Keeping Your Head Down In Your Golf Swing Is A Mistake (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Keeping Your Head Down In Your Golf Swing Is A Mistake (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

So when we see the Adam Scott type of posture we notice that in the address position, he has got his good posture, he has got his hands and arms hanging nicely, but his head is really up quite tall, so he has got his head up tall here and that allows him to make the free-flowing golf swing and I think a lot of golfers have struggled to get in that position possibly because they’ve been told to keep their head down. Some times as a beginner you’re often told keep your head down, keep your head down, keep your head down. You get your head right down here trying to get into this position here because you’ve been told to keep your head down to stop you topping the golf ball, but actually that isn’t good advice, it can’t really work and there are a couple of reasons why that could be a problem.

So firstly when I set up to the golf ball, if I have my head down here I severely lose my posture. My posture with a rounded back here is going to cause lots and lots of problems. One of the key things there is lack of balance, but mainly lack of shoulder rotation. So by having my head down here and I try and turn my shoulders, my left shoulder just bangs in against my chin. So, again, I’d be heel, chin down, head down, looking down at the ball like I’ve been told, my shoulder tries to rotate and it hits my chin here against my shoulder, so I can’t complete a full backswing turn. Now, that could cause me, therefore, to have a very short backswing or actually lift out of that position. In order to try and keep completing my big backswing turns to try and generate power I have to lose my posture. So a better position, the Adam Scott position is keeping the head up, but the eyes down, that lifts the chin away from the shoulder, enabling the shoulder to make a nice rotational motion underneath the chin to here and then back down to the golf ball. So this concept of keeping the chin down is not a good one. Keep the chin up and the head looking down at the golf ball, then we’ve got room for the shoulder to fit underneath the chin. We can make a nice full turn, we can maintain our balance, we can maintain our posture and still get back to the golf ball in a nice position. So I’m not advocating looking up as you’re hitting the golf ball, but by the same token we’re definitely not suggesting to keep your chin down and to look down at the ball. Keeping your head down is a big fault. 2016-05-13

So when we see the Adam Scott type of posture we notice that in the address position, he has got his good posture, he has got his hands and arms hanging nicely, but his head is really up quite tall, so he has got his head up tall here and that allows him to make the free-flowing golf swing and I think a lot of golfers have struggled to get in that position possibly because they’ve been told to keep their head down. Some times as a beginner you’re often told keep your head down, keep your head down, keep your head down. You get your head right down here trying to get into this position here because you’ve been told to keep your head down to stop you topping the golf ball, but actually that isn’t good advice, it can’t really work and there are a couple of reasons why that could be a problem.

So firstly when I set up to the golf ball, if I have my head down here I severely lose my posture. My posture with a rounded back here is going to cause lots and lots of problems. One of the key things there is lack of balance, but mainly lack of shoulder rotation. So by having my head down here and I try and turn my shoulders, my left shoulder just bangs in against my chin. So, again, I’d be heel, chin down, head down, looking down at the ball like I’ve been told, my shoulder tries to rotate and it hits my chin here against my shoulder, so I can’t complete a full backswing turn.

Now, that could cause me, therefore, to have a very short backswing or actually lift out of that position. In order to try and keep completing my big backswing turns to try and generate power I have to lose my posture. So a better position, the Adam Scott position is keeping the head up, but the eyes down, that lifts the chin away from the shoulder, enabling the shoulder to make a nice rotational motion underneath the chin to here and then back down to the golf ball.

So this concept of keeping the chin down is not a good one. Keep the chin up and the head looking down at the golf ball, then we’ve got room for the shoulder to fit underneath the chin. We can make a nice full turn, we can maintain our balance, we can maintain our posture and still get back to the golf ball in a nice position. So I’m not advocating looking up as you’re hitting the golf ball, but by the same token we’re definitely not suggesting to keep your chin down and to look down at the ball. Keeping your head down is a big fault.