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Why has the golf swing become position-oriented rather than instinct?

POSITIONS OVER INSTINCT

It is vital in the backswing to get the club and your arms up, so they can come down and drop into the ball. Extending your lats is a great speed producer.

FULL SWING GETTING UP TO COME DOWN

Mike takes us through the first of 3 bridge exercises. These basics are for your core and to stabilize your lower lumbar spine.

Mike lays on a towel with his knees bent. You should lay on your back with your hands on your chest and lift your hips off the ground. The key is to hold your hips there, then lift and stretch out your left leg. Hold for a few seconds, and then switch to the right. Make sure your body is straight and diagonal to the ground.

If you can’t lift your leg without your hip dropping, hold the pose or lay your arms out for support and then lift your leg.

BRIDGES

Mike sits down with MLB Hitting Coach Craig Wallenbrock and team to discuss the similarities between the golf swing and the baseball swing.

IMPORTANCE OF GRIP WITH CHRIS ANTARIKSA

ADJUST TO WHERE YOU HIT THE BALL WITH RON ROENICKE

Tension can kill your game. Practice being relaxed.

CREATING SPEED

In the Four Step Drill, force is on your left side in step three. 

FOUR STEP DRILL

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

Maintain your favorite club tempo with longer clubs.

LONGER CLUBS

Nicklaus takes 3 hours to hit 30 balls.The greats practice by hitting one shot at a time, and learning from every shot they hit.

NICKLAUS ON PRACTICE

Hi everyone, I'm Billy Fitzgerald, a Malaska Certified Instructor. Tom Pivotone writes in with a question about posture and what he's been reading. I'll demonstrate, but essentially, he keeps reading that people shouldn’t push their hip sockets back.Tom notes that for balance, once you get into your posture, you should flex your knees to get off your toes, putting your weight on the balls of your feet. However, from my teaching experience, I’ve found that if I flex my knees to bring my heels down more, it locks up my hips, which is critical to avoid in the golf swing.I need my hips to move freely to create space for my arms and allow for a proper turn. For the typical golfer, this locked-hip position is one of the biggest mistakes, as it restricts movement. If we can set up correctly before the swing begins, we’re already one step closer to better performance.To establish the correct posture, start by standing straight up. Your toes should be on the ground, but without gripping or lifting. Maintain that feeling as you lean over the golf ball. To counterbalance your posture, begin by pushing your hip sockets back, which lets your shoulders move forward. You don’t need excessive knee flex—just enough to feel grounded without locking your hips.For a good setup, hold the club out in front of you, push your hip sockets back, and let your shoulders move forward. In this position, your hips are free to move, so when you swing back or forward, your hips can clear away from the ball, giving your arms room to swing.Remember, the posture you take to the course has to make sense and allow for athletic movement. Too much knee flex will lock up parts of your body, making it difficult to play your best. Aim for a functional posture—it's the foundation for better golf.

FREE YOUR HIPS WITH KEY POSTURE

Work on getting a stronger grip. Hold the club more in your fingers, left hand on top, and palms facing down.

GET A STRONGER GRIP

Golf Challenge is made up of simple programs to help you become the best golfer you can be and get you closer to your best game. These challenges will be the cram course on how to become more consistent within a specific skill/task in your swing and/or your game.

GOLF CHALLENGE 

A Malaska Golf Member talks about how he has always set up as what is called duck-footed or everted. He did it because he felt it allowed him to turn more on the backswing and the follow-through.

Mike’s response to this is yes and no. He explains that your body is designed to function with your feet straight ahead. That will give you maximum turn on both sides and control of your joints.

If you turn your feet out, you may get more turn in the backswing, but as you come back to impact, you will find that you get restricted. This makes the follow-through difficult.

Likewise, if you turn your left foot out, it makes it harder to swing back. This is because it is a functional joint. When you turn your feet out, you will increase one thing but decrease the other. You are, therefore, making compensations.

