Fix Your Grip – Control the Face

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No fluff. No gimmicks. Just real coaching that works.Struggling with inconsistent shots, weak contact, or an unpredictable clubface? It often comes down to one thing: your grip.

Fix Your Grip- Control The Face
In this exclusive Inside the M-System lesson, Mike Malaska walks you through how to build the right grip — step by step — based on how your body naturally moves. Then, he shows you how the hands actually control the clubface, especially in the short game and pitching motion.
You’ll learn:
• How to find the correct left-hand grip using your natural arm hang
• Why the back of your glove tells you everything you need to know
• How your right hand supports the club for stability and face control
• The exact hand motion to train pitching consistency without flipping
• How grip and hand action work together to deliver repeatable impact
✅ This is real instruction, not another tip.
✅ Fix the root cause of bad shots — your grip and face control.

00:00 Why Grip is the Most Critical Fundamental
00:30 How to Find Your Natural Arm Hang
01:00 Matching Grip to Joint Alignment
01:30 Stabilizing the Clubface with the Left Hand
01:56 The Finger Crease Test with Pen for Grip Placement
02:26 Heel Pad Overlap and Natural Hang
02:47 The Grip Change That Hurt Mike’s Game
03:04 Right Hand Alignment to Incoming Force
03:28 Valley of the Right Hand Placement
03:51 Common Mistake: Grip Too Much in the Palm
04:20 Why You Need the Club in Your Fingers
04:46 Complete Left + Right Hand Grip Setup
05:09 Grip in Fingers vs. Palm – Speed + Hinge
05:35 Tour Player Tip: Grip with Clubhead Above Hands
06:02 Why Tour Players Hold Club on Shoulder Before Setup
06:24 Quick Review: Step-by-Step Grip Recap
06:47 How Grip Affects Consistency + Compensations
06:48 Why Understanding Hand Action Changes Everything
07:09 Feel the Clubface Like a Stick
07:30 Left Hand Movement: Up and Down, Not Rotating
07:52 Debunking the Wrist Roll Myth
08:18 Right Hand: Stabilize, Don’t Twist
08:42 How Both Hands Move Together
09:05 Square Face Without Rotation
09:31 Wrists Work – Not Arms or Shoulders
09:54 Why “Take Your Hands Out” Is Misleading
10:21 Final Message: Hands Control the Club – Train Them Right
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This Makes Sense. Own Your Swing.

