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How your body moves is an important part of the swing. It is also a big speed and control producer if it works correctly. But if it is trained incorrectly it can make it almost impossible to reach your speed and control potential. It can also potentially create patterns that can lead to injury.

BODY MOTION

IMPACT POSITION

When it comes to chipping use the same grip as you do for putting which helps to stabilize the stroke when hitting a chip.

CHIPPING GRIP

This exercise concentrates on how much flexibility you have in your hips.

Mike sits on a towel with his legs stretched out and bends his back toward his knees. His arms are touching the sides of his legs, and he bends as far as he can. Mike can lay his chest on his legs.

If you want to add more difficulty, then flex your toes back toward you. This exercise helps to loosen up your hips and allows your pelvis to rotate. You may not be flexible at first, but keep working on this, and you will improve.

This flexing exercise will help you push your hips back and maintain the correct angle when you swing. It will help your golf swing dramatically. 

FITNESS FLEXING

It’s Malaska Golf Quick Fix Friday again. This fix will help you to chip around the green.

When you get out to the golf course, grab your putter and make a couple of strokes on the green.

Move off the green, take your chipping club, use your putting grip and just putt. The ball gets in the air because there is loft in the clubface.

Your chip is just a putting stroke. Get confident with this shot, and you will find that you will get a lot better with chipping off the green.

USE YOUR PUTTING GRIP TO CHIP

How golf and music are played the same way.

PLAYING GOLF AND PLAYING MUSIC

I saw Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer doing this at an expo. They looked so cool doing it, I went home and copied them while looking in a mirror. Here is what this pivot teaches you.

DRILLS TO STAY LOOSE, LOOK COOL

A great way to hit your driver well is to drop your right foot back which allows you to open your hips.

STRIPE THE DRIVER

Brian covers how to pick a line for the putt, and he uses a mark on the ball to help aim the putter on the intended line.

PUTTING LINE AND AIM

An open face leads to flipping at impact.

OPEN VS SHUT

Draw a dot on the center of your clubface. Concentrate on putting that dot on the back of the ball, and you'll make great shots.

DOT ON THE FACE

Advanced players grip the clup mostly in their fingertips. Beginners use their palms. Find out why this works for professional players.

CONTROL THE CLUBFACE WITH YOUR FINGERTIPS

Mike Malaska goes over a drill where you make a swing, and as you run the club into the ball, you let your right hand come off, so your left arm swings through.

This is a great drill to feel how the momentum of the club straightens your arm and stabilizes the clubface. Your right hand will not twist and roll at impact because you let your right arm come off the club.

Practice making small pitch shots with your right hand coming off the club. You will see that the ball goes straight, and you can feel how stable the clubface is because there isn't much twisting in your hands.

Try the same drill with a longer club, and again if your grip is good, there will be no twisting of the hands, and the ball will go straight when you release your right hand.

When hitting the ball, one thing to be careful with is that your body doesn't stop, and your arm doesn't straighten on the follow-through. Ensure your body continues to rotate around, and your arms swing to the left. Your arm will rotate and fold up. It is the same action that happens when you hit a baseball.

This drill is a great way to practice stabilizing the clubface.

USING MOMENTUM TO STABILIZE THE FACE

This drill will help to develop a straight hit with no wobble or face tilt. It's also a great chance to see how your other skills are working towards a solid putt.

START LINE

Once you are set up. Just hinge your wrists until the club is parallel to the ground. The only thing that moves is the club and your wrists. At this point your wrists are in the position you want them at the top. Then take the club and your arms back. The club head stays on the target side of your hands until your arms reach waist high. Then the club head breaks up and over your hands. As you swing to the transition of your swing the club head keeps moving away from the target line. Then as you change directions the momentum of the club will help your arms fall on the correct path into the ball. 

HINGE

Begin using a club to feel what needs to happen in order to achieve a center face hit.

FEELING CENTER FACE HITS

Your right arm needs to line up with the club shaft. Learn this through chipping.

CHIPPING

Having an understanding of how the face works relative to your swing arch and your target line is critical. You must have the correct task in your mind. “Your eyes perceive, your brain receives your body reacts”. So the picture is very important. Once you understand the picture it becomes much easier to create the motion.

