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Edition 15: “Be Your Own Golf Coach” Series

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Getting The RightGrip

I have stated throughout all my years of teaching that if I could get people to fu l ly and technical ly comprehend the grip, it would be impossible for them to ever make a bad golf swing. Golfers will pay a

fortune to purchase a new driver, or to learn the golf swing. However, I will guarantee you no one could get them to pay to just learn the grip, but, if I had my way, that would be all I would ever teach.

The grip is that important, yet few golfers ever really come to the full understanding of it. There is a reason for that, and it is also just as important to know. When we hold a golf club in a proper fashion, we feel helpless, and golfers cannot stand that sensation

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For over forty years I have set golfersʼ hands on the club and asked them to try to discover what they feel they can and cannot do with the club, while holding it in the manner I prescribed. Most give up before really making any attempts at all, because they do feel so totally helpless. Keep in mind, tour professionals love this feeling.

While all of this is taking place, golfers by the thousands continue to ask me to do something on the “grip.”

Golfers tend to think they are supposed to be able to hold the golf club in a fashion which will give them a marvelous feeling of “strength and CONTROL.” However, this is far from the feeling I want you to develop when holding the club.

As we all know by now, tension is never good for the golf swing. We must have soft, flexible muscles in the golf swing in order to keep from slowing, or hindering, the whipping action of the club in a good swing.

There is a great deal of difference between the action, the motion, and the speed of a whip compared to that of a sledge hammer. The sledge hammer is so heavy that we have no choice but to grab onto it and hold on to it for dear life. It is an instrument, or tool, which requires a lot of plain old brute strength.

The golf swing also requires a great deal of strength, but it is a whole different application of that strength, and it is a completely different type of strength. I constantly ask golfers to strengthen the last

three fingers of their left hand (remember, that is for right handed players).

Too often, no matter how I go about it, that leads golfers to think they are supposed to hold the club tightly or strongly with those three fingers. However, that is not the case at all. I am going to do my best to help you learn how to use the strength of those fingers in this Edition, and I hope with all my heart you get a grasp on it. No pun intended there.

The last three fingers of your left hand need to be strong so you do NOT have to hold the club tightly, and so you can SNAP the clubhead STRONGLY into the downswing. They are not to be strong so you can hold the club tightly! We should never hold the club tightly, because it does nothing but create tension.

Golfers feel as though they must swing the club HARD in order to hit the ball a long distance. Every golfer in the world wants to hit the golf ball as far as they possibly can, and I donʼt blame them for that. I want to do the same thing–as long as I can still control the direction of my shots.

By the way, this entire Edition is on the grip, so relax and keep on reading. I am going to present this information just as I would in a seminar. It is that important to you and for you. A lot of the things I have to teach you about the grip are not as much about how your hands touch the club, as they are about WHY it is so important to touch it that way.

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I just gave you a very important piece of information when I said I want to hit the golf ball as far as I can – as long as I can still control the direction of my shots.

We never want to attempt to hit a golf ball so far that we lose our ability to control it.

I frequently talk to golfers about the difference between a Caterpillar tractor and a fuel dragster, racing car. The Caterpillar tractor is geared for brute power, and the fuel dragster is geared for speed.

You could not win the Indianapolis 500 by choosing to drive a Caterpillar tractor, and you could not push down a mighty oak tree by choosing to do so with a top fuel dragster. In the same fashion, recreational golfers are doing that very thing with their golf swing, and they have no clue that is what they are doing.

Golfers typically think they have to try to overpower the golf ball and the golf course, and when they do that, they are completely abandoning all of the advantages of using technique to accomplish their goals. Building more speed in your golf swing comes through a technique you must learn.

As an example, a basketball player doesnʼt shoot a basketball using brute strength or power. He has to implement technique in order to achieve the feel, or touch, required for making a basket. If he shoots or throws the ball as hard as he can, he will have no chance of making the ball go through the hoop.

Golf actually requires the same type of thing, but most golfers never come to that realization. The main reason golfers never come to this realization is because playing the game of golf requires hitting a golf ball a long distance. When we look down a fairway which is 350 to 450 yards long, for a typical par 4, we naturally feel that it takes a great deal of power in order to make the golf ball cover that distance in just two shots.

Power, power, and more POWER. That is all golfers think about. They only want more and more power, yet the game of golf does not require power. It does require some strength, but it does not require power.

