Improve Your Golf-Swing with Mike Malaska

On the mock drive, how's it?

It is Mark, your host, Mark and woman, of course.

This is the Undermark Podcast and I am so very thankful that you would join me.

Look with our guest, Mark Malaska.

I'm sure a bunch of you saw this and downloaded right away and if you have not done that yet,

please share this with your friends because the way I see golf instruction and golf is

there's nothing new under the sun and a lot of the legends of golf instruction and

I'm talking about guys like Percy Joe, Percy Boomer and Ernest Jones and Harvey Penneck

and much Harman and David Leadbetter and Mike Malaska and Jim Flick and Bob Toskey

who's been on the show incidentally, go find out if you haven't listened to Mr. Toskey.

They knew the stuff that everyone now is just confirming with the use of technology,

maybe worded slightly different but the wisdom of ages is a guarantee and you know me with

this podcast I'm always bringing you information for knowledge but my goal is to for you to

gain wisdom and that means the ability to sift through the information and find out what's

applicable to you and then make the right decision for your game because it's easy to get

like sucked into stuff whenever something new on social media arrives and after that

wisdom of course is the understanding of the information and the time here with Mike

I guarantee is going to help you to better understanding and and the realization that you can be an

athlete you know playing this game of golf quickly before we go anywhere look for more discount

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show up rat ti ho let's get to it here's my this man is a true legend of golf instruction and

my vision for those who know behind this podcast is to introduce the brightest of minds to people

around the world and Mike Malaska I'm 55 now but when I was growing up as an aspirin young teacher

you were one of those guys that I always turned to and I feel like from books and videos and

everything I know you're like a best friend although it's a thrill to meet you now for the first time

so how are you well I'm great and same with you Mark I mean I've watched just a player and a

commentator and you know I love where where you go and the fact that you actually question some of

the stuff that's out there you know rather than just you know taking the hook and just swall

on it whole before you understand what's even on the hook so yeah it's it's great and I enjoy

doing these and sharing my experiences and maybe help people so they don't go down some of the

rabbit holes we all went down for a lot of reasons so yeah you're speaking to the accused over here

okay 2011 PGA National Coach of the Year I want to ask you this because I can see the smile

there on the corner of the gills folks you can see the little grin from Mike if you're watching

on YouTube Mike I call myself a bridge between old and new because I'm just old enough where I

was a part of the Sony handicap brigade right and I'm just young enough where I was at the

forefront of all the arrival of launch monitors and such right and I get on this show to speak to

some of the brightest minds in the game and I've come up with well it's a theory that I'm noticing

as holding true where the real quality golf instructors and I say this with the utmost respect to

everyone teaching first off we need to understand we have a big responsibility because

someone's relying on us to improve something they're paying a lot of money for right but I don't

think people are taking that seriously because everyone is acting like the only tool in their toolbox

is a hammer and so everything in the world appears like a nail and if you go to one instructor you're

going to get some guy talking about grand reaction force all the time and if you go to another guy

he's going to be talking to you about I don't know risten forum what whatever you want to call it

so I'm keen as you looking at this whole thing from where you are as decorated as what you are

what is the real state of golf instruction in your opinion well you know all of the information is great

I've been through it I went through the biomechanics I thought I had the golden ticket I thought I

was going to be the best instructor in the history of golf when I learned about muscle firing

patterns and ground forces and I had access to that stuff back in the 80s yeah that most people

didn't have access to and it triggered me like it has a lot of the new teachers where well oh now we

got all this information I mean this is it I mean I'm going to learn muscle firing patterns I'm

going to learn ground reaction forces and I'm going to teach that and everybody's going to get

significantly better but what happened was they didn't and actually a lot of them got worse and

you're you're you're point about accountability and responsibility for a person's well-being in

the game not only physically but mentally you know we're not really held accountable for whether

someone gets better or not you know you just give them information and it's okay this is going to

work well you know as again as I found a lot of the biomechanics and all the stuff that's out there

now it's nice information but biomechanics for instance is the study of what's happening it's not

necessarily how to teach it or how somebody does it or what are the muscle what are the patterns

what are the instincts what do you have to develop before you can even do those muscle firing

patterns or do what the biomechanics says should happen so it's called pattern development

skill development it's how the body learns patterns and our industry now has all this great

information but again they're using that as the holy bible you know and okay so we got all these

numbers and we didn't so here's where you need to go and this is what we're after I'm going

to wait a minute I made that mistake so where do you have to start to be able to have a chance for

