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This drill is the practice taking a comfortable yet solid fundamental grip.

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So as part of the setup, we look at how your hands are positioned on the club because they're

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going to have a direct responsibility for how your wrists are going to move and how

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the club face is going to appear during impact.

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Those are the two main reasons that we want to grip the club in the specific way.

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I'm going to talk a little bit about the or quickly about the proper grip and then we're

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going to get into troubleshooting and things that you might be start going with.

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So the proper grip is any grip that allows freedom of movement of the wrist and when

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you come in the impact allows that club face to be pretty square.

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So there's a reason why you can have something different like Joderant on tour who has a very

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neutral grip and then you can have someone on tour like Zac Johnson who has a very strong

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grip.

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I'm not here to tell you that one is better than the other but I want you to understand how

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they relate to both your impact conditions as well as how you release the club which

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will get to later in this program.

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So in order to take a solid or proper grip, you're going to start by holding the club

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way down near the shaft so that the club face is pretty vertical.

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This just gives you a constant reference frame but make sure that you can see the indicator

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on the grip if you have one.

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Most grips will have either a line towards the end of the grip or towards the butt end

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of the grip.

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That just gives you a reference point as long as whoever put the grip on whether it was you

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or the manufacturer lineed up with the club face but it gives you a solid reference point

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so that you can do the same thing when you're practicing.

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So what you're going to do when you grip is you're going to make sure that with the left

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hand you grip it mostly in the fingers.

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You also want to make sure that there's no major gaps in the left hand grip so you don't

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want to grip it so that there's gaps between the fingers or between the thumbs.

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You can see that you want your fingers pretty close together and you want your thumb

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almost kissing the first knuckle right here.

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Now whether you do a long or short thumb is slightly debatable and we'll probably save

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it for another video.

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So to check if it's in your fingers you can do one of a couple things.

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One I'll just open up my hand and you can see how it would be sitting more or less across

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this base knuckle here to the first knuckle of the index finger.

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Also one other way to check it is you'll see that when I do that it's across

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the line I just showed you but my the heel of my hand is also on top of the club.

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Now that's critical because a lot of golfers will set up with it more on the side of the

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club like so and what happens when I have this is it makes it it takes a lot of muscular

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effort to hold the grip as opposed to just having the advantage of my bones being on top

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of the club like so.

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One other way to make sure that the grip is more or less in your fingers and that heel

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pad is on top is this right here where your thumb connects to your wrist it's called

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the snuff box and it kind of has you'll feel a couple of tendons on each side like so.

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You would want that to be roughly on top of this straight line which would position the

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left thumb slightly off to the center which gets the heel of pad on top of the

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club.

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I'm going to give you more ways than you ever wanted to check and make sure that the

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left wrist is in the fingers because it's so important for speed and freedom of movement

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of the wrist.

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So one other way if you're holding the grip is if you were to take off every single

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finger except for your index finger you notice how I'm still able to have slight control.

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Obviously I don't have very much control because the thumb the index finger they help.

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Especially with the left hand grip because most of the pressure points are going to be

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down in these fingers or most of the grip strength.

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But this lets me know that my heel pad is on top which will allow me to grip it in the

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fingers.

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One other I guess last fun way that I like to check grips right or grip position is if you

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were to hold the club overhead like you were about to do a pull up or a pull down your body

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would naturally grip it in the fingers just like so.

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You would never grip it kind of in the palm like so if you were going to do a pull up

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your fingers would slide right in the position and then you would pull your self over

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if you were doing a lap pull down you would pull the bar down.

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So that right there would show up as the grip kind of in that same position.

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Now the problem with doing it that way is obviously the club face will have to be adjusted

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to your liking.

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To check your grip strength with the left hand I want you to hold that wrist out so

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that the left wrist is flat and vertical right so this would be flat but not vertical.

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You will make sure it's flat and vertical and what you'll see is a neutral grip is going

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to have the club face roughly 25 to 30 degrees pointed to the left or closed.

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You may be thinking that this is what it should be like but what you'll see in the impact

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section is that you're going to have your hands ahead of the golf ball when you may

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contact.

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So if the club is vertical like so it's just going to take a bigger adjustment in the

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wrist position to get the club face square which you'll learn how to do in the transition

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and release sections.

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So the important thing with the left wrist is making sure that it's in the fingers.

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I'm getting you about five different ways and off the top of my head or checking my note

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sheet.

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I remembered one more.

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One last one if you've got the heel of the hand on top of the grip and the club

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the grip is in the fingers you can see how these knuckles have a bend in them.

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If I slide this up so that it's right in my palm and I grip it you can see how these

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last couple knuckles will be straight and I'll have this gap right here underneath or

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underneath my pinky.

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Remember there should be no gaps when we're doing our full swing grip.

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Now the right hand is not quite as complicated.

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We want to make sure that the left wrist is in the best position but the right hand is

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just going to match the left hand.

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So essentially what you're going to do is you're going to put the thumb, the lifeline of

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your trail thumb up against the side of the lead thumb or your right, your right lifeline

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up against the left thumb and then you're going to kind of curl your fingers around

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just like so.

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Now in a neutral grip like so you should see the the V's form between your finger and

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your first knuckle will be pointed somewhere over here towards the right.

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Now where it's exactly pointed will change based on which I dominance you are and which

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which I you're actually looking at your hands with and that's why I prefer looking with

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the left wrist flat to actually measure grip strength.

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So you got the left wrist in position.

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You're going to slide the right hand up so that your palms would more or less be facing

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each other.

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The right hand right thumb would be covering the left thumb and you're going to have most

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of the pressure of your right hand in these middle two fingers gripping kind of like so.

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So it will be a little bit more when you open it a little bit more in the palm if it

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was the left hand it would be there with the right hand it's slightly up a little bit higher.

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But the big thing is the V's point in the same direction hands feel like they're kind

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of unified and connected and the left wrist is going to dictate how much grip strength

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there is.

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Last thing is the pressure or where you're actually squeezing.

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With the right hand you want to make sure that you're kind of squeezing with the middle

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two fingers with the left hand you're going to make sure that you're squeezing with

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the last three.

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Now when you're squeezing with the middle two of the right hand that is also going to

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apply a little bit of pressure from the right thumb up against the left thumb.

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And the reason you want to have the pressure going in this direction and the hands off to

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the side is that when you are rotating and pressing up against the shaft you want to make

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sure that that action squares the club face.

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If your hands aren't matching what your body is doing then you're going to have to manipulate

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it or make a big adjustment with your wrist in order to get the club face square.

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So I know that was a lot.

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Let's go through very, very quickly some steps so you can practice it.

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So you take the grip in your right hand so that the club is straight up and down.

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You're going to put the left hand on top, grip it with the fingers and put the thumb

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just off to the center.

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Then you're going to take that right hand that was holding the shaft and you're going

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to let it slide up so that the index or sorry the lifeline is right up against your thumb

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and you're kind of holding it in the middle two fingers right here.

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And whether you choose to overlap inner lock or baseball, then entirely up to you.

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The dominant ones on tour are going to be your overlap and your inner lock.

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So go with whichever one of the two or three is comfortable or most comfortable for you.

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Last little piece is what they call the trigger finger which is this right here.

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If the index finger is too much down like this then you're going to miss the ability

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to kind of press this pressure point right here up against the shaft which will make it

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more likely for you to flip versus cover the ball with the right hand which you'll learn

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in the release section.

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So we'll give you some close ups of the grip that you can look in the note section and

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practice with but this will help you start with a real strong foundation which will

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allow the movements that we're going to do be a lot easier.