Monday, July 16, 2007

Head Movement

Does the head stay down and still in the swing? No.
If you look at the great players in the game, you'll see that most move their head slightly during the swing. It varies from player to player, but head movement is still present in one form or another. Players such as Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods have quite a noticeable head movement on the backswing.

What’s important to note with head movement, just as in the weight shift, is that it’s not something you should think about. It is simply a reaction to what you do with the golf club. When a golfer starts thinking of shifting their head, problems can result.

The proper head sequence is as follows:
On the backswing, there's a little weight shift of the body, so consequently there will be a little head movement. This is the same move that you would make if you were to throw a rock into a lake. You would never think of anything other than the rock and the lake, and your weight and head would shift automatically. If you throw the rock 2 feet, you don’t have any movement. But if you throw it 200 feet, there will be a more noticeable move.On the downswing is where the key is: Your head must remain behind the ball at impact. If you get your head moving laterally-left before you strike the ball, your swing plane will be thrown out of sync. If you look at a face-on picture of every good player in golf, they all have their head behind the ball at impact. You can even see in players such as Nick Faldo and Greg Norman, that they actually move their head to the right to start the downswing. This creates a more powerful, underneath impact position.

After impact, your head will follow the rest of your weight to the left side. You don’t want to hang back through the entire shot and finish in a reverse-C.

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