Ben Hogan Quotes, A Lasting Impact on Modern Golf Pros (Video) - by Pete Styles
Ben Hogan Quotes, A Lasting Impact on Modern Golf Pros (Video) - by Pete Styles

We can’t really talk about improving and fix people's major golf swing problems without mentioning one name which is Ben Hogan's. Mr. Hogan who's probably the godfather of all modern swings, if you watch anything on the PGA Tour, most of those guys have had some modeling on Mr. Hogan's flawless swing and his teaching and his technique mainly from the Five Fundamentals of Golf, his key book. Certainly if the play hasn’t directly had any connection with Mr. Hogan, their coach or high school coach or tour coach certainly would have. It certainly influences everything I do in my day-to-day work as well. One other thing that we’re going to look up from Mr. Hogan's work today and particularly in his own golf swing was how he had a very restricted hip rotation in his back swing with a very big shoulder rotation. This is what’s now been termed as the X factor, the X factor of how much you can turn your hips over your shoulders, creating more coil. So from a good address position if I go ahead and turn back, you'll appreciate that I am winding my shoulders over my hips and the bigger I can turn my shoulders against my hips, the bigger X factor I create. Often that angle or X angle is actually increased at the start of the downswing so I wind my shoulders up a long way against my hips and then on my downswing the first movement is to open my hips tightening that x angle even more so my hips go one way and my shoulders go the other way. That creates more coil, more tension, therefore more speed and more power. Just be careful in the backswing. We don’t want no hip action. The hips can’t turn but if you'll physically fit enough, try and limit that as much as possible, turning back with your upper body, not your hips. Then set the hips in motion in your downswing, driving back to the left. Then let the shoulders release at the end.

As you'll find with Mr. Hogan, a very small guy, a very squat guy but massive, tremendous power and lag through the golf ball so the more you can create that X angle and that sort of relationship of shoulders turning less with the hips, the more power you'll generate through the golf swing.

 2012-09-17

We can’t really talk about improving and fix people's major golf swing problems without mentioning one name which is Ben Hogan's. Mr. Hogan who's probably the godfather of all modern swings, if you watch anything on the PGA Tour, most of those guys have had some modeling on Mr. Hogan's flawless swing and his teaching and his technique mainly from the Five Fundamentals of Golf, his key book. Certainly if the play hasn’t directly had any connection with Mr. Hogan, their coach or high school coach or tour coach certainly would have. It certainly influences everything I do in my day-to-day work as well. One other thing that we’re going to look up from Mr. Hogan's work today and particularly in his own golf swing was how he had a very restricted hip rotation in his back swing with a very big shoulder rotation. This is what’s now been termed as the X factor, the X factor of how much you can turn your hips over your shoulders, creating more coil. So from a good address position if I go ahead and turn back, you'll appreciate that I am winding my shoulders over my hips and the bigger I can turn my shoulders against my hips, the bigger X factor I create. Often that angle or X angle is actually increased at the start of the downswing so I wind my shoulders up a long way against my hips and then on my downswing the first movement is to open my hips tightening that x angle even more so my hips go one way and my shoulders go the other way. That creates more coil, more tension, therefore more speed and more power. Just be careful in the backswing. We don’t want no hip action. The hips can’t turn but if you'll physically fit enough, try and limit that as much as possible, turning back with your upper body, not your hips. Then set the hips in motion in your downswing, driving back to the left. Then let the shoulders release at the end.

As you'll find with Mr. Hogan, a very small guy, a very squat guy but massive, tremendous power and lag through the golf ball so the more you can create that X angle and that sort of relationship of shoulders turning less with the hips, the more power you'll generate through the golf swing.