sevam1

I discovered this swing theorist/amateur instructor/golf guru on YouTube called "sevam1" just this last week and I must say its like I've finally found an old friend that I might not have even known existed, if that makes any sense. I came across his work thanks to the very comprehensive and informative list of golf blogs provided by the Artful Golfer (you da' man!). This sevam1 fella is a devout disciple of Ben Hogan and Moe Norman, arguably to the two greatest North American ball-strikers of all time. He has some fascinating videos available that show him hitting balls out of shoe-high grass in his backyard into the lake that borders his property. He ambles along in a delightful Canadian accent (hitting 5-irons into a lake all the while) about how simple the golf swing really is and how you can do it too if you only understand a few of the most basic principles behind it. What originally caught my eye, though, was his liberal use of Hogan's most famous phrase "The secrets of the game are in the dirt." Most people have taken it to mean that to really find your game (or The Game?) and a consistent ball-flight from all of your shots, you must practice "digging them out of the dirt." Hit more balls--understand the game more. Although sevam1 seems to agree wholeheartedly with this claim, he has taken that famous quote of Hogan's one step further to mean that the secret of the swing is really rooted in your feet and how they connect with the Earth (aka dirt). He stresses over and over again in one of his videos about the significance of Hogan having golf shoes specially made for him with an extra spike under the ball of the right foot and how this alone tells you, the average golfer, that the secret behind a solid and repeatable golf swing must come from having a solid anchor to the back swing in your right leg and also how you rotate around that anchor. Fascinating stuff, indeed. I'll post more about my discoveries of his work as I continue to enjoy his videos--until then, perhaps you'd like to enjoy some of them for yourself?