Manzella Neutral Grip

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Is the "Manzella Neutral Grip" weaker than what most pop instructors push these days?

I'm working on it and when I truly get the face to line up with the forearm with a flat left wrist, my grip is much weaker than what I've been using. In high school years ago I used to grip it much weaker but have gradually migrated to a stronger grip.
 
Manzella neutral grip feels weaker to me as well because I find it impossible for me to get the fleshy part of my heelpad on the top part of the grip. That may have to do with my grips being too thick though.
 
I don't know what Brian's take on it is for sure, but I see the Manzella neutral grip as designed so the face is square when the left wrist is flat. Weaker or stronger than others I have no idea. IMO it is a great way to measure up the face and the grip with a good baseline. You can still grip the club neutral with the heal pad on top, just turn the club.
 

Jim Kobylinski

Super Moderator
Yes it is weaker than most which is why long ago brian called it "manzella neutral" because it was to get the left wrist in line with the club face especially for the NSA pattern which has a lot of rotation going on in it; too strong a grip can easily make you hook them.

@noobie larger grips can do this OR even your genetics; no lie. I have one student who simply doesn't have much of a heel pad on his hand at all which doesn't even allow us to get it in top of the club. I moved him to a very strong grip and changed his pattern which resulted in better results.
 

dbl

New
I think Manzella Neutral is a legitimate grip position, but one which is used primarily for education purposes. Once the lessons are learned, how many people stick with it unmodified? Maybe 30%....? Every now and then you see a poster on here who says they still use it...

Of course, to me, I would bet that some of those lessons that people thought they learned...they didn't.
 
Thanks for the answers. It just seems weaker than what I was doing lately and I didn't know if this was on purpose. Sounds like it is. It feels a lot like what I did years ago, my teacher wanted me to have a pretty weak grip. He always said my hands were good enough to square the club, they don't need any help.
 
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My understanding:

Many of the worlds best players have Manzella neutral grips.

Turning a slicers weak grip strong is a poor fix long term as it does not fix root cause.

Manzella neutral means learning to play well without becoming a flip/pull hooker or blocker and is a more versatile grip for future development.
 
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