It is very easy to link to photos so that they appear in your text message. There should be a series of formattiing choices at the top of this window, and the one choice is a mountain with a yellow colored sky. If you hover your mouse arrow above that "picture" it should state "insert image". You simply have to click on that "insert image" link and insert your url link.
If you cannot find the "extra" formatting options, got to UserCP => click on "edit options" => got to miscellaneous options at the bottom, and then choose "standard editor".
Regarding that Jules Alexander photo, it doesn't show the clubshaft at the delivery position. The clubshaft is already well into that part of the downswing called the "release swivel" phase and during this phase of the downswing, the left hand and clubface will undergo a 90 degree rotation into impact. During that 90 degree rotation phase, the back of the left hand will swivel so that it faces the target and it will also face groundwards if the golfer is hitting down on the ball. It is perfectly normal for the clubface, and back of the left hand, to be facing slightly groundwards during the release swivel phase of the downswing - and this applies to all good golfers, and not only Hogan.
I think that you would benefit greatly if you did what I did 2 months ago - become an avid student of TGM. It has changed my understanding of the golf swing in many ways, even though I still have a lot to learn. Then, you wouldn't write-: "to square the clubface earlier and maintain it square as long as possible (delayed post-impact swivel and swinging left with an angled hinge); the whole question is if you are able to do it with only left arm pulling...I do not believe it is so easy and so efficient comparing to the right forearm support while swinging the club around..." I think that you have an incomplete/ wrong conception of the golf swing. A swinger may "pull" the club longitudinally with the left arm, but the right forearm and PP#3 control the clubshaft to ensure that it is on plane during the downswing, while the left hand controls the clubface through impact. I don't believe that a golfer should ever "hold" the clubface square as long as possible. In HK's terms, that represents "steering", which is a significant mistake. The clubface should always come into impact with a slightly open clubface, and a good golfer controls its rate of closure through impact/followthrough via a hinging action, which is under the control of the back of the left hand, but biomechanically operant at the level of the left shoulder socket. Any post-impact swiveling action occurs after the followthrough phase of the swing.
Here is a post-accident photo of Hogan posing - to demonstrate how he wanted the clubface to be slightly open when it reached the delivery position.
If you have "evidence" that Hogan changed his approach to deal with his lifelong hooking problem very late in his career, then could you please i) quote Hogan stating that he deliberately chose to close the clubface earlier in his downswing; and ii) explain how an earlier clubface closure action would be a good anti-hooking strategy.
Here is link to a slo-mo swing video of Tiger Woods's swing, and you will be able to study the movement of the back of his left hand and clubface during the release swivel action.
This photo comparison shows that both Tiger and Ben had the back of their left hand facing slightly groundwards at this stage of the release swivel action (when viewed from a similar off-center camera angle) and that the clubface is not square yet to the swingarc.
I believe that the clubface must always approach the ball slightly open at the time of first ball impact in standard shots.
It is very easy to link to photos so that they appear in your text message. There should be a series of formattiing choices at the top of this window, and the one choice is a mountain with a yellow colored sky. If you hover your mouse arrow above that "picture" it should state "insert image". You simply have to click on that "insert image" link and insert your url link.
If you cannot find the "extra" formatting options, got to UserCP => click on "edit options" => got to miscellaneous options at the bottom, and then choose "standard editor".
Regarding that Jules Alexander photo, it doesn't show the clubshaft at the delivery position. The clubshaft is already well into that part of the downswing called the "release swivel" phase and during this phase of the downswing, the left hand and clubface will undergo a 90 degree rotation into impact. During that 90 degree rotation phase, the back of the left hand will swivel so that it faces the target and it will also face groundwards if the golfer is hitting down on the ball. It is perfectly normal for the clubface, and back of the left hand, to be facing slightly groundwards during the release swivel phase of the downswing - and this applies to all good golfers, and not only Hogan.
