Today was a downswing day at PKU and day #2 of not thinking while hitting balls. We did have a bit of a setback and a learning moment as I hit about 11 good balls and then around ball 12 or 13 I got extremely quick and started hitting shanks. Instead of worrying about this Patrick told me to go back to the chipping motion and hit it as soft and as short as possible. This helped me to slow things down and feel my turn rather than throwing my hands at it.
As far as the practice stretches, Patrick gets me to the top of the backswing with my right side sucking in and resisting all the way to my ribcage. Then, I am to be extremely patient by allowing my lower right side to stay long while getting back to parallel. I tend to want to rip with my right side as soon as I get to the top. Instead, I need to think of the crease with my legs and the crease with my obliques staying the same distance as I get back to parallel with my hips. I love to pull with my right side and scrunch my right obliques which causes me to lift my left shoulder and either hit the ball fat or shank it when I throw my hands at it.
I really need to work on getting a full shoulder turn to the top, slowly allowing my right side to get back to level and then I can drive with my right obliques along my rib cage. The slower I can get back to level the better I am going to hit the ball. When doing it correctly, I can now feel my right obliques firing through once my hips are level to the ground. It will take many, many practice drills to get this feel, but at least I can feel it now.
Time to take the weekend to watch the women’s lacrosse Final Four. Hopefully the Tar Heels can win it all and complete their perfect season.
