It helps to think of grip pressure on a scale or in relation to common tasks. I think of grip pressure as about the same as shaking hands with a fine lady in a formal social setting -- friendly and secure but unhurtful -- no impolite squeezing. I also like to think of a 1-10 scale with 10 being as firmly as one can squeeze, with a nice pressure being about 2 or 3 (and 1 is a "dead fish" handshake).
I think that separating the right index finger from the right thumb is a way to avoid excessive dominant-hand activity during the stroke. A "grasping" and a "precision grip" formation f the hand always depends on employing the opposable thumb against the index finger. This separation dampens out the "hit' or "grab impulse in the brain and leaves the dominant hand less active during the stroke. The claw grip, the paintbrush grip, and similar forms accomplish the same demotion in rank of the dominant hand by the same separation of thumb and index finger.
On the other hand, the action in "pointing" with the index finger is a straightening of the segments of the index finger by aligning the knuckles. This activity of the last (most distal) segment of the index finger is not advisable during the stroke, as the little jerk involved aters the putter face and perhaps the path of the stroke at the critical time. For that reason, ecven though in my personal grip form the index fingers f both hands extend down alongside the shaft, I make sure the fingers are not "sticking" down the shaft sides straight, but simply rest alongside the shaft in an inactive way.
If you like to "point" the index finger during the stroke, then I would suggest that you "draw" the tip of the (right / dominant) index finger as if indicating a straight line on the ground thru the impact zone down the putt line. The word "draw" is used in contradistinction to the word "push" or the word "stick" to imply that the left side is moving the whole grip and the right index finger is simply drawn down the line like a pointed stick -- inactive. In my view, the left side of the body and brain --being operated most directly by the right side or the non-dominant side of the brain -- is less bothered by the language / thinking / analytical processes of the dominant hemisphere of the brain and the left hand is more directly connected with the nondominant hemisphere's processes of understanding the body in space in relation to objects and locations in nearby space. In short, the left side and left hand "knows the target and the movement towards the target in a better way than the right side. As Billy Casper has written: "Left hand, left hand! The left hand controls the putting stroke."
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
Geoff Mangum's PuttingZone
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