the person that's standing in front of you to be able to utilize the information and actually have

it fit who they are and where they are on that learning skills and so I sphere for the industry

because they're relying so much on science now and they're not teach an individual people even

though they say well we evaluate people we see who they are physically but what they still

started a level that's way past what somebody can really handle so their hand eye coordination

their their spatial awareness they haven't developed that and so the information isn't wrong it

just doesn't fit the person yeah I okay I'm I'm leaning on you because I shouldn't date this

because it's a podcast but here shortly I've been asked to go and be a guest speaker at

you know one of the PGA conference right and and so I'm like what do you want me to talk about

and the guy was like and you interview everybody you can talk to us about whatever you please

and I have this thing down in deepened within where I'm like I want to be a truth teller

and this podcast exists to illuminate people and to bring them to a word you used which is

understanding you know knowledge is one thing wisdom is knowing how to use it but you've got to

be able to understand all the knowledge to use it the right time right quite Harvey Pinnick you

know you're not going to go and take another man's medicine or if you the doctor says to aspirin

don't take the whole bottle kind of thing so I title this presentation going from instructor to

coach because the really great instructors are actually coaches because you it's not like

I'm just disseminating a bunch of information on you you're looking at the person you're

understanding their currency you communicating in a way to coach them to be able to find the

best in themselves am I on base with with with no that's exactly right there's very few coaches

in our industry yeah there are a few and the the coaches are the ones that take what the

individual person has they understand the rules by how they move and what makes their swing

or their body work and then they stay within those rules they don't try to turn them into somebody else

you know so and then they're very good at

modifying what you normally do and getting the best out of it so you as an athlete can play

from instinct see that was what killed me is I was really good really early and I everything I did

was instinct and when the teachers that I went to well intended that they were what they had me do

didn't fit my instincts and how I moved and so I could still do it because I had I had really

good hand eye coordination and I was willing to practice but under pressure when I had to pull it

off I was a little off you know not a lot but enough that you're barely missing a green or

you're barely missing a fairway just enough that you're shooting now you can't shoot 63 4s and 5s

you're shooting 71s and 2s you know and and and so they took away my instincts so under pressure

I was standing there and I couldn't feel comfortable or confident in what I was going to do because

it was all manipulation it didn't fit how I wanted to move and and I think that the I don't think

I know the guys that are really good you take butch for instance butch is probably the best coach

that there's there's been in golf why because he doesn't change people that much and he gets them

to understand what they do well and if they do it well they can beat anybody and so he's he

me I'll make some little fringe changes but it's you know you basically have a DNA for motion

and and it's like your first basic personality and you can change your personality to some degree

but you're still your base personality well that you've got the same thing motion wise and if you

interrupt that base personality too much you can get away with it when there's no pressure on

but as soon as you get a little bit amped up you'd go right back to who you are well if who you are

if you can make that work under pressure that's a good player you know technically you can be perfect

but if that doesn't fit how you move under pressure you got a problem which is what happened to me

and I kept blaming myself you choking frickin dog I mean you practice you get out here you should

everybody says how good you are and how good you should be you're letting yourself down you're

letting your wife down you're letting your sponsors down and the reality was I was fighting myself

and so I could only get so good under extreme amount of pressure and we all feel that it doesn't

matter whether it's you and I playing in a tour event or somebody playing in their member guest or

they're playing with their friends and they want to play well adrenaline is adrenaline and so

when that adrenaline hits how good are you I mean that becomes the that's the whole key so that

all fits into mentally your basic personality who are you how do you function and physically you

have a DNA for motion and if you fit in your swing into who you are you got a good chance of

pulling it off under pressure or the odds go up I could stop this podcast right now just have

people go and spend some time considering and meditating on what you point out they're Mike one

one more and I'm using this as an intro to you some more for the folks who don't know who Mike

Malaska is around the world would you say your style because I know mine is my style of golf

instruction or yours was this formed out of things you learned as a player or but because I'm

kind of the guy who read countless books and and I still to this day of all of the cutouts of

all the swing sequences of the legends from back in the day so why okay so kindred spirits here

but you use the word questioning I started questioning stuff I heard from instructors because

it it it was undurable for me and the pressure and I've got a video playing with next to me right

now it's on my other monitor which is you in sweatpants and an orange t-shirt and you swing

in a baseball bat and you throwing a football and you've got a bowling ball and a tennis ragged

and and eventually yeah see laughing I was like oh and I've already with a stuffed I'm getting

handcuffed by all these positions I'm trying to hit as opposed to being an athlete with a golf

club in my hand well I instinctively came to the game and was really good but I didn't really

know what I was doing I mean I have somebody asked me so what are you thinking about when you take

the club back I go just take it back well how do you get it in such a good position