The golf swing is all about technique - not POWER. Holding the golf club properly, with the correct amount of pressure will allow good technique to come out

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Some of you are asking yourself, “What is the difference?” You have come to the right place, if you are asking that question. There is a very definitive difference in the two.

POWER, in my way of explaining it in relation to the golf swing, is the act of using brute FORCE in your golf swing.

STRENGTH, in my way of explaining it in relation to the golf swing, is the ability to WHIP the club through the arc of the swing with a great amount of speed.

We have got to learn how to whip the club through the swing with a greater amount of clubhead speed, and that can only be achieved when we can learn how to apply a great deal of strength in the last three fingers of the left hand, while

maintaining complete relaxation in the arms, forearms, and shoulders.

In the golf swing we must learn how to snap the clubhead downward with as much s t reng th as i s comfo r tab le , wh i le maintaining very relaxed arms and forearms. This allows the clubhead to be snapped VERY STRONGLY in i t s downward motion, so it may be “released” and whipped on toward the power point as it reaches its maximum speed.

This can only be achieved by holding the grip of the club in our hands properly, while also holding it with the correct amount of pressure. We can hold it properly and still not have the proper grip pressure, or we can also hold it with the proper pressure and not hold it properly. Neither will accomplish the results we would really like to produce.

Now that we have covered all of that it is time to begin the process of placing the club properly into our hands, or I should say, fingers. Usually, when a student is right in front of me, I have them try to think how they would hold the club in order to throw it, rather than to hit with it. This produces more of the proper holding position and pressure.

In order to place the club into your hands, I would like for you to softly curl the fingers of your left hand around the grip, while keeping it in or below the callous line on the hand. This will place the club definitely in

the fingers, and not in the “hand”, whatsoever.

The shaft of the club should be held upward, or perpendicular, at this point. (See photoʼs 1 and 2 on the next page).

When you are able to do this properly, and not “squeeze” the grip of the club, then you should be able to allow the clubhead to gently “fall” downward out in front of you. If you do this properly, the bell, or largest part of the grip, should catch under the heel of your hand.

HOLDING THE CLUB

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If you have done it properly, you should also be able to then “cradle” the club in such a manner that the bell of the grip will be pressing upward under the heel of your hand, and the smaller part of the grip should be in your index finger.

At this point, you should be able to release your pinky finger, your ring finger, and your middle finger, and the club should “cradle” in your index finger and be caught up under the heel of your hand. Your thumb should not be touching the grip at this point. The grip of the club will only be touching the heel of your hand and the index finger. (See photo 3)

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If you are holding, or cradling the club properly, you should be able to move the club about quite a bit, without losing it out of your hand.

I want you to be able to allow the club the “dangle” or cradle in your hand, with the clubhead just barely off of he turf. When you are doing this correctly, you should feel as though you do not have to “hold” the club at all, in order to keep it in your hand. The cradling effect should take care of everything for you.

I f you are no t ab le to do everything I have described to this point, then you need to go back and start the process anew. You cannot afford to miss what I have described to this point in the process.

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Take a good look at this on the DVD. It is very important!!

When ‘cradling’ the club properly, you should be able to move the club about quite a bit, without losing it out of your hand.

Now, you should be able to gently, and I do mean gently, touch the grip of the club with the fingers you which have been removed from the grip, and the thumb. This is the point where golfers begin to attempt to “grasp” the club, rather than to merely “touch” it with the thumb and fingers.

Cradling the club will allow you to let the clubhead dangle in your hand without any holding pressure. This is a very important part of “gripping” the golf club, because we should not have any pressure in our hands when swinging the club, if we expect to achieve our maximum clubhead speed.

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When you can feel how to cradle the club in your fingers and under the heel of your hand, you are ready to place the other hand on the golf club.

In order to do this, I want you to, while still gently holding the club in the fingers of your left hand–if you are right handed–raise the shaft back to the perpendicular, or straight up, position. You should still feel as though you are not “grasping” the club.

It should be in your hand so gently that you can hardly tell it is even there. Yes, you will feel the weight of the club, but when you are holding it in a nice perpendicular position, you will not have to use any pressure at all in the fingers. The club will simply rest in your hand.

