Hogan obviously hit the ball with his torso rotating and not with the hands flipping. That is obvious when you watch the video. There is no question. … The club goes low and left because it follows the torso. He never wanted the club to pass his turn. He is turning ahead of the shaft the whole way to the finish, which is why it goes vertical. The club is connected to his turn. He didn’t have any intent as to where to put it post impact.
I agree 100%.
I remember watching black and white newsreels of Ben Hogan in 1951, at the weekly Saturday matinee, at my local movie theatre.
Ben Hogan and Bobby Layne were my boyhood idols that year.
In 1956 I took my first golf lesson, from Lionel Hebert, about a year before he won the PGA. I don’t remember anything he said.
I do remember I was using my dad’s Macrgeror Tourney clubs, #2-SW, with matching woods.
That’s a great story… thanks for sharing…
Ran into this on youtube today.
Basically, they are stating that Hogan opened the face on his downswing and used his body rotation to square up the face of the club.
John can you elaborate on this if Hogan indeed did this? For those of us in Module 5 and 6, you can probably relate to this. It does feel I am opening the face on the way down or in transition, which gives you the pitch right elbow vapor trail.
My question is, did Hogan open and close the face (fire his hands) all within the downswing? I have tried both methods and found that by trying to keep the face open thru impact and using my pivot rotation the ball either goes straight or slight fade with a much higher ball flight. If i open and fire my hands deliberately at impact the shot would either pull or hook or draw with a little lower ball flight.
Granted i am still training and may be executing some parts poorly , but this what i experience so far. My hands, although, trying to keep an open face may automatically fire due to the CF applied as i come thru, and that by deliberately firing i may be exaggerating the firing of the hands, or my pivot is being outraced by the hands.
Either way, i guess the question is, did Hogan open his face on his downswing? And did he try shutting the face at impact along with the use of his pivot.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sunjQRWs2dM[/youtube]
The clubface can be opened with forearm rotation and cupping the left wrist. The master move is to open the forearms through transition with a cupped wrist. But the change in direction puts pressure on the wrist wanting to flatten it out. This creates an opposing force that must be dealt with and understood even if in an intuitive way. The change in direction can range from passive to violent. So the “look” that is observed depends.
I agree with the elder gentleman in the video. That’s an accurate description on many levels.
You’ll see stills of Hogan both FLW and Cupped LW at transition… depending upon the shot he was hitting.
If the slot is found correctly, then trained into your swing DNA, then you can really HIT HARD with the right hand… both hands… via aggressive forearm rotation… just as Hogan talked about. But the golf swing does not unfold in chronological order. You have to be prepared to deal with whatever you load in at transition. This is really much of the core philosophy of ABS training. So I would not worry too much about this right now. You really do have to earn your way into this… but it is coming quickly in your case from the work we are doing.
How long the left wrist stays cupped on the downswing depends upon how aggressive transition is… and also how aggressive rotation is going through impact and beyond. When I am swinging my best… I actually feel like my left wrist is cupped back at impact because I am resisting the flattening so I can utilize the loft on the golf club and make crisper contact by shallowing out my divots and lowpoint. But as much as I feel this, it will not show up on video… it comes in very flat. So hence a created FLW… and not a contrived one. If I didn’t resist, I would come in arched and often pull shots left if I am going to continue to rotate flat or level.
So, yes, Hogan did open the clubface through transtion… and the correct feeling is to feel it closing through torso rotation… or as Hogan described… 'level left"
The forearm rotation works in conjunction with the torso rotation… they have to work together and are best trained together also.
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Good description Lag.
I sense and call this move ‘hiding the toe’- why? Not sure, just feels that way as the club gets behind while opening. Perhaps rolling it open going back is a close cousin to hiding it.
One of the things that I find interesting is not necessarily how the hands are working, which is important, but their position relative to address as seen from a sagittal perspective, or in relation to ‘us’, at two discrete points- one at the top and the other after impact. The hands are high-right at the top from where they started, and post impact they are low-left from where they started.
Now combining that with slice flights are high-right, and hook flights are low left, both orientations of hands and flight are contained in Hogan’s action, but opposite each other. Furthermore, from an inside perspective slices are heel led and hooks are toe lead generally with one having more forearm rotation than the other.
So when I am pressuring the shaft my best, it feels to me like a heel led hook attempt through the zone which would be the post impact slice feel. 
Thanks John!
That makes good sense. I also find that opening the club in transition practically forces the club flat and brings it down into the slot. Now knowing what to do with that position is the key. I imagine having a strong M3 or pivot helps a ton.
There is often confusion here about transition and downswing. I initiate the downswing with the legs, feet… the lower body. But this happens while the club is still going back… so the downswing and backswing do overlap. Does the downswing start when the left foot plants or the right knee breaks? Or is it only defined by when the grip end of the club actually changes direction?
