What's the deal with the GRIP

Originally Posted by GoNavy

You hear this statement in many different ways, but they all basically relate to the same thing, how do we need to grip the club correctly. Before we get into that, lets look at a few things first, to clarify why we do things. First let us concede the fact that, in my view, the first three fundamentals of golf are GRIP, GRIP and GRIP. You must have not only a correct grip on the club with the left hand, but the right hand must complement it, in the correct position and both hands must have the correct grip pressure. All three must be correct for YOU, BUT they will follow some basic fundamental.

IF you are not interested in changing your grip to a correct grip then STOP reading this, also STOP taking any advise, from here, TV, your local pro, or from anyone for that matter. Why, because they are all assuming you have a some what correct grip, if you don't have a some what correct grip, these swing recommendation could actually hurt your swing. If you insist on playing with a BAD grip, forget every thing you heard or learned, get yourself a 1000 golf balls and go out and keep changing things until you figure out how to make the necessary changes to compensate for your BAD grip and make the ball go where you want it too. You will figure it out, eventually. Hard way to go, but it will be uniquely yours, no one else will be swinging that way. The only requirement to a good swing.... "is it repeatable".... doesn't matter if it is ugly, it just has to be repeatable. Starting with a good grip and following some other fundamentals makes this happen more often and a little easier.

Let equate the golf swing to a car, everyone has a car. In this analogy the legs are the tires, the shoulders are the steering wheel and the grip is the front end alignment. Here we see that if the front end is miss aligned we must make a change in our steering or the we run off the road. So, back to us and the golf swing, if you wish to steer down the road, you must get that front end alignment right to stop you from running off the road (fairway), or has in the car analogy you will start to make steering changes (with your shoulders) in an attempt to keep you on the road. Has in driving, making small adjustments in steering and alignment is OK, making big changes, puts you out of control, and running off the road.

So how does a grip change affect my steering, a strong grip tends to make you to swing inside out, weak grip tends to make you swing outside in, neither is optimal. A strong grip tends to move your swing center (low point of swing) back, weak grip move it forward (towards the target). Strong grip closes the face, weal grip opens it. Now the big scream comes, "Hey that's not true, I have a strong grip and my ball is still slicing" yes it well, why, because you subconsciously know the face is gonna be closed, and ...wait for it... you tried to steer your way out of it with your shoulder, the dreaded out side in swing, and you further tried to correct by holding off your hands, no face rotation, BOOOMMM big slice. So how did we get to this, let trace it back, because it started at address. First you grip to strong with the left (too many knuckles, turn to the right), then you grip weak with the right (hand on top of club), forcing you to grip to tight (death grip, white knuckling it) because your hands are miss matched. this prevented a good wrist cock, the tight shoulders (caused by the tight grip) prevented a good shoulder turn, etc.... result, bad swing, bad golf shot, most definitely not repeatable.

So lets get this the grip right, with you left hand put your index finger in a trigger position and place the heel pad on TOP of the grip, this is what keeps the club in your hand not gripping tightly, it has to do with physics and leverage. Then simply close the rest of the finger and thumb onto the grip, and it doesn't have to be tight. When maneuvering the heel pad onto the top of shaft, make an effort to keep the back of the hand generally point towards the target, not towards the sky. I should probably add the only purpose of the last three fingers of the left hand is to maintain the contact of the heel pad and club, it takes a surprising very little effort to do that, you can try a little test, with just the trigger finger and heel pad on the club, pick the club up to horizontal, you should have no problem doing this, in fact you can have a friend sit on the ground, grab the club head. You can pull him to his feet, with just a one finger and heel pad grip on the club, leverage, what an amazing thing.

The right hand, here is where everyone gets hosed up, if you notice, the left hands thumb and forefinger form a "V" and it points to the right shoulder, so should the right hand, club is placed in the fingers at an ANGLE from the first joint of trigger finger to the base of the ring finger, meaty part of the right hand thumb pad sits on the left thumb. Here when completed, look at the Wrists both left and right, will, be at the same angle, parallel to each other, (they are aligned), in this position neither hand fights for dominance, the club face will close naturally, the swing path is not manipulated, and you will relax with even grip pressure, which frees up your shoulders for a good turn.

Bottom line, spend the time to perfect your grip, then start putting them swing changes your reading about in to play. In the long run your golf game will thank you.

