Instruction
Learning from Ben Hogan’s pivot compression
As an instructor, I find every part of the golf swing interesting and certainly have my preferences when it comes to hand, arm and wrist action. However, there is one thing that stands out to me in the swings of many of the game’s greatest players – a pivot action that includes an initial lowering of the body towards the ground during the backswing and again in the first part of the downswing.
This action, which I call “pivot compression,” plays an important role in these players’ ability to deliver a superior strike on the ball. This very same action has often been misidentified by golf analysts and instructors on television as the dreaded “head drop” or “dip,” which they claim should be avoided. I have evidence of pivot compression to be present in over 100 swing analysis videos of tour players, past and present, many of which I have made freely available for anyone to view on my website.
My ideas around pivot compression started to form when I was in my late twenties. After an All-American collegiate career, I tried to play for a living, spending four years on the Space Coast mini-tour. My swing, which incorporated a driving of the legs and a bent-back “reverse c” finish began to take its toll on my lower spine. I advanced to the finals of Q-School in 1985, but wound up in the hospital in traction a week before the event. Needless to say, I didn’t make the cut, and my dream of playing the PGA Tour would never be realized as I could never practice as much as I needed to in order to get better. I did, however, begin to study the golf swing more closely, as I knew I needed to change the nature of my own body movement if I was going to be able to continue to play. My upright backswing and picturesque but highly stressful finish needed to become a more rounded motion that finished with my lower back less arched to reduce the strain put on my lower spine.
I knew that Hogan’s focus on the sidearm/underhand nature of the golf swing motion is was what I needed in my own swing. I studied this book, along with his other classic, Power Golf, in great detail. Soon, with this more rotational movement, I was able to start practicing and playing again, but it wasn’t until a friend showed me actual film of Hogan swinging that I had what I consider an epiphany regarding the way the hips and trunk moved in the swing. There was this great down the line view of Hogan hitting a long iron in the late 1940’s, and as I studied it I saw that a few interesting things were happening in his backswing relating to the lower body movement:
A) Hogan’s right hip went backward behind where it started. In other words, it got deeper, and it did so without his straightening the right knee.
B) His head went down at least 2-to-3 inches.
C) His spine increased angle as his head stayed out over the ball.
He now looked much more bent over, noticeably more than at address, as he compressed his body lower into the ground for power.
The lines drawn at the setup position are used to define starting points so that we can measure change and how things move in relation to the initial position.
Then, in the forward swing, more cool stuff happened.
D) Hogan’s hips stayed deep as they drove laterally to the left and opened. The lateral element was significant and obvious in all the video footage I had of Hogan from face-on.
E) His head stayed out over the ball.
F) He lowered another 2-to-3 inches from the start of the downswing to just before impact. As he passed by the point where his hips were once again square to the target (just after the left arm reached parallel to the ground in the downswing) they were well further back, or deeper, than they were at address.
G) When he hit the ball, his right arm had oodles of room to get in front of his right hip and he was way more bent over than when he initially addressed the ball.
This all leads to the impact position, where we can see that:
H) His head remains lowered and out over the ball.
I) His hips are still much deeper than at address.
J) The right elbow is in front of the right hip.
K) The club is returned perfectly to the shaft plane created at address.
And in the swing finish:
L) Hogan’s head has moved up and away from both impact position and address position (this will take stress away from the lower back).
M) The hips stayed “in the box” that was defined at address.
Hogan is considered by most to be the best striker of the golf ball in the history of the game. It is my opinion that he hit his peak in 1949, winning 12 out of 16 events, just before he and his wife got hit by a bus in Texas. Except for the injuries he sustained, which kept him from practicing the way he was accustomed and limited his playing schedule, I believe that Hogan would have won many more majors and would have amassed a record that no one could ever touch, not even the great Jack Nicklaus.
