What Sort Of Grip Pressure Should I Use To Hit The Golf Ball Further? (Video) - by Pete Styles
What Sort Of Grip Pressure Should I Use To Hit The Golf Ball Further? (Video) - by Pete Styles

Now this is a question that I think if we ask most golfers on the first day of a golf tournament most golfers would maybe know the right answer but not be doing it in their game, and so bad grip pressure how tightly should you be holding the golf club particularly when you are trying to hit it further. Most golfers would tell you okay yeah I know I should relax my grip pressure it shouldn’t be this tight – particularly when I’m trying to hit it further. But most golfers do exactly the opposite thing because it’s very counter intuitive to hold something soft and relax when you are try generate so much power. But I think we also need to discuss how your grip pressure can change during the swing.

Most golfers understand that during the setup position the club doesn’t weigh much we can hold it relatively relaxed and comfortable in the fingers, and we don’t really want to strangle it to create tension. But then during the golf swing if you keep the same soft relaxed approach this thing swinging at about 100, 110 miles an hour with a big driver, it gets very heavy it starts to pull you through, then if you hit the ground it's going to twist it's going to slow down, you have got to try and drive it through the ball. If you don’t hit the centre of the club face the ball will twist the face massively. And if you want to hang in on to this one with a bit of pressure you have very little control over that golf club. So during the setup phase yes it would be quite relaxed let's call it a three or four out of 10, 10 being strangling it and one is letting it go, so a three or four out of 10. During the backswing it would be four five six seven eight; coming down to impact it would be eight nine maybe even 10, really holding on here and then relaxing back off again to a three and four to finish. So it’s setting up, four five six seven eight nine 10, two three at the finish; it’s quite relaxed at the end. Now most golfers when they setup the ball particularly when they are trying to hit this thing harder start off here with an eight or a nine. You start to see the veins pulling out in the forearms here, you start to see the tension rising in the shoulders and everything that that does it just slows the swing down you have got too much tension, you are griping the dear life out of it, you can't release the golf club very well in the down swing and you have real problems generating the club head speed you so much wanted. The easiest exercise I can give you to demonstrate this to you so that you believe what I am telling you is just to swing the club up at baseball level and just grab it as tight as you can, and see how fast it swooshes and then slow it down – and sorry relax the grip pressure and see how fast it swooshes. So if you are griping this as tight as you can and you swing it round, your swing will be short it will be sort of slower than it should do and you won't really feel like you can release the club either way. If you relax that grip pressure certainly the swing as longer and or around the body and has a bit more whip and release as it comes through and finishes all the way around the other side a little bit quicker. So relax the grip pressure make some practice swings up in the air, grip it as tight as you can, grip it a bit more relaxed feel where your sweet spot is where you can find your fastest swings with the relevant grip pressure and then bring that into your golf game. Remember next time you get back to the first tee just relax it off to hit that ball further. 2014-08-14

Now this is a question that I think if we ask most golfers on the first day of a golf tournament most golfers would maybe know the right answer but not be doing it in their game, and so bad grip pressure how tightly should you be holding the golf club particularly when you are trying to hit it further. Most golfers would tell you okay yeah I know I should relax my grip pressure it shouldn’t be this tight – particularly when I’m trying to hit it further. But most golfers do exactly the opposite thing because it’s very counter intuitive to hold something soft and relax when you are try generate so much power. But I think we also need to discuss how your grip pressure can change during the swing.

Most golfers understand that during the setup position the club doesn’t weigh much we can hold it relatively relaxed and comfortable in the fingers, and we don’t really want to strangle it to create tension. But then during the golf swing if you keep the same soft relaxed approach this thing swinging at about 100, 110 miles an hour with a big driver, it gets very heavy it starts to pull you through, then if you hit the ground it's going to twist it's going to slow down, you have got to try and drive it through the ball. If you don’t hit the centre of the club face the ball will twist the face massively.

And if you want to hang in on to this one with a bit of pressure you have very little control over that golf club. So during the setup phase yes it would be quite relaxed let's call it a three or four out of 10, 10 being strangling it and one is letting it go, so a three or four out of 10. During the backswing it would be four five six seven eight; coming down to impact it would be eight nine maybe even 10, really holding on here and then relaxing back off again to a three and four to finish. So it’s setting up, four five six seven eight nine 10, two three at the finish; it’s quite relaxed at the end. Now most golfers when they setup the ball particularly when they are trying to hit this thing harder start off here with an eight or a nine.

You start to see the veins pulling out in the forearms here, you start to see the tension rising in the shoulders and everything that that does it just slows the swing down you have got too much tension, you are griping the dear life out of it, you can't release the golf club very well in the down swing and you have real problems generating the club head speed you so much wanted. The easiest exercise I can give you to demonstrate this to you so that you believe what I am telling you is just to swing the club up at baseball level and just grab it as tight as you can, and see how fast it swooshes and then slow it down – and sorry relax the grip pressure and see how fast it swooshes.

So if you are griping this as tight as you can and you swing it round, your swing will be short it will be sort of slower than it should do and you won't really feel like you can release the club either way. If you relax that grip pressure certainly the swing as longer and or around the body and has a bit more whip and release as it comes through and finishes all the way around the other side a little bit quicker. So relax the grip pressure make some practice swings up in the air, grip it as tight as you can, grip it a bit more relaxed feel where your sweet spot is where you can find your fastest swings with the relevant grip pressure and then bring that into your golf game. Remember next time you get back to the first tee just relax it off to hit that ball further.