Ben Hogan the greatest ball striker ever, and the mystery behind his swing mechanics.

You have two different (feels) that come together in golf to create a single action for the golf swing – one is the actual swing mechanics movement – and the other is the internal forces to execute your swing mechanics. If you have ever read Ben Hogan’s book The Five Lessons – Modern Fundamentals of the game go to pg.19 you will see an illustration of Mr. Hogan. The right side picture depicts Mr. Hogan’s muscle function – his swing mechanics. The left side picture depicts the internal forces used to execute Mr. Hogan’s swing mechanics. This illustration is the foundation of my program called The Power of Core-Breathing 4 Golf™, Mind, Body with Breath. A swing coach knows the swing mechanics – the other half is understanding the internal side to blend together to make your swing dynamic. To use your body’s energy and strength efficiently is key in blending both feels together. To the best of my knowledge, no one until now has ever explained the detailed meaning of Mr. Hogan’s left side picture. This illustration is the greatest pictorial in golf ever. Mr. Hogan vaguely described these pictures in his book. I have had several articles published in Southland Golf magazine – April 2013 the article was titled Core Philosophy it showed the Illustrations of Mr. Hogan and gives the reader conclusive understanding to uncovering the internal side in Mr. Hogan’s golf swing. Golfers of all levels will go to the range and mindlessly hit balls – working on the external side swing mechanics with no knowledge of how to engage and use your internal forces.

Article # 1. Any golfer who wants to develop a more physical approach to their golf swing should read his book FIVE LESSONS, the modern fundamentals of golf. This book offers colored drawn illustrations that depict how he formed his swing in three distinct elements that linked and blended together. The first element was his core-generating energy with strength and directing it, next was his ability to engage selective muscle tension coordination to enhance his turning and rotational ability, and lastly the physical way he shaped and moved his body from the ground up.

To understand his approach in developing the golf swing begins on Pg. 19 of this book. You have two drawn illustrations that reflect the three elements of his approach in developing his swing. This article is addressing the first element, which is his core generating ability as illustrated. This book was published in 1957 before the term “core” existed in sports, yet he was able to show a generator as the primary source of his force for his golf swing. In the drawing, he shows how the generating force was directed, first down to the hip flexors, through the knees, and then to his feet. This created his internal feeling for ground force action, for turning of his hips. In conjunction with feeling the feet and legs, his body’s energy and strength sensations travel upwards where the petite mind generator links to the body is giving the ability to direct core force feelings down his arms, linking his hands to the club, forming an igniter, going down the shaft to the clubhead for explosive ball contact.

There is an old saying; a picture is worth 1,000 words. In this case, finding the appropriate words to describe the drawn illustrations is the challenge in understanding Ben Hogan’s golf swing.

Southland Golf Mag. Article April 2013

In looking at this picture start with the generator that is located in his core area and its size. This picture explains his understanding of how to develop energy and strength in his core area as the overwhelming driving force, to effectively shape his golf swing.

What Ben Hogan didn’t talk about is “how” he brought into focus his core generator to produce energy and strength as the driving force in his swing.  The illustration shows the outline of his directed force but not the techniques required to create and engage his core generator.  It takes learned physical techniques and the mental understanding with proper cluing to work the core area as the source of force for all movement of your body.  If a golfer wants to improve his physical force, then focusing on generating core strength then directing it has to be the starting point in their golf game. For a better understanding of these concepts, feel free to call or email me!