I don't is it good you know I it just worked you know and so then the teachers well intended that

they were they started me down this road well let me show you some pictures of other players they

don't do what you do let me show you Ben Hogan let me show you this guy let me show you that guy

now what they didn't do is show me the guys that were very similar to me because that wasn't in

their agenda that wasn't where their methods were based in and so because of who they were I said

okay well all right if that's what I need to do I'll fix it well the reality is when I started

fixing and I started creating different patterns that didn't fit who I was instinctively the game

got really hard and they kept telling me well look if you keep doing this in six months to a year

you're gonna it's gonna be so much better well in six months to a year I could do it

better but it still felt terrible under pressure I would still stand there and I'm going it was

manipulation I couldn't react to the picture you know when I was a kid I saw a picture and I

reacted to the picture the more I got into the golf swing I was trying to make the golf swing

make the picture happen and so I I was compromised there and I kept going from I let's

stay with one method which was extremely complex I learned it I can still recite it a lot of

it's correct a lot of it was just wrong and then I went from teacher to teacher and they all well

yeah that's why here's why you're struggling that they ask you that's no good here we'll do this

we'll do that and every time I went to the raging fire for more information they'd show me what to

do I'd go you know okay it still doesn't feel right something's off it doesn't I can't just go

it doesn't feel like throwing a baseball or hitting a baseball or hitting a tennis ball the freedom

wasn't there and a very good friend of mine Phil Blackmark him and I have done a lot talking

you know Phil and okay well he's brilliant and we've talked a lot and when I turned 50 when I

went to the senior tour school which was kind of a validator for me I should have made it I was in

fourth place after the all of the rounds and going into the very final round and I actually played

well I shot 73 and I finished like eight or nine through whatever but when we got ready to go

for that he says I'll help you but here's what we have to do we have to free up your swing to

free up your mind everybody's trying to get your mind to let your swing go no no you have to

free up your swing now what did he mean well Mike stand there and just make naturally just hit just

make a swing okay we got to make that work and it started going back to what I did as a kid and so

all of a sudden the freedom started to be there because I could let the swing go and the face worked

now that was based on a grip that people didn't a national it's certainly like in a face

condition that at the time was everybody said well that's a little shot you know that's not

going to work we at work for me and so as I freed up my swing all of a sudden I could play more

aggressively and it wasn't about positions it was about motion and it was about seeing a shot

and then feeling the shot and then reacting to the feel more than the positions of it so

the teachers I went to I learned a lot about different ways to play and I took five totally

different methods and got to the finals of the tour school with five totally different methods

like Tiger Woods now now none of those methods felt athletic they all felt controlled

okay so I played my entire professional career with fear of the ball doing something that I didn't

want it to do because I had to there's only so much speed I could generate and once I passed

that speed I'd lose control of the ball when I was younger more speed made the made the swing

more stable well that's because of all of the things that I instinctively did correctly

and and so where I am is a combination of me as a player under pressure understanding all the

methods that are out there and then me as a what I've learned over these years relative to how

the body works and what you know how you learn patterns and who you are as a person

and how the joints work so there's so many things that I look at now and I go I know why I

struggle with that because it didn't fit the design of the body and it didn't fit athletically

how I had always created speed and force was it wrong there are players that have done it that's

why our industry is so tough you can't prove or disprove any real theory not I mean everybody can

show you pictures and substantiates like politics you give me an agenda and I'll give you all the

facts that support my agenda well as I learned the human body and how it works and how it moves

and then I started to learn how to test to see where somebody was in those patterns okay now

now I had something because it started to simplify down dramatically what was really necessary

and what was worth going after and wasn't worth and so I feel like I've been very fortunate

even though I crashed as a player and I was suicidal as you probably have been multiple times where

you just go I can't believe I can't do this well all of that confusion when I quit playing and I

was hurt back and I started to figure it out it was like okay now that I understand why I struggled

I'm going to help these other people so they don't go down the same rabbit holes I went down well

intended that the information is well the golf world is fortunate that you had that pivot in your

career so with that being said and I want folks to stay to the end because Mike does have a M

system the melaska method that you can sign up for and subscribe to when you get this incredible

information to basically help you improve your game but before I go there here yes you've got

these great videos on YouTube and on Instagram and stuff like that and I want to kiss a few of them

because the teacher in me has looked through these and gone right I'm going to piece together a

little method here where if folks watch this they can set themselves on the course to a simpler

way to swing in the club more efficiently and more consistently and it started with and I wish

