Proper Grip Pressure (It's Firmer than You Might Think)

[iacas]

7 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I find that interesting. More so that the lead hand has more pressure than the trail hand. I think I may have lack of grip pressure in the lead hand.

Why?

8 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

It would be interesting to see the grip pressure device used on short game and putting as well. I wonder if putting flips from lead hand to trail hand being dominant in grip pressure.

I don't think so, but… people can and do successfully do a LOT of things. Pencil, claw, cross-hand, etc.

I don't think it matters much in putting.

 

 

 

[Ty_Webb]

 

Saw this on my feed this morning - interesting comparison of the players' grip strengths. For reference, if you think in pounds, 50kg is 110lbs, 60kg is 132lbs. Multiply by 2.2.

Edited August 7, 2024 by iacas
Please embed stuff that can be embedded

[ChetlovesMer]

25 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

https://x.com/DPWorldTour/status/1821139234465489207

Saw this on my feed this morning - interesting comparison of the players' grip strengths. For reference, if you think in pounds, 50kg is 110lbs, 60kg is 132lbs. Multiply by 2.2.

Kinda interesting. 

I'm betting my grip strength in pounds is pretty close to their grip strength in Kilograms.  🤣

[iacas]

How tightly should you grip the club? Here's what the data says

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You may think how you hold the club is important, but our study shows that how tightly you grip is the real difference-maker.

Also note that the sensor is calibrated to the max grip strength of each person before they swing it, so 40% of a Tour player's grip strength is 4-8x the grip pressure of an average golfer's 10-20%.

[saevel25]

I would be interested in seeing what my grip pressure curve is. That’s interesting. 

[Ty_Webb]

Fascinating curve. The green line it looks like it spikes at the points where you're really changing the direction that you're pulling on the club. The first spike is at transition and the second I think is at the spot where good players would start pulling up on the handle and the "lag" starts to go, which would also be when the forces on the hands are highest. I'd love to see what my trace looks like. I had heard that it was difficult to measure because anything you put in the grip (or glove) to measure it is going to affect the way that you're gripping the club. Did that change or is that still a factor? Or did I just have that wrong in the first place?

[iacas]

1 hour ago, Ty_Webb said:

Fascinating curve. The green line it looks like it spikes at the points where you're really changing the direction that you're pulling on the club.

Yep. Right at the point where you might tear up some ligaments in your left thumb when you're exaggerating something at full speed. 😛 

[saevel25]

Not sure if is contradictory, but the hands speed up from A4 to A5/A6. Then there is a sudden drop in grip pressure during this movement? I would think that if you want the hands to move fast, you will want to have more grip pressure to hold onto the club. Maybe the chart doesn't line up with A4, A5, A6. I could be confusing where these transitions are happening. 

[iacas]

2 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

Not sure if is contradictory, but the hands speed up from A4 to A5/A6. Then there is a sudden drop in grip pressure during this movement? I would think that if you want the hands to move fast, you will want to have more grip pressure to hold onto the club. Maybe the chart doesn't line up with A4, A5, A6. I could be confusing where these transitions are happening. 

You don't need more grip pressure to accelerate than you do to change directions like at the top (or to "brace" for impact).

Changing directions is forceful/stressful/whatever you want to say.

[saevel25]

Ok, just trying to make sense of this then. 

Right before the top of the swing, PGA Tour players average 65% grip strength. At late downswing (not sure where exactly this is, A6?), 90% of their grip strength. I am just thinking, wouldn't you feel the grip strength change that much in the swing? A 40% jump seems like a lot. I guess it is something I never noticed happening. I just think I would notice that if it was happening. Maybe not. 

Is that dip there because the club is shallowing? Then I do not get why those that hook that ball gradually build in grip pressure. 

[Ty_Webb]

1 hour ago, saevel25 said:

Ok, just trying to make sense of this then. 

Right before the top of the swing, PGA Tour players average 65% grip strength. At late downswing (not sure where exactly this is, A6?), 90% of their grip strength. I am just thinking, wouldn't you feel the grip strength change that much in the swing? A 40% jump seems like a lot. I guess it is something I never noticed happening. I just think I would notice that if it was happening. Maybe not. 

