One of the biggest priorities when becoming better at golf is keeping yourself on top of the ball. This simply means trying to have your head stay roughly in the same position right up until the ball is hit. This may seem in theory, not that difficult to do, but in reality it can take some time to condition this stability into your swing. The best way of discovering whether you are moving your head excessively is placing your swing on camera.
I will often use a Golf App on my Ipad and place a circle around my head to see whether it has moved outside the circle. When you compare with the elite ball strikers, you will notice that their heads do move a little. More specifically they often move a little to the right and down a little. The margin however is quite small. The reason why we want to keep the head stable is consistency of contact. The more the head remains stable, the more our club will tend to bottom out at the same spot each time at impact.
Big telling points when your head does move around too much is when you start hitting the ground too early behind the ball and 'thinning'. But to be be more specific, as mentioned earlier, will be the use of video. If you do discover that you have moved your head excessively, the next task is to understand why?? The two biggest culprits is hip sway and lack of wrist hinge. Firstly when you sway your hips instead of turning, you won't be able to help but move off the ball. The best way to overcome this is ensure the pressure stays inside your right foot while you pull your right hip behind you in the backswing.
In terms of lack of wrist hinge, when you extend your arms too much on the backswing without sufficient wrist hinge, you will once again be pulled off the ball. You can often tell this on camera when the club reaches parallel to the ground. When it reaches this position, there should be around a handspan between the butt end of the club and your right leg. If you notice a big gap, just ensure that as soon as the backswing initiates, the wrists start to hinge.
If you'd like any further help in stabilising your head, just contact myself at David Waters Golf.
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