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Secret Grip by Boccieri Review - Forum Testing

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THP sent these grips to forum members for review. This thread will be for them to review the products long term as they put it through vigorous testing.


Please keep this thread clear until testers post pictures and initial thoughts. Thank you.
 
Already, let's start this thread over. Great job getting everything back up and running though. I'm not that computer savvy and can only imagine the angst you all felt over losing information because you take great pride in what you've built and strive very hard to be the best at what you do--and to my brain you have accomplished so far. The other guys will probably want to re-post some of their original photos and thoughts of these grips and I'm confident they will. I know the 3 I got from THP are waiting at home for me and I will be putting them on my clubs tomorrow night and getting out Monday afternoon for a range session with them. I had posted late last week that I was contemplating getting 10 more of these grips so that all my clubs had the same grips on them. I wasn't necessarily being honest when I posted that and I apologize. I guess I didn't want to sound stupid/naive/{insert another word that fits} since the extra 10 grips cost approximately $150. Here's the truth--after finding out Monday night I'd been selected as a tester I was ecstatic. I called Boccieri golf on Tuesday morning and asked the guy (Aaron, I think) about a million questions about the grips. He never once told me I needed to buy any more and said that he thought I'd be happy putting them on driver, 7-iron, and a wedge to test them. Well my brain continued to grind and halfway through our 10 hour drive on Wednesday to Mt. Rushmore I called Aaron and ordered the other 10 grips. That means, for good or bad, you guys are gonna get my thoughts as to how I think these grips perform on every single club in my bag. Part of why I decided to do it is that I was concerned that it might affect my thoughts/performance if I were to hit a 7-iron on one hole with one and then maybe use an 8-iron on the next hole without one. Hopefully I'll give good info. I told the family we're now leaving at 4:00 a.m. tomorrow instead of the original scheduled departure time of 6:00 a.m. so that I have time to get everything re-gripped (and possibly hit the range even tomorrow night if they dry).
 
Alright... hit the reset button!!!

I will recap thoughts and repost pictures that I had put on here before here shortly. A little busy right now and don't have time but I'll be sure to make time this evening.


Tapping and crashing with the new updated/downgraded Tapatalk.
 
I'm going to go back and recap and re-post the pics I had sometime tonight or tomorrow.
 
BTW, Aaron, the guy Haggis was talking about. Great guy that helps Boccieri provide world class customer service. He took about 30 minutes out of his day to help save me $25 in shipping (Hawaii shipping is expensive) and he talked some of the finer points of these grips with me.


Tapping and crashing with the new updated/downgraded Tapatalk.
 
I couldn't agree more with Colt. I guess as my starting point on these grips is I would say that they are very user friendly as when I called I talked with him for about 30 minutes talking about the concepts and theories behind these grips, why they'd changed the original model to the current one with the weight molded into the grip, and a bevy of other questions. He was very nice and responsive. He also cut 20% off the listed price so that the grips were not quite as expensive.
 
Ok heres my redo of my review. I put these on my driver, 5 iron and 9 iron. I seem to hit those clubs the most. First off this is my first review so please bare with me. First impression is that I thought these grips were a touch softer than the stock grips. They did look a little funny at first just because there longer but that's no big deal. I hit my driver straighter and longer than I ever have its too early to tell if that was the grip or not,but I did like the fact that they felt a little bigger in my hands and that I could really tell where the club head was throughout my entire swing. I'm assuming this will help my bit of casting issue. I hit all my irons good so I don't have much to offer on there behalf except the fact that I flew the green on a par 3 with my 5 iron that I always hit on that hole. Again I was hitting the ball well so I'm not sure if the grip gave me the extra yards or not. The same thing was true with feeling where my club head was throughout the swing with the 5 and 9 iron. For me that's a big deal and it seemed to help me stay on plan better with them and the driver. As far as the weighting goes I could tell a difference but it wasn't like I was swinging a club that's a lot heavier. I wish I had acces to a launch monitor for before the grip SS. Versus after because I did feel like My SS was higher with these than normal. That could just be in my head I guess. If I keep hitting driver farther and straighter I may try and put some of these grips on 3 wood as well. That's all I have for now. Thanks guys.
 
