The golf swing is starting to make more and more sense. It is an actual swing, not a hack. My backswing continues to improve as I make certain my right elbow is pointed toward the target at address and my left elbow is down and to the inside. There is still plenty of work to be fixed with the legs and lower body, but my upper body is getting in some very good places.
Patrick twisted me up a few times and touched on the first move of the downswing. The goal with the first move is to feel as if my right butt cheek is moving towards my left heel. If I do this correctly, my right leg will feel like it is straightening. I am then to feel my right knee move into the back of my left knee while I turn my upper body to the ball.
The first move feels very weak as you are basically moving your right butt cheek to the left of the target but doing so inside your right leg. It is going to take a lot of practice to get this feel.
After working on this a few times, Patrick allowed me to hit some balls. I hit an 8 iron that went over the 150 green on the opposite end of the Old Chatham range. I know there is plenty of work to be done, but it was nice to hit an 8 iron 150 yards. It also feels very different coming off my club face.
Patrick also mentioned that it is very important to keep the depth of my backswing. I have a habit of shortening the backswing as it gets quicker. The goal will be to slow down the backswing and make it deeper. Overall, it was very cool to see some of the shots I am now able to hit.
UPDATE: We are now 179 lessons in and my first move from the top of my downswing is pretty darn good. Now I am working on getting huge amounts of depth with my core, especially my right side, being extremely flexible. The everyday golfer has no idea what is means to have flexibility in the right side of their lower back. Patrick has hammered, literally, on this for the last month or so. It is interesting to feel my core turning and then supporting the upper thoracic.
