Grip Travel : Short Game

When you are trying to slow the ball down around the green we do not need massive swings. The goal is to get the club head swinging while controlling the speed, landing spot, and depth. If the grip end is traveling too far back and through it can make this harder. Lets take a look below:

 

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In the above photo you can see my hands and the grip are further away form my right hip in the right photo.  The right arm stayed long and pushed outward.  Compared with the left image where the right elbow folded up keeping the grip closer to the trail hip.  This might not look like much but there is a lot more room you have to make up in a short time.

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Now looking at the finish the left image I had the body turn to support the club with comfortable arms.  In the right photo I tried to swing “down the line”, ‘speed up the club’ or “swing to the target”.  Notice how far away the grip traveled on the right photo compared to the left.

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Above is what happens when you have to move the handle too much from the longer backswing or trying to speed up the club too fast in the downswing.  The second could come from having too short of backswing for the intended length your trying to go.  If you take the grip and move the handle forward notice what happens to the club head.  The club head raised up a good 6-8″ and the face opened.  How are you going to make up the height change and where the club is pointed?  Some things would be: throw the right arm to help square the face, dip the knees to lower the body in order to lower the club head, push the hands more down through the strike, or a combination of all/some/more.  All of this is hard to make up.

Click Here for a YouTube video on this topic with a good drill you can do with just a string.