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A Malaska Golf Member wants to know about the right hand. She explains that several teachers talk about holding the club in your fingers more than the palm of your hand. The member wants to know the upsides and downsides of this.

If it’s not more in your fingers than your palm, it is a downside because you won’t be able to do the lever system and create speed.

If the club is in the palm of your right or left hand, Mike says that’s called putting or maybe chipping. You do that to stop the hinging and unhinging of the wrists when you are putting or chipping. Turning your right hand under also gives you more stability. But if you do that in full swing, you won’t be able to create speed. 

Mike shows us how he holds the club in the fingers of his right hand. He places his left hand on the handle, and the right hand wraps around and over the thumb. Mike reinforces that his fingers are what is holding the club.

Your fingers are where your control and speed are. For full swing, you want it in your fingers! Some people make the mistake of putting it in their fingers and wrapping their hands too far over the top of the club. Your hands hinge back and sit on the thumb.

Mike uses a sports connection with throwing a baseball and how you use your fingers to throw a ball. You use your fingers to hold the club. Again, the club is in your fingers with your palm at the right angle.

RIGHT HAND IN THE GRIP

Is your left arm tension free as it hinges? Try this pattern to find out.

THE LEFT ARM

A Malaska Golf Member wants to know some drills so they don’t pull their hands in on the swing instead of extending them.Most teachers who see students come into the ball and pull their arms in call this the ‘dreaded chicken wing.’Mike demonstrates how the chicken wing happens. People think that the answer is to straighten your arms on the follow-through. Mike explains this is not the case; your arms are pulling in because they must. People have more hand-eye coordination than they give themselves credit.What happens is that when people swing back, they don’t push their hips back. On the downswing, their body ends up moving closer to the ball. To hit the ball, they resort to pulling in their arms to get the clubface on the ball. Hence, the ‘chicken wing.’&nbsp;Mike explains the fix! When you swing a golf club, the thing that makes your arms straighten out is when your left hip pushes back and away. By doing this, it throws and accelerates your arms forward.When Mike has students who do the ‘chicken wing,’ he gets them to step back from address and try to hit the ball. They usually miss the first one because their arms pull in. When they hit the ball, their arms must straighten out, and the ‘dreaded chicken wing is gone.’The ‘dreaded chicken wing is an effect of people moving closer to the ball. Once you figure out that if you push your left hip back, your arms will straighten out, and the ‘chicken wing is gone.’

The Dreaded Chicken Wing

A Malaska Golf Member wants to know about the Malaska Move. Mike explains that it’s really not his move but a move that Joe Nichols taught him. Mike also says that it is a feeling.

Mike’s observation about golf today is that he sees players try to shallow the shaft on the downswing and turn and go on it. For most people who try to shallow the club, their hands will push out in front as they turn, the clubface will be open, and they will have a hard time catching the clubface up to the ball.

Joe wanted Mike to take the club back but noted that the momentum of the club wants the club to fall back away when you change directions. Joe said you must feel like you are tipping the club or pulling the handle down. This will help get the club back in front of you, so you can turn and hit the ball.

Mike says the big thing about the “Malaska Move” is that when you tip the club out, Mike’s right shoulders are moving down and not following the swing around. Doing this is not tipping the club out.

Tipping the club is about getting the club in the correct arc so the club can go and it runs into the ball. If you do this correctly without using your shoulders, the momentum of the club will get out in front of you. This allows you to turn as hard as you can into the ball.

If you let the club fall behind you on the downswing and your body turns too quickly, you get into trouble catching the club up to the ball.

