1 Introduction
In sport such as golf, tennis, cricket and baseball where a striking device is used, the grip is the only point of contact between the player and that implement. Despite the grip, surprisingly little scientific attention has been dedicated to this interface.
Using golf as the example, the goal of this paper is to examine the grip force that player apply throughout a typical shot. Thin, flexible force sensors that were previously evaluated for accuracy, repeatability, hysteresis and drift errors during static and dynamic conditions were applied to the hand-grip interface for this purpose.
Grip force has been previously measured in golf, but only to a very limited extent. The bulk of this research has been done by Budney (1979) and Budney and Bellow (1990), with additional observations provided by Cochran and Stobbs (1968), and Nikonovas et al (2004). In all cases, data from very few golfers were obtained, and few conclusions about total grip force during play could be drawn. This study seeks to increase the understanding of the role of grip force during a golf shot.