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RAPSODO: INSIGHTS ARE COMING

Properly preparing for a tournament is very important.

TOURNAMENT PREP

When you’re in the sand, it’s about throwing sand, not about hitting the ball. Having the correct concept is the key to any shot. In the bunker it is about what you are trying to do with the sand not the ball. The ball is just another grain of sand. You are displacing sand not hitting a ball.

BUNKER OVERVIEW

Billy Fitzgerald, a Malaska Certified Coach, is subbing for Mike this week. A Malaska Golf Member has a question about how to determine grip pressure. The member says he is somewhere between extremely light and losing control of the golf club to extremely tight, where his arms and shoulder sockets tighten up.

Billy says this is a great question, especially since many people think they have the right pressure when, in fact, they don't. Billy notes that there is a point where you can actually hold the club too soft.

Grip pressure is important as it allows you to have control of the clubface. This is a constant feeling, and it never changes throughout the swing.

Billy suggests the first thing you do is grab and hold the clubhead with your hand. Feel the weight of the clubhead. Understand how that feels, even though you hold the club by the grip.

If you hold the grip of the club too tight, you won't feel the weight of the clubhead. If you hold the club too light, there will be a lot of play in the club. You won't feel the weight of the club either. 
The key is to feel the weight of the clubhead and secure it in your hands. Make sure there is no play in the grip.

One thing you can do is hold the club out in front of you and make big circles. This is a great drill to feel the weight of the clubhead without any play in your hands or your grip.

Billy recounts a story that Mike told him about Jack Nicklaus and that he controlled the grip pressure in his forearms. Jack was secure in his hands, but his forearms were soft.

You need to be soft enough in your wrists, arms, and club so that the weight of the club can hinge and unhinge your wrists, your elbows can fold, and your shoulders can turn. Billy notes that the member's grip pressure is probably more secure than his wrist, elbow, and shoulder.

To summarize, you want to feel the weight of the golf club. Even though you grip the handle, you still want to be able to feel the weight at the other end of the club. You want to be soft enough that the grip pressure is constant throughout the golf swing.

THE RIGHT GRIP PRESSURE

A Malaska Golf Member is good at making long putts but needs help with short ones.

Mike explains that the closer you get to the hole, the more you expect to make the putt and the ball go in the hole. The task, however, is to hit the ball and roll the line.

When you have to make a short putt, you focus so much on getting the ball in the hole and become afraid you will miss it.

It is important to concentrate on the task at hand: hitting the ball in the middle of the face and making it roll.

Mike has two balls set up with lines on them. One ball is the hole, and the other is the ball he is hitting. He makes a solid putt, makes the line roll, and hits the second ball. If you can hit the ball, you will have a better chance of hitting the hole because it is larger.

Mike suggests that when you are at the golf course, you should practice this exercise on the putting green. Think of this as playing pool, then practice hitting the left and right sides.

This teaches you to be specific with setting the line, aiming the line, and hitting a specific spot. You will start making those putts if you start practicing this and not aiming for the hole.

PUTTING PROCESS VS. OUTCOME

Instincts used in other sports, such as the transition, can be applied in golf. Like other sports, the golf swing is a movement pattern and a constant motion.

ATHLETIC INSTINCT

The right shoulder levels out as it goes through the ball.

HOW THE RIGHT SHOULDER WORKS

There are no positions in the golf swing because it is a fluid motion. If there were one position that mattered, it would be impact.

POSITION AT IMPACT

A Malaska Golf Member has a two-part question about the golf swing and how you can get injured, especially the lower back. The second question deals with the transition of the golf swing.

The member explains that for 50 years, he was told to take the club to the top, then as he came down, to take his hips and shoulders and twist and unwind as fast as possible. Mike says that the problem is when you twist like that in the downswing, it puts a lot of stress and force on your lower lumbar spine. It is not designed to handle that much rotational force.

In Mike’s swing, he pushes his right hip out of the way on the backswing and then his left hip on the downswing. His pelvis rotates, but there is no twisting force in his lower lumbar spine. Your body rotates as an effect, not a cause. There is no twist. The body rotates because when Mike is set up, his right leg pushes his right hip back, which also takes his right shoulder back. This, in turn, brings his left shoulder around.

On the downswing, Mike’s left leg pushes his left hip back, which pulls his right hip forward. Note that the rotation in the pelvis is caused by his legs pushing his hip sockets back and forth. There is no rotational force in his lower lumbar spine.

The second part of the question is about dropping the club or dropping the club into the ‘slot.’ What drops the club is like swinging a baseball bat or a tennis racket; you change direction.

