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CALGARY — After eight straight losses, and weeks of frustration, the Calgary Flames finally got a chance to exhale Sunday night.

No matter where things go from here, and how hard it will be for the Flames to climb out of the hole theyâ€ve been digging, it would be hard for anyone who has ever played a sport not to appreciate how good their first regulation win of the season mustâ€ve felt.

“I would just say itâ€s a weight off our shoulders,†said Connor Zary, when asked to describe the feeling in a dressing room in which there havenâ€t been a lot of smiles of late.

“I think it’s been a tough stretch for us. We’ve had games where we’ve done the right thing and we haven’t come out with the result. And I think tonight we kind of put it together.â€

Shattering their offensive glass ceiling with a 5-1 win, the Flames eliminated the penalty problems, the defensive gaffes, the offensive miscues and the prolonged lapses to beat up on a New York Rangers team that has had its own struggles of late, losing six of their last seven.

No matter how troubled their opponent, the Flames needed to end the misery of a string that saw the club play their 10th game of the season before recording their second win.

Their first home victory did well to temporarily mask a 2-7-1 start that still has them sitting last in the league standings.

“At the end of the day, you just feel good to get a win,†said Zary, whose club hadnâ€t scored more than three goals in any previous game.

“I think you come in here, you take a deep breath, you hear the music playing, and everyone’s talking, everyone’s laughing, and that’s what you want, right?

“You play hockey because you love it, and you have fun. No one wants to go through those stretches. But when you play a game like that, that’s a lot for us to look forward to and build off of.â€

Nazem Kadri got the ball rolling early with a nifty finish less than two minutes in, prompting many to wonder if the team that was 0-5 after scoring first would finally finish the job.

Midway through the period Kevin Bahl and Noah Laba traded goals 10 seconds apart, setting up a timely insurance marker by Yegor Sharangovich midway through the middle frame that saw the puck bounce off Igor Shesterkinâ€s glove and trickle fortuitously over the line.

It was the sort of break the Flames have been on the wrong side of so often early on.

Then again, in hockey and in life, you make your own breaks.

Another key bounce came shortly afterwards when Dustin Wolfâ€s sprawling save on Alexis Lafrenière prevented the Rangers from climbing to within one.

“It just hit the inside of my stick,†Wolf said of his most spectacular of 30 saves.

“Honestly, I didn’t see him back there… thought I was screwed. Just kind of threw something, anything at it. And those are the bounces we haven’t been getting, and it feels good to be on the other side of it.â€

As it was on opening night, when the Flames beat Edmonton in a shootout, Wolfâ€s play was key to the win.

Seems it always will be for a team that has long struggled to score goals.

“This one feels good,†said Wolf, who has started nine of the teamâ€s first 10 games.Â

“This is a building block in the right direction. We played a pretty solid, full game here at home, and that’s what our fans deserve.

“If we can stay out of the box and create our offence five-on-five, I think we’re a pretty good hockey team.â€

That theory will be tested on the teamâ€s four-game eastern road trip, which starts Tuesday in Toronto, and continues through Ottawa, Nashville and Philadelphia.

“We lost eight games, right? We’re pissed off,†said Zary, bluntly, summing up the misery his club was playing through.Â

“We know we need to be better, and to a man, we knew that. You can say all you want… but we need to have games like that where we come out and have the energy and do those things.â€

With the losses piling up, coach Ryan Huska sent a controversial message Sunday morning, choosing to make Matt Coronato a healthy scratch.

Insisting it had nothing to do with effort, and everything to do with “giving him a chance to reset,†Huska insisted the teamâ€s best young scorer will be back in the lineup against Toronto.

“We love Matty, he’s a great kid, he’s a hard worker and everybody wants him in our lineup,†said Blake Coleman, who scored twice in the third period to up his team-leading goal total to five.

“But… eight in a row, something’s got to give, and they’re trying to make a point. It could have been a number of guys.

“I don’t think anybody’s not expecting Matty to come back and be a big difference-maker for us. Hopefully he took the night to reset, and he’s going to be a big reason why we get this thing moving the right way.â€

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Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.

To generate your maximum power, you’ve got to know how to properly shift your weight during the swing. Of all the intricate movements composed in a golf swing, the weight shift is among the most important.

The thing about a proper weight shift that most recreational golfers fail to grasp is that it should start back toward the target before you even finish the backswing. This move — commonly referred to as re-centering — is seen in the swing of every high-level player, regardless of how the rest of their swing looks.

