After having a very poor ball striking day yesterday I read over a few of my previous journal entries. Something that jumped out was I often have tension in my knees at setup and in the backswing. Patrick explained that the knees are a hinge and they need to be soft just like the elbows. Starting with our practice turns without a club I softened my knees and it made a world of difference. When my knees have tension in them I want to pull with my right side in an attempt to get depth. If my left knee feels like it can move towards the ball and my left toes I can continue to turn.
Now, I start by keeping my hips bent and firm at setup, but halfway down when placing the club on the ground I soften my knees. From there, I feel less tension in the rest of my body. I ended up hitting some amazing shots and regained the confidence in my ball striking.
Patrick is really able to turn me a lot more on the downswing now as my right side is getting softer and softer with every lesson. At the top of the finish I need a little more leverage with my right shoulder being lower but the rest of the downswing is starting to get very good. My footwork has also improved.
I know Patrick released me to play last July but now is the first time I have confidence to go out there and hit the ball around. I kind of want to start hitting longer irons but am going to wait on Patrick to make that suggestion. One of these days I am going to pull out the driver and hit a few, just not quite yet.
