Today was an important lesson for my psychology. Over the weekend I tried to add depth to my shoulder turn by lifting my left shoulder up after the take away. Unfortunately I was doing this with my arms and you know what happens when I use my arms. I ended up hitting my first five balls terribly. Extremely bad. Patrick told me I was all arms and no shoulder turn.
He knew I was utterly frustrated and wanted to just give up. We stopped and Patrick showed me how shallow or short my turn was. He then worked on getting my left pectoral to go back as far as possible. We didn’t talk about the legs, my hip bend, where my arms were, anything. We just tried to get my left pec to go all the way around my body and to the bag stand that was on the practice putting green. I did about 20 of these with Patrick and then tried to hit balls.
The only focus was getting the left pec as far around as possible. I did this and it takes forever to get to the top of the backswing. It feels so slow and weak. And it actually feels short. I know it is not but I am turning with my chest and not my arms so it feels short. I actually hit the ball very well. I expected it to be horrible and I hit it great. I don’t feel power or distance but that is not the point. My one track focus must be on getting my left pec to get all the way around my body. I can’t think about all the other things in the golf swing. Patrick can address those and let them become muscle memory.
I need to think about going at 75% and getting all the way around my body. It is such a different feel and I am coming from a completely different place when my left pec is going all the way to the bag stand on the practice putting green. If the target is 12 o’clock and straight behind me were 6 o’clock it feels like I am turning all the way to 8 o’clock on the backswing. I am thinking nothing else. No worries about the legs, the hands, the arms. Just keep turning the left pec and get back as far as possible.
After the lesson I realized all my tweaks and attempts at improving my swing at the driving range by myself was simply manipulating my hands and arms for a feel. I never really worked on getting only my turn deeper. I know I mentioned not going to the range without Patrick in the past but now I understand this is the only way I can improve. If I go to the range by myself, I am going to have a great turn and hit 5 or 10 balls well and then start manipulating with my hands and arms. I cannot even imagine the amount of time and mental energy I would have saved by not doing this. Oh well, sunk cost fallacy.
Now I am going to write my journals, update my websites, travel, get work done and not try to tweak my golf swing at all unless Patrick is standing in front of me. Carry on.
