A straight forward common sense golf instruction channel designed to help every player. Todd is a Class A PGA professional, a Certified Malaska Coach , a Callaway Staff Professional as well as a Flightscope and Rhapsodo ambassador.
He has taught all over the world with some Legendary coaches mentoring him. His biggest mentor is legendary coach Mike Malaska. They have similar styles, a similar background and Mike has taken him under his wing. His coaching is based around kinesiology, biomechanics, common sense and physics. His style is laid back and you will enjoy following him and interacting with him as your coach.
He currently carries a +2.4 handicap, was as low as a +4.4 before my game was taken away to a poor concept. It took years and years to get my game back in a weird twist of fate, it came back during the first lesson I gave.
Todd, I just recently came across your channel. This is a great video and drill and is exactly what I’ve been trying to work on. My question is which arm does the rotating of the club when controlling the club face? Is it the lead arm that rolls the club closed like the motorcycle drill or should I feel the trail wrist release or both? Thank you.
Great video Mike. My old friend and golf coach ex Ryder Cup player Jimmy Adams ( played against Hogan ) would approve of this instruction. I became a much better golf instructor once I understood what Jimmy was trying to teach to me about the skill/feel of ' Swinging the Clubhead ' and the body responding and harmonising to the swinging / hinging feel through the wrists and clubhead. This is all most golfers need to do to get better !
Here's where I think Mike doesn't quite get it right. There is a twist ... after impact. It's not really a mirror image from the right side to the left side. Around the 5:30 mark watch his left hand or his watch. After impact his left hand rotates to face the ground, which is not what's happening on the backswing. His right hand has rotated, but it's not facing the ground as much as the left hand will after impact. Might sound like minutiae, but I think it's an important point. I hope Mike can address my observation, there's no doubt he's one of the best pro instructors in the game. He really makes an effort to simplify the swing in a way we can all understand. Far more experience teaching than the average RU-vid instructor.
Mike Malaska is so underrated as an instructor. I love how he teaches and it is how I learned to play before I started reading golf magazines which had me struggling for years. Glad I found my way back to Mike and his great teaching.
I did mikes Lto L drill every day for 3 months, 100 balls a day, my range in the backyard is only 140 yards, did 100 one day with pw & golf balls & 100 with 7iron & callaway foam balls, I 100% believe what he’s saying as it worked for me. Awsome teacher as long as you do the work which most people won’t.
It’s a shame that slow motion video of the pros he mentions, like Rory, shows that they lead their downswing with a fairly aggressive body motion, not a passive turning with lots of arms action.
Another thing that is interesting.A tour player gets a completely different lesson than 99% of the golfing world. They are such a small group of players that can move that way.
I’ve been working on trying to relax in the golf swing. I know speed comes from using the lever system correctly. Something is just not clicking for me and I’m ready to give up. I’ve been trying to fix my swing for 3-4 months with no improvement at all. I can’t hit my 5 iron over 140 yards and I’m 30 years old in relatively good shape. Any tips?
For context I’ve watched mikes videos for years. I’ve seen them all. Some of them multiple times. He said if something doesn’t start to click right away then it’s not good advice. His teaching methods (I can see your’s are similar) are the way to do it. I know that. I’m just struggling to put the puzzle together. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
I remember many, many years ago reading a article about Iron Byron. The author said IB wasn't in use but there was a iron attached. He accidentally bumped the iron and could not believe how much it moved. He would hardly touch it and the club would move a lot. That's how loose the wrist should be.
Mike really is a master teacher. It takes more skill for someone to explain something in a simple and easy to understand way. In several of my upper level math courses, it was always the professors that could explain complex equations in a way that just made sense. This requires complete mastery of the subject at hand. I learned about Mike from Be Better Golf Channel and I’m glad that I did. Contrast Mike’s style to the most recent guest on BBG, and it’s quite the difference. Martin Ayers…..ugh 🙄
Yeah we’ve talked about that a few times. He won’t say it but I think he regrets BBG. That video he did today is literally how we both teach the swing in a nutshell.
Brilliant,simplistic and insightful description and demo of just what actually is the engine of the golf swing. The rest of the stuff being vomited to us on a daily basis is a bunch of overtaught,over complicated theoretical nonsense that sets so many golfers on a path of failure,total loss of confidence and frustration. Great effort in the wrong direction still results in lack of success. Thank you ,Mike for breaking through all the bullshit with your videos! You are one of the best instructors on the planet.
i can swing like this and it works really well for a while like a week or maybe a month and then it stops working and i'm off to something else. it really works well with a driver off a tee or a fairway wood or hybrid but i have trouble with an iron off the turf like i start chopping at it.
This really isn’t a “swing” you are harnessing physics in a way your brain will remember. In my experience expectations derail golfers. Part of that may be due to our society. We want everything now and when we hit a few bad shots we panic and start over. A huge roadblock in a golfers success is jumping from one approach to the next. There are 100’s of ways to play and they are all different. This causes Information overload and unfortunately that is a very bad thing. Golfers should find a simple and repeatable swing that is easy on their bodies and stay with it. Searching for the holy grail of golf doesn’t work. If I made a video that said I GUARANTEE I will take 7 strokes off your next and charged 5 dollars I would sell 300,000 of them. I do have a plan like that and the average scores from by 6.3 strokes.
