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Pickleball is a paddleball sport that combines elements of badminton, table tennis, and tennis for two or four players. Mike demonstrates the cross-over between Pickleball and Golf as another way to relate sports together.

SPORTS CONNECT: PICKLEBALL

A couple of great exercises for strength flexibility and awareness is one the Leg press and two the sitting floor twist. The leg press you just kneel down. Place your right foot out in front of you. Your left knee is directly Below your left hip. Then you just try to push your hips and upper body up. Your lead knee stays over your lead ankle. Then do the same thing on the other side. To gain rotation. Sit on the ground. Legs straight. And upper body vertical. 90 degrees to your legs. Then take your left foot and place it on the right side of your right leg. Take your right arm and place it on the left side of your left leg. Then rotate as much as you can. Then do the same thing the opposite way. These are great for strength and flexibility. It does not matter what level you are with these. Just seeing what you have is important. Then if and when you get better. You are better.

HOW THE BODY WORKS - FITNESS

Don't copy. Learn to feel where the ball is going.

ON COPYING SNEAD AND HOGAN

Mike Malaska brings out the ROTEXMotion Floor Models for Austin Graham to use.

Mike puts both feet on the Floor Models and demonstrates what he wants Austin to do. As Mike turns his arms and body back, his right leg straightens, his left leg bends, then he twists his feet back to square. The purpose of this is to feel what your hips are doing. Mike shows Austin the movement he wants him to make and where he thinks Austin is off.

Mike gets Austin to imitate this twisting motion without a club first, then asks Austin what he thinks his right hip and femur are doing. Austin says that his right hip is staying out of the way and turning down. Mike says that, in fact, the right hip is moving back, away from him.

Mike takes Austin’s sand wedge and demonstrates how to bring his club back, twist his feet, and swing. Austin does what Mike taught him. Mike observes that Austin’s right hip is now doing what it should. Austin is transitioning correctly.

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Austin has an aha moment when he realizes there is only a slight lateral movement of the hips and not a large movement of the hips and legs.

Mike discusses things that have happened over the last 10-20 years. At the tour level, left-hand grips have gotten significantly stronger, with less rotation of the clubface and less lateral movement. You need that lateral motion to tilt your shoulder and start your arms down. Mike demonstrates this slight motion by swinging his arms.

Austin mistook his lateral movement as sliding his legs and body into the ball. Mike goes behind Austin, working with his hips to feel the slight transition. The ROTEXMotion floor discs are a great way to feel that movement.

Mike says there must be some lateral movement, but it is minimal. It takes place before you reach the transition point of the club. Austin feels that difference when he swings his wedge on the discs. This movement is what Austin has been looking for in his golf swing.

SLIGHT LATERAL MOVEMENT

Before you can hit a ball far, you must first learn how to control the face. Learn how to use the face of the driver to your advantage.

DRIVER FACE CONTROL

When it comes to getting a wedge fitted, the bounce is a very important factor. Learn how different bounces change your swing.

HOW BOUNCE AFFECTS YOUR WEDGE

The first step in putting is to be able to read the green. Brian uses AimPoint, which is a green reading system.

PUTTING READ

Harry Hooker returns to discuss what you can work on if your swing with a driver resembles Harry’s. 

Harry’s normal grip has his right hand underneath the club handle. This Mulligan Monday, Harry will rotate his right hand counterclockwise around to the top of the handle. 

Mike sets up and swings the driver. The ball shoots to the right and is lost. Because of Harry’s grip, Harry will have to adjust his aim and path to compensate. 

The grip changed Harry’s curve, so he must now change his path.

HARRY HOOKER DRIVER CHANGE YOUR GRIP AND PATH

Malaska Golf Certified Coach Matt Baker, based in the United Kingdom, is answering a member's question this week. The member is concerned about casting on the downswing, which a friend has pointed out. This friend also noted that the member has a flippy release, or is releasing the club too early, resulting in hooking the ball to the left.First, double-check your grip. Make sure that your left hand is placed correctly on the club. Matt refers to this as a natural neutral position. He suggests letting your hands hang naturally before transferring them onto the club handle. Matt also talks about the knuckles you should see and demonstrates how the heel of the hand acts in a chopping action, instead of a flippy release. This is the first thing you need to get right.The second thing to focus on is practicing impact. Matt addresses the ball and moves into his left side, as you would do in a swing. He emphasizes feeling pressure move from the middle of the feet to the heel of the left foot, by pushing the left leg backward to clear the hip.This improves hand position, making the left shoulder go back and the right hand and shoulder come down. The right side will then align behind the club shaft for proper compression. Matt also mentions feeling his right leg coming down and inward when hitting the ball, rehearsing the impact position.Visually, when Matt is at the impact position, he can’t see his left hand as it covers his left knee. It feels like his hands are far forward, though from the camera view it might not appear that way. This is an important concept to grasp. You don't need to hold the angle through impact; it's a position you will naturally achieve.Matt demonstrates this process down-the-line by getting your grip correct, taking your address position, then moving into your left side, getting the left hip back with your left leg. Ensure your left shoulder goes up and your right shoulder goes down. The right hand and arm should be behind the club shaft at impact. Start with chip shots to get the feel of impact. Progress from chips to full swings, moving from impact backward. Matt practices this frequently, as it’s the most crucial position. He then demonstrates with a full swing.Practicing the impact drill will significantly improve your strike and give you much better control of the ball.