On the initial backswing, you turn your hip, and your shoulders are at a 90-degree angle. As you take the club to the top, you change direction. When this happens, your upper body is slightly tilted. That tilt in the spine tilts the shoulders, and they direct your arms.

Dropping of the arms comes from the change of direction in your hips and the tilt in your spine.

AVOIDING BACK INJURIES

Don't shallow the club, shallow your arms.

STEEP AND ACROSS

LAG SHOT IRONS FLEX IN THE SHAFT

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

GOLF TALK WITH RON ROENICKE

Mike Malaska discusses head motion with a Malaska Golf member. Sometimes it can be helpful to have someone hold your head still or use a stick to keep it stable. But you need to be careful as you can hurt your neck.

Most often, your head reacts to what your hips and legs are doing. When Mike watches someone whose head is moving incorrectly, it is usually because their lower body isn’t doing what it should. Mike wants you to feel how your head reacts to what your lower body is doing. Be careful about just focusing on your head.

If you fix what your lower body is doing, your head does what it should.

CORRECTING HEAD MOTION

What makes the left heel lift off the ground?

LEFT HEEL OFF THE GROUND AND THE REASON WHY

A Malaska Golf Member mentions he is okay, feeling like he is back on the heels of his left foot, his lead foot, as the club goes through the ball.

Mike reassures the member this is correct and what the biomechanics are now preaching in the industry.

You play the game more from your heels than your toes. Mike has talked about this concept in previous videos. Every shot he makes, even pitch shots, his club runs into the ball, and his left leg pushes his left hip back. When this happens, Mike's toes lift slightly off the ground. As the club gets longer and the swing gets bigger, you will find that your toes lift even more.

Initially, when you swing down into the ball, force goes into the ball or the middle of your left foot; then, as you are halfway down on your swing, the force transfers to the heel of your left foot.

Mike demonstrates hitting a small pitch shot, another fuller pitch shot, and then a driver. You can see the left toe lift and force goes into his left heel.

Mike feels this same timing with all his swings. That's the beauty of all the forces around you when you swing. Mike also finds that his driver is the easiest to time the forces affecting the club because it creates the most force on him. It becomes easier to time those forces and make sure the rotation of his body is in sync with his club.

The driver should be the simplest club to time the circular forces. It is the same feeling and timing of the forces regardless of the length of the club. Practice with small shots and build up to your driver.

IMPACT AND FORCE IN YOUR LEFT HEEL

To play pro golf, you need to drive for dough.

DRIVE FOR DOUGH

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

HAND-EYE COORDINATION

Pitch shots are the topic of this Mulligan Monday.

Mike sets up off the green with a 30-yard pitch shot to the hole. It is crucial to ensure the Lever System comes into play. Mike demonstrates that with his right hand and arm.

The key is to match the swinging of the arm with the pivoting of the hip. You don’t want your knees sliding or your body stopping with your hands hitting. You also don’t want to throw your hips out with the club lagging behind.

Make sure you feel how your left hip, right arm, and club shaft match, precisely, how all the rotations match. Your arm is also pushing the shaft.

This is an important concept to understand, and once mastered; it is also your full swing. If you can’t hit a pitch shot, you can’t hit a driver.

PITCH SHOTS PIVOTING YOUR HIP

A Malaska Golf Member has a question about Moe Norman and Ben Hogan. Mike has had the opportunity to see them both hit golf balls.

Back in the 80s, Moe Norman hit balls for Mike at the finals of the Tour School. He hit balls for 45 minutes, and Mike was amazed
at how good Moe could hit it. Mike was also able to see Ben Hogan hit balls for about 15 minutes, and that experience was unbelievable.

The Member's question is about hand action. Did they both have the same hand action and lever system? They did not.

Moe had the club more in the palm of his hand as he had big grips on his clubs. He flattened or bowed his left wrist when he took the club away. Then, as he turned into the ball, he hit it and released the club on the follow-through. Moe didn't twist his forearm. Mike demonstrates how Moe sets up and hits the ball.

Hogan had a much weaker grip, and as he took the ball away, he would have a little cup in his left wrist. He wanted the clubface to be on the swing plane with his right palm facing out. Moe Norman's right palm was facing down. Because of this, Norman had much less face rotation in the club than Hogan did.

When Hogan took the club back, he had a lot of rotation in his forearms, palms facing up, and then he rotated his forearms really hard through the ball. This looked a lot looser in his wrists.

