Grip pressure myth

Or is it ?

Ive always heard you must hold the club as you would a little bird, it seems strange we do it and its the only physical contact we have with the club especially when we're using our longer clubs that could be traveling at over 100mph. What kind of grip pressure does a pro golfer use compared to most of us and can it be measured and can it be measured

Pelz says (and I'm sure other people) that keeping the small muscles (i.e. hands, fingers, etc) out of the swing helps keep adrenaline from overtaking your swing.

The soft grip pressure is supposed to help keep the small muscles out of it.

Quote:

The "little bird" reference was attributed to early 20th century English golf great Harry Vardon. This is a goal, or general idea of what to do. Both Hogan and Nicklaus refer to Vardon's overlapping grip as the basis of the "hands as one unit" approach to the grip. But, H and N also address concrete aspects of grip...

Ben Hogan identifies specific grip objectives in his Five Lessons book, Chap. 1  (1957):

• Left hand: pressure on the pad of the hand and the index finger
• Right hand: pressure with the two middle fingers, with little finger overlapping the index of the L hand. The R thumb and forefinger are just "along for the ride."

Then, Jack Nicklaus comes along with Golf My Way (1974). He talks about grip pressure objectives also (pp. 70-73):

• Left hand: Pressure with the last two fingers, pressing the shaft into the L palm.
• Right hand: Pressure primarily with the middle two fingers.
• Overall: Maintain constant pressure

But wait, there's more! Online swing guru Don Trahan promotes the Peak Performance golf swing. Along with attacking the idea of hitting down on the ball, Trahan suggests that we must hold the golf club very firmly in order to have a good swing. (I was still waiting for him to define firmly shen I finally deleted his link.)

Reality checks -

• too little grip pressure; your hands come apart at impact.
• too much grip pressure and you choke the momentum and followthrough out of the swing.

So, JTJ, grip feel is an infividual thing. Consider what H and N said. If grip still gives you trouble, possibly you have a too much or a too little problem.

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Hogan's book is very interesting, Originally published in 1957, it get rediscovered every 30 years or so. Hopefully people are still paying attention to the most recent rebound.

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Also, i wouldn't try everything Ben Hogan does.. A great article i read from a golf professional was that Ben Hogan kept him in business for years because everyone would weaken there grips and then end up worse. He said the book should be, how not to hit a hook. But besides that, keep constant grip pressure through out the hole swing. Don't start off light then grip down hard during the swing. I would say, anything that causes your forearms to get rigid is to much pressure. I would say just mess around with different grip pressures while practicing, seeing which one feels the best.

Bang on in my opinion.  You hear pros talk about holding off the clubface by firming up grip pressure to hit a controlled fade.  It's a tip I use to keep the ball on the right side of the fairway when needed.  And it works great.

I was thinking of Snead as well, but it seems like a Vardon thing to say. It's a fact that baby birds put up a lot more fight in his day. I blame Colonel Sanders and big oil for amateur golfer's weak baby bird grips these days.

It's probably partly a 'mnemonic' of sorts for how to feel, but also you don't need as strong a grip as a 100 mph club head speed would seem to imply.  Most of the club is moving far slower than that---remember the tip of a bullwhip is far, far faster than that and you don't need a tight grip for that.  While the proportions are different, it's a similar situation with the club head.

Also, gripping tightly with your fingers will also lock up your wrists and forearms, making your swing rigid and ineffective.  You want to keep them relaxed.  Finally, clenching makes it feel like you're holding tightly, but that's not always the case.  A relaxed but firm grip can be stronger than a clenched tight grip because often the muscles that give you the feeling of clenching are not actually helping with the grip.

This is one of the drills i found impossible to master when i used the baby bird grip pressure, i found the club would always pass my hands after impact