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America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America.
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Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of
Best
Young Teachers in
America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America.
Meet your new
instructor.
Strong Grip & Low Point Issues
A portion of golfers who employ a relatively strong grip will struggle with inconsistent contact and poor low point control. While they will typically eliminate the right side of the course, they will still fight the occasional pull-hook. If this is a shot that leaves the course once or twice a round, scoring can become increasingly difficult.
If you fall into this category, it is important to revisit the relationships between body, grip, and release mechanics. This does not mean you need to completely overhaul your grip, but a few tweaks may be necessary to get back on track.
A portion of golfers who employ a relatively strong grip will struggle with inconsistent contact and poor low point control. While they will typically eliminate the right side of the course, they will still fight the occasional pull-hook. If this is a shot that leaves the course once or twice a round, scoring can become increasingly difficult.
If you fall into this category, it is important to revisit the relationships between body, grip, and release mechanics. This does not mean you need to completely overhaul your grip, but a few tweaks may be necessary to get back on track.
Show transcript
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000
This concept video is discussing strong grip low point issues.
00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:12,000
A pattern that I tend to see with some students is, and I'd say that this is kind of like
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,000
let's say somewhere in the high single digit to low double digit handicapped.
00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:22,000
So let's say somewhere in the 12 or sorry, the 7 to 15 handicapped range.
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:26,000
I see a lot of golfers who tend to have a fairly strong grip, so they don't hit many
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:33,000
slices, but they struggle a lot with low point contact, partly because of their body
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,000
relationship compared to the grip.
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:41,000
So what I mean by that is if I have a strong grip, so if I have my hands turned well
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:48,000
to the right, or if I was to take a grip and hold it so that that left arm is pointing
00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:55,000
out, let's say that the club face would be greater than 40 degrees or so kind of like that.
00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:04,000
Well, if I supinate my left arm, the way that I might want to in order to move low point
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,000
forward, that will tend to cause the club face to get really closed if that happens out
00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:10,000
in front of my chest.
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:17,000
So golfers who tend to have a stronger grip on tour will tend to get much more open and
00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:18,000
leave it behind.
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:27,000
I'm still supinating the arm in order to move that low point forward, but my body is
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:33,000
wide open in order to prevent the club face from getting too closed.
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,000
It also allows me to provide more of the powering of the swing from my body and a little
00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:39,000
less from the arms.
00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:45,000
So I might notice with this strong grip in this good pattern, I'm going to tend to get
00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:53,000
my body more open, have my arms kind of soft and feel like the club is left even further
00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,000
behind.
00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:59,000
But what a lot of golfers who have this low point issue with the strong grip end up
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:04,000
doing, is they don't get their body open enough.
00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:08,000
And so in order to prevent the club face from getting closed, what they do is they'll tend
00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,000
to chicken wing and kind of hold off the face.
00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:16,000
And you can see as I do that, the club is actually coming up into the golf ball.
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:21,000
So they'll tend to have more of a swing kind of like that on the way through.
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:24,000
Now you might have seen from the down the line, I hit a nice little soft draw that
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:25,000
way.
00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,000
So I was able to control the club face, but I wasn't able to control my low point very
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:35,000
well, and I'll tend to have a lot of bigger misses in consistent contact.
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:41,000
Now to improve that chicken wing pattern, I've got to induce a little bit of supination.
00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:50,000
So supination tends to move the low point forward kind of like that as opposed to no supination
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:54,000
and having a little bit more extension, tends to move the low point backward.
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,000
So if I'm trying to use my arms in a way that will move the low point forward, I also
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:01,000
have to manage the club face.
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:06,000
So what will happen with these strong grip players is they will tend to when I show them
00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:10,000
how to get a little more supination, they'll tend to hit a shot that kind of looks like
00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:11,000
that.
00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:17,000
So a very solid shot, but went probably a good 20 degrees left of the target.
00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:24,000
And so they'll struggle with getting their brain to commit to getting some of that supination
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:29,000
which helps with contact and low point because it doesn't match the club face compared
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:30,000
to where their body is.
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:35,000
So if you struggle with that pattern, you either have to weaken your grip a little bit
00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:40,000
and commit to where your body is going to be an impact, or you have to work on getting
00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:50,000
your body more open so that then when you do that same release, it's happening more
00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,000
behind you in the club face.
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:56,000
So I'm basically hitting it earlier before the low point which prevents the club face
00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:57,000
from closing.
00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:04,000
So I see a number of golfers who have this strong grip low point problem because the
00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,000
body is not matching where the club faces.
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:11,000
So if this is the case for you, if you have a stronger grip and you're looking at it
00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:17,000
from down the line video and you're not seeing much of your back at impact, that is probably
00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:21,000
the reason why you're seeing more of a chicken wing and you're going to have a hard
00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:26,000
time breaking that pattern unless you either change the impact position or change the grip
00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:29,000
so that you can improve the chicken wing.
