- Hi, Adam Bazalgette here, founder of Scratch Golf Academy.
Today's subject how to improve your impact in golf.
Gonna show you a couple of things.
Couple of references when you film yourself
with your cell phone you should check for
and then a couple of drills that will help
you put it all into practice and build a better impact.
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Let's get started.
So in this video we're gonna assume
that you have a reasonable grip
and that your swing playing is pretty good.
You can't cover everything in one of these videos
it'd be too boring anyway if we did.
So we're gonna focus on what happens
from this view the all important moments of impact.
How you can improve that position.
Now remember a golf ball even though
it's rock hard when you pick it up
does compress, it's like a tennis ball that way.
Just takes a lot of force to get it to happen
and the more effectively you compress it.
Certainly speed is an element of that,
but the more effectively you compress it
the farther it goes.
So you've got to put pressure on the ball to do that
and having angle between the trail arm
that's my non-target arm and having angle
between that and the club shaft
is crucial if you're going to apply pressure.
Let's have a quick look at how that works in other sports.
Two handed tennis shot there
angle between trail arm and racket.
Two handed baseball shot angle there
between trail arm and bat.
This is crucial if you're really
going to be able to apply pressure to the ball.
So angle between the trailing arm
and the shaft and that pretty much means
the shaft is leaning forward.
That is very much preferable at impact.
It allows me to hit the ball before the ground.
There's the little divot I took
a minute ago on that shot I hit.
Now bear in mind you're gonna hit the divot
you're gonna hit the ground if you hit it at all
when the swing is at it's widest,
basically when the shaft is vertical.
So you want to hit that golf ball a little before that.
So you hit the ball first, tilt the sweet spot
then push into the divot.
Then you're gonna start having solid contact.
This does not mean however that the club
overall is crashing down it's moving very level
at the bottom that it needs that forward tilt.
Now not every player does this.
Not every great player let's say does this the same.
Some have more lag, more shaft lean then others.
Some have a little bit different
body motion to account for that.
Let's have a look at a couple of examples.
Rory McIlroy on the left, Sergio Garcia on the right
both just bombers of the ball, great, great ball strikers.
Let's back him right to impact.
There's that angle between his trail arm and the golf club.
Let's look at Sergio here.
Tremendous, tremendous lag
handle way past the golf ball when he hits it.
That is a lot of shaft lean
and a lot of angle between trail arm and club,
but not every great player does it the same way.
Let's have a look at say Brandt Snedeker.
He certainly shot 59 last year.
He's won his share of tournaments.
There's nothing wrong with his game for sure.
There's some distortion in the filming
of the shaft there, but you can see
hey there's forward lean for sure
there is not as much as there is with Sergio
in terms of either forward lean
or angle between trailing arm and club.
Both are okay though.
Let's have a look at one more example
and I'm not sure I belong in the great player category,
but let's see how I do it here in the hitting bay.
There's a little bit of leg drive,
medium lag I would say at best,
but sufficient to do the job.
There's the angle we're talking about.
Two check points you're gonna want to look at
when you film yourself your glove hand
your lead hand should be approximately
in line with the front or the inside of that front pant leg.
There's some great players are a little more over here,
but it should be more or less the front pant leg
and secondly the hip joint
that's not at the edge of the pants
it's right over the top of the knee there
should be about over that front angle.
So if you get those two check points right
you are doing it well.
Now I have a free course down
in the description box for you.
Solid Strike Formula if you want to hit
solid, crisp iron shots just go down there
and pick it up it's free for you.
Okay, let's see our first drill.
I'm gonna use an alignment rod
something that offers resistance to the golf club.
Could be the bucket of range balls
you're hitting or the bag stand or what not,
but get the club up against it
and then apply pressure to it in other words
create an impact with no swing.
Use your abs, glutes, etc.
Don't just push your hands forward,
but get some pressure and hold it for a second
or two to find that feeling, then just back up here
and see if you can get that same feeling
there through he ball at whatever
scale of shot you want to do it on.
That was a little punch shot there.
Try it on some big ones and go back to that.
Once you've felt it you have a decent chance to repeat it.
Let's look at another drill.
In this drill we have a short iron.
I'm gonna pre-set my impact again
that's hands up by the front leg, hip over ankle.
Here's the key to the drill once you've pre-set it
hold it for a couple of seconds
then just a small swing and pow
right back in that impact position
that you've just been holding.
It is a great way to start to familiarize yourself
with what a quality impact feels like.
Hope that helps you with a better impact position in golf.
Would really appreciate a thumbs up
again it helps us build the channel,
helps me bring you golf content.
I hope this video was helpful to you
and you'll be making more solid contact there soon.
Thanks so much.
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