Mike Malaska is working with former MLB pitcher Garrett Richards. In this video lesson, he is showing Garret the sports connection between baseball and golf.

Mike gets Garrett to swing with a baseball bat and wants him to feel what his left hand does when it releases on the follow-through. Mike comments that Garrett’s left wrist doesn’t twist when he swings a baseball bat. It is the same when he swings a golf club and hits a ball. Your wrists should not twist, but that’s what is currently happening in his golf swing. 

Mike said Garrett would hit grounders if he rolled his wrists with a baseball bat. Mike holds the bat with Garrett and demonstrates the hand and wrist action, which is the same as the golf swing.

Garrett now goes back to his wedge, and Mike adjusts his grip. He also shows him how to release the toe of the club on the follow-through. It goes up, not over.

Mike just wants Garrett to make an easy 100-yard shot. He does, and Mike says that Garret didn’t hook the ball. Mike explains to Garrett that he had so much twist in his arms that it was hard for him to be consistent. However, Garrett was athletic enough to swing the club from the inside and to catch his hands and clubface up. Being a few degrees off in having the clubface square at impact can cause miss-hits.

Mike gets him to hit the ball again, imagining him hitting a baseball bat with his left hand. It's more of a chop action with no twist. Garrett hits an awesome shot. Mike laughs and tells him how easy it will be to hit it straight. Garrett says it feels like hitting a cricket bat and hitting the ball square.

Mike shows how the clubface works, demonstrating the swing path with Garrett’s club. The clubface is open relative to the target line; however, it is 90 degrees to your body on the swing arc. What the club doesn’t do is rotate and turn over. Garrett describes it like a pinball flipper. Mike explains this is how the Tour Players swing. The clubface hardly rotates relative to their swing arc.

Mike tells Garrett that his right hand is his pitching hand, and he is aiming at the ball to throw it. His left hand is like hitting a baseball. Garrett describes to Mike that he feels like he is reaching up and ringing a bell on his backswing. He says that it feels like a more direct path up and directly to the ball than swinging out and hoping the timing is right back to the ball.

Mike wants to work with Garrett on his short shots, which will help him significantly improve his short game and also his long game. 

Mike is trying to get Garrett to trigger something his body already knows how to do, and he says this is where golf went wrong. The golf industry decided to turn the clubface down because they didn’t want the ball going up in the air. This came about because of how golf started historically: the balls were expensive, the players wore suit coats, and it was windy in Scotland. As the game progressed, it became less important to keep the ball low.

The new balls that players have used in the last 15 years don’t spin very much. You have to hit the ball higher. You have to stop the ball with ‘angle of descent,’ than you do with spin. Therefore, all the rotation of the arms and turning the hands down is gone. Mike explains that the new Tour Players swing so fast, but the clubface doesn’t rotate much. They can hit the ball pretty far because the clubface isn’t twisting.

Garrett feels that what he is doing now with Mike with his swing is compressing the ball versus hitting the ball. Mike says that this is awesome.

Mike explains to Garrett that a good way to get the correct grip is to hold the golf club like he is holding and swinging a baseball bat. Adjust the thumb slightly and lower the club down behind the ball. This is the correct grip you should have. Mike says that he had this grip coming from baseball, and after college, he was talked into another grip by his instructors, which ruined his career. With the grip Mike had, they said he wasn’t a golfer and had a shut face with a throw release. The irony is that’s what everyone wants today.

Mike works with Garrett’s grip again to get it on correctly, and he talks about force going into the hand. Mike wants Garrett to make small pitch shots. Mike notices his ball flight is now lower, with a slight draw. This is what Garrett wants.

Again, Garrett says it feels like hitting a cricket bat. Mike says he has never heard that before but says to Garrett that if that is what it takes to get a feel to hit the golf ball correctly, then to go with it.