Think of it in terms of a baseball player making a swing. As the ball approaches the plate, they take a small step toward the mound as they turn their torso and make a “backswing.” This helps create separation between the upper and lower body as you coil them in opposite directions, which creates tons of potential energy ready to be unleashed.

If you want to maximize the power in your swing, you’ve got to add this move. And for help learning the feel of this move, instructor Joe Plecker has a great drill he demonstrates in the video below.

How to feel proper weight shift

Plecker, a GOLF Top 100 Teacher, explains that he likes to teach moves in the golf swing with dynamic exercises. One such drill, which he learned on a visit to Korea earlier this year, is a modified version of the “step-swing” drill.

For this routine, all you need is an alignment stick or an old shaft that you can whip around with ease. Grip it like you would for a normal swing, and then take a stance.

“What I like to do is start out with the club a little bit in front of me,” Plecker says. “Then I’ll swing back and swing my lead leg behind my trail leg, swing back fully this time and then through.”

You should hear a whoosh sound when you swing through the impact zone. Once the club gets to the finish position, draw it back again and whip the stick back as you take your lead leg and stagger it back behind your trail leg.

“What I’m getting is a separation of the two halves of my body,” Plecker says. “The lower half is going forward while the upper half is going back.”

When you do this, you are creating that “coil” that can be unleashed on the downswing and generate tons of clubhead speed.

“What you’ll feel is that it really does start to become a cadence, a rhythm,” Plecker says. “Doing it two, three, four five times in a row, you’ll sort of find your rhythm or best pace that you can control the motion in.”

Do this routine a few times, and then pick up a club and make some swings, making sure you keep that feeling of shifting your weight toward the target before you complete the backswing. As you start to master this feel, you’ll notice that you can generate clubhead speed much more effortlessly and should see longer drives.

Golf instruction is ever-evolving, but the best advice stands the test of time. In GOLF.com’s new series, Timeless Tips, we’re highlighting some of the greatest advice teachers and players have dispensed in the pages of GOLF Magazine. Today we have an article from our September 1973 issue when Al Geiberger explained the keys for a perfect weight shift in the golf swing.

Weight shift is an integral part of the golf swing — but if it’s done correctly, you seldom even notice it. When it’s not done correctly, though, it can cause a ton of problems.

If you’ve found yourself reading this article, there’s a good chance you’re searching for answers on why you’re doing it wrong. If that sounds like you, fear not. The fix is probably easier than you think.

Back in 1973, GOLF Magazine‘s instruction editor, 1966 PGA Championship winner Al Geiberger, wrote about just that. Check it out below and you’ll soon be shifting your weight just like the pros do.

Weight shift basics

You know how to cure a weight problem — you eat either more or less depending on your condition. What you’re trying to do is to establish a balance between your bone structure and the matter that covers it. That balance allows your body to operate efficiently, comfortably and effectively. Your body should operate in the same way during a golf swing and, again, balance is the key.

The moment you lose your balance, you lose the coordination of your bodily parts and destroy their ability to produce an effective golf swing. Unbelievable as it may seem, every mistake made by any golfer of any size and any caliber is a direct result of a loss of balance.

By definition, balance can refer to the mind and the body as well as to the forces that act upon them. In this article, I’ll deal specifically with balance as bodily equilibrium, on the maintenance of that equilibrium and on the release of the forces stored in a moving but balanced lower body.

The mistakes you make

There are three ways to lose balance in the lower body.

The first way is the sway, which is allowing the weight to move too far to the right on the backswing. The usual result of this is an equally over-extensive shift of the weight forward on the downswing, causing the club to reach the critical impact area later than the body and without any force provided by the body other than the hands and arms. With the club and body acting independently, there is no possible chance for consistency and distance.

3 go-to drills to improve weight transfer in the golf swing

By:

Tony Ruggiero, Top 100 Teacher

,
Nick Dimengo

The second way to lose balance is the reverse transfer (aka reverse pivot). Here the golfer takes the club to the right but leans to the left on the backswing and reverses the action on the downswing. This golfer constantly tops, slices and hits generally weak shots. With the weight moving one way and the club the other, the golfer is actually defeating himself. His ball usually winds up in the same place as his weight — way over on the right side.

The third problem is lunging, where the golfer allows all his weight to go up and down during the swing. This can take the form of rising onto the toe on the backswing and collapsing toward the ground on the downswing, or, more rarely, sinking toward the ground on the backswing and then lifting onto the toes.