I was smart enough to have done this as a teacher myself where you had a client and you took a

sharpie and you just drew an arrow basically over the crook of their thumb and forefinger right and

you had them hold the club face like that so they got the club over here and they holding this

with the arrow looking then you like all right wherever that goes and this is the trail hand for

folks listening on audio wherever that arrow points is how the face is going that's right basically

I have the face cares that's how the golf ball is going to go because face is king and path is queen

now I've always had little club faces and little you know clubs that people could hold and stuff

but when you basically brought the club face into the golfers trail hand and said this is it

if you're holding the club like this and this is how you control shots so please elaborate

well when I started as a kid when I started playing golf I was a pitcher okay all right so when I

came to golf and I spent hundreds of thousand maybe thousands of hours learning how to hold the

four scenes of a ball and if my fingers came off like this that was a fastball if this finger came

off first and this was second that was a curve and this was a slider all right so when I came to

golf all I did was I felt like I had a ball which was the club face was sitting right here and I

took it back and when I came into the ball if I pushed a little with this finger boom it would

hook the ball if I pushed a little with this it would fade it and if I pushed with both of them

it'd go straight now I was lucky that I had a left hand grip that came from baseball that everybody

said was a little strong but that left hand when it straightened the face squared so my right hand

was just coming into the ball and all I would feel is I could feel how I pushed

and so that's all it was and so I look at the ball I go what do I want to hit and I would

pray I'd make a practice just like when I was a pitcher I would program if I'm throwing a fastball

I would I would feel mentally I'd see the fastball and I could feel the ball coming off my fingers

and then I knew what I had to do with my fingers and so then my hand and my arm accommodated what

that needed to do and my body moved to be able to accommodate that so see you we learn from tactile

in fingers hands and toes into the center the center doesn't tell this how to go so these guys who say

move your center and this is going to work it's total BS I'm not wanting to spout blood

and there's some to that stuff no I'm not saying I'm not saying that you don't get to the point where

you feel this and this just kind of knows what to do but you got to train this to do that you can't

just stand there and turn back and turn through and think the face is going to show up and the club

face is going to be where it's supposed to be I mean I talked to Nicholas and I asked Jack about

hitting shots I just did an interview with him here's the best player in the history of golf and

here's what Jack said I said so when you're hitting the shot what do you do he said well the first

thing you first thing you see a look at the line then you see the shot and he says and he looks

right into the camera and he goes I feel it my fingers first and my fingers tell my hands what to

do and my hands tell my arms what to do and my arms tell my body what to do to accommodate it

I went okay that's a little backwards from what we're hearing now now at some point in time you can

get to the point where consciously if you've trained these you can move your body any way you want

to move it and your hands ago okay if you're going to do that I have to do this yes that's not

where most of people are that we're talking to they they barely know they have arms that come out

of the sides of their bodies so this hasn't been trained like you and I from a very young age to

play around with the club to let little chip shots to face control they don't have that control

so it's interesting to understand learning and hand-eye coordination skills and face control

because it's all about face control at the end of the day you know as well you could stand there

and move any way you want to move and if you did it two or three times your hands would go okay

all right if you're going to do that I've got to do this and you could start hitting it pretty well

well that's because you've trained your hands and the industry even a lot of these teachers they've

forgotten how the body learns patterns and they don't even know how it learns patterns they don't

know how it develops skills they they they keep going here first and it starts here

for the audio for the audio listener you need to watch on youtube because Mike is looking at the camera

with his hands in the screen and we he's talking about here that's the fingers and the hands and

the core obviously because you're right I can think of two quick anecdotes the one is a Sam

Sneedism where he's playing with this young man as you know mr. Sneed like to gamble and they

were getting beaten hand of a fist and Sneed looks at his partner goes what are you doing you're a good

player and the guy goes well I'm trying to take my hands out of the swing and Sam gently goes well

I can see you covering your face Sneed guys basically well how about you try and put your hands

right back in your swing because that controls the club face they exactly I mean I it's so simple

when you when you understand how the body moves and what triggers what your hands and feet trigger

everything everything else is a support mechanism now again I I can get to the point you can get

to the point where our hands are so good you can move and if you trained it enough it feels like

your hands aren't doing anything or you know but but that that whole quiet hands thing is a very

dangerous concept to throw out to the average person I okay here's my mere culprit I'm doing

this an interest in moving us along because because there's so much I want to get to

but as a young man I learned from books and I was given the modern fundamentals by the way I was

accused on YouTube the other day by someone who said you clearly haven't read the Hogan book and

