Ben Hogan Swing: The Secret Move Behind His Elite Ball Striking

Today, I want to share a movement pattern that shows up in two of the greatest ball strikers the game has ever seen: Ben Hogan and Moe Norman. Different personalities. Different eras. Same underlying solution to one of golf’s most common problems. I also have a great video on this move on my YouTube channel if you’d like to see it in action (video above).

Although Hogan is now celebrated as one of the greatest ball strikers ever (if not the best), it’s important to note that he did not win a tournament for nine years after starting his professional career. He worked tirelessly to perfect his grip, posture, and swing mechanics during his early years in golf, and many also note his key grip change that helped him eliminate his left hooking miss for a more trustworthy little fade.

It’s also worth remembering that Hogan overcame significant challenges, including a near-fatal car accident in 1949 that ultimately shortened his career but did not stop his pursuit of perfection. And along the way there was one move he mastered in his downswing that I believe really helped catapult his legendary career, culminating with 69 PGA Tour wins and 9 major championships.

The One Move

But beyond the basics, Hogan also came to find a key sequence and move in transition that helped him achieve a perhaps all-time level of ball striking in his later years. He referred to it as “the first move”.

Similarly, the ball striking savant from Canada, Moe Norman discovered a near identical move in his golf swing, coining it “the feeling of greatness”. He was revered for hitting his shots literally dead straight, time-after-time, like a machine.

Many golfers and experts rank Hogan and Norman as 2 of the top 5 ball strikers of all-time. And wouldn’t you know, they had an almost identical feel in the downswing. And both (late in their careers) would produce their own great video explaining how it worked.

Different language, same concept. Sure, their rehearsals above with the golf club may look slightly different, but I promise you they are nearly the same in approach. It’s a way to organize the body in the beginning of the downswing that allows you to slot the club out of the top, and strike the ball from the inside, with freedom instead of fear.

You’ll Find it in Ben Hogan’s Five Lessons

Much of Hogan’s approach to the swing is detailed in his foundational book ‘Five Lessons’ book, which shares his swing secrets and principles that have influenced generations of golfers. And in his book you will find hints at this key “first move”, which he would further elaborate on while filming that video segment for Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf series.

This one move is also a great example of what it really means to (as we say) Swing Like an Athlete™. The club is not being forced into position. The body is moving in a way that allows everything else to organize naturally.

The Magic of the Right Elbow

Now let’s start to really dive into the mechanics of this downswing move and how it helps bring about more consistent ball striking. There is no denying that Hogan generated power and precision in his swing through significant lag, which was created by his right elbow dropping into his rib cage.

That trail arm staying bent and working under keeps the club’s center of mass behind the player longer as they change direction and helps keep the club shallow in the downswing. This is a hallmark of elite movement patterns, not just in golf, but across other sports in general, just like you’d see in a major league baseball swing.

Once again, early in his career, Hogan struggled with the ball over-drawing. That left miss cost him tournaments. Later on, once he eliminated the left side of the golf course, his career took off and he often credited his weak grip change and this “first move” with this later success. 

Moe Norman, famously, was also never afraid of the ball going left and often made similar crazy looking rehearsals like Hogan. That confidence did not come just from timing, it came from this understanding and mastering this key move (what he called the “feeling of greatness”).

Why This Move Eliminates the Dreaded Left Miss

It’s the most hated miss for right handed professionals––that ball that snaps left and gets away. So what typically causes this? The answer…

The tumble: this is the dreaded move where the right arm gets on top of the left arm in the downswing and causes the club to tumble on top of the hands. From there the club face begins to roll closed.

When the right arm works under the lead arm (as Hogan and Norman show), the club does not tumble out, the face stays stable longer and the club stays behind the hands for a more slotted delivery. The position and path of the club head into impact are better optimized, allowing it to move efficiently along the swing plane and deliver consistent results.

This one move also allows the player to rotate more freely through impact as the club is not outracing the body. It’s sequenced just like it should as we would see in other sports and this creates the most efficient transfer of power, from the body through the arms to the clubhead.

That is why Hogan and Moe could turn hard through the ball and still hit it laser straight or with a controlled fade. From an athletic standpoint, this is exactly what we want. Rotation fed by a good sequence, and the club delivered in its most efficient, stable path. Speed supported by stability. Not manipulation.

Keep the Left Arm High

One of the most overlooked keys in the Ben Hogan swing is what the lead arm is doing while the trail arm works under. As the right bent right arm stays under, the lead arm stays high and internally rotated. These two movements are inseparable. You cannot have one without the other.

