Why You Need This: In this video, you get a perfect impact progression series.

You'll learn, step-by-step, how to make crisp contact with the ball.

If you struggle to compress the ball consistently, the drills in this video will help you fix your issues.

What you want is to feel like the ball is stuck to the clubface for a good 5 inches through contact, then release the club fully.

Of course, that's not really happening, but you should get that feeling.

The drills in this video start off simple and focus on impact at slow speeds...

Then the drills build up to a full speed swing.

The first drill focuses on your left hand position.

At impact, you'll want your left wrist bowed forward, forward shaft lean with the club, and open hips and shoulders.

The second drill works on your right arm.

For many right handed players, the right hand naturally wants to dominate and force the club through.

You want to avoid that because you'll flip the club and lose some of your lag.

So you'll want to "pet the grass" which is when the palm of your hand remains relatively flat, or parallel to the ground, through impact.

In your follow through, it'll feel like you're tossing a ball down the fairway.

Later in the video, you'll see acceleration drills to put all you learned into a smooth and quick swing.

Watch this video now to learn great progression drills to improve your impact!

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 10:45

Video Transcription:

Hey guys, welcome back. I’ve got an awesome video for you today. I know a lot of people really struggle as we’re coming through contact, getting that crisp, clean, solid contact. Getting the feeling like that ball is just smashing against the face, almost like it’s melting into the face.

A great way to visualize this is almost like the golf ball is stuck or melted into the face for a good five or six inches as you’re coming through contact, and then releasing the club out in front.

So in order to get this feeling, I think it’s really important to know how to tie the different motions in together. We’ll hear sometimes videos will focus in on the left hand, will focus in on the right hand, will focus in on the body and what it’s doing as we’re coming through impact.

In this video, let’s try to tie all that together. I’ve got some great drills for you. These are awesome to do, this isn’t really a video where you just sit there and watch the video.

Go ahead  and grab a golf club. Get a golf ball. If you’ve got a little net, go out to your garage and chip a few into the net.

Wherever you’re at, just go ahead and make these drills happen instead of sitting there watching, let’s go ahead and work through these. Most of these drills are going to be really low speed, just talking about impact.

Then we’re going to constantly build on that, and I’ve got a great drill that we’re going to end with to really get you focusing on speed at the right time, and that’s right when your club’s accelerating through the ball.

The first thing we’re going to do here, let’s go ahead and key in on just the left wrist. This is very crucial, I know a lot of guys that are struggling with their contact, or hitting hard from the top.

I think before we even get into any of this, it’s important to get a good visualization of what should be happening with the golf club.

If you’ve ever jumped rope before, which we all have jumped rope at some time, but you kind of notice that you can’t really pull the rope all the way around.

You’re not pulling in a big circle like this, you’re really just kind of gliding most of the way and then right at the bottom as you’re jumping up and the rope’s going under your feet, you kind of snap the rope.

All that action happens right at the bottom. You snap your hands, get that rope to really speed up as it’s going under your feet, then you’re just getting ready for the next snap as it goes under your feet.

Well the golf swing is very similar. That’s exactly what we want to have happen. We are going to make a big, full swing, we’re going to get that big turn as we’re going back.

We’re starting down, but if you’re casting and hitting from the top, getting a lot of poor contact, we need to be thinking about we’re waiting for that bottom of the jump rope.

We’re waiting for the bottom of the swing so we can snap that club, let it really accelerate at the right time. It’s almost that same sensation, as when we’re coming through the ball, that’s when the acceleration is happening.

That’s when the club is speeding up, and compressing the golf ball. If we’re trying to snap the rope back here as we first start down, by the time we get down to the ball what ends up happening is your club go weightless.

I can’t really feel where my club head is, and I can’t get through contact. If I save that up and snap that rope at the bottom, my club head’s accelerating, my club head gets heavier in my hands, and I can feel where the face is, I can feel how I’m going to hit it in the distance.

So keep that in mind as we’re working through these. Let’s start out now just with some left arm only drills. I want you to fee like we take this left wrist, let’s go to impact.

I’m going to open my hips about 45° and I’m going to lean my wrist forward, until my left wrist is bowed. My elbow would be kind of toward the target at this point.

Now here, I’m feeling like I’m gripping this club in the bottom three fingers, almost like my bottom three fingers are taking the club, the back of the logo of my glove is going toward the target. I’m just rotating on through that shot.

So I don’t want to be doing this at all, where I’m breaking my left wrist down, I want to feel these bottom three fingers.

If anything I feel like I’m pulling upward to allow that club to catch up and come on through, and I’m keeping my left wrist nice and bowed all the way through contact and into the release.

So try that out, you’re going to have the sensation you’re taking all the loft off the club. What I want you to do is take about 15 or 20 swings right now, just delofting that club.

If we do this correctly, this ball should just kind of roll across the ground nice and easy. I wouldn’t be coming up into the air more than six inches or a foot, something like that, and I have about a 7 iron. 7 iron here today, you can use anything from 5 iron to 8 iron is a great practice of this drill.

Another key with this is make sure you grip up on the club. I don’t want to be way down here at the bottom of the club like I would my full swing, because now this club gets really heavy and hard to control.

Grip up on the club about four or five inches so it’s light enough that even though you’re swinging with one hand, you can still control it. Again, 15 to 20 practice swings, really getting that wrist to bow.

You can see this is staying all the way through there, and I’m rotating my body on through. I don’t want to stop my body or I’m going to end up kind of flipping like that.

