Boo Weekley Golf Swing Analysis: How the Golf Grip Affects the Golf Swing
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When you weaken your grip is helps with an easier release. Sure. But then
it’s required to have so much more timing of the release. With a strong
grip and a hold off you secure a square clubface at impact. Because your
rate of closure is minimized greatly you can rely on your body to make the
proper rotation, hence speed created with rotary movements. When I first
started golf I had video analysis pros at golftec set me up with the
“perfect” grip and hit all the right points and was very mechanical. I was
never consistent enough to break 90. I could never release the club at the
right time, my short game was the only thing that kept me under 100. I
stopped paying all that money and set out to find a better way for me. I
watched the young and upcoming stars on the pga tour they ALL have stronger
grips than the traditional teaching methods. I switched and within one
season I went from barely breaking 100 to sustained 12 handicap. ?
You say that with a strong grip we will have to hold off the rotation of
the clubhead. This might be semantics but for me its exactly opposite. With
a neutral grip I feel like I have to slow my body down. Since I switched
to a strong grip I have gained distance and accuracy. I would like to hear
your comment on something that happened with my swing and I cant see the
relationship. With the only change being my grip, my swing plane changes
drastically. With a strong grip my backswing is more upright and as my
grip gets weaker my backswing gets flatter?
What about Dustin Johnson? He’s got a very strong grip ans still is one of
the longest players on tour. OK he has this very bowed left wrist at the
top but I don’t think he would be any shorter should he had a more
conventional position. It’s the first time I hear that a strong grip
produces more speed than a weeker one. I think this is a very strong
statement. I come from a scientific background and I had to defend a
research thesis. Every word I said should be supported by strong literature
and even consensus. There are so many different factors in the golf swing
that can affect distance that I think even the best teacher in the world
cannot have any clue of what really is going on. It’s like in medecine, the
more we know, the more we figure out that we still must learn everything
and then we stay humble. As Hogan would say, secret is in the dirt…?
Because Boo’s hands are ahead of the ball at impact, he has a low
penetrating ball flight. I saw him on the range a couple of years ago at
the Wells Fargo Championship and his ball flight is straight forward and
penetrating. His hand position at impact is what makes him a great ball
striker.?
I might do a new review in the future. He is absolutely on of the best on
tour when it comes to ball striking. That is one of the reasons for this
video. I see players every day with a strong grip who want to get a lot of
wrist bow forward at impact. They also want to release like we promote on
the site. But they snap hook when they try. A strong grip is ok, but you
need to know what it entails before you use it. Lets hope he wins again
soon, he is one of my favorite players. ~Clay Ballard
PGA Tour 2013 Stats as of 6/1/2013… Driving Distance: Tiger – 294.0, Boo
– 289..6 Driving Accuracy: Tiger – 57.74%, Boo – 67.35% GIR: Tiger – 68.29,
Boo – 70.34 Ball Striking Rank: Tiger – # 31, Boo – # 4 So the point is
that Tiger’s neutral grip gets him on average 4.4 yds more on his drives
than Boo’s strong grip. Not 15 yds as this video suggests. Boo finished
2011 and 2012 ranked # 1 in ball striking on the PGA Tour. In 2010 he
finished # 6. He is a ball striking machine.
Wow, I didn’t realize Tigers driving distance had gotten that short. I
hadn’t looked at it in a while, and last time I check he was around 300. He
was averaging 316 in 2006 and now averages 293. A lot of that is by club
choice I am assuming, but still a big difference. Boo is a fantastic ball
striker, I am referring to different ways to get speed. With a weaker grip
you can release the club more aggressively, which takes less effort. This
allows you to get good speed with less wear (cont.)…
That would be nice. Perhaps you could explain how he gets the sound he
gets. So pure and loud! It must have something to do with how he compresses
the ball but I’m not a teacher, just a 10hcp. As a side note I did meet Boo
a few years ago in NC along with my 11 year old son. Boo could not have
been nicer. Respectful, kind and very funny. Knows more about the golf
swing than he lets on I might add. He became my son’s favorite that day. We
were both excited to see him win again.
(cont). I posted originally because much of the RS golf instruction
suggests taking the fast twitch muscles out of the swing. This release
seems to put them back in which seems contratictory to me. I”m not
suggesting a strong grip is better, I just don’t think it’s worse. Maybe
you’ll get a few extra yards that way, but not necessarily. The last
driving stats I found for Adam Scott showed he averages 290 yds and 67%
fairways hit. Virtually identical to Boo.
The stats don’t tell what club the player is hitting. No doubt Tiger hits
less than driver on occassion. Of course, so do others. In 2005 Tiger
averaged 316. He was also ranked # 191 in driving accuracy that year.
Anybody watching Tiger this year can see that he struggles with the driver.
He has for a long time. He won the AP Invitational finishing dead last in
driving accuracy. The tour these days is mostly bomb and gouge golf and
he’s great at that.
(cont.) on the body. Yes, I know Tiger has had injuries, just as anyone can
get injuries with or without correct technique. Tigers injuries were
related to his knee. Which could have been aggravated by having too much
weight on the toes and aggressively snapping his left leg through impact.
This type of release is not done just by tiger. Many consistent, long,
players have this same release. Adam Scott and Luke Donald would be others.
It is about getting speed easily. ~Clay Ballard
Does Tiger’s wrist any different with the changes he made with Foley?
Love the rotary swing teachings and philosophies. I have a very strong grip
similar to Boo’s (3-4 knuckles). The neutral or weak grip just doesn’t suit
my body mechanics. .
I guess I did misunderstand. I watch your videos every week and was realIy
looking forward to this one. I was hoping for an analysis of one of the
best ball strikers on the PGA tour. I’ve seen Boo on the range at several
tour events. It’s not unusual to see 6-10 of the other pros stop to watch
and LISTEN to him hit! You could have talked about his body rotation,
leverage, balance and tempo. Instead it turned out to be all about Tiger
again. I shouldn’t be surprised but I am disappointed.
and hold off the rotation of your hands in the release. That is the only
way to produce speed without snap hooking if you have a strong grip. There
are some downsides to this. With a neutral grip you can use rotation to
pick up extra speed easily. If you are strong, and fast, you can pick
either. If you are weaker, or slow, you can easily produce speed through
leverage (lag and release) and rotation of the club instead of body
rotation. I wasn’t trying to knock Boo. I like Boo. ~Clay Ballard
I think you probably misunderstood what I am promoting. I am promoting a
way to move your body correctly to get the most out of accuracy and
distance. There are many factors that go into a PGA Tour players distance
and accuracy together. I am not trying to say this is the only piece of the
puzzle to be a great driver of the ball. I made the video to show the
differences in how you move your body with a strong vs. weak grip. If you
have a strong grip you must use rotation of the body more (cont.)
Thanks steamroller72. You would need to release the club more aggressively
with a weaker grip. If you start to hit some hard hooks I would look into
the change. Good Luck!! ~Clay Ballard
I haven’t noticed any major changes. He is getting more forward shaft lean
at impact though. There are advantages and disadvantages of that though.
You get more distance on your good shots, but this can also cause distance
control to be more erratic. ~Clay Ballard
His wrist gets sore when he beats down his GF.
What a stupid name. Boo? Yeah I want to name my kid using a verb.