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- #51
I thought about you JBC3...
Rebuilding my swing using Ben Hogan's 5 Lessons
I thought about you JBC3...
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- #52
Yeah, that last picture me and the instructor talked about a lot. I have been hitting the ball really high. I have started to release the club early. I know you can't tell from the angle, but the rear angle video, the shot was much better. Best one I hit that day and in a while. Good ball flight and distance.
DG_1234
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You have good athleticism , adequate flexibility, and a a relatively smooth tempo.
Most all your swing struggles are related to address position faults. More than any other factor the grip influences the swing, so I suggest using books by a Hogan, Tiger, or Nicklaus to find proper grip technique photos-instruction.
The other suggestion I have for you (and it is related to grip), is to get rid of the angle at address created by your left arm and the club shaft. Take a look at this photo of Nicklaus and note his left arm and the club shaft form a nearly straight line:
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- #55
I appreciate all the feedback!
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- #56
Had my 4th lesson today. It was a shorter lesson, about 40-45 minutes. Just wanted to try to get one more in before Saturdays gathering. I am very happy with my progress so far. I feel better about my swing. I am not 100% confident in it yet, though. Today, I wanted to work on hitting the driver. The driver has always been my arch-nemesis! My personal "El Guapo" if you will! The instructor had me set up and my alignment was way off. My feet were pointed to the target, but my shoulders were closed off. We fixed that. Talked about tempo, swing plane, trusting your swing and not trying to guide the club. It was so/so expedition. Some really good drives and some drives right of Joseph McCarthy. 2 issues that kept popping up was leaving my weight on my right foot and my hands/wrists not rotating the clubface closed. The instructor had me to get up on the ball of my right foot at setup and use that to push my weight/hips to the left. He also had me strengthen my grip a little to help the clubface close down at impact. I think we have gotten as far as we can by fixing my swing problems to put me in better positions to be more consistent. Our plan for the next lesson is to work on shortening my backswing, keeping the left arm from breaking down, and making my swing more compact and repeatable.
Just caught up on your progress JBC3.... looking good man! You’ve made a lot of progress since the Hogan Experience. Old habits will take time to break and some bad shots will happen for a while but at some point it’ll all come together—- don’t quit!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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- #58
Will tell you now, you’re going to hate the work it takes to shorten your swing. The feel will not even be close to real. You’ll get a lot of work done when you don’t have a ball to hit than you will with one, with regards to making a shorter backswing. The second a ball comes into play, the hit it hard instinct comes back and you’ll find yourself back to a long backswing. Using a wedge helps a lot IMO, cause you’re usually not trying to hit it 200yds to begin with. Something like a 50-75yd shot works well cause you probably don’t need a long backswing to hit it that distance 
Just thought I’d give you that friendly warning in advance, cause it suuuuucks.
Just thought I’d give you that friendly warning in advance, cause it suuuuucks.
this helped me out greatly today...I just remembered to grip the club as illustrated and not think too much about it...and voila, i hit mostly straight drives today that didn't put me too far off the FW.
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- #61
Had my 5th lesson yesterday. I'm hitting the ball well. I'm now consistently straight or a slight pull left. Which is way better than the power slice. A couple minor tweaks I have incorporated to help get myself over the hump are...1-strengthened my grip more. To an "uncomfortable" point. I found myself rotating my hands back to my normal position just out of habit. When I go stronger, it's awkward, and I can feel it. Trying to ingrain that awkward feeling to normal. 2-I'm keeping myself up on the ball of my back foot. When I take my backswing, my weight is staying on that back foot. By staying up on the ball of my foot, I am able to transfer that weight back forward, and really drive my hips around. Very much like pushing yourself out of the starting blocks of a track race. 3-I have dropped that right foot back about 4-6 inches. This is doing two things...it is keeping my right shoulder back and not allowing my shoulders to close to my target and also, it is helping me hit from the inside. But, i am getting my normal swing speed now, making great contact, and hitting the middle of the face. My two issues I want to addess are shortening my backswing...which I'm going to spend considerable time on this winter. But, primarily, getting my hands in front of the ball at contact. I am hitting the ball extremely high right now. Yesterday was extremely windy...blowing back towards me...and the ball would just balloon up and die. I hit both the TEE iron-wood and Ben Hogan PTx Pro and saw the same issue. This is something I cant explain. Previously, I was a "stinger/low ball hitter" now it's just launching extremely high. The instructor believes it's a timing issue. Every lesson shows more and more results. Colby kept commenting on the major improvement in a few weeks. Definitely, some of the best money I have ever spent.