STOP CASTING

Excited to be partnering with Lag Shot Golf. I am a huge proponent of getting people to feel the right swing. You can try to force yourself to hit the right positions and train yourself to check the box at every part of your swing, but when you feel the right swing, you know you're doing it right. The Lag Shot Golf product line of training aids helps with that feel aspect because you can not only physically feel yourself creating pressure in the shaft, but you can see it as well.

LAGSHOT

LAG SHOT FEEL IT LOAD AND KICK

Harry Hooker moves to the fairways and focuses on where his practice swing hits the ground.

Harry noticed his club was hitting way back off his right foot when he made practice swings.

The “Fix” is for Harry to set up to the ball and position his feet to where Harry’s club hits the ground.

When Harry makes a swing, he hits it solid down the fairway.

Watch your practice swing; it indicates where to set up and address the ball.

HARRY HOOKER FAIRWAYS PRACTICE SWING

The grip is slightly less in the fingers. It is more diagonal in the lead hand than with chipping and putting, but not as much in the fingers off the lead hand as with full swing.

GRIP

In the golf swing your lead arm stays fairly straight. Not because you keep it straight. It stays straight because of what your trail arm does. As you start the club back. Your wrists begin to hinge. As they hinge your trail arm is always trying to push your lead hand away from you. So the pushing away with the trail arm is what keeps your lead arm fairly straight. That keeps the tension out of your lead arm and lets it accelerate through the ball.

KEEP YOUR LEFT ARM STRAIGHT - ONE PIECE TAKEAWAY

Nibley was a great learning experience for kids gettig involved in golf. 

HOW NIBLEY SHAPED ME INTO WHO I AM TODAY

Using a launch monitor can help you see your swing and what you need to change.

CONTROLLING YOUR DRIVER WITH YOUR LAUNCH MONITOR

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

PUTTING CHIPPING AND FULL SWING SETUP

Welcome to our new feature, the Malaska Golf Member Spotlight, where we feature one of our active members. This Member Spotlight focuses on Chris Grundy and what Golf has meant to him.

CHRIS GRUNDY - SOUTHPORT, ENGLAND - 20200725

PUTTING WITH TIME BETWEEN PUTTS

Get in your set up position. Then put the club out in front of you where you want it to go after impact. Then let the weight of the club and or momentum swing the club back into the backswing. Let the club swing where it wants to go. Then swing down and hit the ball. This really helps you feel the momentum of the club and takes the tension out of the backswing. 

FRONT LOADER DRILL

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

Dial in three wedges from three key distances

DIAL IN WEDGES AND DISTANCE

Stop struggling with hitting the ball on the hosel and making pitch-out shots.

What causes you to hit the ball into the hosel? When you set up to the ball, your hands and arms move farther away from you, or your body moves closer, which runs the hosel into the ball.

Swinging too much from the inside can also cause you to hit the ball into the hosel because your hands and arms are moving away from you.

What’s the fix? First, set up to the ball, look at where your hands are, and make a swing. On the swing, make sure your left hip pushes out of the way as you come into the ball. Your hands must feel like they come closer to you and go around to the left. If your hands return to the same spot or inside that and go left, you won’t hit the ball into the hosel. It’s actually impossible.

The key is to make sure you move away from the ball. As you run the club into the ball at impact, that is the apex of the arc, and the club moves around to the left.

STOP HITTING THE BALL ON THE HOSEL

Your left leg gets your hip to work correctly. Practice making swings where your arms have room to swing.

STANDING ON YOUR LEFT FOOT

If you could slow down the world for a better shot, would you?

FOCUS AND RELAX

IVAN POVOROV

Malaska Golf Certified Instructor, Pepe Cortez, advises how to approach the first tee and overcome the jitters.

FIRST TEE JITTERS

A Malaska Golf Member wants to know how to incorporate the L to L Drill into his full swing.