Now, Mike demonstrates Ben Hogan's swing.
Mike tried to imitate that same swing for a long time early in his career. Mike had difficulty timing the rotation of the forearms for that style of swing. The benefit of this swing style was that it helped Hogan not to hook the ball. Hogan wanted a hand action, an application that felt like he had two right arms. He wanted to be able to rotate his forearms as hard as he could and not hit a pull hook. This will work for you, but it isn't easy to time the clubface.

The two swings were very different, but where they were similar was if you stopped them both at impact. This is the most important position in the game, and there are many ways to get there. Moe Norman and Ben Hogan were very different but also very proficient in their golf swings.

BEN HOGAN AND MOE NORMAN

SPEED DRILL - SWING THE HANDLE DRILL

The game starts with impact. To build a solid swing, you need to start with putting.

IMPACT WITH GIULIA SERGAS - 201811

When you putt, there is very little face rotation. Learn how to train yourself to stay away from rotating the club face.

PRACTICING PUTTING WITH TEES

For this Mulligan Monday, Mike demonstrates that the golf swing is the Lever System. He takes his driver in his right hand and swings the club back and forth, hinging and unhinging his wrists.

Mike then hits a ball, using that same lever system with one hand. With that easy swing, he hits the ball 175 yards.

Mike comments that the swing looked flippy, and this time when he hits the ball, he will let his body rotate with the swing. Mike can also use his left hand, make the same motions, and hit the ball. The ball will go about 200 yards.

When you add both of your hands, there’s your golf swing!

THE GOLF SWING IS THE LEVER SYSTEM

Having the correct stance can improve your swing. Stay away from creating tension.

THOUGHTS ON STANCE

Brian Gott, Malaska Certified Coach, is subbing for Mike this week. A Malaska Golf Member feels like he's hitting all his shots thin because he's not extending his arms.

Brian thinks it's the opposite. He says he is moving up closer into the ball and having to pull the left arm up so he doesn't dig it into the ground and hit the ball fat. This is causing the member to hit the ball thin.

Brian suggests the member move farther away from the ball, make a small swing, and see if that left arm extends out all the way. If that still happens, then you are moving too close to the ball. You will feel like you are running out of room, and your body knows it isn't going to hit the ball, so it starts to pull up.

The key is to get the hip out of the way. The Right Foot Back Drill will help you do this. This will help to extend the arm through impact. Make sure you get the right hip back on the backswing and the left hip back on the follow-through.

Brian says you are getting too close to the ball and crowded when you swing. Your arms will start to come up, and you will hit it thin.

Get farther away from the ball, balance your arm, and extend it correctly.

HITTING THE BALL THIN

The many benefits of practicing in fairway bunkers.

BENEFITS OF BUNKER PRACTICE

Swaying changes the bottom of your swing.

THE SWAY FORWARD AND BACK

A Malaska Golf Member wants to know why you don't do an elevated swing before you do the L to L.

Mike explains that Joe Nichols taught him there isn't a down in the golf swing and that your swing should feel level and not down.

As you take the club back, you will lever it, then take it up to the transition point and back down to waist high. Joe Nichols described this as turning the corner. This is where the club is always pointing at you throughout the swing. You will also have the "L" on the follow-through.

Mike demonstrates the swing action. The club stays level as it moves across your body. Mike describes this as a waist-high fastball. Note that the club remains level, and the club is never behind him or past him. The club should always feel like it is in line with you.

Naturally, you don't swing over the top of the ball waist-high, but your hands should feel like they do. Because there is no tension in your wrists, the weight of the club drops down behind the ball. The momentum in the club's weight unhinges down to the ball and rehinges on the follow-through.

The momentum and weight of the club make the club go down, then up. Gravity and momentum will make your shots consistent.

Mike concludes that L to L and swinging level are the same. One holds the weight of the club up, and the other lets the club drop.

ELEVATED PLANE AND L TO L

Moving on from setup, Brian Gott covers putting tempo on Day 2 of the putting challenge. Feeling what tempo works for you is essential and personal as everyone is different. Practice putting about 15 feet from the hole and find your putting cadence. This is either 1-2 or 1-2-3 and practice saying this faster or slower. Discover what tempo is right for you and keep it the same. 

Another detail to pay attention to is that too many people have a very long forward stroke length. A good tempo allows you to be consistent with your putts and ensures you are longer on the backswing and have more energy into the ball. This tempo will also transition throughout the golf swing. Work on your tempo and rhythm, and you will get a lot better.

DAY 2 TEMPO

Three alternatives to "holding the angle" for casting.

THREE WAYS TO STOP CASTING

INSIGHTS-SMASH FACTOR

Controlling is the face is one of the most important parts of the game. Learn what causes the face to open.

