My golf coach, as one of the first things he taught me, gave me the right way to position the ball for a good swing. This might not seem important to non-golfers, but if you play you’ll already know there can be big differences depending where the ball is on the ground.

In your normal stance, side on to the direction you want the ball to go, there are 2 factors that come into play. Firstly, you need to know where to put the ball directly in front of you - ie how far from your eyes when staring ahead, rather than in the direction of the shot. Secondly, where the ball should sit in relation to each foot.

Let’s start with distance from your body. Essentially, this should be at the point your club head will meet the ground during a normal swing, so the distance is pretty much a club’s length away from you, at the point of impact of the clubface during a golf swing.

To expand this, stand in your normal stance, with your legs apart, and hold the golf club in your normal grip, with the club head on the ground in front of you, as though about to make a swing. The ball should be on the ground where the club head is, such that the club and the direction of the shot are at right angles.

Obviously, with golf clubs having shafts of different lengths, this distance away from you will be different according to the club. For instance, the driver is the longest club, so the ball with be farthest away from you. Whilst a pitching wedge is a very short club, so the ball will be nearer to you.

Now you want to find out where to put the ball in relation to being nearer to your left or right foot. Currently, the ball will be in the middle of your stance, a club’s length in front of you at the right distance for making a swing.

Now we draw an imaginary line along the direction of the shot. This line should begin a few feet back from the ball and continue through the ball and along the direction line a few feet, with your club perpendicular to the line in the middle.

Along this line, the ball will be placed at different points for different types of shot. For the driver, woods and long irons, the ball should be placed nearer to your front foot (left if you’re a right hander). For the shorter irons and pitching clubs, the ball should be placed in the middle, equidistant between your two feet.

Mike Jackson runs an online golf equipment store, where you can buy golf clubs, golf balls, golf gifts, golf bags etc.