A Malaska Golf Member wants to know about The Loop Drill and its purpose.
When you watch Tour Players on their backswing, by the time the club gets waist high and parallel to the ground, the clubhead is even with or to the golf ball side of their hands. No one has the club pointed back behind their body. The club must come up over the top on the downswing if you do this. Some players like Craig Stadler and Sam Snead swung their club like that; however, they were able to get the clubhead back on track on the downswing.
As the clubhead goes back, the club is constantly moving away from the ball. Their shoulders and hips are back when they change directions, and the club starts to shallow or loop on the downswing. This allows them to come in at the right angle of approach to the ball. The clubhead is completing more of a circle than their arms. The clubhead is making a good-sized loop.
Mike demonstrates this loop with a wedge, a fairway wood, and a driver. If you get the loop action going, your club automatically shallows the club.
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25 Comments
Love it Mike, thanks!
what club is Mike at in the video?
My pro literally showed me this same thing a few days ago during my lesson: to reverse my loop so the club is now coming from the inside on the downswing. Yesterday I went and hit balls and was shocked to see the ball drawing. I hit a tight draw with a 5 iron to about 205 yards and just couldn’t believe it. It’s such a gratifying feeling to watch a tight draw come off the face of a longer iron when i’ve been fading and slicing the ball my entire life. 💯
I like this feeling on full swings. Would it be the same idea with lets say a 50 yard pitch shot just not as extreme? To me, it feels like the club is still outside my hands, and awkward if my intent is to just bring my hands up to a hip level pitch shot. Any thoughts? Thanks.
Thanks. I feel that everything I've learned from you really simplifies things. That's great, because in the famous words of Forrest Gump…"AH am not a smart man."
LB teaches this same idea in the A swing. Great stuff!
Thanks again Mike for good video and great drill my game as gotten lot better watching all your videos.
Hi Mike, are you doing away with the "Malaska" move or is the Loop a newer version of it? I was just starting to get a hang of the tipping the club drills your older videos suggest. Thanks for all the great videos!
Hi Mike. I watched one of your lesson videos. You had the student strengthen the grip “close the face then open the face feel at impact? Can we get a video explaining this further. Need help with over drawing the driver.
Best instruction on YouTube and I’ve spent a lot of time trawling
Luke Kwon rehearses this all of the time, in his practice swings. There’s a reason for it. Great video.
Fantastic analysis. I started doing this as my drills a couple of years ago and it has helped my ball striking and flight direction tremendously. Thanks for sharing.
Love it! Your feels are quite different than your reals…
Mike Strikes Again! This is a huge piece of the puzzle and maybe the final piece for me. It's just magic when you "loop" the club. Good on ya Mike!
Can the club ever go up the same plane back down the same plane instead of making a loop?
That taking it to the inside to much was why Hogan and Snead disagreed with what started the downswing, Snead had to start it down with that slight over the top move otherwise he would have been stuck. Where as Hogan wasnt on the inside so he started the downswing with the lower body.
Good drill Mike👍 i used to suffer the same trouble taking it way to much on the inside, but then dropped it even further and wondered why i could not hit the ball with any good repitition
I'm confused since in another video you did with balancing the forces of the club you said you can't let the club get too far behind you so to counteract this force you said you need to turn the steering wheel the other way to the loop in this video. Can't find the steering wheel video for reference but you demonstrated the steering wheel using a tennis racket.
Someone help me out a bit. These lessons are really resonating with me. Especially for golfers that need to simplify the swing, to me, it doesn't get much better. However, I thought I would suck it up and start watching his videos from the beginning, and I realized that in his early videos, he didn't have the same philosophy on the swing. Where do I need to start watching so I can ensure that I won't be getting conflicting swing philosophy?
I disagree with you Mike. I stopped watching at :58.
That’s called the A swing by Ledbetter correct ?
Dear Mike, I have been studying your videos for a long time. The biggest difference between joe and (a swing) is: whether it is shallowing at the beginning of the downswing. I would like to know your final opinion, because I observe that you are more inclined to swing the Joe's way, of course you can choose one at will, but I see that when you use the shallow swing method, the club face is a bit open. Perhaps the shallow method requires a more active follow-up of the wrist or grip or other coordination of the body. I want to hear your opinion. Thanks.
I was doing this as a full swing for a couple rounds a few months ago. I sort of "discovered" something on the range before I teed off. I was hooking every shot with all my clubs, irons woods & driver and I figured out something in the takeaway and downswing, basically picked the club up on the backswing and looped it under, I didn't know what it was at the time, but figured out how to hold off the release. I didn't hit one hook that round, only missed left 2 twice. I hit the best 2 3woods of my life that round. For some reason I stopped this since I thought it was a bandaid fix and been push slicing off the planet since playing awful golf
Thank you so much 😊
That's why I thing Jack and Tiger have won so many majors compared to others. They play with the club in front of you. (What Malaska explains of hands down and clubhead out concept in his videos)
Because in motion and speed, the club head has weight. If you shallow the club, you'll end up stuck with the club "behind" your hands. To avoid that, you shallow your arms/hands with 👉hands down n club head out concept instead of shallowing the club like 90% of the industry teaches.
If your stuck behind, you'll have to twist your body so much to compensate the club coming from behind your hands🤷♂️
Thanks for making this easy Mike. I’m 61 and have to get rid of so many bad “lessons “ from the late 70’s to the 90’s. Now that I have more golf time, I don’t want to be in the 90’s anymore