The word "secret" is used a lot in golf, by magazine editors to sell magazines, by gurus to sell books and instruction, and by intelligent people who realize that the word refers to something you don't know yet; it could be common knowledge to someone else, but not you. Anything I know and you don't is a secret.
Andrisani refers to SEVERAL Hogan secrets. Mike Austin's instruction also is "full of secrets."
Austin declared, as did Hogan, that THE secret to power and clubhead speed is the the [compound] pivot: "the faster I want the club to move, the faster I pivot."
The hands are holders on only, BUT the right ARM, in all procedures having any real power, is used to ASSIST THE PIVOT FOR BRINGING THE HANDLE END of the club around faster than would be the case if it didn't help. And that is not done with the wrists or hands but with the right ELBOW, used in the same way as when you throw something, i.e., by STRAIGHTENING - a function of the triceps.
Besides this, and while I have no research, only common sense to tell me, since the hands are above your head at the top and the move down to your lap for impact, IT SEEMS THE PECS ASSIST to chop the arms DOWNward for the downswing, as well as for the pivot to drive them downplane.
Descriptions of what someone does need to include what is exerted, but how much anyone actually exerts, and whether he even EXPERIENCES that, is entirely subjective! You can't see what I exert, nor when; but if I am describing to someone what I am doing, I could use the words chop, pull, push, turn, yank, throw, toss, fling, or anything of the sort, all of which would be an ATTEMPT to communicate. But as we know, communicating golf is not easy.
Take this situation of the woman going to a lawyer because she wanted a divorce. Lawyer: "Do you have grounds?" Woman: "yes, we own about 12 acres behind the house." Lawyer, trying another tack: "Well, let me ask you this instead: does he beat you up?" Woman: "O no, I always am up by 5:30 and he isn't up until 7 or so." Lawyer, really frustrated: "Well, WHY DO YOU WANT A DIVORCE?" Woman: "We have trouble communicating!".
So all of the secrets are the things Hogan, Austin, anyone, says he does that are key: and in point of fact, they agree.
Austin's "throw" is INITIATED at the top of his swing IN HIS NERVES, IN THE EXERTIONS he initiates there, but OTHER exertions in the pivot and arms cause the hands to move SO FAST that there is no loss of lag whatsoever for a long time into the downswing, as evidenced by pictures SHOWING the clubhead a long ways behind the hands even when his hands are at his right pocket. Same with Hogan who says he wished he had more hands. But hands are where he FELT what he did with his BODY to get them there.
Passing on golf instruction involves KNOWING HOW TO COMMUNICATE TO THAT PARTICULAR PERSON IN FRONT OF YOU what you are trying for that person to grasp. Teaching golf is a UNIVERSE APART from "knowing what to do yourself" for that reason. It is about 1) knowing what is right, and 2) communicating it SO AS TO ENABLE the pupil.
I heard a 10 year old yesterday on NPR radio playing a Haydn piano sonata. She was a Chinese American child prodigy: UNBELIEVABLE what she could do. How perfectly she played it, both as concerns the technical accuracy AND THE MUSICIANSHIP - the expression, the nuance, the vitality, the disciplined spirit (adherence to beat and appropriate percussive articulation--another way of explaining how she "pronounced" the phrasing correctly in the same way as when we SPEAK, we automatically stress the right syllables in our words and use the exact amount of less stress on the weaker ones). I mention this because HER INTUITIVE GIFTS WERE EXTRAORDINARY - astounding, actually.
The same thing is possible in golf talent, teaching talent, mathematical talent (I am talking about intuitive grasp), etc.
Of course talking about this isn't going to help anyone really get the golf swing much better unless they seek KNOWLEDGE, and unless somehow they GRASP THE ESSENTIALS. Which boils down to "What am I supposed to do with the golf club?"
Get that, and trial and error with some guidance will get the rest.
It is obvious when you see youngsters swing a club - some already "grasp" the concept of throw, "centrifugal force," and rotation.
As for Dunaway, the slamming of the door is what Hogan and Austin and all good golfers do: it is that when the hips have finished their LEFTWARD SLIDE WITHOUT TURN FIRST, and the shoulders have NOT turned as the shoulders, arms, hands, and club come DOWN plane towards the target line, THEN THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE BODY, THE HANDS, THE HIPS, etc., all PIVOT AROUND THE LEFT HIP POSTED ON THE LEFT LEG as though a piano hinge ran up the left leg through the left shoulder and the entire body swings AROUND THAT HINGE counter clockwise into the ball. A door slamming around the hinge at the side - NOT a revolving door rotating around an axis in the center.
