Mike Malaska - Getting the club in front of you. Made easy...

[Golfbeat]

I dabbled with the Malaska swing a year ago, and went out and shot my career low. Somehow in the offseason I convinced myself I needed a more "conventional" swing. In the words of Phil, "I'm such an idiot." I re-discovered this thread because of malaka's appearance on the BBG youtube channel, and after a rough year swing-wise, I'm striping the ball again. For whatever reason, his stuff cures my swing woes. It just works for me. For anyone struggling, look at the split grip hockey drill that he does on brandon's channel. It will get you feeling the right way to deliver the club into the ball.

You can skip the first 10 minutes

 

 

Just out of interest: what was this careers low?

[grizztrax]

I dabbled with the Malaska swing a year ago, and went out and shot my career low. Somehow in the offseason I convinced myself I needed a more "conventional" swing. In the words of Phil, "I'm such an idiot." I re-discovered this thread because of malaka's appearance on the BBG youtube channel, and after a rough year swing-wise, I'm striping the ball again. For whatever reason, his stuff cures my swing woes. It just works for me. For anyone struggling, look at the split grip hockey drill that he does on brandon's channel. It will get you feeling the right way to deliver the club into the ball.

You can skip the first 10 minutes

 

 

Just out of interest: what was this careers low?

 

It was a 75 on a tight course with OB on every hole. I remember on 17, old habits kicked in and I sliced one OB. Knowing I had a good round going, I would have normally panicked and completely blown up the hole. But with the MM swing, I knew exactly what I had done (handle drag) and how to correct it. I made a second ball birdie, to limit the damage with a bogey. Why I ever gave up on the MM swing is beyond me, too much time in the off season to have my doubts I guess. Haven't broken 80 since - time to get back in line with this method.

[Josh The Nosh]

i saw his video on BBG and it made it allot easier, he thinks what he says is simple in his videos but its not, that made it easier

[Hilts1969]

i saw his video on BBG and it made it allot easier, he thinks what he says is simple in his videos but its not, that made it easier

 

Just watched that video it was good I think the secret is to not unhinge your wrists or open the shoulders too early, 2 o'clock ,flamingo, speeding up the arms,Justin rose left arm working across your chest,club gets to the ball before your shirt buttons,ring the bell,pull the chain,chop wood,left shoulder staying put longer, keeping everything behind the ball.They are all saying the same thing to me.

 

I still have this urge to throw everything at the ball though

 

 

[grizztrax]

i saw his video on BBG and it made it allot easier, he thinks what he says is simple in his videos but its not, that made it easier

 

Just watched that video it was good I think the secret is to not unhinge your wrists or open the shoulders too early, 2 o'clock ,flamingo, speeding up the arms,Justin rose left arm working across your chest,club gets to the ball before your shirt buttons,ring the bell,pull the chain,chop wood,left shoulder staying put longer, keeping everything behind the ball.They are all saying the same thing to me.

 

I still have this urge to throw everything at the ball though

 

I'm in the same boat. The "handle in, club out" thought seems to help with this for me.

[Sun Devil]

Okay. Malaska is $300 an hour. I might have to keep watching his youtube videos. I'm playing golf tomorrow with no real practice time for his moves. Sounds like a disaster awaiting me on the course.

[BKN1964]

Okay. Malaska is $300 an hour. I might have to keep watching his youtube videos. I'm playing golf tomorrow with no real practice time for his moves. Sounds like a disaster awaiting me on the course.

Haha! Yeah, I'd like to take a lesson or two from him, but the rates don't align with my recreational/amateur status.

[wybrh]

I'm with you guys. I wish he had regular guy rates for chops like me.

[sheldonjhacker]

[robbohank]

It's got to be a tough call for instructors like Malaska. Supply and demand still rules the day and he obviously is in demand. The thing that I like about MM is how much stuff he puts out there FOR FREE! He keeps it pretty simple and IMO if you have any golf sense at all you can get over $1000 worth of in person lessons just from watching his YT stuff!

[BKN1964]

Don't get me wrong though. If I could charge $300/hr and keep a full schedule, I wouldn't hesitate to do so.

[Sun Devil]

So I tried his technique yesterday. Got to the range early and it was working. I loved the ball flight. My hands felt like they were in front of me and I could swing freely.

 

Felt great off the tee. I am normally very good with my driver. I was bombing the driver. No flipping. But my irons ..........

 

I have a strong grip and my miss is usually a low left hook. Initially everything was working, but later in the round ... I kept hooking every iron shot. I mean even the wedges. I used to be the flipper with a right field swing. I think I started to get lazy and everything was a closed face going to left field (OTT).

 

I'm not giving up, but it was frustrating.

[PureStrikes54]

This seems like pure gold to a dumped under, stuck, block and hook miss decent ball striker but absolute rubbish to the typical 5-15 handicap wipe slicer with no depth and club head kicking out super early.

[Ristlager]

This seems like pure gold to a dumped under, stuck, block and hook miss decent ball striker but absolute rubbish to the typical 5-15 handicap wipe slicer with no depth and club head kicking out super early.

 

If you watch the Be better video he specifically shows how it also works for the 5-15 hc wipe slicer.

[PureStrikes54]

This seems like pure gold to a dumped under, stuck, block and hook miss decent ball striker but absolute rubbish to the typical 5-15 handicap wipe slicer with no depth and club head kicking out super early.

 

If you watch the Be better video he specifically shows how it also works for the 5-15 hc wipe slicer.

 

Those intents will absolutely not work for typical wipe slicer. Gotta fix the complete minimal rotation in the backswing, lack of depth, and spin out before you can give intents like those, which maybe Mike does in real lessons. I'd love to see a video of him taking someone's path from 10 degrees left to 5 right with just those intents.