FACE CONTROL WITH ALEX GAUGERT - 20181113

Where the ball goes is determined by path and face

WHERE THE BALL GOES

For Step 3 of Billy Fitzgerald’s player lesson, Mike Malaska talks about how you drop your foot back as you swing on the downswing. Your foot turns in, and your right knee stays behind your left knee. Mike explains to Billy how he should feel his femur rotate down and in and that his foot is rotating.

Mike talks about his baseball experience as a kid and how coaches teach you to rotate your right foot out in the baseball swing. This was referred to as “swish the bug.” Baseball players don’t do this much anymore. Mike applied that foot action when he came to golf, and Mike never struggled with his hips going out and his right leg moving up and out. If your right leg goes up and out, it will be limited to what you can do on your swing.

Billy makes some swings focusing on rotating his right foot back and in, and his right knee stays behind his left knee.

Billy comments that he feels his hip socket go back and stays there as his leg and foot are working. Mike says that the femur rotates in his hip socket, and it rotates because of what his foot is doing. His foot is twisting in the ground and not just pushing.

Baseball players talk about a second spike in their right foot, how they turn that spike down and twist it into the ground. This prevents their right hip from moving out.

Billy makes some swings so that Mike can analyze them. Billy is on the right track. Mike reiterates that Billy has a great impact position, and now he has mastered the right foot back and making it rotate into the ground.

BILLY FITZGERALD - FEEL HOW YOUR FOOT ROTATES

Distance control in putting is the topic of this Mulligan Monday.

Mike places two tees about 2 feet apart, and he is 10 feet away.
He then sets up and makes a practice stroke to estimate the speed. He looks at the tees, returns to the ball, and then closes his eyes. He makes a putt.

The object of this drill is to get the ball as close to the tees as possible; however, before you can open your eyes, you must guess if your putt is long or short.

Mike then looks, and the ball is just a little too far. He adjusts and makes another putt. This time the ball was short, and Mike could tell his putt was weak.

Close your eyes after making a practice stroke and putt. Tell yourself if you were right or wrong, and then look.

You will get a better feel for distance if you practice this drill.

PUTTING WITH YOUR EYES CLOSED

The connected swing is a feeling not a fact.

IS THE SWING CONNECTED

If you take a ball on the end of a string. Then just swing it around you. Feel what your hand is doing as the ball is swinging in a circle. It is constantly putting force on the rope to keep the ball swinging in a circle. If your arm goes the same direction the ball goes it slows the ball down. The same thing happens in your swing. Watch a hammer thrower. As the hammer comes around into the throw area the body pushes back away from the hammer to accelerate it. The same is true in a golf swing. 

THE SWING IS A CIRCLE

A Malaska Golf Member shares his experience with the Front Loader Drill. He hits the ball better when he puts the club out in front and starts his swing. He said it also keeps him from being too static over the ball.

Mike talks about how, for many years, golfers would set up to the ball and take a slight movement forward before hitting the ball. This triggered the backswing and was called a forward press.

In the 1980s, the prevailing thought in the golf industry changed to a more static start. Unfortunately, this locked a lot of people up. You will notice in many sports, you have to move left to go right. You do the same for the opposite way; go right to go left.

Another problem was taking the club away first. Mike emphasizes that this is a mistake because you will be late with your change of direction.

The Front Loader Drill puts the club out in front. As you bring it back, you are already on your right side, your hips are out of your way, and force is in your right foot. You are set up and can begin to change direction. If you start from a static position, it won’t be until the top of your swing or transition point that your body changes direction. This is too late!

The Front Loader Drill, having the club already out in front, allows you to go left foot, right foot, back to left foot, and then hit. This is your golf swing timing.

When you implement this into your swing without having the club in front of you, you have a slight forward kick or press before swinging backward. This gets you started on your swing.

Again, it is left, right, left, swing. The forward press is the trigger to get you to swing.

HOW TO START YOUR SWING

Matt Baker, a Malaska Certified Coach, is subbing for Mike this week. A Malaska Golf Member is having problems getting his right elbow under his left. Too far underneath.

Matt says this comes from two different areas. You are shallowing the clubhead too much, and it’s getting too far behind you, or your left hip isn’t working properly on the follow-through. You may be stalling, and your hip goes upwards. This will cause you to tilt your body back, and you will get caught behind the ball.

There are two things you can do to work on this. First is the ‘Turning the Corner’ of ‘Tipping the Club.’ This is in the Malaska Golf Drill Center.
This is where you feel the handle is being pulled down, and the club feels like it’s going over the handle. This gets the club back out in front of you.

