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I just got back from a lesson, and had the pro tell me 6 times that my grip is wrong. He said I should use a overlap, or interlock. I currently use a 10 finger, I have played for 17 years and used this same grip since my first round. Is there really a huge difference in what grips do? Plus I have very big hands and so a interlock just feels so uncomfortable. Is there truely going to be any difference in my performance if I change. Will I go from a 5.8 to scratch or something. Thanks all.
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Re: Grips
There are two schools of thought.
One says that your grip doesn't make a difference. If you can have the face square at address, you can get it back to square at impact.
The other says that the 10 finger grip is only good for 'natural golf', and that the overlap or interlock grip is the best for golf.
I'm currently undecided. I haven't felt a difference per se between overlap and interlock, but I find a 10 finger grip tough to use - I find it locks my wrists in place. Pretty good if you have overactive hands, I guess, but it's not for me. -
Re: Grips
If you are a 5 and played for 17 years, then no, I would keep the grip. What was the reason for getting lessons? Was there a specific problem area you wanted to work on? Or just an overall evaluation.
A lot of pros like to fiddle around with your grips and setups. This is however the first thing that a student will resist because it is the first thing you have to do before hitting the ball...you have to grip the club then setup to the ball. Students want to have confidence in their swing, and if the very first thing you have to do is feeling something different, all confidence is gone from the beginning. No matter what the rest of the instructions are, you are fighting the lesson the whole way.
I only say this to warn you that if you do try to change your grip after sooooo many years, you will have a period of uncomfortability that will translate to the rest of the swing. Ask the pro that you want to keep the grip for now, but let him determine it's strength if he wants to rotate the club a little stronger or weaker.
If he still resists and insists, then respectfully do not go back to him. There are many others willing to listen to their students and work with them.
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As an interesting side note, that is more or less related to this:
I had a guy come to me who was an avid player after he got into a really bad motorcycle accident. Spent about 2 years in the hospital. They had to pin his left arm in a 90 degree angle (he was right handed). So you can imagine the difficulty in trying to grip and swing the club. But he was determined and was able to put the grip actually between his left hand's middle fingers and claw the rest of the finger around the grip. Then the right hand was his power (weaker, yes, but at least he hit the ball about 200 yards max with the driver). After about 3 or 4 years, he was fed up not being able to hit the ball further. So he came to me and asked me to do whatever I could. Looking at his predicament, I asked him to switch sides. The left arm locked made a perfect fold in the takeaway and at the top, but the follow through was the hard part. So we just shortened it up. We got a lefty out of the barrel and we started over. After about a week, we had him hitting it pretty good. You can imagine the difficulty in starting completely over, both physically and mentally, that his consistency was at zero. But that grew quickly as he accepted the experiment. We had him hitting to 240 by the end of the month and that was exactly what he wanted. But it took a lot of time.
I am only relaying this to prove that no matter the change you are willing to take on, first you had better understand why. Is this going to improve my game that much? And secondly, that you need to be willing to accept the consistency degradation.Comment
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Re: Grips
There are plenty of reputable sources that say that the 10-finger "unlap" grip is perfectly acceptable, even though it's less common than the other two. Jim McLellan, in his "perfect swing" video, says if he were starting over now, he's probably choose it, but I guess he's been using the overlap for so long there's no point in changing.
I used the interlock and the overlap for about a year, trying one for a month or so, then the other. I couldn't get to where I felt comfortable with either one. I went to the 10-finger grip, and it feels much more natural to me.
There is, however, one thing to keep in mind. The advantage of the overlap and interlock grips is that they reduce the overall "grip length" on the club, i.e., the distance from where the top of your lead hand contacts the club to the bottom of where your trail hand contacts it---UNLESS you do the 10-finger grip properly. Since a lot of sources don't say much about the 10-finger grip, it's easy to overlook this.
Grip with your left hand. Your left thumb extends over the club a bit, not pointing straight down it. Now look at your right palm. "Cup" your right hand a bit and notice the crease that forms at the base of your thumb. When you put your right hand on the club, do it so that your left thumb fits right into that crease. Thus, your right palm fits over your left thumb. When you do it, the grip is nice and snug and the hands overlap so that the overall grip length is no greater than it would be with the other two grips. Don't do the 10-finger grip in a way that leaves your left thumb just barely touching your right hand.
And incidentally, what's distinctive about Natural Golf is not the 10-finger grip, but the *palm* grip with the right hand. In NG the right hand doesn't grip with the fingers at all, but the 10-finger grip doesn't commit you to a palm grip.Comment
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Re: Grips
Just to add a footnote - I played a round with a guy who uses a 10 finger grip.
He wasn't much longer than I was (~ 5-10 yards), but his accuracy was unreal.Comment
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