Interlock or overlap?
 

Which girp is better for the Golfing Machine principles? Seems like I get a improved finish swivel when I use the overlap because my full left hand is on the grip. Is this my imagination working?

I have never seen in the book a preference between interlocking and overlap. I have gone back and forth and while I have smaller hands that usually dictate interlock, find overlapping more comfortable. If the hands are educated it should not make a difference what connects them. I pay a lot more attention to my left thumb than my right pinky.

I think two other issues are more important than type of grip.

1) grip pressure.
2) how relative "strong" or "weak" the right hand is to the left

then I think you will figure out what type you might like


Consider the function of your hands when you hold the club. Do you want single action or double action?

Do prefer vertical alignment of the wrist or more predetermined roll of the wrist at address ie stronger?

Not in the book, but I personally think that the interlock tends to move to an angled hinge, and the overlap to a horizontal hinge.

Certainly worth experimenting based on your pattern/components and desired hinge.

Please explain.

I'm sure someone with more anatomy knowledge can give more detail, but when I interlock the left forearm rotation is checked, it just doesn't want to roll.

I'm guessing it is in part due to activation of the muscles supporting the thumb and forefinger of the left hand (separate your index/middle finger in a 'V' as wide as you can to feel what I'm talking about.

Sorry I can't give you more, but at least for me the difference is clear.

Just saw some video of Ryo Ishikawa's swing. He actually appears not to have the left forefinger on the grip at all. I think there is something about all five fingers on the left hand being on the club encouraging horizontal hinging.

I had that dangling finger and an interlock grip........Yoda was not for it. He likes a grip where all the fingers of the left hand are on the club. I still interlock .......too much water under the bridge. But my finger does not dangle anymore.

There are some fine players who interlocked. Not many but .........some of golfs greats.

...including Mr. Nicklaus and Mr. Woods! :salut:

Watching the US open last weekend, there was some closeup of his swing. It looks like he had interlocking grip. I have it taped and could review again. Are you implying he used a reverse overlap?

Also interesting was I was watching the 3rd round (the 4th hole at pebble?) was 280 yards and mostly everyone was taking hybrid or 3 wood to reach the hole. Michelson and Johnson hit an iron to try to reach the green. Ishikawa takes out a driver and people gasping thinking he was going over the green but he aims left and cuts it and the ball slices right into the green around 20 feet from the hole

I see what you mean. My left FOREARM doesn't want to roll independently as easily with interlocking as opposed to the varnum grip.
This brings up the discussion of how one wants to "turn the club over" . I agree that interlocking grip seems to promote angular hinging motion.

I agree. Especially when Chipping and Pitching.

With an Interlocking Grip, with any tension or lack of Right Arm bend, the Left Wrist doesn't seem to want to fully Uncock which certainly affects the Impact Swivel. Not that you want to be fully Uncocked at Impact, but by disturbing the Uncocking Freedom even the slightest seems to affect the 3 dimensional Impact.

There are days that any of that doesn't seem to be the case, but for general purposes, the Overlap ALLOWS the Left Wrist more freedom of motion.

The Little Finger of the Right Hand seems to grasp tightly when Interlocked. I think it's best not to allow that to occur.

Hello,

new to TGM and LBG... still diging out the wealth of information here !

A teaching pro told me that if you put pressure on the thumb and forfinger, this activate the muscles in the top of the forearm which restrict the pronation / supination. On the contrary, pressure on the last three finger activates muscles in the bottom of the forearm that do not interfere with pronation / supination.

Etzwane

Which hand are you talkin about?

No, it's an interlock. It's just that his left index finger kind of hangs free, almost like he's pointing it, rather than being curled around the right pinky. I do it this way when I interlock; it seems to help keep excess tension out of the left forearm for me.

I dangled it too. Yoda advised against it, strongly.

I think the dangly fingers can often with go with tight wrists.......the exact opposite of what you want .....firm grip relaxed wrists which allow some wrist action. The Hands are clamps but the wrists are tension free as they must be.

I had a teacher along time ago who had a great test/drill for this predicament. He'd take your clubhead in his hands and move it up down, or back and forth which he could do quite freely assuming your wrists were free ........but he'd sneak in a random super hard twist to see if your grip pressure was snug. Its a great test that one. The firm wrists , loose grip guys at first resist the lazy back forth up down and then relax a bit but when he twists the handle slips in their hands. Not good. If you'd have tried this on Ben Hogan I bet it'd all be free and easy until you went to do the surprise twist at which point you'd receive some serious resistance and probably a look that could kill. "No Siree".

