Once again, Patrick started the lesson videoing my swing face on with his iPad. He showed me that my depth is getting much better but I need to turn more with my torso rather than just with my shoulders and lats. I don’t get “behind” myself because I go straight back instead of around my body.
He showed me that to do this I should feel like my elbows are attached to my rib cage and don’t leave the rib cage until the last minute. It will then feel like my arms are going straight back and up. This only feels this way when I can keep my right elbow extremely soft and what feels “bent” to me. If I can keep my right elbow soft, bent and “inside” the club face going back, I know I am turning with my torso.
I can really feel this when I stand straight up and turn from the backside of my lower left obliques. It is still a little foreign because turning with my lower left obliques causes my arms to lag quite a bit. I have to get the feel for my arms lagging as my lower left obliques drive my core around my hips. We aren’t turning with the hips, we are driving the back side of the lower left obliques away from the target.
There is also a feel of the club going towards second base at the very top of the backswing when I do the final twist. This is the finishing touch that will take some time, but it feels great when I actually do it.
I can now understand the feel of the “ball” between your arms, at your elbows, that all the training aids are trying to do.
The goal is to turn with the back side of the lower left obliques, keep the right arm soft and bent, also keep the right arm inside the club face as we turn with the core. As late as possible, we use the left lat to come under and drive the twist at the top of the swing. Easy enough.
UPDATE: I am now over 200 lessons in and just recently have I realized just how much my right side is part of my golf swing. I have really softened my lower right side but now we are working on the upper right side. I am to roll out my upper right lat every night until I get rid of the tension and the knots in my right side. When Patrick puts any pressure on my upper right lat I can feel the knots. It is now time to really work out this tension with focused foam rolling.
