Anna Rawson on keeping a steay head

[kfowler]

I recently bought a training aid called the steady-head at steadyhead.com and I think it's actually going to help me learn how to keep a steady head.

Interesting idea but I would think it's not very practical. Looks like you have to use it at a grass range in order to stake in the ground. Well after one swing, wouldn't there be a divot in the ground? You'd then have to keep hitting out of divots. I think I'd like to see one that clamps on to the side guard rails of a hitting bay at the range.

[Leftygolfer]

As for the OP, perhaps a steady head would benefit mid to high handicappers, but I don't think it's such a vital part of the swing that you have to make a 'conscious' decision to keep it steady during the swing.Poor alignment, grip, hip movement and impact are far more detrimental to the outcome IMHO.

I don't agree with this. There has been great players through history with different alignment, different grips, all sorts of variations in the swing. Making this one change in my swing instantly cured my hook. I was getting stuck on my left side and having to save the shot with my hands and hitting horrid hooks. By not moving off the ball I have improved. A drill I have been doing is having my wife hold my head while doing practice swings at my house.

If I tryed to make the same move as tiger I would hit it so fat all the time. He is an amazing human being in how he instintively knows how to get the club to the proper place even though his head drops 6 inches. Isn't this something he is trying to change?

[steve8820]

I don't agree with this. There has been great players through history with different alignment, different grips, all sorts of variations in the swing. Making this one change in my swing instantly cured my hook. I was getting stuck on my left side and having to save the shot with my hands and hitting horrid hooks. By not moving off the ball I have improved. A drill I have been doing is having my wife hold my head while doing practice swings at my house.

I've experienced similar results with focusing on keeping my head steady throughout the swing. Just the other night, I was having an issue with very inconsistent iron contact. Heavy, thin, etc. contact. I recorded a couple of swings and sure enough my head was dipping down at the start of my downswing. For the remainder of practice, I focused on keeping my head steady and contact improved dramatically. It is something that I have focused on in the past, but obviously need to revisit.

To those on this thread who believe that a steady head during the swing is not needed turn on any golf event and watch how steady the pros keep their head. After seeing my head move around on video I went back and watched Wednesday's coverage of the Bob Hope. Sure enough, their head is very still throughout the entire swing.

[iacas]

If I tryed to make the same move as tiger I would hit it so fat all the time. He is an amazing human being in how he instintively knows how to get the club to the proper place even though his head drops 6 inches. Isn't this something he is trying to change?

1) Tiger's head doesn't dip all that much on his smoother swings. Look at his Nike Swing Portrait video.

2) Believe it or not, good players almost literally "jump" through impact. It generates a LOT of lift. Most players will start doing it right before impact, last-second type stuff. If you dip, you need to start doing it sooner. You can get away with it a bit more when the ball's on a tee, but it can negatively affect directional control. 3) And finally, the kicker: Tiger's swing ain't perfect! The guy just has an ungodly ability to repeat it. As Mike Bennett said on the Charlie Rose show, if we wanted to teach people to hit balls in the right rough more than any other player, maybe we'd teach them Tiger's swing. You clearly missed the point that using one person as an example is a waste of time because someone can always find an example - Jack Nicklaus in this case - to counter it. Look, it makes sense that if the average amateur can keep something relatively steady in the swing it will improve their odds of getting back to impact easily. For some this will be a really big deal. For others, either because they're more talented, have hit more balls, or don't move their head much already, something else will be more important.

[Leftygolfer]

I agree 100% with you erik. Tiger along with every great player is trying to get better. Look at his swing in 1997, it isn't the same as it is now. For me, personally, it has really helped (staying on top of the ball and focussing on not moving off the ball. I changed my swing based on advice that I think is very sound from a book I know you love. It makes sense the way I am changing. I understand how the jump up creates power because of pulling of the the club down increasing speed. Your legs driving up as the club goes down is huge source of power. The most powerful player I ever played with at the top of his swing squat down then exploded upward through the ball. That move will not work for me because I don't have the athletic ablity to repeat it. He was very good at this move and shoot around par often. This kind of move needs alot of practice to stay consistant. If you aren't playing a ton you are going to have trouble.

