October 2021 Polo Players' Edition - Gripping Detail

Gripping Detail

How You Hold The Mallet Affects Your Swing

By Rege Ludwig • Illustrations by Jean Abernathy

Be aware of how your hand is placed on the mallet handle because that placement influences the effect of how you use the mallet to hit the ball. More specifically, be aware that at no stage within the swing process should you be holding the mallet handle with a tight fist grip, because a fist grip produces a significant negative effect on the hitting process.

The Fist Grip

The Fist Grip

The fist grip renders the wrist to be ridged and stiff, thereby, decreasing the necessary suppleness of the wrist with which to control the swing of the mallet.

Compared to the more desirable and softer openhanded grip, the fist grip causes the mallet handle to have been pushed back onto the web between the thumb and the index finger. With that having happened, the mallet is now almost perpendicular to the hand. That, in turn, causes the mallet head to move out and away from the plane of the swing and the ball. At that point, the mallet head must be moved back to the plane before contacting the ball, which is difficult to accomplish with a tight and restricted wrist.

The third negative effect appears during the follow-through. Because the mallet head must be moved back toward the plane before it contacts the ball, the tight fist grip probably still exists at the point of contact with the ball. The restricted wrist movement reduces the energy released into the ball.

The More Open-Handed Grip

Lay the mallet handle diagonally across your hand, with the completely flat side of the handle in contact with the palm of your hand (see diagram below).

Mallet positioned diagonally across the palm

The significance of the diagonal angle across your hand is that it offsets the angle of the cane passing through the mallet head. That offsetting angle allows the mallet head to be flush with the ground at the point of contact with the ball.

If your hand were open, the cane side of the handle should be approximately parallel to the line running down and across the palm of your hand from the bottom and outside edge of the index finger to the pads of muscle located at the base of your thumb. When gripping the handle in that manner, that same cane side of the handle will fit snugly onto the pad of muscles at the base of the thumb. Let the end of the mallet handle rest from a half-inch to an inch from the bottom of the pad of muscles at the base of the little finger.

Index Finger

The majority of the pressure of the handle on the index finger should be on the large knuckle at the top of the downswing, on the middle knuckle at the point of contact with the ball, and on the small knuckle throughout the follow-through. This makes the index finger, by far, the most critical finger with which to hold the mallet handle.

Position the narrow side of the handle to be just on the forward side of the smallest knuckle of the index finger. Hold and squeeze the handle with the index fingertip as if it were squeezing the trigger of a pistol.

The Pistol Grip

Press the middle knuckle firmly against the palm side of the handle. Rest the cane side of the handle firmly in the cradle between the front and outside edge of the large knuckle of the index finger and the inside edge of the knuckle in the middle of your thumb (see diagram on right).

Middle Finger

The middle finger is the strongest single supporting finger, therefore wrap it around the handle to where the most narrow portion of the knife-edge side of the handle is positioned between the first and middle knuckle of the middle finger.

Press the middle fingertip firmly onto the middle portion of the fingertip side of the handle.

The Ring and Little Fingers

Do not over squeeze the handle with the ring or little fingers. The grip with these fingers is mainly supportive. A tight ring or little finger creates restricted movement of the wrist.

Keep the narrow side of the handle on the line of the joint of the middle knuckle on your ring finger and between the first and middle knuckles of the little finger, positioning the tip of the little finger in the groove of the wide portion of the handle.

The Cradle

The Thumb

The thumb is close to being equal in degree of importance to that of the index finger.

The principal function of the thumb is to squeeze, or pinch, the mallet handle onto the index finger throughout the swing process.

Press the front inside edge of the knuckle in the middle of the thumb firmly onto the back and inside edge of the handle. By doing so, a cradle is created where the cane side of the handle rests and is carried.

The opposing, or pinching, forces of the thumb and the index finger are more than important to have a secure grip on the handle throughout the entire swing process; those strong pinching forces are absolutely crucial.

That is true because the strongest pinching force you can create with your fingers to hold the mallet securely in your hand is between the flat side of the tip of your thumb and the forward side of the middle knuckle of your index finger. Because of that, your thumb should be positioned on the back and inside edge of the mallet handle and pointing down toward the forward hitting side of the mallet head.

A first grip.

An open-handed grip.