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- #62
I have one lesson left in my original group of 6. I will try to schedule it in the next week. received a gift certificate for more lessons! The issue is they are with another instructor at the course. Do I switch instructors or stay with the same one? What would you do?
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If you like your current instructor and are seeing results I’d stick with them
One million percent agree. if you like your current guy and are making progress you are happy with do not change.
Like this move, looking at the face on view. I think if you just eliminated that last little reach just before the top of your backswing, you’d really tighten it up. I don’t think you need to overswing, you got some power.
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- #66
That's kind of my problem. I don't feel like I'm over swinging, but I am. When I try not too, I feel like I'm going 50% and it's just awkward. I have to shorten that back swing to get where I want to be!
Really great improvement over 5 lessons! Nice work!
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- #68
I had my 6th lesson the other day. The results have been night and day! I'm so close to being in a really good place. My instructor is extremely pleased with the results over the last 2 months. My ball striking is so much better. I'm still hitting the ball too high. With the wind blowing like it was, it's killing my distance. We worked on really trying to keep making good contact and trying to lower the ball flight. I can and did keep the ball down using a punch type swing. I hit my PTx Pro irons. I have a lot of confidence in these clubs! It's odd...I just like playing them. Not to sound funny, but they make me happy. The performance results of the Hogans and the Tour Edges are basically the same. So, it's the Indian not the arrows. With the weather probably turning bad here in Wilmington now that it's January, my next goal is to shorten up my backswing and make my overall swing more compact. Between my next package of lessons, using teaching aids like the Power Package I ordered, a mirror/video camera, practicing a lot, getting back to the gym and eating better religiously, I hope to be in a way better place than I was or am now! I'm very satisfied with my Ben Hogan gear! From the 18* VKTR hybrid to the BHM01 mallet putter, it is solidly in the bag for 2020. My only questions are driver and 3 wood. I need a solid head to head comparison between the Hogan GS53 woods and the TEE EXS woods. I'm hitting the GS53 well, so the EXS has some work to do to keep me from gaming all 14 Hogan clubs.
Love to see the progress, @J.B. Cobb III !
It's interesting because I had a coach tell me to stay away from that book. He said that due to modern advancements in club and ball technology that there are more efficient swing techniques. He also mentioned that since the inception of launch monitors that good golfers (including Tiger) have changed their technique now that they better understand the data they get from launch monitors. It was interesting to me as I really like Hogan's swing.
razaar
Well-known member
Kelvin Miyahira wroe two articles about this -
Ben Hogan's release and how you are not going to get it.
New Instinctive Golf Swing of Legends and a closer look at Ben Hogan.
I will try to find those articles.. Sounds like a good read!
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- #73
Going to start practicing using the Power Package!
Is all of this working for you?
I enjoy getting on youtube and watch Hogan swing, but thought 5 Lessons was somewhat confusing - the pane of glass thing is not exactly reality but gives you the idea of plane. I watch Hogan but I get more out of, for example, a Mike Malaska or George Gankas vid in terms of understanding the swing, how to gain speed, how to get on front foot, how to get hips out of the way, or Stan Utley for pitches and chips, than reading a book.
But keep up the dream. Good luck.
I enjoy getting on youtube and watch Hogan swing, but thought 5 Lessons was somewhat confusing - the pane of glass thing is not exactly reality but gives you the idea of plane. I watch Hogan but I get more out of, for example, a Mike Malaska or George Gankas vid in terms of understanding the swing, how to gain speed, how to get on front foot, how to get hips out of the way, or Stan Utley for pitches and chips, than reading a book.
But keep up the dream. Good luck.
I'm really impressed at how much progress you have made! I think your swing looks much improved from the first lesson tot he last. There is still work to do, but its definitely much more repeatable in its current state.
As someone who has started taking lessons recently and am working on many of the fundamentals and revisions that you are working on, I appreciate the work and effort you mist have put in to get to where you are now. Great job.
As someone who has started taking lessons recently and am working on many of the fundamentals and revisions that you are working on, I appreciate the work and effort you mist have put in to get to where you are now. Great job.