Working at it

I'm trying to get used to my new neutral grip, adjusting to the loss of distance that happens with the shorter irons, with the compensating increase in accuracy and elimination of so many pulled shots.

Driver and longer clubs are also a work in progress because of a continued tendency to hook shots which, I believe, comes from increased anxiety about fading and pushing shots to the right with the resultant over-use of hands and arms. I think this will resolve, after all good golf swing rely on trust, basically being able to trust that the ball will not do something really crazy.

Meanwhile, all of this grip change and adjustment that's going on has not stopped me from noticing something that is probably getting past the attention of a large percentage of social golfers - keeping your head down.

Keeping your head down has got some bad press lately, with various commentators talking about how this head down business is one of golf's instructional gaffes, causing golfers to constrict their swings, inhibit their ball striking and so forth. But I when I was faced with a couple of tricky downhill-lie pitch shots the other day I realised how critical it was that I stayed down right through contact, with good results then and with some later full iron shots.

Staying down doesn't mean dipping, nor does it mean keeping your head down so low or so tucked that it restricts movement. Staying down really just means not looking up at the split second of impact. It means staying in your impact position for half a second or some small time interval after you have struck the ball. It is a way of thinking and being during the critical downswing stage that helps prevent the often destructive look up and related lift up tendency.

Anxiety and/or eagerness to see the shot result are two of the main reasons golfers look up quickly at or just after impact. This often contributes to poor ball striking, thin shots in particular, something that can be avoided simply by saying to yourself 'stay down'. Anyway, I'm working on it.