Head movement

[Basher]

I've noticed for a while now that I have been losing distance in both my drives from the tee and fairway iron shots.

My pro noticed that my head was moving a fair bit during my back and downswing - resulting in fat and thin shots!
He also commented on my relatively weak downswing - obvious reason for lack of distance.

As you can imagine I'm at a fairly low ebb with my golf. It seems at the moment I just can't seem to hit the ball right, except off the tee 50% of the time.

I've found I am now consciously keeping my head still to achieve a good turn about my spine. Seems with this method I can't generate much in the way of power either!

Will my problem improve with practise and more lessons? A big ask but any pointers in power, fat and thin shot reduction may just maintain my sanity.

 

[jeffc]

Without seeing you play it's difficult to say but I had a similar problem and my teacher got me getting my hands and especially hips coming through along with trying to find a good tempo and hey presto the distance came.
My fat and thin shots along with lack of distance were because I wasn't transferring the weight from right to left (i.e.i was very stiff, a tree with arms basically)thats why the hips were pin pointed along with the hands releasing through.
By trying to hold your head still you may not be releasing the swing through freely and you've become a bit stiff.

Not an expert by a long way but just some ideas for you

 

[krokodil]

I think Jeff has pinpointed a possibility, I've noticed people who focus on keeping their head rigid struggle to turn their hips on impact, which will seriously impact upon your shot distance.

 

[big_russ]

You should allow your head to move with the momentum of you shoulder turn. Keep looking at the ball as you turn to coil your body then as you swing through your right shoulder should collect your chin as you drive to your follow through.(for right handed player)

 

[flandango]

Hey basher, i got told the same thing by my pro last night!

He gave me a couple of pointers which I wrote in EMERGENCY TIP subject. Power will come when you learn to combine all aspects of your swing together in one sweet movement. Tempo, weight, alignment, rotation etc

You'll soon be crunching them down the fairway!

 

[Basher]

Hi Flandango.
I've read your post and it does seem you have had the same problem mate.
Whereas you hook your shots I tend to slice. I have noticed I do grip with my right hand more over to the left.
If I take your tip and rotate my right hand more clockwise, would that go some way to straighten my shots?

I do know I must try to rotate my right hand at impact more.

 

[zeegolfeer]

If you want to improve your problem and looking for lessons
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[Tommo21]

If you want to improve your problem and looking for lessons
take a look this site it can help you
http://www.golfersmd.com/?getit=216615944

Zeegolfeer, all your posts are promoting a web site…………..it really must be a pain for you to go through this site in order to find something that can be connected to the site you promote. So, do us all a favour, leave and shut the door on the way out. No, no, not that way, the other door. That’s it, bye bye.

 

[Basher]

zeegolfer.

My problem is not health related mate. How the website you promote can help with my PROBLEM??? is beyond me.

Nice try at highlighting the website, but I'm afraid it is totally irrelevant to the thread.

 

[Basher]

2nd lesson with my pro today.

Still moving my head a wee bit but not as bad as previously.
A couple more things he picked up on.
Tending to top the ball. He suggested I practise my swing and concentrate on removing a small divot. The solution should come from transferring the weight from right to left and committing to the shot to a nice finish. He noticed I was staying back on my downswing which created weak shots which at times took divots, but behind the ball.

Examining the divots I did take we noticed they pointed left, suggesting an inside path.

I had a session at the range yesterday which saw me putting his earlier info into practise re keeping head still and rotating about the spine. Long shots resulted. However, taking it to the course it was soon evident that grass is very dissimilar to a driving range mat.

I know where I'm going wrong and this week will be concentrating on committing to the swing, taking a reasonable divot and maintaining a straight swing path through impact.
He remarked my backswing looked good but obviously my downswing required some attention. We will be working on this at my next lesson.

For the "Go see a Pro" sceptics I'll say this. They see everything you don't in your swing and are in a position to put things right. I've used a few Pros and am pleased to say that the one I'm seeing now seems the best. He's not trying to change my swing but working round what I've got. I've had lessons with pros who have changed my swing to match theirs. This resulted in my game suffering completely.
Hopefully my latest pro should put me on the road to being a better player.

 

[RGuk]

Examining the divots I did take we noticed they pointed left, suggesting an inside path.

??? (pointing left....outside-inside (slice/pull) surely?

I have struggled with moving my head and excessive lateral movement all throughout my years. When it gets bad, I stick something in my mouth (currently a coffee stirring stick) and keep it aiming at the ball.
A little lateral movement is fine, but not if you end up way out on the back foot and then fail to get back!!!

I have two drills I like to do. One is lots of swings with my feet together with almost no weight movement.
The other is to trail my right foot out behind me and swing on my left leg only. If I do lots of this sort of stuff, my divots (bottom of the swing) start to get very consistent (which is great) but I do lose some power.

If you look at the mini-picture underneath, try to finish like this preferably with even higher hands. I actually took a mini divot with this 5 wood shot to get it out of the semi rough.....so it's not quite a full follow-through.