Question from Paul: Golf
Grip
Dear Paul:
The grip is to
your golf game as software is to your computer. The grip is
vital to consistent performance. Once you have developed or purchased
a piece of computer software
that performs, you will get consistent, accurate results. As soon
as you truly learn to grip the club precisely in the proper manner,
your game will improve and your results will be consistent.
Have you ever
had the experience of asking someone for directions and had them
answer you as if you were already
familiar with the local geography? "Go to De La Cruz street
and take a right." The answer you want is "Turn right as
you leave this filling station, go approximately five blocks until
you see the World Bank on the right hand side of the street. Turn
right at the corner immediately beyond the bank and you will be on
De La Cruz street." Your question about your grip is such an
important one to all golfers that I am going to give you the long,
complete answer even though the grip is best taught through demonstration
and is a real challenge to communicate through words alone. The grip
is thoroughly covered in both Automatic Golf -The Method and Automatic
Golf - Let's Get Started.Viewing these videos is appropriate. None
the less, here we go...
The gripping
pressure with the left hand should be entirely with the last three
fingers. The feeling
should be the same as juicing half a kumquat with the last three
fingers and the palm of the left hand. There should be no pressure
on the grip of the club with either the fore finger or thumb of the
left hand. When placing the left hand on the club, you should focus
on what's called the "short thumb grip." This means that
the left thumb is drawn up so that it does not extend beyond the
fore finger of the left hand. The left thumb should be flush
against the pad of the left hand that is above the fore finger. Proper
alignment of the left hand is achieved by finding the space between
the two tendons above the thumb and lining that space up with the
shaft as you look down at your left hand while gripping the club.
The left hand must be placed on the club in a manner that maintains
an angle with the shaft of the club and the left arm. This is most
readily achieved by placing the left hand on the club while holding
the club in front of your face with your right hand with your right
arm fully extended.
The right hand
is placed on top of the left thumb and is not parallel with the left
hand. Ben Hogan was
one of the first players to properly grip the club with his right
hand. It rode very high on top of the left hand and thus worked in
unison with the left hand in pulling the club strongly through the
impact zone rather than casting it weakly with a right hand "flip."
The pressure in the right hand grip is
limited solely to the middle pads of the middle two fingers. It is
disastrous to squeeze the grip with the thumb and fore finger of
the right hand.
As I pointed out above, proper grip is
a vital and is a somewhat complex procedure. It is vastly simplified
by the demonstration on the Automatic Golf videos.
Golfingly Yours,
Bob Mann
|
