Rebuilding my swing using Ben Hogan's 5 Lessons

[Thrillbilly Jim]

Had my third lesson today. It was a brisk 46* today in Wilmywood. The wind was gusting today as well. My instructor wanted to really focus on swing plane and club path today. It is not easy trying to adjust. He is having me overexaggerate my movements, trying to instill the correct feeling. My right hand and arm still want to take over, but I am working on it. I will be focussing on creating lag and getting my hands back in front of the ball at impact. I am kinda casting right now. Which is odd, because I used to have an extremely late release. I am hoping to play well next week at the Carolina Gathering. I should be able to get one more lesson in before next Saturday.

 

[JB]

That’s a lot better than just a couple of months ago. Great progress

 

[jbuck31]

JBC3, looks like it’s coming along nicely, good balance and smooth swing! Love the finish. Keep up the good work.

 

[e1iterate]

What is with the Sergio Waggles?

Nice progress man! Can’t wait to see it in action next weekend.

 

[Qwkz51]

It definitely looks like you are staying much more balanced than before. Keep up there good work! I want to hear some good numbers from the Carolina gathering!

 

[MWard]

Couple things I noticed:

One, you’ve made some huuuuge improvements in a short time. That is awesome! Keep at it, you’ll watch that handicap drop fast.

Two, and it’s setup related so easy to fix. Get your left hip socket over your left foot and knee. In the face on video, they’re not at all lined up. Your left leg looks more like \ than |. With a bad back right now, the wrong setup is gonna put more pressure on your lower back. The other issue is your right foot, especially about halfway back. Keep the weight in the inside of your foot, don’t let it roll to the outside of your foot. You can still get your weight hard into your right leg when you turn into it opposed to letting it slide there and then going too far. Remember, that weight has to get back to the left and it’s a lot easier when you keep it between the feet opposed to trying to time shifting it all the way back the couple feet it is now.

All of that make sense?

 

[millsan1]

Looks good man. Nice rotation and follow through.

Ask your pro if a narrower stance might help. Too wide of a stance is one of the things my guy works with me on too often....

 

[GoldenBuff]

Nice job! I enjoy following your progress. This is one of the kinds of things that makes me THP. Getting better and experiencing golf together.

And ... I'm way too chicken and self-critical to put my swing up or even to watch myself swing sometimes.

 

[Kay-Dee]

I am a strong proponent of the Club Pro Guy 7-4-7 swing thought system. You can never have too many swing thoughts.....

 

[Doubleb21]

Swing is looking good. Casting is a hard thing to break i am struggling with that now. Does your instructor give you any drills for that?

 

[Thrillbilly Jim]

Couple things I noticed:

One, you’ve made some huuuuge improvements in a short time. That is awesome! Keep at it, you’ll watch that handicap drop fast.

Two, and it’s setup related so easy to fix. Get your left hip socket over your left foot and knee. In the face on video, they’re not at all lined up. Your left leg looks more like \ than |. With a bad back right now, the wrong setup is gonna put more pressure on your lower back. The other issue is your right foot, especially about halfway back. Keep the weight in the inside of your foot, don’t let it roll to the outside of your foot. You can still get your weight hard into your right leg when you turn into it opposed to letting it slide there and then going too far. Remember, that weight has to get back to the left and it’s a lot easier when you keep it between the feet opposed to trying to time shifting it all the way back the couple feet it is now.

All of that make sense?

Yes sir. The weight on the outside of the right foot has always been a problem. I will do my best to get the left leg straight. My instructor said the same thing 2 lessons ago. I have a weird left leg. That’s why if you ever met me, I walk kinda funny. Thank you for the pointers. I really appreciate the help!

 

[Thrillbilly Jim]

Looks good man. Nice rotation and follow through.

Ask your pro if a narrower stance might help. Too wide of a stance is one of the things my guy works with me on too often....

He wanted my to widen my stance to help with stability. After practice and repetition, I’m assuming I will narrow it a little bit.

 

[Thrillbilly Jim]

Nice job! I enjoy following your progress. This is one of the kinds of things that makes me THP. Getting better and experiencing golf together.

And ... I'm way too chicken and self-critical to put my swing up or even to watch myself swing sometimes.

I already looked like an @sshole in Nashville, when I couldn’t have hit water if I fell out of a canoe! So, can’t be anymore embarrassing than that! Plus, I made a promise to myself I would fix my problems and get back to playing better.

 

[MWard]

Yes sir. The weight on the outside of the right foot has always been a problem. I will do my best to get the left leg straight. My instructor said the same thing 2 lessons ago. I have a weird left leg. That’s why if you ever met me, I walk kinda funny. Thank you for the pointers. I really appreciate the help!