I should note from experience that mastering pivot compression will require more than just good information. Golf is a sport, and the swing is a physical activity that will be best achieved if you are in the best condition possible. And, of course, it is going to require practice. I had a spinal fusion 30 years ago, which makes it extra difficult for me to execute what I see almost all of the best players do with their legs, hips and upper trunk during the swing. To overcome my physical limitations, I have a disciplined workout regimen to help attain the strength and endurance necessary to last through the duration of a tournament.
While I have never been able to practice as much as I would like, the combination of applying pivot compression and physical conditioning to my golf has allowed me to return to competitive play as a PGA Professional, including qualifying and playing in nine major championships along with a victory in the 2001 PGA Professional National Championship. Today, I am teaching students of all levels to use Pivot Compression to become better ball strikers.
Next up: Six Steps to Pivot Compression
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While there are many golfers who barely know where the practice (I don’t like calling it a “driving”) range is located, there are many who find it a place of adventure, discovery and fun. I’m in the latter group, which could be accented by the fact that I make my living in this industry. But then, I’ve always been a “ball beater,” since I was a kid, but now I approach my practice sessions with more purpose and excitement. There’s no question that practice is the key to improvement in anything, so today’s topic is on making practice as much fun as playing.
As long as I can remember, I’ve loved the range, and always embrace the challenge of learning new ways to make a golf ball do what I would like it to do. So, today I’m sharing my “top 5” tips for making practice fun and productive.
- Have a mission/goal/objective. Whether it is a practice range session or practice time on the course, make sure you have a clearly defined objective…how else will you know how you’re doing? It might be to work on iron trajectory, or finding out why you’ve developed a push with your driver. Could be to learn how to hit a little softer lob shot or a knockdown pitch. But practice with a purpose …always.
- Don’t just “do”…observe. There are two elements of learning something new. The first is to figure out what it is you need to change. Then you work toward that solution. If your practice session is to address that push with the driver, hit a few shots to start out, and rather than try to fix it, make those first few your “lab rats”. Focus on what your swing is doing. Do you feel anything different? Check your alignment carefully, and your ball position. After each shot, step away and process what you think you felt during the swing.
- Make it real. To just rake ball after ball in front of you and pound away is marginally valuable at best. To make practice productive, step away from your hitting station after each shot, rake another ball to the hitting area, then approach the shot as if it was a real one on the course. Pick a target line from behind the ball, meticulously step into your set-up position, take your grip, process your one swing thought and hit it. Then evaluate how you did, based on the shot result and how it felt.
- Challenge yourself. One of my favorite on-course practice games is to spend a few minutes around each green after I’ve played the hole, tossing three balls into various positions in an area off the green. I don’t let myself go to the next tee until I put all three within three feet of the hole. If I don’t, I toss them to another area and do it again. You can do the same thing on the range. Define a challenge and a limited number of shots to achieve it.
- Don’t get in a groove. I was privileged enough to watch Harvey Penick give Tom Kite a golf lesson one day, and was struck by the fact that he would not let Tom hit more than five to six shots in a row with the same club. Tom would hit a few 5-irons, and Mr. Penick would say, “hit the 8”, then “hit the driver.” He changed it up so that Tom would not just find a groove. That paved the way for real learning, Mr. Penick told me.
My “bonus” tip addresses the difference between practicing on the course and keeping a real score. Don’t do both. A practice session is just that. On-course practice is hugely beneficial, and it’s best done by yourself, and at a casual pace. Playing three or four holes in an hour or so, taking time to hit real shots into and around the greens, will do more for your scoring skills than the same amount of range time.
So there you have my five practice tips. I’m sure I could come up with more, but then we always have more time, right?
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As someone who has observed rank-and-file recreational golfers for most of my life – over 50 years of it, anyway – I have always been baffled by why so many mid- to high-handicap golfers throw away so many strokes in prime scoring range.
For this purpose, let’s define “prime scoring range” as the distance when you have something less than a full-swing wedge shot ahead of you. Depending on your strength profile, that could be as far as 70 to 80 yards or as close as 30 to 40 yards. But regardless of whether you are trying to break par or 100, your ability to get the ball on the green and close enough to the hole for a one-putt at least some of the time will likely be one of the biggest factors in determining your score for the day.