Mike is an excellent communicator. No fancy words, just straight forward talk. And he really wants you to improve. If you an opportunity to get out there for a lesson it’s worth every penny. The most important thing I learned from Mike is that it’s the instructors job to teach you the concepts, as he’s done here, and it’s the students job to go home and make it your own. Practice it, practice, and keep practicing it.
Very enjoyable video Mike it's cleared a few things up for me I'm 7 handicapper trying to get to scratch my level of strike isn't quite elite enough yet for such a level but all round game is solid regularly shooting between 75 to 80 but its driving and quality of strike that's stopping progressing I will use this video to help
i dont try to keep the angle, i just drop my hands fast enough that it stays, also at the top of the swing i almost feel like i let go of the club, and as i release the club is almost when i am starting to peak my grip back tight again, this timed with using the ground to push off of is how i got my swing speed up to tour level
Thanks Todd, I think the little lightbulb moment for me was when he said fling it earlier. I've never been a good consistent ball striker but I can practice swing on a divot board and my ground contact is always in front of the ball however I've never been able to transfer that into shots. As soon as I started throwing it earlier, pretty much from the transition I started hitting it better, more often.
@@toddheuglymore of a slice, that’s why I went to a stronger grip, but in the fingers I would have to keep the face open and then grip it. I find the Hogan five lessons grip stabilizes the club better for me.
Todd, I'm left handed playing golf right handed (also throw left, bat right). I find that my lead hand (left) still wants to dominate the swing. I know it's supposed to be a rotator. should I just let things happen naturally or try to get the right hand more involved? By the way, I tend to be a sweeper.
Enjoying your videos . A question I have is concerning the left wrist movement illustrated at the 40 second point in the video. This seems to be a more horizontal movement of the wrist as opposed to a vertical movement . Am I correct ? I struggle getting this in my head . I think of unhinging as more of an up and down movement . Thanks in advance for your help .
Todd- good info again - my thought in drop my arms straight down - fling my wrist forward- been much more solid- appreciate the Stan Utley video - my - uh-huh moment- thank you
Teaching and coaching is the most rewarding “job” ever. Sometimes you need to hear the same thing in different ways before it will click. I’m glad it did.
Love your videos, but am not successful implementing swing changes. How do I initiate the Downswing ? I am always striking the ball with weight on back foot as a right handed golfer.
You aren’t relaxed or soft enough in your body. Especially your wrists, arms and shoulders. If you were relaxed momentum would pull you forward. Did you watch my philosophy video?
Todd, i believe you reshared a video of stan utley and chuck on the range. There was a bit you commented on towards the end when utley said about releasing the club earlier, kind of pulling the handle away from the target in transition. Would you be able to elaborate on it a bit more? I tried it on the course yesterday and although it felt so strange i hit some really good shots with it.
My current swing thought with my driver and irons is feeling the Xander Schauffle wide takeaway and letting my body completely rotate to the top of my swing. From there, I almost feel like I pause for a half a second and then just swing down at the ball I don’t like having a downswing thought. It happens so fast that it’s impossible for me to have a conscious downswing thought.
@@toddheugly I’ve never recorded myself before but I can try next time I go to the range. So for some context, I’ve been following the dan grieve short game method for the past month or so. While my short game has improved tremendously, my irons/driver got much worse. Every shot I hit was a weak push-cut. I think my arms have been pinned to my body too much because of all my chipping with a towel under both arm pits. So in an effort to free up my arms with my longer clubs, I decided to feel my chest and shoulder initiate my takeaway. And I rehearsed the Xander and Rory takeaway move before each shot. By using this feel as well as reminding myself to complete my backswing, my distance and shot shape improved tremendously. One of my bad tendencies is to not complete my backswing, and my transition gets super quick and I spin out. Causing a pretty bad slice/push-cut. So these feels and swing thoughts have been helping me out. Also almost all of my iron practice at the range is a 9 to 3 swing or L to L.
@@brianschultz7320 there are a lot of ways to play and we have completely different philosophies on the swing and short game. Unfortunately the towel under the arms concept has ruined more players than I can count. Sooner or later shanks creep in the full swing and short game. I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen with you. That is years and years of teaching and seeing golfers regress from that concept not just a blind comment. For some reason it affects their body moving into the ball . Distance going up with straight body rotation will not happen that’s why I would love to see your swing and what that feeling is doing to your swing. The arms and wrists with the body acting as a stabilizing force creates the bulk of your speed. It is close to 88% from the studies AMG, Tony Luczack, a local Golf Lab and Mike Bender conducted. When they isolated the arms and wrists as much as possible it was still 70-75% of swing speed. Have you been on a launch monitor to check your previous carry numbers and speed as compared to now? Those numbers would be very cool to know, I love talking the swing with data and metrics involved. What is your handicap?
One of your videos with MM he instructs his student to release with one hand on the club.first lead hand then trail hand. The wrists appear to release at the trail leg. This video seems to have the release past the lead leg instead. Could you kindly comment when you have some time?
It all depends on the player and when they feel the release happens. I feel my release happens off the trail leg but with a little horizontal movement added it is actually in the middle of my body. But teaching the look cool drill you want the student to feel the club pivots earlier? Did you watch my Malaska move video?
