Golf 101-the all important golf grip. Taking the right grip on a golf club is one of the most necessary golf basics you will ever work on. It is a necessary aspect of the setup to your golf swing, and heavily impacts the outcome of your shot. After all, your grip is the primary link between you and the club! There are many different ways to take a grip, and all have their benefits and drawbacks. However, today I will be teaching you the three most common ways of taking a grip on a golf club, and sharing with you a few crucial tips and methods for getting your grip ideal, including keeping a light grip pressure, thumb position on the grip and the three fundamental sorts of grips golfers utilize, the ‘Vardon Overlap’ (a.k.a. the overlapping grip), the ‘Interlocking Grip’ and the ‘Ten Finger Grip’ (a.k.a. the baseball grip).
First off, let’s examine some fundamental tips and practices for your golf grip. In Golf 101 these golf basics will allow you to produce and maintain a stable golf grip to use, hopefully, for the rest of your life as a golfer.
Also, having your thumb in the right spot once you have taken your grip is an additional key of golf basics, as doing this will stop you from twisting your hand over or under the club, which is a primary cause of hook and slice for most golfers. A really good guideline to adhere to is to think of the club is a clock face, and keep your thumbs at 11 and 1 o’clock. Your thumb should also form a ‘y’ shape with the rest of the hand and the club.
Golf 101-the Vardon Grip, sometimes called the overlapping grip, is the most common grip used on tour and, is the grip most likely to be taught to you by a golf coach. To place your hands on the club employing the Vardon Overlap, take the little finger on the trailing hand and put it in between the index and middle finger on the lead hand (for right-handed golfers, the lead hand is the left). The lead hand thumb should fit in the lifeline of the trailing hand.
Golf 101-T-the Interlocking Grip is the next most common grip. It is common amongst players in the LPGA and has been used by such players as Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus. People with small hands and weak wrists and forearms regularly use this grip. To use the Interlocking grip, take the little finger on the trailing hand (the trailing hand for right-handed golfers is the right hand) and interlace it with the index finger on the lead hand. The lead hand thumb should fit in the lifeline of the trailing hand, as before.
Golf 101-the Ten Finger Grip, or Baseball Grip, is the least used grip among tour players. However, Beth Daniel, Bob Estes and Dave Parr have all made use of this grip. Golf instructors can often use this grip as a beginning, as it is easy to illustrate. To take the Baseball Grip, just grip the club as you would a baseball! For more golf instructions, see our resource box below.
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