Today was a backswing day at PKU but we started off the lesson talking about the grip. Prior to my lesson Patrick was working with Renny and talking about the grip. Patrick said that the grip of the club should sit on the pad on the outside of my left hand. My golf glove actually had a pad where the grip should sit. I should then have the V of my right hand placed on the short thumb of the left hand. When I do this, it feels like the club face is going to be pointed to the left of the target. If I roll my left elbow in softly it squares the club face.
To test this out we did a few of the Patrick Kelley chipping motion. Patrick explained that my left hand should hinge up and down and not backwards or forwards. I hit a few chips and my left hand naturally started to hinge up which was cool.
We then focused on the backswing. Patrick really wants me to get my left side to go down at the start of the backswing. I have the habit of my left side and left hip staying flat and my shoulders getting vertical. This is the opposite of what should happen. My left side and left hip need to feel vertical to set the angle then it should feel like my shoulders are turning on a flat plane. If I can feel my right nipple and right shoulder turning on what feels like a flat plane to me, I can really get a much better shoulder turn.
Something else we addressed was my right heel. I have the habit of pulling up with my right side which caused my right heel to come off the ground on the backswing. This is not what we want. We should go down with the left side and plant into the right foot. Last summer Patrick was really talking about the triangle with the feet. We should feel pressure on the front of the left foot, into the front of the right foot and then into the right heel. I was not getting into the right heel and trying to turn.
Now, when I feel like I am resisting and sitting into the right heel I can then turn on as flat of a plane with my shoulders and nipples as possible and this gets me a great shoulder turn. So, it should feel steep at the take away and then as flat as possible as the upper thoracic is turning. With my new grip and this added information I was able to really start to hit some draws. I get almost to the ball and stop and throw my hands at it, but it is still drawing about five yards which is nice to see.
I am really going to have to work on the feel of the left hip setting the steep angle and then turning flat with my shoulders. The getting to the ball with my downswing will be something we have to address over time. That is going to come with time but now that we are coming from the inside and hitting draws we can spend time on that at the end of March and into April.
My homework is to work on my turn with the right crease. Now we know that the right heel must stay on the ground making the right crease even more secure as I turn my right nipple on a flat plane. If I do it correctly, it feels like my right nipple and the right side of my chest are leading the hands on the backswing.
This was a lesson with a lot of information but I was able to handle it. Six months ago, I would not have been able to digest this information and put it into practice. Now, I need to get used to the feel of a steep take away and a flat shoulder feel on the backswing.
