Grip Gets Overly Strong Over Time

[naj959]

Anyone else have a problem with their grip becoming excessively strong over time? It's to the point that I have all 4 knuckles of my left hand showing. Whenever this happens I inevitably slip into a bad stretch of play as I try to fight my way back to a 2 1/2 knuckler. The grip is probably the most detrimental to my short game since the club is de-lofted and the ball comes out low and hot. Going back to the more neutral grip is difficult because I "feel" like I don't have enough forearm strength to hinge and set the club head properly; but missing left all day is not the answer. I was just curious if anyone else experiences this sensation from time to time. Time to bring the grip trainer back out.

[Obee]

Yes. I have the same problem.

[Tax77]

44 minutes ago, naj959 said:

Anyone else have a problem with their grip becoming excessively strong over time? It's to the point that I have all 4 knuckles of my left hand showing. Whenever this happens I inevitably slip into a bad stretch of play as I try to fight my way back to a 2 1/2 knuckler. The grip is probably the most detrimental to my short game since the club is de-lofted and the ball comes out low and hot. Going back to the more neutral grip is difficult because I "feel" like I don't have enough forearm strength to hinge and set the club head properly; but missing left all day is not the answer. I was just curious if anyone else experiences this sensation from time to time. Time to bring the grip trainer back out.

Are your clubs to heavy, or some physical issue going on that you only realize when swinging a golf club? Your left shoulder feel OK?

[marte]

As part of the pre-shot routine wouldn't you just automatically check your grip?   long before you start the swing?

[Snarkesor]

Absolutely have the same problem. I've actually discovered that my bouts of shanking come from when the grip has gotten so strong that I hold the face off so much and can never release the club.

[naj959]

@Obee glad to know I'm in good company😄

 

@Tax77 I'm 34 and in good shape. Go to the gym about 10 times a week (doubles) and was doing Muay Thai. I do have a knee and shoulder issues from lifting and hitting the heavy bag. As far as the clubs I've tried everything from super light to standard. I get along better with heavier shafts but SW could be a factor.

 

@marte No I never look at my grip. Just my intermediate target and the actual target. I just keep the feel in my last three fingers but the left hand can still get too "pronated?". When I do notice it's off and start fiddling with it on the tee it makes for a long day. I either re-adjust it mid takeaway or make a very non-confident swing.

[BrianMcG]

Time to start using grips with a reminder. 

[Jbegz12]

The grip is probably not your problem. Without looking (which is never ideal) I am going to guess it is a symptom of a club path that goes too far in to out. You need to work on your backswing staying more in front of you to the point where you are hitting pulls. From there you will be inclined to weaken your grip. From there you may end up going to push cuts with your new good grip and need to learn how to close the clubface in the down swing. It's a lot easier with a good instructor and lots of time to practice.

[naj959]

5 hours ago, Jbegz12 said:

The grip is probably not your problem. Without looking (which is never ideal) I am going to guess it is a symptom of a club path that goes too far in to out. You need to work on your backswing staying more in front of you to the point where you are hitting pulls. From there you will be inclined to weaken your grip. From there you may end up going to push cuts with your new good grip and need to learn how to close the clubface in the down swing. It's a lot easier with a good instructor and lots of time to practice.

My fault is to drop the right shoulder in transition when I'm swinging poorly and swing super in to out, so I don't disagree with you but I do monitor it. I was swinging very well up until my last range session. I didn't notice the grip until my chipping and pitching took a turn for the worse. I can usually sort the swing out but the grip just feels awkward like my brain doesn't know how to hold the club and load it properly. I like @BrianMcG idea of using reminder grips.  I have taken lessons from Iteach and wouldn't hesitate to take another but don't feel like I'm at that level of urgency yet. The club just feels weird to me I can't really explain it.

[Valtiel]

16 hours ago, naj959 said:

My fault is to drop the right shoulder in transition when I'm swinging poorly and swing super in to out, so I don't disagree with you but I do monitor it. I was swinging very well up until my last range session. I didn't notice the grip until my chipping and pitching took a turn for the worse. I can usually sort the swing out but the grip just feels awkward like my brain doesn't know how to hold the club and load it properly. I like @BrianMcG idea of using reminder grips.  I have taken lessons from Iteach and wouldn't hesitate to take another but don't feel like I'm at that level of urgency yet. The club just feels weird to me I can't really explain it.

I wanted to highlight that part because that is exactly what @Jbegz12 is getting at. Our brain usually knows what needs to happen, either because of a direction we've started to slide or just the knowledge that we're maybe a little too tired to effectively pull off that one little move that we need to hit the ball. Whether or not your body can do the things the brain wants is irrelevant, as is whether or not that thing makes sense. The conversation your brain is having with you when you feel that awkwardness is usually:

Brain: "We need more control over the face, turn the hands to right"
You: "Why? I don't want that"
Brain: "The clubface isn't going to square up in time, we need the hands"
You: "Why isn't the clubface going to square up in time?"
Brain: "Excellent question, you tell me"

That awkward feeling is from you doing something your brain has decided is not going to work. Maybe you're taking the club a little more inside than normal, maybe you're fanning the face open a little too much, maybe your upper body is spinning out a little earlier, or maybe you're just dropping your shoulder and coming from the inside a couple more degrees....it doesn't take much. Most of our swings are operating in the red, one small mistake or deviation away from sounding the "save the swing!" alarm which usually involves giving more control to the hands to bail us out. This is one of the main valleys between us and the pros; a set of solid fundamentals that can withstand the "B" and "C" days and still perform at a high level. Your job then is to study your swing and figure where this feeling is coming, whether its just more of what you're already aware of, or maybe something else that is contributing. 

Edited August 20, 2021 by Valtiel

[jmkenn0]

More my right hand than left, but once things start going sideways, its always the first thing I check, and I tend to then add it to my pre-shot routine.