grip this one we’re going to take some time on this is really in my opinion relative to this whole game other than control in the face the most critical one relative to each person because we all have a little bit different grip and I’ve seen so many mistakes in grips relative to what I know so here’s where we’re going to start the first is to identify you just let your arms hang in front of you and you’re looking at your lead arm and when you’re just relaxed you bend from your hips how does this arm hang now once I once I understand that that’s how my joints line up so when the club pulls on my arm or when I put any force into it that’s how my arm wants to line up now we’re all going to be a little bit different so once you identify that that identifies the position of my left hand on the club so my arm hangs here so that’s where my left arm has to be so when the club pulls on my arm the club face squares itself so this is going to be stabilizing and squareing the face the other thing and really critical with the left hand if I open my hand here and I take this pen out and I draw a line on these two joints right there now this is critical because the very back edge of the club the back edge fits right there in that crease so now when my hand folds down it’s in the crease and my fingers close then my hand folds down and over so this heel pad is on top of the club it’s in that crease it folds down and over and now my left hand’s on the way my arm hangs natural now for me this was critical that was changed on me and it killed me it made it so I had to compensate and do a lot of things with the face so now I’ve got my left hand on now your right hand if I were to fall to the ground or anything came at me this wrist lines up at whatever force is coming at it so now you’ve got a force coming back through that shaft so this wrist that valley right there fits right on the back of that thumb and this wrist now and that palm is a mirror image of the club face and it’s aimed at the target or it’s aimed right straight into that force that’s coming back into the club so I got my left hand then my right now also your right hand if I take that same pen and I go on these same joints those joints in my right hand also go on the back of the club so I got my left hand and my fingers now I’m going to say something here it’s going to feel more fingertips to most of you than fingers because the biggest mistake I see in everybody when they show up they might get the angle of their left arm they take a hold of the club and they look at it and I say “That’s fine.” But then I grab their hand I turn their hand open and open it and the club’s way too much in the palm of their hands the more the club gets in the palm of your hands the less your wrists want to work you play the game with your fingers so the club rests in your fingers there’s my grip there’s the position of my left hand there’s where my right hand goes then my left hand folds in my right hand comes on the back of that thumb and there’s my grip now if I open my hands look where the club is it’s more in my fingertips than it is in the palm of my hands that allows me to leverage hinge the club and create maximum speed it gets in the palm of your hands you can’t create much speed and it’s really difficult for your wrist to do what they’re supposed to do one good idea most good players grip the club with the club head above their hands the reason for that is when the club goes above my hands it’s easy to get the club in my fingers when you try to grip the club with the club on the ground the club’s always wanting to move up into the palm of your hand so you want to hold it up above your hands the club head that’s just easier to get in your fingers or you grip the club and then lift the club head up which is what a lot of tour players do you’re also going to see a lot of tour players standing with the club on their shoulders now when I do this we talk about those knuckles here’s these two knuckles and there’s those two and they’re right on the back of the shaft and if you set the club on your shoulder where does the club go it’s in my fingers see here it doesn’t get in the palm of my hand i can’t even get the club so you’ll see tour players standing like this all the time the club’s sitting here and then they grip it here that’s because it puts it in their fingers and again I’m going to use a word fingertips it’s not really in your fingertips but people think fingers if their fingers are just touching the club that it’s in their fingers no it isn’t this is a big big deal and like I say you see players standing like this all the time so it’s important that you understand even these guys once they take their grip a lot of them will pick the club up or they grip it up here because they want to get the club more in their fingers because this is where you’re playing the game the club rests in here if you get it in the palm of your hands you take a lot of your wrist action out and your potential for speed so just a quick review left arm the way it hangs in your fingers that second joints on the back of the club this closes down and over the heel pads on the top of the club right hand goes in those knuckles your right wrist is on the back of the club because this arm’s ro the right arm’s roll is to get on the back of the club support the shaft and then accelerate the club head we don’t need it to do this that’s a way to play golf with a lot of forearm rotation but you don’t need it and it just complicates it that’s one of the things that made golf difficult for me when I started I played golf this way then they convinced me I had to weaken my grip get the face more open and rotate my forearms that made it much more difficult to be consistent make sure your grip fits you if your grip’s correct this game is going to be so much easier if it’s off you can still play you can make it work but a lot of compensations come in and we’re trying to make this simpler not more difficult hi I’m Mike Malaska go to mlaskagolf.com to take a look at the M system this is the most important part of the site because it’s a process it goes skill number one task number one and it takes you through the golf swing rather than randomly being out there trying to put it together which virtually hardly anybody figures that one out so make sure you go to maskagolf.com sign up so you can see how to really build your game the right way so you don’t ever lose it again so now we’re going to talk about hand action and so that’s why I’ve got this stick back this becomes a really big deal because it starts you start to understand and be able to see how much your wrist or this joint is rotating more so than your hand so I almost feel like the club face for me is this stick when I’m hitting it now my hand is controlling some other things but I feel this stick so we talked about grip so we have your hand on the club so this hand’s on this way when you grip it and it’s a little more in the palm of your hand than a full swing but it’s your hands like this so really this left hand works more this way it’s working more like this it’s not doing very much of this and it certainly isn’t going this way now that was taught for a long time i spent my most of my professional career trying to turn the back of my wrist down again that’s a way to do it but that’s really complicated you don’t have to i didn’t start that way so once this is here this hand’s working this way and what’s this one doing it’s working this way so you put your hands on and here’s here’s what our hands are doing what there isn’t relative to you get here there’s very little twisting in your hands and arms there is some but very little so if I set up to the ball here and I said if I just did my my left hand you watch what happens here it’s it’s it’s basically working this way into the ball and that way so there’s my left hand here’s my right hand okay we put those two together there’s my left there’s my right now the club face is swinging like this so the club face isn’t twisting open and twisting close so the club face stays at about a 90° angle to my swing arc but then my wrists are doing left’s going back and forth it’s doing this right doing that so now the face is very stable when I do that so the hand action understanding how your hands work what the role of each one is and how they move is is really important most people just put their hands on the club and they they don’t really know what it is they’re trying to do with their hands you know this is what controls the club your hands control the face your hands control the club so you better know what these are doing when people say take your hands out I understand what they’re saying but you’ve got to train your hands because your hands are the only connection you have with this club this club isn’t connected to my hips do they work yes they do but my hands control this so you better know what they’re doing