This video is golden! Turned pro years ago, and came back to find this video that I never understood way before. That twist move is not an extra move, I think its the actual core and essential power-storing action of the golfer/club connection. You can use it all, gradually to the fullest at the top, like Hogan, or at different points of the swing. It's called a release at the bottom because this twist pressure is what is releasing! And it helps with lag, getting hands ahead at impact, nice left wrist bow at impact, etc. Thank you Tom!

Nice video. I am a recreational golfer, ~4 handicap at this time. I took most of my lessons from Mike Keymont in Orlando and Re: The Twist, his suggestion was on the back swing get your right hand in a position at the top like you are holding a plate of spaghetti...try it sometime, it results in the perfect cupped left wrist like Hogan wanted. Fyi, I also fought a hook as I started getting better and also, independently of Hogan's lessons, noticed on the range that if I went to a weak grip it cured my hook...from there I went from shooting 80's to 70's and then as I learned to open the club face and a slightly more up and down swing I got to where I can hit baby fades when I want to and thus my 4 handicap....seems almost every time I go out I seem to shoot a 76, but have shot par and under par once.., and of course I have my bad days too. I also had some lessons with the late Mr. Dick Tiddy at Bayhill, he was a genius and taught me to draw the ball...once at the range when hitting driver I flushed one and he growled...ALRIGHHTTT!!! We will take 18 of those and pitch back to the par threes.

And this video proves that there will never be another Ben Hogan. God bless him! May he rest in peace. He had to practice his" you know what off" to be able to control all those twists and turns etc.

I’m not bragging, but I’ve figured out how to control the club face by experimenting with tons of different ways to use the forearms, hands, and wrists. I’ve tried this particular method, and you’re right about how it adds speed. However, you will feel A LOT of club rotation throughout your swing. Power will increase, but direction may suffer, as there is more “timing” involved. I think that’s the reason Hogan went to such a weak grip. He could do both the opening of the club(backswing), and the closing of the club(downswing) to their maximums, or extremes. This way he didn’t have to rely on timing. Hey…. It’s a way to play golf. Don’t knock anything until you try it. I think most amateurs never feel their left arm higher than their right arm. They’re afraid to allow their forearms to naturally rotate. This makes it near impossible to get the club on plane, and create a lot of speed. I think aiming the butt of the club past the ball/target line near the top would feel very foreign to most people.

It is forearm rotation that gets the club pointing further left at the top. All top golfers do this (with the exception of DJ and John Rahm) at some stage in the swing. McIlroy and Fowler do it on the backswing, Wolff does it at the top, Couples, Bobby Locke, many others do it on the downswing.

Was watching "myswingevolution" and happened upon your videos in the side panel! I have also had "Five Lessons" for less than a week. Already have poured over it and improved my ball striking but YOUR videos, hands down (and up) just opened up the understanding for me 1000x more!!! AWESOME! I will check out your book too...

The Great Gary Player has said tons of times; "there is a lot of ways to play golf" this is one of them. For my expirience if you feel confortable with this technique (movement) go for it!

As a kid I played a lot of golf and I became extremely interested in the mechanics of the hands and wrists in a golf swing, I remember golf digest had an issue on Ben Hogan talking about his “secret” and I believe ken Venturi had it right with this “ twist” or “cup” . Fred couples does something similar , his hands work is almost inhumanly beautiful in his swing. After years of trying to master this, I finally realized for myself that the swing needs the fewest variables possible and I went to more of a “dead hands all upper body” swing and finally started breaking par. Great video, brings back lots of memories!

When you said that you're adding another move to the golf swing, that's absolutely correct. However, the golf swing needs to be simplified. For the vast majority of golfers cannot afford more moves as they can't maintain the sequence they already have. The move you are advocating will only serve to leave the club face further open causing greater slicing spin axis. The issue with elite golfers, primarily prior to the advent of high speed video, is that they talk about "feels" as being reality. How they describe their motions has as much to do with their philosophy toward the game as it does describe the action. Golfers like Hogan are an exceptional few. Many of them worked out their golfing issues on the course during tournaments. Amateurs need simple. A bowed top hand during the backswing will do more good for us than harm which is what, I'm afraid, Hogan's cupped left wrist will accomplish.

I took a lesson, and after changing my grip to be a little looser and more in the fingers, my instructor told me I had a pretty great, strong oriented grip. We went over wrist action, but up and down, and rotation. However, he didn't mention rotation in the backswing, only on the follow through. As I've practiced this new grip and swing, I thought it was weird to not have the wrist rotational action equal out in the swing, so I started trying to twist them in the backswing, and it was awkward at first, but it definitely started to lead to a better swing for me, helping with lag hand/club path.

Never heard of this method ever! It's a must try - but on the practice area as suggested! Many thanks and I will get back too you if I master it!

great video even in 2023!

Superb tutorial. Clear, validated assertions and referenced to fact. Wish I could take lessons with you as I work to develop my own ‘Hogan’ swing.

Wow it did feel good after many balls I hit, but the balls were going right at first, then the penny dropped when I weakened the left hand grip as you mentioned (which is hard to persist with as this was align to me), I then swung a bit flatter! Stunning results and I will try it again but out on the course! Many thanks for your information on Hogan's swing!

