Today was a downswing day at PKU and we started with the backswing, as always. I want to lift with my right side early in the takeaway. Instead, I need that lower right side to stay soft and down as my left side moves my upper body away from my left leg that says planted and the left knee stays on the target line. I am then to get into my right side while keeping my left side extremely soft. This is and will always be hard for me but I am working hard on it.
On the downswing, Patrick wants me to go extremely slow so he can turn my upper body while my left leg remains firm. He is really turning my upper thoracic through impact while my hands and arms lag. I really need to focus on not giving up the left leg as it wants to collapse when Patrick turns me. He explained that my left side will need to be soft through impact just like the right side needs to be soft at the top of the swing.
He also hit on getting my right butt cheek to get through impact which gets the back side of my lower right obliques to get further through impact as well. He briefly touched on keeping my upper body lower through impact but didn’t even mention it so we will think about that another time. He also added a finishing touch. He wants me to take a deep breath in and let it out as he turns my chest to what is a right angle to the target. This while my left leg is planted and my right hip is lower than my left hip. Easy enough.
My practice homework for the day was to continue to work on getting the right side soft through the take away and all the way through the top of the swing. During the lesson Patrick pulled my hands and arms out to stay more on the target line going back. He has done this from day one and it is something I cannot do myself. One day we will address why I can’t do it but he has never made it a point to mention it during the lessons. I am sure we will have a month of lessons in which this is important but right now he just wants me to work on the right side being very soft as we get to the top of the backswing.
