What’s the difference between a weak grip and strong grip?

We harp on the fundamentals a lot around here — and for good reason. The fundamentals are the building blocks for success and are crucial to nail if you’re serious about improvement.

One fundamental that has a huge impact on your golf swing is the grip. Your hands are the only connection point between you and the golf club, so the way you hold the club is quite important. If you have a poor grip, you’re setting yourself up for failure before you even start the swing.

A couple weeks ago, we published a story with GOLF Top 100 Teacher Debbie Doniger about the basics of gripping the club. Today, we are going to get a little more in the weeds as we discuss two different types of grips: strong ones and weak ones.

Strong grip vs. weak grip

Once you start getting a little more in the weeds as it pertains to golf instruction, you’ll start to hear some terms you might not be familiar with. A couple of these regard the grip. You’ll typically hear the terms “strong” and “weak” when it comes to the grip.

What does this mean? Well, it all has to do with how you’re holding the club. More specifically, the terms are referring to how your hands sit on the grip.

Strong grip

When you hear that someone has a “strong” grip, you might assume it’s referring to how tightly they’re holding onto the club. However, it actually has nothing to do with your grip pressure at all. It’s all about the orientation of your hands on the grip.

With a strong grip, your lead hand — the left hand for a right-handed player — will be turned more on top of the grip. You’ll also turn your trail hand to be a little more underneath the grip.

“Both Vs [on your hands] will point more toward your trail shoulder or even outside your trail shoulder,” Doniger says. “That is considered a stronger grip or a closed-face grip.”

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Weak grip

With a weak grip, your hands will be doing the opposite of what they’d do with a strong grip. Your lead hand will turn more counterclockwise to be underneath the grip while your trail hand will also rotate and be more on top of the grip.

“The Vs [on your hands] for a weaker grip or an open-faced grip are pointing more toward the center of your body,” Doniger says.

There’s no right or wrong answer for which is better between a strong or a weak grip as it all depends on how your body moves and how you swing the club. Next time someone talks about strong or weak grips, though, you’ll at least know what they’re talking about.