Turning the head - anybody do it?

[Maninblack4612]

I have quite a stiff neck &, towards the top of the swing, my head is dragged round. I have tried addressing the ball, then turning my head clockwise, so that I'm looking at the ball through my left eye. This has produced some decent shots but feels quite weird. No idea what it looks like. I think that Jack Nicklaus used to do this just before he started the backswing. Anybody know why? Anybody else do this?

 

[Deleted member 36735]

If your head can't stay where it is and has to rotate....just let your head rotate.

Worst thing you could do is try and keep the head still for no apparent reason, possibly injure yourself more and start lifting the body to compensate.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I think it is to do with your dominant eye. I was told to focus on the back of the ball with my left eye once because that is my dominant one. If I remember to do it, I hit the ball much cleaner. I don't always remember .

 

[garyinderry]

My head traces back with the club head. I'm nearly sure I've trained myself to do it as I was always looking to see if I had taken the club away too flat.

Constant repetitions and checking to see what I have done has ingrained it.

I would like to get rid of it again sometime as it doesn't look that great.

Not being the most flexible fella in the world it probably isn't doing any harm.

I really should work on letting the head go more on the downswing. I'll post a video here of a shot I hit at the range doing just that. A duval-esque move. I'm not even lookng at the ball at impact. My eyes are already up the range.

 

[garyinderry]

 

[Crow]

Audrey Hepburn used to.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

@garyinderry are you actually looking at the ball when you hit it? It looks as though you are looking up ahead by the time you hit it.

 

[garyinderry]

@garyinderry are you actually looking at the ball when you hit it? It looks as though you are looking up ahead by the time you hit it.

It was ment to say. I'm not even looking at the ball at impact.

 

[Maninblack4612]

Mine moves further than that on the backswing. Yours looks weird!

 

[nickjdavis]

It was ment to say. I'm not even looking at the ball at impact.

You are supposed to look at the ball ?????

 

[garyinderry]

You are supposed to look at the ball ?????

There's the old adage, keep you eye on the ball

 

[Golf is fun]

You are supposed to look at the ball ?????

Why?

When you throw a ball do you look at it?
When you kick a ball do you look at it?

Look at tennis, it's broadly similar in that you are swinging an implement to hit a ball, but unlike golf the ball is moving, so surely there is even more of a need to keep your eye on it right?

 

[nickjdavis]

Why?

When you throw a ball do you look at it?
When you kick a ball do you look at it?

Look at tennis, it's broadly similar in that you are swinging an implement to hit a ball, but unlike golf the ball is moving, so surely there is even more of a need to keep your eye on it right?

my post was ironic....hence the question marks.

 

[Golf is fun]

my post was ironic....hence the question marks.

Fair enough, easy to misjudge tone on the internet, so apologies.

That said I do think it's a fairly commonly held belief in golf with no real founding. There are even some places where I'd say intentionally not looking at the ball is better than looking at it, like looking at a spot a few feet along your start line for a putt.

 

[The Squirrel]

Why?

When you throw a ball do you look at it?
When you kick a ball do you look at it?

Look at tennis, it's broadly similar in that you are swinging an implement to hit a ball, but unlike golf the ball is moving, so surely there is even more of a need to keep your eye on it right?

One photo of a bad technique shot though innit. See also Botham hitting 6s during Headingley 1981 while not looking. It’s possible given enough natural talent, but harder and less consistent.

This guy was better and maybe this is partly why…

The Eyes Have It: How to harness Federer's most underrated superpower | Tennis.com

Copying Roger Federer’s ball-watching technique will have you practically seeing contact. A new book explains how.

www.tennis.com

 

[Golf is fun]

One photo of a bad technique shot though innit. See also Botham hitting 6s during Headingley 1981 while not looking. It’s possible given enough natural talent, but harder and less consistent.

This guy was better and maybe this is partly why…

The Eyes Have It: How to harness Federer's most underrated superpower | Tennis.com

Copying Roger Federer’s ball-watching technique will have you practically seeing contact. A new book explains how.

www.tennis.com

Did you read the article you posted? It literally states that it all happens too fast for the brain to process

One of the earliest directives any aspiring player is given is to watch the ball. The more intently the ball is tracked, the cleaner the hit. However, contact between the ball and racquet lasts a few milliseconds. Which is so fast that it has already taken place before the brain has time to process it. In other words, the traditional theory is that it’s impossible to see contact in real time.

However, in Hamori’s book—The Art and Science of Ball Watching—he offers an alternative hypothesis. Given the speeds involved it may indeed only be feasible to perceive contact, but with proper methods and training a player can actually learn to get as close to “seeing” it as possible.

