Accepting Outcomes

[00:00:04] Speaker A: This is the stupid crap you shouldn't do. Okay, I get to the tee box. I can't find a broken tee. For that one reason alone, I hit driver. [00:00:13] Speaker B: What's those memes where it's like, I'm gonna shoot the course record best round of my life, and then it's like, four holes later, double, double, triple, quadruple. I'm just here to have fun. Yeah. [00:00:22] Speaker A: I went to the second hole, which, when I looked at the scorecard, I thought, great for a long golf course. [00:00:26] Speaker B: This isn't bad. [00:00:27] Speaker A: They've got a drivable par 4 on the second hole. It's not a drivable par 4. It's a 250Y part 3. [00:00:33] Speaker B: So I said, wow. [00:00:34] Speaker A: Okay. [00:00:37] Speaker B: This is a podcast about authenticity, isn't it? [00:00:40] Speaker A: Authenticity. That's right. Real stuff. [00:00:42] Speaker B: Fart scratch on. [00:00:43] Speaker C: What's wrong with your phone? [00:00:45] Speaker A: That is a very old phone that's shattered to bits. But it still works. It does. And it is the best camera that I could use. Like, it's. It's better than the webcam that I bought. It's better than my light. It's the best camera, so I use it. But you can't. You can't see it at all. That kind of records fine. It's just the screen records fine, and the audio is good. So honestly, that would have been my preference last time, would just be to record with that and my phone. Your iPhone. If you. If you look up, like, podcasting equipment, the camera that's in your iPhone and the microphone that's in your iPhone would both rank, like, in the top three in terms of podcasting equipment. So that always works better. I've spent probably a thousand bucks trying to find equipment better than this. And it's always. [00:01:27] Speaker B: The phone is always well, and even, like, you see what they can do with the 4K Ultra HD filming now, it's like. It's cinema quality. Like, it's a 4K camera. [00:01:34] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's crazy, so. Well, cool, man. Well, let's do this again. So, Mike Hendricks. Tony Roselli. Thank you. Are you recording? Yeah, we're recording. I'll sneak that. I'll sneak that in on you. Cut. Yeah. Watch the language, Mike. We don't curse on this show that often. [00:01:50] Speaker B: Nice dagger stare. [00:01:51] Speaker A: I was so relaxed because you didn't say action yet. I don't do action. Yeah, we can do, like, the big clip. Like, that's the. That's the. Which I now understand why you do that. It helps you sync the audio up. So we got our audio here. That's my iPhone uses that. Which, actually, that reminds me, I need to turn this off so that I don't get phone calls during it. [00:02:09] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the thing. You got to do that. Do not disturb. [00:02:11] Speaker A: Yep. All right, cool. We're good. [00:02:14] Speaker B: Now, don't ask me how I know. You have been recording stuff, and all of a sudden you look and it's like, it's not five seconds in because you gotta. [00:02:20] Speaker A: That's a great country zone, by the way. Don't ask me how I know you've heard that one. [00:02:23] Speaker B: I don't listen to. [00:02:25] Speaker A: Oh, man. Listen to it when you leave. Don't ask me how I know. It's basically like somebody probably about our age talking to his son about our kid's age. [00:02:32] Speaker B: That's cool. [00:02:33] Speaker A: And it's telling all these things that you shouldn't do. And don't ask me how I know. Yeah. [00:02:37] Speaker C: Do you remember the artist? I mean, I know this. I don't know the reference. [00:02:40] Speaker A: Don't ask me how I know. Bobby Pinson. Okay. Yeah. Bobby Pinson. Don't ask me how I know. Great song. Things like, you know, don't. Don't drink. Well, don't drink the water in Mexico is like the. The bit that's the final. [00:02:52] Speaker B: My accident that one time she brushed her teeth with water and she got sick as a dog. We were on vacation. [00:02:57] Speaker A: And now you're. Now you look back at the head with a smile. [00:03:01] Speaker B: I'm scratching. It's not a feeling. Right there. [00:03:04] Speaker A: Scratching. [00:03:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:06] Speaker A: Well, you guys asked, what's the agenda for this week? I've played a little golf since the last time we got together. I've got some lessons from my own experience. And you said you've played a little bit since then. One thing that I've tried to do. After our last podcast, I told you guys, it's kind of like secretive lessons. I'm taking free lessons from you guys without really letting you know about it. But I got back, and I was like, you know, we talked a lot about, you know, keeping things simple, and I'm thinking about my own game, and I'm not thinking about things simply at all. I've got 18 different swing thoughts and 45 different mental thoughts. So I tried to really narrow it down to say, okay, what is one mechanical thing that I want to work on right now? What is one physical thing? What is one mental thing? So I'll give you my, you know, my example that my takeaway was my mechanical thing. I've got this big laid off, like, raise my hands, flip my wrist, take away. I'm trying to work on that. That was my one mechanical. Not gonna think about anything else mechanically, except that my physical thing was hydration. You know, less beer, more water, and Gatorade when I'm gonna be playing golf. And then my mental thing was accepting outcomes. And maybe that's a place to start, because one of the things that I. I played in a tournament, the club championship at Sully's Golf and gather, shout out again. I will plug you guys every show if I can. I love Sullies, but they did the club championship. And I'm a plus four to plus six handicap at Sully's, so I'm quite a bit better on simulators in real life. [00:04:31] Speaker B: All the gimmes and everything. [00:04:32] Speaker A: All the gimmes and. Yeah, and you've got. It's all a controlled environment. Right. You're hitting everything off a flat line. So going into this tournament, it was at pine rush number two. I shot 69 on the practice trim. Then I shot 60 next practice round. I mean, I'm pretty much right there in the hunt for the next U.S. open at Pinehurst through 36. [00:04:52] Speaker B: Forget the waste areas. [00:04:53] Speaker A: And, yeah, they didn't. And the fact that we were playing it from 6,000 yards instead of 74. [00:04:59] Speaker B: You could destroy it if you plan this wedges into everything. [00:05:02] Speaker A: Yeah, if that were. If the real US Open were played in that environment, I had a good shot at it. But anyway, I get out there, and for some variables that were outside of my control were affecting the play that day, just put it that way. And I shot 74, I think it was. And I tried so hard to keep my cool the whole day, you know, and adjust to the variables. And I did everything that I could possibly think of to still play my best, but unfortunately, my best was a 74. And I lost my two shots. And I was furious. I mean, this was. And I had to apologize to him after the fact because I try to be a good sportsman and all that kind of stuff. But the best I could do that day was, was to have my stuff loaded up so that as soon as the last guy in my group tapped in, I could shake his hand and get in the car because I was so mad. I didn't want to make a jerk of myself, but I had to get out of there before I did. But the thing that I kind of learned from that is, again, and we've talked about it a little bit before, there are certain things in the game you can control. And there's a heck of a lot of things in the game you can't control. But the more you try to control outcomes that are out of your control, the more it's going to downward spiral your game. So one of the things I've tried to work on is just accept outcomes. I'm going to try my best in missing three footers. I'm going to try my best and hit some balls out of bounds. I'm going to try my best and shoot some 87s. There are going to be days that you do everything you can and it doesn't work. But the more you can accept each individual outcome along the way, the more success you're going to have. That's how you're accepting outcomes turns 89s into 79s. Not accepting outcomes turns 77s into 93s. Okay, so that's been my big mental focus is just on the round level, level, the hole level, the shot level, the practice level, whatever. Accept the outcome that happens. Try your best and take whatever comes your way. Make sure you're hydrated ahead of time. That came in handy. I played Riverwood, by the way. Which you never responded to my text. I texted you and said I played Riverwood. Great track. You never responded. Totally ghosted me. [00:07:02] Speaker B: No, yeah, you did. [00:07:04] Speaker A: No, totally ghosted me. [00:07:05] Speaker C: Well, to the water thing. That also helps your cognitive brain function too. [00:07:09] Speaker A: Really? [00:07:10] Speaker C: You're talking about the mental side, so. [00:07:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I told you. Yeah, you were working on the mental side, I'm saying. Oh, yeah, the mental hydration. That's a your thing yet. [00:07:18] Speaker B: Hold on, I'll get there. Go ahead, Mike. [00:07:21] Speaker A: It does. [00:07:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, you're right, you did. [00:07:22] Speaker A: I ghosted you Totally ghosted me on that. But no, I played Riverwood. That's the first time I played it. I've heard great things about it. [00:07:27] Speaker B: It's day after my birthday. I was. [00:07:29] Speaker A: Ah, that makes a lot more sense now. Totally get that. Can I say that? You know, after our last show, we talked a lot about hydration and not drinking on the golf course and all that stuff. What was it two days later? Tony text us, let's call the show birdies and brew. Birdies and beers. Birdies and bourbon. [00:07:44] Speaker B: I was enjoying my bourbon that night. Yeah, I was just freestyling ideas and I was like birds and buries and Berbers. I just, I get these sparks of genius. [00:07:51] Speaker A: You were on a roll that night. You had some great ideas. I do like the idea of a 19th hole segment. I brought a cooler of 19th hole refreshments, just in case you guys didn't have any. We can do that later. But anyway, we. So yeah, it's. [00:08:05] Speaker B: Yeah, Riverwood's good. Had they just punched the greens? [00:08:07] Speaker A: It was that day or the day after or day before. [00:08:09] Speaker B: Yeah, the greens are kind of. They can be challenging to read in general, so. But controlling