[Hilts1969]

Isn't a steeper shaft only a problem if it coincides with being out towards the target line?

[PureStrikes54]

Isn't a steeper shaft only a problem if it coincides with being out towards the target line?

 

Feel like it starts to become an issue with the longer clubs and having enough room to not have to stand up and back out of it to not stick the head in the ground.

[Sun Devil]

I think my issue was my shoulders and body started to open too early on a horozontal plane rather than the vertical shoulder plane that MM teaches. Right shoulder down and through and to the left rather than out and then to the left.

[Hilts1969]

I think my issue was my shoulders and body started to open too early on a horozontal plane rather than the vertical shoulder plane that MM teaches. Right shoulder down and through and to the left rather than out and then to the left.

 

It's all I'm working on at the moment and it's hard not to open the shoulders early, looking at different feels to get me there, I don't want to start dropping my right shoulder though, getting the arms working down quickly is tougher than I thought it would be

[robbohank]

Yea..... golf is pretty crazy wrt to the whole opposite feel thing. I'm a handle-dragger extraordinaire and the thought of handle-in-clubhead-out at transition is so polar opposite to what I do. Yet.......when I try to max out the handle in clubhead out transition it's a fraction of what I expect to see!

 

Feels great and I like the results but trying to convince my brain that it's correct is a challenge!

[Larry111]

I think my issue was my shoulders and body started to open too early on a horozontal plane rather than the vertical shoulder plane that MM teaches. Right shoulder down and through and to the left rather than out and then to the left.

 

What I found out is that the upper arms slightly roll CCW in transition to drop the arms and hands. Once the hands get to about waist high the upper arms fire faster along with the pivot fire which arcs the club off, as Tiger calls it, out to the ball.

 

The drop keeps the club in front, the hands come down and in not out while the club shaft and head go over the top out to the ball.

[Sun Devil]

Not sure I will convert completely to the MM method, but at least it gets me thinking to keep my hands in front of me during the swing. My fault has always been to lead with the handle and then get stuck .... having to flip at the end.

[dslatt33]

So I tried his technique yesterday. Got to the range early and it was working. I loved the ball flight. My hands felt like they were in front of me and I could swing freely.

 

Felt great off the tee. I am normally very good with my driver. I was bombing the driver. No flipping. But my irons ..........

 

I have a strong grip and my miss is usually a low left hook. Initially everything was working, but later in the round ... I kept hooking every iron shot. I mean even the wedges. I used to be the flipper with a right field swing. I think I started to get lazy and everything was a closed face going to left field (OTT).

 

I'm not giving up, but it was frustrating.

 

 

 

My miss with this method is usually a pull or a pull hook. In watching most of MM videos the reason this is happening because: A) starting the down swing with the right shoulder, will cause an over the top swing. B) on the down swing the toe of the club head is leading the shaft instead of the heel of the club head.

 

When I work on these moves especially, the heel leading the shaft the hooks go away. Its just something you have to pay attention too if the ball starts to turn over.

 

MM has several videos out there that cover this topic.

[Sun Devil]

So I tried his technique yesterday. Got to the range early and it was working. I loved the ball flight. My hands felt like they were in front of me and I could swing freely.

 

Felt great off the tee. I am normally very good with my driver. I was bombing the driver. No flipping. But my irons ..........

 

I have a strong grip and my miss is usually a low left hook. Initially everything was working, but later in the round ... I kept hooking every iron shot. I mean even the wedges. I used to be the flipper with a right field swing. I think I started to get lazy and everything was a closed face going to left field (OTT).

 

I'm not giving up, but it was frustrating.

 

 

 

My miss with this method is usually a pull or a pull hook. In watching most of MM videos the reason this is happening because: A) starting the down swing with the right shoulder, will cause an over the top swing. B) on the down swing the toe of the club head is leading the shaft instead of the heel of the club head.

 

When I work on these moves especially, the heel leading the shaft the hooks go away. Its just something you have to pay attention too if the ball starts to turn over.

 

MM has several videos out there that cover this topic.

 

That makes sense. I'll try that at the range.

 

Thanks.

[i*windows]

I think I'm going to stick with Mike's methods, they seem to make sense to me and I really like Mike's delivery and production quality - and he seems like a nice guy.

 

I don't know if anyone has seen these from 'be better golf', but there is some good stuff here especially the split hands drill

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKagw8I26mE

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KceztwOBV8I

[AMPlayer]

Very nice links i*windows, thank you, and as you stated, the production quality is indeed very good.

[glk]

[Hot Rod 71]

^^^Malaska has such a great delivery of information. I enjoy listening to him.

[scopek]

Damn this makes so much sense....I'm able to do this move and had made some good contact, but problem with these YouTube instructors is finding someone to help when it goes wrong. $300 is, to say the least, out of my budget, let alone the travel to go see him. Funny thing is the over the top from the inside is close to what they're teaching in Tathata.

[swhogan35]

Damn this makes so much sense....I'm able to do this move and had made some good contact, but problem with these YouTube instructors is finding someone to help when it goes wrong. $300 is, to say the least, out of my budget, let alone the travel to go see him. Funny thing is the over the top from the inside is close to what they're teaching in Tathata.

 

Mike is a genius, I had the pleasure of working with him for 3 years before branching out on my own. His knowledge of the body is unreal. I spent 2 weeks at his course in November teaching some of my players, and getting to have discussions with him, he blows my mind still with how challenging he can be but also how simple it is.

 

The one word of caution is if you're going to be OTT from the inside, Mike has already worked really hard on your hand and wrist movements before getting to this point so you could deliver the club appropriately.