I'm partial to interlocking for now.
For me I prefer to have a bit of the left forefinger between the metacarpal joint and the proximal interphalangeal joint on the shaft of the club. I'm not aware if I point the rest of it or not, but my left forefinger is definitely involved in the grip.

I couldnt agree more and was about to say exactly that.

There's more than a few majors won with that grip Dlam.

That's true for both ands but specifically I was thinking about the left hand (for right handed golfer) as far as the pressure on the last three fingers.

A little drill to understand how finger pressure points of the left hand affect the release swivel, follow through and finish: make a swing but let the right hand come off the club before impact. Do it once with pressure only on the last three fingers and once with accure pressure on the forefinger and thumb and none on the last three fingers. Don't do that at home unless you have plenty of room under the ceiling !

Lately, I been using the "dangling" left forefinger for the full swing and I been compressing the ball solidly. I don't need to feel the first metacarpalphangeal joint of my index finger on the grip.
In fact I think having it off makes it less restrictive for the left forearm to rotate and makes horizontal hinging much easier.

Odd isn't it that the mirror image of that joint in the right hand is PP3

Strange too is that when I take my grip I am specific in my hands where not to grip as well as which specifc points to grip.

In my swing,Which areas in the hand not to grip seems to be as important or even more important than the PP.

One difference between interlock and overlapping is that interlocking puts the palm of the right hand more parallel to the shaft. Thus you need to bend your right wrist more to get the same flying wedge.

I recently read that Jum Furyk uses a double overlap. That will give him even more right wrist bend "for free" than the regular overlap. He said that he got a better transition this way. I am convinced that the wrist bend was a bottle neck for him earlier.

I hadn't realized the implication of going to interlocking in regards to wrist alignments. Very interesting find BerntR !

Kevin

I have tried the interlock and find it difficult on the inside of the knuckles of the interlocked fingers. I cannot wait to put the double overlap into operation.

Do you think YODA just shakes his head wondering what in the world his children are talking about? ... :) :) :)

Kevin

Maybe,

:laughing9

BerntR,
You are right. The double overlap is the best way to hold the club. I have been trying it out on the range past month and it feels superior to the interlock.
I can feel and monitor PP#1 much better.
PP#2 feels more secure. modifications I made was just slightly smaller diameter grip size on my clubs, nontapered grip. and hold the club with strong left hand grip. The club sits way more into my fingers with tightest pressure over the little finger and progressive less toward the ring finger and middle finger. The left index finger sits on top of the grip with no pressure on the grip.

I've tried to grip the club like this, and find it so unstable with the right hand. With the right hand, are you "gripping" the left hand, or the club?

I regard the usual (single) overlap as perhaps the most neutral, middle ground grip here.

But I don't see why different golfers shouldn't modify towards double overlap or towards interlocking if that puts the right hand in a better position throughout the stroke.

I tried the double overlap grip just in Basic Motion. I don't think it is for a hitter, not this hitter anyway.

My right hand covers my left hand. The only part of my right hand grip touching the shaft is my right middle finger and a bit of my right index finger at the 1st knuckle.
Even though my right hand is holding mostly my left hand I feel like I am "gripping" the primary lever assembly(left arm and clubshaft) 6-A-2.

Double overlap works only if I have a strong left hand grip. If I weaken my left hand for whatever reason, then I revert to grip with interlocking or 10 fingered.

Curiously, I find the vardon grip to be least desirable. I feel the need to either interlock to stablize the grip, or double overlap to stablize the grip.

The 2 finger overlap feels very much like a 10-2-D grip.
When I was trying to feel comfortable with this grip, I was doing the Sergio thing at Bethpage.....the constant regriping. But after 1 hour of hitting balls the grip felt was very comfortable.

I want my left wrist cocking motion to be inline with a bent right wrist. My left hand has three knuckles showing.
I just find that the double action works better with 2 finger overlap rather than single overlap.

When I use the interlocking or ten finger I tend to default to a strong or weak single action Grip. If I try to use double action with interlocking or baseball grip, it feels like my hands are fighting each other.

I noticed that when I "waggle" my hands I am adjusting from a double action to single action grip.
When I "milk" the grip I trying to achieve a double action grip.

Ok, I understand. I was able to grip it more solidly after reading this post. That said, I prefer the interlock. My left side is stronger than my right, and I find that the overlap and double overlap seem to keep my hands from working together. The left just seems to take over and drag the handle through. The interlock seems to balance things out.