Improvement: Peter Procops, PGA Part 8

Peter has good athletic motion and here we’re starting right off with the takeaway and the difference in right load from the rehearsal to the real swing. Peter’s rehearsal is good and stable with nice hand and arm width while his regular swing starts with a slide off the ball and much less width. Now I do like to see some right load but I want to see it as a result of the width and not in an effort to create the width.

As we move on to the down-the-line view at left arm parallel Peter’s right elbow is lower than the left and as we’ve seen before this often causes the right arm to seek more depth and height and it usually happens too late in the backswing. I want Peter to get his right arm wider with his elbow higher and as they near the top start to squeeze them together. Also, as he’s cocking his wrist in the backswing the right elbow should feel like it’s almost trying to come back in. Peter’s right arm is too low at left arm parallel then too high and behind at the top and then to too low again in the downswing making the shaft stay flat too long and getting stuck. I put up some Hogan swings to show examples of what I want Peter to work on.

Click here to start at the beginning of the series. Each video has a link to the next so you can easily progress through them.

Peter’s Commentary:

My head has been moving to the right since the Jimmy Ballard days of the 80’s.

I had no problem keeping my head in the box and my right arm wide on the practice tee, but when I got on the golf course I defaulted back to moving off the ball and getting my right arm low and then traveling high at the top, crossing the line.

What I had to understand is that for years moving off the ball felt like I was loading, but in essence it created crooked/weak shots that I had to save at impact with my hands. It wasn’t until I realized that I could create power keeping my head still by lowering on the backswing and downswing and then rotate to create some force off the ground squeezing my glutes together on the follow-through. Accomplishing this would also make my downswing much more efficient and on plane.
Sounds easy but changing a pattern that I developed over the years was very difficult. I spent an hour each day hitting balls and taking practice swings in a mirror and watching my head shadow with the sun behind me…. If I got to the top and did not lower, the shot was week and painful.

At home I would put my head in a doorway and work on moving my upper thoracic spine while my head was still. It wasn’t about how much I could turn but more how I could feel the initial take away with my chest starting the swing, not my head moving to the right. For me it felt like I was a stack and tilt student and at times like my head was moving towards the target on the takeaway.

Having had back issues in the past I had to make sure I was fully warmed up and realize that some days my body could not be perfect each and every day…. Some days it was progress not perfection.

-Peter

 
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