You hit one shot great, then the next one ugly. Your friends tell you to ‘keep your head down’, but that makes your ball striking worse. You need to have a consistent and square strike of the ball in the middle of the clubface and on the proper path to be able to get more distance and accuracy. How do you achieve that? POSTURE, PATH & BALANCE! POSTURE – You have heard me mention time and again that one of the major keys of ball striking consistency is keeping your posture (or spine angle), throughout your swing, but in particular – on your backswing and through the hitting area. If you come out of your posture in any shape or form during these times, you can stare at the ball and keep looking down at the ball all you want, you are going to mishit it or even whiff! Watch any professional and notice how their posture stays consistent. I like to stay, if you are 5’7″ at address, you are 5’7″ in your backswing, 5’7″ at impact and 5’7″ at the finish! No up and down — your golf swing is more of a back-and-through motion instead of an up-down-up motion. PATH – The path the clubhead takes into the hitting area is controlled by your posture. Obviously if you change your posture as you swing, you are changing the path of the clubhead into the ball. You want a square face into the ball with a square path. Posture helps you do that. The clubhead swings through into the finish, but not without the help of good posture and good balance. BALANCE – Have you ever seen a golf professional finish their swing off balance? Not likely. They know the result of good balance will equal a good shot. To start your downswing, you start with your balance moving first, NOT the club. This motion is like an underhanded toss; your shift your weight into your front leg as you unwind your hips/torso and toss the ball underhanded to the target. Some people liken it to ‘bowling down the lane sideways’ – whatever works for you — but the downswing tempo is controlled by what your balance does. Posture and Balance are interrelated. You can’t have good balance without good posture, and vice versa. When you have them working correctly and fluently together, the Path that the club travels into the hitting area and into the ball will be much improved as a result. I have my students swing a club under a rope and into an impact bag to feel posture, path and balance all at once.   So the next time your friends say keeping your head down is the reason why your not hitting the ball, I beg to differ….I would check out your posture, path and balance — not what your head is doing.