One of Mike Malaska’s baseball heroes was Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax who played for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers. In one of Sandy’s books, he made a comment about pitching. It was about being able to throw a pitch fast, softly.
This statement impacted Mike at a young age as a pitcher, but it also again when he got into golf. The harder Sandy Koufax was trying to throw the ball, the more he wanted to maintain that soft feeling in his hands and arms.
This concept also translates to golf. Mike explains to throw a baseball easily and slowly build up the speed without tension in your arm and shoulder. When you get to the point where you try to throw too hard, and your shoulder tightens, you actually slow down.
In a golf swing, you are trying to make a nice swing without tension. You want speed; however, you don’t want tension. Make practice swings and see how big a swing and how much speed you can generate without any tension. Set up to the ball and replicate the swing. When you get tension, you feel like there is effort, which usually means a slower club speed. The Lever System isn’t working, which is the same thing Sandy Koufax was explaining. The goal is to create speed softly with the least amount of effort.
Mike talks about maintaining the M-System after going through the videos. The most important part of the M-System is the first, and Mike practices this daily. Mike starts with Line of Compression, how your right arm pushes the shaft, and how your wrist works.
Take your club, hold it with your r...
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