The right elbow dropping under only creates the correct arm relationship if the lead arm holds its position. For most amateurs I see the lead arm wants to pull down and therefore the trail arm straightens and wants to move out on top. From there the club loses its shallow approach in the downswing, and the dreaded tumble comes back into play.

Hogan and Moe Norman both demonstrated this relationship clearly. In footage of both players, you can see the lead arm staying relatively level and connected as the trail arm works beneath it. This is what creates the slot and this trademark “window” between the arms (as you’ll see in practically every great ball striker).

For amateur golfers, the lead arm dropping is almost always a symptom of an early release. The body stalls, the arms take over and swipe across, and everything collapses. Training the lead arm to stay high through transition is one of the fastest ways to feel what a properly shallowed, inside approach actually feels like. If you swung with just your lead arm alone I bet you would move it properly. And when you get it right, the club feels like it is dropping into the slot behind you rather than being thrown at the ball. That is exactly the feeling Hogan and Norman were describing, and that is the feeling worth chasing.

Now, one point of contention from Hogan’s Five Lessons book is how his arms were depicted at setup, as if the pit of both his elbows were facing outward. This was not the case in his real golf swing, in fact even with Hogan’s slightly weaker left hand grip, the outside of his left elbow was actually still pointing outward towards the target (see image below).

Therefore his left arm was actually internally rotated and allowed for this move to happen. This was a misconception. So please, don’t copy Hogan’s setup as depicted in that one image from the book! You’d be hard pressed to find any pro golf swings throughout history with those arm alignments.

But This is Not Just an Arm Move

This is where many golfers get off track. From the outside, this pattern can look like just an arm action. In reality, it is a whole-body movement. It’s systematic, as we say. Look more closely at Hogan’s move out of the top and you’ll see. As the direction changes, the body flexes. The rib cage bends. The pelvis circles back, and the left and right leg have a powerful role in this action.

The lead arm stays up while the trail arm works back and under. The left and right knee, and legs play a crucial role in supporting this motion, with both knees slightly flexed and the left and right leg actively contributing to the pivot and power transfer. Even Hogan’s stance featured the front foot slightly open, and the back foot more square, all promoting this more systematic move with a good wind and unwind. 

This is what swinging like an athlete actually looks like. No joint is working in isolation. The arms are coupling with what the body is doing. When the body moves well, the arms seemingly fall into place without effort, get propelled, and help in really slinging the clubhead into the ball. Again, it’s a systematic move. One total move. Both Ben Hogan and Moe Norman mastered it.

Lower Body Movement: The Hidden Engine

Here’s something most golfers completely miss about Ben Hogan’s swing: his lower body may have been the real powerhouse behind everything else. Sure, everyone talks about his famous “weak grip” and how he used his hands and arms (and his magic elbow), but that legendary ball striking? It may have all started from the ground up. 

Hogan’s landing back to the lead side is following by his hips beginning the downswing sequence, all just before he finishes the backswing windup. This key sequence creates effortless lag, and he laid this out pretty clearly in his ‘Five Lessons’ book––”your hips need to fire first in the downswing, and then everything else just falls into place.”

Now, to be clear, I do get a little concerned when I hear the word “fire”. In reality when you analyze Hogan’s golf swing you’ll see he unwinds systematically, led by his landing and shift back to his lead side with dynamic right leg and left leg action aligned with his hips. He’s still using the ground powerfully and his hips are free to get open. It’s all in good sequence, and while still keeping necessary space away from the golf ball so as to not get stuck.

Maybe you’ve heard Tiger Woods talk about this? He called this stuck twisty move, his “Ole Move” where he would spin in and fire his hips, costing himself room and consistency in his ball striking. This is not what Hogan exemplified in his actual motion.

Go watch some old footage of his action. You’ll see how smoothly his weight and pressure flows from back foot to front foot—it’s like watching poetry in motion. It’s a systematic sequence. During his back swing, that left heel comes up just a touch, letting his hips wind up and store all that energy.

Then boom—as he starts down and used the ground, the left heel plants, the right heel starts lifting, and you’ve got this beautiful weight transfer happening with serious turn in his hips. That’s what keeps everything on track and balanced, even when he’s swinging hard.