PATH, FACE, SWING, ARC

Malaska Golf Certified Coach Billy Fitzgerald is subbing in to answer “Ask Mike’s” from Beverley County Club in Chicago. A Malaska Golf Member says he's doing okay on the range, but once he gets out on the golf course, he feels like he must overuse his body, and he tightens up a little bit. Billy says that he sees this with many students all the time, almost every day. It's a great question and thanks for your comment.Billy suggests taking some time between golf shots because that's what will happen out there on the course. Hit a golf ball, take a minute or two, hit another one, and see if you can make what you're working on with the M-System show up. For most, this is a very effortless feeling when you go from overusing your body to learning how the circles work, how to get your hands involved, and how to swing the club head a little bit more freely.Billy says that for many people, it is a dramatic change, so when we go out on the golf course, we tend to tighten up and revert to the same old situation.If you can get past the range where you feel like you can hit a golf ball, wait a couple of minutes, and you will have success on the range with time between shots. Then go out to the golf course with no score in mind and hit a couple of shots really trying to hone in and feel what you did on the driving range.Again, there's a process to this. First, there's a different feel, and then there's a different feel with a golf ball on the range, and taking it to the course is a whole new level.At some point, you must be patient with yourself, but again, you have to trust enough that you don't have to overuse your body to hit it as far as you need to.It’s going to go farther, so again, get out on the golf course without scoring in mind and practice what you do on the range.I promise you that it'll be so much better when you put time between shots. Be patient with yourself and good luck.

TIME BETWEEN SHOTS

ALICE COOPER

Malaska Golf Certified Coach Matt Baker reviews the M-System M3: Slap Drill.

This is a wonderful drill that is flexible enough to do anywhere. It helps Matt organize his body and how he uses his shoulders and chest correctly. It also helps with the body motion of his hips and legs. The Slap Drill gets his hands and arms on the right path and helps with early extension.

Matt gets into his golf stance and has both arms out in front with his hands against each other. He swings his right arm back and feels his chest stretch and shoulder blades contracting together. At the same time, his right hip is pushing back with his right leg. From there, Matt can keep his spine angle correct, feel the pressure on his right heel, and start pushing into his left leg.

Matt then brings his right hand down from the top to slap his left hand out in front. This helps Matt to organize his swing. As Matt hits his left hand, his right arm is lower than his left as he is lining up to the "shaft." Matt feels the pressure of slapping in his other hand as his hips push away. From there, Matt's left hand completes the swing on the follow-through, and his right hand stays in the center. Again, he feels his chest stretch and his shoulder blades contract when his arm goes up.

Matt concludes that this is a great drill if you struggle with the concept of body action.

MATT BAKER M3: SLAP DRILL

At Impact the loft in the clubface is the reason the ball gets in the air.

CHIPPING IMPACT

The iron is one of the most important clubs in your bag. Learn how they are fit a players swing.

FITTING IRONS

One of the most important parts of your game is impact. Practice getting a feel for how your arm works the club shaft.

GETTING A FEEL FOR IMPACT

Develop a post-shot routine and cure shot dependency

CURING SHOT DEPENDENCY

With the correct posture, your setup will becme much easier.

DETERMINING YOUR POSTURE

Three different drills to remove the tension from your arms.

FRONT LOADER DRILL SOFT ARMS

We are currently working on content for this category, please check back soon. You need to understand the basics of your own body. How it moves. What it can and cannot do. Every swing is unique. Even though you are trying to make the same moves you will look different doing them. That is Ok. You also need to understand the importance of your health. What you eat and drink has huge consequences on how you perform. Knowing how to control these variables can make big differences in your ability to perform and learn the swing and the game.

FITNESS & HEALTH

In this Player Lesson, we see how the M-System has changed the approach of a Malaska Golf member's playing.

MR ESMOND

The hands are the only point of contact that we have with the shaft.  If we understand grip as well as practice gripping correctly, then we maximize our control over the clubface.

CONTROL IS WITHIN YOUR GRIP

Center face hits are very important. Learn to feel how they work before you introduce speed.

PRACTICING CENTER FACE HITS

Caddying was my first job in golf. Learn how Nibley Park shaped me into the person I am today.

