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This is a cool lesson to watch because Pablo (who spent time trying to play for a living and is now teaching) has a great looking swing and it’s only after some study in slow motion that I was able to pick out why he might struggle a bit with his ball striking and offer suggestions as to how to improve it. Of course, we have seen that many times, but the thing about this particular swing is the subtlety of the issues with sequence and right arm movement. Fairly recently I have come to the conclusion that the right shoulder should turn only as much as the trunk will move it, and that it should have nothing to do with making a bigger turn or trying to extend the length of the swing. Learning not to pull back with the right upper arm and shoulder as the swing reaches its apex in the backswing leaves the right arm in position to take a simple route in front of the chest in the downswing, which makes for a better approach to impact. Here we see Pablo keep his right arm in front of his chest up to left arm parallel, then pull it up and back to finish. That back motion seems to blend into transition and causes him to move his upper body forward at the same time as his lower body, which is not the sequence we desire. The right shoulder also stays very high in the downswing, giving Pablo a bit of a jammed up look as he gets down toward impact. All this combines to tilt the pelvis down and left in transition, which stifles the hip rotation and keeps his left leg in front of him for too long in the forward swing. If I were face to face with Pablo I would first show him where his right arm should be in the backswing by having him make a left arm only swing to the top, then attaching the right hand to the grip. From there we would work on keeping the head still and starting forward with more hip rotation. I think that as good an athlete as it appears Pablo is he will see quick results with his ball striking.
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