outcomes. Yeah, I mean, like typically when the greens are that freshly punched, I won't keep score for the day. I'll work on other things. Like what? How many greens did I hit, how many quality shots did I have, how many mental mistakes that I make? Because once you get on the green, you can't even make a two foot putt. It's not guaranteed because it does whatever. [00:08:31] Speaker A: So I put it actually the best that day that I've put it in a really long time. I don't know what that says about my putting, but I put it fantastic that day. Didn't miss anything else. [00:08:41] Speaker B: Smash it and hope for that. [00:08:42] Speaker A: That's right. It worked out pretty good for me. [00:08:43] Speaker B: Well, so I guess onto your topic about accepting outcomes and moving on again. I was talking about this a little bit earlier, but I had a perfect example from my round on Saturday of a failed, miserably failed attempt at accepting outcomes. Well, I didn't even try to accept the outcomes. It wasn't. What. So as I was saying, we were playing in a net three ball foursome. Your best three scores count. I'm the best player in the group. Lots of pressure, whatever. We're having fun. One under through eight holes at Riverwood with a few. Just playing your own ball or Eagle Ridge. Sorry. Yeah, playing your own ball. So I went under on my own ball with a few of those. If you've played Eagle Ridge, those plastic cup liners and just I had a few like full 360 spin outs. And I'll always say this, I love the course. It's a great course, but no one likes those things. And so just meandered my way through it. It's fine, whatever. But as I was saying, I got to the ninth hole, we had about a 15 minute wait. So the guy in my cart's very nice. He's talking to me. We don't really know each other. We had played together like maybe a year or two ago because I recognized him. I was like, this guy's cool. I really like him. But anyway, he starts asking about life, family, kids, of course, divorce comes up. It's still so raw and fresh for me. And there's a lot. [00:09:55] Speaker A: Are you cool with that being in the show, by the way. [00:09:57] Speaker B: Yeah, it's fine. I don't care. I mean, it's life, right? It is what it is. And so that caused me to mental spiral, because then I was mad about the situation. I was mad about my kids being taken from me for half their childhood. I was mad about everything I'd worked hard for and committed to being squashed. Golf was the last thing on my mind at that point. Right. There was something bigger than golf. But that was supposed to be my escape from all that, and I didn't let it be my escape. And I ended up pulling my tee shot. It still went forever, but I was blocked out. You remember number nine? So I had to punch down. [00:10:30] Speaker A: When you say, pull your tee shot on number nine, I'm thinking how I. I pull it on number nine. And that usually means I'm out of bounds. [00:10:35] Speaker B: No, it was to the tree. It was over there on the left of the tree. But I was too far, so I was blocked out. I could have hit a hook seven wood, but I was like, nah. The other guys weren't in good position with their balls. They're like 18, 13, 11 handicaps. Couldn't count on their scores, really. No disrespect to those guys. A lot of them played great, but they played better than I did on the back. Now, that's for sure. But. So I punch it out. Wasn't paying attention. I had a nine iron. It was only 90 yards to safely punch out. I'm still frustrated. I punch out too far through the blocked out again, hit another shot. That's okay. Hit a fourth shot on the green. That's great. But greens were firm. It hopped and went up into the rough. Ended up making a double. And rather than just saying, okay, wake up, dummy. Like, what are you doing? This is your escape. You are not supposed to focus on life's problems right now. You're supposed to focus on shooting the best score you can and having fun with nice people. [00:11:27] Speaker A: That's right. [00:11:28] Speaker B: But I didn't. I just let it spiral. And to the guy's probable credit, he kept asking questions. He was trying to be empathetic. He was trying to understand. But I told him after the run, I said, you should have just told me, shut the fuck up and play golf. You know what I mean? That's what you should have told me because that's what I needed to hear. Yeah, right. But. So I was not mentally focused. And I think I shot 36, 44. So it was a 36 front and 44 back. And I wasn't hitting the ball bad. I just mentally was out of it. I was not focused on the task at hand. And golf is way too challenging to not be present and focused on the game. [00:12:07] Speaker C: So when you're teaching in the classroom or given a lesson, like, when that happens, because it all happens, right? You can substitute personal life for struggle at work, whatever it is, and you can't seem to block it out. Like, what do you do? [00:12:26] Speaker B: Yeah, so what I, what I should have done, I give this to a lot of my students, and they really like it is at the bottom of your score card. I do the frowny face. So you're supposed to keep track of your frowny faces. So a frowny face could be like, I mentally checked out, I didn't commit to a shot, My mind wandered. Whatever. Frowny face, right. So what that is helpful for is if you notice a stretch of 3, 4 holes with a frowny face on every hole, that should wake you up to be like, what am I doing? What's going on? Self centering, self check in, deep breaths, acknowledge. Let go. But all of that has to be practiced. You can't just wake up one day and do that. Right? So that's where golf, they talk about golf being, you know, 99% mental or whatever. That's what it's about. That's what it's about. And the problem, I think, is all the in between time, the downtime between shots, where you have to dwell on everything else. If I'm playing basketball and I'm in the game and Kobe Bryant's coming at me full speed, I got no time to think about divorce or whatever. I gotta stop the guy in front of me. If I'm running a route, I don't have time to be like, wonder what I'm having for dinner tonight. You know what I mean? I got to be focused. So the nature of golf with the downtime could be similar to bowling or other things too. But the nature of golf with the, with the downtime allows for the extra mental stuff to creep in. And like I said, it's like with anything in life, it's easier said than done. It's easier for me to tell someone, this is what you should do, Go practice this. Than it is for me to follow my own advice and say I need to. And again, I'm trying to give myself grace with everything that's going on too. Right. I mean, I'm not playing golf for a living, so stuff happens. But sometimes we don't know how to Handle something until we've had the experience of it. This is the first time that's ever happened to me. I've never had that experience before of spiraling because of divorce, you know what I mean? So it's like, now I can help you a lot. [00:14:09] Speaker A: I've got two, three years of experience on that. [00:14:11] Speaker B: I can tell you, I can at least acknowledge it now, you know, and be like, well, I had that experience and now I know it took me a year. [00:14:18] Speaker A: So after my divorce, this would be better saved for the 19th old, but we'll go ahead and do it now while we're here. After my divorce, it took me a good solid year. I mean, I was playing, so my divorce was like my trigger to get back into golf. I had been kind of playing a little bit, and then when that happened, I was like, okay, here's my chance to get back into golf now. And I went at it harder than I'd ever tried. I mean, I was driving an hour and a half, three times a month for lessons. I was, I probably spent, I was spending 7, 800 bucks a month with you, probably on training sessions. I was putting a lot into it. And my game went nowhere, if not backwards for two years. It took me a good solid year to realize there must be something mental going on and if only I could feel, figure out what in the world emotionally might be holding me back right now. And I didn't want to admit it was the divorce. It took me a while to kind of wrestle with that. But yeah, those things, whether it's financial trouble or it's marital problems or it's trouble with your kids, trouble at work, trouble with whatever, all these things are going to creep into your game. One of the things I've texted or talked to you about a little bit is that it's fascinating to me that in the course of a three and a half to five hour round, depending on which course you're playing at, you're going to spend a grand total of what, maybe 90 seconds swing and actually. [00:15:30] Speaker B: Executing the golf shot. [00:15:31] Speaker A: And you might spend a total of another 30 minutes total preparing for each shot. I mean, I'm talking about calculating your yardages, looking at your lie, reading your putts, doing all these things. [00:15:43] Speaker B: But the rest of it, but you. [00:15:44] Speaker A: I mean, when you think about that, a big part of how you, of what determines your score at the end of the day is how you spent that other four and a half hours, or the other four hours, whatever you weren't actually executing. That's something I've tried to work really hard on. Riverwood's an example of that. When I went out there and played recently, I played Buoys Creek. No disrespect to Buis Creek. I didn't like the layout. Go humps from day one or from the first hole, I was like. I looked at the scorecard. [00:16:11] Speaker B: Which one was it? [00:16:13] Speaker A: I played black, white. [00:16:16] Speaker B: So was it the downhill par four that bends right? It's a terrible tee shot. The whole fairway goes left. [00:16:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And I get on the tee, and I took this. This is the stupid crap you shouldn't do. Okay. I get there. I think we were fresh off probably the day before recording our first podcast where we talked about this. I pull up, I get out. No time to get range. Balls run to the first tee. I think I had hit some balls in here, maybe to loosen up, get out there, and I'm gonna hit two iron. I looked at the diagram. I was like, there's no reason to hit driver. I'm gonna take two iron. Not positive. There's some wind in my face. I'm gonna take three wood just in case. And I'll take driver just in case. It suits my eye. When I get there, I get to the tee box. I can't find a broken tee for that one reason alone. I hit driver because I couldn't find a broken tee to hit the T. Aren't all. [00:17:03] Speaker B: You didn't have a short tee in your