The King of Swing: The Real Secrets Behind Ben Hogan's Perfect Golf Swing [Hardcover]

Golf legend Ben Hogan had the perfect golf swing, but how exactly it worked has long been a mystery—until now. Using footage from three never–before analyzed films of Hogan at his very best, Jim McLean analyzes the crucial motions of Hogan′s entire golf swing and shows you how to integrate his mechanics into your own game. You′ll study Hogan′s blend of club head, club shaft, hands, ankles, knees, hops, shoulders, and head motion—a symphony of movements with an ideal sequential development of power. It′s as close as you can get to teeing it up with Hogan yourself.

• Uses more than one hundred stills from three rare films to analyze every key detail of Hogan′s perfect swing before the car accident that changed his play, something no book on Hogan has ever done
• Reveals the fifteen secrets of Hogan′s swing, covering important topics such as the grip, the waggle, the left hip action, lateral motion, rotation and turning movements, head position, and more
• Draws extensively on the knowledge of Hogan′s friends and competitors, many of them golfing greats themselves
• Written by one of Golf Digest′s top five teachers , a pioneer in video analysis who also saw Hogan play first hand

There have been many books on Hogan′s swing, but never one, including his own, that illustrates his swing at its most perfect, and never one that shows its mechanics so clearly and completely.

Everyone who saw him play agrees: Ben Hogan had the greatest golf swing of all time—powerful and fluid, deadly accurate, and unbelievably consistent. But Hogan′s swing wasn′t a natural gift. He spent years developing and refining it. In other words, Hogan built his spectacular swing, and now you can learn how he did it.

In The Complete Hogan, Jim McLean, one of America′s most respected and sought–after golf instructors and a pioneer in using video to analyze the swing, looks at Hogan′s swing in a way no one ever has before. Using more than one hundred still photos from three rare film clips of Hogan at his very best, in the late 1940s before the terrible car accident that changed his game, McLean isolates every detail and explains every important motion of Hogan′s entire golf swing.

Frame by frame, McLean lays out Hogan′s many secrets—fifteen of them, in fact. He covers important topics such as the grip, the waggle, the two–plane swing, the left hip action, lateral motion, rotation, and turning movements. He also points out the importance of head position; cupping the left wrist; rotating the left arm; supination, or the bowing of the left wrist at impact; the long right arm; and a straight, balanced finish.

McLean discusses Hogan′s use of big grips and stiff shafts, and how, from analyzing his motion, we learn how the big muscles guide the swing. The hips and legs lead the shoulders in the downswing while the arms follow the motion of the body, and any conscious hand action or manipulation is eliminated.

Hogan′s swing was like a symphony of movements, with an ideal sequential development of power. By viewing it closely, with the help of McLean′s expert analysis, you will be able to study and practice Hogan′s perfect blend of clubhead, clubshaft, hands, ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, and head motion, and use them to develop an ideal model for your own swing.

Adding to his own expertise, McLean relies on important commentary from some of Hogan′s greatest admirers: people who knew him, who understood how he developed his skills, and who also happen to be great golfers themselves, including Hogan′s lifelong friend and rival Jimmy Demaret, the great Sam Snead, and Gary Player.

As a young man, McLean had the privilege and pleasure of watching Hogan practice and compete on numerous occasions. While nothing beats the thrill of seeing a legend in action, The Complete Hogan does something no other golfing guide can do: it gives you an opportunity to understand and emulate the swing that made Ben Hogan one of the greatest champions in the history of golf.