Have you ever wondered why golf pros seem to have the perfect golf swing that seems effortless yet can hit the ball over 300 yards. I can tell you their one secret that they won’t tell you and that many instructors seem unable to understand. That is, using your hands by gripping the club very softly.
You cannot have a death grip of the club and still be able to swing fast. You may be able to chop wood with that grip but you will not hit the ball very far with the death grip. Obviously there are always exceptions to any rule but you should be gripping the club softly.
You probably want to know what constitutes a soft grip. When you are holding the club in your hands, your golf grip should be no harder then 3 out of 10 with 10 being choking your monther-in-law. If you can, try to make it a 2 out of 10 like you love your mother-in-law.
Here is another secret that they don’t tell you or it seems to get lost in the conversations. The ball goes further with a faster swing. You cannot get the club to go faster by swinging harder.
The details about the why are long and hard but the main reason is that the large muscles in your arms cannot go more than about 3 to 4 mph. Therefore, if you have your muscles tightened up that is all you can do is move your arms at the same speed as your upper body turn which is 1 to 3 mph. This then puts the velocity of the club head at about 80 to 90 mph. That velocity will vary depending on how big the arc is with your golf swing.
So to reach maximum velocity with your golf swing, you must have a very loose golf grip.
But first, lets talk about the grip. To simplify I will only talk about the grip of a right handed player. Just reverse every thing I say for the left handed golfer.
The experts will mostly tell you to start with your left hand and place your thumb on top of the club at a 12 o’clock position where you can have two knuckles on your left hand visible. If you rotate your grip clockwise so that the thumb is now at 1 o’clock and you will now see the third knuckle and you will have a neutral grip on your left hand. That will prevent you from over swinging and tightening your grip.
Then take the palm of your right hand, where the thumb palm pad and baby finger palm pad meet and place it over the thumb of your left hand. In other words, where your right hand life line crease is should be over the thumb on your left hand.
Place the thumb of your right hand at approximately 11 o’clock and the rest of the grip with the right hand will be across the last crease of your fingers, out by your finger tips. If you loosened the grip on your left hand the club would fall out of your right hand as you have very little grip with the right hand. By placing the thumb at the 11 o’clock position you will have a neutral grip with the right hand.
So, with the left hand in neutral and the right hand in neutral, you will have a neutral grip.
Your right hand is to act only as a guide. The swing will be entirely with your left arm and hand with the right hand only being the guide and support. Make sense? If not read it again. Sorry I don’t have a picture for you but there is a video on my blog which describes it also.
Now I believe that during the golf swing your grip will tighten slightly especially during the back swing. It could possibly tighten up to approximately a 7 or 8 out of 10 during the back swing but it will loosen up during the follow through. With this swing you could possibly generate a golf swing of about 85 to 100 mph. With a 100 mph golf swing you could hit the ball about 220 yards.
Ok, I got your interest and now I have just slammed it shut. Don’t worry, you can generate a faster golf swing with your arms. Actually it is with your wrist. If you would like to learn more about the golf swing, then please go to my blog where I have been telling the world my story about how I went from a 4 handicap to a hack in 15 years and the process I am using to learn to play golf, how to swing like a pro.