Mike explains that the body is a right-angled articulator and works off 90-degree angles. That is where the joints line up and where you can functionally move the best.

People turn their feet out to get their hips to turn. They are trying to keep their knee flexed
and not rotate their hip. They are trying to coil.

When Mike swings, he tries to straighten out his right leg a little. The key is not to lock the knee. Anytime you take your body out of 90-degree angles, you may be able to turn more, but you will be restricted when you swing through.

It is vital to be careful about why and what you do with your body because it will dramatically affect the rest of the system.

FOOT ALIGNMENT IN THE SWING

CLUB SELECTION AND LOFT

Practice working on swinging the club with the trail arm. This drill helps you keep your shoulders level, not slide your body, stop the up and down motion in your wrists, and get your hips out of the way as you pivot through the ball.

TRAIL ARM DRILL

Toski on Ben Hogan photo Part 4 - Don't Copy Swings

TOSKI ON BEN HOGAN PHOTO - DON'T COPY SWINGS

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

BOUNCING THE BALL

A Malaska Golf Member has a question about grip and whether it is the same when using wedges all the way up to the driver.Mike responds that some of it is and some of it isn’t. When Mike grips the club, he makes sure that it is in his fingers, and when he closes his hands, he has the maximum amount of lever potential. This allows his wrists to hinge the way they are supposed to.Mike says, on all your full shots, yes. However, when Mike takes a wedge out, instead of his club being in his fingers, it’s a little more on a diagonal in his hand.Mike does this because he doesn’t want his wrists to hinge as much. The club is now a lot shallower, and you don’t want a lot of up-and-down in the swing. You want to keep it shallower to control the angle of approach and the flight of the ball.Again, Mike does change his grip, adjusting the position of the club in his hand a little bit to accommodate the up-and-down motion of his wrists.You don’t want to do that with the driver. The driver is in your fingers because when you swing back, you want to be able to lever your wrists and get the maximum amount of speed out of his hands and the lever system.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF GRIP

You control something with what touches it. Your hands are your only connection with the club. The more your hands become aware of and can control the face the better player you will be. Take a sand wedge. Place it in either hand. Take a ball in the other hand drop it on the face and try to bounce the ball on the face. Then change hands. Try to pick the ball up off the ground with the club head. Use two clubs and bounce the ball back and forth. Great for hand eye coordination. 

BOUNCE BALL ON FACE

All golf courses are different, as some can be trickier than others. Practice perfecting shots that may get you in trouble during your game.

PLAYING ON DIFFICULT GRASS

Our second installment of the Spotlight Member brings us to Utah with Todd Heugly.

TODD HEUGLY - UTAH, USA - 20210109

A Malaska Golf Member has a question about the rotation of the left arm in the swing.

Mike demonstrates this action and takes his left arm back on the backswing. His arm slightly rotates and continually internally rotates to the transition point (top of your swing.) When you come down, your left arm externally rotates down to the ball.

The Malaska Golf Member wants to know, if your left arm continually rotates throughout the swing, how do you stop it from rotating too much?

Momentum is the answer! Mike explains when you swing down, and your arm starts to rotate the club out in front of you, there is so much force in the club pulling your arm. If you get the club in the correct arc and let the club go, the momentum of the club will monitor how much the club rotates.

The momentum of the club rotates the arm along with the force of the club. You don’t have to force your arm to rotate; this motion happens automatically.

Players feel pressure in the chest when they swing down. That is your left arm externally rotating on the downswing. This is how you pressure your chest. You don’t do this by spinning your body. You start the swing, and you ride the momentum throughout the swing.

LEFT ARM ROTATION AT IMPACT

At first choke down on the club so some of the grip end of the club is above your hands. Then on the back swing make the grip end of the club point away from you and towards the ground. Then come back to impact the club shaft is pointing at your body. Then go to just above waist high on the follow through. The grip end of the club is again pointing away from you. This gets the extension you want and develops the lever system. 

