My #4 swing of all time belongs to Mickey Wright. Wright holds the distinction of having the second most wins in LPGA history and perhaps more impressively Ben Hogan stated that she had the greatest swing he had ever seen.
Wright certainly had a great swing and is much different from what you see out of most females today as she had a snap release and a tremendous amount of lag. Paul Creamer generates a lot of lag, but then tends to slow down her pivot past impact, then hand throws and swings out to the right and makes a major 'crossover' move.
Wright did move her cranium backwards a little more than the other golfers in the top 10 list, but it's the best female golf swing I've seen (although Vicky Hurst is right up there) and still from an alignment perspective quite excellent. Also, her swing was extremely dynamic for a female.
Most people don't even know who Wright is and when it comes to the greatest female golfer ever, they'll probably put Annika Sorenstam on the list. But IMO, Wright's swing was far superior and from the sounds of it, Wright was a much better ballstriker, but Annika was a far superior putter.
What can we learn from Mickey Wright?
I think we can learn how equipment shapes the golf swing. Here, Wright is hitting persimmon woods with steel shafts and blade style irons with steel shafts. No ultra-light graphite shafts, with oversized off-set irons and all of these other specs that pamper to swing flaws and compensations.
Not only do most of the good female golfers I see play use these swing flaw and compensation pampering clubs, but it's alarming to see how many men, who are probably just as flexible and much stronger physically, use the same type of clubs. I am very interested in the findings from Sevam1 and Steve Elkington on how the golfers of nearly 100 years ago learned how to play and I honestly believe that the lack of improvement in handicaps is lin large part due to the equipment changes not really improving the average golfer's swing.
So, the next time you start to salivate over some graphite, 'easy-to-hit' Callaways, remember that some woman named Mickey Wright would probably throw them in the nearest garbage can And you're better off at the very least getting some $50 vintage blades off of eBay and practicing with them and figuring out how to hit them.
If I told you that I could improve your game and it would cost $50, I'd imagine you would take me up on that offer.
3JACK
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Gary Player On Hogan vs. Tiger Swings
An old video of Gary Player analyzing Hogan and Tiger's swing.
Some of this I'm working on, mostly the right forearm 'on plane' at impact and having 'plenty of right arm' thru impact and into P8.
I'm not sure if Player's analysis of the cupped left wrist allowing Hogan to keep the right elbow on plane and 'saving the right arm', but I'll be investigating that.
3JACK
Some of this I'm working on, mostly the right forearm 'on plane' at impact and having 'plenty of right arm' thru impact and into P8.
I'm not sure if Player's analysis of the cupped left wrist allowing Hogan to keep the right elbow on plane and 'saving the right arm', but I'll be investigating that.
3JACK
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
3Jack's Top 10 Swings of All-Time - #5
My #5 golf swing of all time belongs to Nick Price:
Price was along with Greg Norman, was the greatest driver of the ball in his era. Norman was much longer off the tee, but Price was much more accurate and just as aggressive. Price finished in the top 10 in total driving from 1991-1998 and was long enough to finish 6th in driving distance in '93 and 11th in '95. He was also known for using his driver more than anybody on Tour when other Tour players would feel the need to hit a shorter club off the tee on tight par-4's and par-5's, Price would confidently smash a driver down the middle, putting him at a great advantage over the rest of the field.
He was also fantastic with every club in his bag, from the driver to the wedge.
Swing wise he was known for an ultra fast tempo. His tempo is reminiscent of a younger Ben Hogan. His alignments are also solid throughout the swing. He probably dips his head a bit more than your average golfer could do effectively but it's tough to knock Price's swing too much.
So, what do I think we can learn from Price's swing?
I think one of the major things that amazes me about Price's swing is that despite Price's incredibly fast tempo, he has amazing balance. In fact, I've never seen him fall anywhere near off balance in a golf swing and I've followed him for over 15 years.
Here's a few pics that I like.
Here, Price keeps himself on plane post impact by 'swinging left.' As he swings left, his shoulders *start* to become more level with each other.
Here the shoulders continue to almost being level. I think this leveling of the shoulders, which is in part due to Price 'swinging left' and staying on place post impact. I think this is a good way to think about 'swinging left' and how to more easily balance yourself.
3JACK
Price was along with Greg Norman, was the greatest driver of the ball in his era. Norman was much longer off the tee, but Price was much more accurate and just as aggressive. Price finished in the top 10 in total driving from 1991-1998 and was long enough to finish 6th in driving distance in '93 and 11th in '95. He was also known for using his driver more than anybody on Tour when other Tour players would feel the need to hit a shorter club off the tee on tight par-4's and par-5's, Price would confidently smash a driver down the middle, putting him at a great advantage over the rest of the field.
