QUESTION: I have a bad habit of picking up my head and coming out of the shot. How do I stop doing this?

ANSWER: This perhaps is one of the most miss diagnosed mistakes in the game. The raising of the head is the symptom. There are two main reasons that you are elevating your torso. First is the most common, usually our posture to the ball is flawed. A good stance requires us to be in a balanced position to our feet. If we start from an imbalanced posture the equilibrium in our middle ears will rectify the situation and return us to normalcy. Which in most cases causes us to stand up. It is this reaction that is identified as the 'rising head'. Reason number two for you malady is a 'lowering center'. As we swing, the center of the arc (approximately the base of the neck) drops significantly causing an early contact with the ground prior to moving the ball. Once we hit turf too early we reflexively elevate to avoid the ground and imminent pain. The cure for the first reason is learn to establish the habit of a balanced posture. The trick is understanding counterbalancing. Your weight should be evenly distributed on the feet from heel to toe. As the body bows forward to address the ball the hips and butt need to move backward past the heels. The pressure on your feet will resemble the pressure you feel when you stand normally.

The cure for the second reason is learning to identify the swing center and keep it from lowering before the club moves to the ball. Practice hitting balls while standing on one foot or feet very close together as any change of center will cause you to topple.