In Five Lesson, Hogan stressed the importance of starting the
downswing with the truning of the hips. In fact, he mentions it
OVER 40 TIMES, so it was obviously important to him. However,
most amatures cannot master this critical move, and it's one of the
main reasons they struggle with Hogan's teaching.
Most amatures cannot get their weight over to their left side soon
enough in the downswing. If the average golfer starts to turn his hips
with his weight centered, he completely opens up the left side of the
golf course because his center of gravity is behind the ball and his
left shoulder may or many not get ahead of the ball. The tendency
for the average player is to come over the top and pull the ball left: a
better player will likely hit a hook. To counter this tendency and
to get the weight over the left foot earlier in the swing, better players
will slide the hips forward at the beginning of the downswing before
rotating them.
However, it is difficult to slide and trun the hips repeatedly
and accurately at the beninning of your downswing unless you have
the cooridination of a tourning pro, and even then this will occasionally
fail. It requires tremendous coordination in order to consistently
move the center of mass forward when the hips are turning, so
players stop turning their hips, and they tend to hold the clubface
open to prevent the pull-hook. They begin to lay the face back and
play a pull-slice.
By incorporating the missing piece into his swing, Hogan got his
hips forward during his backswing. One there, Hogan could start
by the downswing by turning his hips and move his body in perfect
sequence for maximum power.
With his hip action, Hogan figured out a way for his body to
produce repeatable alignments, a flat or slightly bowed left wrist and
a straight left arm at impact, every time. This body motion allowed
his hands to play a much lesser role. His body put him in a perfect
position to hit the ball with power and precision.
In the thred prior to his one, showing Yodas swing, note that Yoda
appeared to keep a lot of weight on the left side in the backswing.
The pictures appear to show that Yoda was on his left side prior
to starting the downswing. From this position Yoda could set the
accumulator with a slight hip turn to start the downsing.
Hey V.J., Hope that I did not infringe on your book. It is such
a masterpiece.
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