Lifting Your Head When Playing Golf Shots (Video) - by Natalie Adams
Lifting Your Head When Playing Golf Shots (Video) - by Natalie Adams

Why do people keep telling me I’m lifting my head when I’m playing my golf shots? One of the main reasons people will tell you that you’re lifting your head when you’ve played a golf shot, is when you’ve miss hit the golf shot and you’ve hit the upper part of the ball. So you’ve hit a thin shot or a topped golf shot. That’s where the club is just connecting with the top of the ball. And the main reason that people think you’re doing that is because you’re lifting your head and it’s quite straight forward really that if your set up in your golf posture, if you turn it to lift your head up, it would bring the rest of your body up so you’d come out of posture and you would lift the club up away from the ground.

But you can be topping golf shots for other reasons, so if people keep saying to you, “Oh you’re lifting your head up,” that’s because they’ve seen the ball go low because you’ve topped it, the ball flight will be very, very low. But you could feel you’re keeping your head really, really still. If that’s the case and you are keeping your head still, one of the main reasons that you’re hitting the top of the golf ball is because you’re holding the club too tight. So it’s not necessarily because you’re lifting your head up, but the shot will look like you’re lifting your head up because you will be hitting the top of the ball. If you’re squeezing too tight with your grip pressure, your muscles are starting to get activated in your arms and in your shoulders. And as your muscles work they actually get shorter. So effectively you’ve started with the club head touching the floor as you squeeze the club tightly, effectively you’re shortening the length of your arms and so the club head is being lifted up away from the floor and you’ll hit the top of the golf ball exactly the same as if you were lifting your head up. So if you’re topping the golf ball and your friends are saying that you’re hitting a very low shot but to you it feels like you’re keeping your head still, check your grip pressure. It’s a great drill to know if you’re pressure is at the right tension. What you want to do before you hit you’re golf shot is go into your addressed positions set yourself up and then you want to squeeze the club as tightly as you can and we’ll call that a 10. Now what you want to do is just halve that to a five, and then just ease off a little bit more to a four. And that’s the correct pressure to have in your hands through your golf swing. So a four out of 10 pressure all the way through will get you hitting some really good crisp golf shots that fly really high, and you’ll stop miss hitting the ball where you only hit the top and the ball flies low. Try that the next time you’re out on the course and you should see a big improvement in your golf shots. 2014-05-22

Why do people keep telling me I’m lifting my head when I’m playing my golf shots? One of the main reasons people will tell you that you’re lifting your head when you’ve played a golf shot, is when you’ve miss hit the golf shot and you’ve hit the upper part of the ball. So you’ve hit a thin shot or a topped golf shot. That’s where the club is just connecting with the top of the ball. And the main reason that people think you’re doing that is because you’re lifting your head and it’s quite straight forward really that if your set up in your golf posture, if you turn it to lift your head up, it would bring the rest of your body up so you’d come out of posture and you would lift the club up away from the ground.

But you can be topping golf shots for other reasons, so if people keep saying to you, “Oh you’re lifting your head up,” that’s because they’ve seen the ball go low because you’ve topped it, the ball flight will be very, very low. But you could feel you’re keeping your head really, really still. If that’s the case and you are keeping your head still, one of the main reasons that you’re hitting the top of the golf ball is because you’re holding the club too tight. So it’s not necessarily because you’re lifting your head up, but the shot will look like you’re lifting your head up because you will be hitting the top of the ball. If you’re squeezing too tight with your grip pressure, your muscles are starting to get activated in your arms and in your shoulders.

And as your muscles work they actually get shorter. So effectively you’ve started with the club head touching the floor as you squeeze the club tightly, effectively you’re shortening the length of your arms and so the club head is being lifted up away from the floor and you’ll hit the top of the golf ball exactly the same as if you were lifting your head up. So if you’re topping the golf ball and your friends are saying that you’re hitting a very low shot but to you it feels like you’re keeping your head still, check your grip pressure.

It’s a great drill to know if you’re pressure is at the right tension. What you want to do before you hit you’re golf shot is go into your addressed positions set yourself up and then you want to squeeze the club as tightly as you can and we’ll call that a 10. Now what you want to do is just halve that to a five, and then just ease off a little bit more to a four. And that’s the correct pressure to have in your hands through your golf swing. So a four out of 10 pressure all the way through will get you hitting some really good crisp golf shots that fly really high, and you’ll stop miss hitting the ball where you only hit the top and the ball flies low. Try that the next time you’re out on the course and you should see a big improvement in your golf shots.