[Zeph]

When it comes to the head, what I try to prevent doing the most is moving it horizontally. Not forward or backward, but sideways. The forward/backward relationship determined by posture. I don't recall seeing players having a problem with the head moving that way. Moving sideways, however, can make a big difference. Tiger's head dips a lot, but it never moves sideways. Which means he doesn't compromise the positions from address.

A head moving back (as to the right for a right-handed player) has to move forward again to find it's original position. A head moving forward would have to move back again. The head itself doesn't make a difference on the swing, but the torso and shoulders, is what can cause trouble. Move the head forward and you move the left shoulder forward. You'll get into a position where you can never hit the ball properly. Errant shots is often fat. Move the head backward and you're likely to struggle with weight transfer and end up topping it.

The feet doesn't move away from their original position during the swing, except after impact. Everything above can move in any direction. The hips and knees should move forward to get the weight transferred. The torso, should stay pretty much in the same position. Move the torso forward and you move the left shoulder forward. This puts your body out of the original position at address. If the ball followed where the torso went, the problem would not be as big, but the ball rarely move on its own.

I knew my head moved forward from watching it on a video, but until a couple of months ago I failed to see the effect of it. What helped me was moving the ball around. If I put my ball slightly left of the middle of my stance with an 8i and my head moves a couple of inches to the left, I figured I should be able to hit it better by moving the ball to inside my left foot.
What I found was the purest ball striking I've ever had. The buttery feeling was there. Even with some old, heavy, cheap, cast irons. Found the same feeling if I moved my ball back and focused on keeping the head back. Even tried moving the ball back a bit and moving the head back also. I don't want the head to move, but it was interesting to experiment with it. The movement also mess up the weight transfer.

Same problem with my chipping really. Lots of chunking the ball. The best chipping I've done is when I focused on keeping the head still and let the hands get in front of the clubhead. That's where the problem lies. If you move the head forwards, you also move the bottom of the swing forwards. The club is attached to the hands and arms, which in turn is attached to the shoulders and torso. By moving the head (and shoulders) forward, you move the bottom of the swing forward. Without further analysis, you could assume that this would help striking the ball first. Video suggested not.

When swinging we create an arc, the ball should be struck when the arc is still descending. It should bottom out in front of the ball. If you move the upper body forwards, you move the bottom of the swing. You then have a position where you top the ball, or maybe even miss it, if you keep the wrist positions. So, the only thing we can do is flip the wrists, release all the lag and cast the club, just in order to hit the ball. This is impossible to be consistent with.

If the head moves back, you'll have to keep holding onto the lag, desperately trying to prevent the club from banging into the ground in front of the ball, which the positions suggest it will do.

When Tiger plays his best, his head dips maybe slightly, but nothing dramatic. It also comes back up at times, before impact. Some of the more extreme examples are Natalie Gulbis and Paula Creamer. Note that they both bend a lot with the torso, after impact. I watched a video down the line of Gulbis, she moved the spine angle from 70º at address to 30º at the lowest point.



The so-called jump I suppose is the knees flexing a bit. If the head moves down, but the spine angle stays the same, the knees must flex. Not much, but just a little, looks like the torso is pushing hard down on the feet and the player jumps back up.

Is not a slight dip something to expect in a golf swing when the hips move forward?

Trying to keeping the head frozen can also create problems. I don't like focusing on the head, but rather the shoulders and torso. the head can move on its own, regardless of the rest of the upper body. You can move the head in any direction without the torso following. You can't pull it off the spine of course, but when looking at a video, you can get fooled.

[Elvisliveson]

Please don't use Natalie Gulbis as an example that the dip is okay. She is a physical freak with an extra vertabrae in her back and more flexibility than evn Tiger Woods (according to Butch Harmon). Plus, as David Leadbetter said, most of Natalie's head movement comes after impact and the ball is long gone at that point, so it doesn't matter.

[Zeph]

Never said it was OK. Half of her dip happens pre impact.