Now, with the club in your left hand and in a vertical position, check to see that the pad of your left thumb is as close to opposite the pad of your index finger as possible. Naturally, the grip of the club will not allow you to actually pinch the pad of your thumb and the pad of your index finger together; however, I want you to feel as though you are actually attempting to pinch the grip of

Placing the left hand fingers and thumb onto the grip

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the club with your thumb and your index finger.

If you are doing this properly, you will notice that the base of your thumb is touching your hand in a manner which would allow you to hold a tee in the crease, or line, that it produces.

Too many times, golfers hold the club too much into the hand, and that does not allow for the thumb to make contact with the hand in the manner which I am

describing. The place to which I am referring is just about where the thumb and the hand are joined on your hand, and it forms a crease. You may see this vividly in the DVD.

With the club in a vertical position in your left hand, gently touch the club with the middle sections of the middle two fingers of your right hand. Do not attempt to close your fingers at this time. Just touch the grip of the club. (See photo 8).

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The next thing I want you to do is to softly place the little finger of your right hand over the index finger of your left

hand. Some of you will find it comfortable to place the little finger over the crease between the index finger and the middle

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finger of the left hand, and others of you will feel more comfortable with your little finger laying on top of the index finger of your left hand. Either is perfectly acceptable.

This grip is referred to as the Vardon Overlapping Grip (see photo 9), because it was first utilized by the famous Harry Vardon. The Vardon Overlapping Grip reduces the strength we are able to apply with our right hand in the golf swing. He was the first player to realize that the right hand, even though it is typically the stronger of the two hands, is not “user friendly” to the golf swing.

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Once you have gone through all of the above described steps, I would once again like for you to feel as though you are attempting to pinch the grip of the club with your right hand thumb and index finger. I do not want you to squeeze the club, or apply any measurable pressure, with either of your hands. It is a very gentle pinching sensation. I like to call it “touching.”

You should now be holding the club in a manner which makes you feel as though you could “throw” the club far better, or stronger, than you could “hit” with it. This is the place where golfers will often tell me, “This feels strange to me.”10

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I tell them they do not really mean strange as much as they mean “weak.” Every one of them will answer that statement with an affirmative. Every golfer I have ever taught comes to me with the idea that they must hold the club strongly, or tightly, because they think they are supposed to swing the golf club with power.

THE GOLF SWING IS NOT A POWER MOTION. It is a motion which, when performed properly, wil l produce a tremendous amount of clubhead SPEED. Here again, most golfers either do not recognize the difference between speed and power, or they have never taken the time to mentally process it correctly.

Whenever we swing the golf club with power, we create tension. When the body, and especially the arms and forearms, are full of tension, we are, in reality, resisting ourselves in our own swing.

There are so many things tension introduces into the golf swing, and none of them is any good. As I have stated already, tension is introduced into the golf swing when a golfer thinks the grip must be very firm and strong on the golf club, so he or she will have the ability to produce their maximum power in the swing.

When you are holding the club the way I have described to you, the club could be yanked out of your hands with very little effort. This is ideal, if we are going to have any possibility to create the necessary amount of relaxation required for clubhead speed, rather than the feeling of brute force, or power.

If you will hold the club vertically in this manner and rotate your left shoulder, as if making a backswing, you will see you can swing the club with a completely new sensation. You will now be fully able to use your fingers to make the club whip through the swinging motion.

Now, if you can “cradle” the club, while both hands are touching it, just slightly off of the ground or turf, you should be easily able to “toss” or throw the clubhead into a backswing, using your left hand.

Do not attempt to swing the club yet. Just dangle or cradle the club in front of you, and then throw the club into a backswing with your left hand. I want you to pay particular attention to how sloppy and lose you feel at the top of the backswing when you perform this action.

You should feel as though the club is about to fall out of your hands at the top of the backsw ing . You a re t yp i ca l l y accustomed to feeling very powerful in your hands at the top of the backswing. This sloppier feeling is very important if you want to be able to create the clubhead speed to hit the golf ball a long ways.

Once you have tossed the club into a sloppy feeling backswing several times, then I want you to go ahead and see if you can now also feel how this loose feeling at the top allows you to snap the clubhead strongly with the last three fingers of your left hand.

To s s t h e c l u b b a c k i n t o t h e backswing,and then toss, or snap, it back downward into the golf swing. Once you snap it downward it is vitally critical that you learn to relax and allow the club to do

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whatever it wants to do. You are not allowed to help the swing in any way at all, once you snap the club downward. Everything will happen automatically when you do this correctly.

