Strong vs Weak Grip

[Mr Smell Good]

Does anybody change their grip based on what club they are using?  I've only recently learned the difference between strong and weak grip and I've discovered that if my grip is too strong on iron shots, I will hook the ball.  However, a strong grip on my drives seems to straighten it out and eliminate the threat of a slice.

[saevel25]

http://thesandtrap.com/t/68312/grip-strength-opposites-and-compensations-video

Yes depending on the strength of your grip, you can over exaggerate a movement. But a strong grip doesn't mean your going to close the face more. In fact a strong grip promotes an open face and an inside to out swing  path. Now if you over do that, and the clubface starts to shut down a bit, you get a hook.

For me, i know i am hooking the ball if my grip gets to weak. This is because my hands become more active in the swing and my right hands starts to get slightly more over top of the club.

For the most part, i like to play the same grip for all shots.

[Mr Smell Good]

I still haven't got all the terminology down yet... what I meant by "strong" is that I will move my left hand so that the V points more toward my right shoulder on drives.

Did I mix them up?

[saevel25]

Yes strong means that the thumb of your left hand (for a righty) is on the left half of the club shaft. V pointing towards your right shoulder. IF your V is pointing at your right shoulder, that isn't overly strong. Sounds like something else is causing the hooks. I would post a video of your swing on the forum.

[Mr Smell Good]

  saevel25 said:

Yes strong means that the thumb of your left hand (for a righty) is on the left half of the club shaft. V pointing towards your right shoulder. IF your V is pointing at your right shoulder, that isn't overly strong. Sounds like something else is causing the hooks. I would post a video of your swing on the forum.

I have a swing thread but that's not really what I'm getting at here.  I am not hooking my irons - i'm saying that I have been using a different grip on my driver than I do with irons and wondering if this is normal.  I think this makes it easier to close the club face with the driver which I have no problem doing with irons.

The V on my left hand points toward the middle of my chest on irons and with the driver more toward my right shoulder.

[kw purp]

Play the same for all shots. When I start messing around with my grip really bad things happen.

[saevel25]

You can if you want. I am not going to say its wrong or right. If it fits your swing, and your hitting shots you want, then there is no problem. I prefer one grip for all shots, its just easier for me.

[Brakkus]

I actually switched to a neutral grip which combined with my more rotational swing flatter plane complimented it better. The face seemed to turn slower through the impact zone. I have actually taken the left hand side out of the equation used to hook. My miss now is right of the target line. Get a soft draw when I hit well but usually push the shot when I make an error but its playable all the way up to a 3 wood. Driver can punish me but I don't use it much. Perhaps this is the most critical thing to get right a grip that matches your swing because your trying to get the balance right between shallowing moves and steepening ones

[kw purp]

  Brakkus said:

I actually switched to a neutral grip which combined with my more rotational swing flatter plane complimented it better.

The face seemed to turn slower through the impact zone. I have actually taken the left hand side out of the equation used to hook.

My miss now is right of the target line. Get a soft draw when I hit well but usually push the shot when I make an error but its playable all the way up to a 3 wood. Driver can punish me but I don't use it much.

Perhaps this is the most critical thing to get right a grip that matches your swing because your trying to get the balance right between shallowing moves and steepening ones

Couldn't agree more. Once  I started weakening my grip by 62 degrees it inverted my swing plane across the y axis. The club face then opened 42.2 degrees and the impact zone. The way I found grip to shallowing moves across plane of swing my golf game dramatically improved. Where am I?

[Brakkus]

Do I sense sarcasm Kw? ;)

[Wally]

  Mr Smell Good said:

Does anybody change their grip based on what club they are using?  I've only recently learned the difference between strong and weak grip and I've discovered that if my grip is too strong on iron shots, I will hook the ball.  However, a strong grip on my drives seems to straighten it out and eliminate the threat of a slice.

I tend to do the same thing, but try not to. I vary my grip slightly when using my 60* wedge the most.

[Mr Smell Good]

Does anyone know what the pros tend to do as far as left hand position on their grip?

[iacas]

  Mr Smell Good said:

Does anyone know what the pros tend to do as far as left hand position on their grip?

They vary. There's no real commonality. Some are weak, some are strong, some are neutral.

[Mr Smell Good]

  iacas said:

They vary. There's no real commonality. Some are weak, some are strong, some are neutral.

I figured.  Just like some play interlock and some play overlap.

[dchoye]

been working on my swing this off season.

Strong left hand hold works the best for me for all my clubs.

I find that if I have a weak grip with my left hand , I tend to flip.

This is just me and I'm sure it depends of other factors too.

But the stronger I can hold the club with my left hand I  better I tend to drive-roll rather than stall-flip with a weak grip.