Golf Club Grip Tips - The Best in Golf Page 8

by Steve Fontaine
Valley Golf
Saginaw, MI
copyright 2003
All rights reserved
FREE Full Printable Version of "The Best in Golf" Golf Tips

Developing golfing skills through training:
Position Pressure

The path to salvation
We're on the home stretch. If you have a good turn and a good arc, its all path, set-up and minor adjustments from here on out. Path is the part of the golf swing that never seems to want to cooperate. One way to approach path is to try to control or guide it with the arms. The other way is to control it with hand angle and position pressure. Most people have little or no knowledge on how the hands can control the path. By default, they elect to control it with the arms. Almost everybody that swings a good arc uses some form of position pressure, whether its consciously or not.

Position pressure
Position pressure is simple to understand. Grasp a golf club in the fingers of the right hand (not in the palm). Extend your right arm out, as if, you were going to shake the hand of some one in front of you. Rotate the right hand until the palm is facing up. The weight of the club will be applying a clockwise pressure to your hand. The pressure you use to oppose it is position pressure. You want to keep position pressure on the club at all times, even at address. In order to do this, we must replace the pressure caused by the weight of the club with pressure from the left hand. This will allow us to preload the position pressure and activate the muscles we will be using throughout the swing. This is not a squeezing pressure. The only squeezing pressure we need in our grip is a slight squeeze with the last three fingers of the left hand. When you have a feel for how position pressure works, use it while doing all of your drills.

Position pressure goes to work
If you keep your position pressure constant, it will do several jobs for you throughout your swing. These are the jobs you should see and feel it do. First, it should keep your hands from rolling or turning at the take away. It will keep the handle pointing at the center of your upper body while you are turning. It maintains your triangle and prevents the club from going too far to the inside as it guides the club up over your right shoulder.
On the down swing, it should make the club want to swing straight down instead of out to the ball. This will allow your right side to bring the club out to the ball as you turn. At impact, position pressure braces the club for solid ball striking. Most people feel the arms swinging the club back and forth across the body when they are swinging. I and ball strikers many times better than me feel a sensation very similar to swinging a forehand tennis stroke. The arms are pulled straight down by the turn, creating the sensation of the club dropping, while the right hand comes out to meet the ball. It's not that the arms are actually dropping. It's that the arms are not powering themselves that creates this sensation. If you do not compromise your turn or your arc, it will not take long to master position pressure. It does require trust and when you have it, crisp, solid shots will come easily.

Chained to reaction
The golf swing is highly reactionary. The simplest example is taking the club too far back for a chip shot. The reactionary part of your mind knows it is back too far, though, consciously you may not realize it. You react by decelerating. Not by choice, by reaction. Once your swing has started, you are continuously reacting to what has already taken place. Follow thru and weight transfer should be reactionary. V shaped arcs cause the hands to pass the ball before the body is in striking position. The reaction is, arms and body either stop or back up. A good arc will have the arms and hands well behind the ball as the hands approach waist high. The mind knows you have to move up, just to get to the ball. Your practically forced to get off your right side and transfer your weight. Your reaction is the product of the situation you put yourself in. Bad swings are created before the swing has even started.

 

Left-handed version of "The Best in Golf" -- Golf tips for training