- 19 hours ago
In this video, Neil Tappin is joined by PGA Pro Alex Elliott to discuss how to improve your impact position for longer straighter shots.
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00:00Hello everyone, Neil Tappin here from Golf Monthly and welcome to the range here at West Hill Golf Club
00:04and this video in which we're going to take a look at everything you need to know about the impact
00:09position.
00:10No doubt about it, this is the bit of the golf swing that everyone needs to get right if they
00:14want to play better.
00:15So we're going to focus exactly on what the right impact position should look like.
00:19Now, the tips and advice in this video comes courtesy of Alex Elliott, PGA Pro.
00:23He's also got a YouTube channel, so head over to his YouTube channel and find a link in it below
00:27if you're interested in Alex's tips.
00:29But let's get started now looking at everything you need to know about the impact position.
00:35So we're going to treat this as a little bit of a step-by-step guide to building the perfect
00:39impact position.
00:40Now, it's fair to say there is no such thing as a position, impact position, because it's all a flowing
00:45movement in the golf swing.
00:46But it's still a good idea to have these thoughts in mind because this is what you're looking to try
00:50to recreate.
00:51Is that fair, Alex?
00:52Exactly, yeah. And I want you to think about this video as like if you were updating your profile picture,
00:56you want to have a snapshot at impact, this is what we'd look for.
00:59OK, fine. So the first point then in our step-by-step guide is about hips and shoulders.
01:04What do people need to know?
01:05So let's just have a look at what we've got set up on the floor here, Neil.
01:07So I've got my feet line and my shoulder line where I would be nice to address.
01:12Yeah.
01:12And then I've got another blue alignment stick on the floor here where we'd aim to sort of get our
01:16feeling of our hips to be open.
01:18OK.
01:18So I do this in two stages. Firstly, get a golf ball across your chest. Everything's matching this red to
01:25start with.
01:26Solid address position.
01:27Nice and athletic. And then what we're going to try and feel is we're going to move our hips on
01:30the way back and our hips on the way through.
01:33Just focusing on, first off, keeping our shoulders level with this red.
01:38So it's almost like exaggerating what we want.
01:40OK, fine. But your hips, hopefully you can see that through the camera, the hips are opening up and should
01:44be replicating or near enough, quite close, replicating the other, the blue alignment stick that's on the ground.
01:49Exactly. Then the next stage of this would just be to make a little bit of a flowing movement back
01:54through.
01:55So at impact, what we're looking for is our hips to be a little bit more open than our shoulders.
02:00Yes.
02:01Yes.
02:01So you can see that nice and dynamic. And if I was to sort of put a lot of force
02:05into the ground here, you could really see I'll be dynamic and I'd be into this position where my hip
02:10line is a little bit more open than my shoulder line.
02:12My right shoulder is sort of down towards the ground.
02:15Yeah, it's a really good picture to have in your mind because it's a technical key that will add speed
02:20and power and also accuracy to your game if you can get that aspect of the impact position right.
02:26OK, so the next one is about weight transfer. Really important. Alex, what are the sort of faults and what
02:32position should people be in through impact?
02:35So let's start off with a simple fault. So if we lead on from that first point, if we don't
02:40open up our hips, we tend to see our weight be sort of more 50-50.
02:44Yeah.
02:45Or potentially on that back foot.
02:46Yes.
02:47Bat, thin shots, or a really high launch with all our irons.
02:51Yes.
02:51If we think about what we said on that last point, where do we want our hips to be more
02:56here? Well, look where my weight's going.
02:58Yeah.
02:59It's going pretty much into my lead side here.
03:02So impact then, Alex, should your right heel be off the ground for right handers? It should be slightly off
03:08the ground.
03:09Slight off the ground, and I would feel like my weight would be sort of moving into this instep.
03:13And how much, if you were putting percentages on it, how much weight would be on the lead foot?
03:17I would say let's go rough guide of 70, 70%.
03:20So imagine we started sort of 50-50, back, in, we would see a lot sort of, imagine we had
03:28a heat pressure map under us here,
03:29we'd see sort of a lot sort of around our heel to the middle of our foot, and a little
03:33bit sort of towards the instep and toe of our right.
03:35Yeah.
03:36And one point I'd make here is that your upper body is still nicely over the ball.
03:40Yes.
03:40It's something that's really important, isn't it?
03:42Definitely.
03:43And that leads us to, again, like I said before, from that first point to the second point of the
03:46hips being more open than the upper half.
03:49So we'd sort of got our middle of our sternum on the golf ball of impact, not both significantly ahead.
03:54Yeah.
03:54So you're not 90% weight on the front foot.
03:57No, it's not this way, it's this move.
04:01Yeah, the weight transfer, such an important part of the golf swing.
04:04Hopefully that gives you an idea about how it should work.
04:07So for the next part, we're talking about wrist position and shaft lean.
04:11What do people need to know?
04:12So I think there's probably a bit of a misconception here.
04:15I think a lot of golfers just want to get their hands ahead.
04:17And if you look at this, if I put my hands ahead here, my face points significantly out to the
04:23right.
04:23And when we're trying to get our hands ahead, we will probably see some shots that are quite skinny, low
04:29and shooting off to the right for most golfers.
04:31Not what we're after.
04:32Probably worse than what you're trying to get in the first place.
04:35Yeah.
04:36So I've got nothing flashy here, just a piece of wood.
04:39Really, what we've got to understand is how do we get the hands ahead but keep the club face pointing
04:43to target?
04:43Square.
04:44Right, got it.
04:45So I dressed that piece of wood and I want you just to not put any hands on this golf
04:48club to begin with and just realise what direction this club's got to work in.
04:53It's not out this way.
04:55It works very much like this.
04:57Yeah.