All too often, I observe golfers hit two or even three wedge shots from prime scoring range before they are on the green — and all too often I see short-range pitch shots leave the golfer with little to no chance of making the putt.
This makes no sense, as attaining a level of reasonable proficiency from short range is not a matter of strength profile at all. But it does take a commitment to learning how to make a repeating and reliable half-swing and doing that repeatedly and consistently absolutely requires you to learn the basic fundamentals of how the body has to move the club back and through the impact zone.
So, let’s get down to the basics to see if I can shed some light on these ultra-important scoring shots.
- Your grip has to be correct. For the club to move back and through correctly, your grip on the club simply must be fundamentally sound. The club is held primarily in the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. Period. The lower hand has to be “passive” to the upper hand, or the mini-swing will become a quick jab at the ball. For any shot, but particularly these short ones, that sound grip is essential for the club to move through impact properly and repeatedly.
- Your posture has to be correct. This means your body is open to the target, feet closer together than even a three-quarter swing, and the ball positioned slightly back of center.
- Your weight should be distributed about 70 percent on your lead foot and stay there through the mini-swing.
- Your hands should be “low” in that your lead arm is hanging naturally from your shoulder, not extended out toward the ball and not too close to the body to allow a smooth turn away and through. Gripping down on the club is helpful, as it gets you “closer to your work.
- This shot is hit with a good rotation of the body, not a “flip” or “jab” with the hands. Controlling these shots with your body core rotation and leading the swing with your body core and lead side will almost ensure proper contact. To hit crisp pitch shots, the hands have to lead the clubhead through impact.
- A great drill for this is to grip your wedge with an alignment rod next to the grip and extending up past your torso. With this in place, you simply have to rotate your body core through the shot, as the rod will hit your lead side and prevent you from flipping the clubhead at the ball. It doesn’t take but a few practice swings with this drill to give you an “ah ha” moment about how wedge shots are played.
- And finally, understand that YOU CANNOT HIT UP ON A GOLF BALL. The ball is sitting on the ground so the clubhead has to be moving down and through impact. I think one of the best ways to think of this is to remember this club is “a wedge.” So, your simple objective is to wedge the club between the ball and the ground. The loft of the wedge WILL make the ball go up, and the bounce of the sole of the wedge will prevent the club from digging.
So, why is mastering the simple pitch shot so important? Because my bet is that if you count up the strokes in your last round of golf, you’ll likely see that you left several shots out there by…
- Either hitting another wedge shot or chip after having one of these mid-range pitch shots, or
- You did not get the mid-range shot close enough to even have a chance at a makeable putt.
If you will spend even an hour on the range or course with that alignment rod and follow these tips, your scoring average will improve a ton, and getting better with these pitch shots will improve your overall ball striking as well.
More from the Wedge Guy
- Wedge Guy: There’s no logic to iron fitting
- The Wedge Guy: Understanding iron designs, Part 1
- The Wedge Guy: Understanding iron designs, Part 2
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It is just crazy how golfers are literally beside themselves when they are placed in a properly aligned set up! They feel they can’t swing or function! We take a dive into why this is and it has to do with how the eyes are set up in the human skull!
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moco
Aug 22, 2016 at 9:51 am
very good- weight on balls of feet & knees over balls of feet (at address), right hip turns deeper than in the address position. Weight compresses into inside right heel. downswing- crunch into that right inside heel (preserves the lag) while turning the core up and around. I’d just be careful about lowering the head, it’s got to move up and around in downswing (don’t hang back).
peter
Jan 3, 2016 at 12:42 am
Wayne with all the lowering these great players do is the reason they do not hit the ball heavy due to shaft lean and the clearing of the lower body?
thx peter
Joseph quaranto
Oct 11, 2015 at 8:26 pm
Would like to hear from you how you move the club up and down. In all my studies the best info is from Greg Mchatton who learned it from Homer Kelly. Kelly and Hogan started at opposite ends of the learning spectrum (mechanics from feel or feel from mchanics) but both arrived at same ball striking perfection. What do you think?
