Skill Drills With Meredith Kirk: Grip Positioning

Today I want to talk about grip positioning. How to create a strong grip. Now, it’s important to have a strong grip on the handle because you want to make sure that it doesn’t effect the club face opening and closing so you want consistency, you also want stability. So one way that I teach my students how to get a strong grip is I want you to take a look at your right hand. So I am talking to the right-handed golfers. If you’re a left-handed golfer just think opposite, but look at your right hand and you have this big crease right here and your thumb pad. Okay. So some people call it a lifeline. If we want to call it a lifeline today we’ll do that. So what you do is once you have your left hand on the club here, you’re going to place that left thumb into the lifeline. So it’s basically going to nuzzle in there like that. So see how you do not see my thumb? Just like this. Now, it creates two Vs. I have one V here from my left hand and then I have another V with my right, my thumb and my index. And they’re pointing toward my right shoulder. But using the lifeline and nuzzling that left thumb can really help get you in a good position for a strong grip. Now, for women and children when it comes to underneath, what does the underside of the grip look like here? I have an overlap and I prefer overlap in comparison to interlocking, but for women and children you can interlock if that helps you feel like you have a better connection to the handle. Now, when it comes to where does the pinky go if you overlap? So the pinky, just let it lay where it wants to on the backside of that grip there, okay? There’s no particular place. Everybody’s anatomy is a little bit different with that pinky so mine just kind of comfortably lies where it’s comfortable at nuzzled on the topside of that index finger, okay? So when we’re talking about grip positioning, number one you want to have a strong grip. Number two, use the lifeline of your right hand to nuzzle the left thumb. And number three, make sure you are creating two Vs. A V on the left hand and a V on the right that’s pointing to your right shoulder. So next time you’re out practicing, take a look at the most important golf fundamental, which is the grip. Make sure you have a nice strong connection to that handle, but having a strong connection doesn’t necessarily mean you want a strong pressure, okay? You want a good connection to the handle and easy/medium pressure and you will be good to go, creating more stability in your golf swing.