“rocket surgery” thats what Hugh Hefner had done.
Lag,
Here’s just a straight up question for you to answer: how do you think Hogan narrowed his arc from the backswing to the downswing?
Remember Bom, the golf swing is not a 2d movement. That image may show a great narrowing of the arc but in 3d reality the narrowing isn’t that great, it’s the club head dropping behind (away from us looking at it) giving the impression of a much narrower arc. Two demonstrates this in one of his YouTube vids.
I think I’m pretty well aware of that, thanks though…
I’m saying “flying” compared to tucked in on the backswing. If the elbow remains in tight you limit it’s motion by stabilizing it and some prefer that. If it moves out then to some degree it is flying away from the path of least movement.
ABS does not promote one method over the other. Both can work.
My feeling is that by learning to strike from a tucked in elbow on the downswing, one has to engage forearm rotation which gives access to that greater range of motion. Then forearm rotation rather than over straightening the right arm through impact. Some of the students here prefer to practice striking from deep on the 4:30 line… so they just keep it in tight in both directions until they have that action down and the strength to deliver it. So while it may appear to be a tucked in backswing… this is not a backswing drill… only a drill to learn what comes later in the swing so that down the road they can strike the ball with either backswing and make a choice based upon personal preference rather than a compensation due to lack of strength or underdeveloped technique.
Are you referring to the hands or the path of the clubhead?
I believe that image is showing the path of the clubhead. You have to be careful with that image from the front view because we are viewing a 3D motion in 2D. The clubhead is moving out and behind and being laid off some also which is actually increasing range of motion, but appears to be decreasing. There is a 3 dimensional flattening of the shaft occurring but we see that in 2D distortion. Then you have a centripetal compression due to the change in direction of the club resiting the weight of the head so there is an acceleration inward toward the center also… however brief.
From a DTL view… the more one lays off the shaft… the more off plane the shaft becomes, but the less plane shifting the clubhead itself does. That’s the hidden beauty of that kind of move.
It’s not that straight up of a question… but it is NOT because Hogan is adding a ton more wristcock on the downswing which many still want to believe.
It seems we are going around in circles here a bit… I’m not seeing this as very complicated, but I feel you are trying to make a point about the right elbow’s role in transition and you seem to believe I am completely missing your point. I may be, and I would also surmise that others are here as well.
Can you give a more detailed description or thought process which might clear the fog a bit?
I was under the impression that BOM was asking you to comment on “how does the elbow get tucked into the body through transition?”, in other words, through which forces? Apologies if I’m wrong misrepresenting your question BOM! 
Anyway, the question of the elbow is something I’ve always pondered, whether it’s active tucking or passive. I’ve come to the conclusion from my own work that the best way for it to happen is by lowering into the ground through transition, as well as maintaining the feeling of the arms being close together, rather like the famous Hogan image of having them wrapped together.
However, Hogan keeps his right arm above the left in much of the backswing, so at some point he needs to rotate the forearms otherwise the right elbow will not tuck in, it will get stuck more to the right side. What causes this forearm rotation? Can it happen passively as I described above or does it need to be active? If active, which parts are moving to achieve the effect? Is it the left arm rotating open? The right elbow tucking? Both?
As “The Man” from Ireland once said…“Now we are sucking diesel”, although one could argue there are many from the land of green currently who fit that description. Although once the Ryder Cup happens, the men from the land of green will be hammered by the men from the land of the Eagle. Sorry Bom, couldn’t resist. 
Anyhoo, great question as always. I think that arc picture you posted was part of a riddle to me at one time which I never got around to answering. I have a couple different takes on it, one which may be somewhat abstract for some, but certainly not you.
Perhaps it is a natural sequence of propulsion in which the power must be from in back of the projectile obviously, but also with weight dynamics.
When we just walk somewhere we feel “light” because we are used to interacting with gravity and forces given our weight. We, when walking, sense that we can move quickly in either direction, start running if we choose, sense a lightness about us. I suppose someone morbidly overweight may not sense the same things, but maybe they do since they too are also used to their own weight as it interacts with gravity and the ground.
When we grab a club, regardless of its weight, we become immediately aware of an addditional weight, something heavier we are holding which will only get dynamically heavier. Perhaps if swinging incorrectly, the club will always feel heavy as it relates to “us”…something we are fighting.
So the question may become how, after grabbing the club, how do we invert the process and make the body feel heavier and the club lighter, so that propulsion can happen with speed and power. It would seem to me that if the body felt heavier, and the club lighter that the body becomes primary, and club secondary…instead of throwing the clubweight at it.
Gotta run. 
Classic lag post! Ditto, as they say…
I feel like I’ve been explicit enough to this point, but I’m willing to dig deeper if you post some side by sides showing top shelf strikers who’s rear elbows go/stay from low to low during the backswing and downswing.
Good post, Teddy… good points…
I don’t read these as points… but questions. Teddy posed 6 questions. Have at it.
I’ll have at part of it
If the club gets behind us quickly the forearm rotation is passive, if the club sets more above us then active rotation needed to drop it properly to a narrower entry corridor: the difference being laid off or not.