I've got like four copies of this thing that I signed and stuff like that anyhow so I wanted to

copy Hogan so I'd turn hard with a middle but I'm a left-handed right so instead of my left hand

turning to square the face as I turned my left arm would just rotate inward my knuckles are

looking at the sky where do you think I hit the golf ball for the rest of time to wear right

high right as I promise you and the worst I did that the more I try to turn because I was getting

weaker and so just got worse and worse and worse till a wise old man strengthened my grip a little

bit and then I was able to get away with it because the face was commensurate with the amount

I was turning we'll see what you just did there when your body moves and your body unwinds

and you you come into dynamic impact however your joints naturally line up you want it so when

the force pulls on your arm that squares the face now when you go to where Hogan was and you take

that grip which is what killed me I mean I above all the things that killed me I had which

what everybody would call now they wouldn't call it too bad now but it was a fairly strong grip

but what would I came from baseball so all of a sudden when I would swing and I'd push back and

the club would accelerate and it'd pull on my left arm the face would square itself yes as they

said well your grip's too strong and I went here now as I swung and I went hard this happened so

the face opened so then my right side started trying to help it you know and and I got this arm

stronger and stronger to try to do this well the problem was again it didn't fit how the joints

are designed to work under pressure and force and if you understand and you use this

information these force vectors and you look at force vectors and joints and face alignment you

start to go oh okay now I start seeing how to line things up so that the force of the swing does

more of the work instead of you doing it and for I'm like I say once I started I've had a

number of aha moments in my career where I was suicidal and homicidal in the same 30 seconds

because as I started to figure things out I knew exactly why it worked why I had it as a kid

and I knew the exact lesson where they took it away from me yeah and and so anyways okay well great

the beauty here is we've hit one and two in the first um basically summary number three that I

wanted to get to is the question of where does speed actually come from because if we had to

pull a hundred percent they said a hundred viewers and listeners to this they'd all be like

you'd get people saying well you got to turn your rotation and certain other folks would

maybe come with one or two other things swing with or you know the stuff they've read and heard

but I've got a video of you and I've seen flick through it and then I tried it one time I've

had kids hit balls off their knees right it's from the inside too much they would land clubs three

four feet before the golf ball because that's right so other than the club would just droop

behind them right you had a hundred and two hundred and fifty yard drive offer offer seat

right body is you you're just basically holding your center and you're swinging a club around

you in a circle and a squared up with a little baby droid every single time right this power

actually come from well it comes from multiple places and it a lot depends on where you are in

a development stage as to what you can focus on Sasha Mackenzie who's one of the top biomechanics

guys in the in the country or in the world he did I did a presentation with him and he was talking

to these teachers and he had his chart and had a circle on the wrist and the club in this arm and

had a circle on the score and had a circle on ground forces and had a circle on gravity and he

said put the percentages of of what's happening and of course everybody put a bigger percentage on

core and body and ground forces and less on gravity and and as far as the lever system it was

50 percent or less he goes well the reality is 84.4 percent of the speed you create in the club

comes from your left arm or the lever system in the club this was like 12 percent ground forces

were like 4 percent and gravity was like 2 percent oh gosh yes you are fired you this is internet

catnip right now I tell you what there are so many people are going to start disagreeing with you

because they've been sold a bad bill of goods that's right we'll see so okay but here's the deal

if you learn the lever system which if you if it was all about core you'd they'd be an attachment

you would stick in your core and you'd swing the club from your core well I can put a club

there and hit the ball and then you can take my core and just giving my hands and arms and let me

hit it I can promise you which one you're going to pick and I can promise you which one's going

the farthest now if the lever system works correctly then this multiplies with the potential of

the lever system yes but if the lever system doesn't work and there you don't know how to create

speed with your hands wrist and arms and that lever how much you use your core isn't going to all

of a sudden make you good at the assumption is you have the lever system down so it's like as a

pitcher I learned I was a kid you learned to throw like this first you don't learn to throw

like that with all of the big motions you learn this and then you learn this and then you

start putting it together and okay if you don't have this if this is wrong it doesn't matter

how much this moves you can't throw with any speed yeah okay so it's it's a combination it's a

