Steady head, always bad?

[Marten]

Hi Guys,

I have recently been struggling with my swing.
I can't seem to be able to make good contact, top alot, and slice.

What I think the problem is that I raise my head on the back swing due
to inflexiblity issues and then roundhouse my way back to the ball.

What I have found that helps is that I "lock" my neck muscles and focus
on starting the takeback with my righ thigh. I know I don't take a full shoulder
turn when I do this, but I have good enough distance so I can live with that.

I know that the stationary head pivot ala TGM is not a sound princible but
if you set up behind the ball and then lock your neckmuscles to keep the head
steady, is it OK or is it just a band aid and should I look for another more sound
solution?

 

[spktho]

Here's Brian's take on head movement.

http://www.brianmanzella.com/forum/...anzellas-official-position-head-movement.html

 

[Richie3Jack]

There's really no such thing as a stationary head. As Brian has shown, even guys like Couples who are claimed to have a stationary head actually move the head to some degree.

I don't recall anybody saying a 'steady' head is not a sound principle. I've looked at PGA Tour swings and all time great ballstriker swings and drawn a circle around their head and see where the head moves in relation to that circle. *Most* of them move the head a little bit outside of the circle on the backswing, then return their head to the circle on the downswing and keep it somewhere around that point until the halfway part of the follow thru.

Golfers with closed faces at the top of the swing, like Boo Weekley, tend to actually start moving the head towards the target a little bit on the backswing and then move the head back to their right a little, back into the circle in the downswing, probably as a means to help square the clubface up at impact. I've actually studied this because I have an issue of tilting my head and neck down and away from the target on the downswing.

Personally, I don't care what I do as long as the head 'returns to the circle' on the downswing thru impact. So if that means a ton of head movement or very little head movement, so be it.




3JACK

 

[Matt Bryda]

I "lock" my neck muscles

Personally, I would be very careful about locking any joint or over tensing a muscle during a dynamic athletic movement.

Isn't a steady head the product of the below the waist movement?

Matt

 

[Richie3Jack]

Personally, I would be very careful about locking any joint or over tensing a muscle during a dynamic athletic movement.

Isn't a steady head the product of the below the waist movement?

Matt

Knees and back, usually.




3JACK

 

[Jared Willerson]

In 2D, a head will "appear" more steady the steeper the hip and shoulder turns on the back swing. Heads that appear to move a lot from their original positions tend to have flatter hip and shoulder turns on the back swing.

 

[jake2]

Hi Guys,

What I think the problem is that I raise my head on the back swing due
to inflexiblity issues and then roundhouse my way back to the ball.

What I have found that helps is that I "lock" my neck muscles and focus
on starting the takeback with my righ thigh. I know I don't take a full shoulder
turn when I do this, but I have good enough distance so I can live with that.

I know that the stationary head pivot ala TGM is not a sound princible but
if you set up behind the ball and then lock your neckmuscles to keep the head
steady, is it OK or is it just a band aid and should I look for another more sound
solution?

Have you checked that when you focus on a steady head, does it really become steady?

My thoughs on this since the problem sounds similar to mine:

It could be that head moving up up caused by faulty backswing pivot. What may be really happening that spine angle straightens at the top of the backswing, because it allows you your shoulders turn more easily (it feels like it's easier to turn that way). Head then drops back at start down, but not necessarily so that the spine angle would return back, instead knees bend and pelvis moves closer to the ball (my other issue).

I have not figures out yet how to fix this, but focusing to keep my head still seems to help. In actual fact when I look at it on video, there is still a lot of movement, little less up&down, but more back&forward.