I think that you would benefit greatly if you did what I did 2 months ago - become an avid student of TGM. It has changed my understanding of the golf swing in many ways, even though I still have a lot to learn. Then, you wouldn't write-: "to square the clubface earlier and maintain it square as long as possible (delayed post-impact swivel and swinging left with an angled hinge); the whole question is if you are able to do it with only left arm pulling...I do not believe it is so easy and so efficient comparing to the right forearm support while swinging the club around..." I think that you have an incomplete/ wrong conception of the golf swing. A swinger may "pull" the club longitudinally with the left arm, but the right forearm and PP#3 control the clubshaft to ensure that it is on plane during the downswing, while the left hand controls the clubface through impact. I don't believe that a golfer should ever "hold" the clubface square as long as possible. In HK's terms, that represents "steering", which is a significant mistake. The clubface should always come into impact with a slightly open clubface, and a good golfer controls its rate of closure through impact/followthrough via a hinging action, which is under the control of the back of the left hand, but biomechanically operant at the level of the left shoulder socket. Any post-impact swiveling action occurs after the followthrough phase of the swing.
Here is a post-accident photo of Hogan posing - to demonstrate how he wanted the clubface to be slightly open when it reached the delivery position.
If you have "evidence" that Hogan changed his approach to deal with his lifelong hooking problem very late in his career, then could you please i) quote Hogan stating that he deliberately chose to close the clubface earlier in his downswing; and ii) explain how an earlier clubface closure action would be a good anti-hooking strategy.
Jeff.
Jeff, thanks for helping me with uploading photos possibility, however, I still do not know how to upload a photo from my PC (I do not want to upload using URLs since I do not possess a web site with already uploaded photos). But never mind...
I am not going to debate with you or any of the Forum members in a TGM language since my knowledge is very limited so far.
Neverteless, I can easily answer your 2 questions using ordinary terms:
i) quote Hogan stating that he deliberately chose to close the clubface earlier in his downswing
I cannot do it since I believe it is one of the important puzzles of Hogan's secret that he did not want to reveal to anyone.
ii) explain how an earlier clubface closure action would be a good anti-hooking strategy
It's very easy. In case of pivot guided swings the most efficient motion is to subdue the clubface movement to the body turn; when your clubface is already square to the arc before entering the impact zone no further action is taken in order to close the clubface, because your brain already knows it is square; you, as a Doc, should know much better than me that everything happens in our brain - if your brain "sees" the clubface as closed and, simultaneously, your brain "wants" to hit the ball straight, it won't allow your hands to close the clubface and will force them to be completely passive during the impact zone.
Do an experiment yourself - address the ball with a severely closed clubface with an attempt to hit the ball straight forward - you will see how hard (or even impossible) is to hook the ball in such a scenario. What will happen is that you subconsciousnessly hit the ball with a more open clubface that it was at address and most likely (depending on your swing characteristic) you'll obtain a fade pattern. No CP, CF or other forces will be ever able to overcome your subconsciousness.
I think that Hogan discovered this phenomenon and he gave us some clues while saying: "if you think that a given thing in your swing will help you - do exactly opposite thing and you'll obtain what you want
Cheers
P.S. the comparison between Hogan and Woods on those 2 pics of yours is wrong - first, the angles are different, second, they are not in the same moment of the swing. Lastly, look carefully at Hogan's clubface - it is square to the arc already (the whole face of the club is visible).
You offer two arguments that are particularly weak, and these arguments come up all the time when people comment on Hogan's swing.
You wrote-: "You also said you have never found any "secrets" of Hogan to be convincingly true - how can you say this if you neglect digging in the dirt yourself ? how can you say that the Yellow Book is the best way to understand what principles Hogan used to be the best ballstriker in history of the game since, as I told you, noone of TGM students could ever duplicate or be close to Hogan's overhuman accuracy and consistency ?"
