Best swing tip of all time for me. If you keep that right elbow below the shaft plane, your right hand and right side can not take over the downswing. Also, the pace and control of the elbow coming down will also keep you from hitting from the top. Try varying the pace with which you bring it down and watch what it does to the ball. This elbow movement also brought me to a complete balanced finish. It does not get any better than that. Worked for all clubs in the bag.
If you want to keep your right elbow (or left, if you're a lefty) tucked in like Hogan, keep your upper arms firmly against the sides of your chest throughout the swing. He describes it in his 'Five Lessons' book. Keeping your upper arms against your chest forces your right elbow in to the proper position.
Harvey Penick knew all about this. He called it the Magic Move. As you begin your downswing you bring the right elbow into your side while at the same time shift your weight to the left. He said that this was one move, not two. He also said that the reason he called it the Magic Move was that if you do it well you will hit the ball as if by magic! Combine this with Hogan's weak grip and slightly open clubface and you'll be hitting a power fade in no time!
thank you. excellent study. i tried loosening my R elbow above plane backswing & below reverse... i gained speed & control. i will keep using your tips
I’m serious! The Secret Move in the golf swing IS how the right elbow works! It is no different than a pitcher going forward, it always leads the swing going forward and doesn’t matter the tempo, your body knows how to do everything else! You don’t have to think about anything else and I know because I pitched as a young man and I was good ! I’m 73 now and wish I had made golf this easy when I started , you might have heard of me if I had ! John
I've heard of you Mr Harrington. You are a legend. I believe I read about you in an article I stumbled upon featuring another legend Arnold Palmer. I salute you sir. 💪
Really good information sir, thank you!! Wishing we had Konica Swing Vision back then! Couldn't you look at slo-mo swings of Chad Campbell and Johnathon Bryd to illustrate similar traits? Again thanks for your time, expertise and talent!!
So many of the greats could return to the original plane. You mention Trevino but also Player, Snead, Moe, Nelson, Palmer, Tiger, and many others. Not all had the elbow below the plane line but they all lowered their head substantially and their left hip deepened away from the ball from their original setup. This is the holy grail move in golf. Enjoyed the video, thanks.
Would not the elbow be affected by him bowing his left wrist before impact? That bowing of his left wrist set his right wrist into position to use his (three) right hands to throw the club through impact.
From the top, he drives that right elbow down and forward so he can push that club through the zone with his right arm and hand. All good players do the same, but Hogans shoulder was flexible enough to really get the elbow in front of the right hip. Jack did the same. It didnt matter that his right elbow was "flying" at the top, as a matter of fact, it helped create power by starting the downswing driving that right elbow down and in. Same with Fred Couples and Lee Trevino. Great baseball hitters do the same. Watch Ariya Jutanugarn. Same thing. The right elbow is away from the body at the top and then she drives it down and in.
Fenton Taylor more specifically: At the top of the swing the trail elbow leads the trail hand; opens up the lead side; and the rest is Hogan’s history. Think of a football payer throwing a football
Please look at the difference in the right hip between his early swing at (2:32) and his later swing at (4:15). To me it looks like the right hip is driving the swing at (4:15) where it is being dragged along in the earlier swing at (2:32)
What did the right elbow do in the downswing? Answer: Hogan's swing plane is very close to what The Golfing Machine refers to as the elbow plane. In plane angle variations it appears that he uses the 10-7-E Reverse Shift from the turned shoulder plane at P-4 to shift to the elbow plane. How to move the right elbow from the top P-4 to P-6 is to "FEEL" the right elbow is moving away from the ball (reverse) not towards the ball. This puts the right "elbow down and at the side" TGM 10-3-A, instead of down and in front.
You left someone out when mentioning players who get the club back on the original shaft plane at impact: Sergio Garcia. Easily the best ball striker of the modern era. All of these guys have one thing in common: They dramatically flatten the shaft plane in transition while at the same time keeping the right shoulder higher than the left. They all have the butt of the club is pointed well ABOVE the ball between the top of the backswing to where the left arm is parallel to the ground. Modern instruction says that the butt of the club points at the ball during this part of the swing, but what all the great ball-strikers do says otherwise. It's just physics. Something about being in this position allows gravity to take over and get the plane back to where it was at address.
Ben Hogan wrote about the pane of glass shifting from BS to DS. and he wrote extensively of the Slot. ie all five levers in a common plane. The Slot is the key to shot making, not the shaft plane at address.
