4 o'clock to 10 o'clock

I don't believe I can more strongly emphasize swinging from 4 o'clock to 10 o'clock.  I have discussed this in an earlier post and I strongly recommend that you reread it and become intimately familiar in developing the feel for this swing.  I was rereading Byron Nelson's book on the Modern Golf Swing and he too was a huge advocate for this.

Hit 'em straight!

Mike
www.mikecortson.com
mike@mikecortson.com

Creating Club Head Speed

A golf ball is moved when force is applied to it.  The formula for force is, force = mass X acceleration.  The mass is the club head.  No need to worry about mass.  So all we have to concern ourselves with is acceleration.  We need to create speed and lots of it.  We can only create speed by swinging the club head.  This requires us to use our muscle structure in a fashion that allows our bodies to move fast as well.  For a muscle to be able to move is has to be relaxed.  If a muscle is flexed it has to resist motion in order to remain flexed.

Our natural urge, when thinking about hitting a ball, is the flex our muscles as we would to lift a sack of cement.  We instinctively equate power or force with brute force.  Power in golf is a misnomer.  Power is a conversion of energy such as a river turning a turbine, turning a generator, converting it to electricity.  We are not dealing with that here.  However, the word "power" evokes greatness in our minds.

Tight muscles are slow muscles.  So by gripping a club tightly in hand and getting all ridged ready to stop and oncoming train we are defeating our purpose.  Golf is no about throwing pianos or stopping oncoming trains.  It is about creating speed.  We need relaxed muscles that are able to move quickly and freely without any inhibition.  We need to create a whipping flowing motion.  It is a flicking motion.  I liken it to flicking a spit-wad off your thumb with your middle finger.  It is that snap or flick that creates the acceleration that moves the spit-wad.  You could make a tight fist and punch the spit-wad but it would go very far.

I can not emphasize enough the requirement that you use what Count Yogi termed a "touch grip".  This would holding the club with just enough pressure to keep it from slipping out of your hands.  The handle has been tapered to help keep the handle from slipping out of your hands.  Also, most players where a glove on the top hand to help keep the club from slipping.  On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being squeezing the handle as hard as you can, I would recommend at grip pressure of no more than 2.5.  You can't create club head speed by squeezing the handle.  Loosey goosey as Nicklaus said.  Grip it tight and the ball goes right.  If your left handed, too much heft and the ball goes left.

Hogan's turning point

I have spent the past few months reviewing films of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.  My observations revealed that their power source is essentially their buttocks.  I recall many years ago talking with Tom Kite asking him how he managed to hit the ball so far for an average size guy.  He said, without hesitation, "I hit it with my butt."  I recall laughing.  I know that Hogan was a real student of Ted Williams.  I started looking closely at Hogan's body motion remembering the important points John Schlee shared with me.  Hogan talked at length with John about his "turning point".  If you look at Hogan's swing you will see him literally almost sit on his left heel when he reaches the top of his swing.  You'll also notice that he has his back to the target.  This sitting motion places his center of gravity over his left heel as he is backing into the shot, literally.  Once his body is set over the turning point he turns his buttock hard to the left as he drops the back of his left hand down to the inside quarter of the ball letting his hands and arms fly away from his body and up.  This is why on page 88 of his book Hogan said he had to move the pane of glass since he was swing out and away from his body.  If his imaginary pane of glass wasn't move the club head would smash it.  To review, turn your back to the target as you swing the club under and up to the top, sit on your left heel as you drop your hands in front of you, and turn your butt as hard as you can letting your arms, hands and club whip away from your body up and through the ball hitting the inside quarter.  It takes a little practice to get the timing but the rewards are well worth the effort.

Mike
www.benhogan.ws

The need for speed

I have been working on how to create more speed in the swing without any additional effort, i tried the method today and i am very excited with the results. I'll report back when I have had a chance to refine the technique. It is a mental aspect.


Mike
www.pureforcegolf.com
www.benhogan.ws

Pure Force Golf on Facebook

Pure Force Golf is now on Facebook.  Come visit our page!  https://www.facebook.com/PureForceGolf

My Montessori influence

We shot the new dvd at my home course, Blossom Trails in Benton Harbor, Michigan.  I had no intention of doing another video after writing my book, The Secret to a Great Golf Swing and the dvd On Target Power.  I had thought I had covered just about everything regarding what John Schlee had taught me and all of the adaptations I introduced to simplify everything.  I have learned from teaching that not everyone internalizes information in the same manner.  What works for many may not make the least amount sense to someone else. The new video is a lesson like you have never seen before.  I was a trial lawyer for 20+ years and learned in the courtroom that I had to get my points across to the jury.  Each member of that jury had their own way of learning and it was up to me to find out just what I need to do or say to reach each on of them.  The student in Pure Force Golf is not a beginner by any means.  He came to me with many preconceived ideas about the golf swing and how it worked.  He was to say the least skeptical of what I was teaching.  Rather than argue I broke everything down to simple understandable terms and motions that were easy to understand.  I started out telling him about Schlee and what he taught me.  Then about all I had been through to uncover the physics that were at work in a simple yet forceful golf swing.  I went from the simple to the complex all along the way making certain that he understood what I was telling him.

Many years ago I owned a Montessori school in Santa Monica.  Those 11 years had taught me something about how to present information.  As with the Montessori method everything starts simple with each step mastered before proceeding to the next.  What I have done in Pure Force, without realizing it at the time, was using that same approach.  I am sure you will learn a just how the golf swing was meant to work in its most simple and efficient way.  I welcome you to bring your questions and comments here to this blog.

Mike

Our long awaited new DVD, "Pure Force Golf" is now available!  PURE FORCE GOLF

Parametric Acceleration explained

The golf swing is governed by physics and Newton's laws of motion.  Without getting into the mathematics and a multitude of equations I will endeavor to simplify what is going on.  Take a machine nut and tie it to a string about a foot in length.  Be sure to tie it securely so the nut doesn't come flying off.  Take the string in your hand with the nut hanging.  Start twirling the nut in a circle.  Keep twirling it and try to make the nut twirl faster.  What you will notice is that you have to pull on the string to make the nut go faster.  That pulling force is called centripetal force.  The faster you pull the faster the nut will go.  The speed of that pulling force at the hub of the radius i.e. the string held in your fingers is what Miura termed Parametric Acceleration.  The faster you pull the faster the nut travels.  In a golf swing the string is the player's lead arm (left for right handed player) and the club shaft.  The center point for the swing is the left shoulder.  The faster the left shoulder pulls the faster the club head goes.  Brute force has nothing to do with it.  The pulling action accelerates the club head.  

Hit 'em straight

Mike

www.benhogan.ws