What causes these mistakes?

Swaying

Swaying is an overzealous weight transfer which can be caused by setting up too far behind the ball at address, lifting the left heel improperly on the backswing, or — this is the most likely cause — poor left knee movement.

Problems with the left heel and the left knee are often connected. Although it’s not wrong to allow the left heel to lift (Jack Nicklaus is a good example of this), the average golfer usually turns his left knee at the same time. This means he has no means of weight support on his left side.

The knees are the answer to the problem. The left knee should go towards the ball, not towards the right leg. If you’re a man who sways, your left knee probably turns in. I move the left knee towards the back of the ball, which is the exact center of balance at the top of my backswing. My whole body is poised directly over the ball and my left side moves immediately through the ball at the start of the downswing. This ensures a cleared left side and a fluid weight shift.

There’s another positive point evident in my position at the top. The right knee although still bent, is braced inward. This is a natural movement if the left knee goes out to the ball because the body wants to stay balanced. When the left knee turns in, however, the weight transfer is too rapid and too severe for the right leg to react and it follows the action of the left knee. That’s why the swayer’s lower body has both knees bent and to the right of their address positions at the top. His weight is centered well behind the ball, making it almost impossible for him to transfer it back to and through the ball before the club arrives.

Reverse transfer

The reverse pivot is usually caused by rigid knees. If your legs are too tight, their rigidity prevents your muscles from reacting naturally to outward pulling forces of the backswing and followthrough. You become, in effect, a pole with its balance point between your legs. In order to keep any sense of equilibrium, the body will move one way as the club moves the other.

This golf swing hack will improve your weight shift (and is backed up by science)

By:

Luke Kerr-Dineen

Another cause of the reverse transfer is attempting to keep the . left heel glued to the ground on the backswing. This can lead to too much weight being kept on the left foot, and the left knee collapses under the strain.

The result of being heavy on your left side at the top is you start the downswing with your right side. As I’m sure you’re aware, hitting from the top brings the club down across the ball from right-to-left. This forces your left side to get out of the way of your arms immediately. The only way it can do that is to turn to the left, forcing the weight to drop back onto the right side. To cure the reverse transfer, first check that at address your knees are nicely flexed. During the swing, emphasize the correct leg action — the roles of the left and right knee I have detailed above. Allow the turning: action of the shoulders to lift the left heel slightly while the right leg resists. The knees are the “level” of the swing. If you keep them level during the swing, good balance is assured.

Lunging

Lunging is the result of excessive effort on the part of the upper body. The golf swing has to be a balance between the upper and the lower body as much as a balance between the body and the earth. You’re trying to “muscle” the ball instead of swinging the club and letting the natural power created do the job for you.

A lunger has the wrong conception of the swing. He thinks he can get power by rearing back and using the shoulder muscles in a sideways action. Because of this, the legs are not used properly.

The best thing he can do is to imagine staying in one place and taking a nice, full shoulder turn. The shoulder turn must also be tied in with proper leg action.

Another tip for the lunger is for him to take one more club than he thinks he needs for the shot in hand. Very often a fit of lunging can come from trying for too much distance. Having one more club encourages a smooth swing.

Summing up, proper use of the legs will help with all these problems. A good posture at address, with flexed knees, will prevent one cause of reverse transfer — stiff legs. Good leg action prevents swaying and dipping onto the left leg, the other cause of reverse transfer. And in turn, good leg action allows the body to make a proper turn, which eliminates lunging.

Exercises to improve balance

Sam Snead has always claimed he’d play two shots better every round if they’d let him play barefoot. I suggest you go out and find out why. Take your shoes off the next time you’re hitting balls and you’ll notice an immediate improvement in ground awareness. Spikes tend to dig in and minimize your feelings of excessive weight movement. But in bare feet, you know right away if you’re overdoing it.

As an exercise, stand with your feet flat on the ground and press downward slightly. Do this with your knees rigid and then with them comfortably flexed. You’ll notice quite a difference in how much more ready the body is to move gracefully when the knees are flexed.

This drill improves golf swing balance, helping you launch drives farther

By:

Nick Dimengo

Now lift your left heel off the ground until you’re up on your left toe. You’ll notice how unnatural that position is. It’s fine for ballet dancers with wooden blocks in their toes, but the natural support for the average person is the ball of the foot.

Still barefooted, hit a few balls with your feet together. Not only will this show you how little the weight really transfers in the golf swing, it will give you more awareness of how your upper body functions.

