Grip Feels Wierd.

[halifax_golfer]

Hey people.

I'm having problems with my grip. I've been told that it's fine/good in the past by a couple of local pro's... But no matter what I do, it always wants to get stronger and stronger.

It feels like no matter how open I have the face when I grip the club, my grip still feels strong and I can still roll the club over closed once gripped. It seems like even if I put my thumb down the front facing portion of the shaft I can still see three almost four knuckles. It's like I was built with a strong grip, and I can't get away from it!.

I'm placing the shaft across the base of my fingers, then just wrapping the top of my hand over, and it seems like its strong no matter what.

Maybe I just have akwardly shaped hands (small and stubby fingers kinda), but overall I have normal looking hands .

I dunno, it just feels wierd and its messing with my head!. I've been fighting a hook forever, I think mostly due to this strong grip...

I know describing how to grip a club is probably tough to impossible, as I'm sure there is a certin feeling that I have just never been able to get. But anyways, I figured it was worth a try to post it up. . Thanks for reading.

[Lefty_SnowBird]

Try making a circle with your thumb and 1st finger of the lower hand around the shaft without touching it (or barely).

Maybe your problem comes with the lower hand. Doing this will remove a lot of strenght from that hand and you shouldn't be able to turn over the head that way.

It may not be the way you want to hit forever, but it could be a good drill and will at least tell you if that's where the problem is.

[SilverUberXeno]

Lay the club across the base of your fingers like you are, but do it with the BOTTOM of the grip, not the side. As you're gripping the club, you should be looking at your hand as if you're reading a message written on your palm. Close your fingers, then your hand. It'll feel like the club is WAY OPEN. Relative to how you used to hold the club, it will be.

Keep in mind though, assuming your swing is sound, a strong or weak grip will result in shots that are pushed or pulled. If your error is a curvature in flight, that is a swing path issue more than a grip issue.

[halifax_golfer]

well, I feel kinda like it's the grip thats causing a bit of my swing path error.

I'll definitly grip my club as you described silver... I think that will help it out.

Thanks for the tips; I know its a wierd kinda question.

[Wi-Golfer]

If my shots start going left with my irons, it's almost always because I am gripping too tightly & rolling the club over. Loosen my grip up & all is well.

[SilverUberXeno]

Try this... I was thinking about your dilemma tonight while I was working out my own swing issue.

Putting involves virtually square shoulders at impact. This is acceptable and helpful because you are not trying to generate clubhead speed.

You CAN chip like that, but I don't. I prefer a chipping motion that involves lower body movement to generate a smooth, easy, assertive swing.

The full swing definitely involves rotation to generate speed, and a proper sequencing of motion to create a whip-effect in the clubhead naturally.

Just stand in your address position then take the club up to the top. Now DON'T turn your lower body at all and try to swing with your arms. You should notice that you're coming horribly far from the inside, and you must go horribly far from the outside.

In order to start the ball straight from that position - one with a poor or absent body turn - you NEED an excessively strong grip. If you have the club square to the swing path, and your swing path is very in-to-out, you will block it like legos.

Now do the same motion, but turn your waist and lower body toward the target to start the swing. When you do that, your in-to-out motion becomes just_inside-to-just_inside.

Picture the hitting area as a straight line (though it isn't quite a straight line). Without body turn, your line starts behind you and goes away out in front of you. If you turn your lower body though, the upper body that creates that swing path gets turned counter-clockwise, and becomes much more square relative to your target line.

You're not doing much different up top, you're just adjusting the orientation of that move to hit the ball straight.

With a good lower-body drive and rotation, you will notice that you don't need that strong grip. In fact, you'll pull the snot out of everything if you rotate well with a too-strong grip. If you are swinging in-to-out with that strong grip, you probably hit draws, or more likely, ugly hooks very often.

Don't be afraid to adjust ball position slightly to accomodate the rotary motion with longer clubs. Longer clubs take longer to square up, as they have a bit farther to go.

[FATC1TY]

Makes sense SUX.

I pull alot of my shorter irons, because I naturally have a strong grip. When I'm turning full and groovin' the swing on the course, I'll start yankin everything. Then it's time to weaken the grip to remove the "strong draw" I have.

[halifax_golfer]

yea, that does make very good sense; And also describes my misses very very well.

I really liked your tip of gripping the club with my fingers "under" the shaft, I grabbed a club and that felt great. Looking forward to playing later today. That really explained EXATLY what I think I was doing wrong. I was having to swing incredibly easy in order to not let my lower body turn so much through the ball at impact, otherwise I was hitting some real nasty hooks. My "good" drives are usually a bit of a push, but usually have a nice little draw to compensate for it.

I'll also hit the odd "super push".

I really think this is gona help get me back on the right track!. Great Advice. Why cant our local pro explain things like that?????.

[SilverUberXeno]

Maybe someday I'll be your local pro =D

[halifax_golfer]

Well, your grip advice worked.

Good Job SUX.

I actually was trying out a new driver aswell today (Cobra X ProSpeed S) it's a bit fade biased, but believe me when I say it was definitly the grip change that made a HUGE difference. I played 9 holes and shot 6 over, but I had a 7 on one of the par3's (bunker ate me alive).

I got into a bit of trouble with the grip change though, overdid it and sliced a couple, but for the most part I was hitting a very controlled fade all day, and NO HOOKS!.

Grip is SOOOO nuts, the amount of difference a slight 1/8" adjustment can make is absolutly unbelivable. It's easy to overdo though, so I have to watch out for it. It would be very easy for me to go back to my old grip, and it's also very easy to go a bit too weak.

Great advice though on taking the grip. Absolutly perfect. Thank you so much!.

From Chris.

[warbirdlover]

Wow. Thanks for taking the time to write all that!! It goes into detail I've never read before. I've found my problems the last two years were from getting sloppy with my grip and fixing it has worked wonders.

What do you think of Faldo's book btw?

[Wi-Golfer]

Wow, all I can post after that is "TLDR".

[halifax_golfer]

Thanks for the huge post dude!. Definitly one I will re-read more then a few times.

I probably have a few more questions, but the first one is about the dominant eye.

I'm a lefty, and my right eye is definitly dominant. I thought that finger trick was kinda cool, I dont think I've tried that before. But I'm wondering why it's important to know that?. You kinda just stated that Arnie and another dude had problems with alignment, but never really said what it had to do with there dominant eye; or why knowing your dominant eye is important. Can you explain a little more?.

Thanks.

[stllefty]

Sorry I had to pull the post, it part of a book comming out soon.
Ya another book, but Ill get you to understand the swing, I hope you printed the post,if not you can still email me ,and Ill send you a copy ,
Just dont tell anyone . If I can help please let me know
stllety /jerrylusa at hotmail/ subject golf lesson

[stllefty]

Arni,Raymond had alinement issues, this can cause up to a 20% mis-alinement , 20% on 300 yards = 60 yards off intendent landing area
this breaks down to a 100 yard shot being 20 yards off. know your line
swing down that line ,Thats exrtreme but within limits of human vision
we have a max of 160 degrees of vision (prefiaell) it not hard to get off line.