Poor technique causing upper arm/shoulder pain. Advice please.

Hi everyone,

Im in my first year playing golf and have found myself with muscle pain in the upper arm/shoulder after a round. Im sure this is down to me sometimes grounding the club slightly into the ground when playing irons shots. Im sure the term is hitting fat, ive fixed my grip, have the correct ball placement etc.

Do you guys have any tips that will make me hit the ball better and stop grounding my club. Its also been suggested im gripping too tight with my right arm and when i strike the ground this causes slight pain in the arm.

Any help/advice would be appreciated as im eager to get back out there :-)

Steven, Unfortunately for you, it is imperative that an iron shot takes a divot. Pain is something we all have to live with in some form or other but hope you clear yours up quickly.

John is quite correct in his description of an iron shot requiring a divot. With the wet summer we have had you have been lucky not to have been striking bone hard ground to cause even more pain. May I suggest Steven that you invest in a few lessons with a pro who will soon sort out the problem. Without this help you might sadly decide this wonderful game is not for you and that would be a pity. Good luck.

Thanks for the replies, its more of a dull pain than serious and i hope a better technique will solve this. Ive been told that im gripping the club with my right hand too hard and this is causing the pain. Do you more experienced players hold the club loosely with the right and have the left hand as the main grip? Hope i can fix this as really enjoying the game.

The main grip should indeed be with the left hand Steven (for a right-hander), hence wearing the glove on that hand. The right hand is more for support and to 'guide' the clubface square. Most of the effort is in the left arm with the swing being a push-pull with the left, not a pull-push with the right.

As for grip pressure, imagine the grip of the club is a tube of toothpaste with the lid off. The correct grip pressure would be secure but without any toothpaste being squeezed out

I watched a YouTube video by Harvey Penick that said the grip should be a 2/10 in terms of effort, the tighter the hands, the more restrictive it is on letting the wrist be free at the appropriate points in the swing

Chris, I must be strange. My left hand is my guide (the back of my hand is the clubface) and most of my power is from my right hand. As for grip pressure pretty relaxed at address , but if I shook your hand with my impact pressure it would draw blood! Everybodies grip pressure will increase through the swing , you are swinging a lump of metal upwards of 100mph. 2/10 or toothpaste grip at impact you'd be walking up the fairway to collect your club

There are some very good tips here that might help you:

http://www.youtube.com/user/paulwilsongolf

Like to thank everyone for their replies. Played a round this morning and my irons very nice, only topped one shot in 18 holes so pretty happy with that.