9 replies to this topic

[kg1128]

this is for you if you hit low/hooks, especially with driver

early in my golf career, i heard 2 garbage instructions (for me):
1) strong right hand grip is preferrable, V pointing to right shoulder
2) keep the face square to target in takeaway. place a tee or coin inches behind the ball and drag face straight back without fanning it open. (like how you putt). intuitively this made sense, if the clubface travels square to target during impact zone, ball will fly straight.

luckily for me, i managed to get decent (10 hdcp) thanks to my short game (i chipped, pitched, flopped in my backyard for couple hours every night for a long time) and decent body action (pivot and using weight properly). but no matter how hard i try to fade, i couldn't. my misses were terrible -duck hook low or push high. so i kept practicing years and years with same bad swing... until now. i finally found the solution...

neutral to weak (not sure when neutral becomes weak) right grip

strong right hand grip, you can't release the club, period. proper wrist release totally shuts the club. if you resist proper release and instead drag the clubface square through impact, the ONLY thing you can do is deloft the face with hands way forward and then flip. with this swing, you feel so close to the ball at the top, and it feels like you have absolutely no room to route the club back to the ball properly without coming OTT.

with weaker/neutral grip, you can fan the face open naturally. by naturally i mean it's a byproduct of shoulder turn and arm lift, which causes forearm rotation and opening of clubface. then from the top, let lower body shift-rotation bring the arms down and you release through impact, in this swing, jerky transition is a death move, as you have to save your wrist action (release) until impact (technically right after impact as i don't want my clubface shutting actively at impact, but for all practical purpose, this happens in a milisecond. just gotta practice).

so i was practicing this at the range. from my bad swing, bad habits still continue to creep in, throwing arms too early from the top. also, since i never properly released the club, release feels weird. most times i release not early enough and ball starts way right due to wide open face at impact. but when i do everything correctly, ball flight was amazing.

just wanted to share this for those who might struggle with the same problem.....

caveat is that there are good players with strong grips (ie azinger, trevino) but i really think they are exceptions. also, correct grip doesn't result in good swing, although i think it's more important than what most people give it credit for. don't ever think "i'll keep my grip and change other things to swing better"... with wrong grip, you can't do anything.

[HappyGolf]

kg1128, on 01 February 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

strong right hand grip, you can't release the club, period. proper wrist release totally shuts the club.

You'd need to define 'release the club' and 'proper wrist release' to validate your theory

[kg1128]

HappyGolf, on 01 February 2013 - 03:12 PM, said:

kg1128, on 01 February 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

strong right hand grip, you can't release the club, period. proper wrist release totally shuts the club.

You'd need to define 'release the club' and 'proper wrist release' to validate your theory

left forearm rotation while keeping the left wrist flat

Edited by kg1128, 01 February 2013 - 03:20 PM.

[MonteScheinblum]

The hooks you describe were likely not caused by the strong grip..and right V at he right shoulder is not that strong.

More than likely, your upper body gets in front of the ball by moving lately in transition and/or your path is too far from the inside and you stall and flip.

If what you did works for you, that's great.

[craniac24]

Weird.  The 2 things that you refer to as "garbage" are 2 changes I've made recently that have been very, very positive.

[kg1128]

craniac24, on 01 February 2013 - 03:21 PM, said:

Weird.  The 2 things that you refer to as "garbage" are 2 changes I've made recently that have been very, very positive.

that's why i said those instructions were garbage FOR ME. don't think there is one universal perfect swing, and there are good ballstrikers with different grips, swing styles, etc.

[sonofagunn]

Judging by PGA Tour players, grip position at impact during a release is a very personal thing.

But the pictures you posted look like a fairly strong left hand grip in the middle picture (impact).

I think people should "discover" their proper grip by making practice swings without a ball and not making any effort to square the clubface. Adjust the strength until that effortless practice swing has a square face through the impact zone. Chuck Martin has a nice video similar to this thought but I don't have it bookmarked anymore.

[kg1128]

sonofagunn, on 01 February 2013 - 03:41 PM, said:

Judging by PGA Tour players, grip position at impact during a release is a very personal thing.

But the pictures you posted look like a fairly strong left hand grip in the middle picture (impact).

I think people should "discover" their proper grip by making practice swings without a ball and not making any effort to square the clubface. Adjust the strength until that effortless practice swing has a square face through the impact zone. Chuck Martin has a nice video similar to this thought but I don't have it bookmarked anymore.

yup that's a strong left hand grip. in my first post, i mentioned weak right hand grip, not left hand grip. (pretty sure i did that)
is it really crazy of me to think that weakish right + strong left is an excellent grip option????

Edited by kg1128, 01 February 2013 - 03:47 PM.

[fairways4life]

kg1128, on 01 February 2013 - 02:04 PM, said:

this is for you if you hit low/hooks, especially with driver

early in my golf career, i heard 2 garbage instructions (for me):
1) strong right hand grip is preferrable, V pointing to right shoulder
2) keep the face square to target in takeaway. place a tee or coin inches behind the ball and drag face straight back without fanning it open. (like how you putt). intuitively this made sense, if the clubface travels square to target during impact zone, ball will fly straight.

luckily for me, i managed to get decent (10 hdcp) thanks to my short game (i chipped, pitched, flopped in my backyard for couple hours every night for a long time) and decent body action (pivot and using weight properly). but no matter how hard i try to fade, i couldn't. my misses were terrible -duck hook low or push high. so i kept practicing years and years with same bad swing... until now. i finally found the solution...

neutral to weak (not sure when neutral becomes weak) right grip

strong right hand grip, you can't release the club, period. proper wrist release totally shuts the club. if you resist proper release and instead drag the clubface square through impact, the ONLY thing you can do is deloft the face with hands way forward and then flip. with this swing, you feel so close to the ball at the top, and it feels like you have absolutely no room to route the club back to the ball properly without coming OTT.

with weaker/neutral grip, you can fan the face open naturally. by naturally i mean it's a byproduct of shoulder turn and arm lift, which causes forearm rotation and opening of clubface. then from the top, let lower body shift-rotation bring the arms down and you release through impact, in this swing, jerky transition is a death move, as you have to save your wrist action (release) until impact (technically right after impact as i don't want my clubface shutting actively at impact, but for all practical purpose, this happens in a milisecond. just gotta practice).

so i was practicing this at the range. from my bad swing, bad habits still continue to creep in, throwing arms too early from the top. also, since i never properly released the club, release feels weird. most times i release not early enough and ball starts way right due to wide open face at impact. but when i do everything correctly, ball flight was amazing.

just wanted to share this for those who might struggle with the same problem.....

caveat is that there are good players with strong grips (ie azinger, trevino) but i really think they are exceptions. also, correct grip doesn't result in good swing, although i think it's more important than what most people give it credit for. don't ever think "i'll keep my grip and change other things to swing better"... with wrong grip, you can't do anything.

This does not exist in golf. You thiink you've figured it all out until that too will break down for you next week, next month, next year. As a result of changing your grip, something else in your swing changed to. You're not aware of it, but it's there. This "new" swing will work for a certain length of time until that other part of your swing that subconsciously changed as a result of the new grip will catch up to you and break down. Then you'll start hitting it like trash again and go back to the drawing board.

Not to be the devil's advocate but this is the game we all love.

[SunkTheBirdie]

If you want to improve, upload your swing.
FYI, I am going in the opposite direction than you.

As opposed to changing your grip, you might want to change your release !