Want more power and consistency in your game? Start paying attention to what your middle and lower body is doing. Are your hips getting in your way, or are your hips staying back and helping you slot the club and unwind? Start swinging with a good athletic sequence like the tour pros. It gives you this rock-solid foundation that your whole swing can build on and it’s natural. Hogan proved it time and again: the real magic might just happen below the waist and that sequence plays a big part in this one move we’ve been discussing.

The Sneaky Role of the Forearms in the Golf Swing

The forearms have a sneaky way of also making or breaking your golf swing. They play a major role in keeping the club and the clubface oriented correctly during the transition. As the downswing begins, the trail forearm ideally has some amount of supination (or slight turn to the right). This allows the club to remain shallow, and stay back, preventing the center of mass from tumbling outward. 

If the trail forearm pronates (or turns over left) too early, the left side of the golf course quickly comes back into play. One feel that works well for me is imagining the trail arm creating a gentle push up and away on the grip as I change direction. This feel comes directly from baseball and I really like it for those that struggle with tumbling the club and getting steep (and swing over the top). 

When you swing a baseball bat, the lead arm stays up and the trail arm works under. Nothing throws out toward the ball early and the barrel of the bat remains back and to the right. I’ve long found this crossover between sports is a big part in truly swinging like an athlete, rather than trying to build a swing from isolated positions.

Why Ben Hogan Really Wished He Had “3 Right Hands”

For over 15 years coaching, I’ve had countless students bring up the famous quote about Hogan wishing he had “three right hands.” Most golfers interpret this as a green light to apply raw force to the ball, trying to throw, and release the right wrist as hard as they can from the top.

But I think that interpretation is a little misguided. In fact, I think he was after exactly the opposite. He wasn’t trying to get rid of his wrist angles; he was trying to transport them. When you look at his real motion, he had tons of lag—more than just about anybody.

My interpretation is that those “three right hands” were meant to hold the momentum of the club up and back so it could freely sling out front. If you apply that force too soon, you unload everything behind you.

Instead, you want to feel like you’re towing and slinging the club like a catapult. We’re not trying to prevent the angles from unloading, but we want them to stay intact longer so we can’t miss the ball to the left. It’s all in the extension of the right wrist and he even demonstrates it in his famous “like skipping a rock” rehearsals…

And it’s like that bent-back feel you have when shooting a basketball. When you leave that extension in and accelerate the body and arm in sync, you get that nice, low, Hogan-like fade with a more natural release and “throw”. It’s dynamic and what the game’s best have always demonstrated.

This Move Slots the Golf Club For You

Most golfers spend years trying to manually position the club on the correct swing plane. They think about shaft angles, they chase positions, they try to force the club into the slot through sheer awareness and willpower. What Hogan and Moe Norman both understood is that none of that is necessary when the body moves correctly.

The slotting of the club is not something you do to the club. It is something the club does automatically when the right elbow drops in, the left arm stays high, and the body sequences properly from the ground up.

This is the part that tends to surprise golfers when they first feel it correctly. The club seems to fall into place on its own. That is not an accident and it is not magic. It is the direct result of the trail arm working under, the forearm supinating rather than pronating, and the lower body initiating the downswing before the arms begin to unwind.

When those pieces stack in the right order, the club has nowhere to go except into the slot. The geometry of the movement delivers it there without any conscious manipulation of the shaft.

Ben Hogan built his entire ball striking reputation on this principle. Moe Norman called it the feeling of greatness because once you find it, the swing stops feeling like a series of positions to hit and starts feeling like one continuous athletic motion.

The club is not being guided. It is being delivered. That distinction is the difference between a golfer who manages their misses and one who genuinely trusts their swing.

A Simple Drill to Train This Move

A great way to train this movement is with a range basket or anything you can imagine as a steering wheel. As you change direction, feel your body fall slightly down and forward with flexion. At the same time, slightly turn the steering wheel (what would be to the right for a right handed golfer) and maintain a window between your arms with the lead arm high and the trail arm working under. You’ll also feel a slight bend in your thoracic spine and in the right side of your ribcage. 

Pro tip: avoid tilting here from the hips and lumbar spine––instead, stay stacked up and use your ribcage and arms to find this slot.

Now that you have the feeling you can begin taking slow swings and hitting balls one frame at a time, at a short distance, focusing on how your body and arms move together to produce Ben Hogan and Moe Norman’s signature move. When you do this correctly, the ball flight gives you immediate feedback. You will start seeing low, controlled fades that never threaten the left side.

