Reverse every natural instinct and do the opposite of what you

When Ben Hogan, the steel-eyed master of the fairways, proclaimed, “Reverse every natural instinct and do the opposite of what you are inclined to do, and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing,” he was not merely describing the mechanics of a game. He was unveiling a truth about discipline, mastery, and the conquest of self. For golf, perhaps more than any other sport, resists the instincts of the body. To swing well is to battle against nature itself—against the impulses of muscle and the habits of mind—and to rise above them with deliberate control.

The origin of this wisdom rests in Hogan’s own life. Known as one of the most precise and relentless players of all time, Hogan built his greatness not on natural ease, but on hours of tireless practice. He broke down the swing into its smallest pieces, dissecting it with a surgeon’s eye, and in doing so discovered that the body’s natural urges—gripping too tightly, swinging too hard, lunging forward—were enemies of perfection. To achieve mastery, the golfer had to reverse instinct and teach the body new laws, laws that felt foreign, even wrong, but led to harmony and power.

The ancients, too, spoke of this paradox. The Stoics taught that the path to virtue often lay not in following impulse, but in resisting it, turning away from comfort and desire to embrace discipline and reason. The warrior on the battlefield knows the same: the natural instinct is to flinch from the blade, yet the trained fighter steps into danger with calm precision. So it is with the golfer: instinct screams one way, but mastery demands the other. Hogan’s saying is a creed for all who would conquer not only a game, but themselves.

Consider Hogan’s own story after his near-fatal car accident in 1949. Doctors doubted he would walk again, yet within two years, he returned to win the U.S. Open at Merion. Every instinct in his broken body must have urged rest, surrender, retreat. Yet Hogan did the opposite: he trained, he labored, he defied his flesh. And in reversing the “natural instinct” to quit, he achieved one of the greatest comebacks in sports history. His words about the golf swing were not just about striking a ball, but about striking against despair itself.

The lesson is clear: in golf, in life, in all endeavors of greatness, instinct alone cannot be trusted. Instinct seeks comfort, ease, safety—but mastery demands resistance, discipline, and courage. Often the path that feels hardest, the choice that seems most unnatural, is the very one that leads to triumph. Hogan’s wisdom reminds us that to reach higher, we must often walk against the wind of our own inclinations.

What then must we do? First, examine our instincts: do they lead us toward strength, or toward ease? Second, practice discipline: train the body and mind to act not as they wish, but as they must. Third, embrace discomfort, for growth lies on the far side of resistance. Whether in sport, in work, or in character, greatness is found not in yielding to impulse, but in reshaping it into deliberate mastery.

Thus, Ben Hogan’s words endure as a torch for all who seek excellence: “Reverse every natural instinct… and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing.” Beyond golf, this is the law of all mastery: to resist the easy path, to train against the grain, and to triumph not by following nature blindly, but by conquering it through will and discipline. Let us then, like Hogan, take the harder way, and in doing so, find the swing not only of golf, but of life itself.