Mike demonstrates the L to L Drill and then applies that to his full swing. All Mike is doing is extending the backswing and the follow-through of the L to L Drill. He is just adding a little more turn.

If you were to slow the swing down, the positions would be the same as the L to L. The club still hinges on the backswing and rehinges on the follow-through. Most people try to “chicken wing” their arms or do other things because they don’t let the weight of the club rehinge on the follow-through.

Some Tour Players can extend the club more on the follow-through because they are so flexible. They can continue rotating their pelvis at a speed that keeps up with the clubhead. For most players, once their hips stop, the club rehinges.

Again, work the L to L into your swing and recoil the club back to the L position after the swing. This will help you to reinforce what that feels like.

L TO L IS YOUR FULL SWING

How changes fundamentals like posture can lead to dramatic improvement.

CORRECTING POSTURE

In this video, a Malaska Golf Member has a sports-connect question about throwing a frisbee. This is a great way to feel how you turn the corner and how your left hand works on the follow-through.

Mike grabs a frisbee with his left hand and cups it. He makes a throwing motion which is the same left-wrist action as in a golf swing. Mike demonstrates this action by throwing the frisbee.

Mike then faces the camera and shows the frisbee at the point where you hit the ball in golf and the release of the frisbee or the follow-through.

Mike has drawn an “X” on his glove to illustrate that the “X” is visible to the camera when your hands release through the swing. Your wrists don’t turn over and show your hands to the sky. This is an old way of teaching where you have swung and opened the clubface and rotated your forearms.

If you have a baseball grip, the hand action is the same as when you swing. Mike takes his golf club and applies the same frisbee-throwing action to hitting a golf ball.

A FRISBEE AND HAND ACTION

BODY ROTATION

Golf has gone through many changes. Learn how players have changed their attitudes over the years.

THE EVOLUTION OF ATTITUDES IN GOLF

Chipping is just off green putting. The ball gets in the air because of the loft in the face. Set up with your weight or force slightly on your lead foot. This changes the angel of approach to the ball. You are catching the ball on the face then brushing the ground. The loft of the face gets the ball in the air. Put a dot on the face on the fourth grove from the leading edge. The back of the ball and this dot connect. You use the same line of compression that you did in putting.

CHIPPING THE BALL IN THE AIR

Mike Malaska discusses instinct and grip. A member wants to know if you can get it too strong. Mike says yes, it is possible. 

Starting with your left hand, take a club and act as if you were going to hit something. Where you place your hand is about where you want your grip. Repeat with your right hand and then put both hands together. 

The joints should line up to where you have the most amount of force and where it is most stable. The thumb should go on the side of the shaft, not on top. Instinct will tell you not to put the thumb on top because the club would pull out of your hand when you hit.

If your grip is too strong, you would have to turn it far underneath, and then your hand would want to turn back to line your fingers and joints up where they were. 

Again if you take the club and act like you’re going to hit something, instinct will tell you where you place your hand and thumb.

INSTINCT AND GRIP

Tour pros hit lower shots in their short game compared to average golfers. The first way you can begin to control trajectory is by using a lower lofted club.

LOWER LOFT

PRACTICE STATIONS

Having fun is one of the most important parts of the game. Learn how to take some pressure off.

HAVE FUN WITH THE GAME

Tom Watson was one of the greats. Learn how how effected my perspective on practicing.

HOW TOM WATSON PRACTICED FOR TOURNAMENTS

Hitting a pickleball is very similar to hitting a golf ball. Mike takes a pickleball racquet and attaches it to a golf club to help explain the similarities.

PICKLE BALL AND GOLF CONNECT

Having a stable foundation is key to learning and enjoying this game. Here, Caroline shows us the benefit that increased clubface control has on her swing.

BUILDING STABILITY

Taking a club that is not designed for the shot you are hitting then challenging yourself with making the club work. Is a big part of becoming a better player. Adjusting the face to make the club hit a shot it is not designed to hit makes you a better player. Challenge yourself with different shots with the wrong club.

BUNKER CHALLENGE

Most pros hit the putter in the center of the face. Here's the first drill to help you do this.

CENTER FACE HITS

Here Mike uses the Chair Drill to help Billy feel the role of the hips in the swing

USING THE HIPS TO GAIN CONTROL

Golf has gone through many phases. Learn how golf has changed since when me and Andy first started playing.

HOW GOLF HAS EVOLVED

When your wrist works correctly, your swing becomes better. Learn how to get your wrist at the right angle.