Is that dip there because the club is shallowing? Then I do not get why those that hook that ball gradually build in grip pressure. 

When the club is moving at its fastest, which is at impact hopefully, it has an effective weight of about 100 lbs. You pretty much have to hang on for dear life. So your grip strength at that point better be pretty high or the club is going to come out of your hands. At around A6, your hands also stop pulling in line with the club (ish) and start pulling up hard. That is what applies the twisting force to the club that makes the club come out to the ball. Applying that twist hard I think can only really be done by increasing your grip pressure.

[saevel25]

2 hours ago, Ty_Webb said:

When the club is moving at its fastest, which is at impact hopefully, it has an effective weight of about 100 lbs. You pretty much have to hang on for dear life. So your grip strength at that point better be pretty high or the club is going to come out of your hands. At around A6, your hands also stop pulling in line with the club (ish) and start pulling up hard. That is what applies the twisting force to the club that makes the club come out to the ball. Applying that twist hard I think can only really be done by increasing your grip pressure.

I get that. Increasing grip pressure into impact makes sense. The club is moving the fastest there, so it makes sense that you need the highest grip pressure there. 

I do not understand why the grip pressure decrease by what looks like 15-20% from before the top of the backswing to just past the start of the downswing. Maybe it is a fake out on what the body is sensing from the club. 

You increase grip pressure from A1 to lets say A3.5 because you just moved a weight object pretty fast. Then it slows downs, I wonder if that decrease in pressure is due to the hands feeling the club coming to a stop. So, it is just a subconscious reaction. Then you need to increase it again because of the swing speed in the downswing.  

Just trying to figure out that part. 

 

 

[Ty_Webb]

32 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I get that. Increasing grip pressure into impact makes sense. The club is moving the fastest there, so it makes sense that you need the highest grip pressure there. 

I do not understand why the grip pressure decrease by what looks like 15-20% from before the top of the backswing to just past the start of the downswing. Maybe it is a fake out on what the body is sensing from the club. 

You increase grip pressure from A1 to lets say A3.5 because you just moved a weight object pretty fast. Then it slows downs, I wonder if that decrease in pressure is due to the hands feeling the club coming to a stop. So, it is just a subconscious reaction. Then you need to increase it again because of the swing speed in the downswing.  

Just trying to figure out that part. 

 

 

I think it's because the application of force to the club is in line with the club and is applied relatively smoothly. The shaft flexes a lot at transition, so you have to hold on to that hard. Then the shaft is relatively unflexed on the way down until you start that pulling up force at A6. It's still pretty darn strongly held throughout, just less so in between those spikes. It would be interesting to look at the rotational acceleration of the club as a whole and overlay it on the grip strength graph - I wouldn't be surprised if they're pretty closely correlated.

Edited September 3, 2024 by Ty_Webb

[iacas]

53 minutes ago, Ty_Webb said:

I think it's because the application of force to the club is in line with the club and is applied relatively smoothly. The shaft flexes a lot at transition, so you have to hold on to that hard. Then the shaft is relatively unflexed on the way down until you start that pulling up force at A6. It's still pretty darn strongly held throughout, just less so in between those spikes. It would be interesting to look at the rotational acceleration of the club as a whole and overlay it on the grip strength graph - I wouldn't be surprised if they're pretty closely correlated.

Yeah, this.

It spikes when you transition/change direction, and spikes again when it starts to kick out and pull with 100 pounds of force. Between those times, it's not as high, and you're pulling longitudinally more so with the weight in line with the direction the hands are going.

[p1n9183]

I was so blind all this time... I was teach almost 30 years ago the little bird analogy and since then I always had a soft grip. 

Yesterday messing around with whiffle balls and an 8 iron, I compared my normal club speed vs gripping it firm. 87 m/h soft vs 94 m/h firm. Also tested gripping it very firm but brought the speed down again and was a little uncomfortable, I was too tight, even ended the session with a little neck pain. 

The feeling to have a firmer grip but no that firm was to imagine that the ball was in deep fescue (despite been in a perfect fairway lie), immediately I gripped the club firmer and engaged a couple more muscle before staring the backswing.