Today was one of my toughest lessons yet because I had to tell Patrick that I needed to adjust course. I analyze way too much and rabbit hole into different parts of the swing and I am simply not getting enough out of it. I told him that I don’t want to be a scratch and I honestly don’t even want to be good if this is the mental and physical energy it takes to do so. He said he could adjust and start working mostly on the downswing so I can get a better result hitting the ball.
He said that it wouldn’t take that long to get my left side to stay lower through impact and hit the ball well. I was worried it would take 2.5 years as I thought that is how long it took to get my backswing where he wanted it. He said that 2.5 years was to remake my entire swing and that it will not take long at all to get the downswing where it needs to be.
He said he has changed his teaching because I stopped playing. He thought I wanted everything to be perfect and the backswing needed to be as deep as possible. The deeper I got in the backswing, the more I struggled hitting the ball because I was “check marking” by lifting my left shoulder once I got close to impact. The more depth I got, the more emphatic the check mark became.
Patrick explained that after the first move down, I need to feel my back completely loose and free of tension and my left shoulder should stay low. Through impact, my right shoulder will likely feel like it is actually above the left shoulder. This is not what is happening, but this is what it feels like to me. After doing about 15 or 20 stretches to get my left shoulder to stay low after the transition, I started to get someone accustomed to the new and awkward feel.
I hit a few 8 irons and ended up hitting some fantastic shots. It is definitely a completely different feel for the left shoulder to stay low through impact but it allows me to hit the ball completely differently. As Patrick said quite some time ago, it really feels like a punch shot. There are plenty of things to clean up with my downswing, but the main idea is there.
Patrick and I talked quite a bit about the understanding that golf is not a perfect game. While I can train my body all I want, there is a lot of feel and touch. With me not playing, he was attempting to put my body in perfect positions. I appreciate it and worked hard but it is time to adjust focus so I can play in Park City when I travel out there for the July 4th weekend.
Patrick asked me if I wanted to play. I said yes and decided to play at Knight’s Play. I only got five holes in, but it was fantastic. I did not check mark one time and I felt much less stress in the holes I played. I hit four of five greens and honestly hit some pretty good shots with my left shoulder staying low at and through impact.
I am going to try to play much more and allow Patrick to create a golfer that actually plays golf and isn’t trying to develop the perfect body for the perfect swing. It was nice to get out there and just hit some balls and have fun. Hopefully I can do that more in the near future.