YOUR HANDS RELATIVE TO THE SWING ARC

Revisiting Nibley Park is like revisiting my childhood. Learn how the course helped improve my game.

THE FIFTH HOLE AT NIBLEY

There are such things as slices and hooks in baseball. A lot of it deal with the path of your arms.

HITTING WITH COACH NATE REYES

Mike covers different exercises that help with your golf swing. The static back press is his favorite. 

Mike lies on his back as his feet rest on a chair. His quads are 90 degrees to his body and lower legs. He puts his hands on his stomach and relaxes.

Mike notices that his right shoulder is a little off the ground, as is his right hip. This means that Mike's body is twisted. He takes deep breaths and relaxes into the ground.

Next, wrap a rope around the heel of your right foot and pull your leg back. This stretches your hamstring. You should be able to stretch your leg past 90 degrees to 45 degrees. If not, it means your hamstrings are tight, which will show up in your golf swing.

Now wrap the rope around your toes and pull down. This stretches your calf muscles.

As Mike lay on the ground for the first exercise, he evaluated his body to see if his hip was up or if he felt twisted, which would show up in his golf swing. The key is to let your body stabilize and get back into neutral.

The following two exercises were stretching your hamstrings and calf muscles. If these muscles are tight, that causes a problem when you swing. When you set up to the ball, you don't want a lot of angle in your body or keep your knees flexed. Keeping your knees flexed while turning your body requires a lot of flexibility in your hamstrings, hips, and calves

Even though keeping your knee flexed became popular, it wasn't easy. If you are tight in those muscles, when you push your right hip out of the way, don't be afraid to straighten your right leg. Jack Nicklaus and Bobby Jones both did this.

These exercises are good for you; each tells a story about what your golf swing is and is not.

FITNESS STATIC BACK PRESS

A Malaska Golf Member wants to know how and why Mike does the one-arm swing.

Mike begins by swinging an iron back and forth, independent of his shoulder moving. Mike places a finger on the outside of his shoulder socket to show the pivot point. You aren’t moving your shoulder forward as you swing.

Your shoulder socket must be relaxed for your arm to swing. Mike demonstrates this and hits a few balls with his right hand and then swaps to his left hand. You will notice there isn’t much body movement, and the pivot is at the shoulder socket. The key is to loosen up your arms without much body movement.

As you go to your full swing, you must keep that same lack of tension in the shoulders. Your arms need to go faster than your chest to create more speed. If your shoulder sockets are tight, you can only go as fast as your shoulders can turn.

Once you have a feel for that, then it’s about making a swing with the same amount of lack of tension in your shoulder sockets so your arms can accelerate and hit the ball.

SHOULDER SOCKET TENSION

Looping the club is a way to get the momentum of the clubhead out in front of your body. If you let the club fall behind your hands then you are looping incorrectly. Here's how Joe looped the club using his arms and hands.

HOW JOE LOOPED THE CLUB

As you swing step forward with you trail foot. As you reach the top step forward with you lead foot then hit the ball. This helps to stabilize your lower body as your swing. It also loosens up your arms and shoulders. This allows you to swing and step and hit the next ball. If your arms and shoulders are to tight you can not swing and get back to the next ball. Your body moves to much. 

WALK THROUGH DRILL

Brian Gott, a Malaska Golf Certified Coach is answering Ask Mike’s this week. This question comes from Tyler Dunnigan. Tyler asked about lead arm depth in the backswing.If you remember, a while ago, everyone was focused on the towel drill, where we would stay connected by pinning the left arm against the chest and keeping everything tight. Well, that’s been disproven by biomechanics. We now know that pinning the arm against the chest causes too much rotation, flattens out your swing plane, and makes it difficult to get back to square and stay on plane.What we want is lead arm depth, but not wrapped around the body. We want a good shoulder turn, with the arm out and away. If you look from this angle, as I take the club back, the arm is not pinned against my chest. It does connect when it comes down here, but we don’t want it wrapped around the body.We want the arm to stay out. The angle between the chest and the arm only changes about 17 degrees for most good players. We just don’t want to get too wrapped around, as it causes too much rotation. The more we can get the arms out and up, the easier it is to bring them down. Mike has a drill in the M System called the Four-Step Drill, which will help with this a lot.The Four-Step Drill goes like this: Step one, take the club out; step two, rotate; step three, push the arms out and away; and step four, hit the ball. Remember, you want a good shoulder turn with the arm going out and away, keeping everything in front, not pinned behind. If the arm gets pinned behind, you end up with too much rotation, the club gets laid off, and you must play catch-up.So, try the Four-Step Drill, and remember: the club goes out, up, and away—not pinned against your chest and wrapped around.