My golf swing really stunk for what seemed like months.

Solid impact with any club was as long a forgotten daydream as were the words: “Erik, Mr. Hefner would like you to join us for a party at the mansion.”

I found this impact drill, which is used to take your broken-down full golf swing and revert it to a simple, efficient motion that puts the center of the blade on the ball.

I use it with many of my students, and I often ask a simple question: “If you can’t hit the ball solid with a half swing, what makes you think you’ll be able to hit the ball solid with a full swing?”

Start with a 7-iron and set up as if you were to hit from a regular address position.

Place the ball in the regular position in your stance. Instead of a normal swing, begin the drill by morphing from an address position to an impact position.

A proper impact position has you rolling off your back foot’s heel to your back foot’s toe, the weight transferred slightly more to the front foot, your sternum and belt buckle pointing no more than an inch in front of the ball, and the bridge of your nose also pointing at the front of the ball.

Your hands are slightly ahead of the ball as well, and you can be comfortably balanced in this position for several seconds.

Use your muscle memory to identify this position as impact; you’ll need to understand it as much as possible.

Once you’ve moved from an address position to the proper impact position, simply take a half-swing in which the club goes no more than waist high during the backswing and forward swing.

This half-swing will feel like a punch shot, with no weight shift, very little lower-body motion, and very little head movement.

Your shoulders and arms will swing the club back and through, and you should never actually see the golf ball in flight.

Your eyes will remain focused on where the ball was, and your arms will swing the club through the hitting zone.

Your hips should not open up, your head should not come up, and your feet should remain in the desired impact position. The results are defined by simple feel and sight.

If the ball feels “solid” and effortless at impact, and you don’t really ever “see” the ball in flight, you have performed the drill properly.

However, if the impact does not feel solid or you see the ball early in flight, then you are leaving the impact position too early.

Try to slow your body motion down to achieve the solid feel of impact. Get into a rhythm of “address, impact, swing.”

Once you have done this a dozen times, you can begin to take full swings with any club.

Your swing should feel much more efficient and effortless.

If you have any questions or difficulty with this drill, visit your PGA professional and let the pro help you make solid impact.