THE MALASKA MOVE IS A FEELING

Sports Connect and fitness play a vital role in improving your golf swing by building on movements and instincts you already possess. Mike Malaska emphasizes understanding your body&rsquo;s capabilities and limitations to create a swing that works with your physicality, not against it. By identifying these boundaries, golfers can tailor their practice to enhance mobility and efficiency.
Instinctive movements from other sports like baseball, tennis, and basketball form the foundation for a functional golf swing. The throwing motion in baseball mirrors the action of the right hand, while a frisbee&rsquo;s throw aligns with the left hand. These familiar patterns simplify the learning process and allow players to adapt existing skills to the golf swing.
Malaska highlights the importance of recognizing that your body is a pattern machine, instinctively adopting the most efficient movements. By connecting the dots between sports and golf, players unlock a natural and intuitive way to enhance their game. Sports Connect reinforces the idea that golf isn&rsquo;t about learning entirely new motions but adapting what you already know to excel on the course.

M2 Coaching Series-Sports Connect

In this lesson, John Lang works with Mike Malaska to address the challenges of playing golf after losing vision in his right eye due to a stroke. As a former right-eye-dominant golfer, John must adapt his swing and develop new techniques to maintain his performance despite issues with depth perception and spatial awareness. The lesson focuses on helping John modify his head positioning, adjust his approach to the game, and utilize targeted drills to build consistency and confidence.The session begins with John explaining how his vision loss has affected his ability to gauge depth and follow the ball, particularly under certain sunlight conditions. With peripheral vision playing a more critical role, he now relies entirely on his left eye to track the ball. Mike highlights that this adjustment requires a change in head positioning during the swing to ensure the dominant eye stays focused on the ball. Drawing on the example of Jack Nicklaus, who is colorblind and relies on feel rather than sight to track the ball, Mike advises John to slightly offset his head to maintain focus. This simple yet essential adjustment is crucial for overcoming the limitations caused by his vision loss.The conversation transitions to the M-System and its extensive library of drills. John expresses his appreciation for the system but notes that the library’s wealth of information can feel overwhelming. Mike emphasizes the importance of the drills, sharing a story from his teaching experience in Japan, where golfers focused on seven basic drills to address their weaknesses. Over 11 weeks, the group made significant improvements by mastering each drill without directly working on their swings. Mike encourages John to approach the library in the same way: selecting a drill, identifying challenges, and working through them to strengthen specific aspects of his swing.To wrap up the lesson, Mike observes John hitting a few shots. John shares that a previous suggestion to drop his back foot has been particularly helpful in stabilizing his swing. He also mentions focusing on the mental and psychological aspects of his game, paying close attention to how his hands and body work together during practice. Mike praises this approach and encourages him to continue refining his fundamentals, reinforcing that targeted adjustments and deliberate practice will help him adapt and improve.

Master Your Swing After Vision Loss

A Malaska Golf member noticed that Mike Malaska’s grip in a video on YouTube from five years ago appeared to be weaker than it is now. Mike concedes that is probably true. His grip changed from his natural baseball style grip, where he first started throughout his professional career, but is back to where he first began. His grip also appears weaker than it is because Mike pushes his hands forward at setup so that the club shaft is in line with his hands and arms. 

Mike then discusses how to make the golf swing work. He uses an oversized golf club to illustrate this. The clubface is still square to the ball on the backswing, and your wrists are starting to hinge. At the top of the swing, or as Mike likes to refer to it, the transition point, your left arm rotates, tipping the club out on the downswing. Your club returns to a 90-degree position of the swing arc, pushing your left leg out, and the clubface runs into the ball. The clubface stays the same on the follow-through side while your wrist rehinge. 

Mike describes the hand action in his golf swing at impact. The left hand is like a chopping action, and the right hand is a throwing motion. The stronger Mike is in his grip, the more he can feel this motion because it’s not about twisting your hands at impact.

HAND ACTION WITH STRONGER GRIP

Using your hands to control the face to make the ball curve the way you want it to curve.

CURVING THE BALL: FACE CONTROL

It is important that you can feel the weight in the club and clubhead throughout the swing. To do this turn the club upside down. Hold the club head end. Swing it a few times. Then turn it back to normal and swing. You will be able to really feel the weight in the club and club head and where it is in the arch. Then do the same thing but this time let the weight or force in the club and clubhead make your wrists hinge unhinge and rehinge. You are not forcing it. 

