Why Brandel Chamblee’s Book Hit the Sweet Spot (Reason 1)
Love him or hate him, Brandel Chamblee’s recent book “The Anatomy of Greatness” has a slew of amazing photos of swing positions of the golf greats that are anatomically sound. My goal in this video is to show you why the proper golf setup he describes leads to movements that are technically solid, as well as how to get you to feel and produce these actions without thinking about body parts.
Let’s look at Page 2 (shown in the video) and Chamblee’s big thumbs up to Alex Morrison. We will look at three of his core areas of his teaching:
- Very strong grip
- Narrower stance with feet flared
- Head pre-turned at address
Watch this video to see how these setup tips can help your game shine. Stay tuned for next week’s video where we look at the grip in detail to clear up any misconceptions so that you have the very best connection between you and the ball’s compression to your target.
Related
- Why Brandel Chamblee’s Book Hit the Sweet Spot (Reason 2)
- Why Brandel Chamblee’s Book Hit the Sweet Spot (Reason 3)
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Instruction
Clement: Laid-off or perfect fade? Across-the-line or perfect draw?
Some call the image on the left laid off, but if you are hitting a fade, this could be a perfect backswing for it! Same for across the line for a draw! Stop racking your brain with perceived mistakes and simply match backswing to shot shape!
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Instruction
The Wedge Guy: The easiest-to-learn golf basic
My golf learning began with this simple fact – if you don’t have a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, it is practically impossible for your body to execute a fundamentally sound golf swing. I’m still a big believer that the golf swing is much easier to execute if you begin with the proper hold on the club.
As you might imagine, I come into contact with hundreds of golfers of all skill levels. And it is very rare to see a good player with a bad hold on the golf club. There are some exceptions, for sure, but they are very few and very far between, and they typically have beat so many balls with their poor grip that they’ve found a way to work around it.
The reality of biophysics is that the body moves only in certain ways – and the particulars of the way you hold the golf club can totally prevent a sound swing motion that allows the club to release properly through the impact zone. The wonderful thing is that anyone can learn how to put a fundamentally sound hold on the golf club, and you can practice it anywhere your hands are not otherwise engaged, like watching TV or just sitting and relaxing.
Whether you prefer an overlap, interlock or full-finger (not baseball!) grip on the club, the same fundamentals apply. Here are the major grip faults I see most often, in the order of the frequency:
Mis-aligned hands
By this I mean that the palms of the two hands are not parallel to each other. Too many golfers have a weak left hand and strong right, or vice versa. The easiest way to learn how to hold the club with your palms aligned properly is to grip a plain wooden ruler or yardstick. It forces the hands to align properly and shows you how that feels. If you grip and re-grip a yardstick several times, then grip a club, you’ll see that the learning curve is almost immediate.
The position of the grip in the upper/left hand
I also observe many golfers who have the butt of the grip too far into the heel pad of the upper hand (the left hand for right-handed players). It’s amazing how much easier it is to release the club through the ball if even 1/4-1/2″ of the butt is beyond the left heel pad. Try this yourself to see what I mean. Swing the club freely with just your left hand and notice the difference in its release from when you hold it at the end of the grip, versus gripping down even a half inch.
To help you really understand how this works, go to the range and hit shots with your five-iron gripped down a full inch to make the club the same length as your seven-iron. You will probably see an amazing shot shape difference, and likely not see as much distance loss as you would expect.
Too much lower (right) hand on the club
It seems like almost all golfers of 8-10 handicap or higher have the club too far into the palm of the lower hand, because that feels “good” if you are trying to control the path of the clubhead to the ball. But the golf swing is not an effort to hit at the ball – it is a swing of the club. The proper hold on the club has the grip underneath the pad at the base of the fingers. This will likely feel “weak” to you — like you cannot control the club like that. EXACTLY. You should not be trying to control the club with your lower/master hand.
Gripping too tightly
Nearly all golfers hold the club too tightly, which tenses up the forearms and prevents a proper release of the club through impact. In order for the club to move back and through properly, you must feel that the club is controlled by the last three fingers of the upper hand, and the middle two fingers of the lower hand. If you engage your thumbs and forefingers in “holding” the club, the result will almost always be a grip that is too tight. Try this for yourself. Hold the club in your upper hand only, and squeeze firmly with just the last three fingers, with the forefinger and thumb off the club entirely. You have good control, but your forearms are not tense. Then begin to squeeze down with your thumb and forefinger and observe the tensing of the entire forearm. This is the way we are made, so the key to preventing tenseness in the arms is to hold the club very lightly with the “pinchers” — the thumbs and forefingers.
So, those are what I believe are the four fundamentals of a good grip. Anyone can learn them in their home or office very quickly. There is no easier way to improve your ball striking consistency and add distance than giving more attention to the way you hold the golf club.
More from the Wedge Guy
- The Wedge Guy: Golf mastery begins with your wedge game
- The Wedge Guy: Why golf is 20 times harder than brain surgery
- The Wedge Guy: Musings on the golf ball rollback
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Instruction
Clement: Stop ripping off your swing with this drill!
Not the dreaded headcover under the armpit drill! As if your body is defective and can’t function by itself! Have you seen how incredible the human machine is with all the incredible feats of agility all kinds of athletes are accomplishing? You think your body is so defective (the good Lord is laughing his head off at you) that it needs a headcover tucked under the armpit so you can swing like T-Rex?
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Progolfer
Jun 6, 2017 at 11:49 am
I understand what you’re saying with having a strong grip, Shawn, but it’s under a false pretense– the golf swing is a swing/throw, NOT a hit. If I were to throw a ball at my target from a golf address position, my hands would be in neutral and not in a strong grip position.
The dude
Jun 3, 2017 at 10:40 am
Love all these BC bashes……he’s clearly the smartest guy (long with FN) in the booth….
sammyt
Jun 3, 2017 at 3:24 am
Brilliant stuff!!!!
ButchT
Jun 2, 2017 at 4:56 pm
I bought the book – very worthwhile. Brandle may be controversial, but he is no dummy!
ButchT
Jun 2, 2017 at 9:19 am
Do you square the clubface at address and take strong grip or close the clubface at address with neutral grip – hard to understand what you are recommending? Thank you!
SH
Jun 2, 2017 at 1:00 am
Shawn you have the greatest swing in golf right now with your weird sketelon-less Gumby-move that you do it’s fun to watch ha
Shawn Clement
Jun 2, 2017 at 12:02 am
Not really; Bobby Jones had a less strong grip than the Very Very Strong grip of Morrison; it all depends on each person’s finer anatomical traits; a lot of very strong grips on the tour as we speak!
Shawn
ooffa
Jun 1, 2017 at 3:08 pm
Chamblee is one mega annoying dude!
Shawn Clement
Jun 1, 2017 at 11:58 pm
Brandel is one of the guys who has finally seen the light on what the golf swing should be; that was me over 25 years ago! ????????
TexasSnowman
Jun 1, 2017 at 2:16 pm
snuff box?
Denny Jones
Jun 1, 2017 at 11:15 pm
Anatomical snuffbox: A hollow seen on the radial aspect (the thumbside) of the dorsum (the back) of the wrist when the thumb is extended fully. The reason that it is called the anatomical snuffbox is that snuff (powdered tobacco) could be put there and then inhaled.
https://bonebroke.org/2013/12/24/palpable-anatomy-the-anatomical-snuffbox/
Shawn Clement
Jun 1, 2017 at 11:58 pm
Right on Denny!!
LowHang
Jun 1, 2017 at 10:32 am
He should just give the book for free