04:58Okay.
04:58So if we then just put our glove hand on, how would we keep that leading edge nice and square
05:02to that piece of wood?
05:04Well, it wouldn't work like this.
05:06We'd have to have an element of this motion.
05:09Got it.
05:10So we just felt this a few reps.
05:13Then we went and placed our right hand on a few reps.
05:17And now you can really see with this bendy shaft on my golf club how much force I can put
05:22through this rather than no force.
05:29Yeah, and if you can get that position where your hands are slightly ahead of the ball and you're squaring
05:35the face, that's the dream combo, isn't it?
05:37Definitely.
05:37That's when you hit those shots that sound amazing, that have got easy power involved.
05:41Exactly.
05:42And that strike goes from sort of, I guess, around the bottom to right in the middle.
05:46Right in the middle.
05:47So we've become a lot more efficient.
05:48Okay, Alex, can you take the wood away?
05:50Yeah, of course.
05:51And can you hit a shot for us?
05:52Are you going to hit a shot with that club?
05:53Isn't that a thing you're going to throw me right in the deep end here?
05:55I will try.
05:56Try it after.
05:57You're going to hit one with you.
05:58No, no, we'll go with that.
05:58I just want to say one more thing on this, Neil.
05:59I think this is really important.
06:00So if we sort of bring the first two points into this and we use this as sort of like
06:04our blueprint almost of everything that we're looking for up to this point, well, let's go in order.
06:10Hips open.
06:11Now where's my weight?
06:13Hands ahead.
06:14Yeah.
06:15So if we wanted to make some little halfback in and through, this is a great way of bringing everything
06:22back square.
06:23That feeling that you're looking for.
06:24Okay, go on.
06:25I've been wanting to hit one with this club.
06:28So nice and smooth.
06:29I'm trying to really feel it.
06:34Beautiful.
06:43Very good.
06:43Hopefully you get a feel there for exactly where your hands should be through impact, where your wrists need to
06:48be to get that shaft lean for a pure contact.
06:51So for the last part of this video, we're going to combine the last two points because there is a
06:56difference between how you approach impact with your iron,
06:59and how you approach it with your driver, isn't it, Alex?
07:01Let's start with the irons.
07:03Yeah.
07:03And let's have a concept with an iron.
07:05We're looking to get our bottom of the arc happening just past the goal.
07:09Okay.
07:09Yes.
07:09Pitting down on the ball.
07:10So you get that nice ball first, a little bit of turf, just like the after.
07:16What are you thinking to help you do that?
07:17So I think we can think about this in two ways, really.
07:20One, understanding the concept.
07:22So really realise that my club's got to travel from high to low through the ball.
07:26Okay.
07:27But what I try and feel is that my chest and sternum are more on top of the golf ball.
07:32You mentioned this in sort of that second part of the video.
07:36Here, rather than with a driver, which we'll talk about in a second, I'm going to be a little bit
07:40more behind it.
07:41Okay.
07:41Hit one for us so we can see what it looks like.
07:43So I would really just create a few practice swings.
07:45And I would encourage a lot of golfers to do this just inside the ball, halfway back, halfway through,
07:50really trying to feel as though from the golf ball forwards and making that little bit of a bruising divot.
07:56And into the ball, a little waggle, just in Thomas-esque, and then we can hit it away.
08:05Beautiful.
08:06And you can see there the divot has come just after where the ball was positioned,
08:11exactly what Alex is looking for.
08:13But that's no good with driver.
08:14Well, that's no good.
08:15I'm sure it would be okay.
08:16But you wouldn't be getting the most from your driver if you approached it in exactly the same way, would
08:20you?
08:20No.
08:21And with driver, we're looking for maximum distance, aren't we?
08:23We're looking to zip this golf ball as far as we can.
08:27So I think the simplest way to do this, Neil, is change our setup a little bit.
08:31Okay.
08:32So we move our ball position a little bit further forward.
08:37Later in our arc, more ascending rather than descending.
08:41Yes.
08:41So ball position inside that left heel.
08:45And I like to simply do this.
08:47So it's a simple routine.
08:48Driver shaft sort of matching my zip.
08:51Tilt so it points sort of towards my left toe.
08:54Down and in.
08:55Now I'm in a position where, okay, if I returned back here, my bottom of the arc would be organised
09:01upwards and before the ball.
09:03Before the ball.
09:03Rather than with an iron and more sort of leveled shoulders, more this way.
09:08That shoulder tilt, hopefully you can see it on the camera there, is very clear to see.
09:14And it might only be a small technical point, but it's really important, isn't it, for this?
09:17Massive.
09:17We set up to hit the shot how we want to.
09:20For example, you wouldn't set up to a flop shot like you would a chip and run.
09:23So we've got to make sure we're doing the right things with driver.
09:25That's an all totally different video, Alex.
09:28Right, got on to hit one for us.
09:29Again, hopefully we can get it on slow-mo.
09:32You can see exactly what Alex looks like through the ball.
09:47And it's high launch.
09:48It's low spin.
09:49It seems like it's in the air for absolutely ages.
09:52Because Alex has just changed that impact position just fractionally, but not doing anything particularly technical.
09:59Really, the golf swing itself is the same, isn't it?
10:01And that's how we make golf simple.
10:03If you can't be thinking about too many things on the golf course, use your setup, change your setup to
10:07suit the shot you're about to hit, then swing away.
10:10So there you have it.
10:11That's our look at everything you need to know about the perfect impact position.
10:15And hopefully some ideas there about how it differs just slightly between the irons and the driver as well.
10:20If you do have any questions, please do post them below.
10:23We'll get back to as many of you as we can.
10:25But that's it for now from West Hill.
10:27Thanks for watching.
10:27We'll see you next time.
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