Articles
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Doc's Cures Click here to view Dr. Jim Suttie's most recent articles in GOLF Magazine. You can find the articles below and additional instruction from Dr. Jim Suttie at the Naples News website here. Getting a Grip on Your Game: Grip Adjustments By Dr. Jim Suttie I am often asked what is the most important fundamental in golf. My answer is the same all the time---"the grip". The grip controls the face angle at the bottom of your swing. What else could be more important? Grip types are divided into three different areas: strong, neutral and weak. A strong grip would have the hands rotated slightly to the right (for a right-handed player). This grip would be well suited to women, juniors and anybody with small hands and fingers. Sometimes we might call this a "hook" grip because it does encourage a hooking ball flight. The left thumb will rest down the right side of the shaft in an "extended" or "long" position as the right palm will face the left at address. A long left thumb that is positioned to the right side of the shaft will allow your hands to stay behind the shaft at impact. This is very important if you are to compress the ball at impact. The stronger left hand and the longer the left thumb the easier it is to hit that nice little right to left draw shot. The other two grip types, the weak and neutral will find the hands placed more on the club in a way where the left thumb is at the 12 o'clock position. This grip can only be used by someone with big, very strong hands. Honestly, I do not feel that the average golfer should even consider the neutral or weaker grip because they encourage an earlier release of the clubhead with the hands and arms and less body motion on the downswing. In summary, if you really want to improve your golf swing and your ball striking, I would do the following:  Commit to a stronger left-hand grip with the left thumb placed on the right side of the shaft. The left thumb should always rest behind the shaft for the average player.  Match up your right hand to your left so that both palms face one another.  Put your left thumb in a "long" or extended position on the club.  Example of a strong grip position.  Example of a weak grip position. Golf’s Most Important Fundamental: “The Release” By Dr. Jim Suttie Since many amateur golfers have problems with slicing I am addressing one of golf’s most important fundamentals: The release. According to Webster, release means “let go”. This is exactly what DOESN'T happen in most amateur’s golf swing. Most have so much tension in your hands and arms that you are unable to feel the clubhead. Just for fun, take an old club and throw it down the fairway! If the club goes left or behind you, you know you are over-controlling it. It must be released straight down the fairway. Make sure there are no people around when you try this little experiment! Generally when we refer to “releasing the club”, we are referring to rotating the clubhead from an open position just prior to impact to a closed position just after impact. As simple as this sounds, most of you just do not do this. You are most likely trying to squeeze the clubhead so hard with your hands that the club simply won’t rotate closed. Also, many golfers try to steer the club in the hitting area instead of just letting centrifugal force create the clubhead rotation naturally. The heart and soul of a good swing is that area from the waist on the downswing to impact and back to the waist on the forward swing. The club goes from open before impact, to square at impact, to closed after impact. This is the “release” we're looking for. If you have a good release the ball will go turn from right-to-left in a hooking fashion. If you don’t have a release then the ball will go to the right as in a “push” or “slice”. Drills to Correct the Slice Tendencies Waist-to-Waist Drill At the range, work on a Waist-to-Waist Drill. Let the club open up to the target line on the backswing and close to the target line after impact. You might have some success if you are a slicer just trying to get the toe of the club to the ball before the heel. You may be able to feel the release better if your right forearm has rolled over your left at the waist high position after impact.   Split Grip Drill In the Split-grip Drill you split apart your grip at address and then simply take some swings.  Continuous Swing Drill To feel the clubhead more try the Continuous Swing Drill. In this drill, simply tee up 5 to 10 balls in a row and take continuous swings without stopping.  Advance Drill Use the Advance Drill for the release would be to face your back to the target and hit balls. There are also training aids where the toe of the club is weighted to give the golfer a feel for release. The biggest tip I can give is to get rid of that tension in your hands and arms and let the force work for you. That force, of course is centrifugal force.  Speed Limits By Dr. Jim Suttie Many golfers are looking for more distance when they come to me for a lesson. Distance is a function of mass x velocity squared. This means that velocity, or clubhead speed, has twice as much to do with distance as the weight of the clubhead. This is why manufacturers are trying to make their equipment lighter and lighter. Simply stated, a lighter club can be swung faster and thus more clubhead speed generated, assuming you hit the ball in the middle of the clubface. The velocity a club travels through impact is a result of two things:
Some things that aid in producing more clubhead speed are:
Drills: Swing drills that will help your clubhead speed: Drill 1: Swoosh Drill Purpose: Train for clubhead speed. This drill may be with either the right or left hand. Directions:
  Drill 2: Baseball Drill Purpose: Develop more clubhead speed and a sense of a hand and arm release. It may help overly upright swingers. Directions:
   Drill 3: Club on Shoulder Drill Purpose: Increase clubhead speed and relax hands, arms and wrist. Directions:
   You can find the articles below and additional instruction from Dr. Jim Suttie at the Naples News website here. |
