Should You Keep Watching the Ball during the Golf Swing?

I often hear these golf swing advice "Keep your eyes on the ball."

 

This is the correct advice, but how should you watch the ball at address, during the backswing and downswing and impact?

 

Watching the Clubhead Go Back is a Terrible Habit

Some golfers watch the clubhead go back at the start of their backswing. But this is one of the worst habits you can have. They probably picked up this habit while checking  their golf swing positions. But if you do this, you will tend of bad things to the right during the backswing. This could cause all kinds of bad things to happen during your golf swing. It can cause reverse-pivot, swaying toward the target during the downswing, loss of distance, slice and much more.

 

If you have this bad habit, you should stop doing th at. Keep your  eyes on the ball during your backswing through impact. But I don't want you to keep your head still. Your head should rotate to the right as you turn back during the backswing. Because your head and your spine are connected, your head should naturally rotate to the right. But when I ask players to keep their eyes on the ball, they try to keep their head still in an effort to keep watching the golf ball.

 

Allow your head to rotate to the riht. You will feel like you are moving away from the ball because of that. But this is fine as long as you are not swaying to the right. If you find it hard to keep watching the ball during the backswing, try to see the ball with your left eye at the top of your swing. This will help you rotate your head to the right.

 

Which Part of the Ball do you see at Address?

Probably, most players see the top of the ball at address. But let's pretend that the ball is much bigger. If the ball was 5 feet in diameter, would you still try to see the top of it? You would try to see the right side of the ball where your clubface will contact with it. The golf ball is much smaller than that, but you should do the same thing and try to watch the right side of the ball where your clubface will contact with it at impact.

 

How about Impact?

Do you watch the ball at impact? Because the impact occurs in the blink of an eye, you can't actually see the ball at the  moment of impact. But some pros try to see the ball on their mind. They try to see the ball compressed against the clubface and then leave the clubface. I try to re-create the feeling of impact when the clubface perfectly catches the ball and the sound of impact in my mind especially during the downswing through impact.

 

Reference: http://www.golfsamurai.net/golfswing/watch-the-ball.htm