The moment of truth in golf is impact. The golf ball doesn’t know who is swinging the club, the only thing it responds to is the speed and the angles that are applied by the golfer. So much of golf instruction today is about the backswing and making sure you get into different positions.
What if we started with the impact position and worked back from there? Golfers can often get so confused trying to manipulate the club during the backswing and the downswing that they lose all athletic and natural ability and end up lost in their own golf swing.
Let us help you own your swing and get a better understanding of what impact position should look like.
In many other sports the impact position happens more naturally such as in tennis, baseball or ping pong. There isn’t too much through in the backswing or what the shoulder is doing. If you can yes to any of these questions below, then I believe the information and videos below will help you get better today.
Here we go, how many questions can you say yes to:
- You worry about what your legs are doing in the golf swing.
- You think about where your front shoulder is during your swing.
- You start thinking about firing your hips.
- You start thinking about turning the club over as you get halfway down in your swing.
- You start thinking about squatting in your downswing like Sam Snead.
- You worry if you have taken the club too far inside on the backswing.
5 Tips for Improvement – Golf Impact Position
- Give Yourself A Task – Mike Malaska
- Train with the DST
- Use Tour Tempo to eliminate swing thoughts
- Train with an Impact Bag
- Improve Biomechanics and Speed Through SuperSpeed Golf
It isn’t amazing how we can get lost so much in a golf swing that only takes 1 to 1.3 seconds? Do we really think we can control all of these variables in the golf swing? What if we found a way to give ourselves a task and work from there to complete that task versus trying to control all of these body parts in the golf swing?
I have been there with you and have found the 5 tips below as the best methods to improve my impact position and eliminate having so many thoughts and trying to manipulate the golf swing.
This year, I have seen a clear improvement in my driver, increasing from hitting 8 out 14 quality drives per round to around 12 to 13 quality drives per more. Most importantly my “bad” drives are so much “better,” which has provided a great consistently and better overall scoring in my golf game.
We are all on this golf journey together and I hope that these 5 tips or training aids that I have come across can help you get better today and start shooting better scores.
Let’s first define and get an image of what impact position is supposed to look like. Here is a comparison between Tiger Woods and an amateur side by side:
Here is another excellent and fun video on the bad impact positions of many amateurs:
Now that we know what the Golf Impact Position is supposed to look like and also what it shouldn’t look like, let’s try to solve the million dollar question of how to make this happen.
Here are 5 tips to help you improve your impact position.
Tip # 1 – Give Yourself A Task
When I came across this video in the past week, it borught me back to the simplicity of the golf swing. As a former baseball myself, I can relate with MIke Malaska and getting lose in the weeds of all of the swing advice that is out there. I love this simplified approach to golf. The major tips he provides in this video are:
- Keep your body away from the ball
- Start your transition with your lower body sooner – make it natural
- Focus on giving yourself a task in getitng into a good impact position.
Check out this video starting at the 9:30 mark as Mike Malaska talks about impact position and giving yourself a task:
Major Takeaways:
- Start on the putting green and make that simple motion with your putter.
- This is the same motion as your driver.
- Your right arm must line up with the shaft.
- Your must train your right side.
- It starts by understanding what impact position looks like.
- The right arm should not get too high.
- Stay with the task throughout the entire back. The task is to keep the right arm in line with the shaft.
*You should record your swing from down the line to view what your impact position looks like.
Tip #2 – Train with the DST
The impact position is something that can be trained. We see that amateurs often throw the club away too early or get stuck trying the hold the club off. The DST is a bent club that forces you to get into a quality impact position.
There has been a great deal of studies on the impact position and this is an excellent training aid to help you reach the impact position that the pros often get to. If you combine the video above with Mike Malaska along with the training aid, you might be on your way to some awesome compression and a swing that can repeat itself under pressure.
Let’s face it, we all want our swing to hold up on those very important rounds. Whether that is a club championship, a state championship or trying to qualify for the US Open. It starts with the proper training and making sure we have quality impact.
Here is a video by DST:
Major Takeaways:
- PGA Tour pros are using this training device.
- Impact position is the key difference between a 20 handicap player, a 10 handicap player, a scratch player and a PGA Touring pro. Impact position is the moment of truth.
- Make sure you do not stand up through impact. Keep your distance from the ball – Same advice Mike Malaska gave in the video above.
- It is interesting to watch how much Brodie uses his right hand as he talks about the right hand. He keeps repeating that same task that MIke Malaska was promoting.
