Category Archives: Grip

Seeing The Light About Grip – Hank Haney About Bryson

Now that I’ve seen the light with regards to my own stubbornness in changing a faulty grip (for me, it was an over-strong right hand because I was swinging left-dominant and so was focused on the left hand to the detriment of the right), things are jumping out at me.

For example, Tiger Woods’ former swing coach Hank Haney made comments about Bryson DeChambeau’s struggles in the final round of this year’s Masters, where he started in 2nd place behind Rory McIlroy, briefly took the lead and then tumbled down the leaderboard as the round advanced.

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How Thick Or Thin The Grip? Palm Or Fingers?

I have used just about every type of grip method there is, except for the leading hand low method, which I reject out of hand because no one anywhere on the planet, when swinging an implement, does it with the leading hand below the trailing hand.

For that reason, I knew it wasn’t going to be a path to go down, just as I wouldn’t try hitting balls right-handed with an inverted left-handed club.

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A Lesson On The Grip (And Everything Else) In The Setup

I keep going through swing clips that I’ve amassed in these years of swing research, and I can’t escape the nagging (and nearly maddening) reality that I had indeed figured out the optimal action for the golf swing ten years ago.

Notice that I said “optimal action,” which then leaves room for two things that I neglected to notice or fix, for the next seven years.

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Beautiful Example Of Why The Grip Is So Important (Driving It Long & Straight)

Now, this applies of course to all clubs, not just the driver, but I have found in my archives a swing session in which my setup and grip are nearly perfect with regards to swinging optimally.

Sadly, I am not enamored of the actual pivot action, but I was still hitting my irons and driver beautifully long and straight on this day of tinkering with my setup.

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Why Moe Norman Was So Straight, And So Short In Distance

I have talked about how, when I began my golf swing research, I had chosen Moe Norman’s swing to study because of how it was always being called the “perfect swing.”

I have of course concluded that, while he could strike a ball nearly perfectly straight time after time, it wasn’t an optimal golf swing.

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Not A Rabbit Hole – My Grip Research Is Bearing Fruit

It is now becoming evident to me that, out of all of the issues that people investigate with regards to swing modelling (ball position, stance, etc.), the grip is most overlooked part of it all.

I have spent years believing simply because he set the standard over a century ago that Harry Vardon’s grip was the correct one to employ.

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The Setup Balance, Pivoting, Down Swing Shift & Stable Head Conundrum

I’ve been working for the past few weeks on that conundrum (for many) – how do you start a golf swing with the setup being balanced in a certain way, with a back pivot which transitions to a weight shift into the down swing, all with a stable head position?

The answer to that question is that you can have any number of swing models that purport to solve this riddle, but that they do so using unsound mechanical principles that will a) make it very difficult to master such swings and play golf with consistency and/or b) cause injuries to the swinger ranging from joint damage and muscle/ligament strains all to the way to catastrophic spinal injuries.

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My Observations On The Old Classic Grip (Nicklaus et al.) – This Could Destroy Modern Golf Instruction

I would love nothing more than to have figured out what made the old Classic Golf Swing grip so effective and to at the same time stick a dagger in the Modern Golf Swing instruction scam.

To wit: Imagine that the grip change from the old Classic era along with the restricted-hip pivot are why people have so much difficulty making a proper and athletic swing at the ball.

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The Grip IS Important, But I’m Exploring Less Than Super-Weak

I have been discussing Jack Nicklaus’ 1963 setup, swing and grip for some time as you all know, and I concluded that his grip in this setup was optimal.

The question however would be, is it optimal, period?  Or was it optimal because of the way he set up over the ball, and would a stronger grip than his work as well in a slightly different setup?

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The Genius Of The ’63 Nicklaus Setup

I am tempted to say that if Jack Nicklaus had swung his entire career with just one adjustment to his 1963 swing model (narrowing the stance), he would likely have won everything under the sun much as Byron Nelson did before retiring in his prime.

Nelson, if you don’t know, had set the PGA Tour record for consecutive Tour wins (11) and wins in a single season (18), both in the 1945 season, at the end of which he retired to pursue his true love – farming.

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