The Fundamentals: Grip, Stance & Contact

There's an idea that stops a lot of people: that you have to learn to swing before you go practise.

It's the other way round. You go practise in order to learn, and what's worth taking to that first session isn't a swing — it's four simple things that make everything else easier.

None of the four has anything to do with strength.

The grip: how you hold the club

The grip is simply how you put your hands on the club. It comes first because it is the only thing connecting you to what you're doing.

Both hands sit together, as though they were one piece. The top hand is the opposite of the one you write with — if you're right-handed, the left hand goes on top.

The only thing worth watching early on: whether you're squeezing. Almost everyone holds the club too tightly the first few days, and a tight grip tenses your arms and shortens the swing.

The measure that works: hold it the way you'd hold a tube of toothpaste with the cap off.

The stance: how you stand

Feet a little wider than your shoulders. Knees soft, not locked. Bend from the hips, not from the back — your back stays straight and your chest points at the ball.

Let your arms hang. Don't reach forward for the ball; let them drop and put the ball where they already are.

Alignment: where you're pointing

This is the one that causes the most frustration, because it's invisible.

You can make a perfectly decent swing and send the ball twenty yards right — not because the swing was wrong, but because you were standing aimed there from the start.

Your feet, hips and shoulders should point parallel to where you want the ball to go, not directly at the target. Think of railway tracks: the ball runs along one rail, you stand on the other.

There's an easy way to check at the driving range: lay a club on the ground pointing where you want to hit, and stand parallel to it.

Contact: the only thing that matters at first

Contact is simply hitting the ball with the face of the club.

Not the edge. Not the ground first. Not the air. The face.

It sounds obvious until you try it, which is why it's the fundamental that actually measures your progress in the first few weeks. Not distance — contact.

Once contact starts repeating, distance shows up on its own.

Your basic setup · Grip → Stance → Alignment → Contact

The first three happen before the club moves. The fourth is the only one that happens during the swing — and the only one worth measuring at the start.

How to practise this without losing your mind

Questions everyone asks

Practise on purpose

You don't have to master any of this before going back to the range.

You just have to turn up knowing what you're checking. That's the difference between hitting a hundred balls and practising a hundred balls.