pocket? [00:17:05] Speaker A: No, I didn't. I don't usually carry short tees in my pockets. [00:17:07] Speaker B: Do you find tee up on par threes or with driving irons? With broken tees? [00:17:11] Speaker A: Yes. I don't own short tees unless I find them. So I. [00:17:14] Speaker B: Sounds like a him problem. [00:17:15] Speaker A: It is definitely a him problem. I always at my first par three, I find at my first opportunity, whether it's the parking lot, first tee, or first par three, I find a broken tee. I don't care if I gotta walk to the reds. [00:17:25] Speaker B: Sounds like a practice preparation. [00:17:27] Speaker A: I'm. It does kind of, now that you say it that way, but first tee don't have a broken tee. And for that reason, hit driver, hit it ob I then do what I should have done and stuck my two iron on a regular tee and said if I break it, to hell with it. And strike one right down the gut and part of the second ball, make double bogey. But I just didn't like the layout. I don't like target golf. Nothing wrong with target golf. It just doesn't suit me. And it took me about 14 holes to finally just say, you know what? It's a nice day. Pretty golf. I may not like the golf course layout, but it's beautiful. [00:18:00] Speaker B: What's those means? What's those memes where it's like, I'm going to shoot the course record, best round of my life, and that's like four holes later. Double, double, triple, quadruple. I'm just here to have fun. Yeah. No, but to your point, that's. That's something I was going to say is I think every golfer needs to do a better job of reframing why they're there. [00:18:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:18] Speaker B: And every day it might be different. If I'm like, planning on just having fun with some friends, I need to refocus my brain to say, like, I'm not trying to shoot a 70 today. I'm trying to just have fun and teach people about golf and show them the ropes and make sure they have a good time. If I'm playing in a competition, I need to be like, I'm here as an athlete. Nothing else matters. Work doesn't matter. Family doesn't. Nothing else matters. I'm here to compete, just like I was guarding Kobe or whoever else. [00:18:42] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:43] Speaker B: If I'm there to practice on something, like, you're gonna go play a practice round, what's the purpose you're there for? Write it down on the scorecard. Right. Write it somewhere so you can look at it and be like, this is why I'm here. And that's another good way to say, how do I refocus when I get off track? [00:18:57] Speaker A: Well, and on the other side of that corn, when I played Riverwood, I remember driving in there and I'd heard so many good things. I played a lot of Eagle Ridge, which is a sister course to Riverwood, and I'd heard so many good things about Riverwood, and I finally. Everything around here was booked up. So I went to Riverwood one day a couple weeks ago, and as I'm pulling in, like, I immediately realized, like, this is a really good track. It's really well kept, and I can't even tell from just the drive in that I'm gonna like the layout. [00:19:22] Speaker B: It's. [00:19:22] Speaker A: I like courses that have some length to them. I like playing 7,000 yard courses that are. They're gonna have some. Some challenging length. And usually on the flip side of that challenging length, you get what you see is what you get. There's not a lot of tricks to it, you know, So I was excited about playing it, and I made. There are some Tricks, but there's a couple. Yeah. And. And I played the. I didn't play the meadow wood side, so it's got a few goofy notes. [00:19:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:47] Speaker A: So I didn't play that one. And this is not a religious show by any means. I pray a lot when I'm playing. That's one of the ways that I kind of keep myself focused a little bit. And that my prayer for that day was just, you know, I got a good golf course. It is hot. It's unbearably hot, but aside from that. And the greens are punched, but I'm not a good putter anyway. So let's play to the positives. On the positives, I'm hydrated. Putting. I may actually putt better today, which I did. And I got a great golf course. And whatever I shoot, I shoot. I just want to enjoy the golf course. And it's funny. I poured the first hole. It went exactly the way you want it to go. I went to the second hole, which when I looked at the scorecard, I thought, oh, great. For a long golf course, this isn't bad. They've got a drivable par four on the second hole. It's not a drivable par four. It's a 250 yard par three. So I said, wow, okay. And I well executed the first four holes. Great mental lesson or strategy lesson, though. Fifth hole, I think is the par three. About 165 yards. All over water. My yard is 153. I hit a perfect nine iron. 153, and I hit a perfect eight iron. One hundred and sixty five. Those are my stock yard. That's not my best, but that's my flush play shot. So I played the eight iron, but I took a little bit off of it. One of the things I struggle the most with is taking off of irons. Because if I have 165 as my full swing, inevitably I end up hitting my take a little off of it. About 153, which is exactly what I would just hit. Trying to play the nine. [00:21:19] Speaker B: Or you hit it fat because you. [00:21:21] Speaker A: You do something funny with it. Well, I hit it pretty solid, but enough thin that I knew it might be in a little trouble. And it hit just in the bank, trickles back in the water. It was actually visible. So I did play it from the edge of the water. It still made double buggy. But my second ball, I hit just the heck with it. I'm gonna hit a eight iron to the back of the green. [00:21:40] Speaker B: And I hit it 30ft and did it spin back? [00:21:42] Speaker A: No, hit it the back of the green. [00:21:44] Speaker B: 30Ft. [00:21:45] Speaker A: Yeah, hit it 30ft past the flag. And two putted. And it's like, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with just hitting it? There's 30ft past the hole. [00:21:52] Speaker B: Any par on a par three is always good. I don't care how far it is par and par three is always good. So there's no reason to like. Yeah. So back to, like, making the decisions and stuff again. We have to remember professionals have caddies, and a good caddy is a quasi sports psychologist. They can recognize the signs of their golfer when the golfer starts to spiral, when the golfer gets distracted, wherever they can rein them back in. Sports psychology, sports psychologists in general in professional golf and college golf and high amateur junior golf is on the rise for a reason. Because everybody's looking to find. Where is that two or three strokes around. I'm missing that. Everybody else has. People laud Tiger for his mental prowess. Right. So there's definitely a lot to it. It's not something to be sloughed over. So we have to do a better job as the regular Joe Blow golfer to be our own caddy or at least do something that frames and centers. Why are we here for the day? What's the purpose? It's like a ritual, right? It's like a centering activity, if you want to call it that. [00:22:51] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's. I mean, I would argue not only is it not something to gloss over, I think it is the most important part of your golf game because that. So Riverwood is a good example of that. I started off first four or five holes, I played the way I played, but then after that double bogey, I struggled for the next four or five holes, and it wasn't. I don't. I honestly don't feel like it was from, you know, being pissed off about the double bow gear. The. It just. It's a hard stretch of holes. I didn't play that well, but I stayed with it. I stayed in it, and then I ended up shooting like 37 or 38 on the back. It was a decent round, and it was pleased with the way I ended up finishing. The. The overall day was good. The beginning was great. The end was great. Those last five of the front nine was. Was terrible. But there's a difference. And they can go hand in hand. But there's a difference between mental focus and strategy. It wasn't a mental focus that caused me to hit it in the water on five. That was a strategy thing. I should have just hit the eight iron past the. We can. I think as amateur players, especially better amateur players, you start to think you're gonna be like Scotty Scheffler. And I can hit it exactly 163. I can hit it exactly 150. Have you ever taken the time to do the math at what the difference is between 150 and 153 or 163 and 167? It's hitting in the hole versus a 10 foot putt. So if I hit it five yards too long, it's only 15ft. [00:24:14] Speaker B: You made the perfect. That hole's a good example. Because where is the big trouble? It's short. [00:24:19] Speaker A: Short. [00:24:19] Speaker B: It's water all around the front. Front right to long left. You cannot be short. [00:24:26] Speaker A: That's a. [00:24:27] Speaker B: So hit the club that you're confident gets you to the middle of the green every single time with a margin of error. [00:24:32] Speaker C: So what do you do when you're sitting there and there's a hazard and you're like, don't leave it short. And you do exactly what you say. I used to tell our players, like. [00:24:43] Speaker A: Your brain doesn't hear. [00:24:44] Speaker C: Don't. [00:24:44] Speaker A: It just hears hit it short. [00:24:46] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah. [00:24:47] Speaker A: Don't throw a stripe. [00:24:48] Speaker B: Yeah. You can reframe it from. Acknowledge the water first. It's like acknowledging the bad. Right. Hey, this is what it is. What do we do next? I like. [00:25:01] Speaker A: It. [00:25:01] Speaker B: I don't even think it's. Play away from it. I say, where do I want to hit it? [00:25:04] Speaker A: There you go. [00:25:05] Speaker B: Right. Where do I want to hit the shot? I want to hit it to the back of the green. And now that's your goal. It's not don't hit in the water. It's that doesn't exist anymore. And imagine it's a simulator or a driving range. Where do I want to hit this? Where's my new flag? My new flag is the back edge of the green. Who cares where the actual flag? What's my new target? The new target is there. And that's the hardest thing to overcome in golf because we're so flag oriented. You know what I mean? It's hard. It's hard like that. I tell people all the time if golf because we played this in the Fred Smith thing. There's a Luck of the Irish tournament. They take the flag stick out on every hole. There is no flag. So you just hit it to the center of the green