Amazing nice. I think I was figuring this out in my practice as well.

Great video you really explain it well. I'll try it.

The hands coil/twist also acts like a governor for the backswing, shoulder turn. . . so you don't over do it, just throw the hands back, etc. That's why Hogan's swing always looked so elegant, rhythmic, and controlled !

Would this only work for a golfer who pulls with lead arm or golfers (me) who throw or push with the trail arm

This move really helps me especially with hybrids. Why? I don't know, but it feels and works great.

Hello Tom. Your videos are really great and helping my golf game. I just like to ask you something please How do you maintain the angle between arms and shaft during address on the back swing and down at Impact. Ben from the UK

Gold!

I experimented with this years ago but didn't use it because I felt it was a compensation and I was trying to avoid those. Recently, I corrected a life long fault in my right foot, leg and hip that stabilized my backswing and prevented a slight overswing. When I've worked on this stabilization in the past, hooking happened. So I went back to a gradual "twist" to open the face just a touch because Hogan was right.. Weakening the grip does not work to prevent a hook and may well encourage one. I left my grip alone, which is not weak but neutral for me, and just felt the slight twist in my left wrist. I relate the twist to the toe of the club and use the visual to gauge how much twist to use although I do not monitor the club directly, just my hands as Hogan did. As for impact, my left wrist gets closer to flat and it's not something I have to concern myself with as I've drilled that for years. My hook disappeared, my cut got longer and iron shots more crisp and on line. When I was an amateur player in the early 80's, I had a lesson with a guy who saw I cupped my left wrist and said it should be flat. That started my hooking. The overarching lesson here is that the back of the left wrist/hand is club face control. The right forearm is club shaft control. Whatever you have to do, once you got good basic fundamentals of stance, posture and rotation in whatever degree the player is physically capable, which I consider "macro fundamentals", then you can move onto "micro fundamentals" for ball control. That's what the twist is for me. A micro fundamental. Once you've got that, you're as close as you can be to mastery. Hogan said in the 1955 Herbert Warren Wind article that the better your swing gets, the more hooking naturally becomes an issue. That's when tricks like this come in to save your sanity. Today, the modern release has helped good swings avoid the hook but for me, the twist is here to stay. Good video, thanks.

interesting reference video of 'the twist'

thank you so much

Haven't tried this yet but I guess I missed the part explaining what the purpose of the twist is. Is it to flatten the clubface (less perpendicular to the ground) during backswing and if so, why? Thanks for the tip.

If you remember to keep your Vs pointed to your right shoulder then you're twisted, right? Or do the Vs need to be pointed past the right shoulder? And if you keep your club face slightly open at address it should prevent a shut of the face, right?

Look at this video of Hogan...kzfaq.info/get/bejne/pL18f7N8zrmxgp8.html Look at how bowed his left hand/wrist is at address. Take it for what it's worth and give it a try. Remember, Hogan was trying to eliminate a severe hook. Now look at this picture of Hogan at the top ... countryclubeditions.com/ben-hogan-wee-ice-mon.html ... his left wrist is not bowed at all at the top of his swing. I think he started with his wrist bowed. To try and time something like that is problematic. If you start that way you don't have to worry about a timing issue.

My back can't handle the Hogan swing. Practiced for a week and it killed me. Maybe using muscles ive never used before🤣.

Very confused. Why is the club face opened? Isn’t the twist the other way around? Looking at pros swings like DJ or Morikawa they twist the other way And does this apply to drivers too?

Doesn't a strong grip and a flatter plane do the exact same thing but without a cupped wrist, which you want to avoid at all costs? This seems awfully complicated.

So ... do the opposite of what Joe Dante wrote was so important. Hmm.

Wouldnt that just make this a strong grip ??

Laying off the club starting the downswing and twisting is the most difficult part of the Hogan Swing for me.

Martin Ayers stole this idea and tried to make it seem like he was the only person who knew this. Unfortunately for him, he tries extra hard to complicate his explanations to the point of insanity lol

This is complete nonsense. Slow motion pictures of Hogan show the left hand turning under on the takeaway, not the right, creating a closed club face. As his arms rotated the back of the left is visible to the top and until the delivery position where the left goes under the right all the way to the finish. No one could break 90 with Tom's crazy chit. P.S. Hogan said you should see 2 1/2 knuckles in his 1948 book, Power Golf. The change he made was to shorten the left thumb. He weakened his grip in the early 50's

What you did not explain is when to untwist in the down swing.

I've played for over 60 years at a competitive level in HS, College and afterwards. No a pro by any means but at 69 I'm regularly shooting in the 70's from the "white" tees (no the championship tees) but at about 6,300 yds for 18 holes. To me, this is over-analyzed, marketing BS. There was also "square-to-square' that was a craze. Just look at all of the successful pro's back in the 50's/60's and there were very different swings and grips. There's no one-swing-fits-all. Put your left thumb down the middle of the shaft and you will have a hard time hook. Period. Forget the cupping.