You 'Kneed' to Know!
One of the game’s oldest anecdotes is for players to “keep their head still.” While weekend wisdom is typically unsubstantiated and marred by faulty logic, data samples collected from the PGA Tour show on average the head moves less than one inch. Key #1 in the 5 Simple Keys is a Steady Head and understanding how to properly keep your head steady will improve your ball striking.
The knees control head movement during the swing, and an often harmful cliché is for players to maintain the flex in their trail knee. Doing so while maintaining a Steady Head severely limits a player’s hip turn, a primary source of power. In order to compensate for the lost power, players may turn the upper body thus causing the head to shift behind the ball which makes consistent ball striking difficult.
Allowing the trail knee to decrease bend and the lead knee to move down toward the golf ball in the backswing will do two things. First, the hips can turn to create additional power and second, players will improve Key #1 and their ball striking.
To see what this motion looks like, click the link below for a video filmed courtesy of GolfMDs.com.
Thank you for reading and get ready to start learning Key #1 - Steady Head!