blend of skills and so the argument becomes what's the most important skill well I've been doing this

for 50 years I've got over a half a million people I've put my hands on I can promise you

of all those people I've seen the number where the core actually accelerates their club head

speed where they can control it is minimal because they haven't learned how to control the

face in the lever system first you have to learn how to walk to run you crawl first then you walk

then you run if you try to run first it's a disaster it would be a disaster you know so so in

development kids if you had a child they have to learn how to crawl then they learn how to get

up and then they walk and then they run well if you said look okay you've got to run first we're

going to make you run and you just stood around say run well they fall down okay you've got to

allow them and each person has a different amount of time it takes them to learn the basic skill of

crawl and then walk so no but there isn't a parameter that says well it's going to take you this

long to learn that otherwise your kids one learns to walk at nine months one you're a year and a half

and they're still not walking great you say look one more day and we're done we're cutting your

legs off we're not going to let you do this anymore you know so again if you understand how the body

develops skills and you start with those small skills and you improve those the big picture starts

to make sense if those small skills aren't correct the big picture makes sense but you can't

physically pull it off especially under pressure yeah you know what here's my take and I'd love

your inputs um I believe they're direct and indirect influences on the golf on the golf ball

and the only direct influence you have basically your hands and your fingers and your forearms

you know what your hips your pelvis and stuff do that's an indirect influence because it's never

ever hit the golf ball so I will break that down further into like macro movements which are

getting poo pooed by all in sundry and in the macro movements of the body's rotation and stuff

now yes the body rotation can throw off where the swing lands and stuff like that if it's faulty

but those micro movements is what makes someone like a scotty chef and a brilliant

because he can get the club phase back there in an appropriate fashion even when the body is a

little out of position uh you get him going that's that's why he's a stickler to me on how he

holds the golf club because it's paramount that he knows exactly where the face is in relation to his

hands well he had he he was struggling there a little a year or so ago and I know his teacher fairly

well and he he all of a sudden was watching him hit balls and he goes scotty take your right hand

off he goes your your left thumb is a little bit too much on top of the club move it a quarter just

about a quarter of inch onto the side of the club and scotty moves his his thumb just a quarter of an

inch and he starts making swings and he goes oh that's ten times better so the other thing that

hasn't been taught and isn't understood is grip and how you put your hands on the club relative

to how these joints are designed to work and what the task is you know so you know grip people

they're random with grip and okay well that's going to work no no based how you put your hands

on the club determines when you create force what the face is going to want to do which then determines

what you're going to have to do with your hands to square the face so it's it's a pyramid of things

that starts with this and then it multiplies itself as it goes through the body now if all

of those forces and circles match it can be pretty consistent it's not that hard to learn if they

don't match and you have to learn a compensation the degree of difficulty continues to go like this

which is what happened it would happen to you happen to me it's happened to more players

that probably has happened to more players and ruin players that Hogan five fundamentals

actually wasn't even necessarily what Hogan did it's he had a writer and a drawer that drew

things in their marvelous pictures but the reality is it was somewhat incorrect so people went down

that road and nobody I was able to copy his swing and be a really great tour player.

True well this is what I would contend as well that as a player improves so speed is a natural

as a natural uptick and you add speed to any relationship and things get a bit more dangerous

and that's where understanding the system that you talk about where okay as I control the face so

it moves so as I go faster this is what has to happen for that face to sharp square because now

we live in the air of speed and there was clubhead speed ball speed and stuff like this where

folks are swinging faster but the balls going slower because they're not presenting the face

appropriately even though they're going as hard as they can and then they're using ground out

reaction forces and all this other stuff they're hearing about what we'll see okay the brain

is a task master yes so you got to be really careful all about the tasks that it perceives here's

some bad tasks keep your left arm straight shift your weight clear your hips keep your head still

now I'm not saying that some of those maybe don't happen but as a basic task their effects not

causes so what are the basic tasks well if you look at line and compression and you start looking

at okay you take a putter and you put line your right arm up with the back of the shaft and you

push that shaft through the ball the face squares and you get all of that force into the shaft

loads the shaft even with a putter I mean you you know that as well I mean if you're a little off

with your line of compression and you hit the ball you get different distances with what you feel

like is the same speed well if you can't do it with a putter and line of compression is off

or your impact position is off it's not going to get better as you make a bigger swing

and so one of the things I do with people is I get them set up I have make swings they tell me

everything about all of their swing and I stop them at impact and they don't say anything

they don't know anything about it it's the only position that counts if you are going to really

