[Jeff]

KOC

I am not sure what question you are asking.

Anyway, consider Shawn Clement's one leg swing.



This is his alignment when he starts the downswing. His spine and upper torso are angled to the right (yellow line) while his thighs (green line) are angled to the left. That is the critical body alignment that allows for an effective downswing pivot action. How does he start the downswing? Not by a lower body movement (shift-rotation of the hips). He states that he simply lets the momentum of the club produce the downswing. Now whether he pulls the club down with his hands, or whether he starts the downswing with a right shoulder throw action, the end-result on his lower body can be clearly seen in the video. His left knee moves left-laterally and the left thigh rotates counterclockwise (while he puts increasing weight on the left foot) => that causes the pelvis to rotate to the left/backwards. That lower body move is exactly what Hogan does in his downswing (except that Hogan initiates the downswing with a lower body movement).

How does Shawn Clement get into the proper alignment position to start his downswing. A key element is that he starts at address with rightwards spinal tilt. Then he pulls the right hip back during the backswing and that causes the pelvis to shift left-laterally while the head (and therefore upper spine) is kept stationary. In particular, as a result of the pelvic shift movement left-laterally, the lumbar spine moves left-laterally while he keeps his head and upper spine stationary. That produces the rightwards-tilted spine, rightwards tilted torso and stable head position (yellow line). I think that this skeletal alignment is the critical part of the equation. The fact that his central mass around his navel moves leftwards in the backswing (as a result of the left-lateral pelvic movement) is incidental. In other words, I agree with VJ's belief that the key element in Hogan's backswing is the angling of the right thigh to the left, which pushes the pelvis left-laterally during the backswing, so that Hogan has the reverse-K look exemplified by Shawn Clement in that photographic image. However, any weight shift is incidental - as Shawn Clement stated in his one-leg swing video. He makes no attempt to shift weight. He merely adopts the "correct" body alignments necessary to execute a fluid downswing over a braced lead leg.

Jeff.