[Dariusz J.]

Dariusz

I am aware that you a serious student of Hogan's swing.

I therefore find it very surprising to read what you wrote- : "Sorry to say, but when looking at the photos I find it simply not natural that the sharp hip turn caused Hogan's elbow to move that far down."

Look at Hogan's swing video lesson, which you must have looked at many, many times. Are you really not convinced that Hogan's entire power package assembly was brought down to waist level as a result of his rapid lower body action. He demonstrates this "lower body move" repeatedly in this video lesson, and it is so easy to see his entire power package assembly moving as a single unit down to hip level, concurrently with his lower body action. In his "Five lessons" book he makes the same point of how the arms/hands get a "free ride" down to waist level. He is very definite about the upper limbs (arms/hands) being passive in the early downswing.

You also wrote-:"Do an experiment yourself - go to the top with a cupped left wrist and just turn your hips as quick as possible without trying to go low with the clubhead to the ground in urge to hit the ball - just hold the club and turn your hips - you'll observe that your cupped left wrist remains cupped despite the turn."

Of course my left wrist will remain cupped if I deliberately maintain a cupped left wrist. However, my left wrist flattens immmediately if I relax my left wrist and allow the left wrist to passively respond to forces that have a left wrist flattening effect. The key "feeling" is the "feeling" of leaving the club behind while the downswing is initiated. Hogan had ultra-flexible wrists and you can actually see his degree of left wrist lag increasing at the start of the downswing. I believe that the cause of that phenomenon is due to the combination of i) a sudden pull-down of the left arm (secondary to the lower body pivot action that initiates Hogan's downswing) and ii) very relaxed wrists. The likelihood of that "increased lag" phenomenon happening at the start of the downswing would be much more unlikely if Hogan was actively propelling the club downwards by means of a right arm throw action.

Finally, Hogan was a swinger, and HK stated that a swinger's power accumulator release sequence must be 4,2,3. HK never stated that the right arm should be actively throwing/thrusting in a swinger's action, and certainly not before the release of power accumulator #4.

Jeff.

Jeff, you presented some valid arguments, no doubt. However, do you really think that Hogan's swing was being powered by lower body action only ? I am more than sure that his right arm/forearm was intentionally involved in his motion. In the same book you quote he wrote "hit the ball with your right hand as strong as possible". Tomasello's theory is very interesting, as I said, because it unifies the right forearm throw with the pivot very soundly.
The more I look into Hogan's swing motion the more I believe in his "three right hands" comment; I think he was "above" those swingers/hitters criteria and sincerely am of the opinion that his downswing was a mixture of a dominant left side of the body (pulling) turboed by right arm/forearm/elbow/hand action.
Now, Tomasello theory that Pistol brought into life in this thread is simply a possible great explanation that I take into accout since there is no many concept how to combine left and right side action during the swing. Many can say that it is not even possible, but it is not true. You can easily combine and synchronize a pulling motion of the main body and correlated pushing motion of a distal part of the same body and it is a very natural thing. Discus throwers or rotational-style ball throwers in lightathletics are a great example of this kind of correlation.


Cheers