Hi Dave,
1) With most swing questions a video of your swing is usually helpful. Most of us aren't great at describing a movement accurately. So, for example, you said, "I find it difficult to sequence getting my knees to come together." There are many different ways that might look. It could be a result of how you're moving your feet, your hips, your spine, or it could be a response to the position of where the club is. I agree with the overall goal, having a clear understanding before attempting a change, but to get a clear understanding, you have to pinpoint the right problem.
One other big challenge for golf is managing feel vs real. The golf ball only cares about the physics of the golf club at impact. As our body tries to make the same swing, the feel of the swing can change day to day. We'll often have similar feels, but rarely are they exactly the same. I have videos that discuss the movements in detail, as well as videos that discuss it more generally. I'm working on a page that will present the information in a more connected way, but still unsure of the timeline for that.
In the meantime, for looking at the pivot, I often like to analyze the face on video. With the face on video, we would be able to look at your weight shift and sequencing to see why you might be feeling a weight shift and right toe feel on your better swings. I agree that the pivot happens quickly, which is why it needs to be trained/grooved vs just thought.
2) I agree with the overall goal is reducing the chance of back pain. The golf swing can be hard on the back, neck, shoulder, wrists, knee, foot...but we can do our best to distribute the force to the areas that are better equipped to handle them. The back should work as a team with the hips and thoracic spine/rib cage. Often times back issues happen when the hips or thoracic spine aren't doing their fair share. The hips and ribs are usually stiff and the back tries to compensate by moving more.
I think one challenge with this discussion is that it appears to me that you are looking for a "proper feel, or proper description" vs a proper movement. The challenge is that the proper movement feels different to each golfer and it often feels different over time to the same golfer. That's why you need a system to help recalibrate your feels and get you back on track if it gets off. For many golfers, using their body together feels very smooth and rhythmic, but for some golfers, it feels more of a bracing through impact. The way to figure out which you need is to look at see how you are decelerating the club. On this site, I call it bracing, but it doesn't have to feel jarring. In fact, I think it should feel smooth as you described. But again, just because I feel it that way, doesn't mean others will. Part of the journey of finding your golf swing is finding your feels when you make a better more.
3) Typically rhythm drills help the swing feel like more of one motion. I think a great way to train the rhythm is with hitting deliberate distances. Typically, if you hit your stock swing, but then try to hit a 10-2, if you have poor sequence/rhythm you'll struggle with making solid contact or getting the same flight/trajectory. Another circuit I like is https://www.golfsmartacademy.com/golf-instruction/four-club-practice-circuit/. By switching clubs, it prevents you from grooving one end of the spectrum. I find that feeling the swing work as a whole makes this circuit much easier.
Often times, when structuring a practice session, it can be easy to fall into drill/isolation mode. In physical therapy the phrase is isolate then integrate. Trying to change a part of a movement can be harder at full speed, so usually we shorten or slow things down to work on a piece of a movement. But then we have to spend some time connecting that new movement to our power source. As you said, it's during this section of practice that we make the swing feel more like one motion.
Happy Golfing,
Tyler
