Jeff Parks: Keep Your Head Still
And You Will Keep Slicing The Ball!

By Jeff Parks
Director of Training and Technology, PGA Member, GolfTEC

All tour players keep their heads behind the ball at impact. Some tour players start with their head behind the ball, but most have to move their head behind the ball on the backswing. Some ancient Chinese/Scottish secret was to keep your head down or still. You know “Keep your eye on the ball”.

Most amateurs interpret “Keep your eye on the ball” as “Keep your head perfectly still”. This thought of keeping your head still on the backswing is one of the biggest contributors to slicing the ball. In an effort to keep your head still, your weight won’t be able to shift to the right (for a right handed player) on the backswing unless you sway your lower body. This is not the way the tour pros shift their weight during the backswing.

Now, it doesn’t take a lot of head motion to get your weight to shift, we measured it in centimeters. Most tour pros move their heads from 7 cm to 15 cm during a backswing.

If you start with your head directly over the top of your belt buckle then you must move your head over to your right shoe on the backswing. If you start with your head more toward your right shoe than your belt buckle, you won’t need to move as much.

Think about how you would throw a ball as far as you could. Now think about throwing a ball as far as you could if someone was holding your head perfectly still! You probably couldn’t get it across the room. Back to the “Keep your eye on the ball” statement. It is okay to keep your “eye” on the ball but NOT your “head”.

Even with your upper body behind the ball you should still be able to see the ball. This technique should help you get more distance because you will shift your weight better. This will also help your slice because your head will be behind the ball at the top of your backswing, which will promote an inside/out swing path. Stop in one of the GolfTEC locations to check and see if you're keeping your head still.

If you have any questions, please contact the store location nearest you or call 1-877-4GOLFTEC. Golftec is also on the web at www.golftec.com.