This "digging in the dirt" argument is woefuly weak because you have no idea how much time I spend "digging in the dirt" in an attempt to understand the golf swing. By the way, despite spending endless hours "digging in the dirt", I can never personally hope to become a good golfer because I have too many physical handicaps/limitations. Hogan, although an extraordinary talented golfer, was also a mortal golfer who based his swing on many golf fundamentals/principles. Those same principles are present in many other golfers' swings. They can be studied and understood by a person like HK. However, even a perfect understanding of golf swing fundamentals cannot create an "expert" golfer, like Hogan. It requires, in addition, an inherent "gift" for executing the golf swing. The same fact applies to other sports. Roger Federer may be the greatest tennis player that has ever played the game of tennis, but that doesn't mean that one cannot study and understand the tennis principles/fundamentals that form the underlying framework of his tennis skills. I have read an endless number of golf instructional books, but none of them equals the TGM book with regards to the critically important criterion of having at its "core" a fundamentally sound scientific approach.
We certainly have a very different perspective on golf mechanics, physics and biomechanics.
You wrote-: "Do an experiment yourself - address the ball with a severely closed clubface with an attempt to hit the ball straight forward - you will see how hard (or even impossible) is to hook the ball in such a scenario. What will happen is that you subconsciousnessly hit the ball with a more open clubface that it was at address and most likely (depending on your swing characteristic) you'll obtain a fade pattern. No CP, CF or other forces will be ever able to overcome your subconsciousness."
You claim, amazingly, that a golfer will likely fade a ball if he addresses the ball with a severely closed clubface, because you believe that the subconscious mind will overcome CF, or other biomechanical forces, that predispose to hitting the ball left if the clubface is severely closed at address. I personally don't believe that it will happen, and if it does happen, then the golfer has to markedly intefere with the natural release swivel action. Normally, the back of the left hand and clubface swivels 90 degrees when the club moves from the delivery position to the impact position. During this time period, the left wrist is also completely uncocking as power accumulator #2 fully releases. You are essentially recommending that a golfer's subconscious mind needs to interfere with this natural release swivel phenomenon, that is happening very fast in the late downswing, so that the golfer can prevent the closed clubface from closing too fast during the release swivel action. Phew! I have heard of recommended measures to prevent the ball going left, but this particular recommendation is far beyond the outer limits of my understanding of golf mechanics. If Hogan really harbored this belief, then I am not surprised that Hogan would have tried not to reveal this idea to anyone!
I will resist the opportunity to formally request that you answer the obvious follow-up question - how does the subconscious mind get the arms/hands to interfere with the natural release swivel action in a controllable/repeatable manner.
In fact, you start to amaze me, too. First, for unknown reasons, you resist to try on yourself to check what I recommend you to do in order to verify if my feels are correct or not. FYI, the "shut face drill" is one of the best I know to learn proper pivot and proper impact position. Just try it and report back if you are able to hook the ball while trusting your subconscioussness.
When you are driving a car - do you think about pressing the gas pedal, changing gears or turning steering wheel ? If you really do I guarantee that you are much worse driver than this who has his thoughts in the clouds and lets his/her subconsciusness drive the car.
You also amaze me with lack of intuition. In your opinion, the natural release is a swivel action. Please spent more time with total beginners and you will learn that noone starts to hit the ball like Hogan (Cotton's push release) or Els (Cotton's crossover release), but they slap-hinge it (or, as you TGMers call it - flip), bent left wrist in urge to hit the ball in the air and chicken-winging. This is a natural way to release the club that does not mean the best. All other things (as proper pivot, flat left wrist, swivel, etc.) are educated things.
And, IMHO, you do not educate your hands - you educate your subconsciousness to not interefere with a technically proper way to hit the ball since the intuitive way is not good for many objective reasons (as e.g. not believing in loft of the club or not believing in body turn or not believing in proper CoG shift, etc.)
