Swing Fundamentals pt. 1

Grip Pressure: 

"Committing to your grip pressure is committing to shooting lower scores" - GolfWright

The most important fundamental within 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 too 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 CHUNKY (behind the ball). With a light grip pressure, you allow the BOUNCE of the club (the sole) to interact with the ground properly. Tight grip pressure will only manipulate this process in a negative manner. On the contrary, when light grip pressure is consistently used, the center of the club face is NATURALLY more present. 

What exactly is "Light vs. Tight"? 

As long as the club doesn't fly out of your hands, you are holding the club TIGHT enough. In my experience, there is no such thing as TOO light. The shorter the swing aka the closer you are to the hole, the lighter your grip pressure should become. Think about how impossible it is to ACCIDENTALLY let go of your putter while in the stroke......therefore you can attempt to grip it IMPOSSIBLY light. 

Grip pressure is crucial in the process of ELIMINATING wasted golf shots. What is a wasted golf shot? In Golfwright, a wasted golf shot is one that makes you hit from the same spot that you just did. For example, hitting it into the water or being in the bunker and having the ball roll back to your feet after hitting it. Having a light grip pressure is IMPERATIVE to not wasting golf shots within your round. 

Outside of the contact with the ball, a light grip pressure also offers a few other benefits. It is going to allow you to FEEL the weight of the club head. This is important in controlling distance. If we cannot feel the weight of the club then how are we going to be able to control distance? With light grip pressure you will be able to control your backswing length/timing, thus making it EASIER for you to control your distances. Therefore light grip pressure is going to force you to use your shoulders more. 

Here's a test: 
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/wrists to get the 25%? Now I want you to do the same exact thing except with the LIGHTEST grip possible. I bet that this time you were forced to at least use your shoulders a little bit. There is a greater chance that you will consistently make a FULL turn when your grip pressure is light.

The last function of having light grip pressure 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 light grip pressure and even then, if you are gripping the club properly, you can only swing "SO" hard. It is extremely difficult to swing outside your LIMITS when you have light grip pressure. This is instrumental in keeping a consistent tempo and posture throughout the golf swing.