Golf’s moment of truth, commonly known as impact, is one of the most misunderstood alignments in the game. Many golfers never grasp the fundamental movements of the hands and arms during this critical portion of the swing. This is why most players slice the ball, having little or no idea how to square the clubface into impact.
   It’s important to realize that the left wrist is the key to clubface control for a right-hander, just like the right wrist is key for a lefty. However, your grip type affects the motion your wrist can make.
   With a neutral grip, where the back of the wrist is perpendicular to the clubface, you can turn the club and cock the wrists in the backswing, then uncock and roll the wrists in the downswing and into impact, squaring the clubface and producing a straight or drawing shot. Of course, this also depends on the clubface position at address. If the clubface is open at address, the shot will be straight. If the clubface is square at address, the shot will be a draw.
   However, if you have a strong grip, the wrist merely needs to cock in the backswing and uncock in the downswing to produce good impact alignments and ensure the shaft remains in line with the left arm. If the wrist is rotated through impact, it will produce excessive hook spin unless you have an extremely fast pivot or hip action.
   Conversely, a weak grip requires excessive roll of the left wrist to square the clubface through impact. It is preferred by better players who are trying to avoid a nasty hook.
   Keep in mind that the right wrist, and more importantly the right forefinger, controls the clubhead and sweet spot during the swing. When golfers try to square the clubface with their right hand, they destroy the triangle assembly of the left arm, shoulders and right arm, losing control of the clubhead and sweet spot. This makes consistently good impact difficult. You end up swinging the hosel, not the sweet spot, and the dreaded shank prevails.
   Practicing the proper impact alignments is best achieved without a club. Instead, use a couple of badminton or tennis rackets. When holding both rackets perpendicular to the ground in front of your chest, you will notice the faces of the rackets are facing each other. Essentially this relationship should remain constant throughout the swing. While this is easy to see in front of you on a horizontal plane, golf’s inclined plane makes this more difficult to grasp.
   As you swing the rackets, the left wrist can cock and uncock, then turn and roll, while the right wrist remains bent, although it will have the feeling of being rotated in the backswing as the right arm folds and fans back.
   Once you have worked on each wrist motion individually, put the two motions together, first with two rackets and then with one. When you have a good feeling on the horizontal plane, bend from the waist and try the motions in your golf posture. You will notice that there is not as much clubface rotation or roll needed to actually square the clubface. Most golfers tend to shift the plane out to the right to produce straighter shots. The beauty of the rackets is they show you what is necessary to produce good impact alignments.
   Once you have mastered swinging the rackets on an inclined plane, the next step is to hold a racket in the left hand opposite the left shoulder and a golf club in the right hand, with the leading edge of the club being parallel to the racket face. Holding the left arm still, bring the right arm back. Keeping the leading edge perpendicular to the racket will produce the proper right arm and wrist action in the backswing.
   As you maintain this relationship into the downswing, you can see how the impact alignments are produced. Once you have a good feeling for this, bend from the waist, get into your golf posture and repeat the drill.
   Finally, you’ll want to translate these drills into producing the proper impact alignments with a golf club. At first use a split grip, as this will give you a good feeling of the left and right wrist/arm motions while they are on the club together. Then, take your normal grip and start making swings, stopping just past impact where both arms are straight. At this point, the left arm and clubshaft should still be in line, and the right wrist should have some bend.
   Practice these drills to ensure your impact alignments are correct and you soon will see the ball start flying straighter more consistently.