If you are holding the club as lightly as I am trying to get you to hold it, you should feel the clubhead pop and whip at the bottom of the swing. You should also a u t o m a t i c a l l y f e e l t h e c l u b h e a d accelerating all the way to the power point, without you doing anything but relaxing.

This is the point where you will begin to sense a couple of thing I have shared with you many times in the past. You should begin to feel as though swinging the club in this manner would make you feel completely helpless, as far as power and control are concerned. This is the feeling all of the great players experience when they make those super golf shots you see on television.

Now that you are starting to feel how to place the club in your hands in a gentle fashion, I would like for you to hold the club in a vertical position, directly in front of you. I want you to get a good feel of how a proper grip will almost give you a perfect “release” in the golf swing, and how it will do it automatically.

With the club in the vertical position in front of your body, turn your left shoulder to the backswing position. The club should still be in the vertical position in front of your chest. At this point, your chest should be pretty much over your right hip, and you should feel a lot of pressure in your right foot and leg.

From this position I want you to relax as much as you can and let the shaft and clubhead begin to “free fall” right in front of your chest. Donʼt use your arms in any way at all. They should be resting comfortably on your chest–if you have not made any attempt to do anything with them.

As the weight of the clubhead and shaft begin to free fall, I would like for you to use only your right foot to push gently, as you smoothly clear your left hip. This will give you the feeling that you are moving your lower body in a golf swing motion, while you are doing absolutely nothing with your upper body–accept allowing the club the free fall.

As you are turning and the club is free falling, I would like you to try to feel as though you rotate your lower body all the way to facing an imaginary target, just as the club automatically pops back upward from the free fall. It will automatically swing up right in front of your chest, and almost completely into the same vertical position as it was in at the backswing side of the drill.

I want you to perform this drill several times, and each time you do it, I would like you to do your best to focus on what the clubhead is automatically making your hands do. As the club free falls through the bottom of the swing, you should begin to feel as though your hands are “flipping” closed through the swing.

Pay special attention the all of this, because I want you to start to realize that the hands do not actually rotate all the way over. They do make a flipping closed

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Too often golfers will begin to feel this motion, and they will use their right hand to assist the closing motion. When we use the right hand to do that, we over do the release, and that is what causes us to start developing a big duck hook.

Repeat the drill several times, until you feel how the clubhead will almost make the release for you. You really donʼt have to help it at all. The weight of the clubhead on the shaft, because it is an off center weight in relationship to the shaft, will do it all, if we can learn to stay this relaxed.

Once you have begun to recognize how this will work on its own, we are ready to make a bit more progress. From the backswing position I want you to now raise your left arm just a bit off of your chest. Do not lift both arms. Just lift the left arm a few inches–for right handed golfers.

From this position I want to make certain you have not begun to squeeze the grip of the club with the last three fingers of your left hand. You must still feel very loose and relaxed at the top of the backswing.

If the last three fingers of the left hand are fairly loose, then you will have the ability to snap the club stronger, and still remain relatively relaxed in your forearms. This combination produces the best release, and it is the release which creates all of the clubhead speed in the swing.

Finally, if you will allow the club to cradle, or dangle, ever so slightly off the turf, you will see you can easily toss, or throw, the club into the backswing with your left hand, and you can do it with more vigor than you might imagine. This will give you a very loose, or

placid, feeling at the top of the backswing, and that will make it possible for you to throw the club very strongly into the downswing. With the last three fingers of the left hand.

Suddenly, you have stepped into a whole new world, as far as your golf swing is concerned. I want you to learn how to do this relatively strongly, so you need to do a lot of practice swings. See how much strength you are able work up to in this drill (I am speaking of the strength you area able to generate with the last three fingers of your left hand), and then go the the driving range and try it with a few golf balls.

The secret to faster success when striking golf balls is for you to do your VERY BEST to not really care where the balls go when you are swinging the club this freely. Just learn to swing the club in this manner with a golf ball down there, looking up at you, and it will not take long at all until you are killing it.

I am quite excited about this Edition. I have never done the grip in this manner, so I sincerely hope and trust it will begin to make a huge difference in your golf swing. Please go to the website and leave your input, after you have given it a go.

Next Month...Edition 16 you’ll be practicing like the Pro’s do. We will head off to the course and go through the exact process to best golfers go through when preparing to play competition golf. See you next month.

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