jacob1 said:
Ok heres my redo of my review. I put these on my driver, 5 iron and 9 iron. I seem to hit those clubs the most. First off this is my first review so please bare with me. First impression is that I thought these grips were a touch softer than the stock grips. They did look a little funny at first just because there longer but that's no big deal. I hit my driver straighter and longer than I ever have its too early to tell if that was the grip or not,but I did like the fact that they felt a little bigger in my hands and that I could really tell where the club head was throughout my entire swing. I'm assuming this will help my bit of casting issue. I hit all my irons good so I don't have much to offer on there behalf except the fact that I flew the green on a par 3 with my 5 iron that I always hit on that hole. Again I was hitting the ball well so I'm not sure if the grip gave me the extra yards or not. The same thing was true with feeling where my club head was throughout the swing with the 5 and 9 iron. For me that's a big deal and it seemed to help me stay on plan better with them and the driver. As far as the weighting goes I could tell a difference but it wasn't like I was swinging a club that's a lot heavier. I wish I had acces to a launch monitor for before the grip SS. Versus after because I did feel like My SS was higher with these than normal. That could just be in my head I guess. If I keep hitting driver farther and straighter I may try and put some of these grips on 3 wood as well. That's all I have for now. Thanks guys.
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Nice first review Jacob. If I get these grips I'm looking at putting them on my driver and 3 wood. Nice to see you were getting good distance with these as that is one of the main things I'm curious about. I figured these would help with accuracy but had no idea about distance, keep up the good work.
 
Thank you Stan. As far as the driver goes I usually hit it and it will come back right a little. I went through the fairway a couple times because it went dead straight and never came back. That's a good thing for me.
 
Glad to see these getting on clubs already; following this close as I've been pondering these for a while. Can't wait to hear more about some thoughts and affects on people's swing.
 
I'm going to wait to get into anything more detailed until the actual testers get situated here but I wanted to post some quick thoughts I had when I first switched to the grips:


  • These grips are about an inch longer than most standard grips and are not tapered (so they will feel larger under whichever hand is lowest on the grip). Initially I thought it was really uncomfortable and was not a fan. I have small hands so I don't like bigger feeling grips. After an actual round with the grips I didn't notice the size being a problem anymore. As for the inch longer I didn't think about it until I got up to a short chip and choked up on the club like normal and was shocked by the fact that it felt "right" for once. Normally I have a finger on the shaft because it helps me keep the club head stable through impact since the narrow end doesn't give me much grip when I choke up but with these grips and the constant size there is no loss of control even when you choke up on a club.


  • When I initially tried these out for the first time I put one on my driver and one on my 54* wedge. I was not happy with my driver because I couldn't get rid of my fade off the tee and mentally I got in a rut that caused my swing to go downhill so I changed the grip to see what would happen. The reason I put it on my 54* was because they told me to and the 54* was a wedge I rarely used and it desperately needed a grip.


  • Everyone at Boccieri was great when it came to trying to figure things out for me. Blake and Aaron were fun to hang out with and really helped answer every question I had and picking Steve's brain about things was even more amazing. I really hope the testers find the same experience working with them that I have had.
 
c0ncept said:
I'm going to wait to get into anything more detailed until the actual testers get situated here but I wanted to post some quick thoughts I had when I first switched to the grips:

  • These grips are about an inch longer than most standard grips and are not tapered (so they will feel larger under whichever hand is lowest on the grip). Initially I thought it was really uncomfortable and was not a fan. I have small hands so I don't like bigger feeling grips. After an actual round with the grips I didn't notice the size being a problem anymore. As for the inch longer I didn't think about it until I got up to a short chip and choked up on the club like normal and was shocked by the fact that it felt "right" for once. Normally I have a finger on the shaft because it helps me keep the club head stable through impact since the narrow end doesn't give me much grip when I choke up but with these grips and the constant size there is no loss of control even when you choke up on a club.
  • When I initially tried these out for the first time I put one on my driver and one on my 54* wedge. I was not happy with my driver because I couldn't get rid of my fade off the tee and mentally I got in a rut that caused my swing to go downhill so I changed the grip to see what would happen. The reason I put it on my 54* was because they told me to and the 54* was a wedge I rarely used and it desperately needed a grip.
  • Everyone at Boccieri was great when it came to trying to figure things out for me. Blake and Aaron were fun to hang out with and really helped answer every question I had and picking Steve's brain about things was even more amazing. I really hope the testers find the same experience working with them that I have had.
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Do you just have the Secret grip on the 54 now, or did you purchase more?
 
Wake said:
Do you just have the Secret grip on the 54 now, or did you purchase more?
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I currently have one on my Driver, 3 wood, 3h, 4h, 54*, and 60*. I had them on my 5-9 iron and took them off recently but plan to put them on another iron set. (My irons have a very crazy weight issue with the graphite shafts and light club heads)
 
Also here are some quick pictures:

The butt of the grip where you can see part of the weight:
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This is my grip after about 3 months of heavy use on my 60* which is my most used club. Probably about 80% (wow I need to clean my grips lol):
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This is a picture of the secret grip on my 588 with a tour concept shaft. Because of the shaft narrowing so quickly we had to apply tape underneath at the last inch in order to get the last part of it to stay solid:
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I'm a bit confused, do we need to redo all our posts since the server maintenance?
 
