The left hand is too weak if less than 2 knuckles are visible. Well, i realized this golfing friend had a strong grip, and i started to learn from videos like the ones in this post what this meant and how to try it out. Notice how the hands are both positioned well right of center, and. The first part of this story discusses the top hand in the grip, which is the left hand for righthanded golfers. Unless youre trying to hit one on purpose, this grip is a surefire way to help you slice the ball. A weak golf grip is better for players with an outtoinside swing style. A strong grip, with the thumb over the center line of the club, helps preserve lag. Neutral grip vs strong grip instruction and playing tips. The way fingers are positioned in relation to the center of the grip is referred to as the relative strength of a grip. The grateful golfer freely sharing all things golf.
If your left hand position is too weak on the handle, your struggles with a weak ball flight and golf swing inefficiencies will be long lasting. Again, this may sound tempting but golfers should beware that using a strong grip can be a form of selfdenial. If your left hand position is too strong, youll have an entire different set of issues to work out, namely the ball moving too much left hooking or drawing. This leads to an open clubface at impact in relationship to your swing path, which, as demonstrated in our golf science piece on ball flight laws, causes the ball to slice away from the target. The strength of your grip, strong or weak, is determined primarily by the position of your left hand your control hand. One for the driver not a descending swing and one for every other club. Notice above how the v created between my thumb and index fingers are pointing much more towards my lead shoulder. Many people believe the hand positions should mirror each other, but when you take a strong lefthand grip, doing the same with the right will close your clubface too much at impact. A weak grip for the righthanded golfer means that the left hand is too far underneath the club and the right hand is too much on top of the club like in the image below. Zach johnson explained in golf magazine that it was hard for him to gain distance because his grip was too strong. When playing with a weaker grip, the ball is more likely to leave the club face in a higher flight. There are two major grip faults that many players struggle witha grip that is too weak and a grip that is too strong. A strong grip will have you drawing or hooking the ball.
So if you are learning the game or simply struggling then checking your hold is a great place to start. Im working to consistently see two knuckles on that left hand. What i like most about this tip is the two pieces of advice work so well. Grip strength adjustments can be used to alter the flight of the ball, allowing a player to put more or less loft onto the ball as desired. A year or two ago, kelvin introduced me to the idea that sometime during the swing hogan regripped the club to a stronger position. Now, i have tried to get strong grippers to do my grip in the past. I tested out the very strong left hand, neutralweakish right hand and it was a game changed with the driver. Id work on swing path with the driver so that you can hit straight drives from a neutral to weak grip. Im going to stick to my strong grip for a week and if my swing starts to go south again ill switch back to the neutral grip and grind it out and try to figure out what im doing wrong in my swing. That sounds crazy, because most golfers think that a strong grip will help them close the club face, but heres how it works. The weak grip on the other hand is where my hands are both turned a little bit anti clockwise, so it is like having the thumb and forefinger on each hand aiming to my left ear or something like that.
My grip goes through stages from working good to total mess. John jacobs argued you want a grip that returns the club face square to the ball, whether that be a little neutral, weak or strong. I have worked it into a very weak position over the years, to. Trying to convince regina i need an epic she doesnt believe thats it, haha. The strong grip has been classified as strong due to the effects it has on the. In this golf video i talk about how my strong grip is helping me to hit straighter drives. They usually try it for 3 balls then give up on it. Now that ive strengthened my grip again, im really hitting it good. If youve read any golf instruction material in the past, you may have heard that a slice is often caused by what we call a weak grip. For example, a righthanded golfer would have a strong grip if both hands are more to the right and a weak grip is exactly the opposite. I must first state that the grip is part of the fundamentals of golf. A strong golf grip is used for players with an insideout swing style.
Very controlled baby fade and if i really release my hands a slight draw but mostly pretty straight ball flight my shots with my regular grip where much lower and accuracy was hit and miss. Its the most commonly taught hold, often paired with a stronger righthand golf grip. Golf grip strong, weak or neutral the grateful golfer. Title golf channel academy lead coach jeff ritter explains the differences between weak and strong grips in the golf swing. The most common mistake caused by weak wrists is the collapsing or breaking down of the lead the hand that is placed highest on the clubs grip wrist at impact. A weak grip means the v shapes are pointed to the left of your head. Golfers who tend to slice the ball often grip the club with their hands turned too far toward the target commonly known as a weak grip. When golfers find the correct placement of each hand for their swings, they are headed for longer and straighter shots.
A weak grip, where your hands are rotated to the left, adds loft at impact and. Banner i have recently changed my grip to weak left and strong right and i cant believe how well i am hitting the ball. A strong grip also has the effect of reducing a clubs loft. The problem with a strong grip is that it can open the club face. If you discuss this with your teaching pro he will tell you the same thing. I have used two different swings and two different grips my whole life. It means that the clubface will be more closed with this grip compared to a weak or neutral position assuming all other factors. Your hands position on the clubs determines whether your golf grip is strong or weak. It mitigated the snappers and let me really go after the ball. Whats the difference between a strong, weak and neutral. How to grip a driver not to slice can this really be.