In plain English, here is Hogan's "Right Elbow Secret": 1) Early during the backswing, at P3, you must be able to squeeze a small cluster of grapes dangling from your right armpit with your upper, right arm ( use plastic grapes), 2) At the top, you must manipulate the shaft with your upper arm ball and the socket of your shoulder such that the butt of the club points outside the ball, 3) you must start the downswing by bumping your butt toward the target and turning your hips, 4) you must consciously scythe your bent right elbow down toward your watch pocket while keeping your left arm straight and your wrists cocked, 5) and you must tack, glue, holster, keep the right elbow opposite that watch pocket all the way to striking the ball. In plain English, if you don't holster that right elbow in the watch pocket and keep it there until you turn through the ball, you'll screw up. If you do, you'll improve a lot.
The real secret is the right arm is kept tucked against the right upper shoulder. The right forearm at address is rotated upward as you would if hitting the ball with a hammer. These actions caused the club face to square up to the ball at impact and swing to stay on plane as well---the right arm is the power arm
Totally disagree with you here. The reason that Hogan was able to square the club face to the ball at impact was through the pivot of the body....all the legends of the game did this, Jones, Player, Palmer, Nicklaus. It was the rotation of the body that squared the club face at impact. Ref Bradley Hughes, 2 time Australian Masters champion.
Hogan said that the downswing was on a different plane than the backswing, that the plane was rotated towards the target on the planes point. This makes the downswing angle much steeper to the ball and also inside the arc of the backswing. That explains the elbow under the plane back to the ball since the angle is more downward. I contend this is the natural outcome of the weight shift to the left with the lower body. That is the shift that moves the downswing plane to the inside of the backswing arc. From there he said he would imagine pulling DOWN on the shaft with his hands headed straight for the ball. This move down with the hands is controlled be gravity mostly at first and if you try it you can feel the club drop into the slot for the downswing as you now unwind, it automatically returns the club back on plane. His book shows this in pictures of the swing plane. The hands MUST drop a little after the weight shift because that is the only way to get them onto the downswing swing plane which once again is angled much more steeply to the ball than was the backswing plane.
Hogan apparently kept his right elbow at or below the plane through the entire swing... Nicklaus didnt but got it back in the down swing... Right arm loading and right elbow down and rotating key...as this video demonstrates Question now is... Does the right arm hold the angle through the backswing and downswing....keeping the right arm at the same length? or does the right arm really fold on takeaway and then extend on downswing?
Mr Hogan had very long arms, many people don't consider this factor, the right elbow and right wrist have to lay the club off to get back on plane, the length of his arms gave him that extra split second to get there. Mr Hogan was also a tough mother. Mr Hogan was also absolutely dedicated to perfection. Think of Usain Bolt, Chris Hoy and Ronnie O'Sullivan, try as much as you like, you'll never achieve the greatness.
Hogan was able to come back to the same plane because he had an "upright" grip meaning that at address the shaft runs in line with the lower right forearm thats really uncommon nowadays and to compensate that matter he had his clubs with really flat lie so it can rest on the ground and not have a heel up at address ! This combination promotes a flatter swing plane and a left exit in the follow through ! What are your toughts Mr Hattaway ?
Actually you are very close to Hogan’s Secret of what I call ‘ The Magic Elbow of Golf. Simply put at the top of the downswing the trail elbow must lead the trail hand. Never the other way around. Think of a football player throwing a football. Cheers.
Right now almost every player plays im PGA/ LPGA play with swing could be connected to Ben Hogan. As he said, any movement of his body is meaningful to the swing. The arms just to response to the body movement. The correct way is to study the body actions to get the conclusion on his swing plan.
Walter "Smiley" Jones talks about how Hogan was taught to hit the fade by Mike Austin. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZLZOyv3KkxU.html Let that sink in and then go find every video that Austin made.
Hogans "Atomic Elbow".....The Secret of all great golfers....In other words, it wasn't unique to only him...Even the best club golfers have mastered this time honored move....Harvey Penick called it the "Magic Move". However, not all the greats could bring it back to the ball directly on plane to the degree Hogan could....
He is basically standing straight up at address....not much room for the shaft to get more vertical anyways. Not sure what the point of the video is. A shaft along the plane line at impact isn’t something to strive for.... no one can do it for one