Personally, I feel it in combination with a loop. Don’t know if the loop and R forearm rotation is one process, or two separate processes so closely aligned they feel like one. It feels like one process- the loop and the rotation- to me that is happening ( or at least the intention is ) the moment the club starts going back and in. Obviously, I do not lag load it going back…wish I could though, just always felt odd to me to lag load.
Steve Pate would be an example of an excellent striker, a flusher really, and was one of the longest hitters on the tour in his prime playing years. Whipped it inside, and his elbow traced the same path up and down as tight as anyone I have seen.
His right elbow under the left on the backswing and downswing. A bit more out if anything on the downswing.
It’s one way to do it… and I would not argue against Steve Pate’s ball striking. He’s one of the first guys that comes to mind when I think of pure strikers that didn’t transition well into the modern lightweight gear.
Hogan with the right elbow higher earlier in the backswing then flips it under preparing for the downswing. I like this too.
I played with Steve “Volcano” Pate a few times and he was on another level than the rest of us. Very long… very impressive long iron player. Not Hogan, but won 6 times on the PGA and lost 3 times in Sudden Death. Another career that went south a bit after 1998 when the frying pans came out.
I forgot who said it, but it was along the lines of he’s seen many tour players disappear because of an equipment change… Maybe it was Johnny Miller who said it… Why doesn’t it even cross some players minds that when they change gear their game goes south? Does the great ball striking go away over time?? My change in to proper equipment made huge difference in one day in a positive way and can only get better… I also wonder if endorsement contracts say you have to play this or that… Just curious…
Watched a few swings of Steve Pate. Things i noticed is he has a very gentle slow back swing and then drops the hammer on the ball with very fast hips. On a few swings i saw, he also keeps his right foot planted pretty good.
Lag, what do you think attribute to his great iron distances that you have described?
I don’t know who said what first, but I have been saying this for years. The modern gear has destroyed many great golf swings. Only a few have been able to adapt and figure out a way to have two radically different swings… one for irons and one for the frying pan. Practice with one… then that messes up the other.
If you set your gear up correctly, you can use the same swing from wedge to driver. The top players in the world can’t get the ball in the fairway half the time. I’ve never seen so many pros missing greens with short iron than in this era. The long iron game was the acid test of a quality ball strikers swing… and that has been removed by not only the gear, hybrids and such, but also the course designs. The longest of par 4’s can be hit with short irons now. So the pros are not being tested properly. You don’t have to have a great golf swing to play short irons or hit a frying pan.
If you have a quality swing… you will not only be able to play long irons confidently… you will enjoy it…
If you are serious about mastering the golf swing… the 1 iron is still the acid test. Don’t want to take the test? Play a hybrid,
but your golf swing is not proven until you can master hitting a 1 iron. If you can’t rip a 1 iron off a tight lie and draw or fade the ball at will… you have not mastered the golf swing.
Great torso rotation through and post impact. Pate liked feeling the 4:30 line as quickly as possible on the backswing. When I played against him in junior golf, he pulled it inside even more than he did later on. Rode the right elbow across his hip on the backswing, then just hoisted it up a bit at the top, started down slow then built up speed with great forearm rotation, a ferocious level rotation and just killed it. He was hitting 300 yard persimmons at will in college at UCLA.
He was also thinking the game way ahead of everyone at a young age. I remember him jogging across two fairways to see where the pins were tucked on the greens that he would be playing a few holes later. We didn’t have pin sheets back then so he just did his own reconnaissance missions while out there playing.
I remember in the California high school state championship shooting 71 and thinking I might have a chance to win, and Steve shot 66 on a really tough persimmon layout. (Yorba Linda CC) I knew he was going to be a great world class player.
There is a lot of peer pressure out there… and with competition so steep… you are always questioning what you are doing.
When you are on tour and playing 6 days a week for months at a time… you can make a lot of garbage work. If a guy is suddenly hitting it 30 yards farther with some new club… you would only be smart to investigate into that.
The first prototype frying pan I saw was a giant black Yonex graphite driver and shaft that was like 46 or 47 inches long. Todd Hamilton was hitting it at Q school and was suddenly hitting it 30 yards farther. He picked it up in Japan when he was over there and here is a shorter hitter now a long hitter. I could not believe this thing was legal. A year or so later the first Big Bertha came out… and then it all changed… and then as Bradley said… 1998 seemed to be the year the cat came out of the bag. Anything resembling proper golf ended in 98.
But what happens is that over time… if you play and practice with light gear… your muscles slowly lose their strength. The golf muscles… the ones you strike the ball with. I don’t care if you lift weights or not… golf muscles are different. Because the pans are so long and light, most players have to just throw their arms and hands at it to have any chance of not over accelerating. Not too many torsos are going to be able to rotate that fast without a proper resisting force… so they end up in a doctors office. Hip and left knee issues are more common now.
A few big companies are making a fortune exploiting the male ego’s quest for distance… but the fallout on the game of golf has been disasterous.