What Your Grip Should Feel Like

In last week’s post, I wrote, “It is one thing for your grip to be identical for every shot. That takes lot of practice, and is a good subject for another post.”

I use the phrase, “a good subject for another post” without following through more often than I should, but this week I’m following through.

My topic is what your hands are supposed to feel like as you take your grip -- again, something you read very little about in discussions of the grip.

Most of what is written describes what the grip is supposed to look like. What it feels like is just as important in having your grip be identical every time you pick up a club. Your grip can look right, but still be off. It has to feel right, too.

Let’s begin without a club in our hand. We’ll take an air grip, so the feel of the club in our hands does not distract us from the main points of how the hands should feel when they come together.

The key feeling of the hands working as one lies where the side of the right thumb rests in the pocket of the left palm. It is not enough for the right thumb just to be placed there.

There needs to be a feeling that the thumb is locked into that place, and there is only one placement that will give you that feeling. A shift of even a quarter-inch either way, by sliding the thumb in the pocket, is enough to destroy that connection.

I have written that there needs to be a slight bit of pressure in this spot so the hands stay together, but that is not what I’m talking about now.

I mean a feeling that the right thumb and left palm touch each other, fitting so neatly together, that you feel as if someone who tried to pull your hands apart couldn’t do it.

The second feel is of the left little finger interacting with the back of the right forefinger and middle finger.

There are lots of places this little finger can go. Wherever that is for you, it needs to have the same feeling as the right thumb does -- it’s comfortably in place, but fitting in with the other hand, in this case, the left, in an inseparable way.

Those two fingers, the right thumb and the left little finger, are what lock the hands together -- not because they are fixed in place by pressure, but because they are in the right place.

Now we can pick up a club and work with the fingers that actually hold it. They are the last three fingers of the right hand and the first three fingers of the left hand.

The feeling in the last three fingers of the right hand is that they, and no others, are holding the club. That doesn’t mean to squeeze those fingers, just hold on with them.

The feeling in the first three fingers of the left hand is of stability. They support the action of the last three fingers of the right hand, but do not take over their function.

The segment of the left forefinger closest to the palm presses gently against the handle of the club. That pressing action keeps the left hand rotated inward a bit, in support of the right thumb resting against the left palm, to keep the hands from coming apart.

In all, none of these feelings should be pronounced. There should be firmness, but light firmness and not heavy or tense firmness.

Finally, regarding grip pressure, you know how Sam Snead said you should hold the club as if it were a little bird? Sam Snead had large hands and very strong hands. You might not be able to get away with holding a club that lightly.

If you feel the handle pressing against, but not compressing, the soft pads of your palm and the underside of your fingers, that is about right.

Pronation In the Golf Swing - Supination, Too

Ben Hogan, in his book, Five Lessons, talked about supinating the left hand at impact. This is seen when the left wrist is bowed out, and not arched inward.

A supinated left wrist keeps the club accelerating, keeps the clubface traveling directly at the ball, and ensures a clean hit. All the good things that can happen at impact are encouraged.

The trouble is, this is fairly difficult for amateurs to learn how to do. What is simpler is to concentrate on a feeling that gets the job done without you being concerned with pronating or supinating.

It’s all in how you take your grip.

The base of your right thumb fits into a pocket formed by the pads at the bottom of the left hand when that hand folds over the right. The trick is to press your hands together at this spot, very lightly, but by enough to keep them from separating during the swing.

This is done by taking your grip and then and turning your hands about just a bit toward each other. If you do, you will feel increased pressure of the base of the right thumb against the pocket of your left hand.

Don’t push your hands together too hard. There should be no tension radiating into your forearms. Sitting firmly next to each other might be a better image for what your hands are doing than pressing together.

When you don’t have solid contact here, your hands can separate and start acting independently. This has the immediate effect of turning the club, which moves the clubhead out of square.

It also encourages you to hit with your left hand, which leads directly to flipping the club through impact, a well-known cardinal sin of the golf swing.

Now you can still flip, but you have to do it with both hands at the same time. If, however, your hands are leading the clubhead through impact, like I tell you gals and guys over and over and over, you can’t flip. Just can’t do it.

So try this out. At first you will likely push your hands together too much, and you will feel all locked up when you swing. Ease off until you find the pressure at which your hands stay firmly together, yet you are still able to swing the club freely.

There is an ancient exercise that teaches this same point. Get a long blade of grass and put it between your right thumb and the left hand pocket. You should be able to swing the club without the grass falling out.

Be aware that this post is not about grip pressure. That refers to how firmly your fingers hold the handle when you wrap them around it. That, though, is another post.