How to Prevent Blisters in Golf
If you have experience with any kind of sports or exercise, you would know how real blisters are. If you don’t take the necessary precautions, blisters can turn into painful infections in no time. And if you keep doing the thing that’s causing your skin to blister, that area of the skin will turn into callouses soon.
In golf, blisters are quite common. It’s mostly true if you play bare handed. It’s understandable. We don’t always have the patience to put on the gloves even when we’re at the course. Let alone the practice sessions. But did you know that some simple drills at home that use clubs can cause you to blister?
In this post today, we’re going to learn everything there is about golf blisters. We’ll understand why they happen, what are the risks, and what you can do to prevent them. Remember, prevention is always better than cure!
Resource: Step by Step Golf Practice Routines + Training System
Why Do You Get Blisters?
Blisters are our body’s natural defense to protect the damaged skin. Blisters are essentially a protective layer of skill filled with fluids to heal the skin. The most common cause of blisters is friction and burn.
Now, when you’re at the golf course or the driving range, it’s very unlikely that you’ll burn yourself. But you can very well expose your skin to excessive friction. It can happen for a variety of reasons. Let’s take a look at a few common ones.
Bad Grip
If you haven’t regripped your club in a while, it might be one of the primary causes of your blisters. The golf gloves are designed to work in coordination with your club’s grip. So, when the grip is too damaged, the glove cannot protect your skin. As a result, you create excess friction on certain portions of your hand.
Not Wearing a Glove
This one is quite obvious. And it happens even if you have the softest grip on the earth. Our skin just outright doesn’t like friction. So, if you use a golf club bare-handed for too long, you’re most likely to develop blisters sooner or later.
If you absolutely hate wearing gloves, at least try to wear them for the tee shots and the fairway shots. Chipping and putting are less demanding on the hands so you may be able to get away with not wearing a glove.
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Tight Shoes
Blisters are more common on your feet than your hands if you don’t have adequate knowledge of golf gear. Tightly fitted shoes will easily cause your skin to blister. It commonly happens on your ankle and the sides of your feet.
Bad Form
As unlikely as it may seem, the bad form of the player can also cause blisters to appear in different places. If your wrist position, hip twist, finger position, etc. are not correct, you might be putting excessive pressure on your skin. Over time, these can turn into blisters or callouses if you don’t fix your form.
What are the Risks of Blisters?
Fortunately, blisters are nothing serious. As it’s part of our body’s natural reaction to friction or burns, the chances of infection are very low. But it’s true as long as you don’t abuse the blister by playing again or bursting it by yourself.
If you do, you open yourself up as a breeding ground for bacteria. And before you know it, you might develop an infection.
Another potential risk is the callouses. However, if you don’t care how your skin looks, it might not look like a risk to you. Callouses happen when an area of the skin is subject to constant friction. Our body automatically creates extra layers of thick skin to protect the softer layers.
You might have a few callouses on your hands and on your feet if you work out regularly.
Resource: How to Score in the 70’s Golf Training Plan
How to Prevent Blisters While Playing Golf
The best protection against blisters is to completely avoid them. After you’re done with our methods of preventing blisters, you will realize that it’s easier than you thought. Without further ado, let’s get started.
Fix The Grip On Your Club
The grips on the golf clubs are usually the first point of failure. If your having trouble maintaining your grip during the swings because your hand hurts, it might be time to take a closer look at your grip.
Worn out grips are bad for your overall gameplay. Along with the pain of blisters, you’ll also suffer from a lack of control during your swing.
So, regrip your club from time to time. If you want to learn how to regrip your golf club at home, you can check this tutorial!
Change Your Grip Position
If your grip is in pristine condition but you’re still getting blisters, you might be at fault. Answer this. Do you hold the grip in your fingers or in your palm?
If your answer is the palm, you’re doing it wrong. A proper golf grip utilizes the fingers. You simply wrap your fingers around the grip without touching the palm at all. This way, the club won’t move in your hands. And when there’s no movement, there’s no friction. And when there is no friction, there won’t be any blisters.
Resource: Get the All Access Pass. Learn about our training programs with step by step practice drills, weekly schedules and routines to follow so you can break 90, break 80 or scratch golf. Plus access our video lesson library in addition to following the practice plans.
Fix Your Grip Pressure
You can get blisters even if you use your fingers to grip the club. It comes down to the pressure. Sometimes, we subconsciously grip the club too hard and hurt our skin.
So, the next time you’re at the course, consciously monitor how tightly you’re gripping the club. Also, too much pressure on the grip will tense up your swing which will ultimately hinder your score. The phenomenon is known as a death grip among golf players.
However, don’t loosen up your grip too much. It can create the club to rotate in your hand. It’ll not only change the club face angle at impact but also create another way for the blisters to pop up.
Use a Good Quality Glove
If you consider yourself a serious golf player, there’s no alternative to a few pairs of good-quality gloves. When your hand is protected with a leather glove, you eliminate the possibility of blisters appearing dramatically.
When you’re in the market for new gloves, make sure that you’re getting the right sizes and the right material. Also, it’s ideal to get more than one pair. You can mix and match between leather gloves, synthetic gloves, rain gloves, and so on. Different pairs will help you to adapt to different weather conditions better.
If you’re not sure which size would be perfect for you, you can check out this glove buying guide.
Change the Shoes
If you’ve suffered from blisters on your feet, there’s nothing much you can do other than changing your shoes. It’s not like you can change how you wear them, can you?
Your best bet would be to get dedicated golf shoes. The manufacturers have spent a lot of time and money research the best components and fitment for golfers. You need to trust their judgment and get a good pair of golf shoes.
If you’re not going for golf shoes, at least make sure that the material is breathable. Breathable shoes are great for walking around the course. It also reduces the humidity inside. If you didn’t know, moisture is one of the major catalysts for blisters. So, when you keep the inside of your shoe dry, the skin can protect itself better against friction.
Fitment is of the essence when you’re getting new shoes. Too tight shoes will almost always result in blisters, no matter how comfortable they seem at first.
Some Innovative Golf Gear to Prevent Blisters
Blisters among golf players are more common than you would think. The existence of blister-specific accessories proves that many people suffer from this problem regularly. Let’s take a look at some of these innovative products.
Finger Sleeves
Did you know that there are sleeves for your fingers! Amazing, right? These sleeves come in handy when you have blisters and regular bandages aren’t sticking to the wound. You can simply wear the sleeves and keep on playing for the day.
Blister Bandages
There are bandages for blisters because normal bandages usually don’t stick. Blister bandages come in different sizes and shapes to cover different parts of the body. They are generally waterproof and infused with medicine to heal the wound faster.
Anti-Blister Socks
These socks can be life-changing for anyone who has experience with ankle blisters! The manufactures have done experiments to figure out which areas of your feet are more likely to get blisters. And these socks come with extra padding on those areas to protect your skin.
Final Words
Blisters are a part of the game of golf. You can try to avoid it as long as you want but it’ll ultimately catch up with you unless you decide to prevent it. Preventing blisters is especially easy now thanks to the innovative products on the market like the finger sleeves and the anti-blister socks!
Moreover, you can try the other methods we’ve listed in this post to improve your overall golfing experience. Say bye to blisters once and for all!
Golf Practice Plans to Follow
- How to Score in the 60’s Golf Training Plan
- How to Score in the 70’s Golf Training Plan
- How to Score in the 80’s Golf Training Plan
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Thanks for reading today’s article!
Nick Foy – Golf Instructor
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