Proper Grip pressure

Lead hand -- pinky, ring finger and thumb

trail hand -- index finger and thumb

I try and hold the club with mostly just those fingers. Done correctly, it allows my hand to work together and generate speed.

If I squeeze too hard with my hands, my forearms and wrists tighten and slow down club speed. Hands need to be able to work together and fast.

My only instructor used to tell me to hold the club vertically and loosen my grip until the club wanted to slide through. I still do this before every shot. Never lost the club from not gripping it tight enough nor seen someone do that. Looser grip helps my tempo too. The looser my hands and forearms feel, the better my tempo and swing gets.

Sidenote: I used to use an interlocking grip, but recently changed to the Vardon overlap. I found that I would naturally grip tighter with the interlocking. Once I made the switch, my grip became much "softer."

I remember hearing it from the Greatest Game Ever Played where Harry Vardon and asked "ever held a live bird in your hands? Not too hard to hurt it, just firm enough to stop it from flying away." I don't use this all the time, but I think it's a good way to describe how much grip pressure you should have.

Normally, if I grip to firmly, my arms tense up and I raise the club too early. This gets the club too vertical on the backswing and not enough behind me.

I wouldn't be comparing your grip pressure to advice given by Tour Players. They have years and years of golf practice, honing there hand and forearm muscles thru countless golf swings. There's a reason why they can hit the ball out of PGA tour rough, and Amateur's can't. Hand Strength is a big factor. So if take this an relate it to lets say a professional body builder. If you ask a professional body build what is heavy for a dumbbell curl. Simple move, probably done countless times. They might say 50 lbs. Now take your starting guy who's just entered the gym. Tell him to do a 50 lb dumbbell curl. He probably couldn't do a single one. The reason is, someone who is a professional, there perception of what is light or heavy is completely different than an amateur. Take this to the grip. For a professional golfer who has very strong hands. When they grip the club, there 5 out of 10 might be 9 out of 10 for us. The reason is, there strong hands tip the scale. There able to exert more force with less perception.

If you want to practice grip pressure. One constant grip, firm, yet light enough so your arms do not tense up. Basically grip down on the club hard, and slowly lighten up till you are not tense in the arms.

The reason for this is, if you have a really light grip pressure, there is a very good chance your going to regrip the club during the swing, and grip down harder, trying to regain some sense of control over the club.

For me, based on what I have read in many articles, and based on my own experience, it is vital to have a firm grip on the last three fingers of the left hand

Has anyone experience of using the SmartGrip or Sensoglove systems? I'm an engineering student and I'm trying to find feedback from anyone with experience of these. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. I know what the companies say, but it's the people who use these things that I'm interested in finding out from.

Thanks

CreativeKitty

I was always taught the, "baby bird" method.  You wont to hold it gently enough that you dont crush it but not so gently that it flies away.