A Malaska Golf Member says that working on his grip has really helped his golf swing. Mike reinforces that how you put your hands on the club determines how you move through the golf swing and what your hands must do to square the clubface to the ball at impact. In an ideal world, you want your joints to work as designed, where they are the strongest, and also, you want the least compensation to straighten the clubface at impact. Mike laments that he had the correct grip when he started; however, along the way, coaches talked him out of it, as they thought it wasn't the right way to grip a golf club. Now, Mike is back to gripping the club like he did when he was eighteen. The member talks about when he put his left hand on the club, his thumb was on top of the handle, but now, it is off to the side. Mike says this is important because your thumb acts as a stabilizer. It doesn't push the club or add force. For instance, your thumb stabilizes the club at the top of your swing so it doesn't float around. At impact, you hit with the back part of the hand, which faces out. The wrist bows, but the watch face side isn't facing out. That is old-school teaching. The thumb is on the back of the handle supporting the shaft, so when the club hits the ground, the thumb stabilizes in the clubface. Mike uses the following analogy all the time. Grip a baseball bat and take a swing. The grip at impact for a baseball bat is the same as that with a golf club at impact. There is a sports connect! Mike shows you how to put a golf grip on a baseball bat. He grips the back with his left hand, and his thumb is on the back of the bat handle. His right hand grips the bat, which is slightly more up than a baseball grip. Mike brings the bat back in front of him and drops it down behind the golf ball. This is your golf grip! Now you are in a position where your hands are moving in a chopping action when you hit the ball. You would never swing a baseball bat with a bowing action at impact. It is weak, and Mike believes you shouldn't swing like that with a golf club. Mike notes some players swing like that, but it fights against how the joints are designed and puts your left wrist in a compromising position. You are more prone to injury gripping the club that way. When you have the correct grip and step up to swing the club, it feels more like a baseball swing. You will find you have more stability in the back of the ball and the shaft.