Where does the left thumb go on the bat and club?

WHAT DOES THE TYPICAL GOLFER DO? 

ARBITRARY!  Not what feels comfortable or makes sense.   

“Your hands are the only part of your body that touches the club so your grip better be good.”

-Ed Famula, PGA Professional

THE MECHANICS: SHORTEN OR LENGTHENING THE THUMB 

TO SHORTEN THE THUMB: 

TAKE THE CLUB IN YOUR LEFT HAND, POINT THE SHAFT STRAIGHT IN THE AIR, DROP THE CLUB HEAD DOWN AND ALLOW THE THUMB TO SLIDE UP THE SHAFT. 

TO LENGTHEN THE THUMB:

PUSH THUMB OUT AND DOWN THE SHAFT

WHAT IS NATURAL: The thumbs are in opposition with the index and middle fingers to create a counterbalance. 

WHAT DO BASEBALL PLAYERS DO? 

Whether holding and balancing a bat or a ball the thumbs are tucked to the side on the side of the thumb (you would not make a thumb print). 

DO IN GOLF AS YOU DO IN BASEBALL:

Experience: Hold a golf club like a bat (you cannot possibly have shorter thumbs than when placing your hands on a bat or ball).   

Experience: Hold a ball in your left hand.  

Notice: While looking at your hand from your view, your left thumb is shorter in appearance than your index finger.  That is the way it is supposed to look when you balance a grip in your hands. 

Try holding a ball with a long thumb then try and throw it.  It is virtually impossible!

The LEFT THUMB is neither long nor short; it is simply where it is.  The idea of a long or short thumb is just another way to think and control your athleticism.  

WHICH FINGERS CONTROL THE CLUB?

WHAT DOES A GOLFER DO?

Many golfers have poor grips simply because of the sequence to which they place their fingers on the club.   MOST golfers do not understand “how” to start let alone finish taking a grip.  

MECHANICS: THE PINKY AND RING FINGER OF THE RIGHT HAND GO ON THE CLUB FIRST. 

WHAT IS NATURAL: Regardless whether picking up and controlling an object, or implement, or creating an action, we control the implement with our index finger and thumb: whether it is a pencil, a nose pick, scratching dirt off a window, pointing a finger, turning the page of a book, swiping a lock of hair from our face, turning on and off a light, or steering a car. 

When we feel the weight and/or shape of the object or implement we are able to control it.

WHAT DO BASEBALL PLAYERS DO?

Ball players control the bat and ball by counterbalancing it with their index, middle fingers and thumbs. 

DO IN GOLF AS YOU DO IN BASEBALL: 

Question: Which fingers of each hand first hit the bat or ball or any implement?  

Answer: Usually, and in sequence, it’s the index finger, thumb and middle finger.  Understand how you pick up and control other objects, implements, balls, bats, rackets, and you understand how to pick up and control a club.  

Experience: 

Grab a bat, and feel where the weight falls in your hand and fingers.   

Grab a ball, feel where the weight falls in your fingers. That is how you control it, by feeling the leverage, the length and weight. 

You may notice the weight falls to the first and second knuckle of the index finger, rests on the side of the middle, and is balanced fully when coordinated with the pressure of the thumb.  

Experience: Turn a doorknob.  

Notice: How you use your fingers and thumb against the other.  That is how you grip a club, by counterbalance. 

What Finger Touches the Club First?

     

WHAT DOES THE TYPICAL GOLFER DO?

Golfers tend to focus on the pinky and ring finger of both hands.    

(I have heard some say you should grip a club as if you are shaking someone’s hand.  When shaking someone’s hand or picking up and placing any implement into one’s hands the first finger to touch is the index finger, not the pinky and not the ring finger).  

    

There is too much focus on the left hand and not enough on the right.  It is counter-intuitive.

THE MECHANICS: THE PINKY AND RING FINGER BALANCE AGAINST THE BUTT OR MEATY PART OF THE HAND. 

WHAT IS NATURAL: We pick up all implements; bats, balls pennies, pens and pencils, first by finding and touching it with our thumb, counterbalancing it with our index fingers before balancing and picking it up. 

WHAT DO BASEBALL PLAYERS DO?

