This series of videos will be posted every Tuesday (8:30 p.m. UK time). I make them to help golfers learn and improve their golf with fun, educational and fact-based golf coaching. Let’s keep sharing this info so we can all improve together.
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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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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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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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Rhino
Apr 23, 2016 at 11:33 pm
An efficient backswing starts by having a repeatable swing, but in order to hit great and repeatable swings constantly, you have to be near key positions. Unless you correct yourself every time (which most people simply cannot do), you will not hit the ball efficiently and with distance/precision.
Ronny McDonald
Apr 21, 2016 at 8:56 am
This guy is on to something. Pop goes the firework bang bang skeet skeet!!!!! ????<===========8
Dave
Apr 20, 2016 at 7:09 pm
I Love Crossfield, he dosent take himself to seriously and his reviews are far better than Shiels! Start the hips first on the downswing, keep your grip and arms loose and the club finds the slot, I feel for the first reviewer who stated he lost it going to Golftec! I am an 8 to 10 hdcp playing two nines a week I would like to get better but it really is about playing more than practice and lessons to a certain point. Played two 18’s last weekend shot on a windy day a disappointing 88 the first day and 76 the next with the same conditions, GO PLAY! I Love GOFLWRX, the comments are usually experience based vs opinion! Dave
viking62
Apr 20, 2016 at 5:02 pm
So glad to see this video.
2 seasons ago I went to take my first lessons at a Golftec – I was a 2 handicap at the time. I told the pro I thought ball striking was the strength of my game – I was pretty long (110mph – 270ish carry, I hit 68% of fairways and 67% of greens but averaged almost 33 putts. I went on to say my goal is to work on whatever made me better. After an initial assessment where I hit some shots, and putts, he spent all the lessons on my backswing, not a single putting tip. Every lesson it was “your still too inside” and “look your arm is bent too early”… Kept showing me video of Adam Scott.
I spent months trying to do what he said before I gave up. But by then the damage was done. My ball striking has gone in the tank since then – (55% of Fairways, 58% of greens last year and a now a 4 handicap and getting worse).
Before those lessons I was getting better every year. The whole exercise put serious doubt in my head about my ability to hit the ball. I haven’t been able to find the comfort I had hitting the ball ever since and have from time to time gone back to the take away for a few weeks at a time.
Now I will forever stop worrying about my take away. Thank You Mark.
Ian
Apr 20, 2016 at 8:22 am
Yeah ok, it’s a fair point. But note on marks backswing, weight is stable and controlled, shoulders and hips are well rotated. Top position is actually recovered by and large. Lots of moves in the backswing can make strike and impact very difficult to achieve. So while I agree perfect textbook positions don’t tell the whole truth, saying backswing is not the answer could be slightly misleading?
Nath
Apr 20, 2016 at 4:47 am
There was a time not so long ago there was plenty of ‘jokes’ on here about going to see my pro, yea! ‘ mark crossfield’…lo and behold he is a regular on the front page. Is there like a TP golfwrx site ,With original paint work. This site is starting to feel watered down.
Ezra
Apr 20, 2016 at 5:48 am
You like to stay in your habits don’t you?
Nath
Apr 20, 2016 at 7:24 am
Umm… Sure buddy
RG
Apr 20, 2016 at 2:38 am
Rhytm tempo and strike are way more important thaqt “perfect” position’s.
Michael
Apr 19, 2016 at 9:42 pm
Love this video because I have been trying to master a better backswing for 3 years or so. But I do have one important question. Would you say Mark that a really abrupt inside takeaway or outside takeaway could really hinder half shots and the at the very least the partial wedge game if not even the full wedge game? This is the main reason I thrive for a better takeaway. I’ve always had a very inside takeaway and with full shots I could play very effective golf but I couldn’t on partial shots. Would love your input.
prime21
Apr 19, 2016 at 8:00 pm
Opinions are not laws. There is no such thing as perfect to begin with, but there is efficient. If a swing can become more efficient it should be looked at, whether that change occurs going back or coming down. But if every action creates a reaction, than a poor backswing will create a downswing that is geared towards recovering not firing. Call me crazy, but I would prefer a downswing that allows me to fire my body and the club towards the target, not one that is trying to make up for all of the mistakes that occurred going back.
Brian
Apr 19, 2016 at 7:52 pm
Similar to Ledbetter’s “A Swing”
KC
Apr 19, 2016 at 7:37 pm
This reminds me so much of Jim Furyk’s swing. Funky back swing but he corrects it coming through the ball. I know there are other Tour pro’s who do the same but his stands out in my mind.
Gubment Cheeze
Apr 19, 2016 at 7:55 pm
Nicholas Thompson has the craziest swing I’ve ever saw
Pro or am. Lol