Proper Golf Grip

In order to be a good golfer and deliver a great golf swing, holding or gripping a golf club properly is very important. If the club is not being held in the correct manner, the swing won't be as smooth or accurate. Plus, your game and its scores will also be affected. Look at it this way, in the game of golf, there's always a connection between the club and the ball. And in order to make this connection, how you place your hand is critical. You not only need skills, but also have to understand the mechanics behind holding a golf club effectively. Now it is absolutely normal for people to not understand the terminology right off the bat. So gear up on those terms and get learn about the different grips. The following article will give you various golf grips and the correct manner to execute them.

Placement of Hands

The placement of both your hands is a fundamental key to a sound grip and swing. So let's look at your lead hand and trailing hand for a powerful swing.

Lead Hand
Before you attempt a proper golf grip, you need to decide which will be your lead hand (top hand). The correct placement of the lead hand determines accurate control of the club's face. While your body turns/swings during a swing, the club will turn as well. Your lead hand guides and controls where the club will hit the ball during the swing.

Suppose you are right-handed, so the left hand will be your lead hand, and vice versa. When you wear golf gloves, you will see four dots on the inside of the left glove. Keeping the alignment of the dots in mind, the placement of your club should match it. However, you don't want to grip the club too much. If you do so, all you will do is take the power behind the shots away. So hold the club at least 3 feet in the air and place the club face square right in front of your body. Position the club at an angle, align the dots in the glove and through the fingers. Finally, comes the placement of your thumb, which goes behind the shaft.

Trailing Hand
Now comes your bottom hand, known as the trailing hand for a golf grip. For many, the trailing hand is their dominant hand; this means that the trailing hand is your writing and/or eating hand. Positioning this hand is important as well because this hand will be responsible for providing power to your swings as the lead hand manages the control. Hence, placements of both the hands should be equal to one another.

Before you place your trailing hand on the club, your lead hand should be in the perfect position. It doesn't matter which of the golf grips you choose from, the lifeline of your trailing hand will always be kept against the thumb of your lead hand.

Proper Club Grips

There isn't just one proper way to grip a golf club. In fact, as the most basic or primary golf grips for beginners, we will go over three different styles of proper golf grips tips. All the three grips are common in order to get any beginner started promptly. Just pay proper attention towards how tight each of the grips should be. Always have your grips light so that you can enhance the power of your wrist's flexibility (as tight grips result in weak shots).

Vardon Overlap
First of the three golf grips is the Vardon grip. It is one of the most popular club gripping methods used today. In 1900's, Harry Vardon made this style famous and it has now become the top choice of many professional golfers and teaching masters. To learn this grip, overlap the trailing (bottom) hand's little finger between the lead (top) hand's index and middle fingers. The lead hand's thumb will fit itself inside the grip of the trailing hand's lifeline.

Interlocking Grip
To learn the interlocking grip, position your little finger of the trailing (bottom) hand amongst the middle and index fingers of the lead (top) hand. As you perform the hold, you will see that your hands are 'interlocking' with each other. Many professional golfers use this grip, including Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, who have smaller hands and find the Vardon grip a bit awkward.

The Baseball Grip
To learn the baseball grip, you have to grip the club in the similar way you would hold a baseball bat. Position all 10 fingers to grip the club by resting the index finger of your lead (top) hand against the side of the trailing (bottom) hand's little finger. This is called a 'ten finger' grip and is highly preferred by untrained beginning golfers. Now if you are training and still can't get the hang of the first 2 grips, the baseball grip will suit you perfectly. Also, if you suffer from arthritis or have joint pain, you can adapt yourselves to the baseball grip easily.

Hopefully these tips were helpful for you to understand, which are the golf grips you can learn. Keep practicing the grips at least 10 times a day, for about a month. And after a month, you can go over the basic techniques once a month. Although the grips may be a bit awkward to begin with, however, after a month's regular practice, you'll feel powerful and comfortable with these golf grips.