Second, start working on moving your left hip backward on impact. Reference M1 of the M-System, where you chip and learn to pivot the left hip backward by pushing the left leg and hip back as you swing through. This will help you turn the shoulders and keep them level.

You can do either one, and that should help you.

KEEP FROM GETTING STUCK

Guilia Sergas works with Mike on Clubface and the Ball

ON THE RANGE WITH GUILIA SERGAS

Getting a putter fitted requires important information about a players swing.

THE STATS BEHIND FITTING A PUTTER

How to practice looping the swing "out to under."

PRACTICING OUT TO UNDER

This exercise is about rotation, and there are a couple of ways to test this.

First, Mike sits on the ground with his left leg bent other the other. He places his right arm outstretched, resting on his knee. His left arm is behind him, and he turns and looks over his left shoulder.

Mike can get his shoulders in line with his straight leg. He repeats this 
exercise with the other leg, turning the opposite way.

A second exercise to test rotation is to stand and place the club across your chest and shoulders and then rotate. The key is to turn from side to side and not turn your hips. Mike can also rotate his hips and isolate his shoulders.

When Mike swings, there can be a separation between the shoulders and hips, but it won't be easy if you are tight. This is a great exercise to help with rotation in your swing.

ROTATION

PING PONG AND GOLF

This Ask Mike comes to us from John DeFrancisco. By the way, Matt Baker, hello! Matt does a lot of great work. He’s over in England, and he’d be here today, except the flight was a little too long. So, hey Matt, how are you doing?This question is one that gets asked a lot. It tends to annoy me a little, which is great because I like being annoyed—it gives me a chance to be annoying back! The question is about the Look Cool Drill and how the clubface actually works through the ball. I’m going to take this one because I hear it so often, and it’s about exaggerations and putting circles together.All right, let’s get into it. You guys are going to have to move so I can demonstrate. The Look Cool Drill looks like this.When I’m doing the Look Cool Drill, if you watch the clubface, the face goes from here, comes down to there, and then moves up to here and over there. Through this movement, the face is rotating more than it would in my normal swing because my body isn’t moving. But this little action here—the clubface—is doing exactly what it should. It’s here, here, there, and there.The difference is that the handle of the club isn’t moving very far, so it looks like there’s a lot more face rotation. But if I take this same action and start moving my body—like in my full golf swing—the face does exactly what you want to see. When I take my body out of it and just swing my arm, you’ll see the handle pivoting, which makes it look like the face is twisting faster. However, the face is staying close to a 90-degree angle to my swing arc.The biggest issue I see with the Look Cool Drill and the L-to-L Drill is that people don’t fully understand the wrist movements. For example, when you go from here, your left wrist is flat. Now, if I use only my left arm and move to the other side, what does my left wrist do? It cups.When you add the right hand, on the backswing, your right wrist is in extension, and as you go through the swing, it moves into flexion. During the backswing with the Look Cool Drill, the left wrist is flat, and the right wrist is bent. At impact, and then as you follow through, the roles switch—the right wrist flattens, and the left wrist bends.When you do this with one hand, sometimes there’s more rotation than you want. If I overdo it, yes, the face rotates too much. The goal of the Look Cool Drill is to let the weight of the club drop and pivot naturally. See what I’m doing here?This doesn’t require strength—I’m only holding the club with two fingers. The idea is to let the club’s momentum do the work. As the club pivots, the face naturally moves through the arc. If I let it flip too much, the face closes. But the goal is to feel how loose your wrists need to be and how the club’s weight creates the pivot.If I do this with my left hand and let it flip back, the face might close, but that’s an exaggeration to help feel how much the club’s weight contributes to the swing. The drill teaches you how to relax the wrists and let the lever system work effectively.As simple as this looks, most students struggle to do it correctly when starting. They can’t figure it out because they’re too tense. This motion—this pivoting action—is the same as throwing a ball, serving in tennis, or any similar movement.The Look Cool Drill is all about using the weight of the club to train your hands, relax your wrists, and get the lever system working naturally.

SWING BETTER WITH THE LOOK COOL DRILL

The importance of learning skills over fixes

IFYP: SWING SKILLS

Joe's practice swing was something he prescribed to most all of his students. This trained you to move the club in sync with your body and how to keep the weight of the ball in front of you as opposed to falling behind.

FEELING JOE'S PRACTICE SWING

Mike gives a Player Lesson to Malaska Golf Spotlight Member Chris Grundy from Southport, England. Mike lesson focusses on setup to the ball , balance, and how the right arm rotates in your shoulder socket.

PLAYER LESSON WITH CHRIS GRUNDY

Milo discusses fundamentals that start off every lesson, and every practice session. These include grip, posture and ball position.