and hope for the best. People shoot lights out. They score their best Rounds ever, because they're not looking at, oh, the flag's five feet from the right and two on I got a finesse of wedge and they're just like, I'm just gonna hit to the middle of the green, hope for the best. And sometimes the hole's near there. And I do this to people all the time. Like this huge putting green right here. I say, okay, I'm gonna drop a ball in the middle of the green. Boom. If the flag's over there, two putt flags over there, two putt flags over there, two putt flags over there, two putt. Yeah, you might make it, but you're not gonna freakin shoot a seven because you tried to finesse one into the water. Plug it in the bunker, short side. [00:26:18] Speaker A: Here's a really funny realization. So before we ever recorded any of these things, I was kind of thinking through like the concepts of what I was trying to do with either a podcast or YouTube channel or whatever. And I was thinking, okay, strategy. And I came up in my mind a particular par three and okay, how would I explain the strategy of that? And I sort of think I was like, if it's a front pin, then I would tell the audience to take. You don't want to leave it short of a front pin and short side yourself. You want to aim a little bit long of a front pin. And if you miss it a little bit, then you'll be right on the flag. And if you hit it flush, you'll be middle of the green. And if it's a back pin, that might be the time that I do take that lesser club and try to get on it. Because then if I flush it, I'm pin high. But if I miss it a little bit, I'm middle of the green. And if it's a right pin, then I might try to play it a little bit more towards the left. And it's the left pin, I try to play a little more to the right. And as I thought through this in my own head, I thought at the end of the day, this highly sophisticated video that I'm thinking about doing comes down to aim for the freaking middle of the green, doesn't it? [00:27:17] Speaker B: Yes. And technically, like if you study decade and all the other shot strategy stuff every stroke count, stuff like that, that book, it is a little more complicated than that for the better player. As you get higher and higher and higher in steel level, as your dispersion, your cluster gets tighter, yes, there are some differences to it, but for your hundred nineties eighties shooter, for the most part, just get it on the green and as few strokes as possible and work on your putting. Because that's really. When people say I can't aim for the middle of the green, it's typically because they're a terrible putt putter. They have no distance control whatsoever. And so they freak themselves out. They think they have to get it close so they don't three putt. [00:27:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I have a really short question on that. When you say for the better player, it's a little bit more complicated. [00:28:02] Speaker B: Yes. Offer the scratching better. [00:28:05] Speaker A: I was going to say where do you draw the line there? Because I think I'm a three handicap approximately. I think I've not got enough rounds logged to know exactly where I'm at, but around three. And I would say that even I don't fit that category. I think I need to be aiming middle of the green. I think if I honestly, this is not a joke. I think if I were. If I just aim for the middle of the green for 18 straight holes, I might be a scratch golfer instead of a three handed. [00:28:32] Speaker B: Because you're gonna make the 20 footer, you're gonna make the 15 occasionally, but you're not gonna from 20ft. [00:28:37] Speaker A: I am never. I'm not saying I never do it, but from 20ft I am never thinking about don't three putt. I'm gonna make more 20 footers than I'm gonna three putt. [00:28:45] Speaker B: Right. Well, the stats would bear that out too. [00:28:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:47] Speaker B: So. But and this is the hard part about qualifying that because you could have three, three handicaps that are all play the game completely different. Some could be amazing ball strikers and drivers involved, but they have terrible putting and terrible short game. You could have some that spray it 70 by the stairs. They spray it all over the place, but their short game and putting saves them. So when I'm talking about target in the middle of the green, it's mostly due to your ball striking capacity. How good are you or how tight are you with your dispersion and how consistent are you with your contact and distance control than it is what you're handicapped. [00:29:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:18] Speaker B: Because again, I've worked with a lot of really good players over the last five years. They don't all come a zero and a five do not have the same profile. [00:29:27] Speaker A: You can have a five handicap that has scratch ball striking or five handicap who has scratch short game. [00:29:33] Speaker B: And you can have a 5 handicap who has wonderful ball striking and putting and a terrible mental game. You see what I'm saying? [00:29:40] Speaker A: I don't know which one of those three I am. That's the problem. [00:29:43] Speaker B: Which is three, I'll tell you. So that's. But that's a good. That's a good self inventory for people to do. Yeah, right. That's where the stat tracking comes in. That's where the mental scorecard, the frowny face comes in. Yeah, right. To see, like, where am I really losing my shots here? I don't hit balls out of bounds very much. I don't put myself in bad positions. So that. Then it becomes the matter, as you're talking about this coaching stuff, of where. Where do we find that one or two strokes around, on average. Not every time, but on average. Right. To just move down. One of the things I really like to do when I'm playing with new people and they find out what I do or they see that I'm a little bit of a better player is I start coaching them three times hole, and I just start talking up there like a caddy or just asking questions. Right. One of my favorite catchphrases is I'm just asking questions. You know, do what you want. But we all know good mentors can point you in the right direction without telling you what to do just by asking questions. What's the goal here? You want to get stronger? Well, what are you doing? Right. You know, so. And it's just fascinating because I'm like, what is your intention here? What are you trying to do? Well, I want to hit the ball like this. Cool. Did you know that you're aimed in the trees right now? You're setting yourself up for failure from the start. I took some videos from my last round of golf, and the people hopefully won't listen to this, but I'm not gonna share names, but, I mean, I see this one all the time. And you can blur faces out. Yeah, whatever you want to do. [00:30:59] Speaker A: Yeah, I can do that. [00:31:00] Speaker B: I see this all the time. And like here, for example, this guy is pointed in the trees. You see that? [00:31:09] Speaker A: Mm. [00:31:09] Speaker B: The flag is Eagle Ridge. It's over here on the left. It's that par 4. After the par 3, it's number 4. I think it is. [00:31:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:16] Speaker B: Homeboy, look at his feet. He's pointed dead in the trees. [00:31:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it's three or five after the long. Okay, five. Yeah. [00:31:24] Speaker B: He's pointing in the trees. Yeah, the flag's over there. [00:31:27] Speaker C: I can't tell you how many times because I always talk to my guys when they come into the gym. When's the last time you played? How was the round Just to get them to talk. And so many times it comes back down to they weren't aligned, the alignment was off. [00:31:42] Speaker B: Yes. [00:31:43] Speaker C: And it's just like the basic grip. [00:31:45] Speaker A: Alignment, PGA posture grip alignment. Yeah. [00:31:48] Speaker C: And it just. They come back and they're like, yeah, my shoulders were off, my feet were off. And lo and behold, they get realigned, or they get back to the basics with their grip, and then all of a sudden, they're good to go for a while. [00:32:02] Speaker B: You know what? Sorry. I'm not gonna cut you off. But I am gonna cut you off. [00:32:04] Speaker A: Yes. [00:32:05] Speaker B: But I hadn't played in probably a month and a half. Same thing. I went out to Riverwood, played with my best buddy, one of my best buddies. I was missing everything. Right. And it took me laying a club down across my hips and shoulders to just confirm it's not my swing. I'm just. I haven't practiced in a month and a half. My alignment is just this much off. [00:32:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:25] Speaker B: But so look, and this is a classic thing. This is a good, like, just video synopsis. Whenever someone aims way right, you can count this. Nine times out of 10, they will not be able to get to their front side. Why? Because they're blocked out. And their brain knows the target's over there. So they have to pull across and look where his weight went, see how it went backwards. Because he's going, target's behind me like this. You just can't not do it. And then they'll work on drills and try to find YouTube stuff. And you're aimed 40 yards right of your target. Your brain is gonna figure it out. Yeah, Right. [00:32:59] Speaker A: I want to. I have a question for you that I want to get to, but that segues really well what you just said. Your brain's gonna figure it out. There's something that I've started to learn that we are naturally geared to want to hit. We know where we're supposed to get our hands at impact to make a good swing or make good contact. [00:33:23] Speaker B: And that is potential to make good contact potential. [00:33:26] Speaker A: There you go. So instinctively. And I'm not a great athlete by any means. I don't have great hand eye coordination. I average a bit, but my body is instinctively going to try to get my hands in the correct position at impact as well as it can, regardless of how much I might have hindered that process at the other parts of my swing. And this has been an interesting and frustrating thing to learn. I'm curious to hear both of your thoughts on this. So one thing I've actually Migrated a little bit from my initial thought because in trying to work on my takeaway, I've actually figured out more of my takeaway has to do with my body movement. So I'm now just working on my body movement. So I do a lot of things wrong with my body, and because of that, I do a lot of wrong things, bad things, with my arms and shoulders and hands to