If you want to learn how to improve your golf swing, then studying his golf swing will do you no wrong. I personally have a lot of admiration for what he went through as a child seeing his father take his own life, to being just an average at best golfer, to the greatest of his time.

As you can imagine, there have been many books written about him, and I’ve read many of them. Ben Hogan, An American Life written by James Dodson was an excellent book, as well as Hogan by Curt Sampson.

This article is more of an introductory article about Ben Hogan, as I will have many articles breaking down his golf swing and what you can take from it to help your swing.

If you’re looking for some great golf swing pictures of Ben Hogan, then you’ll want to get your hands on The Hogan Mystique. It is a big book with pictures never seen of Hogan in action. It is quite expensive, but an awesome “coffee table” book to refer to when you want swing tips from one of the best.

Ben himself wrote two golf instruction books, one of which many golfers consider the bible of the golf swing. His first book called Power Golf (written in 1948) was a good book in and of itself, but his later book Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf (written in 1957) is the one that is still today read by the majority of golf instructors, players and coaches all around the world, even though it was written 5 decades ago!

Tournament Record

In the years between 1938 and 1959 Hogan won 63 tournaments, which shows you how accomplished he was as a professional golfer. He won 9 major championships, and after a near fatal car accident in 1949; he was told he may never walk again, let alone play golf; he won several more tournaments and even what they call the “Hogan Slam” which was the first three majors of the season, only missing the chance to win the other major, The PGA Championship because he was playing in the British Open at the very same time.

Ben Hogan’s Secret

There was a lot of speculation that Ben had found the secret to a repeatable, consistent golf swing, and he nearly proved it with his pure ball-striking. After many frustrating years fighting a wicked, nearly brutal snap hook, hogan having pounded over a million balls (supposedly) had found the secret.

But…did he really tell anyone the secret? Many instructors and fellow players said they knew Ben’s secret, but to this day, no one knows if the secret was ever revealed.

The first theory is that the “secret” was a special wrist movementaction known as “cupping”. This information was disclosed in a 1955 Life magazine article. But… many believed Hogan did not reveal all that he knew at the time. It has since been alleged in Golf Digest magazine, and by Jody Vasquez in his book “Afternoons With Mr Hogan”, that the second element of Hogan’s “secret” was the way in which he used his right knee to initiate the swing and that this right knee movement was critical to the correct operation of the wrist.

There have now been golf instructors who have leached off his name and created instruction books and DVDs saying they have the secret of Ben Hogan’s and they will show you. Be aware is all I have to say.

In future articles, we’ll break down Ben Hogan’s Golf Swing and show you how you can become a better ball striker.

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Like the older golfer pictured to the left, this is a “false” shoulder turn. It may look like a should turn, but if I were a betting man, this golfer is struggling with distance. He has swayed off the ball, and picked up the club. He has not properly rotated behind the ball with a correct shoulder turn. Does this look like you? If so, we’re going to fix it, and give you another 30 yards on your drives.

One of the first issues if you’re struggling with your backswing, is tension. If you have muscle tension, it will be very difficult to make a proper, bigger golf backswing. This tension can be caused by nerves, or from stiff muscles. Most likely it is muscles that have become tight over the years, that are keeping you from making a complete backswing. All it takes is a simple golf backswing stretch to quickly improve your turn back away from the golf ball.

Another issue is like the picture. Sliding instead of rotating. Your first move away from the ball if you’re a slider is to ROTATE your right shoulder immediately behind you! This will get you turning and not sliding to the right. Once you feel the rotation in your core, you will be able to unwind with a much higher clubhead speed.

Tip:

To help avoid sliding, take a look at the picture to your left of Ben Hogan. I’m working on this myself. See the angle of his right leg? I drew a yellow line outside his right leg. If you slide and do not rotate, the angle from the ground up in your right leg will disappear.

It is nearly impossible to rotate back into a full shoulder turn, when you lose the angle in your right leg. Instead, I want you to picture you are going to turn into right hip socket, while rotating your upper body behind you.

Tip:

Do not pick up your hands when you start your golf swing takeaway! This is huge! I have been a culprit for my entire golfing career, and it has really killed my consistency. Picture that triangle between your shoulders, arms, hands and clubhead. The all move (rotate) back together. When you do it correctly, your hands will naturally (and slowly) come up, but that this is not a voluntary action. It just happens with the proper one piece takeaway.

