Prior to lesson #3 I was very frustrated on the range because I couldn’t even hit the ball. I was hitting them off the toe, then topping them and then who knows what. It is very difficult to go to the driving range and not be able to even hit the ball. I know it is a process and Patrick doesn’t want me to worry about where the ball is going, but that is extremely difficult.
The major change Patrick instilled in Lesson #3 was to narrow my stance. My old stance was very wide. My thought process was a wide base was important to get power. This is simply not the case. The body rotates around itself so a narrow stance, especially with shorter irons, is necessary. Remember, I was only hitting 8 irons, so a wide stance is not going to help me get to the top of my backswing.
I was not even close to getting to the top of the backswing, but it was a work in progress. The idea of using my left lat to “complete” the backswing is so foreign. Like most amateur golfers, I want to start the swing with my hands and then lift straight up with my arms. This is going to be a habit that takes a long time to break.
UPDATE: Wow. This is so interesting to read after 102 lessons. We have come so far. I had no idea how little the outcome mattered. To this day, almost 16 months later, I am still not concerned with the outcome meaning it does not matter where the ball is going. Today, January 28, 2020, Patrick and I had the conversation about the feel of the backswing starting with the lower left obliques and getting into step two of the four step backswing. Much more on that several lessons down the road. 100 lessons down the road to be exact.
So many of my golfing friends only care about the outcome. You ask them about their round or trip and all the talk about is their score. None of them talk about the mechanics of their swing, the improvement of their backswing, how beautiful the walk was, or anything besides how they think they played. All they care about is the score they write down on their scorecard. This is why 99.9% of golfers are never going to get better.
It is honestly difficult for me to read my original journal entry because now I know just how important it is to learn the mechanics and accept the process rather than hoping the ball goes high, straight and with a slight draw. The less I care about the outcome, the better I hit it today.
