In today’s lesson from C.D. Gaughan, he addresses the importance of grip pressure and how to go about finding that correct grip pressure to help your swing realize its potential. If you have questions for CD or want to reach out to him, you can email him at: CDGaughan@gmail.com.
This is an area in the golf swing that’s very, very important but never really discussed in detail:
How hard should I hold the golf club? I will explain to you what you’re supposed to feel when gripping a golf club.
Some of the things I hear on the lesson tee from new students are:
1. I gripped the club too tight.
2. My grip turns a lot when I swing.
3. My hands hurt.
None of the above should be happening in your golf swing.
I guess the most talked about and re-quoted statement in the golf swing about grip pressure came from Sam Snead when he said: “Hold a golf club just like you are holding a baby bird. You don’t want to hurt it but you don’t want it to fly away.”
There are a couple things I can explain to you about grip pressure.
1. The majority of people who grip the club too tight have an improper grip.
2. Walking around with a clenched fist is not normal. So why would you grip a golf club as tight as you can?
This is very important. The golf swing is in the wrist not grip pressure. Here is an example. I am sure most of us at some point in time have tried or have hammered a nail. If you grab the hammer as tight as you possibly can, I am sure your accuracy hitting the top of the nail would not be very good. If you do happen to grab a hammer that tight you better move your body for leverage. Now I think you understand, here is a very simple and effective way to attain the correct grip pressure.
1. Take your normal grip whatever it may be.
2. Take your set-up like you’re going to address a golf ball.
3. Now pick the club up and put it in a horizontal position straight out in front of you like a baseball swing.
4. Now I want you to grip the club as hard as you possibly can without hurting yourself.
5. Now try to waggle the club back-and-forth with that tight grip as you’re trying to feel the club head. If you’re doing this correctly you should not be able to feel the club head.
6. Now as you’re trying to feel the clubhead start relaxing your wrist and then you will feel your grip starting to relax and then you’ll be able to feel the clubhead and now you have the correct grip pressure.
Note: Pay attention that you do not loosen your grip too much. You still must control the golf club which controls the face at impact and the direction of the ball.
Stay tuned!
CDG