[naj959]

9 hours ago, Valtiel said:

I wanted to highlight that part because that is exactly what @Jbegz12 is getting at. Our brain usually always knows what needs to happen, either because of a direction we've started to slide or just the knowledge that we're maybe a little too tired to effectively pull off that one little move that we need to hit the ball. Whether or not your body can do the things the brain wants is irrelevant, as is whether or not that thing makes sense. The conversation your brain is having with you when you feel that awkwardness is usually:

Brain: "We need more control over the face, turn the hands to right"
You: "Why? I don't want that"
Brain: "The clubface isn't going to square up in time, we need the hands"
You: "Why isn't the clubface going to square up in time?"
Brain: "Excellent question, you tell me"

That awkward feeling is from you doing something your brain has decided is not going to work. Maybe you're taking the club a little more inside than normal, maybe you're fanning the face open a little too much, maybe your upper body is spinning out a little earlier, or maybe you're just dropping your shoulder and coming from the inside a couple more degrees....it doesn't take much. Most of our swings are operating in the red, one small mistake or deviation away from sounding the "save the swing!" alarm which usually involves giving more control to the hands to bail us out. This is one of the main valleys between us and the pros; a set of solid fundamentals that can withstand the "B" and "C" days and still perform at a high level. Your job then is to study your swing and figure where this feeling is coming, whether its just more of what you're already aware of, or maybe something else that is contributing. 

I love your redline analogy and couldn't agree more. This game is so hard because one's feels change from day to day. For example, in my first Iteach lesson many years ago, a major piece I had to fix was getting my hand path more inside. I've been playing great with this thought but like all things in golf, took it too far. Played my worst round of the year yesterday and I know It's because I was focusing so much on my hands that my pivot was pretty much non existent. There's always something to monitor and I'm just now realizing after playing for 15+ years that you will never "have it" permanently. There will be times when the swing is on autopilot but it will eventually creep outside the range of functionality and need to be tightened up. The better the mechanics the less time it takes to tighten things back up.

 

You've got me thinking now that the grip could be changing over time in response to the club getting more and more out of position, something I had never really pondered to be honest. Could be a check engine light for my swing.  

 

In summary, I'll be spending a lot time at the range over the weekend filming and pouring over all of my notes 😅

[Barfolomew]

Yeah it's cause a strong grip is the natural grip and shouldn't be shunned but embraced and practiced.... you can still get the right hand less strong then the left hand.

 

Watch Shawn Clement videos to explain why its natural.... I play par golf with it and hit way harder with it

Edited August 20, 2021 by Barfolomew

[Valtiel]

24 minutes ago, naj959 said:

I love your redline analogy and couldn't agree more. This game is so hard because one's feels change from day to day. For example, in my first Iteach lesson many years ago, a major piece I had to fix was getting my hand path more inside. I've been playing great with this thought but like all things in golf, took it too far. Played my worst round of the year yesterday and I know It's because I was focusing so much on my hands that my pivot was pretty much non existent. There's always something to monitor and I'm just now realizing after playing for 15+ years that you will never "have it" permanently. There will be times when the swing is on autopilot but it will eventually creep outside the range of functionality and need to be tightened up. The better the mechanics the less time it takes to tighten things back up.

 

You've got me thinking now that the grip could be changing over time in response to the club getting more and more out of position, something I had never really pondered to be honest. Could be a check engine light for my swing.  

 

In summary, I'll be spending a lot time at the range over the weekend filming and pouring over all of my notes 😅

Yup, agreed with all the above. Don't get too discouraged about never "having it" permanently though because that is literally impossible, hah. It is all about raising the floor so our bad isn't so bad. 

We have all had a few of those autopilot days, and they can actually be pretty insidious because it is very easy to draw the wrong conclusions from them. I distinctly remember three of mine, and they all came on rounds where I had very little sleep the night before so I made a conscious effort to dial everything back what felt like 25% since I knew I wasn't going to have energy to maintain a normal "pace". One of those times I actually had a sore wrist as well, and I was basically playing a flippy draw all day, albeit consistently. A later time had me playing cuts all day, but the takeaway from all of them was the same; I simply moved myself a little further away from the redline and thus hit better shots on average. That is a bit of a glass ceiling though, because more energy and a full night's sleep would have had me swinging "harder" and likely worse. 

Later instruction and analysis revealed the three main issues I was having that all lead to being a little steep and flippy. Incomplete weight transfer in the backswing (staying on my front side a little too much), hands getting a little too deep at the top causing a bit of an over the top reroute in transition, and a bit of the hip depth loss due to bad rotation. All of these caused the same issue for me where I felt I couldn't hold the club comfortably because my hands just wanted to move around/under the club. Focusing on these issues one at a time accomplished what we want, which is to move the redline threshold further away as opposed to constantly trying to find the little feels to inch us away from it. It also starts to remove the feeling of awkwardness when holding the club since you don't need that extra hand help anymore. 


 

[talfredson]

I played a strong grip as well where I usually get 2-3 LH knuckles showing. I do notice that if am not comfortable over the ball the grip is the first thing I start fidgeting with. I recently just realized that it's more about my setup and posture than my grip, when I feel uncomfortable. I've noticed the more and more I strengthen my grip the more I will early extend. 

[naj959]

Played a round today and was conscious of my left hand grip during my preshot routine. I'm experimenting with soling the club with just my left hand while taking my stance and then adding the right. Shot a 78 with 3 birdies ( which is a good round for me). Short game was miles better. Only issue is I'll occasionally hit a push fade from not rotating hard enough through the shot. This is most evident with driver but I'll take it over the pull hook as the weaker flight doesn't find too much trouble. I absolutely love the feeling that the left side is no longer in play.