To move the head or not...that is the question

KEEP IT STILL

I was reading in another Arnold Palmer book that his Dad always taught him that he could swing as hard as he wanted to but that he had to keep his head still during the swing.

Here's an exerpt from his book: "Hit it Hard"

The position of your head is an important part of the stance. The head must stay in a fixed position behind the ball. You can keep your eye on the ball and still move your head. Many players have found this out by topping a ball, hitting in back of it, or over it. This is caused by moving the head up or down when drawing the club away from the ball. If the bead is moved from side to side, severe hooking or slicing results.

A With the head fixed, the left shoulder moves under the chin on the backswing and the right shoulder comes back under the chin on the downswing. The head moves only after contact has been made with the ball.

In the National Open at Toledo’s Inverness Club in 1957, I was driving the ball badly, straying into the rough, which is always deep in Open championships. It’s always disastrous to scoring. One time I would drive to the right rough, the next time in the left rough.

The reason—improper placement of my head. In trying to get the ball to go straight, I was concentrating on the grip and the swing, when, in fact, it was all in the stance.

Gene Littler, a fellow pro, noticed that my head was moving and told me about it on the practice tee. My straight drive came back automatically when I fixed the position of my head, but by that time I was too far out of contention to make a run for the title.

There are many things that can go wrong with a golf swing, but, if you take a proper stance, you can find out what’s wrong by conducting a little investigation.4

Relax. Don’t stand at attention. Comfort is the key at address. If you can’t be comfortable standing still, think how much tougher it’s going to be when you swing at the ball.

Jack Nicklaus said that his teacher, Jack Grout, had his assistant grab Nicklaus by the hair on his head and had him swing so as to keep his head still. Just recently heard this in an interview on the Golf Channel.

Let it Move

And now an opposing viewpoint...

Holding the head still from the book "Golf Can Be An Easy Game" by Joe Novak

At no time throughout my years of instruction do I remember consciously asking a pupil to keep his eye on the ball. I feel that the player will naturally look at the ball because that is his target, so why bother telling him to do it. Of course, the real reason so much stress is placed on keeping your eye on the ball is that your head will stay still. I disagree with this suggestion, because if one -holds his head extremely still he restricts and inhibits a nice free action in his body.

In the natural course of movement in a golf swing, the act of shifting one’s weight to the right foot does straighten that knee. As the diagonal stretch action of the body is used to raise the club to the top of the swing there is an added straightening of the entire right side. In other words, the combination of shifting the weight to the right foot plus using the right side of the body to carry the club to the top of the swing, automatically pro­duces a certain erectness or straightening of the entire right side. Under the influence of this action the head position is raised as the backswing is made. Then as the weight shifts to the left foot, there is a momentary drop of the entire body position, and consequently the head naturally lowers slightly. However, after the weight moves to the left foot and the left side is used to bring the club through, there is a decided straightening of the left side and again the head is raised slightly.

In other words, the head goes higher as the backswing is made, temporarily drops to a slightly lower position as the downswing starts, but again raises as the swing is completed. Any attempt to hold the head absolutely still restricts this natural body action. Hence I have never asked a pupil to hold his head still.

- The most outstanding exponent of this perfectly nat­ural rise and fall action of a golf shot was Byron Nelson, who carved a record in professional golf contests that will be difficult to match.

Another exponent of this natural rise and fall action of the correct golf swing is Cary Middlecoff, all-time money winner in professional golf.

After a period away from competition, it was quite noticeable that Middlecoff’s swing was tense and re­stricted due to a very fixed bead position, but in a short time he got into the rhythm of his swing and the slight rise and fall of his bead position during the swing was readily noticeable again. Therefore, don’t freeze arid tighten up your swing by trying to hold your head still.

If the action of your body is correct it will operate within the gyroscopic pattern of the two-way diagonal stretch that all good golfers acquire. If you are within that pattern you won't have to worry about holding your head still. Don't do anything to disturb a natural body action.

This is an excerpt from a book in the Online Classics Golf Library, an ever-expanding collection of golf books. Membership and lifetime access to the OCG library can be yours with your purchase of

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