Many golfers struggle with their fairway woods for one reason: they try to help the ball in the air by attempting to add loft at impact. This is the wrong way to go about it. This simple drill will have you hitting your fairway woods as easily as if they were short irons. Place a coin or tee a couple of inches target side of the ball and as you swing the club through impact, take the coin or tee with you.

A stable base is essential to good ball striking. Note how quiet and stable my body is here as I work the club down through the ball and the lowest point of my swing, which is an inch or two target side of the ball. This ensures that you hit the ball with the natural loft and launch the ball efficiently. Both arms are fully extended, maximising the width of my arc and power output.

This illustrates a weak impact position as I lean back to try to scoop the ball up in the air, rather than try to compress it with my fairway wood. My body is totally unbalanced and the club is working upwards in an attempt to add loft to get the ball in the air. More often than not, all you will succeed in doing is topping the ball along the ground. If you want to see the ball launch high and long, you need to compress the ball and remove the coin on the way through.

You can see in this image that, as my body reacts to the scooping action, my weight is forced onto my back foot, giving me opposing energy forces. The club wants to go one way and my body the other. The end result is a bad shot and quite possibly a bad back due to the amount of pressure you will put on your lower lumbar spine. This means there are two benefits from getting the technique right – your shots and all-round game will improve and you will protect your back from injury.