Promise you, that headline is not clickbait—it’s true! The more cardboard you recycle, the better chance you have of increasing your swing speed. Allow an expert to explain.One of golf’s biggest fallacies is that your grip pressure should remain light as you swing the club. That’s soooo not true, says Tyler Standifird, a doctor of kinesiology and biomechanics from the University of Tennessee. Standifird now does research on golf biomechanics and performance as a professor at Utah Valley University.He has tested 130 golfers of varying abilities, including elite-level pros, and his data confirms that while grip pressure might start light at address (say, 3 on a scale of 1 to 10), it doesn’t stay that way. Most golfers are squeezing much harder when they transition the club from the backswing to the downswing. This is especially true of highly skilled players, and perhaps it’s the secret to why you’re not swinging as hard as you could.”I took data from three plus-handicap golfers and compared it to data from three golfers with an average handicap of just over 10. There were some big-picture differences,” says Standifird, who also does work for SuperSpeed Golf. “Both groups were right around a 3 out of 10 at setup. But in the takeaway, better players tend to apply a little bit more pressure (5.2 out of 10 vs. 3.8 out of 10).”Transition is where the biggest differences occur. Better players have more pressure in the lead hand compared to average golfers players (73 percent of maximum squeeze vs. 62 percent). They also are squeezing a bit harder at an 8.3 out of 10 compared to a 7.1 out of 10.”The message is you should be squeezing harder, especially with the lead hand.“I’d think about it in a cycle. Apply some pressure to get things going, let things drop as you complete the backswing, and then get a good squeeze on the club to get a nice forceful change of direction down into the ball,” he says.Of the 130 players tested, the average grip strength was 42 kilograms of pressure and the range was 14kg to 71kg. You can have yours checked with a dynamometer.
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Another interesting reveal of Standifird’s testing is that the circumference of your grips plays a key role in swing speed. “It’s not based on the size of the hand,” he says. “It should be more related to the strength of the player’s hand/grip. An easy way to increase grip strength when testing players is to make the testing device have a larger circumference than the club. Do that and grip strength immediately goes up. This would allow that player to do more and have more options of pressure throughout the swing. Players with low grip strength and poor pressure patterns should try larger grips.”
Back to the headline of this article, there are many ways you can improve your grip strength and one of them is great for the environment—ripping up cardboard boxes so they fit in your recycle bin. You also can improve grip strength in the gym, says Karen Palacios-Jansen, a Golf Digest Certified Fitness Trainer. “A grip bond is a special type of connection that gets stronger when more force is applied to it,” says KPJ, one of Golf Digest’s Best Fitness Trainers in America. ” An example is a Chinese finger trap, where you put your fingers into each end of the trap and you pull your fingers out quickly but the trap tightens, holding your fingers even more tightly. Scientists often talk about this in biology, like how tiny parts of our cells stick together when they’re under pressure.
“When we think about golf, this idea helps us understand why having a good grip and strong hands is so important during the fast and powerful movements of a swing. Your hands and the golf grip (handle) of the club act as a grip bond, like a Chinese finger trap. When you transition into the downswing, your two hands press down on the golf grip and catch, allowing you to swing as fast as you can while maintaining the clubface square through impact.
“If your grip is incorrect, you don’t apply the correct amount of pressure at the right time or you are weak, the club will twist in your hands as you strike the ball. If you grip the club too tightly throughout the swing and try to overpower the club, you won’t allow the natural grip bond to happen in the swing.”Palacios-Jansen says two simple exercises in the gym can help not only improve your grip pressure, but when you apply it when hitting shots.
Dumbell drops and catches
“Hold two light dumbbells and set up in your golf posture. Mimic your golf swing, but stop at the top for a moment, and then initiate your downing with your lower body. When your arms swing down, let go of the dumbbells for a split second and then “catch” them as you swing to impact. Feel how you have to loosen your grip pressure to allow the dumbbells to fall and then catch them so they don’t drop. That’s a catch bond. This will get you the feel and help you need to build grip strength.”
Reverse jump ropes
“Jumping rope is one of the best overall exercises to not only increase grip strength but to improve hand-eye coordination, endurance and wrist flexibility and mobility. Think about it, to jump rope fast, you have to be relaxed with the upper body. You would not grip the jump rope handles tightly! I especially like to jump rope in reverse because the motion of your wrists, forearms and shoulders moving in reverse is the same motion you want in your downswing. The wrists are flexing, the forearms are supinating and the shoulders are internally rotating. All things you want to do in your golf swing.”
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
