Grip contact

[Ladysmanfelpz]

This is one thing I rarely see tackled by my Youtube lesson guys like Mark Crossfield. How much contact with the grip do you maintain with the grip in your swing?

 

Not so much interested in grip pressure.  We all hear of gripping too tightly and having no feel, and too loose no control. Also not talking about grips such as strong or weak.  But actually how your hands dynamically interact with the grip in the swing.  

 

I started paying attention to this when I noticed I would sort of let the club roll in my hands on big full swings. It led me to change my cocked wrist into more of a straight wrist on takeaway and improved my swing.  After playing yesterday I noticed I still let it roll a lil bit. One swing I tried staying "connected" with the club the whole time and hit a pull. My buddy plays off a 4 handicap and the club moves quite a bit in his hands where at the end his R index finger (trail arm for a R handed golfer) almost comes off the club entirely.  I've also seen pro's where the club is literally like an extension of their hands without any movement between their hands and grip from start to finish.  I mean its all the delivery that affects your golf shots and if you have a consistent change in grip in your hands it shouldn't matter if its repeatable, right?  Or is maintaining a connected grip from start to finish something we should all strive for?  And how do you all think this changes with different types of shots from drives to chips to putts?

 

Edited January 16, 2018 by Ladysmanfelpz
Wrong link

[Coder]

I used to let the club move in my hands towards the top of the backswing - opening up the fingers of the top hand a bit, producing an "extra" hinge that made my overswing worse and probably made it harder to control the transition. So unless you need to compensate for some unusual lack of flexibility (wrist injury?) I would say your hands should not move at all relative to the grip.

[Coder]

Quote

One swing I tried staying "connected" with the club the whole time and hit a pull.

I'm not qualified to give advice but here's just an idea - if your swing is naturally over the top then maybe this rolling the club in your hands move is what opens up the face to compensate. As soon as you stop doing that rolling, you're going to be pulling it until you also change your swing path a bit.

Do you normally hit a bit of a fade/slice by any chance?

[Moxley]

I can't give advice on this one, but I found myself that loosening my grip pressure (along with a package of other changes around softening my hands during transition) was the biggest change for getting my shots naturally straighter. It wasn't just a matter of deciding to grip looser - I re-gripped to midsize on advice from my pro to give me the confidence to do that. 

I agree that it's probably not discussed that much on Youtube, but an instructor will definitely care about this, so that's a good route if you want to find out how its affecting your game. 

[Ladysmanfelpz]

You know one thing I've noticed is my right elbow effects my grip.  I've been working on keeping my Right arm in tighter and it keeps my R hand on the club better.  When I let it get away from me thats when I notice the roll in the R hand and creation of the extra hinge as you mentioned.  I tend to hit a fade, but got away from a big slice (am a 13 handicap now).  

 

Now this next part has to do with more grip pressure.  I still struggle with my wedges and just noticed practicing that I was gripping it way harder than any club.  Worked on keeping that elbow in resulting in better contact.  It allowed me to loosen up the grip too!  Hopefully this will result in less hitting those thin shots or knuckle fliers and gain me some confidence with the club which will only result in a softer grip.