Instruction
The Pros and Cons of High vs Low Hands at the Top
As a full-time golf instructor for the last 27 years, I have seen a many swing theories come and go, but one thing has come full circle: hand position at the top of the swing.
When I was first starting out, golf was just coming out of the high-hands phase; from the Jack Nicklaus era and into the more-rounded swings of the Nick Faldo-era. And most recently, Brandel Chamblee has been a very sound advocate of teaching higher hands to the players of today, citing examples of Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and Jason Day.
Here’s the Tweet that ignited the feud between him and Jason Dufner (a flat-swinger).
Justin Thomas hits it high,long and is great out of the rough… and..has an upright swing, like Dustin Johnson, Spieth,- and Woods at his best, yet player after player after player comes on tour with a flat swings.. why? The next coach to make a player more upright is a genius. pic.twitter.com/NlJ1Scn2hk
— Brandel Chamblee (@chambleebrandel) November 26, 2017
Personally, I have no issues with either swing method, but as always there are pros and cons for each depending on your level of coordination and handicap level. In this article, I would like to address these issues.
Here are the two basic hand positions we’re discussing as shown by my assistant: Higher Hands (more upright) and Lower Hands (flatter).
Now, as I’ve stated already, you can play well from both positions but it all depends on what you want as the player.
High Hands: Pros and Cons
• Club stays in the air longer and tends to produce more clubhead speed
• Players tend to stay more centered over the ball with higher hands
• Tends to produce higher trajectories and more spin
• Harder to control the club at the top and maintain the width of the arms
• Good for rear-knee straightening players
• Can cause a reverse weight shift if not controlled
• Easy to “fake” the shoulder turn and just lift the arms to the top
• Higher handicap players tend to come over-the-top from this position
• Harder on the back during the follow through
• Works well with taller players
• Feels more free and less restricted (think Payne Stewart)
Low Hands: Pros and Cons
• Players tend to have more arm width and lean over the right leg with this
position at the top
• The more rounded swing tends to be better with the longer clubs off the
ground for higher-handicap players
• More control from this position due to the lower clubhead speed
produced in general
• Works well with flexed rear knees and level hip turn players
• Easier to come from the inside for most players
• The club can easily get stuck going back or coming down since it is
already in a more rounded position
• Works well with shorter players, but requires more flexibility
• Easier to return the rear elbow and clubshaft through the ball effectively
• Can lead to an overly in-to-out path for better players
• Tougher on the shorter clubs
Now obviously you must choose for yourself which position works best for your game and what feels better to you. Enjoy the ride as there are no wrong answers!
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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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SK
Feb 6, 2018 at 7:38 pm
High Hands: “Works well with taller players”.
Low Hands: “Works well with shorter players, but requires more flexibility”.
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Both these observations fall into what was written in the golf swing book:
The LAWs of the Golf Swing – Body Type Your Golf Swing and Master Your Game — Adams, Tomasi, Suttie
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The authors not only match golf swing mechanics with golfer’s body types, but also relate golf shaft loading profiles to body physique and technique.
The LAWs acronym for Leverage/Arc/Width matches physique to technique PLUS a hybrid mix of body types.
The LAWs book provides great detail into the physique/technique match-up. The authors claim that 2 out of 3 golfers are mismatched to their swing attempts.
Sid
Feb 6, 2018 at 12:05 pm
Very insightful article that relates body physique to hand and plane positioning.
In an old golf instruction book I read that tall golfers are better with their short irons due to their steep swing plane while shorter golfers were better with their long irons and flatter swing.
I’m tall and I can confirm this pattern for tall golfers. My short game from 170 yards in is rather good while I struggle with my longer clubs particularly the driver. Curiously, my 4/5/7/9 fairways are good but not the 3-wood. Go figure.