We are still at Knight’s Play due to Coronavirus. Today was a very difficult lesson. The harsh reality of the situation is I am 129 lessons in and I still do not know how to generate power in the golf swing. I have drastically improved my backswing but as soon as I get to the top of my backswing I jerk across with my shoulders and use all my power at the top of the backswing rather than at the ball. 129 lessons in and I still do this. It is almost disheartening.
Patrick is very pleased with my backswing but when discussing the downswing I realized I have never done it correctly. Once I get to the top of my backswing, I am to feel as if my right butt cheek is going towards the target, then I am to drive under with my right lat while holding off with my left shoulder. This will create tension with my upper left back. I am to hold this tension as long as possible while driving under and through the ball with my right lat. What I do is, I get to the top, then pull across with my shoulders and still come over the top. Even though I can hit a slight draw, I am still coming over the top and not from the inside.
Patrick has cleaned up my chipping motion drill by making my left wrist more soft after impact so the shaft is pointing at a 45 degree angle towards the ground rather than horizontal to the ground. I am to hold off with my left shoulder and drive under with my right lat. When I do this correctly, there is a recoil. Patrick is very pleased to see the recoil and me using my left foot and left shoulder to “hold off”.
When working on full swings, Patrick said, “I am not going to let you keep turning until you have planted that left foot.” As with my shoulders, my left foot breaks down and I allow my left leg to soften.
I am honestly struggling with this as I am 22 months into this process and I still cannot generate power in the golf swing. Did I bite off more than I can chew? Is it time to just give up and accept that I will never have a powerful golf swing? I know it is always darkest before the dawn but this is not an easy time for me.
Patrick wants me to play 9 holes at Knight’s Play on Thursday so we will have to see how that goes. Sigh.
UPDATE: Over the course of 2020 and early 2021 I really had to put my trust in Patrick as I was hundreds of lessons into the golf swing and there were many times I did not hit it well at all. Try that out. Get hundreds of lessons in golf only to find out that you can’t hit the ball. It is now mid February 2021 and I have given Patrick a start date of May 2021 to be hitting all clubs. This is a firm date and I am going to be playing in the Hope Valley Thursday night men’s league no matter what. It will be interesting to see what happens between now and then.