HANDLE AWAY

CHIPPING LOADING THE SHAFT

Pivoting the body with the arms is key for competitive pitching. A balanced set up will produce natural motion under pressure. Here is how you can train pitch shots that hold under pressure.

GETTING YOUR ARMS AND BODY TO SWING TOGETHER

The flip shows up in your golf swing to compensate for imbalance. Here is how to eliminate those causes.

GRIP AND ELIMINATING THE FLIP

WHAT IS A GOLF SWING

The lob shot is all about adding loft so it is important that your left hand does not fight the right. Here is how you work your left hand.

WORKING THE LEFT HAND

Mike Malaska shows beginner golfer Sandy James how to hit a ball off a tee instead of the ground. Mike instructs her to aim the ball to the left side of the green. They start with a line on the ball, which helps Sandy aim. 

Mike explains that her game is off the tee, not the ground. She needs to control the angle of the face, the path of the club, and the angle of approach. You have to manage all three when the ball is on the ground.

When the ball is sitting on a tee, the face and path have to be good, but the angle of approach can be slightly off. The ball will still hit in the face, and you can still hit a pretty good shot. There is more room for error. As a beginner, there is no reason to make that angle of approach perfect. When the ball is sitting on the ground, you must be great at the angle of approach. Mike tells Sandy to take the ground out of play. Put the ball on a tee or a tall piece of grass.  

Don't be in a rush to play off the ground. Use the exact grip and hand action and make the same practice swing using the same lever system off a tee. It's all about having fun at this point. Don't worry about keeping score. Wait until you get to the green. As you improve, start from farther back. But have fun first!

ENTRY-LEVEL COACHING HITTING OFF A TEE

A Malaska Golf Member has a two-part question for Mike. He wants to know how he can feel the weight of the club and make his backswing more consistent.

An excellent drill for this is to switch the club around and hold the club by the hosel. Swing the club back and forth and feel the club hinge and unhinge. Mike holds the club in his fingertips and swings the club loosely.

Now switch back to holding the club by the handle, make easy swings, and you will feel the heaviness of the club. Mike makes more swings with just one hand so he can also feel the arc of his swing and how his hands work.

Now make an easy swing and hit a ball. Feel the weight in the clubhead as you bring the club back and on the follow-through. Feel the circle that your club is swinging in.

The second part of the question is about consistent backswing and impact. Mike says it’s important to ensure your grip is correct so you can let the weight of the club hinge and unhinge to get the club to square itself. This happens because of the momentum of the club.

Mike is adamant about having the correct grip. If this is slightly off, it is difficult to square the clubface back to impact because of momentum and wrist angles.

If your grip is on correctly and you swing back and forth, letting the weight of the club hinge and unhinge, then the clubface will square itself.

One of the best ways to get a consistent backswing is to start with your club out in front of you and start your swing from there. This is called the Front Loader Drill. When you swing back, you will feel the momentum of the club and return to a good position. After practicing this drill, go back to making a regular swing and feel the motion of the drill.

This is a great drill to get a consistent backswing.

BUILDING A CONSISTENT BACKSWING

Playing golf professionally can be very stressful, especially when it is your source of income.

THE STRESS OF GOLF

A Malaska Golf member has been working on M1 from the M-System, line of compression, and putting and chipping. 
He wants to know when chipping if he should feel a little pushback from his left hip to his left heel.

Mike says that this depends. Usually, there isn’t any motion in your lower body when putting or chipping. If there is 
then you have to push your left hip back, and the weight goes toward your back heel.

Mike demonstrates this by hitting small chip shots. If you have rotation, then you should push back on your hip.

When you move from chipping to a bigger swing, then it is important to understand address and impact. Then, hit some little shots from impact.

As you start to build your swing, you will continually program the line of compression and impact. The little shots will pay
big dividends for your full swing because they give you the right task. Your brain is a taskmaster.

BODY ACTION

The golf swing is comprised of invisible forces. Learn how to feel motions, rather than positions.

CREATE MOTION, NOT POSITIONS

Practice lining your forearm up with the shaft to gain face control.

