I have been studying Ben Hogan’s swing for about 20 years now and I’d have to say he’s the best ball stiker in the world.
Here’s some analysis into his iron knockdown swing, which he was very good at and Tiger Woods has copied his moves.
Ben’s takeaway is simply rotation of his triangle formed by his shoulders, arms, and hands to the right. (sorta like shaking hands with person on the right)
There’s no “visible” weight transfer whatsoever here. His belly or the stomach, also turns along with his triangle.
This is probably the most important takeaway you can learn from Ben.
To put it simply:
Rotate your triangle and belly together to the right from a fixed single axis.
At top of Ben Hogan’s swing, you can tell that he’s almost doing a “reverse-pivot” by traditional teachers’ standards. In my opinion, he’s proving to you that there’s no need for a visual weight transfer to the right side. Hey, this picture proves that point.
This might be why there’s so much buzz with the tilt and stack swing when in reality, they are all derivatives of Ben Hogan’s swing.
On the downswing, you can notice Ben’s head has “dipped” 2-3 inches compared to position at address and top of his swing. This proves that the “dip” is actually a necessary natural action to a golfer’s swing provided the golfer doesn’t dip too much. Look at every top player in the world, they “dip” their head a little because it’s human nature.
Do note the fact that Ben’s lower body has aggressivly cleared to his left side while his spine tilt is actually a little straighter, meaning his upper body “moves” toward the target.
This move is inevitable to Ben’s swing in order to hit the ball square, you need to feel like you are on “top” of the ball on the way down in order to extend your arms correctly through impact.
After impact, notice how straight both of Ben’s arms are and the club dissecting between the two arms. This is something Ben is really good at.
At finish, notice how straight Ben’s lower body is and his upper body is pretty straight too. What impresses is how much his whole body is stretched on his finish while he remains in perfect balance with no sign of extra force exertion.
Bloody Ben Hogan, he’s the greatest golfer with the greatest swing ever. Even Tiger has great swing but won’t come close anywhere near Ben Hogan in my opinion.
Now, this is way back in the 50-60s when they had no cameras or any type of visual feedback for the pro golfers. How amazing is his swing when you think of that?
Very amazing indeed that Tiger’s still trying to copy Ben’s moves.
Even after 50 years, every tour pro including Tiger is trying to copy Ben Hogan’s moves, not Jack Nicklauses, not Arnold Palmer, but Ben and only Ben Hogan. That my friend, IS amazing.
Here’s Ben Hogan’s Iron Knockdown Swing in action:
(Mind you, Ben Hogan was the first master of these knockdown shots, not Tiger. Tiger only copied his moves.)
