[O.B.Left]

I've read this too about Knudson's passive hands. I've read Lag Erickson's point of view on this which is that firing the hands requires special training for most golfers. Passive hands is easier to master for the average golfer who does not have time to train for this, and perhaps this is who Knudson was targetting in his book. Knudson based a lot of his swing on Hogan who clearly stated that he wished he had 3 right hands - certainly sounds like a non-passive action there. If you fire your hands then you need a very strong pivot post-impact to prevent a hook. Hudson clearly swings hard left and not out to right field, which is the tendancy with the right arm hitting action.

I think the hands can be passive or they can be trained to fire. I don't wish to try to interpret another golfer's training or intentions, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I think, however, that when you swing on a tighter circle and you fire the hands from the last parallel position before impact, you are ensuring that you have acceleration into impact, and hence lag pressure.

Lag explains this much better than I of course and his posts on the matter can be found on other forums.

Teddy

It makes sense to me that some pro's who possessed educated hands would teach Pivot to Hands or passive hands to the new golfer. Proper hand motion, swinging the Hands instead of the club head etc was not well enough understood back then or now for that matter. But to keep this train on the Knudson rails, in your opinion, how would Knudson "fire" his hands?

Its an interesting question and Ill tell you why I ask. I remember a friend of mine who had a summer long series of group lessons with George at the National Golf Club just north of Toronto. He was a pretty good golfer and was in with some beginners. By the end of the summer George had them all hitting beautiful , perfect little mid irons with a three quarter swing. They didnt go very far but they were sweet. My friend was somewhat frustrated that the lessons never progressed past this shot. It was a swing that George didnt use himself, even when doing demonstrations for the class and neither did my friend when he was playing for score. He'd bring it out once in a while when he was goofing around. It was a often a 130 yard seven iron floater. George could get most any person hitting it and accurately. Perhaps there was more to be had from George's lessons after many many reps or perhaps there was a missing bridge between Pivot to Hands and educated Hands?

George wrote a beautiful book which is largely about the Pivot. Jack in his book called the hands the "great destroyers". Homers book is about the Hands and their correct usage. Its not a "handsy" method but it is about the Hands. Homer "wrote the book" on Hands.