Moe Norman and Ben Hogan, the Dream Team

Some great videos discussing the golf swing can be found on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=sevam1&view=videos.

The user (handle Sevam1) claims that Moe Norman was taught the "Hogan's Secret" and that Norman told him the secret in a conversation in the parking lot that lasted about 5 minutes.

He refers to it as the "vertical drop and horizontal tug." Although it's probably not what you think it is as he's not talking about the hands and the club, he's talking more about the lower body. Lots of stuff about pre-torqueing in these videos.

Say what you will, Sevam1 can really stripe and is attaining the ever elusive ability to "sustain the lag."

What's really interesting about his swing (and check out the video "fun with the driver") is that it's like a mix of Moe and Hogan. He's got that same type of "just fold the right arm" on the backswing motion and downswing motion that Hogan had and that down the line release that Norman had.

I'll say this with a bit of caution, while he definitely stripes the bejeesus out of the ball, I'm not so sure that his type of swing will work for everybody because of flexibility issues. While he probably doesn't look at himself as an adonis by any means, he's certainly flexible and more flexible in places I can't achieve and I'm 6'4" and 185 pounds (although by the same token, I'm sure there are parts of my body that I'm more flexible than he is). One notable area is the left arm where he teaches to rotate the arm inward on the takeway without rotating the clubface. I simply cannot do that.

Still, lots of great stuff here like the video on posture and how the "Top 50 Teachers" have screwed all of us up...myself included and if this swing doesn't work for you, a lot of his swing thoughts, philosphies, etc. probably will. I don't fully understand his lower body philosophies but he claims that Norman told him the most important part of the golf swing is the pivot and that's what he basically bases his swing around. And if you watch any really good player...past or present, they almost always had a great pivot. Instead, we are too busy teaching backswing planes (which have their importance, but if you can't pivot you really can't play).

And what I really, really like about his videos is that he seems to really understand what makes a ballstriker. A great ballstriker is a guy that can accurately hit shots, consistently hit shots and consistantly hit different types of shots. I think there's a misconception that Hogan (or even Moe for that matter) just hit a nice power fade every time and hit greens and fairways. Instead, the power fade was his stock shot, but he was out there hitting the ball low, high, draws, fades, etc. Whatever the hole called for. Lastly, he also understands that good ballstriking consists of POWER. I can't tell you how many times I get frustrated when golfers and golf instructors get focused in on controlling the golf ball while giving up a lot of yardage to do so. Truly great ballstrikers hit the ball with some power. They don't need to have JB Holmes-esque length off the tee, but trying to control the ball at the cost of losing power just seems silly and un-fun to me.

So check it out and tell me what you think.

3JACK