The RIGHT Way to Grip the Golf Club For Your Swing

Ever wondered how your swing dictates the correct golf grip? Should you have a strong grip or a weak grip?

GOLF Top 100 Teacher Debbie Doniger explains and shows GOLF’s Zephyr Melton a helpful test to figure out how to best grip the club based on your body.
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so there are a lot of different ways to grip the golf club i’m joined here by Golf Top 100 teacher Debbie Donner debbie I want you to explain to us what a strong grip looks like and what a weak grip looks like great in theory a strong grip doesn’t have to do with how tight or light you’re holding the club it’s just a different way of saying where is the placement of your hands on the club so it’s just the orientation of my hand not the the firmness no and and some people would say the strong grip which we’re about to talk about is a closed face grip okay so what does a strong grip look like in terms of where my hands are on so the lead hand when you hold it up in front of you instead of seeing maybe two two and a half knuckles you’re actually going to turn your entire arm which includes your forearm and your elbow if you can more towards your trail side okay so it’s going to be rotating it a little bit clockwise yeah it’s like turning the steering wheel this way okay and I’ll do that with my trail hand as well exactly so the trail hand will feel a little more under both V’s in theory will point somewhere more towards your trail shoulder or even outside your trail shoulder and so that is considered a stronger grip or a closed face grip okay and then a weak grip what would that look like the exact opposite okay so the lead hand is on the club again in the fingers but when you hold it up in front of you you may only see one to two knuckles okay the thumb is still on the side it’s a short left thumb but it’s definitely more neutral okay so we’re rotating it a little more counterclockwise this time yep just be careful that you still want to keep it in the fingers and close your hand on the club because you can still use that rib underneath the the grip and you can still feel it it’s in the fingers it’s just that the the whole arm instead of turning this way is a little more on the neutral side to a little more to the left okay gotcha and then with the trail hand it’s going to be the same idea we’re going to be rotating it a little more counterclockwise yes so the V’s on for a weaker grip or an openfaced grip is more towards maybe the center of your body maybe towards your chin and you can you know you can get really weak that would probably be too much for our viewers awesome well now whenever someone talks about a strong grip or a weak grip we know what to look for and what they’re talking about excellent it’s just orientation has nothing to do with how tight or light you’re holding the club awesome what’s the best way to grip the club based on my swing yep and it makes sense because when you look at all the tours and so many people that play great golf there are so many different grips that work so it can’t be that your hands have to be on the club in one spot and that’s the right grip for everybody makes no sense so let’s do a test that I learned from one of my mentors and good friends Mike Adams and he just tested well why would the hand the trail hand be on weak neutral or strong how do we figure that out so stand next to me okay hands together you’re going to keep your shoulders pretty stable okay trail hand lower than the lead because we’re both right-handed golfers and you’re going to swing your arms halfway back you’re going to allow your trail elbow and arm to fold bend naturally without really thinking about it ready let’s both do it okay okay so great for the viewers to see we both are in different positions take your lead hand off so my elbow my trail elbow and my trail hand seem to be in a very neutral position my hands facing the camera your trail elbow has gone up and behind you and your trail hand is pointing down to the ground so we have two different trail hands now on the club okay mine’s going to be more side on as Mike would say and yours is going to be more on top okay and that includes the elbow and the forearm okay so I’m going to grab a club here perfect so that we can go through this so because of how my arm moves and your elbow and your forearm yeah i want a little bit yeah just a little more on top yep okay and I’m So then I’ll give you the club and I want you to show them i’m just a little more neutral okay now let’s just say you’re by yourself the viewers in their room they’re checking this out they’re going “That can’t be.” Just hold the club in your trail hand and we’ll just try three different ways to hold it just to keep it very simple so put your hand dead on the side of the club and you’re going to swing the club halfway back halfway through and you’re going to actually just ask yourself does it feel good does it feel natural does it feel athletic so go for it you won’t hit me and it’s either a yes or a no eh okay now try what you preferred and what you tested out to be little little more on top and do the same thing okay and in theory it should feel better that way what’s going to feel not good probably is to go under oh yeah that’s like I you already know so we already know not to do that okay and each style affects how the club moves in the back swing and on the down swing okay so and that and we can tell all of that based on this test that we did early on yep you just set up in your normal setup trail hand lower so you’re just seeing how does your arm swing in the back swing and you just do a natural swing and just see where your trail elbow forearm and hand can face the camera it’s either going to be here here or here and then you take the club with your trail hand and you could just try it yourself just put your hand dead on the side go half swings on top or a little more under and that should help you feel whether it feels natural athletic do you feel like you have control of the club face and that will dial in your trail hand a little bit more than just saying “Okay generically I should just have a neutral trail hand.” All right