Ben Hogan’s 5 lessons was a book created, that goes over the fundamentals necessary to have a proper golf swing. Ben Hogan has been an icon in the Golfing community. One of the man reasons is because of the amount of time and passion he puts into developing his golf swing. Below I will briefly go over the 5 principles that are taught throughout the book.
Ben Hogan’s 1st Lesson: The Grip
One of the core principles that Ben Hogan preaches is to have a proper golf grip. To Ben, it is seen as “the heartbeat of the action of the golf swing”. He further dives into the concept that the only physical contact that we make with the ball is made through our hands which is connected to the club head.
Because your power is generated through the movements your body, it is important to understand that having a proper grip allows for this power transfer to happen effectively to improve your golf swing. Further depth about the body movement and power transfer is covered in the book but it also covers how important your less dominant or weaker hand plays a pivotal part in your golf swing.
Ben Hogan’s 2nd Lesson: Stance
The next thing that Ben Hogan stresses about, is to have the proper stance and posture when performing a golf swing. A quote from the book says it best, “No one can play good golf unless he has a correct, powerful, repeating swing”.
It is important that your power and your stance must be combined effectively to get the most out of your shot. Your stance should be set up so you have balance all the way through your swing. You must ensure your muscles are ready to perform fluidly, which is why it is important to ensure you have warmed up correctly.
Furthermore, as it is outlined in “Ben Hogan’s 5 Lessons” , there is a heavy emphasis on getting a feel for the weight of the golf club. Having this feel with the golf club will allow you to transfer this weight properly throughout your swing but it is important to have a solid base.
Being Stance and Posture is one of Ben Hogan’s 5 lessons, he clearly points out how the feet should be aligned. For example, assuming you shoot right handed your left foot should be slightly turned to the outside and your right foot should be square. In terms of the distance of your feet:
- A standard 5 iron shot: Feet shoulder width apart
- With lofted clubs: feet slightly closer apart
- Irons and Woods: feet slightly wider apart
It’s important to note that most golfers have too narrow of a stance, and that proper foot placement is essential for your golf stance. Your stance affects both the back swing and the down swing. A proper stance helps control your muscles and comfort on the back swing and creates significant hip mobility for the follow through in the down swing.
The next element he covers in this lesson is the placement and correct way to use your arms for your golf swing. What I took from the book:
- One arm must be extended at all times for the golf club to meet it’s maximum arc
- The closer the arms stay together, the better
- Your upper arms should be pressed tightly against your chest
- Elbows tucked in
This is covered in much more detail and with photographs in “Ben Hogan’s 5 Lessons”.
Ben Hogan’s 3rd Lesson: The First Part Of The Swing
The next portion of Ben Hogan’s 5 lessons focuses on the first part of the golf swing. As you might have already guessed, that would be focusing on the starting golf stance to the top of the backswing of the shot.
There’s a fundamental quote in the book that outlines what you should see when performing your backswing correctly:
“If the golfer executes his backswing correctly, at the top of his backswing his legs, hips, shoulders, arms, and hands will be properly poised and interrelated to move with power and coordination into that climatic part of the golf swing-the downswing.”
– Pg. 46 of “Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons”
Having a proper Grip and Stance, will help you the effectiveness of maintaining proper form throughout your golf swing. Moving from the starting position to the backswing; the motion; is also known as the waggle.
The waggle often gets overlooked to most amateur golfers as it isn’t seen as any significance to helping you with your golf swing and is more so to help loosen you up. It is a very important part of having successful shots and in “Ben Hogan’s 5 Lessons” it is covered in more depth; the proper mechanics of the hands, arms, shoulders, hips and legs. Consider the waggle a “Rehearsal Swing”, acknowledging how important it is to Rehearse and practice to be successful.
Ben Hogan’s 4th Lesson: The Second Part Of The Swing
The 4th of Ben Hogan’s 5 lessons focuses on the down swing into the hitting the ball. The most effective way to initiate the down swing is by turning the hips towards your target. While reading through Ben’s second last lesson, it was very apparent of the emphasis to follow the proper chain of actions through the down swing by swinging on a plane.
On the down swing, the focus is hitting from inside out which is covered more in depth in the book. This is for maximum strength and speed of the the club head. A common mistake pointed out is a lot of novice golfers initiate the down swing with the hands as opposed to focusing on starting with the hips and letting the other elements follow.
On pg. 80 of “Ben Hogan’s 5 lessons”, there is an intriguing quote:
“In it’s general character, the correct motion of the right arm and hand in the impact area resembles the motion of the right arm and hand in the impact area resembles the motion an infielder makes when he throws half sidearm, half underhand to first after fielding a ground ball. As the right arm swings forward, the right elbow is very close to the right hip and “leads” the arm – it is the part of the arm’s nearest target”.
This is interesting because it helps you visualise; along with photographs; the proper feel of the motion you should be performing while comparing it to another sport. There is another comparison involving the two handed basketball pass to help describe the correct motion the arms and hands should be performed.
*A big mistake on the downswing to the contact of the ball is pronation of the left wrist; if a right handed shot. The left wrist should be supinated correctly, outlined in the book*
Ben Hogan’s 5th Lesson: Summary & Review
The last of Ben Hogan’s 5 lessons is to summarize and incorporate the lessons previously learned and how they all tie together to create an effective golf swing.
For those who would like the full experience and expertise of Ben Hogan you can purchase the book on Amazon at a fairly cheap price Here.
Ben Hogan’s 5 Lessons: Conclusion
Overall I would highly recommend this book. It is very easy to read and straight to the point and is a great start for a beginner or even someone to polish up their knowledge. It is definitely an older school approach to the game but it has been proven effective and is a great guide to the understanding of the golf shot.
There are a lot of great points that covers how Ben Hogan approached the game of golf and why he had so much success with his shot. He understands that those of us who inspire to be good at the game of golf seek out knowledge we can trust and rely on. I truly admire the passion and dedication Ben put into developing and teaching his golf swing to others eager to learn.
This book was reinvented and developed into a program for improving your golf swing, you can check out the review article Here for those interested!