A golfer could also have a grip with a strong left hand and a weak right hand photo 4, or a weak left hand with a strong right hand photo 5. It will lead to a slightly steeper club plane than would a neutral grip, and a slightly closed club. Fans of strong grips always run into the well, hogan had a weak grip buzzsaw from the neutral grip advocates, who are abundant. Understand a weak and strong grip in golf swing golf channel. The vardon grip the interlock grip the tenfinger or baseball grip. A strong grip can help a golfer draw in the ball easier. When it comes to gripping the golf club it has a huge impact on your performance and overall consistency on the golf course. The standard grip of a golf club ifeatures the thumbs of both hands aligned down the shaft of the club.
I also read recently that you cant hit the ball as far with a strong grip. May 20, 2020 may 20, 2020 the grateful golfer 6 comments as we know, covid19 has modified how we play golf for the time being. Fast hips force the club head to lag behind on contact resulting in an open face. The first part of this story discusses the top hand in. Adjusting your grip strength and its effects in golf. Grips are usually classified as neutral, weak or strong. Another thing to watch out for when using a strong grip is to make sure you are setting up with the club face square to the target, i have tendency to hood the club when using a strong grip. When i strike the ball the club face is wanting to swing in aiming to the right of the target, which is going to cause the ball to start right and. Personally i have to use a stronger grip on driver than i irons. Grip controls face slice a weak grip leads to an open face.
The swing my friend had wasnt sound to copy, but with the years of perfecting my weak grip swing it was very fluid for. Most players who have a strong grip also take large divots and hit down hard through their iron shots. A grip is considered weak when both hands are rotated towards the lead side of the body. Id be wary of extremes, but you can match things up in your swing to suit your grip. Another characteristic of a strong grip is the club head moving aggressively down through the hitting area. This will help produce a stronger club face from here and make. This is a different concept than the type of grip employed such a overlapping grip the little finger of the right hand overlaps the space between the left index and middle fingersor the interlocking grip, where the left index finger and right little finger are interwoven. My grip is pretty similar identical, really to the second link found that too weak of a left hand grip made it a little difficult to create and maintain angle, and too strong of a right hand grip didnt allow me to properly release the club through the ball and turn the club over through impact. The weak grip has been classified as weak because of the. A weak grip leaves less room for the hands to rotate, which for a chronic hooker of the ball can help lessen the. If you make this change you need to hit at least 30 balls in a row with this grip to get the ball on target.
A weak grip on the club will result in a big cut or a slice. This type of grip would promote a less closed club face through impact as well as a more outtoin swing. Still a work inprogress to get the right feel with irons with the new grip and how exactly i should best set my hands, but still very promising. In general terms, this means golfers with a strong grip will hit the ball lower and further than someone with a weaker grip because of the lack of club loft at impact. The grip recommended here in the swing like a champion system would be considered by purists to be a slightly strong grip. One reason grip tends to be the weak link for both women and men is. A weak grip, where your hands are rotated to the left, adds loft at impact and makes your club of choice play a bit weaker. In an ideal world, your grip would be fairly neutral. A grip is defined as too weak when either the lead hand, trail hand, or both hands are rotated too much towards the target at address. The strong grip compensates for a bad swing by allowing an ott swing. Why you have weak grip strengthand how to fix it self. By changing the relative position of the lower hand, you can strengthen or weaken the grip, with each providing its own benefits and weaknesses. Social distancing is really not a challenge on the golf course, but some of the new rules for putting makes it easier to score.
A weak golf grip aids in creating a natural fade shot. I can get away with a weak to neutral left hand im a righty, and it still feels fine. A weak grip, forces a good swing and allows for a real draw. Ive got a neutral grip with my irons because i think it allows me to shape shots both ways easier. Golf magazines the best driving instruction book ever recommends the strong grip for amateurs with fast hips. Indeed, they can be placed in the middle for a neutral grip, or towards the right for a strong grip and finally to the left for a weak grip. We very rarely see any good golfers with a weak trail hand.
Its been proven that a strong grip has many benefits that include a consistent. This is a different concept than the type of grip employed such a overlapping gripthe little finger of the right hand overlaps the space between the left index and middle fingersor the interlocking grip, where the left index finger and right little finger are interwoven. Common fault fix weak trail hand position moe norman. On the other hand, players who favor a neutral or weak grip tend to sweep the ball off the turf. There seems to be so much confusion about what constitutes a good, functional grip that i thought i would address a few issues pertaining to our one and only connection with the club. All else being equal, the clubface will be more open with this grip type compared to the neutral or strong position. A neutral grip centers the thumb on top of the clubs grip. We have seen this fault in our golf school students often and it leads to compensations in the motion of the swing.
School of golf host martin hall has a tip everyone can use to hit the ball farther just by changing your grip. Poor grip strength can happen for many reasons, but it tends to be due to a weakness in the hands or forearms. To weaken a grip, the bottom hand is rotated around the grip slightly so that the thumb of the bottom hand is turned toward the rear foot. I just picked up brandels book this past week, and he like a number of instructors throughout golf history is an advocate of a strong grip. My tendency has been a neutraltoweak grip in the past, so ive been tinkering with a stronger grip. Well with a strong grip im hitting them straight right at the pin vs way right with a neutral grip. To relate to both right and left handed golfers, a strong grip occurs when both hands are rotated on the club away from the target, thereby promoting a closed club face at impact. Explaining the affects of a strong right hand grip and demoing the correct grip position. Many players overlook these small yet crucially important details when evaluating how strong or weak they should grip their golf club during. So with that strong grip the club face is hooded at impact producing a draw, or strong hook. The strong grip has been classified as strong due to the effects it has on the clubface and the wrist action during the swing.