Why do instructors keep harping on the grip?

[Paddy_2_Iron]

It really annoys me, a lot of golfers have different grips. Jack neutral weak, DJ strong etc....

This really seems to be the move to work on, the hips in the back and forward swing. From what I have witnessed on youtube a lot of instructors really focus on this and I think its legit.

IMO this is what most of us should work on. Not grip, takeaway etc....

[Krt22]

It's literally your only connection to the club so not sure how it can be ignored. Lots of golfers have terrible grips/backswings and it's basically all recovery mode from there. Weak grip, wrist roll inside, pull the handle and you are now faced with a wide open face.

[Hawkeye77]

Oh brother.

[milesgiles]

Totally agree

i also think posture and alignment are hooey

not to mention take away and backswing

[justasgood]

I think you should not grip the club and hit the ball by turning your hips.......

[Precis1on]

I include grip overall in how you stance up to the ball, not really as an individual component. A golfer may have a grip that's crossed up and that causes some issues.

What irritates me about general instruction about the grip is that they point to bad examples of anomalies in grip such as DJ as opposed to folks who have good, neutral grips for their stance. And even less instructors focus on how to build a good grip by simply having a good setup and simply gripping the club as your natural body aligns. Don't get me wrong, it's important to get right and can be the cause of certain tendencies, but each person is slightly unique because our bodies are unique.

[Krt22]

Indeed! Impact is all that matters, doesn't matter how you get there, the rest is mumbo jumbo. Some baseball players run straight to first base, I liked to zig zag and twirl to make it more fun.

[TIM929]

The grip controls the club face and the path, which is pretty important I feel..

 

[MonteScheinblum]

My favorite comment....”You don’t hit it with the backswing.”

 

Sure you do.

[RP40]

To me, it's because so many inexperienced players use the wrong grip. ... I can't tell you the number of times I've played with guys that aim left of the fairway and hit big ol' slices to the right of the fairway, that have a weak or neutral grip - or guys that say their natural shot shape is a draw, when in fact it's a hook, that have a strong grip. ... And frankly, instructors keep harping on it because so many players have it wrong.

Are there other things wrong with golfers' swings? Sure. ... But end of the day, it all starts with the grip, and if you don't have that right the rest doesn't matter.

[RichieHunt]

Grip is important, there's just not one way to grip it and you have to matchup the grip with the swing.

 

George Gankas talks about it with Matt Wolff. Typically GG prescribes a stronger grip, but Wolff makes an action with his left wrist that allows him to stripe it with the weak left hand grip. Had his grip been a strong grip, he's likely hit snap hooks all day long until he figured out how to make a different move (if he ever figured that out).

 

The clubface position is very important in the golf swing and dictates a lot of how the golfer swings the club and subsequently, how well they hit the ball. The grip can play a large role in that so I certainly understand why instructors emphasize it. However, claiming that there's one way to grip it is just bad instruction.

 

 

 

 

RH

[Paddy_2_Iron]

@MonteScheinblum
Sadly I had to figure this out about mile 10 in a 100 mile march. I am by no means "good", but the one instructor I had who taught me to get the club face pointing at the ball set me up for sooooo much improvement. The backswing is everything in fact it's so important I actually watch it while I swing back and re route my eyes to the ball. I don't care if people think I am weird it helps. And when I fight it oh boy.
To be honest I am not here to rank the different parts, my biggest deal is the damn grip teachers. Get off the grip and actually teach me something!

[Santiago Golf]

You're telling me if I roll the face wide open it effects the way I impact the ball. I can't believe it

[HackDaddy360]

The grip in my mind is just as important as anything else - perhaps not the most important but the “most important” piece is largely subjective and highly debated.

Golf is a game of confidence, right? If your grip doesn’t look like two crabs in mating season or isn’t stupidly strong or weak you can probably make it work - and if you’re confident in it naturally probably even play better.

To me, the grip/backswing/etc. can be done in many ways that produce excellent results - the club still gets square at the right spots and solid through impact - with power.

The key to a grip and swing in my opinion is making it comfortable, simple, sturdy and repeatable - whatever that means for you. It just so happens that most good players share said fundamental (or successful) positions which leads to similar motions.

There’s not really a “right” way to grip the club, but there are definitely ways to hold the club that have proven to lead to less success (which are the ones people call “wrong”)

 

[Krt22]

The grip has a big role in final backswing position. (As does the take away, which you also dismissed).

 

It seems as if you think there is some magic in the bottle fix for your swing issues, there isn’t. A good golf swing is like a great story, with a good beginning, middle, and end. You can really have a good end without a good beginning and middle.