If you focus on the lower body, then the downswing starts much earlier. If you focus on the hands then much later.
In other words… if I were to say I open my forearms late in the backswing but my right knee has already started transitioning, then you could argue that the slotting is happening either on the backswing or the downswing.
I prefer to view the transition as a somewhat circular dynamic move… not a black and white stop and start on or off thing.
More of a flow… or a transition. So we do really work on this in detail through the transition modules.
It’s very much what Gary Player did so well, Hogan, Knudson, Nelson, even Jack and of course Tiger. If there is one common element that stands out more than any other with the great ball strikers… it is an increase in knee flex through transition. And then of course the head has to drop some.
John, this is a excellent discussion. To me if i focus on the lower body, i do feel that the backswing and downswing is overlapping a hair. The problem that i get into, is the feel of not completing a full shoulder turn if i initiate the lower body to fast. The shoulder turn feels like it gets cut off once I start shifting back down and around. Also the rotation of the forearms at the start of the downswing feels like it trips the shaft to come back down into the slot along with the flexing of the knees.
This motion does indeed feel very fluid and dynamic like. The backswing feels like a toss of the clubhead behind the shoulder, and then a slight overlap with dropping of the knees before the backswing finishes and then the forearm rotation to help trip the shaft down flat and into the slot. The club feels very passive and droopy until i trip the shaft with the forearm rotation and then the pivot work begins!
So complicated! haha…
This may change im sure once i get further into the modules.
You would make a good candidate for the Super Slotting module for sure.
Would you mind explaining “tripping the shaft” to our readers here. I know it is a common term used by our friends over there at SITD. I remember discussing it briefly with MM a couple years ago… but it’s not a term I use a lot.
thanks
Thanks John!
I haven’t read much about tripping of the shaft, but for me it’s like a trigger for changing directions of the shaft. This change of direction is pretty forceful when I trip it. For me the rotation of the forearms at the top of the downswing instantly flattens out the club head and shaft which gives u this laid off position. This also couple with the flex of the knees brings u in deep into the slot. Your right elbow is also now in a pitch position.
Anyone can feel this, throw the club behind u and then rotate your forearms so that the club face is facing the sky’s. It immediately tucks ur right elbow in and brings u down into the slot or freeride down. U have to be fluid though, the wrists needs to be supple and oily.
So for me the tripping of the shaft is basically the instant change of direction of the shaft due from forearm rotation along withi flexed knees.
IIRC, MM has a little different view on the shaft trip- which I think he says occurs after the free ride when the shaft trips by rolling over into a high leverage dynamic. In other words, it is a low leverage hold dynamic once set at the top with cupped left and open forearms, and that is unchanged until entry into the zone…then the shaft trips ( rolls over ) with rotation of forearms, etc.
It’s been a while since I looked at any of his stuff, but I think that might be the heart of it. 
Ok…
So for ABSer’s here… that might simply translate into the initial application of power in module #1.
Either way it’s a trip. 
So basically, his definition of tripping the shaft is being in a position at transition where the club or shaft is not being thrown out or away until he gets to P3.
The forearm rotation puts our left hand in a cupped position which applies no leverage to the shaft during transition from being thrown away or casted. Now does this mean we can start pivoting as hard as we want from the top of the backswing without the fear of casting or tripping the shaft to early? Wouldn’t this be over acceleration?
I seen this guy hit balls on some of his videos. He is a pretty good ball striker. Very knowledgeable as well.
That is an excellent video. Mike is spot on with this stuff.
So I have been describing what Mike calls “tripping the shaft” as moving from flat and laid off back to on plane… or from the third dimension back into 2D.
Most instructors, particularly TGM, are wrong in believing that the golf swing is a 2D model… or that the shaft should always point at the base or plane line even while shifting. I don’t agree with that, and neither does Mike.
I would just add that the cupping of the left wrist opens the clubface which really gives the green light to go hard at it with a flat and level rotation of the torso and shoulders. Like Mike says… it puts the club in a more passive situation… something we learn here in module 6.
Hogan was a Super Slotter, and this is a very advanced move. But as difficult as it can be to master, I really believe on the other side of the hard work are much greener pastures and a lot more balls landing in those heavenly fairways and greens.
Lag and others: don’t remember if we’ve covered this, but was looking at a recent Hogan gif Bradley posted elsewhere and was watching how Hogan’s hips turn and looks like his right hip catches his bent right elbow. Seems like a much more dynamic move than having the elbow jammed and pasted to your side going to the top and coming down.
Hogan appears to be “over the top” from the inside and squaring the club face early to me.
You must be watching thru tinted glasses or u a blind and having a guess.
Steve