Originally Posted by shootin4par

A few weeks ago I was giving a guy a 3rd lesson and I told him that he should not expect swing changes to occur because he still had not changed his right hand grip. Told him he had to do it or we would go no where and then I asked him why he had not changed it still. Then he proceded to tell me some bogus stuff about what is weak and what is strong, he thought V of right had pointing to left shoulder was strong. I exlplained to him and showed him some stuff and he still did not believe me. So I said, "man, the grip is like pre-k, if you are going to challenge me do it on something that is not so basic, you think I am smart enough to take lessons from but yet you think I dont know grip. You need to find yourself an instructor, whether or not that be me, learn their method and once you get that down then it may be ok to expand in another direction." Have not seen him since, that is not the first time I told some one something to that extant and it wont be the last. When I give golf lessons it is to teach golf, not be a cheerleader.

Originally Posted by GoNavy

You hear this statement in many different ways, but they all basically relate to the same thing, how do we need to grip the club correctly. Before we get into that, lets look at a few things first, to clarify why we do things. First let us concede the fact that, in my view, the first three fundamentals of golf are GRIP, GRIP and GRIP. You must have not only a correct grip on the club with the left hand, but the right hand must complement it, in the correct position and both hands must have the correct grip pressure. All three must be correct for YOU, BUT they will follow some basic fundamental.

IF you are not interested in changing your grip to a correct grip then STOP reading this, also STOP taking any advise, from here, TV, your local pro, or from anyone for that matter. Why, because they are all assuming you have a some what correct grip, if you don't have a some what correct grip, these swing recommendation could actually hurt your swing. If you insist on playing with a BAD grip, forget every thing you heard or learned, get yourself a 1000 golf balls and go out and keep changing things until you figure out how to make the necessary changes to compensate for your BAD grip and make the ball go where you want it too. You will figure it out, eventually. Hard way to go, but it will be uniquely yours, no one else will be swinging that way. The only requirement to a good swing.... "is it repeatable".... doesn't matter if it is ugly, it just has to be repeatable. Starting with a good grip and following some other fundamentals makes this happen more often and a little easier.

Let equate the golf swing to a car, everyone has a car. In this analogy the legs are the tires, the shoulders are the steering wheel and the grip is the front end alignment. Here we see that if the front end is miss aligned we must make a change in our steering or the we run off the road. So, back to us and the golf swing, if you wish to steer down the road, you must get that front end alignment right to stop you from running off the road (fairway), or has in the car analogy you will start to make steering changes (with your shoulders) in an attempt to keep you on the road. Has in driving, making small adjustments in steering and alignment is OK, making big changes, puts you out of control, and running off the road.

So how does a grip change affect my steering, a strong grip tends to make you to swing inside out, weak grip tends to make you swing outside in, neither is optimal. A strong grip tends to move your swing center (low point of swing) back, weak grip move it forward (towards the target). Strong grip closes the face, weal grip opens it. Now the big scream comes, "Hey that's not true, I have a strong grip and my ball is still slicing" yes it well, why, because you subconsciously know the face is gonna be closed, and ...wait for it... you tried to steer your way out of it with your shoulder, the dreaded out side in swing, and you further tried to correct by holding off your hands, no face rotation, BOOOMMM big slice. So how did we get to this, let trace it back, because it started at address. First you grip to strong with the left (too many knuckles, turn to the right), then you grip weak with the right (hand on top of club), forcing you to grip to tight (death grip, white knuckling it) because your hands are miss matched. this prevented a good wrist cock, the tight shoulders (caused by the tight grip) prevented a good shoulder turn, etc.... result, bad swing, bad golf shot, most definitely not repeatable.

So lets get this the grip right, with you left hand put your index finger in a trigger position and place the heel pad on TOP of the grip, this is what keeps the club in your hand not gripping tightly, it has to do with physics and leverage. Then simply close the rest of the finger and thumb onto the grip, and it doesn't have to be tight. When maneuvering the heel pad onto the top of shaft, make an effort to keep the back of the hand generally point towards the target, not towards the sky. I should probably add the only purpose of the last three fingers of the left hand is to maintain the contact of the heel pad and club, it takes a surprising very little effort to do that, you can try a little test, with just the trigger finger and heel pad on the club, pick the club up to horizontal, you should have no problem doing this, in fact you can have a friend sit on the ground, grab the club head. You can pull him to his feet, with just a one finger and heel pad grip on the club, leverage, what an amazing thing.

The right hand, here is where everyone gets hosed up, if you notice, the left hands thumb and forefinger form a "V" and it points to the right shoulder, so should the right hand, club is placed in the fingers at an ANGLE from the first joint of trigger finger to the base of the ring finger, meaty part of the right hand thumb pad sits on the left thumb. Here when completed, look at the Wrists both left and right, will, be at the same angle, parallel to each other, (they are aligned), in this position neither hand fights for dominance, the club face will close naturally, the swing path is not manipulated, and you will relax with even grip pressure, which frees up your shoulders for a good turn.

Bottom line, spend the time to perfect your grip, then start putting them swing changes your reading about in to play. In the long run your golf game will thank you.