Vertical head movement and weight transfer...

Hi guys,

I've been playing golf for just over 6 months and am close to playing with a h/c of 24. On a recent round, we took videos of our swings and I was surprised to see a lot of vertical head movement in my swing. This was for a tee shot with a 3 wood with which I got around 200 yds. The vertical head movement was over 6 inches and am wondering how this is affecting my swing/shots. Is this bad - if so how bad? Now that I know about this am going to be consciously thinking about it at the practise range and on the course and see if I can limit the vertical head movement.

The other thing I noticed on the video was the my right foot stays flat until after I've hit the ball and I think my weight transfer from right to left (or even left to right on the back swing) isn't working. Am a left handed player playing with my right and wonder whether this has anything to do with my control of my right side...! Again, now that I've seen this, I will practise shifting my weight in a controlled manner but I seem to get into a sway rather than turn - any ideas on how to work on this would be very helpful.

I noticed on the Driver video on this website that the pro has his right foot off the ground before he has hit the ball - is this what one should expect? I would have thought this might lead to an upward movement in the body and lead to the ball being topped but the video shows otherwise. Perhaps my understanding of the weight transfer and body movement needs correction.

That's a long enough post. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

All the best,

Jay

There are 4 ways the head can move in a golf swing.

The head moves in these directions to manipulate balance.

1. Up-Result thin contact
2. Down-Result Fat contact
3. Backwards-Result Fat and thin contact(staying behind the ball to long)
4. Forward-Result Fat shots(your hands have to slap at the ball)

The reason for this is the golfer is trying to help get the ball into the air.

I know this is very hard but you have to trust the design of the clubhead(i.e. the loft) to get the ball into the air, this is a very common mistake made by golfers.

Any head movement is death move in either direction (qouted by Jim Mclean)

The reason for your head movement is you are tring to help the abll into the air by rasing you swing center when in actuality you have to the exact opposite. Golf is game of opposites.

Stay level through the shot

Jordy Scerbo

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Jordy Scerbo
Golf Instructor

Jay,

It sounds like you are swinging with your arms with little or no lower body movement and your posture is incorrect. The combination of the two is probably the culprit in your swing. I'll send you a PM about the posture and address the swing in this forum. I will try to address this for both left and right handers.

Jordy is absolutely correct about the head movement. The head must stay behind the ball until after impact. The release of the wrists will pull you around. Think of your head as a fixed point, the shoulders as a hub and arms as spokes. If the head moves in any direction the swing wobbles and is not efficient. The movement of the lower body will move the head off it's center. I'll explain.

The navel is the center of balance in the body, it is below the big muscles of the back and above the hips. This area of the body is cructial in the golf swing. If this area stops moving or in your case doesn't move that much the balance is never achieved. The navel should be 4-6 inches in front of the chin during the swing. It should also move 6-8 inches backward and 12-16 inches forward during the swing.

Here is the negative of what I'm talking about.
1. During the takeaway, if you do not move your navel, your head will sway off the ball every time.
2. At the top of the backswing, if the navel doesn't move to get back to the 4-6 inches in front of the chin you will come over the top every time.
The arms being in front of the body open the blade then when the navel comes through it pushes the open blade through to impact resulting in a slice.
3. If you stop on the through swing the arms will come in front of the body and a lose of power. The natural motion of the rear arm and wrists will cause the clubface to shut down early and a hook will result.

The lower body must advance the upper body to allow the release to happen at the shoulder ball line of the forward arm. This is done by the weight shift. The lifting of the rear heel, moves the knee and rotates the shoulders, the rear arm will naturally become straight and the wrists will release through the ball.

The other two movements are the sways. Too much back and too much forward. The more common one is too much backwards. For some reason high handicappers think this is the pivot and wonder why their game is inconsistent. If you can time a sway and get back to center the ball fllght will be normal. When the timing is off a topped shot or a steep dig will occur. The topped shot happens as Jordy said when the sway to the right has taken place and no weight shift occurs. Most beginners mistakenly think this is a powerful position. Coiling is powerful swaying is weak!!!!
Since the coiling action never or a limited coil takes place the arms are raised to compensate. On the reverse side if the sway is on the forward side a better players flaw a drop of the knees must occur to compensate usually resulting in a chilli dip because the right side comes in too high.

Hope this helps! Keep it in the short grass,

GolfBald

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The guy in the white hat!

Jay,

Another thread to read to give you more info and some drills is:

golf tuition online > Members Chat > The Golf Swing > Hoping to Improve or the Ask A Pro Backswing Threads have some excellent information.

Keep it in the short grass,

GolfBald

A good way to monitor your head movement (sideways) in practice swings is to place a ball on a high tee and take some practice swings alongside it. Watch the ball and see if it moves in relation to the ground!

Thanks Jordy, GolfBald and JD1 for your posts.

GolfBald, am trying to understand what you mean by the navel being infront of the chin and the sideways movement you refer to. Am assuming that if I draw two parallel lines to the ground from my chin and navel, the gap between those lines should be 4-6 inches - is this right?

And when you say the navel should move 6-8 inches backwards, this means the navel moves to right during the backswing and 12-16 inches forward i.e. from the position in the backswing, moves 12-16 inches (about 6-8 inches to the left from the centre) during the throughswing. Is this correct?

As for the shift in weight which would get the right foot off the ground, when should this happen? Just before the ball is struck or after?

Thanks again.

Jay

This really does sound like 'navel gazing'; better find another focus, methinks, Jay

JD1, am attempting to stay gazing at the ball for now - navel gazing will follow....what's the technique?

Doug,

Could you explain the term Navel grazing, I'm not familiar with it???

GolfBald