[aggiegolfer21]

Scenario - Your grip is too weak. It is therefore open on the downswing. You need to close it. In order to close it your hips move toward the ball to give your right arm room to extend while you attempt to rotate the club closed. You are completely out of position at impact. Must be your hips right?

 

A good setup fixes a lot of faults. Grip is important. A bad grip can ruin what would have been a great golf swing.

[danielt823]

The best players in the world focus on the basics in the golf swing.

Grip, posture, alignment and how they address the ball.

If the best players in the world focus a lot of attention on it, why shouldn’t you?

Find a good instructor who can help you match your grip to your swing, get these basics right and once they are automatic then you can build on that. You might find that once they are taken care of the swing gets a lot easier from there.

Just my own experience anyway.

[Paddy_2_Iron]

The hips turning through and staying active IMO is the biggest problem when I am playing golf. I see guys with good sets up grips etc.... And have hardly any hip extension especially coming through the ball. A good grip is worthless if you don't have the hip turn / action.

If a guy/gal has a weak grip and tends to fade the ball he can aim accordingly and vice versa. If They don't have a good turn back and through he will never be a good golfer. They will struggle to stay consistent and to be honest won't get any power. Most people I watch to get around this sway and if you timing is on that day you could do well, but if it's not Ooffff!

My daugther was very lucky to get a good instructor from day one (IMO one of the most critical parts of youth golf) and she gets it. His first training was showing the club head relation to the ball and how the loft effect, basically a visual physics lesson. And then went to the turn. Turning the shoulders back and forth and keeping the lower half complimenting BUT IN PLACE. No grip, no grip no grip and Ill be completely honest she has a great swing. 16 and hits the ball around 200 yards without a optimized driver.

He spent one day teaching her the grip AFTER the turn and she naturally gravitated to a weak neutral grip. He let is be and didn't keep ruminating about the damn grip. This was after several lessons working on the turn, shoulder, hips etc....

 

"If the body moves correctly this thing (golf club) will sort of move correctly". 100% agree

[justasgood]

OP- “And have hardly any hip extension especially coming through the ball. A good grip is worthless if you don't have the hip turn / action.”

 

and a great hip turn/ action is worthless without a good grip.

 

the first thing you do is put your hands on the club. So the grip is the most important. And yes, even pro’s still need to practice their grip/set-up and take away because even the slightest deviation at 100mph can cause a very big problem.

 

Get the grip right and rehearse it over and over and over and over.

[Paddy_2_Iron]

@justasgood This is where I disagree. I think the body turn should be practice more. Understanding the sequence of the body turn is the most complicated.
You can use a baseball grip, cross over grip, interlocked etc.... Weak, strong, strong weak etc... Won't matter if you don't unlock the large body movements. The backswing and through swing, with correct sequence of the lower body upper body relationship.
Especially for younger players. They have got to learn the turn early and often.

[Paddy_2_Iron]

Note ---- My title which is basically my topic was why do they keep HARPING on it. I realize it's important you have to grip the club, but after a while give it a rest. It is what it is, now lets move onto more important factors like the take away, understanding the swing arch and the physics behind hitting a golf ball and the body turn and how the lower body and upper body are sequenced.

50 - 75 a pop for lessons and they guy/gal keeps harping on the grip. Give it a rest!

[Red4282]

Its often the easiest and simple fix to a miss... hitting it right? Oh look your grip is weak... got a case of the hooks? Looky there at that he-man stong grip.. in all seriousness grip is one of the foundations needed and everything else is secondary. grip, posture, ball position. Then go from there

[GoGoErky]

I believe it was Harvey Penick Who said you don’t want a good swing with a bad grip.

[Hawkeye77]

The only persons "harping" on anything is you. If you had an experience where an instructor was "harping" on the grip, in whatever context, that's your experience. I have had experiences with 5 instructors total since started playing over 40 years ago. Never had a single instructor "harp" "ruminate" (lol, that's a good one), worry, obsess or anything else about "the grip".

 

I'm glad you think you've found "the" YouTube secret to the golf swing (so we won't have to look forward to "wait, it's really this one" every week or so). Ride that horse as long as you want!

 

Harping on your version of "it" is exactly what you are (without any real evidence) accusing "instructors" of doing - but I'm guessing the inconsistency of that is lost on you.

 

Whatever works for you is what matters most.

[Paddy_2_Iron]

This isn't just my experience with myself, but my children as well. My son went to an instructor for a few months and he was very hands this hands that.... The progression wasn't there in fact he almost quit, never understood the swing arc and lower body upper body relationships.

