We are getting very, very close. I am learning how to let the club drop behind me and come from the inside out. As Patrick always says, “if you have the foundation, the steps moving forward are a lot easier.” Today, Patrick addressed me falling back from the top. As I come down I need to go extremely slow. The first move needs to be slow with the right obliques moving the upper body through the ball needs to be slow – while practicing.
Just like with the backswing, I can get the first movement, but as I start to approach the ball and the upper part of my obliques and lower part of my lat takes over, I can feel my arms flipping. The way to really feel the right obliques controlling the swing is to go low. Once I get the club halfway down, I really need to activate the obliques and get them to come in low or “under”. If I do this correctly, I can feel the right side activate all the way through to the top of the swing.
A practice exercise Patrick gave me is go use my right obliques to get low and move the right shoulder through impact without arching the back or trying to use the left side to “pull” through impact. There is no pulling through impact. It is all the right side driving through impact.
My backswing gets better and better with every single lesson. I am very pleased with my backswing and my downswing is coming around quite nicely. I hit a few 8 irons about 165-170 yards today and Patrick was impressed and he said I wasn’t even getting through the ball. I am getting to the ball but not through it yet. I won’t get through it until I can get my right obliques down and through.
After the lesson I went to the UNC range and hit some of the best shots I’ve ever hit. It is so nice to see a tight five yard draw that keeps going and going. I also noticed that almost everyone else uses their hands which shortens their backswing. They think it is long because the get the club to parallel but it is much shorter than my backswing which is extremely long because it is created by my left obliques and left lat.
It is very comforting to know that I have the makings of a fantastic backswing and I will be hitting the ball extremely well in the weeks ahead.
I asked Patrick what my biggest flaw was and he explained it was my desire to let the shoulders relax and not remain broad. Fortunately, this is an issue he can fix. He said that I have the potential to hit the ball as far as I really want to. It is getting super exciting. Now I have to go for a week of just practicing as Patrick is going with Brad Fritsch to Florida for a Web.com tour event.
UPDATE: Well, I thought my backswing was deep back then, but I had a lot to learn. We are now in June 2020 and I am just now getting a grasp of a complete and full backswing. I played 9 holes with Patrick today (June 8th, 2020) at Knight’s Play and I have a habit of going back to a very short backswing. I have to wait an extra second to allow my backswing to complete. It has been 130 lessons and the backswing is just now getting to where it needs to be. Don’t give up fellow golfers.
