When it comes to pleasurable golf, solid, straight shots rule! The bottom line goal for any golf swing is to make solid contact with the ball and send it right toward your target. Too many golfers spend their attention on the parts or pieces of the swing, hoping dearly that it will all come together at “the moment of truth” and provide the desired result. My instructional philosophy is to put my student’s attention where it matters most – IMPACT! You see, your brain works best as a task manager; give it a task and through trial and accurate feedback, it will accomplish the goal.

When learning to strike a golf ball, it is best to focus your attention on what you are doing with the clubface to the golf ball not on the pieces of the swing (body movement) involved to get it done. So, what does the clubface really have to do to the golf ball to get a solid and straight shot? Here is my formula for success:

Perfect Impact = Pressure + Direction

Perfect Impact is generated by a square clubface contacting the ball on the sweet spot while moving toward the target. Moving is the key word in the sentence above because the more the clubface is accelerating through impact the more the ball is compressed. Ball compression is what you experience when the ball suddenly “rockets” off the clubface with seemingly effortless power. The experience is only elusive if your attention is not on task, namely applying pressure to the ball through impact.

It’s the clubface that applies pressure to the ball and because you are holding the handle of the club, you must apply pressure there, in the correct direction, for it to transfer down the shaft, to the clubhead and eventually through the ball by the clubface.

An Important Note

How your body moves to apply pressure is a direct result of how you setup to the ball. In other words, where you position the ball at setup will correlate directly to how you must move to apply pressure in the correct direction.

There are two basic components to ball position:

1. Left or right relative to hip center (belt buckle) – right of center is considered “back”, left of center is considered “forward”.
2. Proximity, meaning near or far relative to toe line – one can stand close to the ball (Jim Furyk) or far from the ball (Nancy Lopez).

Also, two generalizations can be made relative to how your body will move when considering whether to stand closer or farther from the golf ball:

1. Standing closer requires more body rotation to apply pressure in the correct direction, i.e. “turn your belt buckle to the target through impact”.
2. Standing farther requires less body rotation to apply pressure in the correct direction, i.e. “face the ball through impact”.

Think about those two distinctions during your next practice session and see which provides the easiest way for you to apply pressure to the back of the golf ball in the correct direction. Remember:

Perfect Impact = Pressure + Direction