He was also fantastic with every club in his bag, from the driver to the wedge.
Swing wise he was known for an ultra fast tempo. His tempo is reminiscent of a younger Ben Hogan. His alignments are also solid throughout the swing. He probably dips his head a bit more than your average golfer could do effectively but it's tough to knock Price's swing too much.
So, what do I think we can learn from Price's swing?
I think one of the major things that amazes me about Price's swing is that despite Price's incredibly fast tempo, he has amazing balance. In fact, I've never seen him fall anywhere near off balance in a golf swing and I've followed him for over 15 years.
Here's a few pics that I like.
Here, Price keeps himself on plane post impact by 'swinging left.' As he swings left, his shoulders *start* to become more level with each other.
Here the shoulders continue to almost being level. I think this leveling of the shoulders, which is in part due to Price 'swinging left' and staying on place post impact. I think this is a good way to think about 'swinging left' and how to more easily balance yourself.
3JACK
Monday, February 1, 2010
Pre-Secret Hogan vs. Secret Hogan
It's been awhile since I had seen this swing sequence, but here's a sequence of Hogan in the 1930's, before he discovered the 'secret' to stop his hook.
What do we know about snap hooks:
1. The clubface is very closed at impact if it is a 'true' snap hook' that starts low and left and then hooks over.
2. The path has to be inside-to-out in relation to the face. Which is very easy to accomplish if the face is very closed at impact. Why? Because if the face is 5* closed at impact and the path is square to the target at impact, then you actually have a path that is very inside-to-out in relation to where the clubface is pointing.
3. Hitting down on the ball rotates the plane line to the right right, which makes a hook spin much more likely.
So, what changes do I see that Hogan made from his 1930's swing.
For starters, I will get out of the way two big changes that were reported that he made that got rid of his hook.
1. He weakened his grip.
2. He cupped his left wrist at the top of the swing by basically feeling like he was rolling open the club on the backswing as far as he could with his left arm.
You can't really see those two changes from this sequence. The grip looks pretty good here, making me think that the grip may have been weakened pre-Secret. Remember, Hogan had a 'reminder' on his grip...which was about the size of a piece of wire hanger at about the 5 o'clock part that basically forced the golfer to grip the club weak. I believe pre-Secret his clubs were created to make it almost impossible to hook. But he kept hooking them until he discovered his 'Secret' and then stuck with how his clubs were designed (flat lie angles, super duper stiff shafts, etc) because he'd gotten so used to them. And that's why I also believe he had that reminder on his grip pre-Secret.
Usually when people get into Hogan's 'secret' they actually talk about how he shortened his swing. Hogan did indeed have a very long golf swing.
Not very far off from John Daly's old backswing.
In fact, I've read that there are scientists who estimate that Hogan's driver clubhead speed was around 122 mph pre-accident. I also heard that Hogan did compete in some long driving contests in the 1930's as well. His swing has always looked powerful and here it looks like if he hit one well, it was probably amazing to watch, particularly for a man of his size.
However, here's a video of Hogan's swing, taken after he discovered the secret, but before the accident.
Not exactly a shorter swing in my book. But there's still a large contingent that think Hogan didn't get good until he shortened his swing, which is blatantly false. Even worse, they tend to use that information and think "short swings = more accurate and consistent ballstriking" which I do not believe to be true.
The big differences I see are actually at impact and post impact.
One of the things that instructor Geoff Jones (aka SliceFixer) stresses is that Hogan had the hands moving 'low and left' past impact. This is basically the CP Release in MORAD terms and Hogan did it with an angled hinge. Geoff also talks about how he doesn't like to see the hands 'crossover' past impact because that essentially means that the hands are not moving 'low and left.'
Also, take a look at Hogan from the target view.
I think it's very very difficult to make a 'crossover' move without swinging out to the right. I also think part of that crossover move is dependent on how well you pivot post-impact. Look at the target views, Hogan has much more pivot post impact once he has discovered 'the secret' than in his 1930's golf swing. I think some of that had to with Hogan cupping the left wrist, but I also think a lot of that had to do with years and years of practicing and playing with equipment that had unbelievably stiff club shafts, flat lie angles, weighed heavy and the reminder in the grip.
Also, look at Hogan's right arm. It straightens out much more quicky in the 1930's swing whereas in the post-Secret swing it is 'saved' a lot more. That IMO, is a big function of post impact pivot.
