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The value of a Baseball grip in Hitting!

http://www.iseekgolf.com/golfinstruc...-baseball-grip

The Baseball Grip
BY PAUL SMITH


Fig 1
Left Hand Finger Grip
(Photo: iseekgolf.com)

Fig 2
Fig 3
Fig 4
Fig 5
Fig 6
Fig 7
Fig 8
Fig 9
Baseball and golf seem a world apart yet the baseball grip is a means to clamp the club in a basic manner, which can work just fine for some and better for others. In this brief look at what the grip does I would suggest grabbing a club away from furniture and finding some room to swing around without a ball.

There are some basics to the baseball grip that are paramount to remember. You must use a left hand finger grip with the shaft running from near the index finger top joint down into the base of the little finger so that when the hand is closed over the grip, that the shaft is held securely in the fingers at one end and the butt end is firmly squeezed under the heel pad of the left hand as shown in Figures 1 and 2.

The right hand wraps around the shaft below the left hand in more of a palm grip. This palm grip allows the right forearm to line up with the shaft. Here we now have in place some basic structural engineering properties. Now all the effort, or force, that is thrust by the right arm will be most efficiently pushs against the back of the shaft on plane with the right forearm, as per Figure 3, rather than having a finger grip angle which causes power leakage as per Figure 4.

So put the two hands together with those ideas in mind. In effect by using a baseball grip a player is spreading the hands over a wider part of the grip itself, that is with no interlocking or overlaying parts of the hands. By taking this type of grip the right hand increases its support of the clubhead loading through the impact zone, yet it dampens the clubheads acceleration.

With a club gripped as a baseball bat, take a few swings with your eyes closed. They can gentle small swings and then build up into longer swings. Feel the feedback from the club in your hands, particularly how strong the bottom hand feels swinging as per Fig 5, 6 and 7.

What you should notice is that with the exaggerated motion that the left wrist cock really does not happen much at all and how powerful relative to the left side the right arm has to be to propel the club around. In essence you have now felt the mechanics of a relatively low speed but high thrust motion. The trust is all right armed. You are Drive Loading the shaft. Another visual example I often give is of an ice hockey player making a slap shot. It is a short sharp slap at the ball, all bottom hand power.

With a normal baseball grip, the same mechanics can be employed though now you can see how a bit of wrist cock comes back into the motion. So overall a baseball grip can be a good starting point for those who wish to Hit the ball rather than swing at it, just to gain the sensations of how the right arm can power a golf hit. It is particularly useful for beginners, juniors and ladies the baseball grip is more natural than having to remember uncomfortable or weird looking overlaps or interlocks.

To finish off this little visit to baseball, I have also dropped into the mix here an over swing with the exaggerated baseball grip in Fig 8 and 9. The over swing shows how, with split hands, the left hand grip fails and makes you feel a major bob motion (head rising an lowering) if you go too far. It is a good thing to know what a bob feels like at a basic point of learning.


About the Author: Paul Smith
Paul Smith holds a Master Craftsman's rank certified by the Golf Clubmakers Association in the USA and is one of only 220 Authorised Instructors of The Golfing Machine (Bachelors in Golf Stroke Engineering). Clients get a first class education session whether it be fixing a swing fault or building clubs from scratch to suit a player's ability.