Steady head clarification needed

[AbsoluteTruths]

I was advised by Mike over in the Members Swing area I that needed to flare my feet to get a full pivot. That is working, He referred to a video with Eric demonstrating.

I am wondering about the steady head. I have read that it should not move front to back and it is OK to move it a little down in the downswing. But what about rotating the head?

I am shaped kind of like Eric in the shoulder area. I have thick shoulders and no neck. I cannot get my left shoulder under my chin in the back swing. If you look at Eric's cap in the video it looks like he sets his head in a rotated right position at setup.

I videoed myself yesterday and saw that in my attempt to keep my head steady when I get deep in the back swing my left shoulder pushes my head laterally back. I do no think

that is good and is probably contributing to my inability to get my weight over to my left side in the downswing.

Doug

[boogielicious]

@AbsoluteTruths

Your head can rotate a bit.  Jack Nicklaus did this on purpose.  Think of it more like the center of mass of your head should not move to much.  This keeps the center of mass of the shoulders from moving too much and helps you get weight forward at impact.  Your body is rotating around those centers.  For your head, you don't want to rotate too much because you will lose sight of the ball.

[iacas]

Rotation is fine. It's probably not even your left shoulder pushing your head over but simply the fact that very few people have 90°+ of rotation in their neck. Can you see you back by looking over your left shoulder or do you, like 99% of people, require a mirror? :)

[AbsoluteTruths]

So should I preset my head rotated to the right.Or should I limit my backswing. Do I have to keep my eye on the ball?

[iacas]

So should I preset my head rotated to the right.Or should I limit my backswing. Do I have to keep my eye on the ball?

I don't know about the former. Some players do, some rotate their heads a little in the backswing.

You should be able to see the ball through your entire swing, yes. If that means you turn your torso 95° instead of 120°, sure. But I don't know what the specifics are by "limit my backswing" so I don't want to say "yes" if you're only turning 80° right now and can see the golf ball just fine.

[RayG]

"Steady head" is a better description than "Keep your head still", which, as you mentioned seems to restrict a free flowing swing. Some has to do with which eye is dominant. Most people who are right handed are right eye dominant, so for some people it's a bit of a cross up to "keep your eye on the ball". I happen to be opposite- I am right handed but left eye dominant. This enables me to cant my head a bit to the right which keeps the ball to my dominant side of vision. I suspect that this is why Jack does it as well. Telling someone to "keep your head still" just seems to make their swing even worse because they are so stiff and ungainly trying to concentrate on the message.