How tight should you hold the racket? This is what the data says

You may think that how you grip the club matters. (It does.) But our study shows that it really comes down to how tightly—or how loosely—you wrap your gloves around the handle.

We tested a dozen Tour pros, slicers, hookers and high-handicappers with special pressure-tracking grips and found that the strength of the grip at different stages of the swing is what separates good shots from ones you’d rather forget. Too tight? Too light? The answers simply matter when you’re finding the middle of the fairway or green or looking for that lost Titleist in the fescue. This isn’t a story of “grab and rip.”

Read on to put an end to your ball flight nightmare once and for all.

This is how we did it

My team at the Golf Lab (thanks, Jonny Collins and Carson Hau) in Toronto analyzed the 7-iron swings of four different groups of golfers: 1) pros, 2) slicers, 3) hookers, and 4) high-handicappers, focusing exclusively on grip pressure at six key points in the swing. To collect data, we used a launch monitor, GEARS Motion Capture, a SwingCatalyst 3D Motion Plate, and—most importantly—SensorGrips installed on high-end LA Golf clubs (above). We captured full swings and swings for high and low pitch shots from 50 yards. As you can see just by looking at the baseline results below, good golfers squeeze the grip very differently than most weekend players.

Summary of the Full Swing Study

1. Despite all the dynamics involved in the swing, professional golfers change their overall grip pressure the least from start to finish – just as Tiger Woods described.

2. Pros are the ones who push the most when it comes to setup. This is especially important when you consider how much stronger a tour player’s hands are compared to other golfers.

3. Weekend players generally fail to squeeze the club hard enough during setup and in the early stages of the backswing.

4. Regardless of your skill level, the grip pressure of your leading hand is without question the most important factor in the swing.

The professional

The grip pressure profiles of the pros we measured in this study were incredibly consistent from player to player. As you can see in the graph above, pros squeeze the grip quite hard at address (1)—almost twice as hard as members of the other groups (especially with the lead hand). Good golfers are known for their masterful ability to control the clubface, and their ability to do this begins with good pressure before they even pull the club back. The initial firm pressure also corresponds to the tendency of better players to power their backswing by turning their body. They simply hold it tight and turn, while poorer golfers tend to lift the club with their hands and wrists, which likely explains why their grip pressure at impact is so low.

A professional increases pressure as he reaches the top of the backswing (2). These findings suggest that this first initial peak in pressure allows the professional to efficiently stop his backswing without overswinging, dropping the club, or crossing the line.

Interestingly, a pro’s grip pressure immediately drops as he goes down (3). This promotes what is often described as the “magic pull” that recreational golfers seek. Combining this drop in pressure with body rotation (i.e., toward the target) brings the club to a powerful plane and creates effortless speed.

After launch, a second pressure peak (4) occurs, approximately as the lead arm moves from parallel to the ground to impact. Dr. Sasho MacKenzie, one of golf’s leading biomechanists, teaches that the most effective way to generate force is to pull lengthwise on the shaft, “as if you were ripping the handle off the club.” The occurrence of this second pressure peak supports his findings.

Just before impact, the hand pressure of a professional remains noticeably stable (5). In contrast, we found that the other groups either press a little harder or a little lighter as they swing through the ball. This is another reason why better players are able to control the clubface so well at impact.

The Slicer

The only consolation you can take as a golfer who slices the ball is that you’re not alone! Slicers make up the majority of the golfing population. Our study of grip pressure during the swing explains why so many are stuck with a pesky, extreme left-to-right ball flight. Trust me: There is hope. The data shows that if you adjust the feel in your hands, from setup to impact, you can straighten your shots and gain yards once and for all. But first, let’s look at what you’re doing wrong.

Like all other non-professional groups we examined in this study, slicers grip the club far too loosely at address (1). Sam Snead once said to hold the grip “as if you were holding a small bird.” Remember, Sam’s grip was tighter than a miner’s handshake.

