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Weighted grip (Secret Grip) impacts to swing??


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So, this past week I put Secret Grips on all my clubs (I'm one of those all the way or nothing guys).   I chose to use these grips because I read they will help provide more consistency.  I don't have a horrible swing but could use some better consistency and help improve dispersion.

Anyway, I've played 3 rounds with them on and have absolutely stunk it up.  Mishits, pulls, slices, etc.  I was not confident where my ball was going.

Can a weighted grip have this much impact on shot consistency or is this one of those things where I need to take some time getting used to the additional weight?

Thanks,

Robert

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So, this past week I put Secret Grips on all my clubs (I'm one of those all the way or nothing guys).   I chose to use these grips because I read they will help provide more consistency.  I don't have a horrible swing but could use some better consistency and help improve dispersion.

Anyway, I've played 3 rounds with them on and have absolutely stunk it up.  Mishits, pulls, slices, etc.  I was not confident where my ball was going.

Can a weighted grip have this much impact on shot consistency or is this one of those things where I need to take some time getting used to the additional weight?

Thanks,

Robert

My guess is you need time to get used to it AND that you may be psyching yourself out a bit, but I've never tried a back weighted club other than my putter.

Yours in earnest, Jason.
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My first encounter with backweighting (or counterweighting) came in the 1970s. Jack Nicklaus helped popularize it. Some of your stronger golfers would put a fishing weight in the butt of their driver - and sometimes FWs - to quiet down their hands during the swing. It supposedly helped them "drop it into the slot" more efficiently.

So, I'm not surprised Nicklaus is spokesman for Bossieri Secret Grip line.

The whole weighted grip thing has taken on religious overtones, with believers and non-believers exchanging heated remarks on the topic. @rob0225 , possibly you're a non-believer?

One argument for backweighting says it can help players with faster swingspeeds make use of the superlight shafts. Golfdom testing indicates that better players get more out of superlight shafts than average golfers, because the average golfers tend to overswing with light shafts and can't feel it "drop into the slot." Backweighting has been suggested as a way to help average golfers in this area.  (A couple of years ago, Sergio Garcia backweighted his driver and ended up with a C7 - or so - swingweight).

In 1994, I gave up a persimmon-headed driver with a 130-gram TT stiff shaft. I moved to graphite. By 2012, I built myself a driver with a 48-gram shaft while at the GolfWorks school. Getting it swingweighted properly was a major challenge.

One argument against backweighting (for clubs other than putters) says it robs the golfer of clubhead speed, and upsets the club's balance.

Backweighting also appeared as an option with the ShotMaker shaft insert from Harrison. I put a 4-gram plug into the butt of the club, and it seemed to make the club feel less head-heavy.

I have some sites and online articles (somewhere...) which I will look for. In a day or two, I may post some sources which those interested could read.

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The whole weighted grip thing has taken on religious overtones, with believers and non-believers exchanging heated remarks on the topic. @rob0225, possibly you're a non-believer?

I'm not sure if I'm a believer or not yet.  If you would have asked me in the middle of my round yesterday I would've told you to take these grips and burn 'em.  Just the night prior to installing them, I was hitting my irons very well at the range, getting good impact but poor dispersion which is one of the things Secret Grips claims to help.

I'll give them some time, probably another week or so, to hopefully "get used" to the additional weight.

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Some people hit the ball better with a lighter swing weight, some people hit the ball better with a heavier swing weight, and some people hit the ball better somewhere in between. And some of us don't hit the ball well enough to make any difference. ;-) (Only half joking).
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Can a weighted grip have this much impact on shot consistency or is this one of those things where I need to take some time getting used to the additional weight?

I don't think adding weight to the grip end is going to have a huge impact on consistency, it's not going to "fix" any swing flaws a player might have. You might like the way it feels and it could help somewhat but I wouldn't set my expectations very high.

Mike McLoughlin

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How does this back weighting  effect the swing weight of a club?  Or does the  swing weight of a club have any importance to the golfer?

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More weight on the grip end decreases the swing weight. More weight on the tip end (or the head) increases the swing weight. Individual preference. A certain swing weight is probably optimal, unless you want to get into MOI matching instead of swing weight matching. (Another can of worms entirely).
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  • 1 year later...

As a long time user of back weighted clubs, I figured I'd throw in my two cents on the contraversial subject.  I would like add in advance, that I do have an extremely repeatable swing.  The picture I posted here, is my Cleveland CG1 Black Pearl, 7 iron.  

I've been using the Secret Grip for at least the last 5 years and before that, I was already a fan of back weighing the end of all my shafts.  I switched to using the Secret Grips, not only for the weighted benifits, but also because I absolutely love the way the grips feel in my fingers.  I used to build up the lower 5 - 6" with two pieces of tape for my trail hand with a single layer for the top of the grip.  With the Secret Grip, I don't have to do that.  Not that adding an extra piece of tape is a big deal, I do, do my own grips, but the extra width in the lower section of this grip, fits my hand and grip perfectly without wearing a glove.  I play a lot of golf and hit a lot of balls and I don't wear a glove, ever.  If I were to swing a club with a standard size grip, that's not the Secret Grip with the thicker lower section, then I would need to use a glove in order to maintain the tight gap, between both hands for my grip.  Anyways, back to the discussion at hand.  By using the weighted grip, for me, allows me to consistently have my clubs drop in to the "slot", effortlessly and with more of a deliberate tempo. Key word here for my swing, is "deliberate tempo".  I also find that I am able to hold almost a 90 degree angle of lag, until my lead hand reaches my front thigh.  

I also have an exact duplicate set of these clubs that were built at the same time, from the same tour van and using the same exact, total weight and frequency matched shafts, that I have as a back up set. The only difference between the two are the grips.  Originally, when they were built, I left the grips off, but since then I have installed the Lampkin "N-Dur" 580 round, using two pieces of tape on the lower section.  When I take them both out at the same time to compare, I find that my dispersion is still just as tight left to right, accuracy is still extremely close each other, but my distance control and "ball check" seems to be more consistent when hit on to the same green and pin. 

Besides being a certified club fitter, I also work at a golf course, so when I have done these comparisons, I do them from the same spots on the fairways, hitting to the same greens and playing the same type of shots.  I have also done comparisons between the two identical clubs using the launch monitor / simulator at work, but I'm not going to say much on this during this post, because I did not save the results and I would prefer to keep my responses as accurate as possible and if I post what those measured differences were in the post, it could get too complicated  for this discussion of weighted grips.

The one thing I will state about these grips, is that I do need to replace them more frequently than any other grip I've used in the past.  Sometimes I need to replace every couple of months due to flat spots.  I dot mind too much though, because I do love the way they maintain there tackiness through out a lot of play, in between cleanings.  Just somthing to keep in mind if your not up to frequent grip replacements, especially at the higher price point.

So in conclusion, for me, I am a fan of the Secret Grip and back weighting.  The beauty of this wonderful sport is that there are no two identical swings and there is no real right or wrong swing.  If you can repeat your swing and square the club at impact, all while having lots of fun, than that's what really matters.  

 

2015-12-03 13.00.37.jpg

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Note: This thread is 3039 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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