So in closing, the name of the game in fixing your shoulder turn in your golf swing is ROTATION. And I mean start rotating earlier in your takeaway. If you are a slider, you need to rotate immediately. Hope this article helps.

Golf Resource:

If you enjoyed this article, and truly want to improve your golf swing power and consistency, then you’ll want to download our FREE Golf Lessons.

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Since we are mostly talking about indoor golf swing training, there are a couple of critical things you can (and should) do to improve your golf swing.

Swinging A Weighted Golf Club

One of the most obvious ones you can practice in the winter is swinging a weighted golf club in your “heated” garage. If you don’t have a weighted golf club, I would recommend you get a golf swing weight you can insert right on the shaft of any club you have, and it’s like a weighted donut that baseball players swing on their bats.

When you swing this club, you should create a routine, and not just swing it for the heck of it. What I mean by routine is say… 3 times per week, you’re going to swing it a total of 50 times per session. What I would recommend is 10 very slow swings to warm up. Then another 10 at 50%, building up to the third set of 10 at full speed; then here’s where you can increase golf swing speed. The next 10 swings will be at 110% effort, but under control. This is swinging at a speed you would not do on the course, but off the course you are training your fast twitch muscles to swing faster. The last 10 swings are at 50%. Treat it like a cool down.

One last tip with the weighted golf club. If at all possible, do all your golf swings in front of a mirror to monitor your golf swing technique.

Improve The Strength And Flexibility Of Your Golf Muscles

This is a “no-brainer”. You have more time since you’re not playing, and the majority of golfers are greatly inhibited by their current level of physical condition. Focusing on your golf muscles is a very wise decision during the winter golf months. You don’t need to join a gym, nor do you even have to purchase much equipment. You can do your entire golf training routine with a pair of dumbbells; exercise tubing; and an exercise ball. All you need is about 64 square feet in your bedroom, living room or garage and you’re good-to-go.

Exercises for golfers should focus on the specific movement requirements in your golf swing. The easiest way to do that is to break your golf swing down into phases, then add resistance to those phases.

Golf Swing Fundamentals

Working on your golf swing fundamentals is an easy thing to do during the winter time indoors. First off, your golf grip fundamentals. You can have a club at your office, beside the couch in your living; pretty much anywhere. All you’ve got to do is grab it, grip it, and regrip it multiple times to make sure you’ve got the proper golf grip.

You can then work on your golf posture in a mirror. When doing this, make sure you learn how far to stand from a golf ball so that you get the correct distance and space to make a good takeaway.

You can practice the entire golf swing (address, takeaway, top of backswing, downswing, impact and more) indoors, and so you should. I think I’ve covered enough for today.

If you want a head start on your next golf season, you’ll want to download Free Golf Lessons to your computer.

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Learning how to improve your golf swing is a multi-pronged approach in my opinion. To have a consistent golf swing is not just pounding golf balls (although that worked for Mr. Ben Hogan), or taking dozens of golf lessons. With the right approach, your improvement should be steady and quick, but I have to tell you, it will take some effort on your part. If golf were easy, the average handicap would be a heck of a lot lower than 20+ wouldn’t it?

The Physical Requirements Of Golf

Strength

Trying to swing a golf club at upwards of 100mph, but with good technique, takes a tremendous amount of strength in your core golf muscles, legs and even your shoulders. In my opinion the average, high handicap golfer is in poor physical condition. And yet they wonder why they aren’t hitting the ball as consistent or as far as they “think” they should. Hmmm???? Am I missing something here

If your muscles are weak specific to your golf swing they will not only rob you of distance, but it will be very hard to have any consistency as your muscles fatigue during the round. 2X2YN9UY6D2B Muscular fatigue is a huge culprit to mishits later in the round. Implementing exercises for golfers is an obvious must if you’re serious about improving your golf swing.

If you’re short on time, and your main goal is distance, you’ll want to focus on an increase of clubhead speed which involves either core golf rotational exercises, or using a golf swing weight on the end of your golf club.

