Get A Grip – PART 2

MYTHS – Smaller Grips Will Prevent Slicing & Larger Grips will promote a fade

 

Question: Will a smaller grip enable me to hook or draw the ball.

Answer: For many, this is incorrect. Although, a small percentage of golfers with appropriate hand size and grip pressure may find this to work. Let’s talk more about why and how.

 

For whatever reason, many golfers have been told that by switching to a small grip, they will reduce their slicing. The opposite has been said about a large grip promoting a fade. Almost always, these myths or fallacies are a last resort for someone seeking a cure for their golfing ailments. Fact is, the size of the grips on a golfer’s clubs should be determined by the size and type of a golfer’s hands. Grip-pressure can also be related to grip-size; and 9 times out of 10, a player who exerts excessive grip-pressure is one whose grip is incorrectly sized in addition to improper hand placement.

 

Fact is, a grip that is too small will make it exceedingly difficult for any golfer to hold a club properly.  With such a grip, a player is likely to manipulate the clubface, which may also cause the clubface to be closed at the top of the swing. The trajectory may also be low, and will tend to go most anywhere but toward the target.

 

Even a seasoned player and or a good ball-striker who uses a grip that is too small (for his or her palms or fingers), will find herself or himself creating excessive grip pressure. Excessive grip-pressure locks up the limbs from the fingertips up through the biceps and throughout the rest of the body. Excessive grip-pressure leads to TENSION, and tension is bad for any golf shot. Even with steady grip-pressure at address and at takeaway, a player may easily re-grip at the top of the backswing, thus engaging the small muscles (hands) creating tension in the downswing. This can lead to a multitude of problems including: an outside-in swing path, casting, slice, inconsistent divot pattern and other problems. If you’re like most that fall into this category, you’ll likely wear a hole in the left-thumb and heel-pad of your golf-glove.  

 

As mentioned, such wear in the glove comes from losing the club at the top of the backswing. At this point, the club separates from the glove-hand heel-pad, at which point the player re-grips to start the forward swing; and the friction of re-gripping gradually wears a hole in both the thumb and heel-pad of the glove.

 

If you feel as though the grips on your clubs may be improperly fitted, or that the positioning of your hands needs some improvement, don’t feel embarrassed. You and well over half the golfing population have the same problems. In fact, tour players are constantly working on their grip. Simply contact you local PGA golf professional for more details, or feel free to drop me a line.  

 

CHRIS BURNS

 

Grip pressure should stay constant

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• Get A Grip – PART 1