Question regarding reverse affect of grip change!

[Ludin]

So I want to get more opinions on the subject of left hand grip on the club. I was banging away at my 7 iron trying to continue on working on keeping my swing short and in control and up until tonight I had what I would call a weak left hand and neutral right hand grip. This resulted in a ball path that starts 5 yards right and ends 7-10 yards left. Very playable shot, however my misses tend to be 25-30 yards left or 20 yards right. So I have the two-way miss going which may be caused by other things in the swing too. No idea on that at this time.

What I did halfway through my session was move my left hand to neutral and right hand stayed neutral. This created shots +/- of centerline 5 yards with path starting 5 yards right of centerline. My misses now were 10-15 yards right with no major misses left. I have heard that having a weak grip can cause you to over compensate and cause hooks (maybe flipping of the club at impact?). Was it the misaligned right and left hands?

This all just seems against what I have learned from my coach and have read online. Am I all just in my head on the grip?!?!?

 

[WILDTHING]

If you have a weak left-hand grip while all other aspects of your swing remain virtually the same, you will pronate your left-forearm (and clubface) more in the backswing which means you will have to rotate it more in the downswing to square the clubface by impact (ie. a higher rate of clubface closure than if you had a neutral or stronger grip).

Addendum: Made a mistake here because ROC (rate of clubface closure) is only measured at impact . A weak left-hand grip means you will have to rotate the clubface through a larger angle than if you had a stronger grip.

If you have a high rate of clubface closure it will make the squaring of the clubface by impact more timing dependent and you will more likely experience a 2 way miss (clubface sometimes open, square or closed).

Further, if you aren't able to get your trail shoulder down closer to the ball you might 'run out of trail arm' by the time you approach impact. And if your trail palm is still in contact with the base of your lead thumb (while you run out of trail arm) , the trail arm will straighten and there is a natural tendency for the forearm to pronate which will twist the shaft and clubface around quite quickly (high rate of clubface closure). Not sure whether you are doing this without seeing a video of your swing but Phil Mickelson has the tendency of 'running out of trail arm' (see gif below ) sometime 'before/through/post' impact. The squaring of his clubface will be very timing dependent and he's probably more likely to experience a 2 way miss.

The below .gif is of him running out of trail arm through impact but sometimes he does this before impact and his trail hand loosens off the grip to prevent too much clubface closure before impact.

https://www.perfectgolfswingreview.net/MickelsonEarlyRoll.gif

From what I've read, rotating the forearm through impact will cause a high rate of clubface closure and many instructors are actually teaching this move but there are many pro golfers who don't roll their lead forearm for several inches post impact and minimise the 'rate of clubface closure' . These golfers use a 'Drive-Hold' hand release action just like John Oda demonstrates in this very high speed camera video below.



Stop the video at 0:55 and you will not that he hasn't yet rotated his lead forearm by any significant amount since impact even though the club has moved a few feet post impact. Look at his flat left wrist and he seems to have kept the clubface squarer to the curved club path through impact (not 'steered' the club down the ball-target line).

Here are close up images of his hands for the first 4 or 5 inches post impact and you will note that the amount of wrist/forearm rotation is minimal so he is not like Phil Mickelson who has a high rate of clubface closure



Jordan Spieth is a Drive Holder



Charley Hoffman is a Drive Holder



And there are lots of others who don't roll their forearm for several inches post impact.

But no proper research has been done to try and determine whether golfers with low rate of clubface closure strike the ball with less dispersion than those with a high rate of clubface closure (there are many factors that need to be considered).

Personally , I'd rather use a 'Drive-Hold' hand release action rather than rolling or flipping my hands through impact.

 

[TrueMotionMatt]

So I want to get more opinions on the subject of left hand grip on the club. I was banging away at my 7 iron trying to continue on working on keeping my swing short and in control and up until tonight I had what I would call a weak left hand and neutral right hand grip. This resulted in a ball path that starts 5 yards right and ends 7-10 yards left. Very playable shot, however my misses tend to be 25-30 yards left or 20 yards right. So I have the two-way miss going which may be caused by other things in the swing too. No idea on that at this time.

What I did halfway through my session was move my left hand to neutral and right hand stayed neutral. This created shots +/- of centerline 5 yards with path starting 5 yards right of centerline. My misses now were 10-15 yards right with no major misses left. I have heard that having a weak grip can cause you to over compensate and cause hooks (maybe flipping of the club at impact?). Was it the misaligned right and left hands?

This all just seems against what I have learned from my coach and have read online. Am I all just in my head on the grip?!?!?

Tough to say, but strengthening grip will shut the face and force you as @WILDTHING mentions to be less flippy.

Lots of Buuuuts...

But if you’re stuck and slide then you’ll block it. If you stick with it you’ll figure out how to time the flip, but probably best to post a video to see what’s really going on.

Could also be swing direction or a severe AoA that’s pushing path right. Path is a combo of AoA and swing direction and vertical swing plane. So while you think you’re swinging right you may not be.