The Worst Advice Everyone Has Received
“Keep your head still”. These words are spoken so frequently that it is no longer advice but a mantra in the world of golf. There is little doubt the first time you picked up a golf club someone was nearby offering these words while teaching you how to swing the club. And so, just as quickly as you fell in love with golf, that mantra was instilled as ‘the way’. I will let you in on a little secret. This advice is keeping thousands of teaching professionals like me in business. If you keep your head completely still throughout your swing, it will be nearly impossible to make a proper weight shift into your right side and you will almost certainly have a reverse spine angle at the top of your swing.
Let me clarify a few things. Any vertical movement of the head in the golf swing will undoubtedly lead to inconsistent ball-striking. If a player properly coils their weight into the inside of his or her right leg in the backswing, the head will move approximately one to six inches to the right, the club will make contact, and the ball will sail. Skeptical? Hundreds of PGA Tour players move their heads laterally in throughout their swing. They are on the PGA Tour for a reason.
So how can we properly shift our weight in the backswing? One easy way to help get into a better position at the top of your swing is to start in a better position at address. The majority of golfers I see on a daily basis don’t get their head behind the golf ball at setup. Getting your head behind the ball at address will greatly improve your odds of achieving a proper weight shift in the backswing. In testing over 150 Tour players, we have found that the average PGA Tour player’s shoulders tilt 10 degrees to the right at address. This allows them to easily turn into their right side in the backswing. To help find this position, try this drill: Get into your setup position. Take your club and place the grip firmly against your sternum so that the shaft runs down your chest and between your legs. Now simply tilt your upper body to the right until the club hits the inside of your left leg. This is approximately how much your upper body should tilt to the right at address.
Now that you have addressed the ball properly, you have the best chance of shifting your weight properly in your backswing. There are three important things that must happen at the top of the swing: your weight must be on the inside of your right foot, your right knee must remain flexed, and your spine must be leaning away from the target. These three things will give you the greatest opportunity to make a powerful, on-plane swing.
So forget about keeping your head still. Simply get into a better position at address and start hitting the ball longer and straighter. Nonetheless, feel free to tell all of your golfing buddies to keep their head still…I could always use the extra business.
Jordan Cooper is a PGA Apprentice Teaching Professional and Club Fitter for GolfTEC in Bellevue, WA. He can be reached at 425.454.7956 or visit www.golftec.com/seattle for more information.