LINING YOUR FOREARM UP WITH THE CLUB SHAFT

Slow down the swing to ensure your arc is working.

SWINGING AT HALF SPEED

Practicing into the wind gives you the best idea of how much curve and control you have of the clubface.

IDEAL PRACTICE CONDITIONS

If you understand momentum, you can put as much power as you want into your swing. If you don't understand this, you will be in trouble.

MOMENTUM WITH GIULIA SERGAS - 201811

Holding the angle in your wrists is an effect not a cause. The momentum in the weight of the club head as you swing sets your wrists. It is also that same momentum that unhinges you’re wrists at the appropriate time in the down swing. If you try to hold off an angle or a motion. Likely it won’t work consistently. So the key is to understand what holds the angle. Again it is an invisible force that does it. And that force is very consistent in how it works.

HOLD THE ANGLE

Mike emphasizes that the hands are the clubface and the club shaft is just an extension of your arm. Mike examines how the clubface works in both hands.

YOUR HANDS ARE THE CLUBFACE

Throwing a baseball and hitting a baseball have the same timing in the lag of the wrist and change of direction as in golf.

SPRING TRAINING CHANGE OF DIRECTION

We are going to look at two instruments that will help guide your putter on the right stroke.

RIGHT PATH

Most professionals don't care how their swing looks, they care about outcome. Here is how this can be applied in your game.

CARE ABOUT THE OUTCOME

Joe would connect you to your body's natural movement. This is critical because golf is not a game of positions; it is an art. Anytime you disconnect with yourself, you disconnect from your potential.

UNLOCKING YOUR DNA OF MOVEMENT

When it comes to making better scores, it would serve you well to spend sixty percent of your time practicing short game. These skills will save you.

PRACTICE WHAT'S IMPORTANT

INTRODUCTION-BALL BEFORE THE SAND

Get into your set up. Now go to impact. Once you have that position established then take the club back about 2 feet. This is a very small swing. Then from there hit the ball. Putting the center of the club face on the back of the ball. Lining up your trail arm with the club shaft. Now you start to feel what it is like to compress the ball. Just small swings identifying the impact postion and the line of compression. Plus the portion of your body. Most importantly your lead hip socket.

HITTING A BALL FROM IMPACT

Hale Irwin shares a story of what he picked up from his dad.

FINISH WHAT YOU START

Putting is the difference between winning and losing. Here's what you need to win.

WHAT IS PUTTING

A Malaska Golf Member has a question about how pressure moves into your feet, how you transition, what happens to the pressure, and the sequencing behind it. This sequencing is the same in baseball and tennis as in golf. The member needs clarification when the transition or change of direction happens.

When Mike is set up to the ball using a 5 iron, his weight is relatively balanced in his feet.
As soon as Mike starts back, he puts a little pressure on his left foot, then back to his right foot and into his heel. At this point of the backswing, his right hip is out of the way, and his shoulders are almost entirely turned.

Mike has pressure in his right heel, and as momentum pushes the club to the transition point, most of the force transfers to his left foot.

As Mike starts down, he still puts pressure on his right heel and twists his foot into the ground. Now, there is less pressure on his right foot than on his left. This is about pressure and not weight shift. If you talk about weight shift, then that is all about sliding.

When you twist the right spike into the ground, and on the change of direction, it keeps the right hip back and out of the way. Keeping your hip back will be difficult if you go out to your toe. Some outstanding players, like Justin Thomas, can do that. Mike says that this is hard to do.

The change of direction must happen sooner. You shouldn’t swing to the top and stand on your right side. When Mike gets to the top, the change of direction has already happened with force now in the left foot. Mike pushes down into his left foot and pushes away on the downswing. The right heel pushes and twists to keep Mike’s right hip back.

It’s important to learn the sequencing. It’s like throwing a baseball, hitting a baseball, or hitting a tennis racket. You will make the transition at the right time with all these sports. There is no top in a golf swing.