It's also pretty easy to see that Hogan hit well down on the ball in the 1930's video.
So, he basically had a swing that was just plain suceptible to hooking the ball. Steep Attack Angle (the post-Secret swing actually seemed to have a much shallower attack angle) and he swung out to the right more and really closed the face post impact. If he wasn't totally 'on' with his face angle, chances are it got closed quite a bit at impact and with his steeper attack angle and swinging more out to the right, there's a recipe for a snap hook.
Then to look at his post-secret swing. He appears to have a more shallow Attack Angle (but probably still hit down on the ball to a degree), swung to the left, and kept the clubface square past impact which made it tough to hook the ball.
Lastly, let's just take a look at a swing sequence of Tiger Woods.
If you look at it post impact, there's a big crossover there.
Let's look DTL:
It looks to me that Tiger is swinging out to the right a bit with what appears to be his 3-wood.
That's not bad provided the golfer is hitting up.
However, we know from Trackman data that Tiger has an attack angle of -3* with the *driver*. With the 3-wood it's probably as steep if not steeper.
And what is Tiger's problem shot? The dead right block.
And if you are hitting relatively straight, but dead right blocks, the path *must* be out to the right a bit otherwise you would see a big push with a huge slice attached to it. Basically, the dead right blocks are:
Open Clubface + inside-to-out path (in relation to the target).
But that's just an example why I believe the 'crossover' of the hands basically means the golfer is swing out to the right. Not that it's bad, but indicative of what the golfer does and the world's best golfer, who has a crossover move, has trouble with a shot that requires the golfer to be swinging out to the right a bit.
3JACK
What do we know about snap hooks:
1. The clubface is very closed at impact if it is a 'true' snap hook' that starts low and left and then hooks over.
2. The path has to be inside-to-out in relation to the face. Which is very easy to accomplish if the face is very closed at impact. Why? Because if the face is 5* closed at impact and the path is square to the target at impact, then you actually have a path that is very inside-to-out in relation to where the clubface is pointing.
3. Hitting down on the ball rotates the plane line to the right right, which makes a hook spin much more likely.
So, what changes do I see that Hogan made from his 1930's swing.
For starters, I will get out of the way two big changes that were reported that he made that got rid of his hook.
1. He weakened his grip.
2. He cupped his left wrist at the top of the swing by basically feeling like he was rolling open the club on the backswing as far as he could with his left arm.
You can't really see those two changes from this sequence. The grip looks pretty good here, making me think that the grip may have been weakened pre-Secret. Remember, Hogan had a 'reminder' on his grip...which was about the size of a piece of wire hanger at about the 5 o'clock part that basically forced the golfer to grip the club weak. I believe pre-Secret his clubs were created to make it almost impossible to hook. But he kept hooking them until he discovered his 'Secret' and then stuck with how his clubs were designed (flat lie angles, super duper stiff shafts, etc) because he'd gotten so used to them. And that's why I also believe he had that reminder on his grip pre-Secret.
Usually when people get into Hogan's 'secret' they actually talk about how he shortened his swing. Hogan did indeed have a very long golf swing.
Not very far off from John Daly's old backswing.
In fact, I've read that there are scientists who estimate that Hogan's driver clubhead speed was around 122 mph pre-accident. I also heard that Hogan did compete in some long driving contests in the 1930's as well. His swing has always looked powerful and here it looks like if he hit one well, it was probably amazing to watch, particularly for a man of his size.
However, here's a video of Hogan's swing, taken after he discovered the secret, but before the accident.
Not exactly a shorter swing in my book. But there's still a large contingent that think Hogan didn't get good until he shortened his swing, which is blatantly false. Even worse, they tend to use that information and think "short swings = more accurate and consistent ballstriking" which I do not believe to be true.
The big differences I see are actually at impact and post impact.
One of the things that instructor Geoff Jones (aka SliceFixer) stresses is that Hogan had the hands moving 'low and left' past impact. This is basically the CP Release in MORAD terms and Hogan did it with an angled hinge. Geoff also talks about how he doesn't like to see the hands 'crossover' past impact because that essentially means that the hands are not moving 'low and left.'
Also, take a look at Hogan from the target view.
I think it's very very difficult to make a 'crossover' move without swinging out to the right. I also think part of that crossover move is dependent on how well you pivot post-impact. Look at the target views, Hogan has much more pivot post impact once he has discovered 'the secret' than in his 1930's golf swing. I think some of that had to with Hogan cupping the left wrist, but I also think a lot of that had to do with years and years of practicing and playing with equipment that had unbelievably stiff club shafts, flat lie angles, weighed heavy and the reminder in the grip.