compensate. And that makes for one of the most frustrating processes ever in fixing it. Because now when I'm trying to fix my swing, what I have to fight against is, okay, I need to really make sure I load up my right side and make a proper turn. And then also make sure, because if I do that and keep doing what I've been doing, I'm gonna get trapped inside on the way back down. So then on the way back down, I've gotta make sure I get everything over on the left hand side. And then to make room for that, I've gotta make sure I get shallow with my arm. And you're thinking way too much. So what I've found to be more effective is to focus on one thing at a time. That's right. Yeah. So what I've tried to do lately is say, okay, I'm gonna hit some balls where I only think about body. Because if I only think about body and I make the correct move with the body, eventually my hands are going to want to find the ball and follow suit. Or you could say it another way and say, if I do the correct things with my hands, eventually my body's gonna want to follow suit. But in the searching for that, you're gonna hit some really lousy golf shots. Okay? Because if two wrongs do make a right, a lot of times in golf, I might have talked about that last time. But you can't fix that by trying to think of two things at one time. You've got to almost train your body one part at a time. I believe, I'm starting to believe at least that the body controls more than the arms ever will in the golf swing. [00:35:17] Speaker B: So all things being there's armless golfers who play without arms or one arm. I mean, remember the guy from, like the 40s, the black and white or whatever, he's got Clubhouse channel. He does it like that. [00:35:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:35:26] Speaker B: Only way he can do that is. [00:35:27] Speaker A: Because body turn lately when I've been playing and this. Actually, I didn't mean to do this, but it actually translates really well to what I was going to ask you, But I've been working a lot on just Thinking about what my body does. And then I'm finding that my hands and arms are just. They're in a better position than they've ever been just by working on the body. The question I was going to tee up for you is actually more of a physical question, though. When I focus on shifting my weight, I hit the ball farther. And one of the things I've learned lately is that a big part of my problem is that I've got too much weight on my right side at impact. I've not been on pressure plates, but I would about bet that that's the case. [00:36:03] Speaker B: It's very common. [00:36:04] Speaker A: And so I'm working on that. And then we talked last time about I need to lose some weight. And I was doing pretty good. I went to mom and dad's last weekend and patented that up at home cooking. That's right. But there's a. I remember asking you about this when I was working out a lot, when I was like maybe 165, £20 or so ago. [00:36:24] Speaker C: I was gonna say, what are you now? [00:36:25] Speaker A: Not that. Okay, leave it at that. But I can make an argument that. [00:36:30] Speaker B: Reserves. [00:36:30] Speaker A: That's right, I have reserves. But I'm curious if I. Part of me says if I lose 20 pounds, that I will rotate my core faster, which is gonna generate more clubhead speed and more distance. But at the same time, some of that £20 is helping in the weight shift, which is adding power. So which is more effective? I mean, from a fitness standpoint, try to be as lean as you possibly can because basically right now I'm swinging with a 20 pound baby on my belly. That's going to slow down my core rotation for sure. But at the same time, that's 20 extra pounds of mass shifting to the left when I do get that weight shift right. So if I lose the 20 pounds that I'm trying to lose, am I going to gain distance from moving faster or lose it from having less weight transfer? Great question. Thank you. I try to get some wood on the ball occasionally with this stuff. [00:37:22] Speaker C: I mean, you know, like my point of view is always from like the baseball side. That's just like, that's just part of my life and that's where I see things. So baseball and golf, you see so many bad bodies, right? And you see bad bodies in baseball, you see bad bodies in golf. But the ability to hit the ball, whatever, whether it's golf or a baseball. And to me, it's not about a body type. It's your ability to, like you said, the Hand eye coordination and whether it's baseball or golf, getting your body in a good position to hit. So whether that's loading, being on time and trusting the hands, it's really the same whatever sport, trusting the hands, but getting your body in a good position to hit, whether that's golf or baseball, whether you got an extra £20. I think just from a stamina standpoint, you know, like in the summertime, like if you're not in shape, it's just going to be more of a grind and you got to pay attention to that and, and what are the guys on tour have to pay attention to that. But just because you got a 20 pound boiler, you can still be a good golfer. You can still. [00:38:43] Speaker A: But are you saying that this is not necessarily adding to my power? I cannot confirm or do that. We'll have to get you to the monitors for that one because I mean I could make the argument on a lazy day that hey, this is perhaps the power. [00:38:58] Speaker B: You could, hey, John Daly hit it a long way. [00:39:00] Speaker A: Yeah. Really, Right. [00:39:00] Speaker C: If he dropped 50 pounds, is it really going to affect. [00:39:04] Speaker B: Well, he said when he had that gastro bypass surgery or whatever tummy, you know, whatever stomach enhancement surgery you want to call it, he had or whatever he was talking about, his balance was thrown off. Okay, think about it, right? Like if I am, if my body has been formed with a 30 pound weight plate strapped around my waist and I'm used to bending over here, that's going to activate my hamstrings, my quads, my calves, everything. Right. All that's going to be conditioned to a certain weight. Yeah. And then you, then you change that. Now he's going to be like, I can't find my balance. Right. Like it all, it all matters. But to me, if you're going to work on anything in golf, physically wise, that is universal. Forearms, if you got strong forearms, they test golfers grip strength. It's hands and leaps and bounds. Higher than the average person. [00:39:56] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:39:57] Speaker B: Whether they're doing deadlifts or whether they're just, just this all the time. Grip pressure. [00:40:02] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:40:03] Speaker B: That's huge. [00:40:03] Speaker A: Well, let's go there then. What are some good fundamental ways to work on grip strength? Dead weight? You know, deadlifts is one example that's on one end of the spectrum. [00:40:11] Speaker B: Hangs. Yep. Pull ups, I would say. Hangs. Pull ups. Anything that you have to suspend weight. Farmer's carries. Yeah, but you have to suspend weight from your hands is a good way to do that. And again, if you can hold a substantial amount of weight, you Got strong forearms and grip is. You're not going to be a problem. [00:40:30] Speaker A: We call those cooler carries in East Carolina. Cooler carries, same concept. [00:40:34] Speaker B: That's right. Absolutely. [00:40:35] Speaker C: Well, I mean, there's one thing I've been incorporating the last six months when I came back from the Golf Fitness Summit in Orlando this year was everything was grip pressure and foot pressure. And I bought these $10 fat grips. It's just a piece of rubber that fits over the dumbbell. [00:40:57] Speaker B: That's right. [00:40:57] Speaker C: But it's a great way to develop hands, wrists, forearms strength. And it's a great way to not get your athlete injured because you can't lift as much because of the grip. But it's also great because there's so many golfers that deal with wrist and forearm issues. And anyway, big shout out Amazon $10 fat grips, stick them on your dumbbells. And I use them all the time. [00:41:26] Speaker B: Other sports are the same, you know, when you're deadlifting or powerlifting or strongman, their grip is the weak point. Point. It's always going to be their back traps. Hamstrings, quads, pecs, can always move more weight than these little guys can hold in theory. Right. That's why they use straps. That's why they go to a mixed grip because the barbell wants to spin out of your hand. So you go mixed grip and then the bar doesn't spin so you can hold more weight. I was a mixed grip deadlifter when I was powerlifting. Had no other choice. I couldn't carry £500 in my forearms like this. It just wasn't going to happen. So they have fatter barbells. Right. Just to train the grip. You have my squat rack at home, standard narrow bar pull up. And I also have a fat bar pull up. Anytime I can, I do fat bar pull up because it's going to help. [00:42:11] Speaker A: I had a theory a couple years, several years ago when I was working out a lot when my. When I was doing a lot of squatting and deadlifting and all that. Deadlift especially is a good way to tell this because I would be limited in moving up in dead weight lift strictly because of grip. I mean, I don't know what I could deadlift. Say it was 300 just for the. I could do 300 and feel like I could get that up in my legs and back and glutes and everything just fine. But at 320, I couldn't hold it anymore. And if I got straps, I could deadlift 350 or whatever. But then I started thinking about how that translates to golf swing. And it's kind of like what you said on the last episode we recorded about the race car and the chassis and all that stuff. If I'm creating is there from a physical makeup standpoint, not only is it not maximizing your strength, but it's actually limiting your mechanical ability in a way, because I have so much core strength and core speed, but I don't have the hand and grip strength to hold it. So that was something I really. And I think I even might have been working with you at the time where I said I really wanted to work on grip strength, but for that reason that I knew that I was generating all this extra power in my lower body. I had to be based on what my squat numbers were doing, but none of it's translating to swing. And in fact, I feel like I'm hitting it worse because I've got all the speed. I can't hold it. [00:43:27] Speaker B: Let's talk about something real quick. Go ahead, Mike. All right, that's right here. I can't use this. [00:43:31] Speaker A: Yeah. I love how Tony, he doesn't really pay attention