Top 100 teacher Tom Stickney points out a common, distance-sapping fault he sees from amateurs and the simple solution that will build speed in the golf swing, leading to longer drives.
- LIKE11
- LEGIT7
- WOW0
- LOL0
- IDHT1
- FLOP3
- OB6
- SHANK18
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!
- LIKE0
- LEGIT0
- WOW0
- LOL0
- IDHT0
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK1
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
- LIKE87
- LEGIT13
- WOW6
- LOL1
- IDHT0
- FLOP4
- OB1
- SHANK8
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?
- LIKE0
- LEGIT2
- WOW2
- LOL0
- IDHT0
- FLOP0
- OB0
- SHANK2
-
19th Hole2 weeks ago
Dave Portnoy places monstrous outright bet for the 2024 Masters
-
19th Hole4 days ago
Justin Thomas on the equipment choice of Scottie Scheffler that he thinks is ‘weird’
-
19th Hole2 weeks ago
Tiger Woods arrives at 2024 Masters equipped with a putter that may surprise you
-
19th Hole4 days ago
‘Absolutely crazy’ – Major champ lays into Patrick Cantlay over his decision on final hole of RBC Heritage
-
19th Hole2 weeks ago
Two star names reportedly blanked Jon Rahm all week at the Masters
-
19th Hole1 week ago
Report: LIV Golf identifies latest star name they hope to sign to breakaway tour
-
19th Hole2 weeks ago
Neal Shipley presser ends in awkward fashion after reporter claims Tiger handed him note on 8th fairway
-
19th Hole1 week ago
Brandel Chamblee has ‘no doubt’ who started the McIlroy/LIV rumor and why
RBImGuy
Jan 15, 2019 at 6:28 am
Student added 80 yards from tee.
He tells me that’s with a 3w and rangeball from the deck.
He says 100+ is likely.
from am 220 to 300+ yards
That is a speed increase.
Don
Jan 14, 2019 at 8:54 pm
Sic – I was going to say the same thing. 😉
Appreciated the response.
Jasonic
Jan 14, 2019 at 5:27 pm
Great video not explaining HOW to gather speed just that you need to. Ummm duh
geohogan
Jan 13, 2019 at 9:34 pm
“Gravity makes falling objects gather speed. Objects fall faster
as they zoom closer to the ground.”
When we let our arms and club fall with gravity, they gather speed.
Isnt that what Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and others also said?
sic sicneill
Jan 14, 2019 at 1:59 pm
Nothing to do with gravity. Gravity in and of itself adds nothing to swing speed. The “gathering” that Stickney refers to is the proper sequencing of the transition and downswing. The most important force at work is centrifugal force which acts upon the clubhead as it moves in a circular path around the swing center (ie, the body). The correct sequencing of the use of the two primary levers in the swing- the levers created by the body and the lead arm and by the lead arm and clubshaft- allow the player to retain the force until the correct moment when the “release” of the angle created by the lead arm/clubshaft lever allows centrifugal force to supply substantial speed at the moment of impact. Releasing the angle early or inefficiently allows centrifugal force to dissipate the retained energy too soon, ie, casting or flipping.
geohogan
Jan 14, 2019 at 11:13 pm
@sic
The primary levers you speak of, work to create clubhead speed by angular momentum
Centrifugal is not a real force… a fake force like your argument.
The gravity drop (so named by Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, Ben Hogan etc)
allows building of angular momentum. The vernacular being lag.
BTW gravity travels at the speed of light.
Rick
Jan 29, 2019 at 5:39 pm
Ummm. no, not quite. Gravity is a force that pulls objects down toward the ground. … Gravity causes an object to fall toward the ground at a faster and faster velocity the longer the object falls. In fact, its velocity increases by 9.8 m/s2, so by 1 second after an object starts falling, its velocity is 9.8 m/s. That being said, what you’re not considering are the torques applied by the golfer to the grip and the linear and angular accelerations applied.
geohogan
Feb 3, 2019 at 1:19 pm
https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/cpa/article/download/6828/6125
This is the science, measured force exerted by the hands during the golf swing.
We hold the club, with minimal force exerted by both hands, relative to angular momentum that results in clubhead speed.
The angular momentum built by gravity and Lag, and wrists acting as free hinges
is what creates clubhead acceleration, NOT torque exerted by our hands.
geohogan
Feb 3, 2019 at 1:26 pm
“These results indicate that the longitudinal force along the grip handle exerted by the gripend side hand would be a great contributor to the generation of the club head speed because
the force shows the largest value compared to other components of exerting forces of the individual hands. “
geohogan
Feb 3, 2019 at 1:29 pm
“During a collision between the ball and driver, peak force applied to the ball can be as high as 4000 pounds.” 18,000 N
Carlos Cordero
Jan 13, 2019 at 5:39 pm
I found a blog to learn and it helped me a little … I think that by taking the good things here something amazing is achieved