Head raising in backswing - give me your drills that worked

[getitdaily]

My head raises about 2-3 inches in my backswing. I'm intent on resolving it this off season. So...

 

What drills or exaggerated feelings have helped you with this same problem?

 

Please - just drills or feels that helped. Not wanting to bog down the thread with debate about what's causing it or the like. 

[TheDeanAbides]

I'm not sure how it's possible to recommend a drill without knowing the cause. That's like saying can you fix the broken bone in my back without an x-ray.

[liquorandpoker]

Check out 7:55 of this video.  Might be the culprit.....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyxWRHeiYXM

 

[getitdaily]

12 minutes ago, TheDeanAbides said:

I'm not sure how it's possible to recommend a drill without knowing the cause. That's like saying can you fix the broken bone in my back without an x-ray.

 

10 minutes ago, liquorandpoker said:

Check out 7:55 of this video.  Might be the culprit.....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyxWRHeiYXM

 

2 posts and no drills.

 

I'm not concerned about the cause. Jeez. I know the cause. 

 

I just want a plethora of drills that have helped others with this. I want to try a handful of drills to see which one I best get alignment of move and result...

[liquorandpoker]

5 minutes ago, getitdaily said:

 

2 posts and no drills.

 

I'm not concerned about the cause. Jeez. I know the cause. 

 

I just want a plethora of drills that have helped others with this. I want to try a handful of drills to see which one I best get alignment of move and result...

 

🤣🤣🤣

What is the cause?

 

Here's a drill: hit shots where on the backswing your only lower body thought is pushing the right pocket BACK on the backswing

 

If you want a plethora of pinatas maybe do that drill 5 times

[MonteScheinblum]

What’s the cause?

 

Lack of lead knee bend

Flat shoulder turn

Excess forward bend at address

Excess extension

[TheDeanAbides]

16 minutes ago, getitdaily said:

 

2 posts and no drills.

 

I'm not concerned about the cause. Jeez. I know the cause. 

 

I just want a plethora of drills that have helped others with this. I want to try a handful of drills to see which one I best get alignment of move and result...

Man, it's not you that needs to know the cause, it's US so we can offer an appropriate drill. 

 

Maybe less attitude would be better... Or pay for advice. 

[getitdaily]

1 minute ago, TheDeanAbides said:

Man, it's not you that needs to know the cause, it's US so we can offer an appropriate drill. 

 

Maybe less attitude would be better... Or pay for advice. 

I'm not looking for an appropriate drill for the cause. 

 

Hence why I asked in the OP for just drills. 

 

For example 

 

1. Hit balls with your butt against a chair or alignment stick

2. Make an exaggerated move to squat during the backswing

3. Make an exaggerated move to lower the chest without squatting during the downswing.

4. Lead shoulder more down during takeaway 

 

Etc. I am just looking for a pinata of drills (to steal the term from the above poster). I'm not trying to correlate...just want to try a bunch of drills to see what my mind and body connect the best with.

[getitdaily]

24 minutes ago, MonteScheinblum said:

What’s the cause?

 

Lack of lead knee bend

Flat shoulder turn

Excess forward bend at address

Excess extension

Let's assume they're all the cause...

[thed0n]

To me this is more a feel than a drill.  The head is getting closer to the ball by feeling like your trail hip is working around/toward your front heel or that the trail leg is straightening AND your front knee is flexing more as you take the club back.  See the “look” in the picture below.

 

Of course you can do this with your head on the wall, your head will get lower during the backswing, no club involved, just practicing the movement.

Edited November 15, 2021 by thed0n

[thed0n]

[RichieHunt]

3 hours ago, MonteScheinblum said:

What’s the cause?

 

Lack of lead knee bend

Flat shoulder turn

Excess forward bend at address

Excess extension

 

I agree here.  Although you can do it, in part, due to a shoulder turn that is too steep.  From my own personal experience I have the 'heave move' as AMG likes to call it.  Basically too much left tilting and getting the arms to travel by tilting instead of turning.  To get more leverage I end up raising the torso (and not flexing the left knee enough) and the head raises as a result.

 

I would also add that having a 'reverse roll' move can cause this as well.  This is where, from the golfer's perspective, the arms rotate more counter clockwise and the wrists hinge upward.  The trail arm gets well above the lead arm and the trail elbow points upward instead of point downward.

 

 

 

 

 

RH

[Nickc]

6 hours ago, getitdaily said:

 

Please - just drills or feels that helped. Not wanting to bog down the thread with debate about what's causing it or the like

Get someone to stand behind you holding an iron head an inch or so above your head. You'll soon work out how to stop your head raising in the backswing!

As they say no gain without pain!

Edited November 15, 2021 by Nickc
Bit at end

[liquorandpoker]

Training aid instead?

 

[liquorandpoker]

"What drills or exaggerated feelings have helped you with this same problem?"

 

Consider the video I posted to be an exagerated feeling.

 

You're welcome. 

 

 

 

 

[mikpga]

Understand lateral flexion…

[Valtiel]

10 hours ago, getitdaily said:

Let's assume they're all the cause...

Each one of those likely has a different drill/feel/solution though, so you could receive half a dozen drills that are irrelevant to the problem which obviously wouldn't be helpful. If you know the cause then we need to as well to recommend anything relevant. 

[oiler45]

I have fought the raising the head in the backswing for many many years. The best drill or swing thought that I use to fix this is to simply try to keep my head as steady as possible in my backswing. When I watch my swing in slo-mo my head still moves a bit laterally but it does remain fairly level. Keeping my giant melon level greatly improves my ball striking - especially my iron game.

[getitdaily]

1 hour ago, Valtiel said:

Each one of those likely has a different drill/feel/solution though, so you could receive half a dozen drills that are irrelevant to the problem which obviously wouldn't be helpful. If you know the cause then we need to as well to recommend anything relevant. 

