Today was a backswing only day at PKU. While my right arm and right elbow are becoming much more passive, Patrick now wants me to drive under with my left lat after the takeaway. Then the club is about a foot off the ground, I need to make sure to go very slow and allow my left lat to really drive under to create more depth at the beginning of the backswing.
When doing this, it causes much more time in terms of completing the backswing and getting back to the ball. As usual, I was hitting a little bit behind the balls when I started to get deeper. Patrick was pleased as he knows it is now a timing issue that is causing me to slightly mishit the ball. My depth after the takeaway is much better.
I also feel my arms and hands going back in a way that feels more straight back because my body is turned. Early on in this process, I tried to push my arms straight back but without my body being turned. Now, the arms can naturally go back more on the target line because my shoulders are turned. I can also extend my arms out much further as I get to the top of the backswing. This was always a challenge as I wanted to pull my hands and arms into my body when I wasn’t turning my shoulders.
I hit some pretty good shots, but today was more of a day to feel depth with my left side driving under after the take away.
UPDATE: In early May 2021 I am still working on getting that turn deeper and deeper. For years I had no clue what a full shoulder turn was. Now I understand it is the left pectoral muscle getting all the way around the body and what feels like it is past where the right hip started at address. The further this left pec can turn around the body, the better the golf swing is going to be. It takes a lot of stretching and patience to get the body to this position though.
