strong grip / normal grip

is there anything wrong with playing with a reasonable strong grip? i mean like its wrong to turn the the face of you driver at setup so you dont slice or hook. is it fundamentally wrong? i can see four knucles on my hand. should i learn to play with a neutral grip?

any help is appreciated

adz

I just posted an article on this below, "What's the deal with the grip" should answer your questions.

GoNavy's article is fanstastic.

Now to me, the easiest thing to change on course is your grip.

I actually play better golf with a 4 knuckle grip (a buddy of mine just got back from a golf lesson and has a 'revolutionary' new setup and swing. Yeah - mine. The shaft and the lead arm form a straight line, and the grip feels ridiculously strong).

Anyway, maybe my grip isn't for everyone, and it's compensating for my (most likely ugly) swing, but it works for me.

YMMV

This is what I do to get a grip.

Clubhead behind the ball.

Club simulates impact position. Butt of the club ahead of the ball (more for wedges than the driver).

Left hand grips the club . Making sure to keep the left wrist flat. Also the forearm-wrist-hand needs to be ever so slightly pronated for the butt to be ahead of the clubhead. Now I have my left hand perfect.

Right hand grips the club. Wrist bend back (extended).

Now, I change the pressure of my grip (hard to soft to hard).

If the club face closes with a harder grip then I need to rotate my right hand counter-clockwise around the the grip.

If the clubface opens with a harder grip then I need to rotate my right hand clockwise around the the grip.

I should be able to change the pressure on the grip and not have it change the clubface from square.

The hands can now be moved back to the address position. If you look in a mirror you should have both Vs pointing at your right shoulder.

This is what I do. Take it or leave it.

That actually seems really sensible, 2k3.

Not unlike Gord's drill for checking grip.

Thank you.

And which drill? or better yet which gord?

what is meant about the above things the wrist flat, wrist pronated, wrist bent back?

would be great if you can clear this up


thanks

adz

No problem.

wrist is flat - means that the back of your left hand and the back of your forearm create a straight line.

Pronated - derived from the term "pronation" which means "To turn or rotate (the hand or forearm) so that the palm faces down or back". Demonstration - put your left hand out in front of you, fingers pointing away from you and thumb pointing up. Without rotating your shoulder make the palm of your hand point down (thumb points right). There should only be one way to do this.

Wrist bent back - the proper term for this is "extension" I have attached a picture. In golf lingo this is usually defined as the "cupped right wrist".
Demonstration - right hand straight out (fingers away, thumb up), now bend wrist so that the back of the hand and the back of the forearm create an angle that is less that 180*. If you are having trouble with this description, then place the back of your forearm and hand flat against a wall, then make a triangle where the corners are the "fingernails against the wall", "back of the wrist" and "elbow touching the wall".

I hope this expains it well enough. If not I can always try again.

Attached Images

extension.gif (3.8 KB, 8 views)

There's more than one Gord?

Uh, Canadian Gord.

no this makes it very clear thanks for oyur help but i am always puzzled as to what the wrists do during your swing because i looked at gregs drill and it confuses me. i get this feeling of my wrists rolling backwards and i lose that cupped posistion. im so confused :S

if you could help me with this it would be appreciated but thanks for all ur help so far

adz

Ohhhhhh ... that Gord.
hehe

This is kind of complicated but here goes...

Think of the wrists having three pairs of movements. Each pair consists of two opposite movements.

But first the neutral position: put your left hand out in front of you (arm straight), fingers pointing away from you and thumb pointing up.

1st Pair: Pronation/Supination
Pronation (covered earlier but repeated) - "To turn or rotate (the hand or forearm) so that the palm faces down or back". Action: from the neutral position, without rotating your shoulder make the palm of your hand point down (thumb points right).
Supination (opposite) - "To turn or rotate (the hand or forearm) so that the palm faces up or forward". Action: from the neutral position, without rotating your shoulder make the palm of your hand points up (thumb points left).

2nd pair: Extension/Flexsion
Extension - back of the hand and the back of the forearm creates an angle of less than 180*.
Flexsion - palm of the hand and the front of the forearm creates an angle of less than 180*.

3rd pair: Adduction/Abduction
Abduction - From the neutral position pull the thumb towards the body (fingers point up on a slight angle).
Adduction - from the neutral position push the thumb away from the body (fingers point down on a slight angle).


Finally, he gets to the swing.

The impact position essentially limits the allowable movements of the wrists.

The left wrist should NOT engage in Flexsion/Extension (yes, at address and I am sure there are some tour player examples to the contrary - Fred Couples?). So the left wrist should only pronate/supinate and adduct/abduct.

The right wrist can only engage in Extension because it is limited by the flat left wrist and that your arms are separated by shoulders. So the right wrist should only pronate/supinate and adduct/abduct.

What about the top of the backswing?

Left wrist is still flat (no flexsion/extension), but it is pronated (palm would point kind of back and down at a similar angle as the spine) and abducted.

Right wrist is now limited in its position by the left wrist again. The right wrist is still extended and pronated. Because the left wrist is pronated, something in the right arm has to give, the right wrist can still abduct but this only provides limited relief from the pronation of the left wrist so the shoulder has to rotate clockwise to move the elbow in (anti-chicken wing ).

To get back to the impact position:

The following actions occur at the same time:
Left wrist adducts while the right wrist supinates (greg's right hand drill).
Left wrist supinates as the right wrist adducts AND the right arm straightens.

And that was just the wrists.

... you will never ask me a question ever again.

Oh, and I lied at the beginning it is actually really complicated.

lol thanks for all your help will have to start applying this.

Fahie,

I have not read all this tread only your initial question,

Do you mean a strong grip like Langer, Azinger or you could move to a weak grip like Monty etc

I read an artical by Langer once how he always played with a strong grip and decided to try to play a more conventional grip, he couldn't break 80 with a 'normal' grip.

I am sure all the information given is correct, but we must remember that we are not all striving for the perfect regimental swing, it simply doesn't work, look at the tour..........you will see players with all different swings and manorisims, Monty is fundimentally poor, 7 times European Tour winner and the list goes on.

If you want to change then please do, my advice is to work on the one thing in common with all pros (swing plane) no matter which pro you watch they all come back to the ball with the same swing plane, once you perfect this you may not want to change your grip.


Good luck

Ian.

__________________
Once you learn the swing, your next step is mastering golf psychology................

!!!WARNING!!!

As stated in GoNavy's article:
If you have been comensating for a "poor" grip with the rest of your swing, then switching to a "better" grip and keeping the rest of your swing will almost guarantee problems.

For example, if your grip and wirst action would have promoted a draw and your swing promoted a slice (net straightish shot), then switching to wrist action that promotes "straight" shots and you keep your swing that promotes a slice (net result a slice).