Head Strong...

[Matt66]

The last few weeks I have had a bit of a nightmare with connection, just when I thought I had finally cracked it (in terms of consistency) & shot a best score it all went out the window with fat, thin iron play (normally my strongest and most consistent part of game) & popped up driving (something I had never had a problem with before, I was the other end of the scale to begin with...)

This had been playing with me until I went to a local Top Golf last night who just happened to have a coach walking round doing some recording of swings, luckily enough they know me there and had noted my swing improvements, so when I explained the trouble I've been having she said to hit a few balls and she'd record it on the all seeing all knowing app...hit a few ok shots got the driver out and bang it went up into the stratosphere.

She mentioned to me something I had never really thought about or considered, but made complete sense the minute I saw it.
I had been dropping my head/body down on my backswing so by the time it came to hitting the ball I had basically been collapsing (from the knees/legs) then trying to make up for it and essentially leaning back through the shot, hence the popping up or skying & lack of consistency being even more exaggerated with the driver.

Worked on this last night and I was astounded at the difference it had made in next to no time with barely any difference other keeping my head 'up', I even felt that my swing had benefitted from it too.

I wondered if you guys therefore had any views or points on this, as I say it was something I never really considered & I put my bad play down to a swing fault instead of a more physical fault until I came to the realisation that it really was all in the 'head'

[saevel25]

I wondered if you guys therefore had any views or points on this, as I say it was something I never really considered & I put my bad play down to a swing fault instead of a more physical fault until I came to the realisation that it really was all in the 'head'

Head dropping isn't that bad of a thing. Some good golfers do that squat move. Having your head move laterally isn't good for the golf swing.

Yes, moving the head back will cause issues with contact. You only have a split second for the club to go from the top of the swing to the ball. If your head is moving a lot then how you perceive where the ball is changes. This makes consistent contact very hard to achieve.

I would recommend checking your ball position as well. At least in my experience, when my ball position starts to creep back I start to shift my head laterally because my swing wants to achieve contact.

[Matt66]

Head dropping isn't that bad of a thing. Some good golfers do that squat move. Having your head move laterally isn't good for the golf swing.  Yes, moving the head back will cause issues with contact. You only have a split second for the club to go from the top of the swing to the ball. If your head is moving a lot then how you perceive where the ball is changes. This makes consistent contact very hard to achieve.  I would recommend checking your ball position as well. At least in my experience, when my ball position starts to creep back I start to shift my head laterally because my swing wants to achieve contact.

It's an interesting watch especially the point where they mention the 'peripheral vision' as I have felt like it's been hard to see the ball sometimes, no doubt this is a result of moving away from the ball... I agree that some movement is bound to happen, however the problem I had was that mine was clearly pretty exaggerated to the point where sometimes keeping eye contact was becoming a struggle. I don't think I'm over the hill just yet but it's good to have a bit of clarity in terms of something to work on