Chapter 3 - Strengthening The Hands

Strong hands, wrists and fingers are essential to the retention of a correct and constant grip in every detail and the development of the feeling that it is fitted snugly to the shaft.

You may well ask why this emphasis on strength in view of my warning against a vice-like grip of the club. After all, a golf club only weighs between twelve and fifteen-and-a-half ounces.

Here is the answer. For all its comparatively light weight the club head moves in a wide arc and works up to a high speed at impact. To keep complete control of it without restriction of the life and power of the swing it is necessary to develop a measure of strength which permits firm mastery without the fullest physical effort to apply it.

The novice, learning to drive a car, starts by clenching the steering wheel. Smooth steering thereby is impossible and if he were to drive any distance the arms would soon be aching. Similarly with the novice boxer. Clenching his fists inside his gloves and holding his arms rigid he cannot throw a proper punch or react quickly enough to parry one from his opponent. His arms rapidly tire and feel as heavy as lead.

It is this same muscular tension against which I am warning you as a golfer. A fierce grip on the shaft locks the wrists and deprives the movement of LIFE, but if the hands are not conditioned to their task the natural instinct is to grip fiercely.

You will read very little in this book about the part which the wrists play. You should not be conscious of, or worried about, your wrists at any stage of the swing. Any deliberate attempt to apply them destroys immediately the smooth progress of the club head which should be swung smoothly through its arc BY THE ARMS. The hands, correctly gripping the club in the manner which I have described in such detail, will permit the arms to do this.

Now you will know why I deplore the cliché "make sure the wrists are fully cocked at the top of the swing" used by people who, almost in the same breath, warn you, very properly, that there should be no conscious effort to cock the wrists.

How, I ask you, can you, or anybody, "make sure the wrists are fully cocked at the top of the swing" without consciously making an effort to ensure this? You need not, must not, worry about the function of the wrists. Get the grip right and the wrists and elbows properly positioned at address, (we shall come to that when we deal with the stance) and the wrists will look after themselves.

We have heard and read about " stiff-wristed" methods of American golfers. Utter rubbish! I declare that no American, from Hogan, Snead and Palmer down, would break 90 playing with stiff wrists.

I feel that this stiff-wristed illusion arose from the very fact that the Americans make no great play of the wrist action in their game. They keep their wrists under control. Jackie Burke, one of their outstanding stylists, declared that the wrists are rarely, if ever, mentioned in American locker rooms or on the practice grounds.

I repeat, the wrists will play their automatic part IF the arms and hands function correctly. Yet strength in the wrists is required if they are to take the strain which the swing movement imposes on them. Floppy wrists make golf a penance. See that they become strong and supple.

Now for ways to train and strengthen the hands, fingers and wrists.

I am not among the advocates of swinging a specially weighted club. Do all your club-swinging with a club of the swing-weight you will use out on the course. That to me makes common sense. A practice-swinging club with ounces of extra lead poured into the head simply provides you with a clumsy, unwieldy implement in sharp contrast to the finely balanced product which the manufacturer has turned out for your use.

No, I advise a selection of simple exercises such as pressing the spread finger-ends of the two hands against each other and compressing a spring grip obtainable for two or three shillings and easily carried in the pocket. This spring grip also builds up the forearm muscles, and when you can fully compress it without strain you will be on the way to your objective.

But probably the best method of strengthening the fingers is by using a simple piece of apparatus which you can rig up in a few minutes.

Take a broom handle and bore a hole half-way along its length. Run a piece of string through the hole and fix a weight at the other end of the string. Holding the pole with both hands apart and parallel to the ground, turn it with the fingers clockwise towards the body thus winding the string towards the pole and drawing the weight up to it. Release the weight slowly back to the ground by turning the fingers in the opposite direction.

One word of warning. Make sure your equipment is strong enough for its work. An assistant professional sent to my school by his employer failed to take this necessary precaution.

I had found that this player's hands were not working properly together. The right hand was overpowering the left, so I set him this broom-handle exercise. So keen was he to get to work that immediately on his return to his employer's workshop he picked up the first weighty article which met his eye a large jar of varnish used for coating wooden club heads and whipping.

The exercise was going well until, with the jar almost up to the pole, the string snapped. Down went the jar, spilling its sticky contents across the floor of the shop!

You cannot put in too much work on the hands and fingers those vital extremities which are your sole contact with the club, the means by which you feel and sense the position of the club head throughout the movement. Train them and condition them, and you will find that the rest of the technique which goes to the shaping of the swing will become less of a chore and more of a pleasure. Your progress will be more rapid and sure.

Possibly the strongest hands in golf belong to Bill Shank land, husky former Australian rugby player, and a prominent tournament regular until a few years ago. Shank land has such strength in his hands and fingers that he can spread his fingers, fit crown corks of beer bottles in the angles thus formed between the fingers and close them with a pressure which bends the metal works.

Observe Harry Weetman. This immensely powerful British professional is one of the most exciting players to watch by reason of the unbelievable recoveries he makes from almost impossible spots in the heavy rough. The great strength stored in his forearms, wrists, hands and fingers enable Weetman to perform these spectacular recoveries which draw gasps from the gallery. With this great reservoir of strength from the elbows down he can retain his grip through the thickest trouble-spots without being too tensed-up to keep the club head swinging.

The great Henry Cotton worked, perhaps harder than anyone, to condition his hands. Strong man Arnold Palmer has immense power stored in his hands. Gary Player does seventy fingertip press-ups a day.

Finally, here is a significant admission by American Ryder Cup Captain, Jerry Barber. Last year he declared he was hitting the ball farther than he had ever done before, thanks to hand exercises with a spring grip.

Barber, no big man physically, was already a big money winner, but, still not content, he set to work "increasing the playing strength in my hands and forearms and gained greater control over the club. That is why I am hitting the ball farther than ever."

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