Today was a game changing lesson at PKU. Patrick said he looked at my backswing picture last night and realized I need to stop being bloated or fat in my lower right side which is caused by my hips and legs. He took the club out of my hand, hand me cross my arms across my chest and work on my turn. The first thing he did was really pulled in on my stomach; especially my right side. By pulling it in, it felt like it was constraining or limiting by backswing but what it was really doing was keeping my hip angle.
As he held my right side stomach in, he made certain my knees were soft. I have the tendency to lock my knees out as I am getting deeper in the backswing. My quads and calves can remain strong but my knees need to stay bent and soft. While the turn feels much shorter Patrick explained that I am not turning around my hips rather than compensating with my legs and posture to gain depth.
We now do this five times as a stretching exercise before working on the actual backswing. When I blended the right side staying sucked in, my knees staying bent and turning I hit the ball unreal. I could not miss. It was definitely the ball striking combined with power lesson I have ever had.
Even when I felt the swing a little off, I only missed the shot by two or three yards. I really need to feel my right side being sucked in and my hip angle staying bent over. This actually gives me a lot more space on the backswing and then with the transition into the downswing. If I can do that and keep my knees soft I hit it extremely well.
Who would have guessed that my knees and lower right side were the cause for the inconsistent ball striking? This is why it is imperative to have a coach.