Flexibility

We all know you’ve got to be flexibile to make a full shoulder turn in golf. How many times have you tried to make a BIG turn only to hit your tee shot shorter? That’s because you did not have the flexibility to make that big turn, so your muscles golf tight, which slows down clubhead speed.

All it takes is a targeted golf stretch or two, to really see an improvement in your ability to turn back fully, and to turn through aggressively, but in control. There are specific areas like your core and the back of your shoulder muscles that can quickly improve your golf swing range of motion. You can even do a rotational golf stretch right in your office.

Golf Swing Fundamentals

I’ve spoken about this many times on this blog, that your golf swing fundamentals, like the proper golf grip, posture, alignment and ball position are critical to improve your golf swing. Even learning how to cock your wrists in golf is so very important. Get any of these wrong and you will struggle indefinitely.

These fundamentals truly dictate your outcome. Take a look around this blog, and you’ll find many, many FREE golf tips to help you improve your golf swing.

Golf Practice

You can’t argue this one either. If you can practice smartly, and not just pound golf balls, then golf practice is a very important component to improving your golf swing. I would strongly recommend having a goal in mind before you get to the practice range. Break your time up into segments, for example, putting for 15 minutes; bunkers for 10 minutes; chipping and pitching for another 15 minutes; then full swing for another 15-30 minutes.

It all depends on how much time you have. If you are short on time, you should practice what’s most needed. So if you are three-putting everything, then putting should be the focus. If you’re slicing your tee shot you should work on your golf driver swing. You get the picture.

Another quick way to improve your golf swing is with our Free Golf Lessons Download!

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But was I was missing was this step by step golf swing approach that I could rely on day in and day out. I am still in search of it, but I think I can help you put one together that is a good starting point to better golf. It’s not rocket science, but you’ve got to stick with it to see results.

Correct Golf Grip

This cannot be ignored. Your grip is your ONLY connection to the club, so you’ve got to get it right! You MUST learn how to grip a golf club to make a consistent golf swing for 18 holes. Your grip should be come automatic, but it’s got to be right.

Golf Set Up (Posture, Spine Tilt, Alignment & Ball Position)

Here’s another critical component of a consistent golf swing. Your golf set up must be automatic like your grip. When you step into your shot, you must do it the same EVERY time, just like the pro’s do. If you need to develop a pre-shot routine… do it. Either way, you’ve got to get your posture, spine tilt, alignment and ball position correct every time you set up to the ball.

Golf Swing Takeaway

You don’t have to get weird about this, you just need to be consistent every time you make a swing. The proper golf swing takeaway is a simple, “one-piece” takeaway with no hands at all. No early wrist cock, or lifting of the club. Just a smooth takeaway with the entire upper body (core).

Top Of Backswing

If your takeaway was good, you should be at the top of your backswing in a good position. Your right arm holding a tray, with your right elbow pointing to the ground. Clubshaft should be parallel with your target line, with your right hand “under” and supporting the club.

Golf Downswing Sequence

This proper golf downswing sequence is so important to the success of your consistency and avoidance of mishits like slices, tops, thins, bladed, hooks and even pop ups. The most common error is to come down too fast with a “hit” instinct, which puts your upper body ahead of your lower body. This is disaster to your golf swing. You will most likely have an “over the top” and hit a slice, or at a minimum hit a block or push. Any of these will kill your score in a quick minute.

Golf Impact: The Key To The Kingdom

Your golf impact position is one of the most crucial issues in your golf swing. You’ve got to get to impact with a square clubface, or you risk hitting most of your shots offline, costing your strokes and distance. Impact is a dynamic, moving part of your swing, so it’s hard to break it down and work on a position. But, I know for me, I do that in front of a mirror, to see the difference between impact and address.

Your follow through to a balanced position on your lead foot and leg is a result of a solid, and correct golf swing sequence.

If you seen value in this article, then you’ll want to get our FREE 25 Golf Lessons right now!

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With that being said, the search for a better golf swing continues. Is there a secret? Or… are there simple steps that can get you a better swing and not break the bank, or entail you going to the range daily and hitting hundreds of golf balls? I can say for sure… there is! You’ve got to break the golf swing down to bit-sized chunks and get those right FIRST, and then, your golf swing will be better than ever.

