Head paradox...true or not ?

[Dariusz J.]

Brian & all,

Was digging into the content of the Forum in the search of threads concerning the head movement during swing. I've found Brian's statement that the 'stationary head' concept is one of the worst ever adviced to golfers.
I happen to agree fully to it.

The question, however, is what movements of the head we are talking about ? I am pretty sure I've found also that the head should remain behind the golf ball until past-impact. It's obvious even for me. But what about head turning slightly to the rear during BS and slightly to the target line during DS in response to the turning body ?

Now, the paradox - I cannot coordinate well my head turns during my swing; moreover, I tend to keep the head still (without any turn) and look on the ball all the time. I feel it can cause unnecessary stiffness, limits the turn of my upper body on the BS and the DS - and - what can sound just paradoxial - does not help in keeping my head behind the ball at impact (because the stiffness in the neck is so big that my head moves forward instead staying behind); when I force myself to turn my head left and look a bit more at the target I feel no stiffness and I am surely behind the ball...but it feels completely artificial for me until now.

Now the question - what is the best advice to ged rid of this and how to coordinate my head turn with the upper body turn correctly ?

Cheers

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

I've said it before and will again....your head and spine are not a popsicle, the human anatomy doesn't work that way. The only way to keep your head "in the middle of your feet" is to allow your spine to shift from a neutral setup position which is slightly leaning right to a leaning left or / look. This is the only way.

What people need to understand is that your head is in front of your spine, not on top of it like a popsicle as mentioned above. Take a pencil and attach something to the eraser that is IN FRONT of it. Now place the pencil on a desk with it standing vertical. Now simply roate the pencil to the right. Notice that the thing you attached to the head moved to the right? The spine or shaft of the pencil hasn't moved but the head or attachment did because, again, it is in front of it.

Now do the same thing but setup the pencil with a slight lean to the right and do it again. Notice how, again, the head will move to the right but the spine did not sway?

Now obviously your spine isn't straight like a pencil, but from an anatomy standpoint my arguement still holds.

 

[Dariusz J.]

Jim,

I understand it and you're right. Maybe I was a bit unprecise in my question, thus, I'll try to put in another way (I am more interested in head TURN not SHIFT):

how to get rid of the habit of defending oneself from any head turn in response to the body turn ? Imagine this: I am at impact and I am looking at the ball...after impact I am still looking at the place where the ball was...instead of allow my head to turn slightly left and look in the direction of the target a bit following the turn of the shoulders that are already open at impact and continue to open more post impact.

Are there any drills to encourage this ? or maybe a good mental image that helps in ingraining a new, better habit ?

Cheers

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

Dariusz, unless the ball isn't doing what you want...don't worry about it. Some people let their head go towards the target normally, some do it excessively early (Annika) and some do it quite late (look at the vids of Mike Finney).

So unless the ball isn't doing what you want, don't worry about it.

 

[Dariusz J.]

Jim, many thanks for your answer and encouragement.

However, I feel that my inability to turn my head and all the tension causes sometimes problems with opening my body correctly during and post-impact resulting in a too inside-out pattern with excessive hip slide forward instead a proper in-to-in one.
My swing is rather rotary, thus, lack of proper rotation during the second part of the DS can be a culprit e.g. for my heel shots.

Cheers