Lifting your head during the golf swing is one of the most common - and misunderstood - faults in a golfer's game. This single move is a guaranteed way to hit weak, topped, or thin shots, yet the advice to keep your head down rarely fixes the problem. This guide will walk you through why you lift your head, what’s really happening in your swing when you do, and most importantly, give you practical, step-by-step drills to finally stop doing it.
First, let’s get on the same page about why lifting your head is such a shot-killer. When you set up to the golf ball, you establish a very specific posture - a forward tilt from your hips that creates your spine angle. This angle is the center of your entire golf swing. Every good golf swing rotates around the spine.
When you lift your head, you aren't just raising your chin. Your entire upper body is coming up with it. This action violently changes your spine angle mid-swing. Think of it like this: you aimed the rifle at the target, but right before you pulled the trigger, you lifted the barrel. The result is just as unpredictable.
The consequences show up as the most frustrating shots in golf:
So, we know it's a bad move. But the advice to just "keep your head down" is poor advice because it treats the wrong problem.
This is the most important part to understand: lifting your head is a symptom, not the actual disease. You don't have a "head problem," you have a "body problem."
Your head lifts because your body lifts. Specifically, your hips and torso stand up during the downswing, a flaw called "early extension." Early extension is when your lower body, instead of rotating and staying back, thrusts forward toward the golf ball. Your pelvis moves closer to the ball, your spine straightens, and your chest moves up and away from the ball.
Once your body does this, your head has absolutely no choice but to lift up with it. If it didn't, you'd fall on your face. So, trying to force your head to stay down while your body is standing up is not only impossible but creates a ton of tension and restricts your movement even further.
Why do golfers have early extension? It’s often an instinctual attempt to create power. The body thinks, "I need to hit this ball hard, so I will stand up and throw my hips at it." It feels powerful, but it destroys your swing mechanics. The true source of power comes from rotating your body while *maintaining* your postural tilt, which we’ll get into next.
To stop lifting your head, you must learn to stop lifting your body. You need to keep your posture throughout the swing, allowing your hips to rotate back and clear out of the way, not thrust forward.
Imagine a rod running from the base of your skull down to your tailbone. At address, you’ve tilted this rod forward. Throughout the backswing and the downswing, your goal is to simply rotate around that rod. Your shoulders turn, your hips turn_ - _all while that angle you established at setup remains mostly the same until well after the ball is gone.
The real secret isn't gluing your head down. It's learning the feeling of rotating your torso and hips while staying in your forward tilt. It is a rotational action that needs to move around the body in a circle-like manner, driven by the turning of your shoulders and hips.
When you do that correctly, your head will naturally stay steady without you even thinking about it.
Here are the drills and feels that will teach you how to do it.
These drills are designed to retrain your body's movement patterns. Don't just do them once, make them a regular part of your practice at home or on the range. Perform them slowly at first to really ingrain the feeling.
This is the gold standard for fixing early extension. It provides instant feedback when your hips move toward the ball instead of rotating correctly.
An on-the-course swing thought is more effective than a mechanical instruction. Instead of the negative and restrictive "keep your head down," try this more dynamic thought: "Keep my chest covering the ball through impact."
This thought encourages you to maintain your spine angle and keep rotating. If your chest is still pointing down at where the ball was an instant after you've hit it, it's physically impossible for your head to have lifted prematurely.
Often, golfers who lift their head have an "out of sync" swing, where the arms become disconnected from the body's rotation. This drill helps sync everything up, forcing your body to be the engine of the swing.
For some players, an aggressive lifting of the front (left) heel early in the downswing can trigger the whole body to lift. While many pros do let their left heel come up slightly, amateur golfers who struggle with early extension often do it too much, too soon, driving them up and out of their posture.
As a feel-based drill, try making three-quarter swings where you consciously think about keeping your left heel on the ground for as long as possible through impact. This encourages your lower body to rotate rather than thrusting upwards. It gives you a stable base to turn against, making it easier to maintain your forward tilt.
Stopping yourself from lifting your head is all about understanding the real cause. It isn't an isolated head movement, it's a symptom of your entire body rising out of its posture. By focusing on maintaining your spine angle and learning to rotate your body correctly, you will solve the root problem and your head will stay steady as a natural result.
Sometimes, understanding an issue is half the battle, but getting a feel for the fix can be tricky on your own. My app, Caddie AI, is designed to be a judgment-free, 24/7 golf coach in your pocket precisely for moments like this. If you’re struggling with issues like early extension, I can analyze your swing videos to pinpoint the exact moment you lose your posture and provide personalized drills and explanations. You can ask what the difference is between rotating and sliding or take a photo of your setup to see if you have the right tilt to begin with, getting instant, expert-level feedback whenever you need it.
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