It's also not good to use the back side of the knife; I lost a couple of fingers pressing down on the blade side a few years ago.
Coincidentally, I did this very task today. Maybe its not coincidence, but karma.
First, I cut off the bottom. Then lay it on the cuttin' board and put the knife over it and give it a quick smash. I don't press & gently squeeze it- that's asking for trouble. I put the knife with the sharp side away and smack it hard, but briefly. Then the garlic usually pops right out and I'm uncut.
The garlic was for a sautée of mushrooms, leeks, the chopped garlic (see above), and EVOO with tuscan herbs.
When looking in the garlic storage container, I saw I was low on garlic in there and put more from the pantry in there. Then realized in horror that I have not used my store-bought garlic in a couple of weeks. I am disappointed with myself. So I used more garlic than usual tonight in the mushrooms. Yeah, that was the right decision.