John, how solid is your left leg?
Very Solid… not solid enough… always trying to increase the cohesive body tensions points… all four of them.
I thought so, it looks it. Great comparison above.
It’s not as much about how things look and how the ball is compressed and ball flight.
The path of the clubhead, the clubshaft, and the control of the clubface. If you focus on those things… then strangely enough, the swing would start to look a bit like Hogan’s swing.
But really, you have to start from the inside out… figuring out what the body has to do to move the shaft the way Hogan did.
What was his shaft doing?
What was the clubhead doing?
What was the clubface doing?
Hogan was doing many things very differently.
His books are way too general and don’t describe what he was doing…
If the books were communicating the reality of his body movements, you would see
a lot of players moving the club like he did… but we know this is not the case.
People read his books but they don’t slot the club, they don’t hit from the right hip pocket, they don’t work the shaft low/ left/ around and stabilize the clubface through the strike. I see a lot of “Hoganites” with swinger releases… a BIG NO NO!
I see them stressing the shaft too much at transition… another NO NO!
I even see players hitting off upright irons… nope.
A good place to start really is with heavy, flat, stiff gear with no offset. Then you can realistically enter the conversation.
It’s really more in the internal pressures and tensions you can’t see in pics or on video. The only way to really get access to that is to get inside this kind of swing with this kind of gear. Then one can start to understand it all a bit more… or a lot more.
I always thought hogans secret was in his follow thru. And if people focused more on replicated that. Than the rest will fall in place
I think it comes down to 99% of the golfers lack athletic ability and coordination.
Something I’ve been blessed with
Certainly that finish was a big ingredient. Keeping that left shoulder ahead of his hands and the club right to the end. That is what makes it all really work.
The swing is not over at impact… far beyond.
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Well said John. Great thread here
John, I really enjoy that latest video on Hogan. One thing I caught was you said Hogan’s head worked down and diagonally left during transition. Is this because as he transferred his weight he was moving it from the left toe into the left heel?
Down the Line…
They key is what the shaft is doing… the clubhead, and the clubface.
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One thing I’m learning from Hogan and this ABS program. And also some undisclosed knowledgeable sources. Is that Hogan really jump started that transition with a lateral shift. This got his body prime into a hitting protocol. Pelvis was facing ball squatted and shoulders were closed off with club slotted from top of transition to hip high. From there he could pour it on and hit with all he had. Getting that tail bone to stay away from
The ball and than away from the target. Genius really. Been working on this and hit persimmon driver 1957 hogan 8 iron 446 par 4 middle of the green. Hole before was Driver / excalibur wedge on 397 par 4 with ease. So much unforced power and control. The forces restricting and than coming together at the right time really makes sense now. Can’t wait to hit in front of the senior women next week. If I can smash it like that… I should be the alpha male of the grannies
Bracing for impact… 
The question is…how do you slot it? I wonder if Hogan stayed up all night practicing his backswing to make it repeatable?
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I’ve been experimenting with having the club on a “shoulder plane” in the backswing. I can get it back alright and even apply a little CCW forearm rotation in transition yet I find that I feel so wound up that it is hard not to release the club early. I certainly have to play the club back in my stance because of the urge to release the club.
Hogan used a mechanical action to flatten the shaft… same as I am demonstrating here. I’ll be covering this and how to train for it when I come out with the “Deconstructing Hogan” Module series. Should have it out January of 2023.
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Post-war iron head forgings from Hogan’s workshop according to Burke and Hebert. Anyone try this?
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So is hogans lateral slide essentially moving his ball position back which would also rotate his target line out to the right?
Yes, but only if you maintain the same relative lowpoint, or let’s say “divot depth”
The other option would be to move your ball position forward at address, and then laterally move into it.
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I was working on that today with the orbit pull👍