Grip

PUT IN 30 MINUTES OF DAILY PRACTICE ON JUST THE GRIP. THE FIRST STEP IN A CHAIN OF EVENTS THAT LEADS TO A GOOD GOLF SWING.

With a defective grip, a golfer cannot hold the club securely at the top of the backswing-the club will fly out of control every time. And if the club is not controlled by a proper grip, the power a golfer generates with his body never reaches the club through his hands on the downswing, and the clubhead can not be accelerated to its maximum.

The standard grip is the overlapping grip. In a good grip both hands act as ONE UNIT. They can't if you grip the club almost correctly-which really means partially incorrectly. To cite the most common illustration, a right-handed player (whose left hand naturally is much less powerful that his right) kills any chance for a cooperative union of both hands if his right hand is dominant of the swing and take the whole swing over. One essential then, to insure yourself a firm two-handed grip is to get your left hand on the club absolutely correctly.

Left Hand

WITH THE BACK OF YOUR LEFT HAND FACING THE TARGET (AND THE CLUB IN THE GENERAL POSITION IT WOULD BE IN AT ADDRESS) PLACE THE CLUB IN THE LEFT HAND SO THAT:

1. THE SHAFT IS PRESSED UP UNDER THE MUSCULAR PAD AT THE INSIDE HEEL OF THE PALM
2. THE SHAFT ALSO LIES DIRECTLY ACROSS THE TOP JOINT OF THE FOREFINGER.

When a golfer has completed his left-hand grip, the V formed by the thumb and forefinger should point to his right eye. The total pressure of all the fingers should not be any stronger (and may even be a little less strong) than the pressure exerted by just the forefinger and the palm pad in the preparatory guiding action (described earlier). In the completed grip, the main pressure points are the last three fingers, with the forefinger and the palm pad adding assisting pressure. The three fingers pressed up, the pad presses down, and the shaft is locked in between.

Keeping pressure on the shaft with the palm pad does three things:

1. Strengthens the left arm throughout the swing
2. At the top of the backswing, the pressure from this pad prevents the club from slipping from the player's grasp
3. Acts as a firm reinforcement at impact

Right Hand

You must subdue the natural tendency of the fight forefinger and thumb to take charge. If they do, they'll ruin you. The explanation behind this is that the muscles of the right forefinger and thumb connect with the very powerful set of muscles that run along the outside of the right arm and elbow to the right shoulder. If you work the tips of the thumb and forefinger together and apply any considerable amount of pressure, you automatically activate those muscles of the right arm and shoulder-and those are not the muscles you want to use in the golf swing.

TO OBTAIN THE PROPER GRIP WITH THE RIGHT HAND, HOLD IT SOMEWHAT EXTENDED, WITH THE PALM FACING YOUR TARGET. NOW-YOUR LEFT HAND IS ALREADY CORRECTLY AFFIXED-PLACE THE CLUB IN YOU RIGHT HAND SO THAT THE SHAFT LIES ACROSS THE TOP JOINT OF THE FOUR FINGERS AND DEFINITELY BELOW THE PALM. THE RIGHT-HAND GRIP IS A FINGER GRIP. THE TWO FINGERS WHICH SHOULD APPLY MOST OF THE PRESSURE ARE THE TWO MIDDLE FINGERS. THE LITTLE FINGER SLIDES UP AND OVER THE FOREFINGER OF THE LEFT HAND AND LOCKS ITSELF IN THE GROOVE BETWEEN THE FOREFINGER AND THE SECOND FINGER OF THE LEFT HAND. NOW, WITH THE CLUB HELD FIRMLY IN THE FINGERS OF YOUR RIGHT HAND, SIMPLY FOLD YOUR RIGHT HAND OVER YOUR LEFT THUMB.

If there is one major consideration to keep uppermost in your mind about the right hand, it is that the club must be in the fingers and not in the palm. In order to get a check on the ball with backspin or to cut the ball up with a nice underspin and to do many other things with the ball, the ball must be hit sharp and crisp, and you can achieve this only if the club is in the fingers of the right hand. Furthermore, a proper right-handed grip will enable the player to transmit the greatest amount of speed to the clubhead. Controlled speed is what we want, and you can get this control only from the fingers, not from the right hand itself.

A word more about the little finger of the right hand. I advise you to hook that little finger in the groove between the forefinger and the second finger of the left hand, not piggyback on the forefinger. This keeps the hands knitted vigorously together.

A word further about the thumb area of the right hand. To promote a right-hand grip that is strong where it should be strong (and which will then more than offset the dangerous tendency to let the tips of the thumb and forefinger work like a pincer), I recommend you cultivate the following habit: School yourself when taking your grip so that the thumb and the adjoining part of the hand across the V-the part that is the upper extension of the forefinger-press up against each other tightly. Keep them pressed together as you begin to affix your grip, and maintain this airtight pressure between them when you fold the right hand over the left thumb. In this connection, I like to feel that the knuckle on the back of my right hand above the forefinger is pressing to the left, toward my target. It rides almost on top of the shaft. I know then that the club has to be in my fingers. Furthermore, when you fold the right hand over the left thumb-and there is a lot left to fold over-the left thumb will fit perfectly in the "cup" formed in the palm of your folded right hand. They fit together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle.

This union of the left thumb and right thumb pad strengthens the welding together of the two hands and it serves to add real reinforcement to your grip, particularly at the top of the backswing where poor grips are most likely to deteriorate. When you check your right-hand grip, the V formed by the thumb and forefinger should be pointing right at the button of your chin.

Please buy the book and read it The content that is presented on this page is only a very small part of Hogans Swing Fundamentals and is displayed only in an effort to promote the Hogan method.