to the fact that we're recording on one camera. If he wants to get up, he just moves. We've got to get you a lapel mic first. I worked a room. [00:43:42] Speaker C: I can't stand still real quick at the grip thing. So, you know, say the average, you know, pro golfer's got, you know, less grip pressure, but, you know, better hamstring so that the amateur is gripping the heck out of the club. And the tighter you grip it, whether it's a baseball, in any type of thing that you got to whack something with, the tighter the grip, it's going to tighten everything up all the way up into the shoulder, the traps, and that's actually going to slow everything down. So if you can develop grip strength, you can have a good grip. Less grip pressure, more club head speed. So, you know, we're getting in the weeds there. But it's. [00:44:22] Speaker B: No, you're not gonna say the exact same thing. I'm so glad you said that, because I was gonna say that's the exact same thing. The more reserve grip strength you have, the less stress you have to hold this golf club, right? [00:44:33] Speaker A: Because a lot of times when I'm hitting it a long way, I'm. I'm loosening up my grip, my. My grip pressure, and that gives me that whippiness. [00:44:41] Speaker B: But you have enough strength that it's not going to go out of your hands. [00:44:43] Speaker A: You know that well, see I don't. That's what I'm saying. When I do that, when I try to weaken my. If you're videoing my swing, when I try to loosen my grip pressure, I get this nice elastic whippiness. But you can tell on video that it has a flippiness at the end. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Of it, because I don't have that. [00:45:04] Speaker A: Strength to hold that. Now when I hold it really, really tight, I have a beautiful post impact position, but there's so much tension, I lose club head speed. [00:45:12] Speaker B: Well, I always do this experiment with people, too, about finding the balance. Right. So I used to play drums. Okay. If you want to drum fast, these drummers have very relaxed, loose wrists, but the sticks are not flying on their hands. Try to drum real fast with your arms tight. Anybody watching this or listening can do that experiment. Lock your forearms, just. You can't drum fast at all. There is that balance, the fluidity of speed, but you still have to be strong to control it. But here's something I always show people with the golf club. Let's say whatever grip you have. Strong, weak, standard. And those are terrible terms. They don't mean anything. They just refer to how over or under your left hand is. Right and right hand. If this is your standard grip pressure, watch what happens when I squeeze my forearms. See how the club face closed? Because this is a round object in our fingers. As soon as I squeeze it, as the forearms, everything's connected. It causes a reaction, and it just closes the club face. [00:46:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:07] Speaker B: So what people will do is they'll start with an open face, squeeze it, and now they're locked in. It's whatever you want to call it, but it's a workaround. Right. Or, you know, under pressure, I tend to squeeze too hard, and I hit pulls. You might need to open a little bit so that it counts for that squeeze. [00:46:24] Speaker A: That is interesting. [00:46:25] Speaker B: Isn't that crazy? I mean, we're not playing with a square object here or something. They're playing with a round object. Yeah. And that's where you get all these fat grips and everything that they'll try to help you to relieve the tension, the pressure. But I promise you, as soon as people get there and then they fall back and they squeeze, and it just shuts everything down. It's all connected, and it's fascinating. So right on the money. I knew where you're going with that. I was like, yep, he's gonna go there. That's awesome. I love the group think. [00:46:49] Speaker A: What's a litmus test? Or a way that you can Test your grip strength to see like where, where you're at with it. Because, I mean, I, I intuitively am pretty sure I have. I, I think, I don't know if this is true or not, but I think it's true that if you start at my butt and work your way out, I get progressively place to start. Yeah, well, yeah, if you start at my butt and my thighs and my ass, abs like this, this part of my body I feel like is relatively strong for my, like if. Well, this isn't totally subjective. When I would look at like my squat numbers compared to my weight class, I was like, I don't know, 80th, 90th. I was pretty high in the percentile there. But when you go to bench press, which is more chest, I'm maybe average. And if you go to grip strength, I have a feeling that I'm in like the bottom 10, 20%. [00:47:36] Speaker B: There's not a lot of standardized tests for grip strength though, really, are there? Like, I haven't seen any studies in golf. I mean, they do the grip pressure sensors and stuff like that. But again, it's all a range and it's relative to injuries. [00:47:48] Speaker A: Age. [00:47:50] Speaker C: Yeah, it's really just whatever you test, just use that same process each time. So whether, if you're at your gym and you want to do a grip test, just use a dumbbell and pick a 50 pound dumbbell or a 30 and whatever. But I'll use that same weight every time. And you can just do something simple is time yourself. [00:48:13] Speaker B: How long can I hold it then? [00:48:14] Speaker C: Yeah, how long can I hold that? [00:48:15] Speaker A: And is it better to see like, for example, how long can I hold a 50 pound dumbbell or what's the heaviest weight that I can hold for 30 seconds? You know what I'm saying with that question? It's like two different ways of looking at it. [00:48:30] Speaker C: We're not splitting atoms here, so you. [00:48:31] Speaker B: Can just be consistent when I compare apples to apples. [00:48:35] Speaker A: But I mean, one is more of an endurance. I mean, in the golf swing, you're not having to withhold that pressure for extended periods of time. It's having, it's being able to hold a lot of pressure or a lot of strength for a short period. [00:48:44] Speaker B: That whole concept of like golf truly is a power sport, unless you're walking. Then it can be an endurance sport. You have to. But it's like everything. Like you can't be all gas and no brakes. You got to have a balance. You got to have it all if you want to reach your potential. So a well balanced fitness program and a well balanced coach can help you get there, identify your deficiencies, identify where you're lacking and can build a plan around that. But like you can't just say ah, my grip strength stuck. You're going just do forearm curls all day every day and neglect everything else. Like that's not going to get you anywhere either. So there has to be that cognizant and conscientious effort and plan to do things in a certain way that built. [00:49:24] Speaker C: The whole thing to piggyback or put a bow on the grip thing. I was thinking some of my club fitter friends something simple as periodically cleaning your grip and restoring the tackiness. [00:49:39] Speaker A: Cleaning your grip. [00:49:40] Speaker B: Yes, I do it. Yours are user slick home. But I, I have a ritual before I ever play in a tournament or even a round that matters to the me. I bring my clubs in and I clean the grips in the sink with soap and water. I have a dedicated sponge that gets dirty or like it's not going to clean dishes with or whatever. I just. [00:49:59] Speaker C: But it gets tacky again. [00:50:00] Speaker B: Tacky again. I make an. I can make a set of grips last even with as much as I play, which is not as much as I'd like to or as much as compared to a lot of people. You can make a full set of grips last a full season, if not two, if you just maintain them. [00:50:12] Speaker A: One of the things that we talked. [00:50:13] Speaker B: About because this is rubber, sun is the biggest killer of rubber and oil is the biggest killer of rubber. Look at your tires. That's why they have tire dressing to keep them protected from the uv, the sun. So if you can keep the oil off of them, that's at least one variable that you can help keep the lifespan at the grip. [00:50:30] Speaker A: It's funny because when we first talked about this a little bit, one of the components that I wanted to integrate into the show was your equipment. And you know, there are some times that, you know, I feel like, okay, am I, are my clubs, Do I have the right shafts in? Do I have the right kick point, the right stiffness? Is my lie angle correct? Is the length of my club's correct? All these things can either mask swing deficiencies or keep you from really being able to swing the right way. One that I've never thought about is the grip. And you just pointed it out there to me very, you know, live real time. I never regrip my clubs. I regrip my clubs when I break the shaft and have to regrip my clubs. But when I sit here and talk about It. [00:51:10] Speaker B: He could do it for you for free or something like that. [00:51:12] Speaker A: Yeah. I got to find a better, like, natural network of people to help me with these problems. But I sit here and complain about my grip strength being lousy. Maybe if I had grips that were tacky. [00:51:23] Speaker B: Go put baby oil on a barbell and see how well you can hold it. Right? I mean, I don't care how strong you are, you're not going to hold it. You know, I will go back to this real quick, though. You can grip the golf club in a certain way to where when you squeeze it still doesn't do anything. It's all about how it's in your hands, right? [00:51:40] Speaker A: Is that a good way to grip the club? [00:51:41] Speaker B: I'm not saying it's whatever, but people who will wrap their hands. And that gets back to sometimes grips being too small or too big. When the grip is too small, you have to wrap your hands around it. Right. More. And then when your fingers are under and curled around it. Now when I squeeze, it wants to turn versus if I have my hands more like a flute playing like a flute or whatever. Now I can squeeze all I want and nothing happens. So that's not a grip tip or a grip check, but something to consider. [00:52:08] Speaker A: How much do you teach or subscribe, I guess, to the pressure points in your golf swing and especially in your hands? That's a new one for me. [00:52:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's tough because again, if you go on tour, lpga, PGA historical, you're gonna see a wide variety of grip grips. Most of the modern golfers are tending towards a stronger, stronger lead hand, more pointed