FEEL WEIGHT

Mike Malaska is working with former MLB pitcher Garrett Richards. In this video lesson, he is showing Garret the sports connection between baseball and golf.Mike gets Garrett to swing with a baseball bat and wants him to feel what his left hand does when it releases on the follow-through. Mike comments that Garrett’s left wrist doesn’t twist when he swings a baseball bat. It is the same when he swings a golf club and hits a ball. Your wrists should not twist, but that’s what is currently happening in his golf swing.&nbsp;Mike said Garrett would hit grounders if he rolled his wrists with a baseball bat. Mike holds the bat with Garrett and demonstrates the hand and wrist action, which is the same as the golf swing.Garrett now goes back to his wedge, and Mike adjusts his grip. He also shows him how to release the toe of the club on the follow-through. It goes up, not over.Mike just wants Garrett to make an easy 100-yard shot. He does, and Mike says that Garret didn’t hook the ball. Mike explains to Garrett that he had so much twist in his arms that it was hard for him to be consistent. However, Garrett was athletic enough to swing the club from the inside and to catch his hands and clubface up. Being a few degrees off in having the clubface square at impact can cause miss-hits.Mike gets him to hit the ball again, imagining him hitting a baseball bat with his left hand. It's more of a chop action with no twist. Garrett hits an awesome shot. Mike laughs and tells him how easy it will be to hit it straight. Garrett says it feels like hitting a cricket bat and hitting the ball square.Mike shows how the clubface works, demonstrating the swing path with Garrett’s club. The clubface is open relative to the target line; however, it is 90 degrees to your body on the swing arc. What the club doesn’t do is rotate and turn over. Garrett describes it like a pinball flipper. Mike explains this is how the Tour Players swing. The clubface hardly rotates relative to their swing arc.Mike tells Garrett that his right hand is his pitching hand, and he is aiming at the ball to throw it. His left hand is like hitting a baseball. Garrett describes to Mike that he feels like he is reaching up and ringing a bell on his backswing. He says that it feels like a more direct path up and directly to the ball than swinging out and hoping the timing is right back to the ball.Mike wants to work with Garrett on his short shots, which will help him significantly improve his short game and also his long game.&nbsp;Mike is trying to get Garrett to trigger something his body already knows how to do, and he says this is where golf went wrong. The golf industry decided to turn the clubface down because they didn’t want the ball going up in the air. This came about because of how golf started historically: the balls were expensive, the players wore suit coats, and it was windy in Scotland. As the game progressed, it became less important to keep the ball low.The new balls that players have used in the last 15 years don’t spin very much. You have to hit the ball higher. You have to stop the ball with ‘angle of descent,’ than you do with spin. Therefore, all the rotation of the arms and turning the hands down is gone. Mike explains that the new Tour Players swing so fast, but the clubface doesn’t rotate much. They can hit the ball pretty far because the clubface isn’t twisting.Garrett feels that what he is doing now with Mike with his swing is compressing the ball versus hitting the ball. Mike says that this is awesome.Mike explains to Garrett that a good way to get the correct grip is to hold the golf club like he is holding and swinging a baseball bat. Adjust the thumb slightly and lower the club down behind the ball. This is the correct grip you should have. Mike says that he had this grip coming from baseball, and after college, he was talked into another grip by his instructors, which ruined his career. With the grip Mike had, they said he wasn’t a golfer and had a shut face with a throw release. The irony is that’s what everyone wants today.Mike works with Garrett’s grip again to get it on correctly, and he talks about force going into the hand. Mike wants Garrett to make small pitch shots. Mike notices his ball flight is now lower, with a slight draw. This is what Garrett wants.Again, Garrett says it feels like hitting a cricket bat. Mike says he has never heard that before but says to Garrett that if that is what it takes to get a feel to hit the golf ball correctly, then to go with it.