perfect a position you'd want impact to drive everything you're doing you wouldn't assume that

everything's going to turn into impact which is kind of where the industry is so you start with

basic impact skills and as the body goes oh so here's the task I got to do this as the swing grows

the brain says well wait a minute we don't need to do that it doesn't relate to the task

so again when you look at learning and how the brain processes information

the basic task is critical and if the basic task is keep your left arm straight

my body I listen this mic is just falling back and he's sitting he's closing his eyes and he's

gazing heaven we're just if to pray for you if you this person well I am praying I get nauseous I

watch people on the range practice and things and they're they're making a practice swing and I

want to go over there and say listen okay first of all it's a good player I want to go over and say

listen I'll be through teaching here and while you want to go out and play for something because I

know that what they their task under pressure is going to default all I got to do is get them nervous

whatever you want to call that or I want to go over and say listen okay I know what you're trying to

do I tried to do it but the reality is what you're trying to do is destroying you because

what you're going to have to do compensation wise to make that work you don't have a lifetime to

figure that one out so stop you know my instincts are more to help people than to go out and try to

win money off somebody but my point is there's so many the position where that the where we all

saw that position were right before you hit the ball that position is ruined more people than any

position in the history of golf picture wise because the assumption is you get right here and then

you hit no the hit starts clear back here if you try to tackle the angle the right here and then

try to hit you can't do it at high speeds it doesn't work because it's non-athletic

okay well with that because I've kept you for so long I want to I want to hit you with this is kind

of like the bow tying the bow on the entire conversation because you have described stability

beating timing a little bit too in terms of how you put pressure on your shaft instead of trying

to throw the club head for more speed right so you have a video and it's like one of those where

I've even ice-girled past it and I saw the title and I was like oh and it was one move that fixes

the swing and I was like oh okay I bite and I clicked on there and it was you basically saying

when I throw it to tennis ball or when I hit a forehand or when I throw a football or when I

throw a baseball this happens and you talk about this disassociation between the body going in one

direction as the backswing goes in another right I was like beautiful it's athletic if you got your

hands properly on the club it's going to help time everything up everything's going to be good so

please share for the folks that one move that's kind of the swing fixer in your opinion well one of

the biggest problems in golf is the concept of top there is no top in a golf swing

top is where the club everybody sees the club hesitate and it changes directions but the

reality is in sports if I'm in a throw a ball when my arms start to go back my body goes forward

now the reality is the reason golf has been so hard is because all sports if I'm in a throw a

ball my feet are stepping yeah exactly if I'm going to hit a tennis ball so the racket goes back

and when the racket gets right about when my arms starts going this way my body steps forward and

then I hit so it goes right left hit right left hit I was just watching Matsuyama yes and he was

hitting a little wedge shot at Phoenix and they've got him on video and he's hitting it and he's

got his hands going like this but his feet he's going step step swing and it's magic okay so if

somebody throws a ball the timing of the change of directions when their arms starts they step

and then they throw yes well in golf you've got to have a step step throw to be athletic if you go

load your right side get the club to the top you're on your right side and now we're going to try

to start down and separate think you got no chance because it doesn't fit who you are athletically

so I have people throw a ball and I watch how they move and how their shoulders move relative

to their hips when they throw and then you duplicate that amount of separation and that athletic

motion they start to understand when the club when the timing of the change of directions happens

because it happens way before the club reaches what you would call the top that killed me

as soon as somebody made me wear that and had me swing up there load my right side put the club

in position and then try to go from there oh my god I couldn't I couldn't find the ball I couldn't

find the golf course with a map you because now all of a sudden that instinct that I had my whole life

how I changed directions with a bat with a tennis all of a sudden now that was interrupted with

get to your right side get behind the ball which is crazy get behind it get up here load everything

up and then go well I couldn't sequence correctly so I get a little top heavy I lean on it I'd

slide on it and nothing fit because I was fighting the natural forces that keep you centered

yeah just quickly in the interest of understanding because I can see where people are going first off

it's uncanny to me how people will see old Hideki with a pause at the top and go oh that's

glorious and inside I'm like oh that's just making a lot of hard for someone and the deque is

consequentially sort of just removed some of that pause from the golf swing but the point that I'm

trying to get to here is people will hear you and they'll believe you and all of a sudden it'll

be like an angry cat's tail where they're just like switching back and forth as opposed to allowing

enough wind up before they change direction could you help yes each okay so change the directions

when I say you have to change directions sooner so I can swing really smooth and get my shoulders

