I know this has been discussed MANY times in the past. The reason I am bringing it up again is two-fold. 1) It's been awhile and maybe there are some new thoughts on this. 2) I am again going to tinker with some Blake ideas and need an answer.

First a little background. I am a former HSSer from 5-7 years ago. It completely eliminated my slice from my CG days but brought with it some other problems (hooks). I then converted to Scott H's IMA way. I found this system to be very good, but had some troubles... including the tendency for a slice to creep back in. I did mess around with some Blake stuff about 3 years ago. Not sure why I didn't stick with it... I do know I love reading Scott's question/answer column so that probably led me back to IMA. I have determined I am just no cut out to be a toe up to toe up type of swinger. I play much better with a square to the path type of clubface. Hence, the re-interest in Blake.

Here's my questions. Most importantly, I am not interested in doing any type of grip change/completion...so... what is the best fixed grip to use for this swing? I did some archive searching and found some stuff but no real "answers". Anyone have thoughts on this? And secondly, regarding distance... I read where Mindy advocates swinging slower to hit the ball farther. Is this really true... or can I "go after it" a little more to amp up the swing speed.

Thanks.

Grip: This should be a personal adaptation based on work at the range.
Blake's grip (to me) after completion was strong left weak right in that
his left hand was set up strong and his right started out palm facing target
and held that position with the left thumb rolled into it in the take-away.
I would start out with a fixed grip that was strong left weak right.

Distance: You might sacrifice ten yards for direction control. Swinging slower
will not increase distance unless you somehow increase the whip speed through impact.
Start out with a slow swing speed and increase it until you find a comfort zone.

I once mentioned to Richard Wax, who was mentored by Mindy, that the grip change seems like a 'grip completion'. He began using that terminology and did so in the DVD he made and which we make available for a nominal fee. Blake thought the grip change to be necessary in order to keep the clubface square and to assist in keeping the trail elbow more forward, and thus 'connected', in the backswing. He thought a strong lead-hand grip to be essential to deliver power effectively and used the analogy of a two-handed tennis stroke. SD