Is it all in the Wrists?

I must confess that I have a worn spot on all my grips.  It can be severe.  I wore a spot on one grip on one club that went down to the metal of the shaft.

"I've never seen that before," said a pro.  Alas, he had no thoughts on what it was or how to fix it.

My friend has the softest grips I've ever seen.  Softer than a ...  well, let us just say, "very soft."  I was always wondered how he kept from destroying them.

So I'm thinking the other day that the club head goes through a number of manipulations as it goes up and then down.

Each of the manipulations needed to be addressed at impact time.  There is the wrist hinge and the movement of the club to match the swing plane of the arms.  This last usually affected by the arms rotating around each other.  Whether you should be thinking of these things as you swing is another question.  But clearly you don't want to interfere with this action.

When it is all unraveled at the end, the club must find its way back to the ball as the wrists unhinge and the hands move the club from the arm plane back to the arc that will cause the club head to return to square.  This arc is above the arm plane.  I imagine this stepping out above the plane.  Which suggests that the arm plane is below that of the club.


I realized that I'm grinding up grips by not allowing my right hand to close the club face or step out from the arm plane to return to the ball.  I was of course moving the left hand and when the two hands were in conflict the worn spot is the result.

As I realized this and hit some slow motion shots to feel the hands moving together and the right hand aggressively closing the club, I realized that there might be just a touch of speed in this all this.

It also seems to be the reason I tend to have the club face closed at address as not using the right hand makes it tough to square it.  Thus having a bit "in hand" to start seems a useful thing.

So I hit a lot of smooth, powerful hooks. 

I have a game tomorrow and I'll see if I can implement this new found freedom.


Report from the field: 

Sadly this will be a shortened report.  For the second time recently I came down with a migraine on the later stages of the front nine.  But I had 5 pars and a couple of bogeies.  I hit the ball pretty well and I was happy with most of it.  I have found that little pitches around the greens are much easier.

I hit a couple of crisp irons and found that I'm freer with my swing.  I'll have to see what happens as there will be golf every day this week -- head willing!

BTW there is a folk treatment for migrains and that is to induce an ice cream  headache.  I stopped at 7-11 for a Slurppy, but I couldn't get the ice cream part to happen.  I used the usual Imatrex and decongestant.