Instruction – Perfecting Impact Position
When you watch professional swings throughout the years, you will see many different takeaways, backswings and follow-throughs. But one position that is consistently similar through every high-level player is impact. The six inches before and after the golf ball. This is the most important part of the golf swing. If you can have a consistent impact, you are sure to shoot lower scores.
The above picture demonstrates setup position on the left and impact position on the right. Simulating impact is a good way to feel the weight moving forward, the hands leading the club head at impact and the body rotating open. This drill is to help get muscle memory and exaggerate the impact position to help feel how the body is supposed to be at impact, to help ingrain a good impact position.
For this drill, set up a golf ball and from here, shift your weight to your lead side slightly, shift the hands forward slightly in front of the clubhead and open your hips slightly where they are facing the target slightly. This is a good impact position. Hold this position for two to three seconds to ingrain the feeling, then hit some golf balls.
Hitting the ball first is important to have consistent ball flight, yardage and spin. A drill I did growing up and have students do is tee up the golf ball on a low tee and hit shots, focusing on divots starting just in front of the tee. When you do this drill, you can evaluate your divots, which will tell you a lot about your swing. It will tell you if you swing out-to-in, in-to-out, have a steep angle of attack, shallow angle of attack, and many more things.
Another drill I love to have students do is chip coins. If you can chip a coin, then hitting a golf ball will seem simple. If you have a yipping motion through impact, you will miss the coin or make poor contact with the coin. This drill helps to commit to the shot and trust your pivot will guide the clubhead through impact.
This is my favorite impact drill. I spent numerous hours growing up performing this drill and have many students do this drill. To perform this drill, draw a line in the sand where you would address the golf ball using a six iron. From here, start with small swings, practicing hitting the sand with your clubhead at the front of the line. If your clubhead enters the sand behind the line or a few inches in front of the line, that is not good as this means our path on the downswing was not good or our weight transfer was not good. After you get confident with small swings, build up to full swings. Remember, if you cannot do this drill with small swings, you will never be able to perform this drill with full swings.
I hope you enjoy these drills, and they help improve your impact position. I am looking for five golfers with a goal to break 85 by December 31st, to get in my three-month long break 85 program.
There are only FIVE openings. If you are interested, call or text me at 972-399-9040.