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Shattering an Old Swing Myth

BY MARK IMMELMAN

Achieving clean club-ball-turf contact is easy… As easy as forgetting that Old Wives' Tale, "Keep your head down."  

Shatter the myth, and add freedom to your golf swing by keeping your chin up from address through impact, rather than keeping your head down.  

Keep Your Chin Up

This simple key will help to put your body in position to strike those shots crisply and cleanly. The reasons being are because the chin up position ensures two very important factors in your golf swing.

1. It allows your shoulders to rotate and pivot freely on the back and through-swings, hence giving you that essential rotational leverage that is one of the main sources of power and swing speed. If your chin is too close to the chest at address, your body will have to make unnecessary adjustments in order to wind your upper body during the swing.

2. Crisply struck shots result from the club meeting the ball at the apex of the downswing. As the arms extend at impact, the clubhead reaches maximum speeds and solid contact results. In order for the arms to be able to find that critical extension, the body needs to remain fairly elevated and the body angles have to be kept. The chin, insignificant as it may seem, plays an important role in the overall process. If it is kept up, the body will remain elevated, the spine angles will be kept and the arms will be able to extend to the moment of truth.

Ensuring the Correct Chin Up Position at Address

You may be wondering how, if the chin is carried higher at address, you will be able to keep your eye on the ball as you swing the golf club. All that you need to do as you address the golf ball is to distance the chin from the chest and then look down at the golf ball with your eyes - almost as if your are looking at the ball through the bottom of your eyelids.  

As you achieve this address position, you should feel that your body is standing taller and the torso is somewhat raised. This is a key element, as it will allow the body is rotate faster, thus creating extra leverage in your golf swing 

Good Golfing!