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My students complain when their baseball swing shows up in their golf swing. I Wish people would swing like their baseball swing! Here's why.

BASEBALL SWING

If you don't use your imagination, you have no chance when playing at Augusta because the speed of the slopes and angles of the breaks are unreal. Keep that in mind for the Masters.

Playing Augusta

Jack Nicklaus shares Augusta insights to help you play smarter and finish stronger.

Golf Talk-Masters Secrets With Jack Nicklaus

Step 1: Create Width. Step 2: Push away - transfering force away from the direction of the swing - not up. Step 3: Re-hinge the club; this requires relaxation, which increases speed.

ADDING DISTANCE REVIEW

Billy Fitzgerald has been a student of the game and teaching golf for over two decades. In his early childhood his father, owner of Fitzgerald Gravel in Michigan, gave him a choice to pick stones out of black dirt or golf balls off the range at the local country club. He picked golf and would never look back.
Billy competed at the junior and high school levels before playing his college golf at Grand Valley State University. After graduating from GVSU he would take his first professional job at Bay Harbor Golf Club in Northern Michigan. It was here where Billy met the legendary Jim Flick spending the next decade learning from one of the games best. Jim spent his summers in Michigan and winters in Arizona at Desert Mountain as would Billy, joining the teaching staff in the desert.
In 2008 Billy accepted the job as Director of Instruction at Olympia Fields Country Club in Chicago, IL and was recognized as one of Golf Digest&rsquo;s Best Young Teachers from 2010-2020. During this time he contributed articles and videos to the magazine and website. In 2014 he was appointed lead instructor at Beverly Country Club also in Chicago where he is currently the Director of Instruction.
In 2016 Billy traveled back to Arizona to spend a few days with Mike Malaska, whom he had developed a relationship with through Mr. Flick. &lsquo;&rsquo;After spending a few days with Mike I was blown away at the simplicity and pure genius of his teaching style. It really lit a fire in me. The ability to take things we already know how to do and connect sports and golf was a home run.&rdquo; Over the next 7 years Billy trained with Mike not only on his own game but to take his teaching to a new level. Billy is thrilled to have Mike&rsquo;s endorsement as a Malaska Certified Coach and is ready to help your journey to become a complete golfer.

Malaska Certified-Billy Fitzgerald

The club swings on an incline angle, it does not swing "down" towards the ball. When you transfer force to counteract the swinging club, be sure you are pushing away and not "up."

PUSHING AWAY

A Malaska Golf Member wants to know about the release pattern in the swing. Mike says this member is typical of those players who swing from the inside and have to roll their hands over at impact. He has a weak grip, holds the clubface open, and twists his forearms. The member wants some advice and drills to keep from doing this.

Mike uses a frisbee to show hand action. He first uses his right hand to throw the frisbee. Notice that Mike doesn’t twist his hand as he throws it. If he did, it wouldn’t go. He now throws the frisbee with his left hand, and you can see that hand action.

Throwing a frisbee with both your right and left hands gives you a feel for the hand action of the golf swing. Mike demonstrates this hand action with a golf club.

Mike has also put an ‘X’ mark with a sharpie on his left golf glove. The reason to have the X on the glove is to make sure that Mike’s hand was facing outwards on the follow-through. This was to teach Mike not to turn his hands over because if he did, the palm of his glove would be facing upward. 

These are two of the best ways to practice hand action.

LEARNING HAND ACTION

Bringing the range to the course is a process.