_{^{Grip Pressure}}

Professional golfers agree that over tightness will severely affect the natural free-flowing action of a golf swing. It is our belief that by gripping the club tightly we can help muscle the club head into the back of the ball and thus create more distance.

This is a complete myth.

On the flip side however, it is also our belief that we should be gripping the club lightly thus freeing up our wrists. A free-flowing golf swing resulting in a flail type action through the ball will produce better results.

This of course is a true fact.

A tight grip will in effect tighten the muscles in your arms and also the big muscles across the back of your shoulders. This will severely restrict your back swing. Your swing will become a jerky movement resulting in a forward lunge at the ball.

Conversely, too loose a grip can result in over swinging the club. In fact it would be not too uncommon to see the club head through the corner of your left eye at the top of the swing.

Should this be the case then your hands will have become detached from the grip at the top of the swing. On the down swing you will have to compensate this error by re-gripping thus throwing the club head out onto a different swing plane before impact.

A lot of swing faults can be eradicated instantly by going back to the drawing board and re-checking your grip. Over many rounds of golf and without any conscious knowledge on your part your hands could have travelled more to the left of the club or more over to the right.

Either way the results could be damaging. The strong grip (with hands more over to the right of the grip), could lead to a gradual over tightening. Conversely, a weak grip (with hands more towards the left of the grip) could lead to a gradual over swinging of the club.

Whenever I feel that my game is somewhat suffering I will first check out my grip. Then I will go to the practice range and hit a few balls with varying degrees of hand pressure until I'm back on track.

Website...Tip

Grab hold of a hammer as if you were about to knock in a few nails then go use the same grip pressure with your golf swing.