THE SEVENTH GREEN AT NIBLEY

How to check and re-set your vesibular system -- the balance center in your inner ear.

BALANCE EXERCISES

Bunkers are the easiest shot in golf to be fairly good at. That is if you understand what you are actually trying to do. The first task is to throw sand not hit the ball. Once you see what is the correct task and how the sand wedge works you can become fairly good fast. It is the only shot in golf where you want to miss the ball. And you can miss it by a 1/2 inch or 4 or 5 inches and still hit an acceptable shot. Again it is about tasks and skills. This one is the easiest to be good at because it has the most room for error and still hits an acceptable shot.

SKILL PATHWAYS: BUNKERS

Mike Malaska works with MLB Baseball Players, Kevin Pillar, Kevin Plawecki and Ryon Healy about how the golf swing and baseball swing are similar.

CROSSOVER SPORTS 2021 WITH RAPSODO MLM

Your hands control the club face. Practice so you can feel how your hands work.

ROLLING THE BALL ON THE GROUND

Mike analyzes Josh’s swing and discusses grip, posture, alignment, dynamic swing plane, and clubface.

BREAKING DOWN THE SWING

PIVOT WITHOUT EFFORT

When you are in a bunker you set the face based on the lie of the ball. If the ball is on top of the sand the face is open. If the ball is half buried you share the face. If the ball is buried you close the face. The face angle makes the club work correctly for the lie.

THREE DIFFERENT LIES IN THE SAND

This Quick Fix Friday focuses on improving hitting the ball square on the clubface. On the putting green, put down four tees in a box shape slightly wider than your putter head. Get set up, and practice hitting the ball without hitting the tees. 

The goal is to hit the ball in the center of the clubface. If you do not, you can see if you are hitting it more to the toe or heel of the putter. 

Next, set up the tees toward the hole and bring that into play. This drill is a great way to practice before you go out to play a round of golf.

PUTTING TEE DRILL

THE BIGGEST CHANGES IN WOMENS GOLF

Mike and Alice discuss common swing flaws.

SWING FLAWS ARE BAD TASKS

M-System Lite M4: Combining Skills. This video is about putting the golf swing together.&nbsp;Mike has a practice station set up on a tee box. Now that you are combining skills, focusing on one thing at a time before combining drills is important.First, you want the Lever System to work. This starts with the ‘L to L.’ Make swings and get a feel for how the hands, wrists, and Lever System work.Next is the Step-Back Drill. The biggest problem in golf is that people tend to have early extension in their golf swing. Mike explains that golf is the only sport where you don’t move your feet. To teach you to move correctly, Mike uses this drill to get your hips moving.Mike has two balls on tees set up in front of each other. He sets his club in front of the first ball. As he swings back, Mike steps back his left foot, then his right foot, and hits the ball on the second tee. This drill teaches you to get your hips out of the way as you step back. It is impossible to get up into the ball when you do this. The key takeaway is that it teaches you to move away from the ball.The most important thing that ties everything together is Impact Position. Mike sets up with his driver and then demonstrates the impact position. He toggles back and forth from Setup to Impact Position. Set up to the ball, move to your impact position, and just make small hits. This drill helps you feel where you need to get to.Mike is putting this together in full swing and copying his impact position. The impact position ties everything together and is the most important position to understand.Once you understand what the task of the impact position looks and feels like, your golf swing will start to eliminate anything irrelevant to impact. This is a better way to think about your golf swing than focusing on different positions in the backswing.Mike reiterates that impact drives everything you do. This topic is discussed in M1, Line of Compression. M1 to M4 ties everything together and is task-oriented. Do your tasks correctly, and you will see incredible results in your golf game.

