[EdZ]

The idea of the right knee is to a) keep the angle of the leg and b) start the downswing by driving the right knee at the inside back corner, keeping the shoulders back

It sets the proper sequence of the body unwinding to create 'full body' lag, that is, a from the ground up unwinding, a cracking of the whip, that is 'lag' - from the left foot, up the left side, down the arm to the club - the flail in action. It also lowers the trail shoulder down plane. A wider stance makes this easier to 'get'.

the key to getting it right is 'counter fall' onto the left leg (tour tempo cd is very good at getting this feel), and having the left foot 'open' a touch greatly helps this work properly

A hammer, on a plane board, with an understanding that the elbow leads the wrist which leads the tip of the index finger. Note that the elbow stays on its plane (a good visual/video check point), some good pics of this in Hebron's books.

Keeping that right wrist bent back - if you keep the thumb and index finger pressed against each other, and have a 'hook' in your index finger, in order to actualy 'use the hammer', the tip of the trail index finger, you must have the right wrist back in the proper position. Another feel that this will give is the heel of the hand leading/punching, before the index finger 'throws'. The wrists hinge, how the wrists hinge (mirror point).

As for the divots, when you really get the 'hogan' wrist position through impact (page 102), you will find that you need less 'down' and you are very square to the arc. There is still very much a downward blow, which a vast majority don't have, but the divot will be a 'slice' rather than a 'chunck' of dirt. The 'down' gives margin for error, so if you error, go with too much 'down (there really isn't such a thing, other than that which creates distance control problems) - the thin slice is the best combination of down vs. forward force, and there will be a slight arc to them on the ends, but not much, think 'square to the arc'


The entire motion is somewhat like you were going to break a door down with your lead shoulder, like you hit the ball with the back of the lead shoulder - the right knee/foot/leg braces and 'pushes off' - just like a pitcher pushes off the mound or a sprinter pushes out of the blocks.

If you push off of the right leg and haven't coiled lead shoulder behind the ball, you'll have troubles. Hogan had full shoulder coil and a short arm swing for a reason, it keeps the hands and chest turning through without getting 'out of sequence'.