What is up Champs and Champettes! We are back and we are working on principle number four, we're going to be talking about our grip while putting, and how you can get a little bit better just sitting at your kitchen table. Let's get into it!
In the few putting videos I have watched of course grip does come up, but it's brushed over very quickly and I think it's much more important than it's given credit for. In these putting videos the only thing that's really mentioned about grip is just to sort of have a neutral type grip, not too tight not too loose, and honestly I think the grip is much more Dynamic than that and we're going to talk about that right now.
When I say that our grip is going to be dynamic what I mean is that when we are working on our weight shift moving backwards, starting to load up a little bit for our putt, we're going to bring the disc back and the grip's going to be pretty loose. Now when we start our weight shift forward and get ready to hit our brace we're going to tighten our grip and get ready to pop, and we're going to pop at the exact same moment we hit our brace. Ff you haven't seen the finding the brace in your putt video it's just a couple videos back. If our grip is not Dynamic, if it's just this one steady pressure the entire time essentially we're going to come out with basically a knuckle ball type putt. There's going to be very little spin on this thing, very little control, and it's going to be very frustrating.
Now we've got a great little drill that we're going to go over right now, and you can do it right at your kitchen table. It's going to help with your timing. It's going to help with your pop. So let's get into it. Here's the drill right here.
Now what are we going to learn from this drill? We talked about it. You're coming down loose, so when we're doing this drill think of that. Notice how your hand comes down loose with our weight shift. We're loose at the bottom. In order to propel forward we're going to tighten up the grip and we're going to pop.
Now what you're going to notice when you do this wrong is that if the disc flies too far left, You released it too early. If it flies too far right you popped it too late. What we really want is straight up and down with nice spin. A bit of wobbles fine but preferably no wobble and lots of spin.
The other thing that's great about this drill is that it keeps everything right in line with your wrist and people have a lot of trouble with that, especially if you're putting nose up too much. You can't do that with this drill. Its going to go flying basically over your head. If you're putting too nose down and missing low it's going to fly out in front of you.
I didn't come up with this drill. It's been thrown around since I started playing and I don't know who came up with it, but it's not talked about a lot and I find it to be extremely useful, especially for beginners that don't have the automaticity in their putt. This is a great tip to help you get going to cover your spin, your grip, the variability of your grip and your timing. It seems simple but there's a there's a bit more going on that meets the eye. So hopefully that drill helps you out and hopefully it's okay with your family that you're going to start leaving a disc on the table and messing around while you're eating your dinner. I found it to really help me and I think it can I think it can help you, at least a little bit.
The only other thing I have to say about grip is that I am not convinced that having your index finger on the edge of the rim is the best way to do it. I think that getting that last finger last joint of your index finger tucked under the rim and held on tight is going to create the most amount of friction, which is going to give you the most Dependable, reliable, and confident putt that you can that you can have. I know a lot of people have a lot of success with this, but I also I see a lot of people on course that putt like this usually and they often times have a really tough time controlling the angle of their putt. They're often on way too much Hyzer and I think that getting this last joint of the index finger under the disc, pressed in nice with the thumb really helps you control your angle and keep the putt flat.