If you’re really ambitious, try standing on the left foot only. Lift your right foot off the ground and set up to the ball. You’ll notice that the ball should be played forward in order for the left side to balance properly. Try to hit the ball this way. If you shift your weight too quickly or too far, you’ll fall over. If you hit from the top on the downswing, you’ll fall back. If you make a smooth, unhurried swing, you’ll be able to stay in balance and will probably surprise yourself with how well you hit the ball.

Along the same lines, you can stand on your right foot. If you transfer your weight excessively on the backswing, you’ll get a distinct feeling of falling.

Balance, then, is a feeling. It requires a reaction of forces that keeps your weight centered over the ball. If you’re having problems with weight transfer, analyze your problem through the exercises given and then use the corrective measures that suit your problem.

WWE legend and Hollywood megastar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson provided some insight this week into the body transformation he underwent to play the role of Mark Kerr in the upcoming movie The Smashing Machine.

During an interview on CBS Sunday Morning (beginning at the 29-minute mark of the video), The Rock discussed the challenges he faced to make his physique look like that of Kerr, and explained why it was unlike anything he had done before:

While The Rock has long been among the fittest and most muscular actors in the world, he revealed that The Smashing Machine director Benny Safdie tasked him with becoming “bigger” and “puffier” in order to more accurately portray Kerr’s unique body type.

Safdie also expressed to The Rock that he would prefer to not have to use a stunt double, and since The Rock agreed with that assessment, he went to great lengths to evolve his look.

The Rock called Kerr a “unicorn athlete,” before adding: “I had to transform my body, which was a massive challenge for me. I’m a workout nut, I like working out and just being physical and sweating every morning. But this was different. … It’s different if you put on size and put on muscle. I’ve done that in the past for some roles. But this is the kind of muscle that you have to put on that has real fast-twitch fibers to it.”

Johnson noted that he put on 30 pounds overall, and further explained that it was “quality muscle,” since it was the type of muscle that had to allow for him to still be athletic in order to effectively act out the fight scenes in the movie.

In The Smashing Machine, The Rock plays the role of one of the most iconic MMA fighters of all time in Kerr.

After starring as a collegiate wrestling at Syracuse University, Kerr became one of the first major stars in MMA, winning the heavyweight tournaments at UFC 14 and UFC 15 in 1997, and later enjoying success in Pride Fighting Championships.

While The Rock went to great lengths to become the best version of Kerr possible, he has already transformed his body again in anticipation of his next role.

According to Parade and US Weekly (h/t Megan Cartwright of Newsweek), The Rock has shed 60 pounds in anticipation of his next movie.

Per Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter, the film is a crime thriller set in Hawai’i and directed by Martin Scorsese, and it also stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Emily Blunt.

Before that, The Smashing Machine will hit theaters in the United States on Oct. 3.

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Jake Paul and Gervonta Davis had the first press conference for their November bout on Monday, and a handful of details about the fight were revealed.

The fight will have a maximum weight of 195 pounds, and there will be 10 three-minute rounds. Additionally, the two boxers will use 12-oz gloves, and there will be three judges for the fight.

The fight takes place on Friday, Nov. 14 from the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. The date of the fight apparently slipped Davis’ mind.

The two boxers agreed to the fight in August, though it was originally planned for State Farm Arena in Atlanta. Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions announced earlier this month that the fight would instead take place in Miami.

“New city, same mission, seek and destroy the tank,” Paul said in a statement, per ESPN’s Andreas Hale. “Kaseya Center. Friday, November 14. I’m bringing the heat, and Miami will see me take down this angry elf while the world watches live on Netflix.”

The fight is arguably Paul’s biggest test to date. The YouTuber-turned-boxer has gotten off to a 12-1 start to his career, though he hasn’t faced an opponent as tough as Davis. Paul’s last three fights, all of which he won, have come against Julio César Chávez Jr., a 58-year-old Mike Tyson and Mike Perry, who is predominantly an MMA fighter.

Davis, on the other hand, is 30-0-1 with 28 knockouts over the course of his career. Davis won the WBA lightweight title in 2021 and has since retained it five times. His most recent fight was a draw against Lamont Roach Jr. in March.

While Davis is more experienced than Paul, there is one aspect that could work to Paul’s advantage: his size. Going off of their most recent weight-ins, Paul has more than 60 pounds on Davis and will look to use that weight to his advantage.

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