Today we are going to talk about a key part of the setup that plays a major role in whether you hit a good golf shot or not. That's your Grip Pressure. I recently got this email from William Spicer who had a sudden epiphany about this very topic.
"I've played golf since the 50's and have always gone with the light grip approach as I always felt that the hands would subconsciously tighten up at the "moment of truth". My big problem with the Surge Swing has always been the bump and for some reason the other day I tightened up (radically to me) on the grip and for some strange reason, I was able to bump and swing properly. The strikes were very crisp producing high straight shots. This added 10 yards to my iron shots as well. At my age a little extra yardage is a boon. So to your students, PAY ATTENTION TO ALL THE INSTRUCTION!! Thanks for everything."
Well, William, I must say that I am not at all surprised that after firming up your grip everything in your swing seemed to click. The question is "Why did this happen?"
To answer this, let's start at the place where most modern swing theories end up on the subject of grip pressure. Nearly everyone encourages you to keep a light grip, particularly with the right hand, which they treat as some sort of pariah that is to be minimized and virtually ignored as an important part of the swing. These theorists want you to grip the club as if you were holding a baby bird in your hands or an open tube of toothpaste. Why? Because with the big turn and swing to parallel move they push, the way back to the aiming line from that deep in the Sacred Burial Ground requires one to cast the club up and out. When this happens, your brain says, "Whoa, there partner, the club head is going up and away from the ball and that's a problem!". So what happens then? Your brain wakes up your right hand and tells it to grab the club and pull it back down toward the ball. If you are a really talented athlete, you can pull that off and get the timing just right to end up with your club head traveling along the aiming line at impact. But for the rest of the golfers out there, what usually happens when they come over the top? That's right--the dreaded outside-in swing path that will send your ball slicing way right if you are a right-handed golfer. Is it any wonder that 80-85% of all golfers can't consistently hit the ball straight?
So what's the solution then? It's two fold: First start with a FIRM grip, not a light "don't-want-to-squeeze-the-toothpaste" one. That will energize your fingers, hands and forearms and get them ready to swing. But not only that, putting these muscle groups into an athletically-ready mode will send a burst of energy through the rest of your body so that all of the muscle groups needed to make a good swing are ready, willing and able to fire at the correct time. Secondly, if turning too far and swinging the club to a parallel position in the backswing can cause all sorts of things to go wrong with your swing, then why do it at all? Just limit your turn so that your forward arm gets only to your toe line and then lift the club to a vertical position and not a parallel one. For those of you who are new to the Peak Performance Golf Swing, we have studies that conclusively prove that there is no discernible difference in club head velocity at impact between a rotational swing and a vertical swing, even for rotational swingers who only spent an hour learning the PPGS system before they were measured. Further, the vertical swing was shown to be accelerating at impact while the rotational swing was decelerating. So for all these reasons, we believe that the PPGS is a superior was to consistently hit the ball for both distance and accuracy.
So if you want your golf swing to be energized, that can only happen if you start with a firm grip. Do that and you're likely to see a big improvement in the quality of your ball striking just like William did.
Keep it vertical!
The Surge
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Comments
Stop rotating the hands too
Stop rotating the hands too much. Could be a number of reasons why it happens. type in hitting off the toe in search box ,above right & see what comes up.
Robert,We are so fed up with
Robert,
We are so fed up with Disqus because it is always breaking down. I guess you could say we're "Disqus-ted" and we will be introducing our own blog comment module when we switch to our new technical framework for the site in a few weeks.
Tom Jans
Great job, JR.
Great job, JR.
Is that anything like the Hit
Is that anything like the Hit and Pray position? I'm familiar with that one.ÃÂ
We will make a pdf summaryÃÂ
We will make a pdf summaryÃÂ availableÃÂ in the near future. We will announce it in an email as well as on the site.
Steve, we must have had the
Steve, we must have had the same math teacher.ÃÂ My geometry teacher thought he was the reincarnation of Pythagoras.ÃÂ Ask him to clarify something and you wound up being more confused.ÃÂ He was concise because he was a math whiz and just did not understand that we weren't ÃÂ math geniuses.
I worked my tail off just to pull Cs in his class and got accused of dogging it.ÃÂ Whe I got a 92 on the final he got in my face and accused me of cheating.
The lesson is if you want something badly enough my parents taught me you have to work for it.ÃÂ Sadly it's a lesson that is lost on too many today.ÃÂ Odds are I will never get Surge's swing perfected, but as sure as God made little green apples it won't be for lack of trying.
ÃÂ I use it all the time. ;-
ÃÂ I use it all the time. ;-)
Hey anybody wanting to get in better shape should join me on my new plan. I am going to attempt to walk 4 miles for every 325 calories I eat. Going to be tough to do. Today I ate one meal, a can of pork and beans and four chicken thighs. Total of 925 calories. Went on an 11 1/2 mile walk which burned 934 calories. Barely burned more than I ate even with all of those miles.
