The Grip Do's And Don'ts

One of the key parts of beginning golf is the grip. The grip is an area of the game that you want to really address early on in your golf development. It has a big impact on elements such as clubface rotation, impact, wrist hinge and swing path. People often neglect this area early on their development, focusing more on the larger scale movements such as weight transfer and rotation. However they will inevitably run into a wall because the grip really is the core ingredient which makes the larger movements operate effectively.

The most common flaw is when the hands are too separated from each other. When they are separated they will also have a tendency of being positioned too far to the right of the grip. When this happens, the hands start to dominate the swing as well the clubface lacks any kind of rotation. This leads to an impact position where the hands stay behind the clubface at impact. This results in 'top' shots and 'thin' shots. The reason why this occurs is when the clubface doesn't have any rotation, instincts will kick and there will be a tendency to try and lift the ball up through impact, which is the exact opposite that you need to do in golf.

The other common mistake is gripping the club too much in the palm. When it's too much in the palm, you will find it very difficult to rotate the club as well not being able to keep the hands forward at impact. The correct placement is having the grip end positioned on the line just below the pinkie of the left hand (opposite for a left hander) and angled across to the middle of the index finger. With the right hand, you want the club to be positioned right in the middle of the fingers.

Lastly I would recommend trialing two grips. One where you interlock your right pinkie under your left index finger or overlapping your pinkie on top of your index finger. I would veer away having a ten finger grip as you want to try and keep the hands as close as they can too each other. This will enable the hands to work together more effectively through the swing. To finish you just want to have the lines that are created between the index fingers and thumbs of both hands pointed at the right shoulder. This ensures the clubface rotates correctly through the swing.

If you'd like any further help in understanding the grip, just contact myself at David Waters Golf located at Emerald Lakes Golf Coaching Centre.