Drills for keep spine angle from dropping

[squaddie]

From my latest lesson I found I have a re-occurring problem where I drop my head forward and to the right during the downswing. I think about keeping the head where it is and not drop my entire spine forward and downward, but 9 times out of 10 it happens. The problem causes me to hit the heel or even the hosel of the club, as I shift my swingplane forward and rightwards of the target.

Are there any effective drills for not dropping down? My legs and hips are flexed and quiet, and my backswing looks good with a full shoulder turn.

On video, during the downswing it appears the drop happens once the club is almost parallel to the ground, then I see my head lean forward to the right.

When I was compared against a video of Stuart Appleby it showed his head was almost perfectly still during the backswing and downswing, even through the moment of impact.

My instructor has recommended using impact tape so I started using that yesterday to help feel out a better downswing position.

I've tried two ways to stop moving down - one is to think about moving left towards the target during the downswing. That seemed to help, but not sure if I should be intentionally moving leftwards.

The other way I've tried is via Shawn Clement's videos, where he has the concept of "bracing against the left side" at the top of the backswing. That seemed to help, with impact tape showing my hit closer to the center, but I don't always remember to do the bracing.

[deronsizemore]

Anytime I'm working on something like that I try to make swings at half speed. It's much more difficult to work on something going at full speed as you'll most likely revert back to what feels natural to you and what feels natural in this case is wrong.

Just stand with your feet together and take something like a 7 iron and make swings at about 50%. You're not worrying about where they go or how far, just concentrating on not dropping your head and making solid contact.

[squaddie]

Anytime I'm working on something like that I try to make swings at half speed. It's much more difficult to work on something going at full speed as you'll most likely revert back to what feels natural to you and what feels natural in this case is wrong.

Thanks for the advice. I'll slow down my swing, close the feet and see if I can correct this issue.

[deronsizemore]

Thanks for the advice. I'll slow down my swing, close the feet and see if I can correct this issue.

Good luck. The two feet together drill can help fix a lot of faults. Because you don't have this big wide stance, you naturally swing a little smoother or else you'll fall over. You can't slide your hips side to side (wrong) but instead must learn to turn your shoulders. I do it all the time even when I'm not working on something.

[EightBlue]

one more thing. make sure you have enough weight forward at step up. if you don't have weight forward enough, then it is nearly impossible to maintain a spine angle

[Bauer]

one more thing. make sure you have enough weight forward at step up. if you don't have weight forward enough, then it is nearly impossible to maintain a spine angle

Forward as in more on the balls of your feet or forward like more on your leading foot? And how much as opposed to 50/50?

[squaddie]

one more thing. make sure you have enough weight forward at step up. if you don't have weight forward enough, then it is nearly impossible to maintain a spine angle

Thanks, as I think I'm starting to discover that I was not bending forward enough at the hips at address. Not having much luck correcting my issue, after trying all weekend swinging in front of a video camera (my back is pretty sore from the work). Next I will be studying some of Shawn Clement's materials, see if I notice any improvements. Clement has a feet-together drill video that may be helpful to me, similar to what deronsizemore suggested. EDIT: Just tried deronsizemore's feet-together drill again and found I'm having a better time with it after applying Clement's momentum-toss-fall approach to the backswing and downswing, which is promising. Before I was just banging the club into the matt or going thin, but now I'm making better contact.