TG Blog: Get a grip
Published: Last updated:
Friday 27th May 2011
I had my first golf lesson more than eight months ago now. The entire lesson was spent on the less-than-exciting topic of ‘how to grip a golf club’. This week I’ve had to do it all over again. Over and over again.
I’d been very happy with my golf recently; I was hitting longer than ever before and developed the ability to hit a decent draw, a nice change from my usual power-fade.
The problem I was facing was that some of the consistency had gone from my full swing shots. When you’re fading everything you can adjust your aim, but when you’re spraying balls left and right there’s nowhere to go.
The cause and the solution was my grip. I had started gripping the club too strongly. I was loving the feeling of ripping the ball down the middle and I was putting the bad shots down to, well, poor shots. It turns out that the grip that gave me so much took my consistency in return.
So this week it’s been all about getting back to a less strong grip. Not weak, not even neutral, just less strong will do. It’s been hard to convince my mind and my body that hitting shank after shank is okay until the grip feels right again. It will come, if I persevere.