But I want those half dozen drills...I want to try different feelings to see what they do. I get causation and a related drill. For this, I specifically want to throw out causation and just get drills. 

 

There's a method to my madness here...hence my original post's ask. 

[againstthegrain]

6 hours ago, Nickc said:

Get someone to stand behind you holding an iron head an inch or so above your head. You'll soon work out how to stop your head raising in the backswing!

As they say no gain without pain!

 

This works!  And you can do the reverse where the club is touching the body and you maintain contact w the club.  Maintaining contact could be easier because it's a new feeling, as opposed to stopping doing something incorrectly. 

 

Your  body figures it out, but it's time consuming making it permanent.

 

This is great for stopping sliding as well.

[Valtiel]

2 hours ago, getitdaily said:

But I want those half dozen drills...I want to try different feelings to see what they do. I get causation and a related drill. For this, I specifically want to throw out causation and just get drills. 

 

There's a method to my madness here...hence my original post's ask. 

Ah gotcha. The first thing I would try honestly would be to take your normal setup position and then simply feel like you "stand up" those extra 2-3" prior to takeaway, kinda like the reverse of that little sink move that someone like Stenson has right before he starts his. Video yourself and see if you then standup another 2-3" or if you stay the same, that way you can rule out setup posture.  

Edited November 16, 2021 by Valtiel

[getitdaily]

9 hours ago, againstthegrain said:

 

This works!  And you can do the reverse where the club is touching the body and you maintain contact w the club.  Maintaining contact could be easier because it's a new feeling, as opposed to stopping doing something incorrectly. 

 

Your  body figures it out, but it's time consuming making it permanent.

 

This is great for stopping sliding as well.

100% on the lateral move thing. The drill I'm doing right now is to feel like my chest goes down (not my hips or legs) during the backswing. Face on view, I'm much more centered in my turn. That makes me less lateral in the downswing. I'm covering the ball really well. But with that drill I'm getting a bit more squatty in the backswing and that isn't what I want. 

[jds_mlb]

If you know the cause then just go to google and type “How to fix [cause] in the golf swing “ you’ll get all the drills you could want. 

[getitdaily]

4 minutes ago, jds_mlb said:

If you know the cause then just go to google and type “How to fix [cause] in the golf swing “ you’ll get all the drills you could want. 

Thanks. Wonder why I didn't think of that. 😒

[getitdaily]

On 11/15/2021 at 8:53 PM, mikpga said:

Understand lateral flexion…

Appreciate this post. Concise and not bogged down with "what's the cause". Ventured into some reading and found an article I think will help. Also think this is where my key will end up being. Now just have to work on a couple of moves to see how the rest of my body reacts. 

 

Thanks for posting!

[oiler45]

I had a bit of an Aha revelation on the rising up in the backswing this weekend when looking at my swing in slo-mo.  Really concentrating on moving my right butt cheek BACK during the backswing versus letting the weight move on to the balls or the toes of right foot, this results in keeping my head much more level. Another advantage of this is that it is a fairly easy thing to do - I'm really surprised I didn't notice this before in my swing.

[getitdaily]

On 11/15/2021 at 8:53 PM, mikpga said:

Understand lateral flexion…

Wanted to come back to my own thread and say thanks to you for your post. Exactly what i was after!

 

After some digging and trying a few feelings, I provided feedback to my instructor on 3 different feelings of generally the same move....chest down.

 

Feeling 1 - chest down during takeaway 

2 - chest down at p3

3 - chest down in transition 

 

We quickly eliminated feel 2, as I knew we would. Just too much going on at p3.

 

Feeling 1 and 3 produced good results but on course, feeling 3 had me thinking more of chest down and not "hands low and left". I hit a couple of iron shots that hinge out right. We also noticed that chest down in transition exacerbated my slight hands toward the ball move in transition.

 

Got on flightscope and checked path, face, AoAn etc and feeling 1 just produced great numbers. Never hit a shot left (I'm a fader). Everything was just so pure. It's the move I'll now work to ingrain but it already feels fairly natural. Added bonus is that move in the takeaway has reduced my need to worry obsessively about backswing handpath. Ball has less curve. Irons are pure. Could be a really good year coming up.

 

But your post helped me narrow into the thought I was after. I knew "maintain spine angle " but that terminology doesn't really help much. "Lateral flexion" just paints the picture so.perfectly. 

 

Gracias.

[mikpga]

5 minutes ago, getitdaily said:

Wanted to come back to my own thread and say thanks to you for your post. Exactly what i was after!

 

After some digging and trying a few feelings, I provided feedback to my instructor on 3 different feelings of generally the same move....chest down.

 

Feeling 1 - chest down during takeaway 

2 - chest down at p3

3 - chest down in transition 

 

We quickly eliminated feel 2, as I knew we would. Just too much going on at p3.

 

Feeling 1 and 3 produced good results but on course, feeling 3 had me thinking more of chest down and not "hands low and left". I hit a couple of iron shots that hinge out right. We also noticed that chest down in transition exacerbated my slight hands toward the ball move in transition.

 

Got on flightscope and checked path, face, AoAn etc and feeling 1 just produced great numbers. Never hit a shot left (I'm a fader). Everything was just so pure. It's the move I'll now work to ingrain but it already feels fairly natural. Added bonus is that move in the takeaway has reduced my need to worry obsessively about backswing handpath. Ball has less curve. Irons are pure. Could be a really good year coming up.

 

But your post helped me narrow into the thought I was after. I knew "maintain spine angle " but that terminology doesn't really help much. "Lateral flexion" just paints the picture so.perfectly. 

 

Gracias.