During a golf swing, it is essential to keep your head still.
In our guide, we will give you some of the best drills for keeping your head still and also help you understand why less head movement in the golf swing is essential.
Don’t worry if you have a bit of movement in your golf swing currently! \In certain areas of the game, head movement is good.
However, on the takeaway, when you are working on getting your swing started and head down the right path, it makes the most sense to stay center and keep your head still.
Here are the solutions that could change your golf game as early as today!
5 Golf Drills To Keep Head Still
Keeping your head still helps you stay more centered and balanced throughout your golf swing.
However, this process is easier said than done.
Some golfers know that they should keep their heads still, but they still struggle to do it on every swing.
Here are five golf drills that will help you keep your head still and start playing better golf today.
1. Shadow Drill
Have you ever been putting on the golf course and had your shadow annoy you?
Sometimes, depending on the angle of the sun at the time, your shadow can get in the way and make it difficult for players to see their line.
However, when you are working on keeping your head still in golf, you may find that your shadow can help you.
Seeing your shadow is essentially a way to watch your golf swing as it happens.
Of course, this is a drill you will want to do in a practice swing as opposed to a shot.
Setup when you can see your shadow clearly on the ground.
This will take practicing at a certain time of day so that the sun angle is right, and it may take facing a certain direction.
The best thing to do is to take a wedge or a seven iron, a club that is easy to swing and set up so you can see this shadow in front of you.
Then start taking swings and focus on keeping your head in place.
As you turn, you will want to see that your head’s shadow stays on the ground in the same general position it started.
As we have mentioned, there is a good amount of head movement after the impact of the ball.
You must allow your head to eventually rotate out and up, and that is completely fine.
When working on golf drills to keep your head in place, mostly focus on the backswing and the head stability needed for this part of the swing.
The shadow drill is free, it’s easy, and if you catch the driving range at just the right time, it can be effective.
2. Swing In Pieces
Sometimes players know a lot about their swing, and others have no idea how all of the parts work together to create their golf technique.
The trouble with many golfers is that they always take a full golf swing with full power each time they hit.
These swings are big, but they don’t allow much time for thought, making it difficult to work on different areas of the game.
Players that are really good at golf can break their swing down into several different parts.
They can hit half or ¾ type shots, and they can focus on little things in the golf swing that may be causing them issues.
Swinging in pieces and learning each area of your swing is a great drill to help keep your head still.
The best way to start with this is by hitting small chip shots where the club does not come past the parallel point.
You should feel that as you hit these golf shots, your head stays directly over the ball, and your body rotates and pivots around this point.
Once you need a little more distance, you will look for more rotation from your body, without adding more movement in your head.
Try to pinpoint the area in your golf swing that causes the most head movement.
For most players, it is the takeaway.
Golfers have this false notion that by swinging back with great power and movement with their heads away from the ball, they will gain power.
In some professionals, this does gain power, but these professionals also had tremendous timing and rotation.
Not all golfers are equipped with these skills, and therefore it is difficult to repeat this swing.
If you know you are not keeping your head still when you swing, work on breaking the swing down into pieces and focusing on the areas that have the most head movement.
3. Wire Hanger Drill
The wire hanger drill is a simple but effective way to work on keeping your head still on the backswing and then again at impact.
If you have an old wire hanger, bring it with you the next time you go to the driving range.
Although there are other ways to complete this drill, the wire hanger method tends to be a really good one.
Take the wire hanger and turn it into a piece of wire by unwrapping it.
You will also likely need to cut it in half at least.
Then you will make an L shape out of the hanger.
Push one part of the L into the ground and leave the other part hovering over the golf ball.
Make sure there are a good four to five inches of clearance over the golf ball.
From the top down, when you look at your ball, you should see that the wire hanger almost splits the golf ball in half.
The idea here is that you want to keep this visual image throughout your entire swing.
If you move your head, you will be seeing the ball and the hanger from a completely different angle and the visual will change.
We like this concept because it is something you can work on while you are hitting shots, not just practicing the motions.
Some players struggle with drills that do not allow you to hit the ball, as the information does not seem to sink in quite as quickly.
The most important of the wire hanger drill is to keep the clearance of the wire hanger above the golf ball.
You will need room for your club to swing through, and you don’t want it to hit the hanger, especially if you have a graphite shaft.
4. Arms Crossed
The arms crossed drill is one of the most common golf drills out there.
With this drill, you put your club down and place your arms across your chest.
Next, you will find a mirror that you can use to practice.
Take a dry erase marker and mark your head position on the mirror.
It is best to do this with a friend.
Setup and mark this head position, and use this marked position as you work on your backswing.
When you take a swing back, look at the mirror to see if your head has any up and down or lateral movement.
Of course, you are going to want to avoid both in your golf swing.
The lines that you draw on the mirror can be on all sides of your head.
