Friday was a rain out and Monday Patrick was in Greenville working on some professionals with their swing. Over the weekend, my 8 iron clubface came flying off at UNC Finley so I accepted hitting balls at the range without Patrick was not worth my time at this point.
We started the lesson with a focus on the backswing. I can now feel skinny in many areas of my backswing. There is space between my legs, my right side sucks in and I feel space under my arms at the top of the swing. The thing I really started to feel today was as we get to the very top of the backswing, the club feels like it is going way left of the target line. If 12:00 is the target and 6:00 is directly behind the target line, I feel as if I am going to 4:30 or 5:00 at the top of my backswing. It actually feels really good.
When I do this, I understand how you come back inside. If you use your body to get the club to feel like it is going way outside at the top of the backswing, it is going to have to come back inside on the way down.
Patrick showed me a video of his daughter after two weeks of training. Her transition at the top of the backswing is simply amazing. I wish I learned that at a young age. She can also really tuck her right elbow going back. If she continues, she is going to be a very good golfer.
After doing some backswings, I hit the ball and it was completely different. It feels like I am coming completely over the top right at impact. Patrick told me I am hyper aware and sensitive to it now but I am closer to completing the downswing than ever. After hitting five or 10 balls and getting a sense that I am not doing something wrong, I started to hit the ball extremely well. In fact, I almost hit the pole at 115 yards several times. I have given Patrick the challenge that he has to hit the pole with five swings before I hit the pole with my 20-25 swings. It should be fun.
After working the backswing, Patrick started on the downswing. What I have to do on the downswing is be patient and feel as if the turn doesn’t happen until I am way past the ball. I really need to allow my shoulders to get very much through the ball before the turn. The slower I go through impact, the deeper and further I can get. This is a work in progress, but it does feel good to understand the turn happens way past impact.
UPDATE: Over the last several months I have really worked on the shoulder turn and now the focus is on the right hip being silent and bracing on the backswing. As you will read in many of my lessons between October and April we had to work extremely hard to take the right side out and stop it from lifting. My last little bit of taking the right side out is the right hip lifting and moving back slightly. When I can brace and feel my left side drive into the right hip I end up getting a huge shoulder turn and hitting the ball extremely well. There is always more work to be done.
