This is very typical of the… at first glance… “looks like Hogan” but…
Serious issues here.
- John Gustin is crossing over at the top… therefore negating the possibility of tripping the shaft. You can’t trip the shaft from here.
- On the way down, he’s not lagging the club as much as I believe he could… if he had tripped the shaft.
- Post impact, he’s engaging a full roll swinger’s release, the exact opposite of what Hogan did using a hitters release.
- Clubshaft flips post impact at P4 because he’s opened up his rotation too early and the left shoulder has stalled causing the clubshaft to flip wildly due to overacceleration and pivot stall.
Looks like Hogan though with the lower body action… I agree, but doesn’t complete a full shoulder rotation before moving laterally. Trying to move laterally before the shoulder rotation is finished inhibits the rotation. It’s a common flaw with those who falsely by into the idea that Hogan was moving laterally before he completed his backswing (shoulder rotation)
Appreciate the analysis on Gustin. All fair.
One item you mentioned was the transfer of weight left happening before the shoulder turn is finished.
For me, forever, it was a staple of the swing for great ball striking to start the move left before completing the full takeaway.
Completing the full backswing and THEN starting the transfer IMHO challenged the ability to hit it from the inside consistently.
Secondly the physiques of the clubhead still moving to a complete backswing yet weight shift already started does a fine job of accomplishing what you call “tripping” as well.
I fall in the classic swing camp where many of the great golden age players did much the same in moving left before the takeaway is completed.
Respect immensely your teachings and knowledge but if I am interpreting your comments on this singular item, for me, I disagree. There are various ways to swing it. Respect your thoughts.
Keep up the great work! I will continue to stay abreast!
I was only basing my critic upon the Hogan comparison. It’s not even in the conversation. That being said, Gustin has a very good golf swing. I would put it in a much more similar action to Julius Boros. Boros had a timing based swinger’s release and had a great career. I was good friends with his son Guy Boros, and we talked a lot about his Dad.
Hogan was very specific about how he did things, and there are so many Hogan fans who claim this or that person swings “like Hogan”. I’m not getting overly picky, but I don’t want to see a swinger’s release… then someone putting that player in Hogan’s camp. Faldo, Nick Price, Peter Senior were much more in Hogan’s camp with hitter’s releases… while most would not think they are very similar, but fundamentally they are very much the same in more ways than not.
I was not at all disagreeing with your critique and comparison articulated about Gustin’s swing. I am not on a hill disagreeing and saying you are wrong in the comparison of swings. Not whatsoever.
My only feedback of disagreement of comments made was the mention of the weight shift to left side and toward target happened before he finished the backswing. If I interpreted correctly you disagreed with that swing axiom.
In that aspect and that aspect alone (having nothing to do specifically with Gustin but my thought on the golf swing overall) I believe it is extremely important to start your weight shift left before the backswing is finished.
A few of the whys behind that was mentioned as well in my comments prior.
Beyond that specific I am good Mr. Erickson. Appreciate your time and commitment to sharing your philosophies. Will continue to follow your exploits and content. Best to you.
I was going to add and forgot to that I 100% agree on the roll release. That falls into the camp of Johnny Revolta out of the Chicago area that Mr. Gustin was also a close friend of and were swing confidants of that classic swing era.
Ok… let me further explain my position on the “backswing”. I consider the backswing definition to be defined by the shoulder rotation…NOT the golf club… shaft or clubhead. The backswing is over when the shoulders finish their rotation. That doesn’t mean that the club cannot still be moving. The left arm has some wiggle room to compress into the torso, and the wrists might have some range of motion left over if the wrists have not fully cocked prior to the end of the shoulder rotation (not recommended). Also the pace of the backswing has a huge effect here… the quicker the backswing, the more momentum the club has to continue some compression inward toward the body or a slight expansion back like a rubber band might have. This is what people are seeing…
Add to the confusion, Hogan tripped the shaft through transition which is a mechanical move that would create a further illusion that the backswing is continuing if one bases the observation upon arm and shaft travel.
Being inside this kind of action, I’ve diligently explored these concepts and found that it is absolutely imperative that the shoulder rotation finishes it’s journey before any lateral movement or tripping of the shaft is “intentionally” initiated. If you fail to do this, you’ll end up losing power because the shoulder’s won’t rotate fully. Every time someone sends me a video of some Hoganite that is working on this “look” their shoulder rotation is compromised.
Exactly what I am seeing with Gustin here…
Now when things get into full speed aggressive motion, their could be a very slight overlapping conceptually here, but if you look at Hogan’s backswing being defined by shoulder rotation, you’ll see what I am talking about… and if you actually apply this into your own golf swing… you’ll get much better clarity as well.
Back to Gustin, I can see he is aggressively trying to move laterally before his shoulder rotation has finished, and it stops his shoulder rotation. He doesn’t trip the shaft because he probably got sent down the wrong road reading Five Lessons with the tilted plane image that can easily promote crossing the shaft over at the top… and you cant’ trip the shaft from there.
Without the full shoulder rotation, the torso opens too soon, can’t access the 4:30 line as deep as Hogan did… then the torso pivot rotation runs out of room… or range of motion… and pressure is lost on the shaft and we can see the evidence of this clearly post impact as Gustin flips the shaft up because his left shoulder can’t stay ahead of the golf club. This all stems from his attempt to move laterally too soon in the backswing… as I have seen with so many chasing this “look”.
If I shot a video where I tried to move laterally before finishing my shoulder rotation, the same thing would happen to me… and my swing would look very similar to Gustin’s. Maybe I should do that.
Anyway, this is why we have the ABS Forum and I appreciate your thoughts, concerns, and participation here and respect!
Let me suggest this…
If the 1rst priority is to get the shoulders rotated fully, THEN make the big lateral move…
you’ll end up much more into the Hogan methodology. If you focus upon moving laterally before the shoulders fully rotate, you will more than likely have a limited shoulder rotation.
Looking again at Gustin, he’s pretty much done with his shoulder rotation before he moves laterally, but his shoulder rotation is very limited compared to Hogan’s… and I believe the main reason for this is his initial focus on moving laterally … and not maximizing his shoulder rotation as the first priority… which then creates a cascading effect of the other things I mentioned above.
1 Like