Alright fellas. Big write up coming in about 6 hours or so. About to play my first round with the Secret Grips w/ no range time! :act-up:

I'll also recap initial thoughts and pics for the new thread. I was going to last night but my old arch nemesis Jack Daniels got the best of me!


Tapping and crashing with the new updated/downgraded Tapatalk.
 
Good initial thoughts jacob. These grips are very... not sure what the word is Im looking for but Im curious to see everyone's thoughts and results. With how well the Heavy hybrid treats me Im very intrigued.
 
jacob1 said:
Yes the old thread is no more.
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Got it, the grips are being installed today, and I'll repost and update tomorrow once I get them back and in hand!!!
 
Okay fellas. Now that I've had the chance to get these out on the course and have got some initial impressions it's time to do a second initial review. Recapping some old info, sharing some old photos, and sharing some of my findings that I had for today.

All three Secret Grips ready to be paired up with my Driver, 4i, and 58* wedge.
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I think this pic shows just how much of that extra weight is in the butt of the grip.
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A bit of extra weight in the whole grip, but not nearly like the butt end.
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Here's a pic of the weight plugs in the butt of the grips. I got one of the 1st Gen. model grips and two of the newer ones.
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I really like the staggered texturing on these. It makes for a grip that feels much like a GP Tour Velvet but just a tad bit more firm. Parallel texturing always feels very mushy and twisty in your hands.
18a53a9a-193d-9c00.jpg


As everyone probably already knows I decided to go all in on the Secret Grips to be able to provide the THP community as well as the whole of the interwebz a thorough and well rounded review of what you may be able to expect from these. So I called up Boccieri Golf and spoke to a gentleman named Aaron to order the other 10 Secret Grips that I needed to complete my set for this testing. If Aaron is any indicator of what doing business with Boccieri as a whole is like then top notch customer service may be another reason for investing into the Secret Grip and any other Boccieri Golf equipment. He spent over a half an hour talking about some of the interesting "tech" and ideas behind the Secret Grip with me. He also spent 10-15 minutes fighting with his system to knock $25 off of my shipping charges to Hawaii as it can get pretty expensive at times. He got me from $37 to $12!!!

Sorry I got a little off track. Now about those little "nuances" that I was speaking of earlier. As many have already noticed and pointed out, the Secret Grip is 1 full inch longer than a standard grip. It was explained to me that the extra inch of rubber you get on the end was Boccieri's idea to add that final 7-8 grams of weight to bring the Secret Grip up to their target weight of around 94 grams without using heavier materials in the rubber which might have posed a threat of poor integrity in the rubber and early increased wear. Good job thinking outside the box BG. Also, it's no secret that one of the largest increases in weight come from the 17 gram weight plate molded into the butt of the club. This one is pretty obvious in it's placing in the grip and what it's meant for, so I won't go too far into it right now unless someone has a question about it. The grip itself had me and a few others questioning if it was a bit oversized at first as it just seems oddly large in your hand. Not a bad odd mind you, just...different. Well, it turns out that the grip is definitely standard sized, but Boccieri Golf decided to utilize a non-taper design in the Secret Grip as a way to increase...you guessed it weight. That isn't the only thing that BG claims the non-taper design will do for you. The constant circumference all the way down the grip should also help to quiet the hands and increase that magical and ever elusive "lag" in your downswing. After today's testing I will actually attest to the effectiveness of this design property. So there you have it. Longer grip=more weight, constant-taper design=more weight and increased lag benefit, 17gram weight plate molded into the butt of the grip=well...more weight!

With all of this weight I'm sure you must be wondering how much of a toll this is going to take on your swing and body after a round of golf. Well, I put myself through some serious angst today just to answer this very question for you. After 220 range balls of strictly Secret Grip gripped clubs (my driver, 4i, and 58* wedge), and 18 holes of golf where I swung and laid up to distances to use these clubs as much as possible; I feel absolutely no different than I do on any other day that I swing this much. It's a bit strange to be honest because I can definitely feel the extra weight of the grips in the clubs when holding them static and I can feel them steadying my tempo in my backswing, but I don't really feel a whole heck of a lot of difference in the downswing. It's definitely there, don't get me wrong. But you don't feel like your fighting it and it doesn't feel like it's hindering your normal swing speed or effort needed to put your normal powered stroke on the ball.

On course findings today, besides what I eluded to in the last paragraph were "promising". There is no magic bullet. If you think these might be it then your fooling yourself. However, I found that if you have a decent swing to put on the ball then with the Secret Grips it just becomes a little more "automatic" if you will. The extra weight in the grip put me in a good tempo and really did help me to find the slot in my downswing a bit more consistently. I did have a few bad swings today (those are snap hooks for me) but those came from my clubs that weren't gripped with BG's Secret Grip. And then I also found myself leaving a few balls to the wildlife in the woods on the right side of the fairway, and those misses I believe exclusively came from the Secret Grip gripped clubs. Let me explain my strife.