Jones
Mar 27, 2014 at 10:40 pm
Loved the article – good articulation of proper use of lower body, and great analysis of Hogan’s swing in context of that analytic framework. We are eagerly awaiting the next article “Six Steps to Pivot Compression” – when can we expect that?
RAT
Jan 26, 2014 at 9:59 pm
This is good stuff, keep it up!
Carter bonsey
Jan 22, 2014 at 9:17 pm
Excellent analysis. Incidentally, I have been drilling on this for the last three months. I setup with my butt three inches from a half wall but try to touch it with my butt at the top of the bs and maintain contact through to just after impact. This really forces one to stay deep and lower vertical swing plane.
Peter
Dec 15, 2013 at 9:56 pm
Wayne I appreciate your analysis and your humor (…the travel guide “a shrine to Miller in his basement”, best yet!).
I was wondering, do you have a tip for someone who has trouble getting their hips open along with straightening up at impact.
thx
Phil
Dec 14, 2013 at 3:53 am
Point ‘C’ describes the change in angle of Hogan’spine; however the line drawn in the photo is not where his spine is at that point in time (more a line from hip to shoulder)
Jack Gallagher
Aug 23, 2016 at 3:53 pm
True, but if you drew a line from Hogan’s belt buckle at that moment up through the middle of his chest toward his neck/chin, that line would be his spine angle at that time and would be pretty much parallel to line that starts from ‘A’ and goes up to ‘C’. So that Line up to ‘C’ still makes the point, and is simply showing/emphasizing that his spine angle does not “stay the same as it was at address” – which has been a constant in most golf instruction. Instead, his spine angle does something unexpected, becoming more tipped than at address.
HB
Dec 11, 2013 at 10:18 pm
I was watching one of the Australian tour events, and noticed a right-handed Aussie who’s pre-shot routine involved setting up with the blade of his club just to the left of (and behind) the ball and then, just before he began his backswing, it looked like he bent forward to move the blade of his club fully behind the ball. Liking his quick action, I tested this routine on the range and began ripping it dead straight.
Best I can figure out, I got my head my over the ball without my weight going out on to my toes — in short, I am very balanced and getting through the ball better.
I haven’t been able to study this article close enought to see if what I am doing is consistent with what has been outlined. But, I am intrigued — something popped.
FYI, I have always played with a grip close to Hogan’s — I fought a hook when I was young and read just the portion of Hogan’s fundamentals concerning the grip. (I wasn’t much into swing analysis at the time.)
James E. Duh
Dec 11, 2013 at 8:59 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwL4Dus2Vb0
Dear Mr. Defrancesco: Youtube video “Golf – Ernie Els – How to build a classic swing” I was so impressed how still Mr. Els head stays throughout his golf swing as this video shows. I have view many of your and others analysis of swings and as you state, majority of players lower the head in backswing and then lower it further in downswing. the video’s show this clearly. I remember that Jack Nicklaus first teacher, Mr. Grout, use to hold Jack’s hair to keep him from moving is head. Do you think this still head helped Mr. Nicklaus and Mr. Els be so consistent over their careers? Thanks again for all your great video’s Jim
Kujan
Dec 11, 2013 at 6:16 pm
It does make sense that the golfers’ head will be lower given that he’s pushing his hips forward.
jeff rhyne
Dec 7, 2013 at 3:14 pm
Hi Wayne, I enjoy your various pieces.
Something that went unsaid in your article, and I know that space constraints sometimes limit what can be written, but would you like to comment on shaft lean at impact?
I’ve read on many occasions that Hogan, by de-lofting the club, would turn a 7 iron into a 6 iron, for instance. Knowing a little about geometry, wouldn’t it be really difficult to de-loft a club (having the handle of the club in front of the clubhead at impact) without lowering your body? Tiger has a similar move in that he really gets down to the ball.