towards the trail. Shoulder trends come and go, and you see golfers. Jordan Spieth, who plays well, arguably, we could say whatever, but he's a talented golfer, right? But he has a very weak grip. So there's no right or wrong way. Some people grip a certain way because their shoulder's frozen, they can't rotate it over. They can't do this. There is no right or wrong way. I will say one of the things that I change the least with a better player is their grip. That's one of the things I touch the least. If they're fresh, brand new golfer, we're gonna give them some guidelines and start them on a path that's not gonna have major compensations down the road. Right. But if they're like, I'm scratch, I want to get to plus three and they've got a relatively within certain range grip, I'm not gonna mess with that because they're Gonna spend four months just getting used to a new grip and waste all that time for what, half a yard here and there of dispersion control. [00:53:22] Speaker A: Well, I think your grip needs to. I think. I don't know if this is a fair thing to say or not, but for me, one of the things that's been helpful and important for me is understanding how my grip correlates to the rest of the swing. It's not necessarily knowing it has to be a weak grip, strong grip, two knuckle, three knuckle, this that. It's just understanding. This is how I grip the club and this is how it's comfortable. I'm a three knuckle. That's probably a little bit on the strong side, but that's a comfortable way. I actually reread the segment of Ben Hogan's book on the grip and tried it for five minutes and I hated it. I felt so weak. With Ben Hogan's grip, arguably the best ball striker in the history of humanity. [00:54:01] Speaker B: Very unique, but his grip just is. [00:54:04] Speaker A: I don't feel like I can even hold on to the club that much. [00:54:06] Speaker B: Well, and not only that too, but again, as you get better, you start to understand your tendencies. When I get stressed or I get under pressure, I get flippy, I get this. Tiger said he once, I forget what article was back when his heyday, he said he used a combination of 14 different grips during a round of golf to hit different shots. Right. So it's a variable and it's something you can use to manipulate. Like for me, I have a strong. I hate that term, but I have a strongish grip. But when I can't go left, oftentimes I'll weaken it a knuckle or two just so that I know it's not going to shut down on me, you know. [00:54:36] Speaker A: So I saw a cool video from Lee Trevino a while back on or just a few weeks ago on Facebook where he's talking about drawing the ball, fading the ball, and he basically says you make the exact same swing, you just change your hand grip. That's it. [00:54:46] Speaker B: Or that's a stool alignment, whatever. Yes. [00:54:48] Speaker A: I mean, well, he actually specifically says you don't change your alignment. Why would you change your alignment? That's stupid as hell. Well, all you do is you just roll your hand under here a little bit. Now it's gonna hit a fade. And then he demonstrates. There's a lot of different ways to do it, I think for golfers. And one of the things I think is a theme of this is not Necessarily to tell golfers how to do it. I think there's a lot of people out there selling how to do it. And I think what if, you know, if I'm trying to high level. What our goal for the show is, it's not to tell you how to do it, is to tell you what the variables are so that you know how to, you know, if you're going to have a strong grip, this is how it's going to affect the rest of your swing. If you're going to have a weak grip, this is how it's going to affect your swing. If you aren't hydrated, this is how it's going to affect your game. If you are hydrated, this is, you know, it's not to tell you you have to do it this way, but in that process you will find some best practices that. Yeah, you. [00:55:35] Speaker B: When I coached basketball, I mean, there was the old school method, which I, I completely disagree with. And I always have elbow in 90 degree hand in the cookie jar. We talked about this last time. Jump at the top, shoot at the top, whatever. I disagree with that completely. But there's people that teach that. There's basketball players of all generations have had success with that. Reggie Miller, Clyde Drexler. Right. All these different funky shots, you know, like they still get it done, but it's working with their anatomy and what they can do consistently. And repeatable safely is always the biggest thing. To me that's not gonna cause you undue injury or stress. [00:56:10] Speaker A: So Mike's gonna work on figuring out if he's right handed or left handed. What are you gonna work on your golf? [00:56:14] Speaker B: And chill and flow and chill. [00:56:17] Speaker A: That should come naturally. You've got like a natural flow and chill kind of vibe to you that should not be. [00:56:21] Speaker B: But isn't that funny how golf changes everything we think we know about ourselves? [00:56:25] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. [00:56:26] Speaker C: It's a combination of mental, physical. You know, we've referenced baseball, but that was something that came easier for me. Hitting, hitting the ball. And so there's like, I should be able to dictate where I want to hit this ball because that was something that came easy to me. And so, yeah, it's just love, hate, relationship. [00:56:50] Speaker B: So really good athletes in other sports make some of the worst golf students. I'm not saying you're a bad golf student, but like, when I'm interviewing someone to work with them, they're like, oh, I was a college baseball player. I was a college. Like the hard part is not that they have an ego. It's that it's overcoming that this is a brand new game. You've never done this before. And it's completely different from all the hours and years and reps you spent doing basketball, baseball, whatever, because the expectation is I was great at that. I should be good at this. Jesse lebron James just posted a video where he was trying golf. Now, like, he's trying to get better at it. He's arguably the greatest longevity athlete of all time, physically, stats, whatever. I'm not gonna get into Michael Jordan. We're all Michael Jordan kids. Right? But like, but he's not just gonna pick up golf. [00:57:33] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:34] Speaker B: You know what I mean? Steph Curry's one of the rare ones with that, but he's been playing golf since he was young too, you know, so really good athletes. [00:57:43] Speaker C: Well, I think that's why I committed a couple years ago to the left handed because I was like, I have so many preconceived, pre programmed body mechanic things right handed. [00:57:56] Speaker A: And. [00:57:56] Speaker C: And I was like, well, I'm just gonna commit to it. [00:58:00] Speaker A: Yeah, well, it's. I mean, you can obviously be successful playing with your offhand. Phil Mickelson is naturally right handed. A lot of people don't realize that he is naturally a right handed person, but he plays golf left handed because. Oh, you didn't know that. He learned the game only because his dad was a golf pro and he watched his dad swing and he mirrored it. Yeah, no, dad was righty, but he was mirroring, so he learned to play it that way. [00:58:25] Speaker B: That's cool. [00:58:26] Speaker A: So you can get by playing with your offhand. And in some ways, I've often wondered if I'd be better left handed because I've got so many bad habits ingrained right handed. I can start over, but. [00:58:38] Speaker B: Well, but no, but then you got to do the whole 10,000. Whatever the concept, you know, it's just practicing and yeah, your brain's got to see the shot from a different side of the ball. [00:58:46] Speaker A: It's interesting. I've heard this saying, I don't know where it was from originally, but you've either got to be really smart or really dumb to be a good golfer. Right. And to me, I fall in the very inconvenient middle ground of that where I'm smart enough to think about so many things and not dumb enough to just relax and do it. But like what you were saying, there's so many things that I've learned of just, just relax. And I know you said let the club, do the work is kind of a cliche and it is. It's, you know, that doesn't necessarily tell you anything, but there are so many things about the golf swing in the golf game that are counterintuitive, that you just gotta get out of your way. Just hit the ball. And as the book says, it's not a game of perfect. Don't let perfect get in the way of progress. Right. Just hit it where you can find it and go do it again. And if it doesn't add up to a four, it doesn't add up to a four. You go play again. [00:59:34] Speaker B: And I think a lot of people, too, would do well to do an experiment where they just take six clubs, even four clubs, a driver, a seven iron, a putter, and a wedge of some kind, and just figure out, how do I get around the golf course just using what I've got? I guarantee you this is not a flex or a brag or whatever, but I could break 90 with three clubs. Just give me a seven wood, a pitching wedge or a lob wedge and a putter. I will figure it out because the ball will stay in play. I will reframe from par fours to par fives, from par threes to par fours, from par fives, five, six is. And I'll play bogey golf. Yeah, right. I don't have to have the most. [01:00:12] Speaker A: And you'll see and make a five on a par five. [01:00:15] Speaker B: You don't have to have insane talent to advance the ball down a fairway. Like, oh, you don't have to have all the shots to break 90. You have to have all the shots to break it. You have to make consistent contact and have the ball go in a somewhat general direction. But you don't have to be like semi ballesteros. You just got to move it 150 yards at a time that way and not blow up on the green. [01:00:36] Speaker A: When I was in high school, one of our. We had. [01:00:38] Speaker B: I know it's easier said than done, right? Like, but it's the whole make contact part that's the thing that has that first. [01:00:42] Speaker A: Yeah. When I was playing high school golf, our assistant coach was one of the best golfers in our county. Really good player. And in the early months of the season, we were just kind of getting, you know, rust knocked off, whatever. That was his thing. He would go out and play nine holes with us with a putter, five iron and pitching wedge, I think, and it was awesome. And I was. I mean, I was a hot shot, you know, freshman, sophomore, coming in. Like, I was on conference all four