I’m keeping everything moving, keeping that club accelerating and moving through the ball just like snapping that rope. Those are very low energy, you’re not feeling like you’re getting any speed there.

Now let’s go ahead and add in the right wrist. So this is a big one for right-handed players, a lot of us don’t have very much coordination with our left hand.

We’ve got to do those left-hand drills to build your hand-eye coordination, to build your muscle memory, you can think of it that way.

But the right hand is going to want to take over. So if I can learn to get my right wrist feeling like it’s angled back, I have a great video on the website called the Pet the Grass Drill.

We get the palm of the right hand down. Then as I come through, I’m going to feel like I’m just tossing a ball down the fairway. Notice how my hips and my shoulders are opening up, and I’m just tossing that ball down.

So my wrist is going from angled back to coming forward. That means I’m going to get that forward shaft lean, I’m going to compress that ball, feel like it’s stuck against the face, and I’m just tossing it toward the fairway down the middle of the fairway.

So here, again, let’s do about 15 or 20 reps. I want you to pause kind of halfway down, have that wrist angled back.

Then we’re going to keep on rotating on through until we get to the straight-line release. That’s a big piece of the Top Speed Golf System, as I’m coming through contact, about 45° in front, my club is releasing and now it’s working down my forearm.

Whereas back here, I had a bunch of lag and forward shaft lean. That letting go of it is what’s getting that snap or that acceleration like we talked about on the jump rope.

If I try to just drag this club through like that, I’m not getting that snap. If I try to push the club through, I’m getting the snap way back here. I’ve got to go ahead and let that club lag, and then as I’m coming through the ball, then I’m getting that snap on out in front.

So again, pick the club up, do 15 or 20 reps, and I should feel like I’m taking a lot of the loft off the club, my hips and my shoulders are OK to open, and I’m just tossing that ball down the fairway.

It’s not going to be pretty, you’re not really going to do anything that’s going to be amazing with these mini drills, but we’re just getting the feeling of getting the correct impact.

You’re going to feel like that ball is sinking into the face as you’re coming through contact. So that was nice and crisp, maybe even that one was a little bit high. But again, only 15-20 yard shots, you’re not trying to hit these hard at all.

Now from there, let’s tie both of those feelings in, that club lagging, getting that acceleration, that snap through contact with what my body’s doing. I’ve got to make sure that my body is opening up.

So if I’m at impact, let’s go ahead and just do it with the right arm only. If I come down to impact and pause, I want my hips about 45° open, and I want my shoulders about 45° open.

Now the reason for that is, once I add my left arm in, it’s going to close my shoulders. So here, just like we talked about in that last one, if I was going to toss a ball down the fairway, look how everything opens up and I just toss the ball right down the fairway.

Well with my left arm added to my body, so there’s my impact position with just my right arm only, as my left arm comes across because my shoulder’s protracted, now it’s going to look a lot more square with my shoulders.

If you’re looking from down the line, there’s my impact position with just my right side of my body, now I’m going to add my left side and my shoulders get closed.

You should have the sensation that you are opening up toward the target a little bit. I don’t want to feel like I’m square like this, because now I have to push the club across my body.

I want to feel like I’m opened up, and the only reason I’m square is because my left arm is across. So as you’re starting to do these little mini shots, let’s do a couple more chip shots, and I want you to do with both hands.

You’re going to take your normal grip, and again, left wrist bowed, bottom three fingers, right wrist angled back, getting that to release as you’re coming on through and I’m going to get that body to rotate on through there.

I’m never slowing my body, the body will slow down technically a little bit, but I’m never stopping my body too early.

If I stop my body back here, I’m getting that jumping rope snap happening back here, and I’m not going to be able to compress the golf ball.

Once we’ve done those drills, 20 left arm, 20 right arm, 20 little chip shots with the body, now let’s go ahead and throw this together in what we call a 9 to 3 drill, or an acceleration drill.

You can get a lot of speed doing this, and you’re going to feel some good compression doing this also. What I want you to do, take this club back just to about waist high with your hands.

Then from there, I’m going to accelerate all the way on through, and I should feel that lag and I should feel that snap of the jump rope, or snap of this golf club. I should feel the weight of the golf club really accelerating as I’m coming through contact.

Let’s try those out at first going just waist high, and then we’re going to come all the way on through to a good, full finish, all the way on around.

Let’s see how far we can hit one. I may feel like I’m waist high, my hand may even get up to here, but I’m feeling like it’s belt-high, no higher than that. You’ll find that it typically goes a little farther back on you.

There we go, so I’ve got some pretty decent distance with that one. I would say that’s probably 140 yards type thing. I’m going to try to speed that up, that one was a little thin.

Again, I’m concentrating on my contact, I’m really going to see if I can hit this one solid and compress the heck out of it. There we go That one was a little bit better, felt a little bit more solid.

I want to several of those, and I’m gradually going to work it back until I’m about parallel with my left arm, parallel with my chest.

I’m starting out really small, little tiny short backswings, and then accelerating all the way on through, trying to feel that acceleration through the golf ball, that snap, and then I’m getting a little longer and longer.

So when I get done, I’m probably going to hit about 80 percent of my full swing speed, just like that, even with a half backswing. So I’ve compressed the golf ball, nice clean divot.

Do about 20 or 30, starting out really slow, then gradually getting longer and longer. That’s going to help you to get that contact correct, going to help you get that forward shaft lean, and feel the compression on the golf ball.