Just an observation,
thanks for the great articles,
Jeff
wayne defrancesco
Dec 8, 2013 at 5:45 pm
Jeff: Not every great player has lowered, but every great player has forward shaft lean when hitting the ball off the ground. I will say, however, that the vast majority of great players lower at some point in their swing, which by itself can be viewed as proof that lowering is desirable. If you watch Jason Day you will see him maintain his height fairly exactly throughout the swing all the way to impact. He is a rarity, though. Lowering properly by adding posture from the midsection and keeping your head out over the ball creates space for the right arm and elbow to drive in front of the right hip which in turn helps the hands to reach a point even with the ball when the shaft is still angled 90 degrees to the ground. From this point forward shaft lean is guaranteed. If you look at data from 3D analysis and launch monitors you will find that the average amount of shaft lean for tour players with a 7 iron is somewhere around 6-8 degrees. I read recently that Trackman studies of Tour players pitching from around the green off fairway height grass showed an average forward shaft lean of 15 degrees, which would indicate that the ability to lean the shaft has more to do with feel of the club dragging against the hands and being led by the body (meaning that the player has good sequence with the lower body leading the upper in the downswing. I would also say that lowering in the backswing is an indication that the player is loading into the ground, and that further lowering in transition is an indication that the player is using the ground to drive the weight from under the right foot over to the left. That said, I think the article I posted demonstrates why lowering is a good thing to incorporate into your swing and certainly helps in the ability to forward lean the shaft at impact.
Bill Simons
Dec 6, 2013 at 8:47 pm
Wayne,
You mention”… disciplined workout regimen to help attain the strength and endurance…”. What body area(s) do you target in your workouts that allow you to continue this “down move” in your own swing?
Thank you.
wayne defrancesco
Dec 8, 2013 at 5:53 pm
I consider overall strength and fitness to be the goal of any athlete, and so I work out all parts of my body. I happen to have had a spinal fusion (2 levels, lower back) back in 1986, so it is extremely difficult for me to accomplish what I talk about in the article and what I see in the swings that I like the most. Apart from adding strength to my entire body I feel like the legs and midsection are crucial to achieving high level pivot action. I like to take a weighted club (I use the Momentus 3 lb. short club and the 9 lb. extra heavy club) and watch myself in a mirror make slow motion segmented movements that exaggerate what I am trying to do, after which I take a junior club (short and light) and make full motion, full speed swings trying to incorporate the same feelings.
Andrew Cooper
Dec 6, 2013 at 6:54 am
Thanks Wayne, good article. No doubt Hogan (and Woods,, Trevino e.t.c.) lowered through the swing. But could you explain why they did this? What are they gaining by compressing into the ground?
Hogan started from an upright posture, before lowering, and lowering again to impact. Could he simply of started from a less upright posture and achieved a similar impact position? I’d be interested to here your thoughts.
wayne defrancesco
Dec 8, 2013 at 6:04 pm
Good point. I used to tell students that your choice is to stand more upright and then lower, or bend over more and try to maintain that position throughout the swing. Experience has shown me, however, that normal players who bend a lot in the set up almost always tend to raise up during the swing, which is a destructive fault to say the least. Most great players who bend over a lot at address still lower during the swing (Tiger is the best example) but we are talking about athleticism that is well beyond what your average player possesses. I encourage players to have a moderate amount of bend at address and then to load into the ground in the backswing, and then add to that loading in order to drive off the inside of the right foot to start the forward swing, which induces more lowering. If you watch baseball pitchers and infielders you see that lowering in a throwing motion (Hogan was clear about his feeling that the overall motion of the golf swing was comparable to a combination of sidearm and underhand throwing) is an athletic move that is as “natural” as just about anything you do in a golf swing, another reason why labeling it a fault is so ridiculous.
Andrew Cooper
Dec 14, 2013 at 7:46 am
Many thanks for your reply.
Brian
Dec 5, 2013 at 12:30 pm
The best thing I ever did was read 5 lessons. The next best thing I did was ignore most advice given to me unless I found some value in it (I do what this article talks about pretty severely and was told it was a swing fault).
