It was a little bit cooler, temperature wise, today but I knew it was going to be very difficult. We are now focusing on the downswing so for the next two months it is going to be quite the challenge on my body. When I got there, Patrick was finishing up with Brad King. Brad mentioned he had been working with Patrick for 15 years. I guess my one year of golf lessons is nothing compared to that.
Patrick continued to work a little bit on my backswing but I have it mostly down. What I do need to work on is keeping my hands low until they reach my hip and then really using my left side to drive the club to the top. If I do this correctly, it feels like my head is falling forward.
On the downswing, geez! Patrick continues to work on getting my right lat to drive. When it drives from the top of the backswing it creates space between my right tricep and my left lat. This is so very difficult because I am in a place I have never been before. Patrick is pleased with my first move on the transition but I still cannot hit the ball. He explained I am still looking up right as the club gets to impact rather than keeping it down and seeing the club more with my right eye.
I also feel as if I need to relax my legs throughout my swing. My legs are very tense, especially when I get to the top. Patrick did not mention this, but it is something I will bring up next time.
For the duration of the lesson, Patrick held his hand on my left wrist to put my hands in the correct place through impact. I am not even going to try to figure this out on my own. I do know that I need to keep my left elbow soft and it remains very tight as I start the downswing.
There are going to be many hours of training my downswing before I can hit the ball well. Patrick told me to continue to train the transition by getting my right knee inside my left knee, my right ankle and right hip below my left ankle and left hip and using my right lat to drive to start the downswing. I know this will be much easier by doing the training exercise where I hold my arms out, extended from my shoulders, and turn.
There are so many things to learn but I am going to focus on getting to the top with softer legs and starting the downswing with softer legs and making certain my right lat does the driving to get my body down to and through the ball.
UPDATE: “Patrick continued to work a little bit on my backswing but I have it mostly down.” Hahahahaha. If only I had the backswing down back then. It is now late October 2020 and I am 174 lessons in and we still learn something new with the backswing every single lesson. Most of what I was learning in September 2019 was the fundamentals but I did not have the core strength and the leg flexibility to maintain my spine angle while completing the backswing and transitioning into the downswing. Now, I can basically stay bent over at the waist for my entire swing and allow my core to do the work.