Straight locked left knee may not be the best swing thought to have. Think getting your left hip socket over your knee, and ankle. Take a club, alignment rod, whatever, and put it on the outside of your left hip. Now make your entire left leg touch the stick. You can have a bit of a bent left knee (not locked but straight) and still have all of that lined up

 

[-CRW-]

I'm not sure if MWard is meaning at impact, but if he's saying at address, there is no tour pro that stacks the lead leg under the pocket/body for full swings. The exception would be maybe with a wedge where it looks like a full swing, but they've narrowed the stance to take some off.

The leg should be angled back toward the body ( \ ) at address, but perhaps not as much as where you are. But, as you said, your instructor has your stance widened to assist with stability/control for now which would exaggerate that look.

The average tour setup for an iron shot from the Gears Golf database is below:

 

[MWard]

I'm not sure if MWard is meaning at impact, but if he's saying at address, there is no tour pro that stacks the lead leg under the pocket/body for full swings. The exception would be maybe with a wedge where it looks like a full swing, but they've narrowed the stance to take some off.

The leg should be angled back toward the body ( \ ) at address, but perhaps not as much as where you are. But, as you said, your instructor has your stance widened to assist with stability/control for now which would exaggerate that look.

The average tour setup for an iron shot from the Gears Golf database is below:

No, I meant what I meant.

 

[-CRW-]

View attachment 8914955
No, I meant what I meant.

I think that’s a bad idea and no one on tour does it. That red line in your image is drawn up outside the hip, while the leg is not straight or stacked.

Even the tour players that use the stack and tilt method still start in essentially the same position as the Gears reference above. The only difference is they try not to move the center away from the ball, while the tour average is 1-2 inches on the ball.

 

[-CRW-]

Just for reference:

 

[Thrillbilly Jim]

Swing is looking good. Casting is a hard thing to break i am struggling with that now. Does your instructor give you any drills for that?

Manly keeping "quiet" wrists through the swing. It's something that just kinda crept up recently, so we haven't focused to much on it. I'm not doing it all the time.

 

[Thrillbilly Jim]

Y'all fellas are talking about hip-ball-sockets, stacked legs, pronated feet, CPG 7-4-7 straightline release system...I think I'm still at the grip it and rip it stage! HAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[MWard]

I think that’s a bad idea and no one on tour does it. That red line in your image is drawn up outside the hip, while the leg is not straight or stacked.

Even the tour players that use the stack and tilt method still start in essentially the same position as the Gears reference above. The only difference is they try not to move the center away from the ball, while the tour average is 1-2 inches on the ball.

Well, I was using my index finger to do it all so a bit of error is expected.

I didn’t say leave it there the entire swing, I said set up that way. As you rotate, yeah you’re gonna come off of it. The point is to keep him from going outside the rear leg, and to keep him from having to slide enough to get him back over his left side. Move 1-3 inches, or move 7-9?

 

[-CRW-]

Well, I was using my index finger to do it all so a bit of error is expected.

I didn’t say leave it there the entire swing, I said set up that way. As you rotate, yeah you’re gonna come off of it. The point is to keep him from going outside the rear leg, and to keep him from having to slide enough to get him back over his left side. Move 1-3 inches, or move 7-9?

I don’t think the movement is an issue or that he’s really on the outside of his trail foot in the most recent video. It appears that he’s on the right heel, which is ideal, but it’s hard to say for sure looking at a video.

As for movement, there should be a “bump” forward. The tour average is 1.5” off the ball, then back to center, then +4.5” with the lower body and slightly less with the upper body toward the target at impact. The idea of turning in a barrel is outdated teaching from when we didn’t have the luxury of precision equipment proving otherwise.

I think his biggest issue is too much backswing. He’s really standing up to make the turn he has and adds too much arm movement with little wrist hinge. This is throwing his sequence off which results in the flip at the ball. He doesn’t have to add more wrist hinge, but I think he shouldn’t try to turn as much or as tall. The head has to move, but it should be limited to roughly 1-2” in any direction (depending on where he’s at in the swing).

I’d be working on 3/4 swings/punch shots in between lessons (along with any homework the instructor is giving) to help sequencing and then add more shoulder turn as things started coming together.

 

[-CRW-]

You can see the excess range of motion here. The lead arm collapses, and the right elbow flys out creating a club position that is across the line.

 

[JDax]

This is light years from this...

 

[-CRW-]

That results in a resulting steepening of the shaft at the start of the downswing that leads to an over the top approach to the ball. The shaft should be perpendicular to the trail arm and crossing between through the trail forearm and mid-bicep. As opposed to crossing through the head/neck in the first attachment.

That OTT move leaves the face open and then you flip to try and save the direction. You want your hands in front of the lead thigh at impact. You can see in this picture that the hands are in front of the trail thigh instead.