Page 3 - The Grip

to note that actual weakness should not be confused with the

common misconception that the grip needs to be tight in

order to maintain control over the club.

During some of the Nike Tour testing that I oversaw during

1996, we used a grip pressure monitor to test maximum

possible grip pressure of the participants. We observed that

players with a higher maximum possible grip pressure also

tended to be the longer hitters but when we asked them to

replicate their swing grip pressure whilst holding the monitor,

they registered a similar amount of pressure to the players

with a lower measured maximum. Therefore, the players with

the stronger hands were using a lower percentage of their

available pressure and yet they tended to hit the ball farther.

Unfortunately, correct grip pressure is sometimes one of those

things that has to be experienced in order to be fully

appreciated and it’s hard to experience correct grip pressure

when your brain is screaming at you to hold tighter and swing

faster but I will give some examples and hopefully you will be

able to relate to at least one of them.