I found myself having a bit of trouble on the range with my Secret Grip gripped clubs in that I was having a lot of shots that I was pushing plenty out right. We'll just say I was having trouble turning it over like I normally do. This is where I first started noticing the increase in lag from the non-tapered grip design. It's nothing game changing and definitely didn't throw me off too bad but I would say that once I realized that I needed to start squaring my hands up just a tad sooner and got that fixed I probably picked up around 1/2 club in distance on my clubs. Maybe a hair more on my driver. A driver is always tough to tell though.

That's cool right? Well it could be once I get the rest of my grips in but for today I found myself taking a few more practice swings before shots to get a feel for release when going between clubs with the Secret Grips or my regular ol' Lamkin 3GEN REL's. With two completely different feeling grips I found myself playing cart golf a little more than I have become accustomed to lately. I wonder myself if these would be even more tough for a person with a heavy fade for a stock shot to get used to than they were for me. I don't know.

Another thing to look out for around 30-60 yards out. When pitching with the Secret Grip the non-taper design and back weighting definitely show theirselves here as the decrease in breakdown of the wrists leads to a noticeably lower and slightly more "spinny" shot. It's a welcome change but one that might have cost me a couple strokes today as I really wasn't expecting what I got. I can definitely adjust and be happy with what they do for me this close in.

Closing comments from me would be just as I said before. These grips show promise. If you have a bad swing that's all over the place and is completely different from day to day then I would say that my findings so far conclude that the Secret Grips might not do much for you. Not unless you really just need something to slow down your tempo to start getting you on plane. They help there. If you already have a fairly grooved swing then there's a distinct possibility that these might help add that little bit of consistency that we are always looking for. And maybe even a few extra yards to boot. I also firmly believe that they change the way swinging a club feels drastically enough that it would definitely be tough to play these on only a few clubs. It was for me, but your mileage may vary.

That's it from me for tonight. I'll be back in the morning. That's mid afternoon for the rest of you. So if you ask me a question early in the morning I'll be getting to it around 12PM eastern time. Just thought I'd remind everyone of my time difference so that nobody thinks I'm not paying them any attention.
 
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COLT said:
I found myself having a bit of trouble on the range with my Secret Grip gripped clubs in that I was having a lot of shots that I was pushing plenty out right. We'll just say I was having trouble turning it over like I normally do. This is where I first started noticing the increase in lag from the non-tapered grip design. It's nothing game changing and definitely didn't throw me off too bad but I would say that once I realized that I needed to start squaring my hands up just a tad sooner and got that fixed I probably picked up around 1/2 club in distance on my clubs. Maybe a hair more on my driver. A driver is always tough to tell though.
Click to expand...

When I tested out a Heavy Driver, I had the same issue with pushing it out right. It sounds like you have cured that problem, and then picked up extra distance with the Secret Grip. What did you do to assist in squaring up your hands to ensure you were square at impact?

~Rock
 
Man, that was an interesting read, COLT. I'm very excited to see how these work when your full set is gripped with them. It sounds like going back and forth may be a little difficult. The change it had on your pitch shots is pretty interesting as well. Keeping my hands out of the equation is a big part of my wedge game, though I'm not sure I'd want to risk changing my trajectory much.
 
I put the 3 grips from THP on last night. Since I have 10 more coming from Boccieri so as not to have to play different grips, I put them on my driver, 50 degree wedge, and 56 degree wedge. I have league tomorrow night and if I didn't have the other 10 then I didn't want to risk mucking things up right now with one on the 7-iron. The shipment from Boccieri isn't gonna arrive until tomorrow so I don't know as I'll have time to get them gripped before the round. I am going to hit a small bucket today with my driver and work with the wedges and will post my initial thoughts regarding my observations tonight.
 
The talk about a tendency to push is a little worrisome for me, since I already seem to struggle to get the face closed on my driver.
 
A thought on Colt's tendency to "push" some shots with these grips. I played a grip from Feel Golf (not sure they're still in business) for two or three years. Their grip had an inverse taper, in other words in tapered toward the butt end of the club. Their story was that this helped the player to release the club. They called it the "Full Release" grip. It seemed to help in that regard, at least for me. So, it stands to reason if the non-tapered grip helps increase "lag", it could also somewhat slow down your release as well causing shots to go right. Colt's fix was to square the club up a little earlier which is another way of saying perhaps a little earlier release. Sounds like just a matter of dialing in the swing with these as one gets accustomed to them.
 
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