In sequence: First, they find the handle of the bat with either their thumb or index finger then balance out the weight before heaving it up whichever hand they choose to do it with.  Once the barrel is balanced and controlled place the other hand on.  

DO IN GOLF AS YOU DO IN BASEBALL:

Exercise: Grab a bat.  Pick it up.  Which finger of what hand touches the bat first?   It is the index finger not the pinky and ring finger.  

Now: Attempt to pick up the bat the way we are told to do as golfers with the pinky and ring fingers.  Again, place the bat into your hands.  

Notice: Which finger of which hand touches the bat first, copy doing the same with a club. 

Also: It is important to notice which finger of the second hand touches the bat first then to apply that strategy and sequence to the club. 

 

Anything other than what we do is either trying to reinvent the wheel, an attempt to control nature, or thinking we are smarter than thousands of years of evolution and development. 

Why do anything other than what we do?

      

      

   

Picking up and Controlling and Implement

WHAT DOES THE TYPICAL GOLFER DO? 

They lay the club behind the ball then grab the club.  

There is little forethought toward the process of holding and balancing the club.  Some problems arising from taking your grip with both hands while the club head rests on the ground:

Too much grip pressure (resulting in lack of feel of the club),

Too strong or weak a grip, or an imbalance between the two hands,

An open or closed club face,

An imbalance between pressure points in the hand and fingers (more about this later).

THE MECHANICS: TAKE YOUR GRIP WHILE THE CLUB HEAD IS IN THE AIR NOT ON THE GROUND!

WHAT IS NATURAL: One of the common denominators when grabbing a bat is too control the barrel UP and balance it before placing the other hand upon it. You would never place both hands on the bat while it was resting on the ground.  

WHAT DO BASEBALL PLAYERS DO?

Regardless what level baseball player you might be, one common practice is the placing of their hands on the bat while in the air. 

DO IN GOLF AS YOU DO IN BASEBALL:

Experience: Take a bat in your hands.  

Notice: Which hand brings the bat into the air, which hand controls it?  

Searching for the sequence:

Which hand, finger touches the bat first?

Which hand lifts the barrel (can be different than the first)?

Where is the bat? At what angle, up, down, angled to the right or left?

Drill: When you understand the sequence, timing and rhythm, and positioning of grabbing a bat go through the same routine when gripping a golf club.  

Once you understand how YOU are wired as an athlete, as a baseball player, what remains is a sense of the familiar. 

Grip Pressure...How to Use your Baseball knowledge to play better golf.

GRIP PRESSURE

WHAT DOES THE TYPICAL GOLFER DO?  

Most golfers squeeze, choke and suffocate the grip.

They step up to the ball erroneously believing the tighter they grip the club the more power and accuracy. Squeezing the club slows the club head through the hitting area. It is probably the most debilitating of these taciturn misinterpretations.  

Telling someone to lighten or tighten their grip pressure is an abstraction of words.  Light to me might not be light to you. 

THE MECHANICS: LIGHTEN  OR TIGHTEN YOUR GRIP PRESSURE! 

WHAT IS NATURAL: Batters and pitchers hold the bat and ball just enough to balance the pressure in order to produce the perfect amount of control without diminishing power.  

WHAT DO BASEBALL PLAYERS DO? 

The batter can hold the bat heavy handed or light.  It all comes down to bat speed.  The lighter you hold the bat the faster you will make the barrel through the hitting area. 

DO IN GOLF AS YOU DO IN BASEBALL:

Experience: Grab a bat.  

Questions: Do you hold the bat lighter in grip pressure than you do a golf club?  Do you find anything interesting about that fact?   

Experience: Take a club, point it straight up in the air; 0 grip pressure on a scale from 1 to 10; then allow the club head to fall forward. It is this initial grab of the club with your hands, which regulates grip pressure that is optimum for accuracy and power.  

It is from here you will be able to feel the barrel of the club. 

(Many baseball hitters, Rafael Palmeiro comes to mind, appear to be hardly holding onto the bat with his hands.  By holding the bat lightly Palmeiro, as do many batters in the Majors, create bat speed).  

DOING THE DRILL WITH A BAT AND CLUB.