M-SYSTEM LITE M4: COMBINING SKILLS

In this lesson, the focus is on utilizing momentum to improve the golf swing. The instructor emphasizes the importance of directing the club’s momentum in different arcs relative to the hands, helping to push the handle and keep the swing fluid. By relaxing the hands and allowing the club to move back, the arms naturally follow, creating the desired movement.The key to success lies in allowing the clubhead to move behind and slightly away from the body before transitioning into the downswing. This ensures that the arms and hands stay in sync with the club’s momentum, which leads to more consistent shots. A proper takeaway sets up this motion, reducing tension and promoting a smoother swing.The instructor also compares this technique to Sergio Garcia’s swing, particularly how Sergio shallows his arms while keeping the clubhead from dropping too quickly. Instead of letting the clubhead fall, it stalls and moves upward, maintaining the proper position relative to the hands, allowing for better control.An important aspect of the lesson is learning to trust the change of direction in the swing. By allowing the club to continue moving away as the body changes direction, the golfer can maintain momentum without forcing the arms to drop prematurely, which leads to a more powerful and accurate swing.Finally, the instructor reflects on past personal experimentation with various swing techniques. While he had previously tried different methods, he emphasizes that finding the right balance in momentum and direction is key to mastering the swing, even if it takes time and adjustment.

IMPROVE YOUR SWING WITH MOMENTUM

A Malaska Golf Member has a question about being too "handsy." Mike says that you play the game with your hands.

You play baseball, cricket, pool, basketball, and many other sports with your hands. Your body is involved, but you control something with what touches it. Your hands touch the golf club.

When Mike starts working on shots, he is doing it with his hands or having his body move to help his hands get into a position to get the clubface to hit the ball the way that he wants.

When Mike hears that you should "take your hands out of the swing," he knows that he doesn't necessarily feel his hands do much when he makes a swing. This is because of the circles of momentum.

Mike has hit a lot of hooks and fades and hit the ball low and high. He can intuitively make his hands do what he wants by thinking about those shots. His hands will make those tiny adjustments. You can also make those adjustments and make those shots with ball position and stance.

The key is that you need your hands to be trained to control the clubface. The better face control you have, the better player you will be at any level.

Players who are superstars are savants with the connection with the hands and the clubface. Their hands and clubface are like one unit. Train your hands to work correctly without thinking about it.

HANDS ARE KEY TO THE GAME

Use head covers as swing guides in order to train an in to in path.  Here's how to do it safely.

HEAD COVER DRILL

Using lakes, rooftops and the horizon to find level.

FINDING LEVEL FROM LANDSCAPES

Your mind is a muscle just like your body. It needs to and can be trained. The proper mindset is critical to maximizing performance. Your mind controls your body so how do we train it to make the correct decisions. React in a manner that gives us the best chance for success. And how do we train it to process what happens properly so it becomes a constant learning process and roadway to success.

MENTAL GAME

What you want is a swing that you can rely on under pressure. Shutting the face avoids complicated timing sequences. Here's how to pull it off.

SHUTTING THE FACE

Hi, my name is Matt Baker, and I'm a Malaska Golf Certified Coach based in the UK. I'm filling in for Mike this week on "Ask Mike" because he's a bit busy.Now, we have a great comment from a gentleman named Michael Brand. Michael mentioned how helpful Mike’s advice was in the video where he talks about taking the left thumb off the handle and holding the club this way.For Michael, this tip helped free up his wrist hinge, which is exactly what we want. It's a drill that most golfers should practice regularly. Why? Because golfers often place their left thumb on the side of the handle, which turns it into a pusher. This can cause the handle to be pushed during the downswing, resulting in a loss of wrist freedom. And that freedom is key to improving your swing.Interestingly, Butch Harmon’s father, Claude Harmon, won the Masters playing without his left thumb on the handle because this freedom helps you release the wrists. This is exactly what we want: free wrists that hinge, unhinge, and rehinge during the forward swing. This creates clubhead speed and better control of the club.After a few swings, once you've developed that sense of freedom in the wrists, you can place your thumb back on the handle. At that point, the thumb serves more as a stabilizer, particularly at the top of the swing, preventing the club from going over your shoulder while still maintaining freedom in the swing.This drill helps with releasing the wrists and using the hands correctly. Practice it as much as you can, and you'll generate better clubhead speed and have the freedom in your hands to release the club properly, leading to better, more relaxed golf.

LEFT HAND OFF THE HANDLE

Mike continues to work with Danie on fairway bunker play. If you are worried about the lip, taking a club one or two higher allows you to have a buffer zone and take the lip out of play.