The most common grip when starting golf is the Ten Finger Grip. Put simply it's when you don't interlock or overlap any of the fingers. This can feel like a powerful grip as you can fully use your hands throughout the swing. Now when making a decision whether to keep this grip will all come down whether you're impact position is either enhanced or suffering when holding the club this way.
What tends to happen when continuing this grip often leads to an impact position where the hands tend to be quite 'flippy'. This means that the hands tend to stay behind the clubface causing 'thin' shots and 'top' shots. The reason for this is that with the Ten Finger grip, the bottom hand tends to slip further and further down the club causing the hands to be very active. What you will see with this grip is generally an excessive wrist hinge during the swing culminating in an impact position where the hands work backwards through the impact area.
However it is okay to use this grip as long as the hands stay close together throughout the swing. What I will have my students do is make sure that the groove below the pad of the right thumb sits as high as you can on the left thumb. The goal then is to make sure that the right hands stays on top of the left thumb right through impact. This is easily checked when placed on video to see whether the grip at the beginning of the swing matches that at impact.
The recommended grips that I inform my students to adopt will tend to be the Overlap and Interlock Grips. Put simply these grips are when the 'pinkie' of the right hand (Based on a Right Hander) either overlaps or interlocks the index finger of the left hand. Now when first applying one of these grips for the first time, you will often feel weak in the hands. However when you try this grip for a couple of weeks, you will once again feel strong. The benefit of these grips is that the hands will tend to stay close together throughout the swing resulting in an impact position where the hands have every chance of staying in front of the Clubface.
If you'd like any further help in considering which grip is right for you just contact myself at David Waters Golf.
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