00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:35,000
But unfortunately the strong grip chicken wing are matched with a body position that is not
00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:39,000
as far open as it needs to be at impact.
00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:43,000
So hopefully this helps tie together a few different concepts of why you might be struggling
00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:48,000
with low point especially if you have a strong grip in the chicken wing.
This concept video is discussing strong grip low point issues.
00:00:07,000 --> 00:00:12,000
A pattern that I tend to see with some students is, and I'd say that this is kind of like
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:16,000
let's say somewhere in the high single digit to low double digit handicapped.
00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:22,000
So let's say somewhere in the 12 or sorry, the 7 to 15 handicapped range.
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:26,000
I see a lot of golfers who tend to have a fairly strong grip, so they don't hit many
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:33,000
slices, but they struggle a lot with low point contact, partly because of their body
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,000
relationship compared to the grip.
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:41,000
So what I mean by that is if I have a strong grip, so if I have my hands turned well
00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:48,000
to the right, or if I was to take a grip and hold it so that that left arm is pointing
00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:55,000
out, let's say that the club face would be greater than 40 degrees or so kind of like that.
00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:04,000
Well, if I supinate my left arm, the way that I might want to in order to move low point
00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,000
forward, that will tend to cause the club face to get really closed if that happens out
00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:10,000
in front of my chest.
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:17,000
So golfers who tend to have a stronger grip on tour will tend to get much more open and
00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:18,000
leave it behind.
00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:27,000
I'm still supinating the arm in order to move that low point forward, but my body is
00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:33,000
wide open in order to prevent the club face from getting too closed.
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:37,000
It also allows me to provide more of the powering of the swing from my body and a little
00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:39,000
less from the arms.
00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:45,000
So I might notice with this strong grip in this good pattern, I'm going to tend to get
00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:53,000
my body more open, have my arms kind of soft and feel like the club is left even further
00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:55,000
behind.
00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:59,000
But what a lot of golfers who have this low point issue with the strong grip end up
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:04,000
doing, is they don't get their body open enough.
00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:08,000
And so in order to prevent the club face from getting closed, what they do is they'll tend
00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:11,000
to chicken wing and kind of hold off the face.
00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:16,000
And you can see as I do that, the club is actually coming up into the golf ball.
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:21,000
So they'll tend to have more of a swing kind of like that on the way through.
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:24,000
Now you might have seen from the down the line, I hit a nice little soft draw that
00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:25,000
way.
00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:30,000
So I was able to control the club face, but I wasn't able to control my low point very
00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:35,000
well, and I'll tend to have a lot of bigger misses in consistent contact.
00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:41,000
Now to improve that chicken wing pattern, I've got to induce a little bit of supination.
00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:50,000
So supination tends to move the low point forward kind of like that as opposed to no supination
00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:54,000
and having a little bit more extension, tends to move the low point backward.
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,000
So if I'm trying to use my arms in a way that will move the low point forward, I also
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:01,000
have to manage the club face.
00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:06,000
So what will happen with these strong grip players is they will tend to when I show them
00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:10,000
how to get a little more supination, they'll tend to hit a shot that kind of looks like
00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:11,000
that.
00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:17,000
So a very solid shot, but went probably a good 20 degrees left of the target.
00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:24,000
And so they'll struggle with getting their brain to commit to getting some of that supination
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:29,000
which helps with contact and low point because it doesn't match the club face compared
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:30,000
to where their body is.
00:03:30,000 --> 00:03:35,000
So if you struggle with that pattern, you either have to weaken your grip a little bit
00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:40,000
and commit to where your body is going to be an impact, or you have to work on getting
00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:50,000
your body more open so that then when you do that same release, it's happening more
00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:52,000
behind you in the club face.
00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:56,000
So I'm basically hitting it earlier before the low point which prevents the club face
00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:57,000
from closing.
00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:04,000
So I see a number of golfers who have this strong grip low point problem because the
00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,000
body is not matching where the club faces.
00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:11,000
So if this is the case for you, if you have a stronger grip and you're looking at it
00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:17,000
from down the line video and you're not seeing much of your back at impact, that is probably
00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:21,000
the reason why you're seeing more of a chicken wing and you're going to have a hard
00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:26,000
time breaking that pattern unless you either change the impact position or change the grip
00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:29,000
so that you can improve the chicken wing.
00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:35,000
But unfortunately the strong grip chicken wing are matched with a body position that is not
00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:39,000
as far open as it needs to be at impact.
00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:43,000
So hopefully this helps tie together a few different concepts of why you might be struggling
00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:48,000
with low point especially if you have a strong grip in the chicken wing.
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