(No wonder people gain weight). ;-)
That's a pun worthy of me. ;-
That's a pun worthy of me. ;-) Looking forward to the new comment module and other stuff.
I have been working hard on
I have been working hard on getting in better shape. I've dropped about 40lbs of winter coat since Spring, but I'm not too keen on the walking part, Unless it's on a Golf Course. Everyone asks, as though it is some big kept secret, How did you loose the weight? I always answer the same way, Eat less, Move more, it's the only way I know of. Most folks have no idea how many calories they actually consume in an average day. They'll have a one meal of 2000 fast food calories and think something is wrong that they can't loose weight with only one meal a day. I know a bunch of them.
Your instruction is goodÃÂ
Your instruction is goodÃÂ but you talk way too much. Try to be more concise with your messages. Bob
ÃÂ Another thing I have
ÃÂ Another thing I have noticed about "fast food calories" is that an hour later I am hungry again. Don't really know exactly why that is but after a normal meal at home I'm not hungry again for the rest of the day.
Rlamoureux,You betcha his
Rlamoureux,
You betcha his instruction is good, very good. He is very concise with his messages. Stop or slow down and listen to his messages, you just might learn something that will help your golf swing and game.
Hal
Really feel sorry for you
Really feel sorry for you guys, been 71KG for the last 50 years, no matter what I eat or exercise I do, it's all in the genes, ( bless my Grandmother ) unfortunately my brother missed out. He's nearly double my weight and can't lose it no matter what he does.ÃÂ
Surge GIVES you a FREE tip
Surge GIVES you a FREE tip and your respones is to complain about the lenght of time it has taken him to give it to you. Would you be theÃÂ same guy who looks a gift horse in the mouth I've heard about???
I don't have much trouble
I don't have much trouble keeping my weight at what I want.
Trying to get the body fat percentage to 10 percent without losing much muscle is the tricky part.
ÃÂ Consise? It's amazing how
ÃÂ Consise? It's amazing how many new and fresh angles Don can add to the many subjects he covers more than a few times. Sometimes he'll word it in such a way that I finally "get it". Thank GodÃÂ for giving ÃÂ us this New England/ southern boy (sounds like a conundrum but it works) ÃÂ that seems to reach most of the English understanding world better than most teachers. "Most" is damn good.
So liston up while you can.
will you please post the
will you please post the studies or a link to them? I'd love to read them.
I rated this video five stars
I rated this video five stars, but when I clicked on it, it recorded 2 1/2 stars.ÃÂ I didn't think it was boring. I thought it was quite helpful.ÃÂ I really like D. Trahan's teachings.
Most, is certainly damn good.
Most, is certainly damn good. In the words of Capt Spock,
"The needs of the many, outway the needs of the few"ÃÂ Or in his case and Rlamoureux, THE ONE!
I don't know about the
I don't know about the studies but I know my irons are noticeably longer than they used to be and the woods and driver are about the same.
I think Don Trahan's
I think Don Trahan's teachings are excellent.ÃÂ I have been following him for some years and think his teachings are excellent especially if a person have back problems!
I am beginning my next
I am beginning my next project with an old set of Cobra 2, R/Flex irons. They are the old Hump back style heads, with the Hump shafts. I ordered a nice set of L/Flex shafts from Ebay for a re-shafting project. The irons are 380 hosel so I'll have to use the brass shims over the 370 tip shafts. I am curious to see how they will play when all the shafts are aligned and flo-ed properly. I've always had the swing weight scale, but now I can adjust the loft and lies if needed and I believe the L/Flex is better suited for me than the R or even the A.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-NEW-...
I am hitting everything on
I am hitting everything on the toe, I feel like I am rotating my hands too much, How do I fix it???
The rating star function is
The rating star function is actually broken. I wish they'd just remove it, because it's rife with abuse and whatever the first person to click it clicks, in the end that's the rating.
I had a math teacher one time
I had a math teacher one time that was very concise. He could rattle off a few terms that none of us understood, quickly work a few equations that none of us could follow, and assign us lessons that we didn't have a clue how to work.
Needless to say none of us learned anything from him, and he was very good at math.
ÃÂ Let it fall further.If
ÃÂ Let it fall further.
If you let it fall far enough you won't be able to rotate your hands too fast. In fact if you let it fall too far you won't be able to rotate back to square fast enough.
Aside from that just practice never letting your palms roll past perpendicular to the ground after impact but just go through the ball and up (in a prayer position).
ÃÂ Comes in handy too because you will already be in a position to pray that the shot goes where you want it to go. Ha ha!
Check that the swing path through impact is not out to in. More than likely that's the root of the problem.
http://www.youtube.com/watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Thanks for the reminder on
Thanks for the reminder on grip pressure. I focused on that thought only yesterday and every other fundamental of the PPGS seemed to kick in. I drove it longer and straighter yesterday(hit 13 of 14 fairways).