Garrett Richards-The Baseball Swing

The M1 Coaching Series continues with a focus on chipping and pitching, expanding on the concepts introduced in putting and the line of compression. This session emphasizes understanding the pendulum motion of the golf swing and how different shots require catching the ball at various points in that motion.
Key to chipping is realizing that the ball gets airborne due to the loft of the clubface, not by lifting it. Chipping is essentially "off-green putting" with minor adjustments in setup, such as moving the ball slightly back and leaning forward, to catch the ball on a descending stroke. The line of compression remains consistent, with the right arm and hand driving the shaft through the ball for clean contact.
Pitching introduces additional wrist action, focusing on flexion and extension to control trajectory. Players practice one-arm pitch shots to develop a feel for clubface control and how wrist angles influence loft. This foundational drill helps ingrain proper mechanics and build confidence in shot-making.
Chipping and pitching are critical for mastering trajectory and precision. Golfers are encouraged to spend significant time practicing these tasks, as they lay the groundwork for more advanced aspects of the game. The concepts taught here integrate seamlessly into all parts of the swing, providing a solid base for continued improvement.

M1 Coaching Series-Chipping And Pitching

Hi, my name is Matt Baker, and I'm a Malaska Golf Certified Coach based in the UK. This is a great question from Russ John. His question is whether you should hold the angle in the right wrist at impact or throughout the swing.The answer is no, you shouldn’t forcibly hold that angle. Doing so creates tension and can cause you to lose speed and power by dragging the handle through impact. Instead, you want your wrist to hinge and unhinge naturally, with proper timing.At impact, there should still be a slight flex in the right wrist, but after hitting the ball, the momentum of the club will cause the right arm to extend and form a straight line, followed by the wrist hinging up. This slight wrist flex at impact is due to correct use of the club's momentum, and it's all about timing the hinge and unhinge properly.A key tip is to practice the pivot drill, which helps time everything correctly. Some golfers tend to stop their hips, releasing the wrists too early. By tying the swing to proper body movement—pushing the hips back and away from the target—you can create the right release at the right time for a solid, compressed shot.Instead of focusing on holding the angle, work on pushing the left hip back and through. Practice with smaller shots to get the feel, ensuring the wrists hinge, unhinge, and rehinge, along with the proper hip movement. This will help you strike the ball cleanly and generate more distance.

Don't Hold The Angle At Impact

Here is a review of methods and techniques you can try practicing in your short game.

TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE YOUR SHORT GAME

Learning to play golf is about how to accommodate uneven lies. There are more uneven lies on a golf course than flat lies. Even fairways that look relatively flat have slopes, and the more you make little adjustments to compensate, the better you will become.

There are two essential things to understand when it comes to uneven lies. First, you must ensure that your body is perpendicular to the ground as if you were hitting off a flat lie. If you are on a downhill lie, your body should tilt forward. 

Most people on a downhill lie tend to lean back when they try to hit the ball. Your club will bottom out early when you try to make your swing. Make sure you are getting your shoulders even relative to the ground. Mike also drops his right foot back because your knee tends to be more up on a downhill lie and in the way of your swing. The more severe the downhill lie, the more your foot goes back.

Second, once you accommodate the lie with your body and stance, make a practice swing to see where your club bottoms out. You will find that the club will bottom out slightly in front of the ball. You will have to adjust your position in your stance so the club will bottom out and hit the ball.

When it comes to playing golf, it’s about adjusting; in this instance, it’s about making those adjustments to the lie and not your swing. A downhill lie will take loft off the face; an uphill lie adds loft; below your feet doesn’t do much, and above the feet, your shot goes to the left.

Remember, on a downhill lie, get your shoulders level with the ground, drop your right foot back and see where your club bottoms out. Set up and go from there.

MASTERING UNEVEN LIES

When you find drills that help you, integrate them into your practice swing. Here's how to blend it all together.

USING DRILLS FOR YOUR PRACTICE SWING

IVAN POVOROV

Sitting on a chair and making swings is a great way to feel how yur arms work together.

WORK YOUR ARMS TOGETHER

Use the momentum of the club to create your backswing.

