Golf Impact Position – The Complete Guide
How to make it, and how it can improve your game. We’ll discuss the five factors that make every shot possible; then, we’ll move on to tour statistics before we conclude with four key steps to increase your impact and lower your scores.
Golf impact zone
First, consider impact as a zone (15 cm/6 inches to either side of the ball). This is a crucial concept. This is how you want to optimize how your clubhead travels through this zone and then continue into your follow-through.
This is far better than trying to master the nanosecond contact point where the clubhead and golf ball meet. An excellent impact zone allows for room for error and reminds the golfer that they should continue generating force through impact rather than stopping at the mark.
Impact factors
The golf swing is complex, but only five things can explain the different shots a player can make. These include a McIlroy drive of 330 yards and a chip shot with a semi-shanked chip shot. Here are five factors that you must master to be a great golfer.
Knowing that any swing change will only have one or more of these impact factors is essential.
Strike with centering
The first impact factor is the location of your golf ball’s contact with the club head. This is the most crucial impact factor you need to master. Without a center strike, nothing else matters.
Toe and heel strikes decrease the energy transfer to the golf ball. This results in less distance. These toe strikes cause the clubface to twist upon impact and impart sidespin (hook-spin off the toe, slice-spin off the heel) onto your shots. This can significantly affect the ball’s trajectory, curvature, and accuracy. Golfers are less likely to consider how high the impact is on their clubface. While tops and things are easy to see, golfers must realize how far they are from the center of the clubface with their iron or wood shots.
Grab some fancy Impact tape to test your centering of the strike. You can test your consistency by hitting five to ten shots with the same club and impact tape. You can check your posture and golf stance to reduce off-center strikes.
Low point & angle of attack
Your angle of attack is the next important impact factor. Is your clubhead moving down through impact? Or is it rising as it hits the golf ball? Ideal conditions will see you beat all your iron shots with a level or slightly higher angle of attack, and your driver will also be hitting the ball.
The position will determine your angle of attack for each club. Your stance will be more forward than your stance (right picture). The rise of attack will become shallower and then upward. These are the two main in-swing factors that will affect your angle.
- Your weight, or center of mass, is where you are positioned at impact. The steeper your angle of attack, the more weight you have on your front foot.
- Release the golf club to impact. Your angle of attack will be shallower the further you extend your left and right wrist (think scooping up the ball).
An easy way to visualize your angle of attack is to imagine it as a low point on your golf swing relative to the golf ball. Your low point for iron shots should be just after the golf ball. For drives, the low end should be just before impact. Your club head should travel upwards as it reaches for the ball.
Swing path and club angle
The following two essential impact factors are swing path and club angle. These two key impact factors have many layers, common misconceptions, and key takeaways. The swing path and club angle should be discussed together. Your club’s head travels in the same direction as your swing path through impact. Your club face angle is the angle your club faces during the clash.