Sunday, February 22, 2009

Ben Hogan Books and The Secret

Ben Hogan spent a considerable amount of time giving back to the game via his thoughtful books and articles related to the golf swing. He stated that he wanted to give back as much as he had "subtracted" from golf. While I am pretty sure he did not mean that literally, it is equally true that his dedication to golf was complete and he truly felt blessed to have achieved so much doing something that he loved.
Hogan taught millions of golfers over the years, indirectly through his books and directly through the influence of his reputation for high caliber play and his image captured in a variety of media and formats. His books include Ben Hogan's Power Golf, first printed in 1948 and updated or abridged in several printings since that time; Five Lessons, The Modern Fundamentals of Golf, first released in a series of Sports Illustrated articles in March 1957 and released later that year as a book, reprinted over the years including an updated foreword that captures Hogan's interview with Nick Seitz in December 1984; Life Magazine articles related to his secret, including April 5, 1954 and August 8, 1955, the former included top pros of the day guessing his secret and the latter with Hogan disclosing his secret of pronation.
A few interesting notes about these references. Power Golf was clearly written and released prior to Hogan achieving what he described as the "full integration" of his understanding of the golf swing, which was later expressed in Five Lessons. So the majority of Power Golf was likely written prior to Hogan's breakthrough in 1946. From a personal standpoint, I did not realize until 1994 or so that the original and many of the abridged versions had actual pictures vice the line drawings contained in the later version (that I owned). A big difference in many of the pictures related to the book is Hogan still has an extremely long swing, which provides some evidence that the pictures were taken prior to his change to a short thumb in his golf swing, which he modified coming out of the service in 1945. That is not to say that he never swung long after 1945 as can clearly be seen from the Hogan Collection.
A seeming discrepancey between the Life Magazine articles outlining his secret and his book Five Lessons is the glaring ommission of any discussion about pronation. Further, although he described the technique in some detail to Nick Seitz in the updated foreword added in 1985, he also stated emphatically that he would write Five Lessons the same way, "everything I know about the full swing is in here; I don't think the fundamentals will ever change". Hogan obviously believed that deliberate pronation, as espoused in the Life Magazine article, was not a fundamental of the golf swing.
The Life articles have fostered almost 50 years of misunderstanding and confusion over the relative importance of pronation in the golf swing. Hogan himself said it would be ruinous for a bad player and he clearly did not recommend it as a fundamental or basic element of the golf swing.
Many have confused the secret revealed in the Life Magazine article with aspects of the swing that Hogan advocated. That is clearly not the case, as evidenced by the absence of any emphasis on pronation (save for a portion discussing the dangers of early pronation at impact) in the book. Whenever I read about "Hogan's secret being bad for new or beginning golfers" it strikes one as promulgating Hogan's own words, since that is exactly what he said all along. Of course that assumes that the secret outlined in the Life Magazine article and Hogan's secret for his swing are one and the same thing. More on that topic in a later blog.

7 comments:

  1. This is an interesting point, one which many golfers have clung to. The purpose of pronation, being supination at impact is useful only after implementing the cause behind "Five Lessons". The conjoined reason actually is depicted on page 88 of "Five Lessons", in the illustration at the bottom of the page. But then, you have to know what you're looking for. "It's easy to see if you know where to look," Ben Hogan.

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  2. Do we have the same book? Are you referring to the diagram or line drawing of the separate planes for the backswing and downswing?
    As Johnny Miller said, Hogan often spoke in parables and I believe this quote is one of them.

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  3. Again, not to be problematic here, but the purpose of pronation by the original Scottish concept was to help people get the ball airborne. They were playing with wooden shafts. The reason Hogan used pronation was not supination but to prevent the clubface from closing through impact. Period. Supination happens in a good swing whether you pronate or not, in fact, pronation is a complication factor to a fundamentally sound swing.

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  4. I would suggest you google: "Pronation: The fundamental principle of golf". I have for the last two year tried everything there possibly is out there to improve my golf swing. From left hand dominance to rolling the ankles, to shooting out the hips. However in terms of my stance I have incorporate pre-tourquing (screwing my feet into the ground) as Hogan did. This means my base is solid. Then pronation - I have to say it is the secret of golf-, why did someone not tell me about this long before I tried all the other junk. Pronation determines everything in the golf swing, th plane, the arc, backswing and release. Just as I preset my legs, I also preset my right hand to pronate before I take the golf club back. Wow!!!!!...never mind all the other gimicks, or guys trying to make money from unsuspecting golfers. Study this one thing. It is not a modern relevation....but as old as golf itself. Also there is the big debate about left hand and right hand dominance. Read the book the soul of golf (google it)I have added an extract from Pronation: Later on when I began to thik about taking up the teaching of golf as a profession my father told me that there was one thing which little attention had been given and which above all others would help mi in teaching. That one thing was the pronating, or the proper turning of the wrist and forearms at the beginning of the swing" (David Hunter)

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  5. Thanks for the suggestion. I guess I consider myself a bit of a purist from the standpoint of the fundamentals. If it was not addressed in some way in Hogan's books, I would look at any suggested addition to the basic swing as an additional complication factor that is going to contribute to greater inconsistency (all things being equal).
    Hogan did not advocate pronation for the beginning or average golfer, nor as one of the fundamental elements. He did not recommend or encourage or practice "pre-tourqeing" in anything I have ever read about his technique or his recommendations. In fact, he advocated for a firm right side on the backswing and the transfer of almost 90% of the weight to the inside left side on the downswing, to the point where he has a demonstrable drag or push off the right foot that could not possibly happen if he was "screwed" into the ground.
    Thanks for the post and good golfing! MC

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  6. Mark,

    The pronation was not omitted in 5Lessons. It was discussed. But as you said, in sort of "parable" as Miller said. It was discussed in the Waggle. Hogan said not only once in 5Lessons that the Waggle is exactly the Backswing (BS), the only difference being: (a) the shoulder turns in the actual BS, and (b) the arc is simply increased or extended in the actual BS. So, the Waggle IS the BS. And in describing the Waggle, Hogan said that the lower part of the left arm rotates in the waggle, the right hand works along with the left hand, and the right elbow hits/touches the right hip. Well, isnt the lower left arm rotation pronation? There it is.

    Best.

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  7. Hey Michael,
    Thanks for the comment. Sorry to reply so late to your post. The lower left arm follows the trunk to get "on plane," with the right elbow acting somewhat as a limit or stop. This can be and is done without fanfare or the deliberate cupping of the wrist that constitutes what Hogan is referring to as "pronation," which specifically means the cupping of the lead wrist. Of course medical terms indicate that the rotation of the forearm around an axis constitutes pronation and the reverse induces or cycles through supination, but Hogan was talking about a deliberate action and not an anatomically correct definition (in my opinion.)

    I agree with your commentary above but disagree that Hogan was insinuating or somehow glossing over a deliberate pronation in either the waggle or the back swing. Byron Nelson worked to totally eliminate any deliberate wrist cock in his backswing, believing it should happen naturally as a result of the swing motion around the body. Steve Stricker similarly exhibits what often looks like a "wooden" or deliberate "hold-off" move where the wrists don't seem to engage during the swing.
    The waggle action is often referred to as a folding of the arms as a pre-hearsal or review of the impact position. So such a position would likely be more oriented to a supination cycle through impact at the bottom of the swing, vice a pronation move that would represent the top of the backswing.

    Thanks for the comment and sorry about the delayed response!

    Good Golfing! MC



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