head slide

[ferrispgm]

Here's the story,

I started playing 3 years ago when i was 16 and i used to hit the ball fairly long. I had my swing speed checked at 121 normal, and 126 when i went hard at it, my carry was about 290+. But this year i am only carrying the ball 250-260. I was talking to the assistant pro at the course i work at and he said that at the top of my swing, my head and upper body tend to tilt/slide toward the target instead of staying put or going backwards slightly. Now my scores have been much lower this year-mid 70's, but i feel i could score even better if i had my distance back.

Could this head slide account for that big of a loss of distance? Can someone please lend some help to stop this problem?

 

[6bee1dee]

You are lunging forward, perhaps from swaying in the take-away. A stationary head is a basic (2-0-A). Rotate around a stationary head and spine.
If you are being taught that a head movement to the right is acceptable on the take-away, you will run into this lunge back to center and beyond problem.


BTW: distance is great but you still need to get the ball as close to the pin as possible and putt it in to get as low a score as possible. Many short hitters win matches all the time.

 

[Jim Kobylinski]

Don't worry about your head moving a little bit, it isn't as big of a deal as you might think. However your problem is probably a poor setup position combined with a faulty backswing pivot which is all causing a reverse pivot

Thus when you start your downswing you have no where to go but fall away from the target and flip into impact to save the shot. This is killing your speed and impact condtions.

----

Work on a proper setup, and a small shoulder turn/backswing pivot and really get onto your right side so you can shift to your left and fire through the ball. Read Brian's perfect pivot article #1

 

[6bee1dee]

Sorry Jim and Ferris, I thought I read that you were moving your head forward at impact. My bad. Jim is right, you developed a nasty reverse pivot and gave you sound advice.

 

[ferrispgm]

it isn't a reverse pivot, at the top of my backswing, everything is ok, but the start of my downswing my head and upper body slide forward 3 or 4 inches, then i have to really turn my hips fast to save the shot. is there a drill i can use to keep my head put at the top of the backswing and at impact? The thing with the distance is that, my short and mid iron distances are the still the same, but it's frustrating to loose so much distance,and not be able to reach par 5's that i could easily reach.

 

[Erik_K]

the same problem I have.

It's the sequence that's hurting you, you said so yourself. You are initiating the swing with arms, head, and shoulders, and not the hips.

When done properly, the initial bump of the hips will pull the shoulders down plane.