How hard you should grip?

All golf text book first chapter will talk about gripping, and how much strength you should to put on your grip. Normally the advice is 50-60% of full strength.
As a newbie that always exploring, suddenly i have a different thought.

1. Should the gripping strength proportional to swing speed, instead of following general guideline - 50% of full strength grip?
2. Should we have solid/firm grip but relax our wrist, instead of relaxing on our gripping?

Appreciate advice from pro and bro here. Sorry if this is a stupid question.

I think it should be very soft.
I heard coaches saying the softer the grip is, the faster the clubhead speed.

I try to grip as light as possible. But still the club head speed not so fast.

hello bro,

1. Im not sure if I understand your question. Are you saying that the faster the swing speed, the tighter the grip? or the faster the swing speed, the lighter the grip? Generally speaking, a tighter grip in fact makes it harder to swing fast. a lighter grip promotes faster hands and hence faster swing speed
2. Its hard to have a firm grip, yet relax your wrists. The 2 are connected. The harder you grip, the tighter your wrists will be.

As to how hard you grip, i think once again, it's very much down to personal preference and what works. Some ppl find that they have more control when they grip tighter and make their swing less wristy. Personally i prefer a lighter grip that allows my wrists to stay lively.

these advice should have come earlier... i used to grip so hard until got trigger finger

costajos wrote:

these advice should have come earlier... i used to grip so hard until got trigger finger

Actually someone told me before, the grip should be firm and not hard.

enwee wrote:

costajos wrote:

these advice should have come earlier... i used to grip so hard until got trigger finger

Actually someone told me before, the grip should be firm and not hard.

what is the difference?

costajos wrote:

enwee wrote:

costajos wrote:

these advice should have come earlier... i used to grip so hard until got trigger finger

Actually someone told me before, the grip should be firm and not hard.

what is the difference?

firm as in the grip should be just enough for you to let go your club face and the club. Hard, I'm sure many of the people here seen before in range or on course, some people gripped it so tight that you can even see the veins of the arms.

I heard that a gripping it hard does make it harder the wrist to rotate at release

Grip for me is the hardest thing to change cus anything new just feel weird and feels like I dun have a firm enough grip of the club. After breaking my left pinky and ring finger, I've changed to a baseball grip and gripping quite tightly as I am afraid the club might just slip off my hands.

Alot of ppl emphasize on grip pressure. And it's also a proven fact that lighter grip pressure will give u faster clubhead speed and thus increase in distance.

A relaxed hand means relaxed forearm, upper arms and sboulders. Gripping it hard will make ur entire upper body tense up. This will hinder alot of things. Soft, supple muscles perform the best.

enwee wrote:

costajos wrote:

enwee wrote:

costajos wrote:

these advice should have come earlier... i used to grip so hard until got trigger finger

Actually someone told me before, the grip should be firm and not hard.

what is the difference?

firm as in the grip should be just enough for you to let go your club face and the club. Hard, I'm sure many of the people here seen before in range or on course, some people gripped it so tight that you can even see the veins of the arms.

Hard is like you grip a tube of toothpaste and squeeze out all the toothpaste?
Firm is like you grip the tube and people are not able to snatch away the tube of toothpaste from you, but you don't squeeze out the toothpaste?

I got other bad analogies, but I think they are a bit "R/X" rated....

Personally I think you need to grip it hard enough so that the clubface does not twist upon impact on off-centre hits or if it gets caught in the rough... then again.. i don't know much about golf.. so take it with a pinch of salt.

I used to grip it super hard and both arms are super tense. Until my fingers, palms got strange aches which hasnt gone away. And I was super inconsistent with my swings, sometimes 7i goes 120m, sometimes barely 70m.

Then went for trial lesson at stargolf. Paul (the instructor) asked me to relax, relax... kept saying too tense. I took 2 hrs to figure out how to relax after the end of the trial class. Ended up doing half-swings for 100balls for 7i which went abt 60m.

I wasnt too convinced with the soft grip.

Then I tried the next day, still only half swings for 50ball which went abt 60-70m. But I could feel the weight of the club-head taking over to sweep the ball off the mat. Really felt very effortless. I was able to get more than 70% of my balls straight and into the air.

I went for a third day, half swings for 15balls which went abt 60-70m again. Almost all the balls went into the air and straight. Then I back-side itchy and tried 3/4 swing. Initially, I thought I could get inconsistent and mishit the balls but I hit them all about 100m with +/- 5m dispersion. Then back side itchy, tried 6i 3/4 swing, went abt 110 or so with +/- 5m dispersion.

The sweep the ball off the mat feeling without much strength and more consistency was great feeling.

I'm so afraid to lose this nice feeling.

The soft grip really feels like the tube of toothpaste may come off my hands but it was enough to hold it in place. I think if we have the left palm wrapped nicely around the grip, dont have to worry about the club flying off.

Ssquirrel wrote:

enwee wrote:

costajos wrote:

enwee wrote:

costajos wrote:

these advice should have come earlier... i used to grip so hard until got trigger finger

Actually someone told me before, the grip should be firm and not hard.

what is the difference?

firm as in the grip should be just enough for you to let go your club face and the club. Hard, I'm sure many of the people here seen before in range or on course, some people gripped it so tight that you can even see the veins of the arms.

Hard is like you grip a tube of toothpaste and squeeze out all the toothpaste?
Firm is like you grip the tube and people are not able to snatch away the tube of toothpaste from you, but you don't squeeze out the toothpaste?

I got other bad analogies, but I think they are a bit "R/X" rated....

Personally I think you need to grip it hard enough so that the clubface does not twist upon impact on off-centre hits or if it gets caught in the rough... then again.. i don't know much about golf.. so take it with a pinch of salt.

more analogies will be useful - all in the name of better golf

scottycollector wrote:

hello bro,

1. Im not sure if I understand your question. Are you saying that the faster the swing speed, the tighter the grip? or the faster the swing speed, the lighter the grip? Generally speaking, a tighter grip in fact makes it harder to swing fast. a lighter grip promotes faster hands and hence faster swing speed
2. Its hard to have a firm grip, yet relax your wrists. The 2 are connected. The harder you grip, the tighter your wrists will be.

As to how hard you grip, i think once again, it's very much down to personal preference and what works. Some ppl find that they have more control when they grip tighter and make their swing less wristy. Personally i prefer a lighter grip that allows my wrists to stay lively.

Thx for all your inputs!!!

1. Thought if one want to swing faster, he need to grip the club harder to make sure it dont slip.
2. Agree with the connection. Maybe i should put it this way, should we have dynamic strength on gripping throughout the swing?
Means during down swing grip it firm (harder), after contact with the ball, loosen the wrist(& grip) and arm to release the club.

Sorry costajos, i shouldn't used the word hard, firm is the more proper description. Hard grip is always wrong approach.

kenkong79 wrote:

2. Agree with the connection. Maybe i should put it this way, should we have dynamic strength on gripping throughout the swing?
Means during down swing grip it firm (harder), after contact with the ball, loosen the wrist(& grip) and arm to release the club.

I believe you will screw up more on your swing if you do the above. Try to feel the weight of the club head .. the tighter you grip, the harder you feel the weight and the harder you can swing fast.

If you grip harder during down swing, you will eventually use more hand during down swing (more problem with the swing). I am sure you knew you do not use your hand when you want to swing fast ....

http://www.golfrepublic.org/t6556-how-your-grip-can-screw-up-your-whole-game

A post some time back...you may find it useful..cheers