[colin007]

1) Tiger's head doesn't dip all that much on his smoother swings. Look at his Nike Swing Portrait video.

i really wish he would use that swing all the time. when they show him on the range, thats how hes hitting it. he gets on the course and hes all of a sudden ducking invisible hornets in his downswing...

[iacas]

This kind of move needs alot of practice to stay consistant. If you aren't playing a ton you are going to have trouble.

While true, I care less about the head going straight up and down as I do about it going sideways. Sideways changes the low point of the swing far more disastrously, IMHO, than changing it up and down. If the low point of your swing is lowered, you have to spring up more to hit the ball solidly, but if the low point in your swing moves too far back, you have to flip the club at the ball. The latter is far worse.

A head moving back (as to the right for a right-handed player) has to move forward again to find it's original position. A head moving forward would have to move back again. The head itself doesn't make a difference on the swing, but the torso and shoulders, is what can cause trouble.

I'll disagree with that slightly. You're suggesting that the head is a marker, basically, that shows where the shoulders and spine and whatnot are. But the head is really heavy, too, so it's more than a marker of sorts. If the head moves sideways, it takes energy to move it back and it has a sizable effect on balance.

On fat and thin shots: they are most often caused by the same thing, and it's rare - RARE - to find a player who gets his weight too far forward. The use of Gulbis and Creamer would matter more (though still not much at all) if they could manage to win something now and then. Anyway, they're freaks - outliers - and not really anything to be copied.

If the head moves down, but the spine angle stays the same, the knees must flex.

The spine angle changes constantly throughout the swing in good players. I prefer "inclination to the ground" as it accounts for a combination of rotation, lateral tilting, and flexion from the hips.

Is not a slight dip something to expect in a golf swing when the hips move forward?

It doesn't have to be, no. Your left knee is still bent and starts extending. The "pouncing" good players do from P6 through impact is as much about extending their spine as anything else.

The head can move on its own, regardless of the rest of the upper body. You can move the head in any direction without the torso following.

You can?

Video analysis looks at the base of the head, where it connects to the spine. You can't move that independent of the torso. The top of the head is a relevant point - even an ear or the side of the head - only if you account for a little rotation or something. Edit: Gulbis doesn't "drop her head" - she simply side tilts a LOT: That picture shows why I dislike "spine angle" too. Which angle do you want to measure there, exactly?

[Zeph]

I'll disagree with that slightly. You're suggesting that the head is a marker, basically, that shows where the shoulders and spine and whatnot are. But the head is really heavy, too, so it's more than a marker of sorts. If the head moves sideways, it takes energy to move it back and it has a sizable effect on balance.

That's kinda what I was trying to suggest the head was not. My mistake by mixing the head as a marker and at the same time trying to point out that the head can move rather independantly. Of course, too much head movement will get you unbalanced. I re-read my post and admit it gets confusing.

On fat and thin shots: they are most often caused by the same thing, and it's rare - RARE - to find a player who gets his weight too far forward.

Probably correct, I don't have data on the subject. I was simply explaining what the result of this can be, not what the most common problem is. I know my problem is this. Actually, it's a bit funny. I get the weight too far forward, but at the same time does not. The upper body gets the weight forward, and moves laterally forward, while the hips does not enough. I end up hitting it fat and fall forwards.

Edit: Gulbis doesn't "drop her head" - she simply side tilts a LOT:

That was my point. She doesn't drop the head per se, but it's an effect of the tilt.

It's all a combination of everything. By analysing a swing, you'll have to consider every detail. The head is useful it many ways. Most useful perhaps to use it as an anchor at the top of the body which the body swings around.

[zenchili]

Did anyone read the recent article in Golf Digest where Anna Rawson (hot) talks about how important it is to keep your head still? I recently bought a training aid called the steady-head at steadyhead.com and I think it's actually going to help me learn how to keep a steady head. Anyway, wondering if anyone else saw the article and thinks keeping a steady head will improve my golf game?

That training aid looks interesting. Looks like it could also be used to help keep your weight centered over your center of gravity instead of letting it drift over your toes or heels.