Pro Golfer Insights: What the Best Say About the Move

Every pro golfer worth their salt has taken a long, hard look at Ben Hogan’s swing. And honestly? They can’t stop talking about it. Take Jack Nicklaus—the guy knows a thing or two about winning—and he’s basically obsessed with how simple and efficient Hogan made it all look. 

The way his hips fired and his weight shifted? Pure magic. Nicklaus calls it “the gold standard” because Hogan somehow cranked out serious power while keeping everything laser-accurate.

Tiger Woods gets it too. He’s always going on about how Hogan’s body and club worked together like they were made for each other. Woods zeroes in on those hips leading the charge on the downswing—that’s where the real power comes from, and it’s what keeps everything consistent shot-after-shot. 

Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods Also Made This Money Move!

Tiger, Jack, and even Arnold Palmer and Gary Player? Same story. They’ve dissected Hogan’s swing plane and body movement, marveling at how he built something so repeatable that it worked even when the pressure was crushing.

Here’s the thing: all these legends aren’t just fanboying over Hogan’s style. They’re studying the substance behind it all. The hip rotation, the weight transfer, the way he moved so efficiently that’s what made “The Hawk” special. And it’s exactly what can make your game better too. Want to level up? Start watching Hogan through the eyes of the best players who ever lived. Trust me, they know what they’re talking about.

What This Move Should Feel Like

When you watch Ben Hogan and Moe Norman demonstrate this movement, the feel can look extreme. That does not mean it is wrong. From my many years of coaching, I’ve found extreme feels often produce very simple and repeatable outcomes. 

And if both of their golf swings are seen as gold standards, and often cited as models for swing mechanics, maybe we should pay close attention? Their weird looking feels after all produced the benchmark for consistent ball striking. 

These feels gave them the freedom to pivot fully and strike the ball consistently. While some players may feel like they are driving the trail arm, what is actually happening is a coordinated movement of the rib cage, pelvis, legs, arms, and forearms working together as one athletic system. It’s important to understand just what Hogan’s swing truly involved—precise mechanics and efficient motion—rather than relying on exaggerated or mythologized versions.

The feel is simple. The movement underneath it is sophisticated. The pursuit of emulating his swing can be a rewarding experience, even though it comes with its own set of challenges.

How it Naturally Powers the Club Head and Follow Through

There is a common misconception in golf that clubhead speed comes from the hands and arms working harder through impact. Watch any long drive competitor, and the instinct is to assume that raw arm speed is the engine. But Ben Hogan’s swing tells a very different story.

The power in his ball striking did not come from forcing the clubhead through the hitting zone. It came from everything upstream being organized so well that the clubhead had no choice but to accelerate naturally at the bottom of the arc.

When the right elbow drops in correctly, the left arm stays high, and the club slots from the inside, the body creates a whipping effect through the downswing. The sequence matters enormously here. The lower body shifts and rotates first, which stretches the muscles of the torso. The torso then unwinds, which loads the arms.

The arms, wrists, and hands then deliver the club, which finally cracks the whip at the clubhead. Each link in that chain amplifies the speed generated by the link before it. This is the same principle behind a pitcher’s fastball or a boxer’s cross. The power is not created at the end of the chain. It is transferred through it.

This is why Hogan and Moe Norman could generate serious clubhead speed without ever appearing to swing hard. The sequencing was so efficient that very little energy was wasted. Nothing was leaking out through an early release, or a stalled body. And the follow-through was seemingly effortless.

All of it was funneling directly into the clubhead at the moment of impact. For amateur golfers chasing more distance, this is the real lesson. Clean up the sequence, organize the delivery, and the speed will show up without you having to manufacture it.

Final Thoughts

If you struggle with hooks, fear the ball going left, or feel like you cannot rotate through impact without losing control of the club face, this is a pattern worth exploring. Not as a position to copy, but as a global movement to understand and feel for yourself. 

Many golfers have heard common advice or read comments about Ben Hogan’s swing, but these often lead to misconceptions. Misinterpretations of instructional comments or familiar phrases can leave golfers feeling lost when trying to replicate his technique. Remember, it’s a systematic move, a golf swing, and at its core is a flowing sequence. This is what it means to Swing Like an Athlete™.

Stay tuned for more breakdowns. And if you want to learn how to truly swing like an athlete and get clear, individualized guidance on how to play your best golf, check out our Online Academy where you’ll receive swing analysis every 2 weeks, access to my full swing playbook (The Athlete’s Swing®), invite to our monthly live webinars, and much more. We are here to help you build a swing you can trust.