Played an early round this morning and was having a really poor ball striking day. Really the only thing that was saving me on the scorecard is that I was chipping and pitching really well. Why was that? I read a comment that @Golfer_Jake_78 made the other day on here about a reverse overlap grip for the short game. I had never tried it before, so I hit a few into my net with it yesterday and it felt crisp, and then today out on the course it was dead on from within 60-70 yards. I just picked a wedge based on the flight I needed, used the reverse overlap grip with my feet together and weight forward, then “felt” the distance like I would on a putt. Every shot was clean contact and a good chance at putting (and two of them just burned the edges from going in). So already big thanks for that and the forum is saving me shots.
Where things start to venture into “crazy” is on 16. Like I said, bad ball striking day and I was in the trees after my drive. I needed to keep the shot super low, so I decided to punch a 3 hybrid with the reverse overlap grip so I wouldn’t get wristy on it. Ball shot out perfectly and went much further than I thought it would. Chip/putt and I was up and down for par. At this point I’ll pause to explain that one of the reasons I’m a very inconsistent ball striker is that I get flippy with my wrists. Always have. I can play really well, but if my timing gets even a little off then the shots get ugly. Standing on the 17th tee, I grabbed my driver, thought what-the-hell and stepped up with a reverse overlap grip and took a swing. My setup to the ball was way off, so I hit a heely slice, but the strike felt okay. Teed up another, checking my setup this time, took an easy swing and the ball took off on an absolute rope. Dead straight and fantastic feeling strike. Not the longest drive in the world (around 250yd), but not a yard offline. Had a nine iron in, took the same grip, full swing, same result, then a two-putt par(ish). No question what I was going to do on 18 and I had a laser straight drive and 8-iron in. Made the putt for my only birdie of the day.
Four full swing in a row that went absolutely dead straight and with great feeling contact. Am I crazy for wanting to try a reverse overlap full time? I lost maybe ten yards of distance, but I would take that all day to keep straight, consistent contact (plus I feel like I can add more speed to that swing and tweak my driver settings a bit to get more out of it). What do you all think? Also, any idiosyncratic bits of your swing you want to share?
Great tip from #Jaketheinfluencer 
. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, so I don’t think trying something new is crazy!
I tried it my last round, but haven’t really practiced it enough yet, and need more reps before I implement the reverse over-lap on the course.
About 6-7 years ago, I noticed I got too wristy all over the place, but especially with chip/pitching. I added some Golf pride Jumbo grips to my wedges, and then eventually did it throughout the bag. My short game was helped immediately, and I had to adjust my approach and driver game as it was a lot straighter and harder to turn over on command.
As of 2 months ago, I’m back in mid-sized with a couple extra wraps on irons and driver, and still have jumbo in my wedges, but won’t ever go back to standard sized grips. I’ve considered something like Bryson’s Jumbomax grips, which really take the wrist out, but those are HUGE and a bit too expensive to try on a whim.
I bet it was the fact that you made a change, rather than the change itself, is what made your performance improve. Sometimes any change can enhance our concentration and eliminate bad thoughts about past results.
I definitely think there’s something to that side of it as well, if I’m thinking about the “new” thing, then my mind isn’t full of all the past shots, which is always a good thing.
I’ll experiment though, I know my “flip” is more a symptom than the entirety of the swing fault, but quieting my wrists would have some sort of impact.
Glad it works for you! At this point I’m chipping almost exclusively that way. I haven’t tried it for longer shots yet.
Absolutely! Here’s where it all started, credit @1beardedgolfer (who doesn’t appear to be on the forum yet) for the hashtag
haha, amazing #jaketheinfluencer
You can call me whatever you want. I still only have enough influence in this game to get a sweet headcover every now and then. 
This is actually one of my favorite things. My tweets and/or Golf Advisor pics have ended up on Golf Channel 3 or 4 times. Morning Drive loves me.
Apparently I had a tweet that was on NESN a few weeks ago too. #influencer
Alright, so I had this whole reverse overlap grip thing stuck in my head, so I grabbed a back 9 early morning time and got out. I wanted to play light and fast, so I grabbed the Sunday bag and took my odd set (Driver, 3h-5-7-9-AW). I skipped 10 & 11 to get ahead of the groups and played on my own (swing experiments being a personal thing). I was overswinging from the start, making some bad shots so obviously the new grip isn’t a magical panacea for everything, carding a bogey and a very scrambley par. For my third hole (a par 5) I took a few extra practice swings, trying to feel a nice 3/4 motion (which is really a full swing). Solid drive, solid second, easy chip, good putt, and a birdie. The next few holes were all very pure shots, in fact I flew the green I both the par 3’s I played, a 165 carry 7-iron and a 185 carry 5-iron. Those are both at my “normal” carry with a regular grip, so the pure strikes were really getting them up there. Hit a bit of a heely slice on the 18th, very unlucky bounce directly behind a tree so I was coming out sideways and I missed the putt to get up and down. Finished +1 for seven holes with a lot more good shots than bad. There’s definitely something to this grip for me and the swing it helps me make. I’m going to keep the experiment going. Only real downside I’ve found is that I’m going to have to build up some calluses on my right pinkie because this grip has it touching the club for the first time ever.
So of interest to probably no one but me at this point, I spent a decent amount of time in the net today and think I have some conclusions. It’s not the reverse overlap grip (surprise surprise!) it’s what the grip influences (almost forces) me to do with my swing and that’s being much quieter with my arm & wrist action and really power the swing through my hips and shoulders. Since the grip prevented having much wrist hinge, I think that adjusts my timing on beginning the downswing. A big confirmation for this was taking a lot of swings with the DST Compressor trainer for the first time since I got it this week (reviewed by Jon here). In short, it was impossible for me to “overswing” (swinging too much from the arms and wrist) this club and produce solid contact as even a perfectly timed flip can’t deal with the curve in the shaft. Building up from the hips and then the shoulders, though, and I was able to get to an almost full swing with solid contact. I’ll continue to experiment with things (because let’s be honest, I’m always tweaking my swing), but it was a interesting couple of days. At the very least, I think I have a training tool to use when I start to swing too much from the arms/wrists, switch up the grip and focus on the hips & shoulders. Also, definitely sticking with the reverse overlap for short game shots. Absolute solid gold from there.
This might be a good fix for the thread I just started over on the mental side of things. I struggle with overswinging. I’m intrigued. Thanks for sharing your experience!
I don’t even “Try” to make putts or hit my target!
It is actually way more complicated than, just not “Trying” and I am Definitely not trying to miss my target 
.
If I gave all the details, most people would think 
I am Crazy 
!
Sounds like “Automatic Golf” method…
Hadn’t heard of that one before, so I did a quick Google and found the old VHS recording on YouTube. No time to watch it all right now, but these pants are amazing and I want a pair:
It’s not MY swing, and I hesitate to call it crazy, but I wonder if it could lead to injury: Bryson De Chambeau and Moe Norman they say do it like this; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rNdKIKQla0. If you’re at the limits of range of motion, what happens if you go too far?
I feel like I’m in the presence of greatness.
Yeah…LOL!..NOT that.
Check out Cameron Strachan and www.automaticgolf.com.
He lives down under!
This doesn’t seem too crazy. Oldie but goodie. I am always trying to load my power package for my swing…hahahaha