019: Grip Pressure – How Tightly Should You Hold the Club?

In this episode, we dig into the nuances of grip pressure — how hard should you actually hold the club during a swing? We challenge the old “baby bird” analogy, explore how amateurs and professionals differ in both strength and pressure patterns, and debate when in the swing grip pressure matters most. With supporting insights from leading biomechanists Dr. Sasho MacKenzie and Dr. Tyler Standifird, we unpack whether grip pressure is a limiting factor in clubhead speed, how it affects consistency, and how to train it effectively (as well as whether you should even bother). From transitions to tempo, and training tools to tension leaks, this episode covers why how you hold the club might matter more than you think.

Hosts: Erik J. Barzeski, Jayson Nickol, Tyson Deskins

Sponsor: Hack Motion (https://hackmotion.com/) – Use the code “SPINAXIS” to save!

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Full quotes from Doctors Standifird and MacKenzie:

Dr. Tyler Standifird:

1. It needs to be trained specifically. I know there are groups who say it is trained just if we do heavy weight training, and that is kind of true, but the specificity of grip strength training is so easy and effective that we all should be doing it. I compare it to like how a bent over row in the gym strengthens your bicep, but that if you really want to get your bicep bigger you do curls.

2. Speed training is not enough, again at least in my experience I don’t think speed training on it’s own strengthens grip, helps you learn I think how to maybe utilize what you have in grip strength a bit better/more efficiently, but again refer back to number 1.

3. I agree with what you say about training it to avoid that slipping feeling. Just met with a player who is doing GRF assessments looking for more speed. He is up to maybe a 124/125 club speed, but is saying he feels the club slip just a bit. His grip strength is around 41 kg in the lead side, starting to be a limiting factor for him, can’t hold onto the club.

I’d say pros maybe apply more force in the swing if that makes sense. So if they are stronger their 8/10 might be 44 kg, vs a 45 year old amateur at 8/10 might be 31 kg. Also even the higher level players I have had on the sensor edge device are not 3/10. Not even close. Lowest I have seen with all my players, pro, amateurs and in between was about a 5.6/10. And that guy had a grip strength of 65 kg, so huge strength. Most people end up in the 7-9 range, regardless of skill level, its more of that patterns that change as players get better.

Using something like the SuperSpeed squeeze can be an effective way to “trick” a golfer into training grip strength when they think they are practicing golf. The fat grip is shown to enhance muscular activation in grip/forearm. So they will get that benefit when they take swings and additionally it will force them to grip down tighter because it feels that the club is going to move out of their hands. This helps them train the feels of developing more force when needed in the swing. Also static grip strength training, gripping something, squeezing something is very effective, no matter that apparatus used. The squeeze training includes these as well.

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Dr. Sasho MacKenzie:

I don’t think grip strength, as measured by squeezing something, is important in golf.

I have a lot of thoughts on this. I see people get a lot faster without any change in grip strength. Alos, I can’t think of a single time where a club flew out of someone’s hands because they swung too fast for their level of grip strength.

Any low to moderate correlation between grip squeeze strength and clubhead speed is not causal.

I’ve measured juniors with 120 mph clubhead speed that couldn’t squeeze the juice out of a lemon.

Vijay only had one hand on the club at impact swinging at 120 mph. 

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