Neutral Hand Grip Explained

Katie Dawkins PGA Professional demonstrates what a neutral grip is.

Transcript

00:00Hi there, I'm going to talk today about the neutral grip. What is a neutral grip and why

00:08is it so important for your golf? Your hands are the only connection between you and that golf

00:13club and they control the face of the club. If your hands are in a neutral position, and by

00:19neutral I mean that they're holding the club how they naturally hang. So everyone's a little bit

00:25different but it's really important that you know how your hands naturally hang. As a general rule,

00:30most people's arms will hang down. It's important not to have any tension. If you were to clap your

00:34hands together, the palms would be looking at each other and you then make gentle fists out of your

00:40hands. Your club then needs to fit into the fingers of your fists. It's a bit of a tongue twist to that

00:45but it's quite easy to remember. So the club fits into the top hand, into the fingers a little bit,

00:50sits on top. The other one comes on like a forehand and sits into those fingers there. You link your

00:57hands however you want to on the club. Some people like to link, some people like to overlap, others

01:03will prefer just a baseball grip. That's up to you but the most important relationship is the one that

01:08those hands have to each other. So palms looking at each other, fingers hanging down pointing towards

01:14the ground and gently folded round. That's going to return that club nicely, square at impact. If you

01:21don't hold your hands in that way on the club, so say for example you've got a bit of a strong grip,

01:26so a strong grip is where the top hand's a little bit more on top, bottom hand's a bit more underneath,

01:31they are still going to return to that position where they're facing each other and playing a forehand

01:36to the target like that. That's the effect you're going to have on that club face and vice versa. If

01:42you've got the bottom hand too much on top, the club's going to return like that, you've got an

01:46open face. So a neutral grip is really, really important if you want to hit that ball straight

01:52and also you don't necessarily want to involve any other complications or compensatory movements

01:57within your golf swing. Practice it at home. Lean a club up by the bathroom door, every time you walk

02:02past it, shake your hands, clap them together, make that little channel in the fingers and sit that

02:09club in it. Fold the hands over, have a waggle and put it back. You do that a few times a day and after

02:16a couple of weeks you'll start to hold the club a little bit better on the course and your hands will

02:21be more neutral.