By Kim Jeong-kyoo
Korea Times Golf Columnist
A golf swing itself is pretty much a natural consequence of pre-swing preparations. It's no use trying to make a good swing with poor preparation. No golfer can make a solid impact without the necessary swing arrangements, including good grip, posture, alignment and ball position.
Of paramount importance to consistent, powerful impact is to grip the club properly. Without placing your hands properly on the handle of the club it is impossible to make a graceful and effective swing that repeats all the time.
You do not control the club with your feet, knees, hips, shoulders or other parts of your body. Hands are the only means to control the club as it is connected to your hands.
Your grip provides the only physical connection with the club, affecting every aspect of your swing. Along with the distance and accuracy of the shot, how the shot feels at impact is greatly influenced by your grip.
Importantly, proper grip comprises more than 80 percent of a good golf swing and a flawed grip is usually the root cause of a variety of chronic swing problems.
For a proper grip with your left hand, press your thumb and forefinger tightly together and place your hand against the side of the handle of the club so the handle lies from the middle joint of your forefinger through to the knuckle joint of your little finger. The back of your hand needs to be square to the clubface with the heel pad placed above the top of the butt end.
Be sure your forefinger presses the handle upward and the pad muscles of your left palm, not the thumb-pad but the heel-pad, presses it downward so you can hold the club aloft without gripping the club with your remaining four fingers.
Allowing the forefinger and thumb of your left hand to be pressed tightly against each other prevents the club from getting loose on the top of the backswing, encouraging a smooth, controlled downswing.
For a proper right hand grip, hold the club slightly under the handle, not on top of it, so the shaft runs from the base of the little finger through to the third knuckle, into which the rib of the handle of the club should be fitted snugly.
Be sure your palm is square to the clubface and thumb is positioned slightly to the left of the center of the shaft.
Also critical is to make it certain that the muscles of the pad of your right thumb snugly rests on the thumb of your left hand.
For your hands to work harmoniously your left thumb needs to fit comfortably between your right thumb-pad and heel-pad. Your right thumb needs to cover the left one at the completion of the grip.
Gripping the club correctly presents you with a better chance of hitting the ball solidly on a more consistent basis. A proper grip is critical to a powerful, firm impact that sends the ball far and straight.
Unless you hold the club in the correct fashion, you will never sense the nice, solid feeling that the ball is staying stuck to the clubface for a long time through impact before it leaves the clubhead.
A golf swing comprises 80 percent grip, 10 percent stance and posture, five percent swing, and another five thought. This means that there is no way to hit the ball well unless you grip properly and set up correctly.
Once you've made proper pre-swing preparations, all you have to do to hit the ball firmly is trust your instinct and go with it rather than strive to apply a plethora of complicated in-swing mechanics.
In actual practice, you will swing the club in a proper fashion when you are left alone or rather when you allow your instincts to take over. Every individual has an aptitude for a decent golf swing and you are no exception. As long as you prepare properly and swing a golf club instinctively without constraint, you will swing effectively, getting what you want from your swing.