Tip #3 – Use Tour Tempo to Eliminate Swing Thoughts
Many of us are tired of the many swing thoughts listed above controlling our golfing minds. We try to manipulate and control every little variable in the swing.
About 10 months ago I came across the Tour Tempo training app that promotes a 3:1 ratio tempo golf swing. In John Novosel Sr.’s study of the golf swing, he came across a ratio of 3:1 in backswing to downswing of all of the great golfers.
Now some of them were slower at 27:9 and some were as fast a 18:6 with others in between at 24:8 and 21:7. The one common piece is that all of those ratios listed are 3:1. This is the frames per second from the very start of the swing until impact. There is a great training app that allows you to listen to the best as you do the following:
- First Beep – Start Your Swing
- Second Beep – Starting Your Downswing
- Third Beep – Impact
There are different training drills available in his book and it just makes sense. You start focusing on impact and the task (MIke Malaska) and not worrying about where your hands were at the top of the swing or what your left hip was doing.
The swing becomes more natural you might also pick up some distance. Did you know that many amateurs swing back way to slow causing a lost in total distance?
More in depth into Tour Tempo app:
Major Takeaways:
- Let’s focus on getting to impact in a good tempo.
- Let’s eliminate having so many swing thoughts.
- Train to swing at the right tempo if you want good tempo.
- Faster backswings result in more distance (who doesn’t want more distance and better ball contact?)
Tip #4 – Train with an Impact Bag
The impact bag has been around for awhile, but for those that can’t get to the golf course or driving range regularly, you can setup a video camera from the down the line and train to perfect your impact positions with the impact bag.
When you get on the course, you have to be able to get into a quality impact position, but also to make sure you fire through the ball. The impact position is the task we are giving ourselves to bring the athletic approach back into our golf swing.
Here is a video on maximizing the benefits of a golf impact bag:
Major Takeaways:
- We need to practice our impact position
- The impact position can be used indoors for those that can’t get to the driving range or golf course frequently enough.
- Utilize the different drills to practice impact position.
- Increase your shaft lean.
Check the price on Amazon for an Impact Bag to get started today.
Tip #5 – Improve BioMechanics and Swing Speed Through SuperSpeed Golf
My favorite training tool, which helps overall with bio mechanics and speed, ultimately resulting in a better impact position is the SuperSpeed Golf System.
This overspeed training system allows us to train fast to be fast. We must train our bodies and minds to be able to swing fast. Did you know that your swing can only be as fast as your brain feels safe to top your body?
With the three different clubs that you get with your purchase, a green club that is 20% lighter, a blue club which is 10% lighter and a red club which is 5% heavier, you can train anywhere 3 days a week and it only takes around 8-10 minutes.
You can gain 5-8% in swing speed which is about 20-30 yards. Our impact position can improve by getting the speed in the right place and we can shoot lower scores.
Check out SuperSpeed Golf here and make sure you use the discount code Golfjourney365 for a 10% discount.
Here is a post on our complete review of SuperSpeed Golf.
Here is a the Level 1 Training Protocol to see what yout training would look like:
Major Takeaways:
- Golf is a game based on speed.
- We have to train fast to swing fast
- Helps us eliminate too many swing thoughts.
- Mechanics will improve and allow us to improve impact
Take Action – What You Can Do Today to Get Better
What does this mean for you? I believe in the following recipe to get better:
1 – Improve your motion in the golf swing by identifying a golf instructor. Here are some options:
Here is a list of golf instructors that we have reviewed:
2 – Train to swing faster and improve your swing speed. Here are some options:
Looking to gain more Speed and Distance in your swing. Two Options:
3 – Understand course strategy and work to break through your next barrier. Here is a series on breaking through:
We have provided guides on how to break 100, 90, 80 and 70. Check out more below, if interested.
Did you know that I build a golf simulator in my garage and have played over 500 rounds of golf on my SkyTrak system? It has been a game changer and one worth checking out.
Here are some of my other posts on golf simulators frequently asked questions:
- Is a Golf Simulator Worth It?
- How to Build a Golf Simulator?
- What is the Best Golf Simulator?
- Golf Simulator Accessories?
- How to Build a Golf Simulator for under $7000
- Top 11 Reasons to Buy a SkyTrak
- How to Build a Golf Simulator for Under $1000
- Why Build A Golf Simulator?
- What Space is Needed?
- Can A Golf Simulator Improve My Game?
- How Much Does A Golf Simulator Cost?
- Don’t Forget to Check out our 15 best golf swings of all time.
