Great Tips To Improve Your Stance: 2. Placing the Hands

Such a grip calls for the hands to be in practically direct opposition as they grasp the club—that is, with the palms facing each other squarely. The (left) hand is placed against the shaft in such a manner that the shaft makes a diagonal contact from the crook of the index finger across the palm.

It is, with this left hand, a combination palm and finger grip. When this hand is closed the club should be held in the first two fingers and the palm. There should be a fold of flesh between the club and the little finger.

This, as a matter of fact, is a check point by which you can tell whether you have the palm-and-finger grip.

Now we also want nay, demand—that only two knuckles of this left hand be visible when the hand is closed tightly on the club. As you address the ball and look down at your hands, you must see no more than two knuckles, those at the base of the index finger and the big finger. Not four knuckles, not three knuckles, not one knuckle. Two knuckles!

This is your second and last check point for the position of this hand.

So much emphasis has been put on the left hand over the years that many people believe the right doesn't amount to much in the grip. They couldn't be more wrong. The right hand is very important, both in the way it grasps the club and in the way it fits against the left. Let's take the club first.

Inside the left hand.

The important point here is that the club lies diagonally across the palm, from the crook of the index finger, and comes out halfway between the root of the little finger and the base of the palm. There must always be a fold of flesh between the club and the root of the little finger.

It has been said that the grip with the right hand is a finger grip. This is true. But where in the fingers? There is only one place that is correct, and that .is at the very base or root of the second and third fingers, where they meet the palm.

This is the best place because there the club can be held most securely. There is not only less chance but less inclination, with such a grip, to loosen the hand at the top of the swing or anywhere else.

Such a grip, because it is at the very edge of the palm, makes for a tighter connecting joint between arm and club, with less give than any other. It transmits more power when the ball is struck

Any grip higher in the fingers of the right hand, say along the inside of the middle knuckles of the second and third fingers, is untrustworthy. It is a loose grip to begin with, and the tendency is to loosen it further at the top of the swing. Finally, there is more give in it when the ball is hit.

We have identified the right-hand grip as being taken with the second and third fingers because, of course, the index finger is separated slightly from the middle finger and is hooked low around the club. The little finger, in the over- lapping or interlocking grips, does not touch the club at all. In the so-called ten-finger grip, though, the little finger would grasp the club exactly as the second and third do.

In taking our grip we recommend placing the left hand on the club first in its proper position, then sliding the right under the shaft, fingers extended and palm up.. As the club slips into the little groove where the fingers meet the palm, slide no farther. Close the hand then, moving it up the shaft slightly so that the third finger fits against the index finger of the left hand and the little finger overlaps or Hes on top of the left index finger.

You will find that the palm of the right comes up and faces directly to the left, and that the center of the base of the right hand fits snugly over the big knuckle at the base of the left thumb.

Both thumbs will be on the shaft, the, left lying a little to the right of the top (at about 2 o'clock in aviation parlance) and the right lying to the left of the top, at about 10 or 10:30 o'clock. The well-known V's, formed by the folds of flesh between the thumb and fore-finger of each hand, should both point a shade to the right of the chin, to about the inside joint of the color bone

Incidentally, one of the club manufacturers has a small ridge-line running down the underside of all its grips. This fits perfectly into the groove at the base of the fingers of the right hand, and practically locks the player into the correct right-hand position.

Ridge-line or not, however, this is the overlapping grip.

. Its principal points are that the hands are opposed, the left has a palm-and-finger contact, the right a finger grip alone—and that only two knuckles of the left are visible at address.

Two slight refinements should be mentioned. The crook of the right index finger, when the grip is completed, must always be farther down the shaft than the end of the right thumb. The crook of this index finger may be regarded, almost, as a hook, and it must never be higher than the tip of the thumb.

It is also permissible to place the overlapping little finger down against the seam between the left hand's index and big fingers. This is not too important. It may feel more comfortable that way to some and it may give a feeling of greater security to others. If you like the little finger down in the seam instead of riding on top of the index finger, by all means put it there.

We believe this grip is better than the interlocking or the ten finger grips. The pure baseball grip is not even to be considered; it has nothing whatever to recommend it.

The overlapping grip gives us a better chance to maintain full and tight contact with both hands at all stages of the swing. This we must have.