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Importance of the impact position in golf swing

I am again thankful for all those YouTube golf videos I’ve watched. They provide a lot more useful tips that all the golf pro lessons ever did. Malaska golf and Shawn Clement are my favorites. They both teach the natural golf, which I follow for the last 2 years. This time however, I also watched a video by one of my least favorite YouTubers. A couple of guys, immaculately dressed in corporate-sponsored attire, preaching the typical golf swing. Dissected into 50 parts. I can’t stand them, but….

I searched Matthew Wolff, whom I saw in a PA tournament, and who has the most unusual golf swing. He was a guest in their show and talked about his swing, the origins of his moves, etc. He is one of the longest hitters on tour, but his swing is really strange. Nothing like the books describe. And he has this very unique pre-swing “dance” which he does before every shot. What interested me in the interview was the reason he does it.

He explains that it helps him concentrate on the impact position during his golf swing. That reminded me of one of the Malaska Golf videos I saw, where Mike Malaska is talking about the impact position. He accurately points out that the position at impact IS the most important position in the golf swing. The back-swing, the angles, the down-swing, body shifts, etc, are being taught to get us into the correct impact position, where we hit the golf ball square. But the actual impact position is never discussed.

I remembered it yesterday at the driving range and put these 2 videos together. I practiced the ideal position at impact. I did it a few times before my backswing, and then I let it rip.

Matthew Wolff’s funny looking golf swing

I was amazed. Suddenly my swing felt so much better. The accuracy was incredible. I was shooting my 6 iron at that time, and from the moment I started my swing with the impact position, I was able to hit the ball straight and flushed it almost every time. And I know that before this I was swinging differently because the new swing felt very different. Different good, I mean. I was in the proper position at impact. Body weight on my left foot, hitting it straight and FAR… with almost no effort.

This was a kind of a break-through for me. I even got myself another bucket of golf balls to make sure I remember the swing, and the process. I don’t really want to do this pre-swing Matthew Wolff routine, as it looks weird, but if it helps me hit the balls more accurately and with much greater speed, I don’t care. I’m sold. Today it’s raining so I can’t play, but next time the weather improves I’m out, practicing my newfound wisdom in golf.. 🙂 I am enjoying my golf journey.

2 replies
  1. Matt
    Matt says:

    Enjoyed the last 6 pages Jay. My journey has been a similar experience and luckily like you discovered the throwing the club at the target feel which was just a light bulb revelation.

    I could hit 100 balls on the range and maybe a couple would be that perfect, flushed shot but of course I had no idea how I did it.

    Thinking of the target instead of the ball was the game changer for me. Still a lot of work ahead but like you if I’m going to play this game, I’m going to do it properly.

    Reply
    • Jay
      Jay says:

      Hi Matt.
      I went back to the beginning with my swing. Instead of learning all the angles of backswing and downswing and the weight shifts, I started from the impact position. Actually, I wasn’t even sure what the impact position should look like, so I youtubed it.. 🙂
      Then, I started with a tiny 1/4 swing… and hit the ball in the right impact position, then half swing, then full… It was incredible, how well I struck the ball. However, the next day, my muscles were aching… but not the usual muscles which ache after a game. So I decided to film my swing, to see what I was doing wrong… and when I saw it, I nearly cried… First time ever my swing looked like those on tv… Not 100%, but so close…
      Search for a guy on YouTube – Jim Ventos Golf Academy. His lessons are very unorthdox, but try it… He basically wants us to get into a hitting position, and without moving, or shifting weight swing and strike… It looks weird on the golf range, but it helps a lot.
      Another guy I follow on YouTube is Shawn Clement’s wisdom in golf. Also learned a lot.

      Reply

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