In addition, you will need to ensure that you ignore the lines after impact.
Remember that as we rotate through the golf ball, the head can move up and out of the shot so that you get the proper rotation.
Don’t feel stuck at the golf ball; it won’t help you in the long run.
The arms crossed drill is a great one because you don’t need any fancy equipment, and you can practice it away from the golf course.
This concept of creating a great pivot and rotation is a smart one to work on and will translate well to the golf course.
5. Alignment Sticks And Video
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The golf alignment stick has become the most popular golf training device on the market.
Alignment sticks can help so many areas of the game that many players realized this was the simplest and easiest to use option out there.
However, until recently, there were issues with the alignment stick not being able to bend, even though a bend can help with quite a few different golf drills.
Luckily that has changed, and there are now alignment stick options that have small areas where you can attach another alignment stick to create an angle or a 90-degree practice tool.
This type of technology has essentially made it possible to do something like the hanger drill without having to take apart and construct your own device.
There are plenty of other uses for these alignment sticks, so they are worth having in your golf bag.
When using alignment sticks to practice keeping your head still, we highly recommend setting up a T on the ground where you practice.
The vertical line of the tee will be your ball position and essentially the line you want your head to stay on.
For reference, another alignment stick is used to keep your feet in place through the swing.
Then we recommend taking this drill to the next level by also using video.
Take some swings with these sticks in place.
They will act as a point of reference in the video.
Then watch a few videos of your swing and see how your head is moving and if it is rotating like it should or sliding side to side and up and down.
Then you can work on any of the drills we described while trying to be more conscious about your head movement.
After you have a few good swings, compare your original video to the new video to see what the differences are like and how your game has improved.
Having the videos of your swing from when you first started working on your game to the way it has progressed can be entertaining to look at.
Golfers progress through the years, and their golf swings and techniques go through some significant changes.
It’s a great idea to keep an eye on these changes and ensure that they are positive.
If you have a big golf budget and you can also add a launch monitor to this practice setup, you may get even more helpful results.
The launch monitor lets you see how things like ball flight, distance, and spin change when your head is kept in the proper position throughout your golf swing.
Why Is It Important To Keep Head Still During The Golf Swing?
Now that you know how to keep your head still during the golf swing, you may wonder why this is so important.
There are some key reasons that keeping your head still will be worth the trouble you go through to get into this position.
Let’s take a look at your motivation for keeping your head still as you work on your golf game.
1. Balance
Balance in a golf swing is essential, and many players struggle to stay balanced when they hit shots.
Balance is an issue because it causes a loss of power and makes it difficult to hit the ball in the center of the club’s face.
Keeping your head still ensures that your weight transfers appropriately and that you are centered at impact.
When you move your head, this is much more difficult to do.
There are other ways to work on balance, including spending time at the gym and becoming more flexible.
However, when you look at the golf swing and the weight that we carry in our heads, it’s very easy to lose balance because of head movement.
Your spine angle will be impacted, and the strike you have with the ball will not be nearly as good when you move your head around during the swing.
2. Consistency
Golfers that can remain relatively still throughout their golf swing are almost always more consistent.
It’s hard to become a consistent golfer, and those that can do it often end up being a lower handicap.
If you are afraid that consistency is a major issue for you, it makes sense to work on your head movement.
Do you think it’s easier to keep your head still shot after shot, or is it easier to move your head back a good six inches and then return it to the ball in the exact same way every time?
Clearly, it is much easier to keep it still and allow yourself to stay centered and balanced when you hit golf shots.
Overall, consistency is a problem that many players deal with, and they don’t know what areas to address to fix it.
If you can learn to keep your head still, consistency sometimes falls into place naturally.
3. Better Ball Speed
Ball speed is the name of the game.
If you can get more ball speed, you will have a better chance of hitting great shots, getting impressive distance, and shooting lower overall scores.
However, for golfers to get high ball speeds, their swing needs to be efficient.
Players that can keep their heads still and controlled as they swing through the ball will get much better ball speed.
This is because when the head starts to move in front of the ball before impact is made, you lose all of the power that you built up in the backswing.
Instead, at the impact, your head should remain behind the ball, and your golf swing should continue forward through the shot.
Once you make contact, it’s fine for your head to release and move upwards toward the target; however, this is something you will need to develop over time.
Ball speed is the way to more distance, and although it is directly related to club head speed, you must do everything you can in your swing to generate the most club head speed possible, including keeping your head still
Should I Move My Head In My Golf Swing?
Your head should remain stable and in place during your golf swing.
As you take the club back, there is no need to move that far away from the ball, and it’s definitely not a good thing to have your head move up and down.
Keeping your head in place will ensure that you get better overall distance and that your shots are more consistent.
NEXT: 6 Best Golf Clubs For The Driving Range (2023 Updated)