Grip Pressure

​*Please please please master this! I promise, committing to your grip pressure is committing to shooting lower scores.*

The most important fundamental in GolfWright is grip pressure. Nothing creates a terrible golf shot faster than squeezing the club too tight. To go a step further, nothing creates  manageable golf shots faster than light grip pressure. 

When gripping a club to tight in relation to contact, you are typically going to either hit the ball thin (on the bottom of the club) or try to take a divot and end up hitting it really chunky (behind the ball). With a light grip pressure, you allow the bounce of the club (the sole) to work with the ground properly. Tight grip pressure will only manipulate this process in a negative manner. On the contrary, when a light grip pressure is consistently used, the center of the clubface is more prevalent. 



What exactly is light vs tight. My definition of light is “tight enough so that the club doesn’t go flying out of your hands.” Any tighter and you are only hurting yourself. That is with the driver. The shorter the swing aka the closer you are the hole, the lighter your grip should become. In this video, you will notice that when the grip pressure increases, the golf club comes further off the ground. It can only be rested on the ground with a light yet mindful grip. ​​
At setup what does a light grip do for you? Well try this, grab a golf club, squeeze it as tight as you can and go through your routine as if you were going to hit a golf shot. Now right before you take a backswing, I want you to think about how much tension is currently in your hands, wrists, forearms, biceps, shoulders, and back. I already know the answer. It is a lot. Now I want you to go through the entire routine again, except this time, you aren’t allowed to fully grab the club until that moment of starting your backswing. Once again, at this moment, I want you to realize where your tensions are. They should have migrated to your legs and given you a natural strong base. It is in the doing of these things consistently over time, that we can begin to see a real change in our abilities. 
When it comes to our misses, grip pressure is the most important when trying to miss in a proper location. As discussed earlier, you will be hitting it much more in the center of the clubface with a light grip so in turn, your misses should be limited to left, right, short, long. Grip pressure is crucial in the process of eliminating wasted golf shots. What is a wasted golf shot you ask? In GolfWright a wasted golf shot is one that basically makes you hit from the same spot you just did. For example a top, or a chunk, or leaving it in the bunker, or just completely missing the ball. When your grip pressure is light, these things are much more difficult to produce. From there we just have to eliminate two other directions per golf shot (long, left or short, right) and now you can manage your way around a golf course. ​
Outside of the contact with the ball, a light grip pressure also offers you a few other benefits. It is going to allow you to feel the weight of the clubhead for starters. This is important in distance control. If we can’t feel the weight of the club then how are we going to be able to control distance? With a light grip pressure you will be able to control your backswing distance and timing and thus making it easier to control your distances. Light grip pressure is also going to force you to use your shoulders. Here is another test for you. Grab a golf club, grip it tight, make a 25% backswing. Ok stop, did you make a turn at all? Or did you literally just use your arms to get the 25%? Now I want you to do the same exact thing except with the lightest grip you can use. I bet that you were forced to at least use your shoulders a little bit. There is a greater chance that you use your shoulders consistently with a light grip pressure. What is important in a golf swing? A full turn. So if we can naturally force ourselves to make a turn then we will see more consistent golf shots. ​​​
The last function of having a light grip is that you can only swing “SO” hard while holding the club light. The harder you want to swing, the lighter you need to hold the club. We get into this mindset that everything has to be tight in order to swing hard. It is actually the vice versa. In order to swing hard you have to have a light grip and even then, if you are gripping the club properly, you can only swing so hard. It is much more difficult to swing outside of your limits when you have a light grip. This is instrumental in keeping a consistent tempo and posture throughout the golf swing. ​