How to keep head still?

[Simon Woo]

Re: How to keep head still?

I think it's a mental barrier for me once again. How do I try to keep my head even further back than now, and yet expect to be able to transfer all my weight to my left foot? As it is now, my head is rushing forward and yet at finish my heel is still only halfway off the ground.

Is that you Ricky? :P Thanks for your tip. Would placing a golf ball under my right foot give the same effect?

[pnearn]

Re: How to keep head still?

Simon

Like everything in golf you probably need to exaggerate the feeling. From the top practice feeling like your upper body and head stays over your right foot (and behind the ball) as the club comes down. Do the pump drill a lot to feel this. Then try hitting a few balls

One other to check is if you are sliding on the backswing. If you slide right in the BS you will slide left again in the DS and tend to fall towards the ball as it were with the upper body. I used to suffer from this and found (personally) it was a tempo thing. When I really quickened up my BS and made it much more of a body led 'swing' rather than a slow sweep or arm movement I found (for whatever reason) I didnt slide and was in a much better position at the top. For me, initally, this 'felt' like an extremely quick BS but then when I read that tour tempo book I actually found it was spot on and even a little slow!

So maybe try having a quicker backswing and see if its just a timing issue?

[Timothy Slaught]

Re: How to keep head still?

Hello All:

I have noticed that both Jack Nicklaus and Michelle Wie rotate their chins dramatically to their right during the golf swing. Jack seems to make this move as a swing trigger and Michelle rotates it along with the pace of her backswing.

Oddly, Jack states that one of his most important swing keys is keeping a steady head but he clearly does have this dramatic movement of the chin in the backswing and reversely in the throughswing. When asked about this, he says that although the chin does move, his head remains stable overall as far as it's position. He feels it does not shift left or right and certainly not up or down.

Anyway, I tried experimenting with creating some movement with my chin and found that it freed up my ability to turn behind the ball. Instead of the left shoulder struggling to get under my chin, the chin seemed to swivel with the rotation of my shoulder. I was also able to focus on the ball with my left eye which I do not believe I had been doing previously. This seemed to allow me to stay behind the ball at impact as well. This swiveling action also seemed to keep the head more still overall than previously where I did have a significant shift to the right then left on the downswing.

Overall, this move may seem unorthodox, but two of the most impressive ball strikers in the last 50 years use this action? For me it seemed to relax me and I did not seem so ball bound which is a nemisis of mine. I'm curious if anyone esle has thoughts on this topic?

Thanks,
Tim

[AlanN]

Re: How to keep head still?

There have been some very helpful suggestions put forward on this thread. I've made notes and will take my "crib sheet" to the range when I go next time, probably tomorrow.

Golfonenemesis; thanks for your good wishes. Unfortunately, I didn't play as there were thunderstorms forecast. I don't like being on a golf course when lightning is about. I will, probably, play on Friday and Sunday.

Hopefully, I can implement the suggestions that have been made and post a report here, which may be of help to others too.

Thanks all.

Alan

[Simon Woo]

Re: How to keep head still?

Thanks pnearn. I don't think I am sliding on the way back - at least my coach never indicated anything on that. As you know, in fact I have learnt to really keep my backswing simple and effective (slowing it down a bit too especially on tee shots where my coach noticed I tend to want to rush the backswing).

Well apparently I have the same problem with my irons so I think it's just a fundamental swing flaw, even though I have practised enough to still get very good iron shots :P

I'll try to develop the feeling of keeping my head back on the downswing, while at the same time learning to develop the right finish position (right heel fully up).

[Ian Hancock]

Re: How to keep head still?

Hi Tim,

You make a good point, I also mentioned earlier in this thread that keeping the head still on the backswing will hinder the swing.

You are correct turning/moving the head back on the backswing is fine, what you have discovered is rhythm, the head is a very heavy object and it helps to control the rythm of the body.

The important thing is during the violence of the downswing the head must remain as still as possible to maintain the stability of the spine allowing the body to rotate around it.

By keeping the head still it appears that the head is then left behind during the swing (behind the ball) when in fact the body has rotated to the left side of the spine and forward leaving the head behind until late in the followthrough.

Thus it appears that the head has moved backwards, when in fact it doesn't move at all.

Ian.

[Simon Woo]

Re: How to keep head still?

The important thing is during the violence of the downswing the head must remain as still as possible to maintain the stability of the spine allowing the body to rotate around it.

Well said Ian! I also seem to have a problem where the club head does not extend enough down the line right after impact, but I am more like swinging the club in around my body.

Now looking at my hosts of issues, could anybody actually draw any conclusion between them, I wonder?

1) Head sways forward with/before the rest of the body
2) Right heel does not come full up
3) Not extending down the line but swinging in too fast after impact

Are these problems even related? :O

[rharris06]

Re: How to keep head still?

Hi Simon, Yes it is me (ricky) lol the one you sometimes speak to on msn.

graham gave me that drill once, I dont think a ball would have the same effect because its to small. Just take a big thick book downt he range with you and stick it under your right foot and do some swings, OR.... you could do what Gary Player use to do to make sure you fully transfer all of your weight which is.... when you swing through like chase after the ball in your follow through, so your right foot steps infront of your left in your followthrough.

try it, it might help!

[Simon Woo]

Re: How to keep head still?

That sounds like an idea, Ricky! I'm still trying to make sense of how I'm supposed to do that while keeping my head back :P Perhaps I'm not rotating enough through?

[rharris06]

Re: How to keep head still?

So your head is moving forward yeah? So that means your sliding instead of turning. So feel like your rotating through with all your weight on your left side, or another idea is maybe you have to much weight on your right side at set up which then causes you to ahve to do lots of different moves to somehow get some of your weight on the left side.

Experiment, see what works!

[AlanN]

Re: How to keep head still?

Thanks for all your advice guys.

The skied pull has gone (permanently, I hope). Played my steadiest golf for a while, today. There was the odd slice. I think I must still be getting a bit ahead at impact. Incredibly, I had 8 putts that lipped out. But for these, I would have had one of my best rounds ever.

I will continue following the good advice given here. The swing feels very different but, once I get used to it, I'm sure that I will see more improvement.

Thanks once again.

Alan

[jambalaya]

Re: How to keep head still?

A very timely thread for me to find. Moving the head forward in the through swing is a big problem for me now. The problem was pointed out in a recent lesson. One thing he had me do one time was to swing with my eyes closed. It was one of my best hits of the lesson. I will use this thread to help me focus.

[AlanN]

Re: How to keep head still?

Hi Jambalaya,

Sounds like a novel way to stop this fault. I have struggled with this for ages and never fully appreciated what a swing wrecker this is.

Thanks to the invaluable advice, given by previous posters, I am now playing a game that is unrecognisable from that of two weeks ago. I have taken their advice on board and put in quite a bit of practise, to try and get it right. Just to demonstrate how good their advice has been, I played in a Stableford competition last Wednesday and won it with 47 pts (I usually score 28-38 pts on the same course). This was the best round of golf I have ever played in my life.

I am not writing this to boast as to my progress but, to encourage you to keep working on this. It is well worthwhile

[Simon Woo]

Re: How to keep head still?

Good tip there Jambalaya. I've heard of that, but never had the courage to try it at the range :P Have you taken any video of you swing? It would be interesting to see it. I say this because this movement happens so fast, it might not seem very obvious sometimes. But one of the reasons why I know my coach must be right in pointing out this fault is that I practically never feel any strain in my back/arms/shoulders/neck even after a vigorous practice session...

[rharris06]

Re: How to keep head still?

Simon,

Why do you want to feel strain on your body after a practice session?

Thats abit strange!