Improvement: Peter Procops, PGA Part 9

Peter is a fellow PGA professional who played the South American tour (Tour De Las Americas) for 5 years and Golden Bear Tour (Mini Tour) 5 years 1997-2001. Peter’s swing is looking better and better, he’s putting in the work and it’s definitely showing. His approach isn’t coming from a stuck position and the face-on view is showing an improved look through the impact area.
I talk on this web site about how important it is to perform drills accurately and equally important is when you do rehearsals and I’ll say it again. Make certain your rehearsal swings are preformed accurately, that includes if you’re exaggerating a move.
Peter’s right arm position in the backswing is causing his left arm to roll over the right a bit too soon and he’d need to keep it really flat to help avoid lifting.
As we move on to the second video, about a week later, Peter’s work has already improved his right arm position in the backswing to left arm parallel. The next thing we focus on is after left arm parallel and I make suggestions on what I’d like to see and how it will set up his downswing. Peter has made some great progress so far. 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:
 

In the first video Wayne made me aware of my tendency to turn my shoulders too flat on the backswing. You don’t see the face on view but one of the reasons my shoulders turned too flat was because my head was moving excessively off the ball. It wasn’t until I got into a mirror and started hitting short irons with my head dead still that my shoulders could work more vertically. By doing this, my right arm had a chance to get higher on the take away.
 
My next quest was to get my right elbow to fold properly to the top, squeezing my elbows together as I squatted. Raising up felt comfortable but I knew it was a causing a power leak and made my downswing more inefficient, so I made a conscious decision to start lowering as my left arm got to 9 o’clock. I would spend each day working with a weighted club (sometimes a lightly weighted bar at the gym) making just practice swings until I got the correct feeling. It would feel like my head lowered 6 inches to the top but in reality stopped from me from raising up.
After spending 7 days on my backswing I focused the next week on my downswing, getting my shaft to swing closer to my body.
This was a very hard move for me, and something that I still focus on when I’m away from the game for a long period of time.
The key was making slow swings while lowering, feeling my club exiting left. Putting a stick 2″ off my right knee also (not allowing it to touch) helped me to stay in the box and achieve a more efficient swing. From all the years swinging out to the right, this felt like a fade but was right on the $$$.
 
-Peter

 
Click here for part 10
 

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