FRONT LOADER DRILL

"Golf is an interesting sport because when you talk to the golfers, they have all these positions they are trying to hit. The most important (or even the only) position that matters is the position of the club at impact.

Why should we use impact as our primary position? In my opinion, we've been teaching the game of golf incorrectly. We have taught from address (setup) to transition (top) to impact. I believe we should have been teaching from impact to transition (top), and back down to address (setup). When we use impact as our starting point and work from impact back, we can start to identify what impact feels like. When I ask golfers to show me where they think they are at impact, the vast majority of them twist their bodies. This is because they have this perception that impact requires a twisting motion of the body.

What is impact position? If you don't understand what impact is, you probably won't have much success in this game. When I set up to the ball and go to my impact position, my lead leg (left) moves the lead hip (left) out of the way. The lead shoulder (left) raises a bit and my trailing shoulder (right) drops. This causes my trailing arm (right) to drop and align directly behind the shaft and now my lead arm (left) is above my trailing arm (right).

What does impact feel like? This drill helps you identify the proper position at impact. Once you can look in a mirror and identify what impact should look like, then you can make some small swings and train yourself on what impact should feel like. As you perform this drill, your swing will get better and it may even change dramatically just because you have a better understanding of impact. By using the Full Swing Impact Drill you will come away with a proper understanding of what impact should look like and also what impact actually feels like."

IMPACT DRILL - FULL SWING

IFYP-Athletic Personality

The last video is the player lesson with retired MLB player Garrett Richards. Mike Malaska works with Garrett on his wedges.Mike wants Garrett to make small pitch shots with a wedge, taking notice of the clubface with just his right hand. Mike makes a small half-swing, hits the ball, and then a half-swing on the follow-through. Mike is also standing on his left foot. What he doesn’t want Garrett to do is open the clubface as he swings the club.Garrett makes a number of shots, and Mike shows him that if he twists the clubface, he will stick the club into the ground.When you start the swing, keep the clubface square and start using the club's bounce to hit the ball. You will still have a pretty good shot, even if you catch it a little behind the ball.Mike now works with Garrett on controlling trajectory, hitting the ball normally, low and high. This is achieved by the angle of the wrist at impact. The most important thing Garrett needs to learn is flighting the ball low.Garrett now adds his left hand, and Mike explains that the left hip and shoulder get more involved. Mike wants Garrett to feel like his left hip and right hand are hooked together when he swings through. He wants him to feel that his left hip makes his arms go forward and his left shoulder goes up and back. This is the same way you hit a baseball.Mike talks about how MLB outfielder Michael Conforto referred to hitting a baseball as blocking. When you step in to hit a baseball, you then start to push back, which throws the bat forward. Mike said that Michael initially slid his legs when he hit the ball. As soon as he started approaching, hitting the golf ball like he would hit a baseball, it was lights out.Mike demonstrates that Garrett needs to hit a pitch shot, and the same motion is used to hit a driver, too. Garrett puts it all together and makes a great shot.Mike summarizes what he has worked on with Garrett and how easy it will be for him to get good at golf. Garrett already has many natural instincts he can apply to baseball and golf.

Garrett Richards-Master the Pitch Shots

Practicing the Right Foot Drop Back Drill correctly will allow you to hit a slight draw.

RIGHT FOOT DROP BACK DRILL IDEAL SHOT SHAPE

The Right Foot Back Drill works so well because you can get your hips out of the way, and it gives you the space for your arms to swing down into the ball.

When you drop your right foot back, it makes it easier to time the outside circle of the clubhead with the circle of your center as you go into the ball.

Many Tour Players will drop their right foot back to hit the ball harder. Doing this gets their hips out of the way, gives them more time to hit the ball, and gives them a more significant turn.

Hitting the ball with your right foot back allows you to hit the ball farther and be more consistent. The only downside is that your swing path might might follow your foot line. Whether your feet are open, square, or closed, your shoulders and eye line stay the same.

Moving your feet allows your lower body to do different things, and that’s why players adjust their feet. This lets you do other things with your arms.

The Right Foot Back Drill is excellent; everyone should learn to do it.

