How much should your left arm participate?
 

I took my book and bag to the range last night. I used book markers so I could refer back to all the areas I wanted to experiment with and I had fairly good success.

After 3-1/2 hours and 300 balls my left forearm was getting really tight. My swing has always been more of a hitting style than a swingers style but I really wanted to try to implement a swingers stroke into my game and I was really excited with some of the results!

After watching Tommy's videos he says that the left arm is like a piece a rope and basically is does nothing but hang onto the club. Should my left forearm be tightening up like this? What could I be doing wrong to make this happen?
Any ideas would be helpful.


Thanks ~ Rich

Rich,

Could just be the effect of hanging on to the club a little too tightly through 300 hits.

Make a fist and tighten your grip to see the effect on the muscles of the forearm.

Swinging the club does not tighten those muscles but tightening your grip will.

After hitting 100 balls your muscles will fatigue let alone hitting 300 balls.

As much as my right in pulling the club.

Back to the range last night and this time I limited the balls to one bucket (140);, I noticed right away my left hand is really what's tightening up which in turn is causing my left forearm muscles to get tight.
I don't know how to stop hanging on to the club so tight!!!
I tried to concentrate on using PP#3 and tracing without really clamping onto the club but nothing seems to work.
The good news coming from all of this is how much farther I carry each club using the down and OUT swing method. What took me a 7 iron to reach was only taking a 9 and could have even reached it with a wedge. (totally amazing)
If anyone has any insight how to stop griping the club so hard please let me know.
I appreciate all the replies to my question. :salut:

Rich

What size glove do you wear and what size grip do you have? I'd look to three areas if you are having to grip the club too hard:

1) grip needs to be more 'under the heel pad' of the left hand
2) your grips are too small for your hands
3) your grips are worn and need to be replaced

Edz, My current clubs are fairly new (purchased 5/06) and the grips are the standard ones that came with my Callaway® X18's and look to be in great shape. Usually I re-grip every new season.
At 6-3" 200lbs I do have fairly large hands but not to the point where it's noticeable.

I will LOOK to make sure I am keeping the club more under the heel pad of my hand and not in the cup.
With my old swing I never had this problem.
Funny, I didn't even know they made grips for larger or smaller
hands, nobody ever asked me that before.

Thanks again.

Rich

At 6'3 it is a very good bet you need a larger than standard grip. I use a medium large glove and mid-size grips with some extra wrap. Experiment with mid and oversize. You can use Ping's web-fit on their website to get a general idea of what size you need based on a couple hand measurements.

Thank you.

Rich

Gripping too hard
 

Rich,

Slacken off with the thumb and forefinger and grip only with the remaining three fingers of your left hand - particularly the "pinky".

It is difficult to grip too hard without using the thumb and forefinger.