I can tell you there is no such thing as a “perfect golf swing”. No way! Just take a look at the swings on tour. They are all different but they work for them. So don’t try to model the exact way a certain golf professional swings. It won’t work for you. You’ve got your own set of physical capabilities and also limitations, so you’ve got to work with what you you’re capable of.

I have heard that Steve works on his golf swing fundamentals constantly to keep his swing easy to repeat and very consistent. These are the simple steps to a better golf swing. These fundamentals include:

Proper Golf Grip
Golf Alignment
Golf Posture
Ball Position

You can then take it into your golf swing takeaway, top of the golf swing position, and then your golf downswing sequence; and ultimate a square clubface at impact. But, I must urge you to get the simple steps of your fundamentals down first, if you want a better golf swing that holds up for 18 holes.

Another big help, if you’re looking to improve your golf swing is our FREE 25 Golf Lessons download!

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Take a look at Woody Austin. I drew a white line to show you his forward shaft lean at impact. The camera angle isn’t the greatest, but notice his hands ahead of the ball.

The biggest issue with most amateurs and beginner golfers is getting the proper impact position. I know I fought it and did it wrong for the first 15 years of my golf career. I always wondered why I hit my irons thin, and weak to the right. Don’t get me wrong…weak for my high expectations.

I’ve got to get you to understand where your hands, shaft and clubhead should be at impact. I can guarantee many of you don’t get there, even if you think you do. I was one of those golfers in denial. I hit my irons pretty far, but not solid or compressed. They sounded clunky and thin. Not the kind of sound you’d be proud of, and trust me… I wasn’t.

I want to give you a few simple tips (swing thoughts) that helped me finally get the impact I was dreaming of. They may work for you too, but at least you will have some different ideas of how to achieve a compressed, crisply hit iron shot.

Golf Tip #1 Lead with your hands all the way through impact. This may sound extreme, but I can assure you, you will never get the forward shaft lean any other way. You must, must have your hands ahead of the ball with ALL your irons, and even your hybrids.

Golf Tip #2 Pull the butt of the club toward the ball in your downswing. Again, this is similar to golf tip number one, but it specifically refers to the downswing, not necessarily through impact.

Golf Tip #3 Hold your right wrist angle as long as you possibly can. This will give you that forward lean of your shaft. If you release your right wrist angle, you will not only lose that forward lean and get a backwards (flippy) lean of the shaft. The later is much more common with mid to high handicap golfers.

Okay… this site is all about simple golf! The three above tips is plenty on your plate, but will give you a strong sense and feel for the proper impact position with the forward lean of your golf shaft.

If you liked this article, you’ll want to get our Free Golf Lessons Download today, to get you further along the golf improvement path.

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Causes Of A Fade Golf Swing

There are several different causes of a fade. The first, most obvious one is an open clubface at impact. This will push the ball out to the right 90% of the time. Another cause may be an upper body dive during your downswing, which will get you ahead of the ball at impact, with no time to square the face, again leaving it open through impact. An over the top golf swing can also create a fade, as your swing path is outside to in, imparting sidespin on your golf ball. One last possible issue is a lateral slide towards the target with your lower body. This is similar to the upper body dive, in which you get ahead of the golf ball at impact, leaving the clubface wide open.

Use A Stronger Golf Grip

Many times a fade is the result of a weaker golf grip. So for a right handed golfer, that means the left hand is rotated to far to the left if you’re looking straight down at your golf grip. Many times you will only see one knuckle on your left hand, which is considered a weak, if not atleast a neutral golf grip. The proper golf grip is shown in the picture below. Notice how my left hand is rotated more to the right if you were to be looking down at it? This is considered a stronger golf grip (but could be even stronger, but I wouldn’t recommend it), which will close the clubface more rapidly through impact. This closing of the face will correct your fade and produce a straight or draw golf shot.

Square Your Clubface At Address

This may sound like a “duh” tip, but I can tell you after 15 years of playing golf, and currently playing to a 7 handicap, I recently found out my face was open at address. It blew me away, but the very second I made the correction, my ball flight and compression was 100% improved. I was absolutely amazed at how solid I was hitting the ball after I fixed my square clubface at address. If you’ve never seen how it looks to have a square face, take a look at the picture I took recently.

