Looking Up Too Soon

I've been dogged with the problem of looking up from the ball too soon - or, as it is sometimes said, "lifting my head too quickly." I came across a most interesting explanation for this in The Swing Factory relating it to problems of tempo and rhythm.

Lifting the head, the book says, is a reflex reaction that happens after you have released power in your shot. You sense that you have discharged the force you want to apply to the ball, and you look up to see the result.

Lifting the head too early, according to this theory, is the result of releasing power too early. "Hit early and you will look early; hit late, and you will look late," the saying goes.

This comes back to tempo. An even tempo allows us to release power at the right time - in the hitting zone between the feet. If we do that, we will find that we are lifting our head at the correct time as well - after impact, not before.