Now, imagine that everyone except Hogan did not educate their subconsciousness to not interfere with such a "strange" subject as opening/closing clubface concept is. And that is why only post-accident Hogan (not counting autistic Moe Norman) owned his swing and made it repeatable and consistent much more than everyone else did or does it. Try to look at the big picture - the best thing you can do in a golf swing is to minimize timing issues. Answer yourself what should a man equipped with main body and four distal parts (legs and arns) do in this matter. Hogan apparently succeded in minimizing timing issues in his swing - this was his key to success and I am trying to discover it by making my own mistakes and errors. The closing/squaring clubface issue is, IMHO, one of the most important, since the ball react to the contact with the clubface and what really matters is what angle the clubface is coming from, what angle does it have at contact, and at separation.
Until now, nobody succeded in finding Hogan's secret(s) - and that is why there are still no golfer who can be in Hogan's league as regards accuracy, consistency and repeatability of shots. Unfortunately, Mr.Kelley (as well as other instructors, swing analysers and coaches) also apparently failed since there are no TGM students who may be compared to Hogan in this sense.
Therefore, since Hogan took the majority of what he discovered to the grave, all avid Hogan fans should try to keep further in the dirt - and this is the difference between us, since you do not want to "dig in the dirt yourself" but prefer to concentrate on what is already written.
What I see is that Hogan's clubface is square to the arc for a longer time than all other players I had the pleasure to analyze. It's a fact for me. Moreover, the correlation between a square-to-the-arc clubface in the whole impact zone and minimizing timing issues is so convincing, that is hard to believe it can be a better way...if you know a better way - share your thoughts and I'd be the first to follow your advices immediately.
Now, I am trying all the time to learn how did he do this in the way it was almost automatic for him. That's why I am on serious golf fora, like here at Lynn's site. And, finally, this is why I am not rejecting any ideas, even those that appear to be very goofy at first sight.
__________________
Dariusz
Last edited by Dariusz J. : 06-16-2008 at 07:50 PM.
Because I know that you are a serious student of the golf swing, I would recommend that you stick-around, and participate, in this golf forum. You could learn a totally different way to think of the golf swing. You must get HK's TGM book and read it multiple times, and you must read all of Lynn Blake's archived posts. If you do, I suspect that you will never again state-: "And, IMHO, you do not educate your hands - you educate your subconsciousness to not interfere with a technically proper way to hit the ball."
HK's "educated hands" concept is fundamental to learning the "technically proper way to hit the ball." Hitting a golf ball, like driving a car, is not an intuitive skill. It is an acquired skill that only becomes intuitive when one clearly understands how do it subconsciously. However, the golf swing must first be consciously learned, then rehearsed at a slow speed, eventually at faster speeds, while paying attention-attention-attention to the details. Eventually, with proper learning and the requisite amount of "correct" practice, it can become subconsciously efficient.
If you read HK's book, then you will likely never have the need to again use Henry Cotton's terms "crossover release" and push release". HK offers a much better swing vocabulary that is more precise and more biomechanically coherent.
There is an endless interest among many golfers in discovering Hogan's undiscovered "secrets". I have read a fair number of articles and books that have supposedly discovered/exposed a hidden Hogan "secret". I have never found ONE of those "secrets" to be convincingly true. I think that the great secret about Hogan's swing is divulged (within the limitations of Hogan's theoretical knowledge) by Hogan himself in his "Five lessons" book, and made much more understandable when viewed through the prism of HK's theories on golf physics/geometry/mechanics.
Finally, you wrote-: "Moreover, the correlation between a square-to-the-arc clubface in the whole impact zone and minimizing timing issues is so convincing, that is hard to believe it can be a better way...if you know a better way - share your thoughts and I'd be the first to follow your advices immediately." Once you study TGM and understand that the clubhead never travels in a straight line, and that the clubface only needs to be square at the moment of ball-clubface separation (if you want to hit the ball straight), then you can start to learn how to "educate the hands" and the supporting body pivot action how best to produce a consistently reliable ball flight pattern.
A good place to start learning about the TGM learning curriculum is in Lynn Blake's free video gallery - view the entire Colin Neeman and Jeff Hull series of video lessons.
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