?
With all of our talk about Ben Hogan “experts” creating the Modern Golf Swing based on misinterpreting his mechanics and the explanations thereof, here is the G.O.A.T. telling it like it is, probably a few years after that infamous Ben Hogan video began misleading people the golfing world over.
Blame the Modern Golf Swing for this, to be sure.
An absolutely depressing piece of golf journalism greeted me this morning, and I don’t know where the game is going – one day, they’ll be loading balls into mortar tubes and not having to hit them at all, it seems.
The Golf Digest article at hand, “For Most, The 4 Iron Is Dead,” by E. Michael Johnson, should have the legends rolling in their grave.
It’s amazing what you find online just looking at random clips, but I have just found an old Ben Hogan television demonstration of a swing drill and suddenly, everything makes sense.
The thing I don’t get is that before he even performs his drill in the way he does, his actual golf swing is widely available to watch, so I don’t understand how everyone in the world of golf today fails to see what he was doing in his actual swings and how they so badly interpret it.
I have recounted to you all the lesson I learned over a decade ago, which is to never listen to or take another’s word for something if what they are saying can be independently checked.
For years, I believed (because it was all you heard about him) that Ben Hogan was a restricted-hip swinger and I’ve laid out for you all the theory I have that he was unwittingly the father of the Modern Golf Swing when people with eyes couldn’t see what he was doing.
I’ve already briefly mentioned this fellow when talking about how so-called Ben Hogan “experts” are either completely misinterpreting what Hogan did or flat-out saying outlandish things that Hogan would have swatted away like a pesky fly.
I don’t even look for this stuff, it just comes across my feed because I am always searching golfers like Hogan, Nicklaus and other greats of the Classic Golf Swing era.
A new arrival to WAX Nation posted a comment last night inquiring about the origins of the Modern Golf Swing, and a couple of other related questions.
Welcome, Scott from Arizona, and I wanted to dedicate a full posting to answer these questions instead of just responding to the comment, as I know many people don’t dive into comments when reading online posts.
The three questions were:
WAX Golf 