Head position/posture at impact
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Jack Shoger
2 weeks, 4 days ago
Loved the webinar…I had some connection issues. Question…I teach an elite junior golfer that has a bright future. Been working with him for 8 years already…he was a small kid that wanted to excel from an early age. Throwing his hips into every shot…he developed a significant lowering of his head through impact. Tried to have him practice swing with his forehead up against a door jam…tried also to get him to extend his arms more at impact. The strange combination has him straighten his legs at impact. I attribute all of this back to his days of swinging hard when he was little. He’s a growing 14 years old that is winning most events he plays in. Any advice how I can get him to stop getting so bent over with straight legs at impact? Video included. Thanks, Jack
3 Replies
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Zach Fellman
1 week, 5 days ago
Man, what terrific work you’ve done! I’m not going to talk out of turn, but for comparison I’ve included Koepka for leg extension and Potgieter for thoracic bend. I’m not sure these are faults that need to be modified in your junior’s swing- perhaps they’re just signs of good bracing and rotation, but I’ll let the expert speak to that.
Cheers!
Zach
Replying to Zach
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Jack Shoger
1 week, 5 days ago
Thanks Zach…so true there are many ways to get there. Natalie Gulbis had a great career with similar swing attributes.
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Tyler Ferrell
Coach
1 week, 4 days ago
Hi Jack,
I agree with Zach. You've built quite a swing, checks a lot of the boxes.
Personally, I'm not too worried about the leg straightening. To me, the issue to monitor is the trail arm dominance. It has a bit of a Patrick Reed look. He's been recorded practicing lots of trail arm connection drills over the last handful of years. T
In your students case, I think the look you see in the downswing is avoiding the wipe. In the webinar Q&A, I described the sling for the obliques. It looks like your student doesn't use that group as much and uses more the rectus and pec for that trail arm. This pattern doesn't usually become a problem until the swing speed gets above 105ish, then it frequently shows up as a driver clubface control issue. Not everyone battles it, for example, he might be the next Patrick Reed. So just from the one clip, I'm not sure how directly I would focus on it. But it might be something to consider.
If he's getting into training, I would probably start with working in the gym on making that core connection stronger. Working on the serratus anterior with the obliques and adductors would make it easier to adjust that pattern.
Good luck!
Tyler