Another key finding from our study is that slicers apply far too much rear hand pressure (2) when starting from the top – the exact opposite of professional golfers who reduce grip pressure during this part of the swing. When looking at these specific data points and training hundreds of slicers, it is this additional rear hand force that pushes the club out of plane, resulting in an outside-in trajectory and a shot over the golf ball.

Then another mistake happens: after increasing grip pressure at the top of the backswing, slicers suddenly lose it in the middle of the downswing (leading arm parallel to the ground), reducing the force exerted on the club when it should be increased (3).

The repair: Start by squeezing the club much harder with your left hand, not both hands. When you want to change direction from the backswing to the downswing, feel your right hand grip pressure release or let go of the club. Start with slow practice swings to get the feel right, then try some soft 7-irons and slowly work your way up to the driver. Eventually, it should feel like the club is falling behind you as you transition. Strange at first, but that’s the secret to power and accuracy.

The whore

When I started coaching over 20 years ago, hooking the ball was a relatively rare problem for the general public. Lately, however, my fellow Top 100 instructors and I are seeing more and more of it. Lee Trevino’s great quote that “you talk to a fader but a hooker doesn’t listen” remains true, but hookers can actually take pride in having a grip pressure profile that is more similar to that of a pro than any other demographic. Just a few small changes can make all the difference.

First, let’s address some issues. As with slicers and high handicappers, the squeeze when addressing a hooker, while still much less than a pro, is not as low as most weekend golfers (1).

But similar to the slicer swing, hookers tend to increase grip pressure once they start from the top down (2). (Remember, pros actually decrease grip pressure in this part of the swing, which creates the “magic move.”)

Aside from the pressure data provided by the SensorGrips, our GEARS data on this particular subset of golfers showed that hookers generate the least body rotation when they start from the top. We’ll save that for another story.

Moving on, from parallel arm tracking in the backswing to parallel shaft tracking at impact, hookers really start to apply a lot of pressure with the lead hand (3). In my opinion, this is what causes the club to get even further behind the golfer (way too much inside out). You now officially live in Hook City.

To top it all off, hookers increase pressure with their back hand just before impact (4). They feel they are pointing too far out, so they squeeze hard with their bottom hand in a final attempt to keep the face straight. What they get instead is a hook.

The repair: Squeeze the grip a little harder with your lead hand as you set up. Then squeeze even harder on the backswing. As you transition from the backswing to the downswing, rotate your hips toward the target more quickly while relaxing your lead hand and squeezing with your back hand. Goodbye, hook.

The high handicapper

Sorry, high handicappers. The truth is, you’re doing grip pressure all wrong – backwards! This shouldn’t be a surprise, but thanks to our grip pressure data, you can learn for the first time how adjusting the feel in your hands can help you hit much better shots. First, let’s talk about what’s causing your swing problems.

First, your back hand. High handicappers are the only subset of golfers who apply more pressure with their back hand than their front hand (1). Again, this is completely false.

Second, high handicap players (as we found with the GEARS data) tend to fight for their lives from halfway through the backswing to impact, causing the club to move faster than the body. This is the exact opposite of what a pro does, who rotates the body first from swing to impact, with the club responding accordingly.

The additional tension in your hands during the downswing (2) eventually causes the muscles in your upper body to tighten up. This means you can no longer perform the correct sequence (hips, shoulders, arms, club) correctly and the necessary clubhead speed is lost.

Additionally, additional rear hand pressure (3) (about eight times as much as a pro) goes against what most coaches, including myself, learned from Dr. MacKenzie, which is that the majority of the force from late downswing to impact should be applied by the front hand on the grip so that it can pull it lengthwise to impact. (Again, as if you were ripping it off the shaft.) I repeat: wrong and completely wrong.

The repair: Squeeze the grip much harder with your lead hand and keep your back hand relaxed. Try not to change your grip pressure in either direction throughout the backswing. Set it at address and then hold it. And just before you go down, relax your hands. This gives your body a chance to pivot and lead the club into impact rather than following it.

Liam Mucklow is a top 100 GOLF instructor and founder of Golf Lab (mygolflab.com) headquartered in Toronto with 11 locations worldwide, including Liam’s base in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.