RIGHT FOOT BACK WILL CURE YOUR GAME

Hand-eye coordination is very important. Learn how to bounce a ball on the club face.

BOUNCING THE BALL

The most popular grip is resting your left index finger on top of your right fingers. Do not interlock your fingers.

THE MOST POPULAR PUTTING GRIP

This question comes from a 68-year-old Malaska Golf Member who has had back problems and wants to keep playing and not have similar issues.

Mike discusses that you need to eliminate having side bend. Side bend and twist put a lot of pressure on your lower lumbar spine. The key is to eliminate or minimize that. When Mike swings, there is virtually no side bend. He used to swing where he would hang back and have a lot of side bend. This eventually resulted in Mike having back problems.

First, when you swing, you want your spine angle to stay fairly neutral. It will tilt a little, and after you hit the ball, you will stand up on the follow-through. A mistake is continually staying down as you drive through the ball. Many Tour Players talk about “standing up through the ball.”

Second, you want to match the rotation of your pelvis with your arms. You definitely don’t want to fire your hips in front of you.
Mike pushes his left hip socket as the club descends. His hips appear to rotate, but not as he comes through the ball. There is no twist, he is not torquing his hip, and it is not coming up. Mike’s left hip moves back, and his pelvis is tilting instead of moving up.

When you are rotating, you want to be able to push your left hip back so your pelvis feels like it is rotating with the right side of your body and arm.

If you do these two things, you won’t cause any additional pressure in your lower lumbar spine. The chances of hurting your back are minimal.

BACK INJURY FREE FULL SWING

How does force actually move through your feet and what helps it work.

HOW DO YOU MOVE FORCE THROUGH YOUR FEET

If you have to force the angle to hold, something else is wrong.

HOLDING THE ANGLE

A Malaska Golf Member has been having problems with the mental side of golf and reached out to Mike for some advice on how to get mentally tougher.

The first topic Mike talks about is strategy on the golf course. He doesn't like words such as lay up, go for it, and play it safe. Mike had played with Jack Nicklaus in several events and recalled in one instance that on a par 5, Jack decided to hit a ball short of the green instead of going for it.

Mike quizzed Jack as they were going down the fairway on why he laid up his shot. Jack replied that he didn't lay up. Bewildered, Mike asked what do you call it? Jack's answer was profound; he said that he just changed his strategy.

Jack doesn't like to use words such as lay up or play it safe because those words mean there is danger out there. This leads to anxiety, and Jack wants everything to be positive when he approaches golf. Jack changed his strategy and was very aggressive about the shot he took.

If you are over a shot and feel like you are not committed to hitting it, step back and assess the situation. Don't second guess yourself; just back away and aim at a target where you can be aggressive.

For a par 5, when Mike is in the fairway, he asks himself, can he hit the ball over the green? If this is the case, then Mike isn't going to go for it unless it is a wide-open green.

Mike looks at his lie and asks himself if he had 10 balls, could he hit 7 or 8 on the green? How many would get out of play if he missed the green? If Mike feels confident about his odds, he will probably go for it. If Mike isn't hitting the ball well and his lie is suspect, then it's not worth the risk. Mike then finds a distance to hit, usually about 100 yards, and then he can get onto the green.

Approach the shots with a mindset of strategy rather than thinking of laying up or playing it safe. The key is to find a shot where you are comfortable. What is that shot? There is no right or wrong answer.

Make a practice shot to get a feel of what that looks like and replicate that shot. The biggest problem Mike sees with players is they get up over the ball and start thinking about how they will make the shot. This is something you should have already figured out in your practice swings. It's about duplicating the motion once you decide to swing.

Afterward, assess how well you did or did not hit the ball and learn from that. The key is to review what you had intended to do and get that mental picture before going on to the next shot.

Mike reiterates that it is more about the process than the outcome. Once you start doing this, you will start playing better golf.


NO LAYUPS IN GOLF

Setup for putting, chipping, and full swing is essential for the right arm and line of compression.