Hit Inside Quarter Of Golf Ball

Here’s a golf tip I got that helped me visualize impact. I was told to focus on hitting the inside quarter of the golf ball. So if you’re looking down at the golf ball, and you break the ball into fourths; the bottom right fourth is the area you are aiming at hitting. This will encourage an inside to out swing which will promote a slight draw if you release the club. If you don’t release it, it will go right.

See the arrow? That is your visual to where you want your clubface to contact the ball.

I hope you enjoyed the above tips to help correct a fade in your golf swing. If you did, you’ll want to download our 25 Free Golf Lessons to help you even more!

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Relaxed Golf Grip

Once you learn how to grip a golf club, you must relax those hands. It starts with the fingers and goes up through your palm, and ultimately the pressure on the grip itself. Look down at your hands just before you make your swing. Do your knuckles look a little white? Are the veins in your hands sticking out more than normal? These are telltale signs you are gripping the club too tightly, causing excess tension to run right up your arms and into your shoulders. This is a KILLER of swing speed and distance.

It’s All In Your Waggle

You’ve seen all the pros do it. Maybe even your golf buddies. It’s called the golf waggle. This is one of the most effective ways to release tension in your hands and arms before you start your swing. The waggle is movement. Movement decreases tension. Doing this right before you take the club away will eliminate 90% of the tension in your arms, enabling you to maximize clubhead speed and distance. Next time you play, make sure to waggle the club and feel the tension leave your arms. Then within a second start your swing. Do NOT waggle, then set your club behind the ball and freeze! This is a waste of your waggle and will not release any tension in your arms before you swing.

Get Your Breathing Right

You’d be surprised how many golfers hold their breath when they swing. When you stop breathing, you create tension. Just think of yoga. They are constantly working on their breathing DURING their stretches. As a golfer, you should be aware of your breathing when you start your swing. After your swing starts, it happens to quickly for you to pay attention to it, but definitely before you swing, take a deep breath and then LET IT OUT before you start your golf swing. When you let your breath out, you will feel and even see your muscles relax.

One last thing!

I know this may sound counter-intuitive, but learning how to slow down your golf swing, will actually help speed it up. Your arms will be so loose, you speed will be better

Give these tips a try, and if you like them, you’ll want to get our FREE 25 Golf Lessons to help you even more!

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Hold Right Wrist Angle

The most common move in golf is “casting”. That is a premature release of the right wrist angle if you’re a right-handed golfer. This then creates a whole host of swing faults, insconsistencies and power leaks in your golf swing. Holding this right wrist angle for as long as you can will help you come into and through impact wiht maximum wrist lag.

For most beginners, you can’t overdo this too much, as the tendency is so common to release it and throw the club at the golf ball. There are even some training aids like the Tic Tac and Greg Norman’s “The Secret” that are made specifically for this swing fault.

Look at Alvaro Quiros below. Look how late into his golf swing his wrists are still cocked. That’s some serious clubhead speed through the golf ball.

Pull Butt Of Club Towards Ball

Another great drill is to get to the top of your golf swing, then your thought on the way down is to pull the butt of your golf club down to your golf ball. By pulling the butt of the club, you will have to retain lag in your wrists. If you overdo this (most likely won’t happen) you will come into the ball with a wide open clubface and hit every shot to the right. If this occurs, congratulations…as you have now over-compensated your lag, and need to bring it back just a bit.

Hold The Clubhead Coming Down

This one you can’t do at full speed. But get to the top of your backswing, and have a partner stand behind you. He then grabs your clubhead as you start down slowly. You will get a sensation you have most likely never felt before. One in which the clubhead is WAY back there as you are coming down. Your partner should hold it until your club is parallel to the ground then let go. This is a great drill for “feeling” lag in your downswing.

Turn Your Body Through The Ball

One drill I’ve worked on before is to get my 90 degree wrist cock (preset it at address); take it back to 9:00, then turn through the ball without feeling any release of your wrists. You’re going to feel like you’re hitting the ball with your body. This is a very powerful feeling, and one that will quickly improve your golf swing consistency. This is a “core-powered” golf swing. If you can get to the point of compressing your ball without feeling like you’re releasing your lag (wrist cock), you’re well on your way to becoming a better ball striker.

If you liked this article, you’ll really like our Free Golf Lessons!

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