The impact position in the golfswing is the one position that hasn't changed over the years. Technques certainly have though. You only need to look at the pros on any of the tours and you will see an aray of different looking swings; one plane ,two plane, stack and tilt....... but when it comes to contact with the ball, they all lean the shaft towards the target.

This is essential if you want to make this game less complicated. How you get there

might not be that complicated either .

I remember the day I realised this like it was yesterday: I was 13 years of age and had been playing golf for a year, on and off. I took my tube of balls and my Diawa Trypower 7 iron and headed off, as usual, to Twickenam playing fields.

For whatever reason, on this day, I placed the balls on the penalty spot and started trying to drive the balls under the cross bar. To my surprise, however much I thought I was trying to hit them under the bar, the balls were actually flying over it. My shots were also sounding very different and the ball was really flying off the club face.

I knew from previous practice sessions that when I paced up to 120 yards my balls would begin to appear. However, on this occasion I got to 130 yards - nothing, 140 - nothing,  150 yards and I finally came across the balls. This was new territory for me and, what's more, they were all within a few yards of each other.

So my attempting to drive the balls under the bar produced a VERY positive reaction!

27 years on, and I'm still using the "Crossbar Challenge" in my teaching as it really gets the golfer' instinct taking over. 

When a darts player throws a dart his focus is purley on the target, not the technique.

When a footballer takes a freekick his body will instinctivly react to the target and how he intends to curve the football around the wall.

This is natural way to learn. To explore this further I would strongly recommend that you look up Kendal Mcwade's website http://instinctivegolf.co.uk/ .

Aslo, in the March issue of Todays Golfer there is an article claiming that the impact position is the new fundimental.

I believe it's the oldest fundimental. It's never changed, whether you're Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Nick Faldo or Tiger Woods.

It is for this reason that impact is the first position I look at and teach. When you know what impact looks and feels like, fundimentals like grip, aim and ball position make complete sense.

For me growing up, swinging against a car tyre in the back garden told me very quickly whether my grip was good enough.

It's amazing to see my students willingly get their left hand into a stronger position after two or three hits against an impact bag. Not only that, but they now have natural weight transference, which comes with a coordinated downswing. If all you're trying to do is make a swing to hit an impact bag (or car tyre) forward,then your swing will instinctivly bring you to a dynamic impact position.