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Beginners at Golf must Understand the Importance of the Golf Grip.
Most club golfers who try to help wives or friends learn to play golf gloss over the basics and hurry into the full swing. But spending time on the fundamentals, explaining why they are important, and making them fun to practice, is the quickest way to help someone learn to hit the ball well.
Teaching the Basics – The Grip
There is no point in trying to teach golf unless the teacher understands what the basics are and why they are important. And there is nothing more important than the grip.
The golf swing is a chain reaction and if the hands are placed on the club in the correct way, the back swing is made much easier.
There are two vital things to get right when teaching the grip. First, the ‘V’s’ created by the thumb and index finger of both hands must point to the right shoulder.
This gives a neutral grip that encourages the correct takeaway. Secondly, if you stand behind the pupil, not only must their shoulders point at the target.
It is essential to adjust the grip so that a club placed against the forearms, about two inches above the wrists, also points at the target.
How the Grip Affects the Takeaway
If the left hand is too ‘weak’ or turned round to the left, this would make the left arm hang below the right at the address. A line across the forearm’s arms would point to the left. On the takeaway, this would make the club travel outside the line.
With the left hand too much to the right, this would make a line across the arms also point to the right and would lead to a back swing too much on the inside.
Give Confidence and Make it Fun.
To help teach the grip, there are many magazines with pictures to help demonstrate what it should look like. Cut one out and give it to the pupil.
There are even molded golf grips you can buy, which fix onto your club. These are very good training aids to help make sure the grip is correct.
The grip should be taught at home before you get to the range. It is understandable for everyone to want to hit balls immediately; your job is to stop them until they have understood the grip and how important it is.
No matter how difficult the pupil finds it to put their hands on correctly, you must never show impatience.
Conclusion
Have a competition to see whose hands can look most like the grip in the picture. Even take a picture of your grip on your mobile phone to compare.
Whether your pupil becomes good at golf or struggles depends mainly on how well you teach the grip. Their future as golfers is literally in their hands.
