For many golfers when they start working on their body rotation, they don't understand how dominant this feeling to push from the left side is that causes your head to move off the ball. And, of course, every single move that you put into the swing, you've got to eventually take out to get back to where you started. That's kind of the goal, is that our address position obviously is a little bit different from our impact position with our open body, and so on, but in terms of angles and things like that, we want it to be relatively close, and so when we move our head way off the ball, if you try to just stay there and hit the ball, you'd have tons of secondary tilt that's going to cause all kinds of problems. You'd never be able to get back to the ball. You'd chunk it.

                So what most people do is they move off the ball, and then they try to move back to the ball, and their head is moving all over the place, and they can't even figure it out, even when they're watching themselves in the mirror, they don't realize how much they're moving.

                So I came up with another drill to make it pretty straightforward and simple. If your head's moving, you're going to feel this one. You're going to know if your head's moving, and I use a wall to make this simple, so I'm going to turn my back to you for a second, and show you how this drill works. The long and short of it is that you're going to put your head on a wall and start working on your core body rotation drills, where you know your head should be staying center.

                If you are one of these people who tends to move off the ball, or if you're not sure, this is going to make it really clear, because you're going to feel your head dragging across the wall, especially on this stinking thing, because I got all these panels there, so I'm really going to feel it. So what you do is you put your head, your forehead, and you may use a pillow if you want to just give you some sort of padding here, but put your head against the wall. I'll put my hat on backwards so I know it doesn't get in the way, and as I rotate back, my head should basically move maybe an inch, and that's it.

                But from behind, you can see that my head is barely moving. If I do this, my head comes away from the wall, or starts dragging across the wall. It's going to be pretty obvious that you're pushing from this left side, that's causing your head to move off the ball. So, make sure when you're working on your drills, always check your head in the mirror. If you need to, put a piece of tape on the mirror, where on the left side of your head, and make sure your head doesn't move more than a piece of tape width off of it, about an inch, inch and a half is max. Any more than that and we've got this big swaying problem. Put your head on a wall, and you'll know right away if you're pushing, because your head's going to start dragging all over the place.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is a wall drill?

If you are one of these people who tends to move off the ball, or if you're not sure, the wall drill can help. So, what you do is you put your head, your forehead, and you may use a pillow, but put your head against the wall. And as you practice your swing and rotate back, your head should basically move maybe an inch, and that's it.

What can you learn about the wall drill?

Swaying off the ball in the backswing is a swing killer.  The wall drill can help you see how dominant the feeling is to push from the left side that causes your head to move off the ball, causing problems with your swing.