As with the previously mentioned monkey traps of South America, where monkeys trap themselves by holding on to the food in a simple gourd hung from a tree, only having to let go the food and go free, many golfers are like those monkeys and hold on too tight to the club, from address on through the critical impact zone. By clutching the grip like a splitting maul, tension builds up throughout the swing, and when the first significant resistance is encountered, at impact, the likelihood of letting go the club is great.
Tension is the archenemy of the golf swing, be it mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual. And tension starts with the grip. The hands are so sensitive that they translate any tension generated by the above factors. And that translation is usually one of tightness. We think the tighter the better, but golf is often counter-intuitive. Unfortunately most instructors emphasize holding the club tightly with the last three fingers of the non-dominant hand. The brain often interprets that as a kind of death grip that also affects the other fingers. And it’s there we monkeys are caught in the trap of no return. For with a grip of such intensity, there’s only one way to go: loosening and losing it in the impact zone. There’s no chance of compressing the ball from there and a weak shot results, denying the club what it was intended to do.
Sam Snead once said to hold the club like you would a bird. I’d heard this for years but didn’t really believe it, having held an injured bird and known how gentle you need to be. So I decided to experiment with Snead’s metaphor and observe the results. Holding the grip as lightly as I would a bird, I discovered something extraordinary. For one, I felt much less tension in my body throughout the swing, especially my shoulders where tension tends to coagulate. Less tense, I could concentrate all the better from pre-shot routine through the hitting area to the finish. With better concentration, I was hitting the ball more on the center of the clubface, getting more ball speed, and so more distance, along with more accuracy as I was squaring up the club better than before. But the most amazing result was that my grip got firmer as the club first struck the ball then the turf for my iron shots. Contrary to what I believed for years, my shots felt more solid with a lighter grip. I’m not talking about a weaker grip for in golf a weak grip means one that favors a fade and a strong grip, a draw. It was a lighter grip where the bird survives through impact and flies away into the follow through. It was a grip that was the antidote to tension in the swing, for as the grip goes, so goes the body.
Now this takes an element of faith for our brain says to maintain control, hold it tighter; and to hit the ball more solid, grip it like you would a hammer. But Snead was right: grip a bird too tight and you harm the bird: grip a club too tight, and the swing becomes calcified like old and worn knee joints. The fingers get white and strained, almost pained. And most importantly, the wrists lose their suppleness and elasticity. Bobby Jones kept his grip light and drove the ball 300 yards when he needed to with hickory. John Daly, Grip and Rip It aside, advocates holding the club “with the amount of tension you would have in each hand if you were carrying a loaf of bread: tight enough that you won’t drop it, but definitely not so tight that you’ll crush it.” JD even points to his ability to make a long backswing with fully cocked wrists, and hence his distance, to his light grip pressure. Need more proof? Take a look at Freddy Couples’ and Vijay’s hands at impact: Their grip pressure is so light that most of their right hand is literally off the club as they come through the ball on the drive.
Off course with grip pressure you can’t take a cookie cutter approach: individuals may differ so you have to experiment with what feels right for you. One of my Buddhist teachers, Ajahn Sumedho in England, when teaching life lessons says not to take his word for it, but to go out and experiment for yourself. Use the guidelines of what you read here but discover the truth for yourself through trial and error. Then when you uncover that truth, practice it as much as your body and schedule will allow. In my own experiments, I have found the lighter I can hold the club and still maintain control, feeling little tension in the body is the right pressure. My results have confirmed the grip pressure truth I have come to.
As for which method to use to hold the club–overlapping, interlocking, or ten-finger–I believe it’s a matter of hand size. Try them out and take your pick. There’s no appreciable advantage to any one style. Just hold it lightly.
Watching the ball fly where I’ve aimed, with solid contact and a dollar bill divot, I am free from the monkey trap (at least for the moment). Now that the unusual May rains seem to have ended in northern California, I can take it to the next level and see if I can consistently translate this grip lite from the range to the course. I promise a full lab report.
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