In this video tip PGA golf professionals Pete Styles and Matt Fryer lead you through an examination of how a grip which is classed as being in a strong position can indeed cause issues with creating a hooking golf shot. Matt and Pete understand that a grip that is too strong will produce a club face that is too closed at the point of impact. If the club face is too closed in relation to the path and to the target, the golf ball could have too much hooking spin imparted on it which in turn potentially creates a hook rather than the desired drawing golf shot.
Right Pete so one of my favorite sayings in the game of golf, and especially in coaching is the face is King, face is King, the face is king clubface is going to be was hit in the golf ball, and that's going to determine what flight we see on the golf ball. One of the flight said we may say is a hot shot I think generally you would see that because of a close call place and there's one thing that could be causing that , and what would you say if I asked you the question What is it what would you think you could say the club face is going to be directly related to what the hands are doing so the rest of the grounds of place on the club is going to affect the clubface. What you say things about Hawk shot has to be caused by the grip to some degree. OK so what sort of grip will we start to see if we're going to be getting this close call facing a hockey shot with someone walked into your teaching day what grip would you expect to see now quite often we would class by group as being in a strong position so strong is not implying natural pressure on the club and the more position of hands on the golf club , and is that relative to anything yeah we would we talk about neutral because we talk about strong we talk about we can cut so it doesn't really matter if you're into linga an overlap or a split handed baseball grip that shot wrong and that we still very much apply so we're going to sort initially about those the top competition for the left hand for the right hand of God If we were to see 2 to 2 and a half knuckles on the hot hand we would say that's a neutral position in fact a strong position would be too far to the right. OK you've done that you've turned away from target haven't you the yeah so I turn my hand away from the target this way I can now see to that a lot of the back of the hand if you're looking down that's going to have an effect of shifting the clubface in relation to the path creating that hook.
OK so my left hand my top needs to be on neutrally and a lot of people will get that right , and then they will make the mistake with the more dominant hands like me that my right hand my bottom right if this goes on into a strong position in that we can effect the club. I sit down with you fact the ball run actually we see a lot of golfers who have very good swings yet they've got lots and lots of stuff going on is really good they should be really proud of. Yeah and then they ruin it by the hand placement. Yeah often the how placement is done because it's comfortable Yeah , but constable he's not taking the ball out the left on the trees all that occurred so I would much rather have a little bit of getting used to a neutral grip definitely on the little bit of getting used to finding the ball in the middle of that way. yeah definitely there that's her point you touched on that comfortability when you we you know as a coach is we make a change we spot something in someone's grip and you say can you just turn your hand slightly all it feels awful but if it feels right so you're probably still gripping it's strong arm. Yeah I would agree I think the change in the grip piece is frosting for a lot of golf it's quite a small change feel if you yes all the time you took the golf course yes so many your hands give you so much feedback in everything you do the way you hold a knife and fork or the way you hold the pen if I change the way you did that it would feel really alien , and yeah you'd get used to it eventually you actually went to the same holding a golf club like the left hand on a 2 to 2 and a half of the position the right hand sits in here and sits over on top and a good check for the strong and weak a neutral is a V. Ok that's the line to respond yes was my grip I'm going to claim that's quite a neutral position the right hand moving around to the right the V. Moves around the right shoulder that's quite strong.
Yeah could be causing the hole go in the opposite why is going to be a little bit weak now the weak position might feel like it definitely start to hook the ball yes there are some golfers I would say try it if you've still fair for years and you've swung the ball down the left on side with a local stick that right hand into a weak position put your dominant bottom hand in a weak position I'd almost guarantee that left hand side choice not going to happen going to go straight so it might even go to the right play with it yeah try it and then you try lies it bring it back more to a neutral position you can't because if that right hand column to the bottom one can't shut the. clubface in relation to the power of the ball not go as far down the left hand side a lot straighter a lot more neutral I'm going to give you a little drill here so if you take your or your strong grip for me now I know we're going to do is make the hawkers grip going to swing the called 2 outs horizontal. Generally what we would say is something where we see now this faith is really hoarded in your backswing So it's pointing in down it's looking at the turf there so if you don't meet the golf club it's now aiming at me with all 4 so it's aiming very left what I want you to do is adopt a neutral grip for me and what I'd have my pupils do is just make the same swing and trying to see that the toe of the golf course now is a little bit more in the air as opposed to hold it over here I'd like you to do is picture on shots making the same backswing to same follow through lens with a small neutral grip. Say even with the 7 iron if you could get a little bit straighter just to start off with all those changes that you made there I didn't feel and I was manipulating the club and the shuffles that you know the square position the grip did it almost automatic exactly so close the strong grip of Matt or by swing the facts show the face. Hit Down that ball goes low and left it disappears like snap hook, but it's not hard yeah even over 50 yards it was you know is violent movement Yeah so a little bit more neutral grip into neutral face club face feels like I'm going to go more to the sky or hope for the sky and I see the ball straight. So big check point what is your grip looking like do we have a strong grip because that is one of the key factors that could be causing your hook if you do have a strong grip. Let's see if we can neutralize it a little bit more work on this position like Pete you're still in there and see if we can start to neutralize your ball flight hopefully from there you won't be seeing so much of the left on the side of the golf course if you are right handed golfer give it a go and see if it can work for you.