We are still going through the coronavirus issues in the United States and North Carolina has yet to go to shelter in place. I, once again, met Patrick at Knight’s Play today and we continued to work on my backswing.
Today, we worked on allowing my torso to turn. I have a habit of setting the angle with my left obliques and then trying to turn my shoulders. If I want a full shoulder turn, I need to set the angle, turn my torso so it feels like my right abs are staying in front of my right arm going back. This will make it feel like it is pushing my right hip back. Once I get the torso turning, I can then go into the upper thoracic and then the shoulders. If I do this properly, I can really feel the turn in my core, especially my right abs.
An exercise Patrick told me to work on was to act like I was holding a medical ball on my chest. I was to set the angle with my lower left obliques. I was then to drive my torso without using my arms. This will make it feel like my lower right abs are staying well ahead of my right elbow and right shoulder. Once the torso starts to turn, I will naturally feel my upper thoracic and shoulders turn as the torso cannot turn any more.
While I didn’t feel like I was hitting the ball all that well, Patrick was very impressed with my backswing. He even took a picture on his phone and showed me what it looked like. My work over the next week is going to be on getting the torso to turn while keeping my right knee and right hip firm. This will take some time and effort but I have that as the coronavirus shut down continues to lengthen.
UPDATE: It is now January 2021, I am over 210 lessons in and I am still working on the “spin” of my core instead of using my shoulders. I have gotten significantly better as I now allow my upper right lat to be soft when setting the angle with my left hip. We are getting better every single day.