Secret is in the dirt. Only one person can dig in the dirt, and that is the guy with the blade…
Raymond Rapcavage
Dec 5, 2013 at 10:09 am
Absolutely an AWESOME piece by you Wayne…thanks ! You nailed all of the right stuff. Zach Johnson does a lot of what you are speaking and he calls his own swing a “pivot draw”. Yes Hogan went away from the draw but the motion is very similar.
Cheers
Raymond Rapcavage
President
The Golf Swing Shirt Company
reqq
Dec 4, 2013 at 9:21 am
He actually won more majors after his 1949 accident then before it.
wayne defrancesco
Dec 6, 2013 at 2:17 am
The accident just caused him to win way less majors in his career than he would have. I think Hogan had it figured out by 1949 (he was in the process of dominating the Tour)and I know he stated in an interview that he played better after the accident but he never hit it as good as before it. I figure that without the bus he wins 25 majors and is unrivaled as the greatest of all time.
Patrick
Dec 4, 2013 at 8:45 am
Mr. Hogan had it figured out and there isn’t a better swing to emulate… ask Dufner. Well done article.
Spengler
Dec 4, 2013 at 8:19 am
This is great.. Well done
naflack
Dec 4, 2013 at 3:18 am
it is amazing to watch hogan especially having for lack of a better term…”wasted” time trying to emulate him.
my natural swing which resembles that of annika couldnt be more polar opposite, at least in my opinion.
i remember thinking as i tried in vein to do it like hogan…”how in the world do people swing like this”? (lol)
to this day im glad a friend had the sense to tell me to be myself, those were dark days in my golfing journey.
wayne defrancesco
Dec 6, 2013 at 2:04 am
The key phrase in your comment is “do it like Hogan”. What you mean is that you want to “hit it like Hogan”. Or at least, that is what you should have been telling yourself. There is no reward for looking good in golf, even if it means looking like Ben Hogan or a more contemporary player, Adam Scott. I remember watching a guy on the mini-tour back in the 80’s who dressed up like Greg Norman and made his swing look eerily similar. It was like watching an impersonator. Of course, the guy sucked. When you asked “how in the world do people swing like this?”, the answer is that nobody does. Nobody swings like Tiger Woods, Adam Scott, or any other player. People only swing like themselves. You can study the movement and the positions and try to
copy what another player is doing, but when you try to incorporate that into your swing it will just look like you. The greatest example of this is Larry Nelson. He studied the book and taught himself to be a great player in a relatively short period of time, exactly what Hogan wanted to accomplish by writing the book. Nelson’s swing, although he probably felt like it was exactly what Hogan is talking about, never looked anything remotely like Hogan.
naflack
Dec 6, 2013 at 3:47 pm
Truth be told…
If I had it to do over, I’d have never read the book to begin with.
Branden
Dec 3, 2013 at 3:55 pm
Awesome article! I have seen video of my swing and I dip down like Mr. Hogan does in his backswing and follow through, which is something that I had been told by many people was poor fundamentals was to let the head and spine move towards the ball. So naturally, I had worked a bit to try and correct it, only to end up with very poor results. Thank you for this article and reaffirmation that I’m not going anything wrong by moving my body more into the ball.
wayne defrancesco
Dec 6, 2013 at 2:13 am
Unfortunately conventional wisdom says that lowering during the swing is bad and that the idea is to “maintain your posture” and to avoid “dipping”. This idea will eventually fall by the wayside as people begin to understand that the greatest players have nearly all lowered somewhere in their golf swings, some just going back and some just going forward, but many lower in both directions just like Hogan. Of course, it doesn’t help much to have TV announcers, who should know better, continue to sound off (especially about Tiger) about lowering in the swing, blaming it for every type of bad shot. It’s pretty ridiculous with the resource of having video of almost every great player since 1920 that people who should be doing their homework before they start spouting off about what is good and not good in a swing haven’t figured this out. I’m no genius, I just observe what’s in front of me and if I see a huge percentage of the best of all time doing the same thing it’s not a stretch to consider that a good thing to do.
R
Dec 3, 2013 at 2:58 pm
great article, well done