The "v's" in my grip.....

[honers]

I recently took a quick lesson knowing what my problem was just needing the advise on how to prevent it....how to work on my "outside-in" swing....
so...while the pro was watching me swing he noticed that my grip was way out of whack...meaning that...he had me take two tees and put them between my thumb and index finger in both hands....then take my grip...what he said should happen is that both tees should line up and be facing between my right ear and shoulder....needless to say they were no where near that....
so now i've worked on this and now i have developed a pretty severe slice....when of course my problem was hitting the ball dead left from my shot....so now i have created two problems for myself and not just the one....could i be over-gripping the club....are the "v's" actually in the right position....this has made my game quite an adventure now....

any thoughts on what i can do to overcome this new problem with my golf game...

tks

[GoNavy]

Re: The "v's" in my grip.....

Actually you have not created two problem, you still have the original problem and a corrected grip, which just accentuated the original problem. After playing for an extended period with a bad grip your body has ingrained compensating moves to work with the bad grip, you will have to identify what these were, and correct them.

When you put the tees in the old grip, where were they, and what were your shots doing, just going left, or were there other shot problems, it might give some hints to what was happening and the most common compensating moves.

The grip your pro describes is correct, tees pointed straight up would be a weak grip, tees slightly to the right is neutural, and pointed at the right shoulder would be strong. All three have one thing in common, the tees or "v" should always line up, this makes the hands work together and not fighting each other. Now having said that, there are some times when doing specialty shots you might deviant from this, as an example, I chip and hit sand shots using a weak left hand and normal right position, it helps keep the face open and prevents pull shots for me, maybe even short pitchs I do this as well, but never on any shot with power or speed, because you will have problems.

[honers]

Re: The "v's" in my grip.....

CMays.....my original problem was the outside to in swing.....i knew i was doing this from the many years i've played golf....got away from the game and of course added a few pounds to the mid section.....which is why i believe i now the outside in swing...compensating for the "belly" that is in the way of the club....lol...but...the whole reason for the lesson was to find some mental image to help me correct this...from this he noticed my grip....now all of a sudden it seems like i have the severe slice as i mentioned....this slice wasn't much of a prob....just dead head hitting it to the left....

GoNavy....now if i remember correctly...when i first put the tees in the thumbs i believe the tee in the left hand was more facing my left shoulder and the right tee was...well...pretty much where it should be....towards my left shoulder....and my pro said exactly what you said...my body has programmed itself to do one thing and one thing only....which in turn is putting a hurt on my golf....one thing my pro did say was to try and not go at my swing at 100%....which is easier said than done when you are out playing with the guys...you want play their game and not yours...another mind thing i need to over come...
as for my shots i dead head pulled them to the left....now this would be for my driver...3-wood and some of my long irons...short irons seemed to go fairly straight.....if i mentally get my grip in the correct position the dead left is pretty much gone...but the severe slice in now into play....my initial thought was i was taking the grip a little to far...overcompensating to the extreme....i plan on heading out to the course either tomorrow or the next day and work with the grip....but as i said to CMays....i need some kind of mental thought to keep the left elbow in on my swing....i've tried thinking about putting my right hand in my pocket as i'm heading for my downswing but then this turns out to be a mental distraction....

practice practice practice....i know what i need to do....gettin the mind set to do that is a different approach....

hope this answers all questions....where to from here....frustrating but always willing to listen to any suggestions....

[GoNavy]

Re: The "v's" in my grip.....

Unless you are left handed, there should be nothing in the golf swing pointing towards the left shoulder. The tee or "V" as you like, should be more towards the right shoulder. If you hands are on the club as you describe with the "v" pointing to the left should...lol...man that is beyond weak, I don't think you do anything but hit a slice with that setup. Hopefully that was a missprint or you are left handed, either way I think we need to get on the same page, cmays or myself or anyone else have no hope of helping you.

Couple points on an outside-in swing, can be caused by, but not limited to, may be one or a combination of: (right handed golfer)

-no weight shift to the left on downswing
-starting the downswing with the shoulders.
-poor alignment at setup, aimed left.
-poor takeaway starting the swing.

There are other things that contribute to an outside in swing, but those are the big four and most common, so we can start there.

[dannyra]

Re: The "v's" in my grip.....

Work on the grip for a week and go back to your pro. I doubt there is any sense in him working on your outside-in swing path with a bad grip.
Once you fix the most basic thing in the golf swing you can advance to the next issue, which is your swing path.

[honers]

GoNavy....

no doubt you misunderstood what i was saying....when i originally put the tees in the thumbs and index finger that is where my tees went...now...i have them both pretty much set to the right ear / shoulder....sorry for the misunderstanding....but i'm thinking that i may be putting to much in it....which i feel may be causing the severe slice....true or false...

but i will work on the grip....swinging only about 75% to get the feel of the new grip....

then i can try and find a cure for the inside out swing