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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Take a look at this picture of Ben Hogan from his Book Five Lessons. I drew a blue line that you can barely see that shows how perfectly straight his left wrist is. This is the ideal impact position in golf. Notice the forward shaft lean at impact? His hands are ahead of the ball with maximum compression on that poor golf ball. Hogan was known as one of the best ball strikers of all time!

You cannot attain a flat left wrist if you flip at the ball through impact. This is one of the most common faults of high handicap golfers (and some low handicappers like me ) We’ve got to convince ourselves that we don’t have to help the ball get in the air. A descending blow gets the ball in the air with compression. To get this descending blow, we must have a bent right wrist, and a flat left wrist. Anything else is incorrect and will not produce the results you’re looking for.

Left Wrist Action Through Golf Swing

It took me years to figure out exactly what the hands and wrists do through the golf swing. I had the hardest time comprehending it until I read Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons book. On page 102 the below picture was an “awakening” for me. I could finally see exactly what the left hand especially does throughout the entire golf swing.

Notice how the left wrist NEVER bends throughout the whole golf swing! This is KEY to better ball striking. The left wrist in a sense rolls over through impact. It is not an intentional rolling as that would cause a big hook or pull to the left. But notice after impact how the back of the left hand is facing the ground. For most golfers it’s facing “up” because the hands were “flipped” and not rolled.

If you liked this golf tip regarding a flat left wrist at impact, you should get our FREE Golf Lessons Download!

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One of the most common mistakes with beginner golfers is the dreaded “over the top golf swing”. This is a premature move of the upper body when starting the downswing. This is a “hit” mentality, that can cause sequence and timing issues in your golf swing.

Look at Figure 1 below which is the common over the top move in the golf swing. Now take a look at Figure 2 which is the proper downswing sequence, that will promote an inside attack on the golf ball, and fix a golf slice immediately.

Golf Tips To Cure Your Over The Top Golf Swing

Golf Tip 1: Bump Your Left Hip To Start Downswing

Golf Tip 2: Pause At Top Of Backswing To Give Lower Body A Chance To Start First.

Golf Tip 3: Let Your Arms Drop With No Move Towards Target.

Golf Tip 4: Right Elbow To Hip In Golf Swing As Soon As You Can Ala Ben Hogan.

Golf Tip 5: Rotate Hips BEFORE you drop your arms. This will creat separation between upper and lower body.

Golf Tip 6: Keep Your Left Arm Close To Your Chest Throughout Entire Golf Swing For A Connected Golf Swing.

Important: Improving in golf by stretching will also allow you a full backswing, making it much easier to come down from the inside.

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I, myself, have had what they call a flying right elbow at the top of my backswing. This is where the elbow gets too far away from the body and becomes “disconnected”, making it very difficult to come down “in the slot” and hit the golf ball from the inside and shallow.

I have been studying Ben Hogan lately, as he is known as one of the best ball-strikers of all time. He was a huge advocate of a nearly one plane golf swing, with a very low right elbow that did not get away from his body. This made his downswing nearly automatic. Every golfer should strive for this position if they want a sound, repeatable golf swing.

I have been working my butt off to get this right. The other day “on the course” I had my “ah ha” moment. I was really trying to keep my right elbow in close to my side at the top of my swing, and hit the purest drive of the day.

Hoping it wasn’t a fluke, I did it on my next iron shot. Again…a compressed, beautiful shot. Then the next tee shot…again…did it.

I am now a believer in working on the right elbow in the golf swing.

The picture of Ben Hogan below will give you a great visual of what your right elbow should look like in your golf swing. Notice how it’s pointing right at the ground. Picture holding a dinner tray with your right hand, and your elbow will be in the perfect position at the top of your swing.

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