Why You Need This: In this video, you'll learn why not to put pressure with the right hand.

My students often ask questions about how much pressure to apply with the hands and also how to apply pressure.

Should you feel like you're pulling with your left hand...

Or should you feel like you're pushing the club through?

In the first part of the video, you'll see a demonstration of what the club is doing in the downswing.

The butt end of the club accelerates up through impact as the clubface whips through impact.

This happens so fast that the right hand has a difficult time keeping up.

For that reason, I recommend that you not try to apply much pressure with your right hand.

Doing so will likely slow your club speed.

Pros such as Phil Mickelson and Vijay Singh swing with little pressure from the trailing hand.

Their trailing hands are barely holding onto the club.

So where exactly should you apply pressure on the club?

Feel like you're applying pressure with the bottom three fingers on your left hand.

This will allow the club to whip through contact fast without your right hand slowing it down.

Now, don't think that your right hand doesn't do anything.

As you start the downswing, your right hand helps pull the club down and it helps stabilize the club.

Just remember not to let your right hand hold back your speed.

Watch this video now to learn how to apply pressure to the club to maximize your swing speed!

Golf Pros Featured:

Instructors Featured: Clay Ballard    

Video Duration: 5:10

Video Transcription:

Hey guys, welcome back. This is a question I’ve gotten several times on the website, that’s where should I feel pressure in the club shaft?

Some people talk about we’re coming through contact, should be feeling pressure with my right hand kind of pushing this club through contact? Should I be feeling with my left hand, kind of pulling the club through?

Where should I feel in my hands the pressure be? Or you might also hear this kind of misconception that we should be very light on our golf swing. That’s fine at address, I want my hands to be very loose and relaxed on the golf club.

But as I come through contact, that’s going to really tighten up. I’ve got to put a lot more pressure into the club coming through contact.

Let’s go over what’s really happening. So in a good golf swing, from creating a lot of club head speed, let’s say a Tour average, I’m going to be having some lag in the downswing.

Basically, I’m creating an enable between my forearm and the club shaft. Then to release that lag, I’m going to be kind of slowing my hands down actually, believe it or not.

I don’t necessarily need to feel that, but I’m actually going to be putting pressure up toward my shoulder. If you’re looking from the down the line view, it’s going to be going kind of behind my body. So it’s going this way to get hat club to whip on through there.

So in my left hand, because my left hip and my left shoulder going back and up, my hand is going back and up, and I’ve got this big angle, as I pull that way with my body, and that club is naturally going to whip on through there.

Now the acceleration is happening so fast then, if we look at this club handle, what’s happening is at the low point here where my right leg, the butt end of this club is kind of moving up and to the left.

I’m actually moving up, and again, that comes down to my left shoulder and my body moving upward and around. As that moves up, that really helps to accelerate the club and whip the club through contact, it’s where you get a lot of speed from.

The bottom part of the grip down here, it’s going to be releasing forward, and it’s going to be releasing forward really quickly. It doesn’t turn up as much because it’s lower on the grip, but it’s going to be releasing forward.

Now there’s a lot of research out there and some people believe, which I tend to agree with, that because the club is accelerating so quickly the right hand can’t really keep up.

So if you look at players like Phil Mickelson, or VJ Singh, sometimes you’ll see them as they come through impact. Their right hand will just barely even be on the club.

Their left hand will be on there firmly, and their right hand will almost be off the club, just like that. It’s just completely let go of the grip.

I would tend to say that that’s really good use of the body, the grip turning up, and that club head is accelerating so fast, they don’t want to have a tight right hand or it’s actually going to slow the club down. They could feel like they’re letting go with their right hand, and letting that club whip on through there.

The big key is, what I want to feel in these bottom three fingers. Because my grip is turning upward, because my club head is really accelerating through very quickly, I want to feel these bottom three fingers have most of the pressure.

As I rotate on through, that’s going to allow the club to whip right on through there, because all I’m having is at the very end of the grip, allowing that to come on through.

If my right hand is on there tight, it’s going to stop the club from accelerating as quickly as you would like for it to accelerate, or as quickly as it could accelerate.

The right hand does add some pressure halfway into the downswing. As I start my downswing, the right hand really helps the club to get going. Not by casting the club, but by feeling like the club kind of moves out this way and I get some lag.

From there, it’s going to be more left hand, the feeling’s going to be more in the left hand through contact. If I wanted to feel where’s my right hand feel on the golf swing?

I’m going to feel nice and soft as I go back, as I start down, I may feel a little pressure right here as long as I’m getting some good lag, and good angled-back wrist, that’s fine.

Then what would I feel through contact would be more of my left-hand bottom three fingers, getting my grip or my butt end of the club to turn, to turn upward and accelerate that club as I’m coming through there. If you can get that type of sensation, you’re really going to hit some very long shots.

So to answer the question, I’m going to feel mostly my bottom three fingers coming through contact. As long as I get that club shallowed out like we talk about in The Move, that’s putting my club in a position where I can really let it whip on through and get a lot of speed.

Go ahead and try that out. Get that same sensation. Let the club get some lag, and then release it. In our website we go over this a lot, if you’re working on your Power Turn, your lag, and then getting that to release into your straight-line release.

That club is turning up as it’s going n the straight-line release. Let’s go ahead and try one out here, let’s see what kind of swing speed we can get today, and I’ll tell you what I felt with my left hand.

There we go, hit that one pretty hard. Little bit of a cut there, I definitely felt like my right hand was letting go. My left hand had the pressure in the bottom, and we got about 115, 114.8 club head speed.

So go out there, work on that drill guys. Get that club to lag, and then turn that grip back up to get a lot of speed.