A friend of mine is a very athletic. She plays multiple sports and has recently taken up golf. One of her best sports is baseball. Her technique to play baseball is fundamentally sound and she has enjoyed much success playing the sport. This is where the challenge begins.
I have watched her play golf and her address to the ball is very good. Her stance is good. She has a deliberate lower body motion, although sometimes she likes to take a step like in baseball. She has good hip rotation and a strong follow through. Unfortunately, she always hits the ball right. I mean right, about 45 degrees off the tee. It is not a slice, but travels straight right.
I have watched her hands and according to winnbaseball she loads her hands and delays contact through the ball….just like baseball players should. “It is EXTREMELY important not to let the hands come forward in the process of the stride. The knob of the bat should remain over the back foot until after the stride foot has landed.” Well, her golf swing definitely has this delay component in it.
Interestingly QC Bseball says, “Remember relaxed muscles will react quicker than tense muscles. So if you want to have a quick bat, relax those hands which in turn will help you relax at the plate.” This is similar in golf and is a positive aspect when comparing the baseball and golf swing.
Well back to the problem. I have suggested that my friend rotate her grip to the right to allow the club face to close during contact. This has helped some and she hit a few balls straight and long. But, this is not a permanent fix. She loves golf and is trying to improve all the time, so this is where I need some help.
Before anyone asks, my first suggestion was to take lessons from one of the local pros and she has, but she wants to work on this current problem a bit before going back for another.
Therefore, does anyone have any suggestions, tips, or drills that will help fix my friends baseball hands?
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
I assume image g3 is her golf grip.She needs to pinch her thumb and forefinger together on both hands to make the V’s of the grip. Tigers book and Annikas book have great pictures of the grip. If you can find an old instructional book of Sam Sneads his is the best when it comes to pictures of the grip. Everyone talks about Sneads swing and rightfully so but he had the best grip in the game.
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Vet
Awesome. Thanks for the tips. I will pass them on….I will also look for Tiger and Annika’s book.
Cheers
Jim
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A lot of the baseball players, turned golfers, that I teach have the same problem. It isn’t a grip issue, just an issue of weight shift at impact. Baseball players used to be taught that a ground ball or line drive in the gap is the best hit. Now a days the media has everyone tracking home runs and slugging percentages, making all young ball players want to hit the ball out of the park. In order to do this, you need to set the weight back (toward your right foot) at impact to produce an upward swing on the ball (the ball being at waist height doesn’t help either…). Unfortunately if you let your weight sit back too far at impact in golf, the club face tends to rotate open a little to much, producing that nasty block or push.
Try this, shift the weight to the back foot on the take-away, pause at the top of the back swing, shift the weight to the front foot WITHOUT ROTATING THE HIPS TOWARD THE BALL, then start the down swing and rotate the torso and hips to hit the ball. That should put about 80% of the weight on the front foot prior to the start of the downswing.
On a side not, I was planning on writing an article about this same issue very soon. You will have to tune-in soon to check it out.
Hope this works!
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Daniel
Thank you very much! I will pass this on to my friend. I will definitely stay tuned for your article!
Cheers
Jim
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