I've never played cricket, so can't comment with authority on that, I'd assume though elite players know where the ball is going based on the shape of the bowler, more than relying on tracking the ball. This is certainly how baseball and tennis work, of course players will track the ball a bit, but they use a lot more external signals. In tennis "watch the ball" is the golf equivalent of "keep your head down", if you want to read about it from someone who has more authority than me https://www.patcash.co.uk/2018/08/how-to-watch-ball-like-pro-tennis/

Lots of bad technique amongst these choppers.

 

[The Squirrel]

Did you read the article you posted? It literally states that it all happens too fast for the brain to process



I've never played cricket, so can't comment with authority on that, I'd assume though elite players know where the ball is going based on the shape of the bowler, more than relying on tracking the ball. This is certainly how baseball and tennis work, of course players will track the ball a bit, but they use a lot more external signals. In tennis "watch the ball" is the golf equivalent of "keep your head down", if you want to read about it from someone who has more authority than me https://www.patcash.co.uk/2018/08/how-to-watch-ball-like-pro-tennis/

Lots of bad technique amongst these choppers.

Telling that both the men there have moderately poor strike locations . Of course it helps to see where your opponent is and to gauge your position on the court so it is likely worth accepting a reduced consistency of ball strike in tennis to watch your opponent and best ascertain your own position on the court in many (most?) shots.

Yes it said you can’t see the actual strike (i.e. you can’t see the instant of the ball actually reversing its direction) as it happens too fast for the eye to process which makes sense. However watching the ball for as long as possible on to the racket was beneficial - and in practical terms this is the same thing.

Your comments on cricket are just wrong. The shape of the bowler at delivery may help you predict swing or spin they may be trying to attempt to produce, but the direction of the ball, particularly length you simply have to watch the ball itself, and of course the bounce off the pitch is not entirely consistent and can only be judged by watching the ball. Top batters talk about watching the ball so closely that they can see which way it is revolving and even attempt to gauge how much, as well as watching the ball onto the bat and playing beneath the eyeline.

I grant none of this is relevant to golf where the ball isn’t moving so actually watching it is of far less benefit

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Cricketers will 100% be watching the ball as close as possible to the ball striking the bat. No way are they looking elsewhere. The Botham picture is repeatedly shown as it was a freak shot. The ball is deviating, the bounce can change. If you are not watching it, you are not hitting it.

 

[Orikoru]

Having played lots of tennis when in my teens, I would say that you do watch the ball right up until the very moment of impact, then your eyes sort of flick forward to where you are aiming. Golf is probably the same really - some people do keep looking at the ground after they've hit it but it looks unnatural, and is probably a big reason why the old 'keep your head still' adage is considered a bit of a misnomer now. You would naturally release your head as you strike the ball. David Duval released his head a bit early but that wouldn't work for most of us I'm sure (except Garyinderry apparently).

 

[Golf is fun]

Telling that both the men there have moderately poor strike locations . Of course it helps to see where your opponent is and to gauge your position on the court so it is likely worth accepting a reduced consistency of ball strike in tennis to watch your opponent and best ascertain your own position on the court in many (most?) shots.

Yes it said you can’t see the actual strike (i.e. you can’t see the instant of the ball actually reversing its direction) as it happens too fast for the eye to process which makes sense. However watching the ball for as long as possible on to the racket was beneficial - and in practical terms this is the same thing.

Your comments on cricket are just wrong. The shape of the bowler at delivery may help you predict swing or spin they may be trying to attempt to produce, but the direction of the ball, particularly length you simply have to watch the ball itself, and of course the bounce off the pitch is not entirely consistent and can only be judged by watching the ball. Top batters talk about watching the ball so closely that they can see which way it is revolving and even attempt to gauge how much, as well as watching the ball onto the bat and playing beneath the eyeline.

I grant none of this is relevant to golf where the ball isn’t moving so actually watching it is of far less benefit

Top batters may say that, but that's not what happens. It's been studied:

Batsmen facing fast bowlers do not keep their eye on the ball throughout its flight. They fixate on it as it is delivered, at the time of the bounce and for a period up to about 200 ms after the bounce.

...it is evidently not necessary to track the ball between release and bounce nor for more than about 200 ms after the bounce.

Source - https://www.nature.com/articles/nn1200_1340

This stuff has been known in sports science for a while, the time involved in hitting a fast moving ball in elite sports generally means that human reaction times make it almost impossible to track the ball. The best athletes use early information and experience of where that means the ball will end up to be able to hit the ball. It helps they typically have faster reactions and better coordination than an average person, so they have a bit more information to base their prediction on, but it's still a prediction.