What is a smooth putting stroke golf drill 5 Grip pressure experiment (Video) - by Pete Styles
What is a smooth putting stroke golf drill 5 Grip pressure experiment (Video) - by Pete Styles

Sometimes when I’m watching golfers practice their putting, I have to use a few little detective skills to work out what’s happening with that stroke particularly if they’re not consistent with their distance control. Watching them setup to the golf ball and that seems to be swinging the club back nice and smoothly and evenly. Yet, they still have no real feeling of how far the ball is going and they tell me they just can’t work out how hard to hit the ball. When I look a little bit more deeply, I can actually see that there’s – there’s veins popping out at the back of their wrists. There’s white knuckle showing and they’re really stronger in the golf club. And there we see the promise, the grip pressure isn’t smooth, isn’t even. It’s not consistent. And that will really trouble you in how hard and how far you’re going to hit the putts. So I’d like to experiment a little bit with this. Next time you’re practicing your putting, either how you want to copy or out on the putting green. Start up by gripping the golf club really light, really loose. Maybe we’ll call after 1 out of 10 if you feel like you’re almost going to let go of the club. And then gently increase that pressure until it is hard as you can possibly hold it and we’ll call after 10. When you’ve got it in a 10 position, you’ll feel your tension in your hands, tension in your forms, tension in your shoulders and try and hit a few putts with the 10. Then try and hit a few pots with the one. And the next experiment, any different grip pressure in between. For most people I feel more comfortable and have better results when they’re holding the golf club a three, four or five grip pressure. Quite relaxed, quite loose but not so loose the tip wobbles around but not so firm that they’re squeezing and strangling it and getting too tense. So have it go. Let me take a 10 foot putt. Try five balls at number 1. Try five balls at number 5. Try five balls at number 10 with your grip pressure and just see where you find your best results out. Then when you go out and play in a golf course, just remind yourself every couple of holes. What’s my grip pressure like? How tightly am I holding this? Am I starting to strangle it under pressure? Do I struggle on the back 9 when I’ve got my score going, when it’s coming towards the end of the match? Is my grip pressure increasing more towards than strangling it to the 10? If so, remind yourself relax it at back dance with 3, 4 or 5 - even pace, even grip pressure, better results every time.

2012-11-30

Sometimes when I’m watching golfers practice their putting, I have to use a few little detective skills to work out what’s happening with that stroke particularly if they’re not consistent with their distance control. Watching them setup to the golf ball and that seems to be swinging the club back nice and smoothly and evenly. Yet, they still have no real feeling of how far the ball is going and they tell me they just can’t work out how hard to hit the ball. When I look a little bit more deeply, I can actually see that there’s – there’s veins popping out at the back of their wrists. There’s white knuckle showing and they’re really stronger in the golf club. And there we see the promise, the grip pressure isn’t smooth, isn’t even. It’s not consistent. And that will really trouble you in how hard and how far you’re going to hit the putts. So I’d like to experiment a little bit with this. Next time you’re practicing your putting, either how you want to copy or out on the putting green. Start up by gripping the golf club really light, really loose. Maybe we’ll call after 1 out of 10 if you feel like you’re almost going to let go of the club. And then gently increase that pressure until it is hard as you can possibly hold it and we’ll call after 10. When you’ve got it in a 10 position, you’ll feel your tension in your hands, tension in your forms, tension in your shoulders and try and hit a few putts with the 10. Then try and hit a few pots with the one. And the next experiment, any different grip pressure in between. For most people I feel more comfortable and have better results when they’re holding the golf club a three, four or five grip pressure. Quite relaxed, quite loose but not so loose the tip wobbles around but not so firm that they’re squeezing and strangling it and getting too tense. So have it go. Let me take a 10 foot putt. Try five balls at number 1. Try five balls at number 5. Try five balls at number 10 with your grip pressure and just see where you find your best results out. Then when you go out and play in a golf course, just remind yourself every couple of holes. What’s my grip pressure like? How tightly am I holding this? Am I starting to strangle it under pressure? Do I struggle on the back 9 when I’ve got my score going, when it’s coming towards the end of the match? Is my grip pressure increasing more towards than strangling it to the 10? If so, remind yourself relax it at back dance with 3, 4 or 5 – even pace, even grip pressure, better results every time.