Why You Need This: Today's video is going to show you how to "Improve Your Impact Position"

I think most of us want to have consistency in our golf game.

The problem is golf can be an incredibly difficult game if we try and break down every aspect of our swing before each of our shots.

Having one or two simple swing thoughts before you pull the club away and begin your swing is all you need.

Any more than that, and everything starts to get jumbled up, and consistency becomes increasingly difficult.

In today's video, I'm going to give you two areas to focus on to create the right "feel" at impact.

Turn these two focuses into two swing thoughts to take to the first tee, and you'll be well on your way to playing consistent golf and striking the ball pure!

Let's get started.....

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 7:41

Video Transcription:

It’s absolutely great to have you here today. I can’t wait to share with you some of my best drills to help you improve your impact position.

Now if you want to contact the ball solid day in and day out, these drills are really going to help you to do that.

But this is not a video where you just sit there, you listen to the video, and say OK, those are pretty good ideas. I like that, and then click over the next video.

Grab a golf club right now. Grab a broom, an umbrella, whatever you can grab in your hands. Let’s work through some of these positions with your hips, your shoulders, your arms, your body, to be able to deliver that club to contact with any club in the bag.

If we’re swinging a pitching wedge all the way up to a driver, these things I’m going to go over in this drill are really going to help with that.

So let’s dive right into it. First let’s start with the hips. That’s one of the most important parts to having good impact.

One of the most common mistakes that I see is players standing up out of this. So the hips start to go forward toward the golf ball instead of rotating open.

That causes my head to get farther back away from the golf ball, and I end up flipping at the golf ball, kind of flipping with my hands to be able to reach the golf ball and to have somewhat of a consistent contact when I’m moving my body this way.

So here’s what we want to do to combat this. One of the biggest ideas with Top Speed Golf System, and what I really promote is what I call the Straight-Line Release.

What this is, you can imagine, when is my club releasing and splitting my forearms? So if I’m swinging this golf club, and I choke up on the shaft here, as I release this, when does my club fully release to where it’s matching my forearms?

I measured the top players in the world. I measured about 50 players that have one Major championships since the year 2000.

What I found is, on average those players are releasing that about 40°, 39° in front of contact.

So if I kind of think of this point roughly 45° in front, they were anywhere from 28° to 50° in front, if we want to get specific. So anywhere in this zone up here, that’s where I’m releasing this golf club.

Now what happens with your swing, is as you start your downswing your hips start to open up. Your hips get to that point, or facing that point first.

My hips are leading the way, then my hips slow down, my shoulders catch up, they’re facing this direction next. Then my club and arms catch up and then they’re facing this direction.

When everything gets going, I call this the Straight-Line Release because hips, my shoulders, my arms, my club, when it’s 45° in front are all going to be pointing in the same direction. But the hips get there first.

What I want you to do to get a feel for this, let’s grab a club, put it kind of on your belt loops here, and I want you to start your downswing by having a little bit of pressure going to your left heel.

Then you’re going to simulate going to that Straight-Line Release. My hips 45° open. Go ahead and do 5 or 10 of these so you can really feel like those hips are opening up.

Notice how my right heel starts to come off the ground to allow my hips to open up this way. Again, I’m putting a little pressure in my left heel, kind of driving that down to let those hips rotate open.

Now, let’s go ahead and do the same thing with a golf club. I’m going to go ahead, do that same motion again, and as I drive into the ground, that’s where my impact position is going to be.

Again I’m kind of pausing where I’d be at impact. Right heel comes up, left heel drives down, hips open up there.

So that’s giving me a momentum to where as I swing this club, my hips are leading the way. We’ve got to get away from this, hips coming up, body going back, the flip.

So really work on 10 or 15 of those. Get that feeling of where you want to be.

Now the next piece up in this, what is my upper body, my left pec and my left bicep going to be doing?

So as my hips lead the way, what happens there is my chest opens up also. So if I get rid of the left arm, and I just look at what my chest and torso’s doing, as my hips open up, my chest kind of follows along with it.

PGA Tour players, that they found when they measured these on 3D, is that the rib cage of their torso is about 20° to 30° open at impact.

When I do this, my left arm is going to feel like it’s against my rib cage. My left bicep, the upper arm here, is against my left pec.

If I was to put a glove against my left armpit, as I start my downswing, that would be nice and tight, and connected.

That’s going to allow me to be connected as I come through contact. That’s what you should have the sensation of.

Now if I’m used to kind of standing up and flipping, that left arm may be chicken-winging and actually coming off there a little bit. That’s not what we want. We want to feel that nice and tight.

So again, do 10 or 15 reps. As you’re focusing on the start of the downswing, the rib cage starts to open up, my left arm is nice and tight against my body, and I’m coming all the way to contact, really feeling connected.

I’m adding my left bicep to what would be my hip rotation and my body rotation to get that good contact point.

Now after contact, and I hit the ball, then that arm can fly off there. As I come to the full finish, obviously my left arm’s going to come off my rib cage.

You’ll see as I go to this angle, that’s coming off my rib cage and really separating. It’s just at contact I want to feel that nice and tight.

Now let’s go over to the right arm now. Let’s do another 10 or 15 reps. What’s happening again, is when I got to my Straight-Line Release, that’s when my right arm is fully firing and releasing the club.

Prior to my Straight-Line release, I have some lag. This club is lagging behind, my right arm is bent, and then that’s releasing. Watch just my right elbow, that’s releasing until I get to my Straight-Line Release.

So everything, imagine I have this club and I’m going to throw that club out toward the Straight-Line Release point. I’m letting that club release there. That’s the sensation I want to have.

If I were going to throw a baseball or a golf ball to that point in front, that right arm is straightening there.

When you come to contact, let’s do those same drills again. 10 or 15 more, hips lead the way, left side of the body tight, and the right elbow is still bent, slightly bent as I’m coming into contact.

That’s your good impact position. That’s where you want to be. Then as I go on through to the Straight-Line Release, now that’s fully released and straight. 10 or 15 reps of that, then let’s tie it all in together here.

As you make a swing, I want to feel nice and connected. I want to feel all three parts of my body. My hips open, left side tight, right arm kind of connected into my body, a little bit bent. Then releasing after the ball.

If I do all three of those, I’m going to be in great impact position, I’m going to hit some really nice golf shots.

So what do we do from here? Now if you’re a member of the website, this is a great place to start.

You’re getting these feelings of opening your body, getting everything connected here at impact. Getting to where you can get in a better position to move through that Straight-Line Release.

This is a great stepping stone to get started with that. But if I really want to ingrain it, if I want to make it to where I show up after a bad night’s sleep and hitting three range balls on the range.

I really don’t feel like I have everything together, and I step up to the first tee and I make a swing, and it’s nice, and solid, and straight. Straight-Line Release is good, my swing is in very good fundamentally sound positions.

The only way I can do that is to work through a system where I can build those pieces together and make those automatic.

What I want you to do once you finish the drills we did in this video today, go to the Straight-Line Release section of the Top Speed Golf System. Click on the Instruction tab, Top Speed Golf System, then down the Straight-Line Release.

Work on level 1. Do those drills. Start to work on level 2, level 3, that way when you make a swing, all this just starts to happen.

Those little building blocks build on each other step, by step, by step, and you really don’t even have to think, it becomes completely automatic. That’s the only way to do this.

Best of luck, I can’t wait to work with you in the Straight-Line Release drills, and I’ll see you there. Let’s go ahead and get started.