It was a downswing day at PKU and we really worked on the chest turning under and through while the club face stays behind the right pectoral. As always, we started with a few backswing stretches and then we got into the downswing.
An addition we implemented was for the left leg to brace but it can straight a little bit and fall back away from the target line. I was trying to basically squat or lunge with it which made it nearly impossible for my body to turn under. There needs to be length on the left side of the body as we turn around it. I should never snap my left knee back or completely straighten it but I shouldn’t square or lunge with it. Something in the middle.
Patrick makes certain my hands and arms stay back and my chest clears. He has mentioned this multiple times in the last two lessons. Before the arms can come through and extend, the chest needs to clear. This is really hard as it takes a lot of patience for the chest to clear without the arms throwing the club at the ball.
It is a completely different feel when you hold the arms and hands back and clear the chest. This is not something I am going to learn in a few quick lessons. I am getting better at getting the club to the ball but I still give up right before impact and pull across.
Patrick gave me a great visual to understand the distance the club should travel to get to the ball. With a professional golf swing, a golfer will have the radius of the swing start at the top of the backswing, get to the ball and all the way through the ball without pulling the arms down. An amateur golfer will lift the club to the backswing, then pull his arms down to his hips and start the radius of the club. This is a huge difference.
No one ever explains this in YouTube videos or while analyzing swings of PGA Tour Pros. If you start at the top of the swing, keep your arms extended and turn with your body, the radius is coming to be significantly larger than getting half way back, lifting up, then pulling back down to the hip and flipping. That is a much smaller circle.