My daugher took lessons from another pro mentioned above and really drilling in the lower body and upper body relationship is a KEY teaching factor from my view point. She excelled from the start was hitting balls fairly quick, the experience was one of fun. She never was over the top or too inside, she had a legitimate shot of making contract relatively early.....

My son damn near quit because focusing on the grip over and over again doesn't help the swing or make contact. The swing arc back and forward are the most critical to get through to the golfers.

One of the best golfers I play with has a weak grip and he's close to scratch..... My instructor as of late has a strong grip. My point find something stick to it so it's repeatable. Move on....

I personally believe a lot of instructors don't ever grow and they hear some half baked comments and teach those over and over again, when in reality they really don't know what they are talking about. This has been my experience. In other words there are more bad instructors than good ones.

Guys like Russell and Monte who post on here say a lot of the same things of that I consider the good instructors I have worked with (via Children). The not so good ones not so much....

One last thing in this post. I'm not saying guys like Russel or Monte don't teach the grip, but when I go out to their portfolio I see a lot of body discussion in relation to the swing. I might be off base here but I dont think so.

Note in my original post I stated takeaway, that was a total gaff. Honestly it was the first lesson I learn that truly started to help me make decent contact with the ball. Keeping the club face pointing at the ball while taking it back 6 inches or so. That was a game charger so i apologize for that......

[Warrior42111]

Just my 2 cents; without GPA (grip, posture, alignment) every golf swing will need some form of compensations. It is literally your set up and if not correctly you are setting yourself up for failure pun fully intended

Also in my experience a grip change is one of the hardest changes to implement as you have to constantly remind yourself and hit balls until it becomes second nature. I personally wouldn't want to overload myself with the grip change thoughts and 2 or more swing thoughts it becomes too much, especially for an adult. It has been shown children and much better at multi learning and picking things up faster as their brain is still making new pathways at a high rate.

[MPStrat]

A grip can get so strong that it is not ideal IMO but can be manageable for some, depending on the player. The compensations needed for a very weak grip result in what amounts to slapping at the ball, huge distance loss, poor contact, the shanks... you name it.

[moehogan]

Ben Hogan: The Golf Magazine Interview

By George Peper

September 1987

HOGAN: Yes, years ago. When I first started on Tour, I had a terrible problem with a hook and I struggled constantly to learn to fade the ball. Finally, one day I said to myself, “Henny Bogan, you have got to go home and correct this. Otherwise you’re never gonna make a living.”

So I came home for two weeks and worked and thought about my game. I’ll never forget, one night in bed I got an idea, something I might try. Well, I could barely wait for the sun to come up the next morning. Out I went to the practice tee and started trying out my theory. It worked. It worked all day long. And the next day. And the next day too.

So I said, I’ve got to take this out on Tour and put it under some pressure. The next week was the George May Tournament in Chicago—and in those days he had two events, back to back. A big field of players competed the first week, and then the top 12 from that tournament went on to play for big money the following week. Well, I went up there and won both of them.

GOLF: What was that inspiration?

HOGAN: I’m not telling (smiling).

GOLF: Did it relate to one of the fundamentals in your book, “Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf”?

HOGAN: Yes, it did.

GOLF: It was the part about pronation and supination, wasn’t it?HOGAN: Well, yes it was, but it all gets back to the grip. You can’t make those moves unless you have the proper hold on the club. It’s like steering an automobile. You don’t steer to the right all the time, you also steer to the left. That ability has to come from the grip, which is the transformer through which the juice flows. 

[Krt22]

The only reason an instructor would harp on it was if the student wasn’t taking to the advice and not making a real change. A bad grip can be the cause of a lot of swing issues so there may be no point in moving on if the student isn’t making the adjustment. You can’t just say so and so has a weak grip and so and so has a strong grip without looking at the rest of their swing, especially when those so and so folks are highly skilled professionals

 

if you have a weak grip and fan it open in transition, if all you worked on was hip depth and rotation you’d likely hit it a mile to the right. In order to prevent that you cast the club early, in order to not bury the club a foot behind the ball you early extend and stall. You seem to think grip and other swing issues are mutually exclusive when instead they can be intimately linked.

This will be my last response to you since it’s clear you aren’t really interested in having a real discussion and this is more a misguided rant thread.

[cleatis]

Ive noticed a few people I've tried to help a few kids and a couple adults. Their grips were really jacked up and you would get their grip looking pretty good and after a few minutes they would go back to their crappy grip. You would correct it and they would go back to it. What do you do from there. Let it go or harp on it?