While practicing my turn at home, I realized I can feel my core turning and my right arm folding much better with a longer club such as a 4 iron or 5 iron. Today, I asked Patrick why this was the case. He explained that the radius of the club being longer and the weight of the club allow me to go slower and understand the radius. When I work on my turn with a pitching wedge or approach wedge, I feel like I lift with my arms after the take away. With a 4 iron, I can feel my right elbow fold and can continue to turn with my core and my left lat.
We worked on practicing with a 4 iron while hitting the ball with an approach wedge at Knight’s Play today. Hopefully the Coronavirus lockdown will come to an end rather quickly. I actually miss Old Chatham.
By practicing with a 4 iron, I have the ability to slow down after the take away. Once the club starts to go “up” I can feel my right elbow relaxing and folding under. This allows me to drive with the left lat while pulling the right lower obliques into my belly button. Patrick is very pleased with my core being tight at the top of my swing. In fact, he is very happy with my backswing that gets more deep with each lesson.
He did add that my right arm can extend and be a little “longer” at the top of the backswing. Other than that, I am to continue to work on my turn. I hit some fantastic approach wedges today.
UPDATE: We are now at the end of January 2021, I am over 220 lessons in and we never went back to Old Chatham. I am also still using a 4 iron to train my practice swing and hitting shots with an approach wedge. It is crazy to think that I have been doing this for 100 lessons now. Now that I am over 200 lessons in, so much more about the golf swing makes sense. Try this on for size, the club face should feel outside the hands at the top of the backswing but you still need a full shoulder turn. Good luck.