Also, look at Hogan's right arm. It straightens out much more quicky in the 1930's swing whereas in the post-Secret swing it is 'saved' a lot more. That IMO, is a big function of post impact pivot.
It's also pretty easy to see that Hogan hit well down on the ball in the 1930's video.
So, he basically had a swing that was just plain suceptible to hooking the ball. Steep Attack Angle (the post-Secret swing actually seemed to have a much shallower attack angle) and he swung out to the right more and really closed the face post impact. If he wasn't totally 'on' with his face angle, chances are it got closed quite a bit at impact and with his steeper attack angle and swinging more out to the right, there's a recipe for a snap hook.
Then to look at his post-secret swing. He appears to have a more shallow Attack Angle (but probably still hit down on the ball to a degree), swung to the left, and kept the clubface square past impact which made it tough to hook the ball.
Lastly, let's just take a look at a swing sequence of Tiger Woods.
If you look at it post impact, there's a big crossover there.
Let's look DTL:
It looks to me that Tiger is swinging out to the right a bit with what appears to be his 3-wood.
That's not bad provided the golfer is hitting up.
However, we know from Trackman data that Tiger has an attack angle of -3* with the *driver*. With the 3-wood it's probably as steep if not steeper.
And what is Tiger's problem shot? The dead right block.
And if you are hitting relatively straight, but dead right blocks, the path *must* be out to the right a bit otherwise you would see a big push with a huge slice attached to it. Basically, the dead right blocks are:
Open Clubface + inside-to-out path (in relation to the target).
But that's just an example why I believe the 'crossover' of the hands basically means the golfer is swing out to the right. Not that it's bad, but indicative of what the golfer does and the world's best golfer, who has a crossover move, has trouble with a shot that requires the golfer to be swinging out to the right a bit.
3JACK
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Video: Vintage Irons vs. Modern Irons
Here's a video that I did showing some differences in the 1963 Hogan IPT blades vs. the 2009 Mizuno MP-62 'player' cavity back irons.
I believe the irons have a 1* flat lie angle compared to the standard lie angle. Plus, since they are -1/2" shorter than standard length, they are 'effectively playing' 2* flatter than a standard set of modern day irons.
3JACK
I believe the irons have a 1* flat lie angle compared to the standard lie angle. Plus, since they are -1/2" shorter than standard length, they are 'effectively playing' 2* flatter than a standard set of modern day irons.
3JACK
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
3Jack's Greatest Swings of All Time - #6
#10
#9
#8
#7
My #6 greatest swing of all-time belongs to Australian great Peter Thomson.
Here's a swing sequence and some videos on Thomson:
Much of Thomson's swing looks very similar to Hogan's, but Thomson was clearly more upright than Hogan, but overall I wouldn't label Thomson as an upright swing.
Thomson once said that a golfer should think of their swing in simple terms. I think this is quite profound because if you notice, Thomson didn't give any specific 'feels' that a golfer should use with their swing and instead wanted them to come up with their own swing feels and swing thoughts, just keep it simple.
And if there's one thing noticeably about Thomson's swing, it's very simple looking. I think one way a golfer can keep their swing simple is to start with the footwork. Thomson has a flat right foot at impact and then lifts it almost perfectly and naturally after impact. He does't have his right heel way up off the ground at impact or anything that looks out of the ordinary. Get that down, then find something else to work on and think of that in simple terms and you too can see great improvements in your swing.
3JACK
#9
#8
#7
My #6 greatest swing of all-time belongs to Australian great Peter Thomson.
Here's a swing sequence and some videos on Thomson:
Much of Thomson's swing looks very similar to Hogan's, but Thomson was clearly more upright than Hogan, but overall I wouldn't label Thomson as an upright swing.
Thomson once said that a golfer should think of their swing in simple terms. I think this is quite profound because if you notice, Thomson didn't give any specific 'feels' that a golfer should use with their swing and instead wanted them to come up with their own swing feels and swing thoughts, just keep it simple.
And if there's one thing noticeably about Thomson's swing, it's very simple looking. I think one way a golfer can keep their swing simple is to start with the footwork. Thomson has a flat right foot at impact and then lifts it almost perfectly and naturally after impact. He does't have his right heel way up off the ground at impact or anything that looks out of the ordinary. Get that down, then find something else to work on and think of that in simple terms and you too can see great improvements in your swing.
3JACK
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