the tour players load their right side and get their shoulders turned much quicker the rotation

or upper body than the average player the average player you know kind of slide but anyways the timing

of the change of directions can be sooner I can do it really soon but it's smooth when I say change

direction sooner that doesn't mean go faster exactly so so everybody when I say change directions

a little sooner they all go quicker I said no no no no we're gonna just we're gonna change directions

a little sooner and we're gonna do it nice and soft at first that deque film Phoenix on number 10

he's hitting a little wedge and he's standing there and he's L to L and then he's going step step

swing step step swing now even though when you get behind him and you watch him he the pause he has

he goes right foot left foot and go it's a very very slight pause it's not as much as it looks and

dynamically he sets himself up correctly that's very difficult to do it the way he did it but he's

not swinging to the top and step and here and he's on his right side before he starts down he goes

here and he goes right side and then he stops but as he slows down he goes to his left side so when

he starts down he's already moved forced into his left foot and folks what Mike is describing there

on the internet right now it's called recentering sorry I just had to do that because you're right

that's what you can call it what you want everybody everybody's coming up with new terms

to define old stuff old stuff because they have to come up and sound like they're new you know

I've studied the swings there isn't anything new out there because the body hasn't changed since

we started golf so there's only so much this thing can do and it's it's bound by athletic

principles and forces I mean so you and if you violate its design you've got problems yep

this is the truth the gospel according to the Reverend Mike Malaskin my my man I love you thank you

for joining the show before I let you go direct people where they can go to find the M system to

find you the social media the website and such please well they go to malaskagolf.com and they'll

see the they'll see the M's they'll see the whole site the M system is a 35 40 year process

that I've been through learning how to develop skills and you know it's it's it's it's really good

I mean not because it's me I actually learned how to put it together from Peter Gasku back in the

80s when we were working on skill development they can go to YouTube Malaskagolf or Mike Malaskin

they can see me there but everything I have is out there because I want people to enjoy the game

I want to simplify down what I complicated now I've been through it I know what works I know what

doesn't work I'm a perfect example I've used myself as an example over the years and it doesn't

have to be as hard as it as we've made it out to be I mean it's not people's fault that they're

not better in golf it's the industries random access of information that people can't sort

through where they are in the learning curve and the cool thing about the system folks

it'll take you from zero to hero and you can slot in there whatever your skill level is

it's not like a beginner to elite sort of thing whatever your level of the game

it you it's never too late to start with your hands like Scotty Sheffler does every single

day am I right now I get tour players and I start with line of compression and show me your

impact position you would be amazed at how many of them set up to the ball and I say go to impact

and they go to impact and I film it and they come back and look at it I go is that dynamically where

you want to be at impact they go it's not even close well how about we fix that they fix that

and they get it oh that's where I want to be and all of a sudden their swing starts to change

because the task now they've got a clear picture of what they're trying to do with the clubs

through the ball so because they're so good athletically and that's becomes the task then the

things that aren't relevant to the task go away and they're not even thinking about it

uh yep and what did you say the brain is a taskmaster it's a taskmaster thank you so very much for

joining us I'm eternally grateful appreciate you oh no you too and what you're doing for golf and

what you do it's amazing and let's just keep uh having fun with helping people

so I know you want more I wanted more and I promise you we will bring Mike on the podcast again

so that he can continue to unload oh we spoke after I had stopped recording and he he was just

going on and on and about how excited he was to join us I'm so excited to bring information go

check him out he's worthwhile as you can hear but we have planned to get together again to

continue to shed light on you know simple easy to apply ways to understand technique to understand

yourself to understand exactly what's required um to bring out your best golf and to find the best

in your golf swing and more importantly not just find your best but do what you need to do

to play good consistent golf and for you to be in a place where you're not captive to the next

swing theory that comes across your social media feed now I know I say that the risk of antagonizing

my own product here but remember here at the on the mark podcast we bring you the best of minds

the brightest of minds and the best of information not just to inform you but to give you different

elements and different perspectives on technique and game improvement that's why you know that I

adopt a holistic tattoo golf if you listen recently you would have heard dubbed Carly Hunt on

here with mental techniques to help you perform it so we touch it all here and when I talk to

golf instructors I approve them to bring out their best of minds certainly so I'm glad you

downloaded I'm glad you enjoyed it I'm certainly good please share this with your friends please

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remember John Doe sport the on the mark line of shades they're worth your while if you're going to

play golf have lots of fun make lots of birdies take it easy