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How to get better Consistency, Clubhead Speed and Power?
Book Review – Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons
There is a lot of content on the Internet how to get better clubhead speed and power. But I have found that there is only one little book that is timeless and pretty much anyone who provides lessons to improve your golf swing, bases their teaching on.
Hogan's Secret
There are many views on what this is, and more can be read here. It is said that Hogan revealed later in life that the “secret” involved cupping the left wrist at the top of the backswing. But I believe it is more than that and oultined below 4 key steps in his book for better Consistency, Clubhead Speed and Power.
Just 4 Simple Steps
Although a compact book of only 109 pages, it does a wordy job of explaining how to execute Chapter 4 – “The Second Part of the Swing”. Although the logic and theory is explained the practical execution is still the challenge. (which Ben Hogan also recognises in the book).
Therefore, I have made a summary of the key steps with pictures and “How to” suggestions. It has transformed my game, and I hope this review will inspire and motivate to do-it-yourself too!
Step
What
Why
How To
Wide Arc Take-away
- V-shape arm setup
- Point elbows to hip and tightly together
- Wider the arc, the greater the clubhead speed at moment of impact
- Better to have less of a back-swing than to bend your lead left elbow to achieve a wider Arc
- A good practice drill is using an armband and practice this with chipping (shorter backswing) first
Repeatable Delivery Plane
- Keep swing "on-plane"
- Ensure a consistent and optimum club-head delivery to moment of impact
- Steep or low does not really matter
- Consistency is what counts. (Once ingrained you can manipulate the spin of the ball (cut, fade, draw) with varying the angle of delivery combined with wrist suplination at moment of impact
Right Transition
- Hips out of the way before you start the downswing
- Build up of Power. The action of "moving your hips out of the way" means you have to use your body, legs and feet to generate this action. To do this you use the ground as a counter force which multiplies the power at moment of impact
- Use your body, and straightening of lead leg knee backwards, not slide towards target, you can force this a little in the beginning with a conscience stomp action
- A nice tip/signal of when to start this move, is to cup/bow your wrists a little more at the top of the backswing- a signal to start your body and lead leg to move first
Optimum Impact Position
Each "Why" step above mentions the Moment of Impact. This is the critical and final objective
- Left arm leads the right arm !!!
- Keep your head down behind the ball
- Swing and accelerate as hard as you can
- Explosion of Power. With a high-wide arc and leading with the left (lead) arm you are forced to use your built up body energy first. The final burst is only with your arms, wrist and hands. (Which will happen automatically anyway without you thinking about it! If you have the previous steps right
- Grip the club very lightly with your right (trail) hand. Try it with just holding it with your fingers of your right hand to start the backswing.
- If you can consistently hit the ball with just your left-arm-hand you have the right set-up steps in place
- You will realise quickly that impact position is more important than anything else
Right Practice and Feedback
With only these 4 things in place I believe with conscious full awareness and highly repetitive practice, you will quickly “feel” the importance of right-impact and the importance of the 4 steps above. You will want to always have this feeling because it feels good. You will for sure not go back to your old habits. This is immediate feedback with results. But if you are struggling, get feedback on how you are doing on the above from someone else, who understands the above, or ideally video yourself on your mobile phone.
About The Book*
Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons outlines the building blocks of winning golf from one of the all-time masters of the sport—fully illustrated with drawings and diagrams to improve your game instantly. In each chapter, a different experience-tested fundamental is explained and demonstrated with clear illustrations—as though Hogan were giving you a personal lesson with the same skill and precision that made him a legend.
About the Author?*
Ben Hogan turned pro at seventeen. At forty-one, he won five of six tournaments, including the Masters, U.S. Open and the British Open. Hogan died at eighty-four in 1997 in his home in Fort Worth, Texas.
Why this book?
It is the "bible" for any golfer! It makes me question if you really need lessons, What we probably all need is feedback. Be this from a friend or made videos of yourself
Where To Buy The book?
If you have derived benefited from this review, please share this with other people and buy the book from the original publisher*. I used to have links to vendors but due to low traffic and lack of qualified referrals Amazon removed them. So NO financial benefit to me but for your convenience below. You can also buy it from many online market places and even second hand books are available. New it is about $12USD, but you can get very good quality used books for less. It is well worth the investment and enjoy!
*Extracts About the Book and Author from the publisher Simon and Schuster