Greetings Golfers,

On the way to work the other day, I heard that old 38 Special song “Hold on Loosely” … and of course related it to the golf swing.

How about these lyrics: “Just hold on loosely, But don’t let go, If you cling too tightly, You’re going to lose control”.

How true is that? And how hard to do under pressure?

Usually when I see people start playing poorly during a round, it’s because they start squeezing the golf club. Then the worse they play, the tighter they squeeze. Then, they start making swing changes. Usually unnecessary swing changes.

It’s sort of a chicken-or-egg situation … the squeezed grip causes technical problems. But a relaxed grip will very often solve those problems (if they haven’t become too ingrained).

Remember … it’s a golf swing … and it’s pretty hard to make a swing with a super tight grip.

Baseball bats have a knob at the grip end so that the bat won’t fly out of your hands. The baseball bat should also be held loosely. Remember Tony Oliva? His bat was always flying into the crowd … and he was one of the best hitters of all time (and very underrated).

Do I want to rant about how the song lyrics relate to relationships and to leadership? Of course. Do you want to read about that this morning?

Well, I’m going to take the advice of the song and “Hold on Loosely” to this blog. I think you get it.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com