years. I Don't think I ever beat him in four years of him playing with three clubs because, and the funny thing is I have beat him when he had all 14, but when he just had the three, I don't think I ever beat him. [01:01:15] Speaker B: Well, and like, and I know we talked about technique a little bit and I know we said we weren't going to go down the technique rabbit hole, but these were just general concepts of what does impact look like. But my point is, so many people who become top tier golfers didn't have instruction growing up. They said, how do I make the ball do what I want it to do? How big of a curve can it make it go this way? Well, what do I do to make that happen? How big can I make? How to make it go high, how to make it go low? You give a task, you give a goal and let the body and the brain figure out a way. Not saying it's gonna be the most efficient, not saying it's the most perfect, but like that creative space you learn so much in, you can learn so much about proprioception, your body, your brain, your mental side of things. And what a lot of people will find or myself included is like if just the swing thoughts techniques are not going, I go out of that into pure creative mode. I'm going to hit a 30 yard hook into the screen and then your brain locks into the goal and your body does it because you got a clear picture and you're focused. So people, rather than working so much on the latest swing tip on Instagram, go out there and figure out how to do something stuff. [01:02:20] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, it's fun. I love going to the driving range of my 10 year old daughter and she'll, she's got the attention span, I like to hit about maybe 30, 40 balls. But at the end she always gives me the last 15 or 20 of her bucket and the first thing she always wants me to do is hit driver. She loves to watch me hit driver because I can literally hit it out of her sight and she thinks that's the coolest thing ever. That's great for my ego. I appreciate that. But the next thing that I've started doing with her is saying, okay, tell me what you want to hit. What do you want do me to high draw, high fade, low call, low fade, you know, draw low fade and go through the whole tic tac toe board and you know, and having somebody to tell you to do that. To me, it's kind of a way to show off to my daughter like look what all I can do. [01:03:01] Speaker B: Me and a buddy did this before, and I do this with a lot of my students sometimes, too. So I was messing around at Lonnie one day. Chase Duncan was in there floating around with something, and I was like, hey, man, when was the last time you hit a golf ball? He's like, ah, it's been a long time. I was like, well, I'm gonna give you a chance. And she's like, fine, whatever. Turned the launch monitor. And I said, I'm gonna call a shot at the top of your backswing, and you gotta hit it. So literally, he gets here, and I go, lo. Fate, wap. He gets here, I go, hydra, right? And we played this game with each other where we each would do it. And it's like. It shows you that if you just give your brain a task, you can figure it out. But again, you have to have established that. You have to have done it enough times if they've done the reps. That's a fun one. [01:03:42] Speaker A: That sounds really challenging to process that that quickly. [01:03:46] Speaker B: It also gets you more reaction. Yeah, we can do it sometime. It's a lot of fun. [01:03:50] Speaker A: That would be a lot of fun. Yeah. I think there's. When I was taking lessons from the guy, Rick Murphy was the teacher that I went to in Greensboro. One of the. He's got a lot of accolades and all that kind of stuff, but I enjoyed working with him. And I think there's something to this for any teachers out there. But he was great at. He knew I was a head case. Like, he. And he would. And you were kind of. You were good at this, too. Like, he was really good at, like, when's the last date you've been on? And I would talk about it and say, oh, what was she like? Oh, she was cute, blonde, blah, blah, blah. Oh, are you gonna see her again? And I wouldn't really pay attention to the fact, but I would, like, strike 10 in a row, you know? And finally he would. He would say, okay. And then he would go back sometimes, like a mechanical thing, just to watch me screw up, just so he can make the point of, like, you didn't miss when we were talking about the blonde. Like, why are you missing, like, what's. You know. But one of his tricks that he would. Or one of his things that he would like to have me do it a lot of times is, okay, we're staying on the driving range here. I want you to hit a four iron over that tree on the right side of the driving range. That's you know, 125 yards away. It's like, I can't hit it that high, that fast. He's like, well, if you're on a golf course, he's gonna do it. [01:04:57] Speaker B: You know, that's right. [01:04:59] Speaker A: So no. [01:04:59] Speaker B: Yeah, but I think, well, the visualization part of it, you commit to something, your brain gets that picture. [01:05:03] Speaker A: But I think for a lot of players, I mean, and the people we're talking to generally are. We're not probably getting Rory paying attention to our show. Right. So we don't always have somebody there to tell us these things. We have to be our own coach. So for me, I struggle a lot with. I'm gonna. Okay, I go in, I'm practice today. I've got my schedule out. I'm gonna practice this for 20 minutes and I'm gonna do this for five and this. And then I get off on a tangent really quick and I don't stick to it. So how important. I mean, how do you do that when you're practicing? Like, how do you stick to that plan and not get it goes back to working out? [01:05:39] Speaker B: If I wr down, it's a map. Like, we get away from old school maps were great because you had to be engaged with the map. It wasn't just telling you. And hopefully people listen to this, will remember maps. But like, I remember when I rode a motorcycle, I would literally have to like print off the directions or write them down or whatever. And I had to track my, you know, my miles or my mileage on my odometer because I knew it was five miles after I made this turn. And then I would have to make the turn. Right. I couldn't just wait for something to tell me what to do and then figure it out. The point I was gonna make with all that is with the visualization, you have a clear picture, your brain is organized, it has a task, but then also writing it down. Now it's just a matter of accountability. Check it off. Make a checklist. Have I done my 10 reps of this? A lot of people, especially golfers, are very type A. They like to check boxes, right? Check it off. Make it a thing that you don't get to do A or B until you've done well. [01:06:34] Speaker A: The one one physical change that I've made since the last time we were. We recorded this watch right here. So me and my son were. He's wanting to get into working out and he told me I needed to work out with him, which for me is committing to a three mile walk. I Did listen to your advice. I'm not gonna go digging just a three mile walk every day. And this. I dug out my Apple watch just because this stupid thing reminds me every single day, get up and walk. You haven't done it yet. You haven't done. And. And it. Man, it feels great to see those rings closed at the end of the day. It's almost embarrassing how much satisfaction you get from just seeing. [01:07:06] Speaker B: Well, they did their research. They know that motivated people. That's why they did it. [01:07:09] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And. But you're right, we don't do that a lot of times as golfers. And it's. And it's funny as crap to me. We sit here and do a podcast about something, and then two days later, I'm not doing the things that we talked about. That's what I love the most. When I started podcast, and the very first podcast I started was my pastor and we talk about something and it was never failed. Two days later, I would fail at whatever it was we had just talked about. I wasn't even listening to my own advice. And I'm doing the same thing for this too. Right? I mean, we sit here and we talk about these things we need to do, and then I don't go out and do them. At the very next round of golf I played. I made it four holes before the guy I was playing with had beer, and he's like, you want a beer? I was like, hell yeah. Yeah, dude. [01:07:46] Speaker B: Stone cold sea ball said, crap, let's go. No, but right after you talked about your pastor, you might cut this back in. Because it was something I was gonna say related to the mental head case thing you were talking about. I was working with a young guy and we had gone through like three lessons. And the final one was a nine hole playing lesson or 18 hole playing lesson. And some of this stuff you can't learn as a coach until you see them in the actual field of play. [01:08:09] Speaker A: Sure. [01:08:10] Speaker B: How someone lines up in a simulator is not how they line up on the actual golf course. How someone goes throughout the pre shot routine is not how they do it in real life. And I told him, I said, I'm just gonna watch you play the first three holes. I'm gonna be taking my own mental notes. You do your normal thing. The guy would take like 90 seconds to hit a shot. [01:08:26] Speaker A: Wow. [01:08:27] Speaker B: And I was like, dude, let me guess. Your girlfriend tells you you think too much, you overthink things. He was like, how did you know? I was like, lucky guess. So basically what I told him was, hey man, I'm gonna tell you what shot to hit. You've got 30 seconds from the time you get out the cart, grab your club to hit it. If you don't, I'm adding two strokes to your score for every shot. [01:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:46] Speaker B: So now he's like crap, I just better do it, you know, as he walks the dude. Start par par, brogy. Birdie, par par. So the mental is a huge part of it. Right. But we need to be cognizant of where we struggle and what our flaws are. But then yes, you have to do something about it. That's the hardest part. [01:09:02] Speaker A: When I grew up, I grew up playing by myself at little uni courses. I never had to wait. Right. I was out there in non peak hours, 8am to 5pm through the week and I got in the habit. I could play 18 holes in two and a half hours with a card. [01:09:15] Speaker B: That's awesome. [01:09:16] Speaker A: Now when I'm on a golf course and I have to wait, golly, I hate it. But the best golf I ever play, I love it when I get out there and it's about 6:30 this time of year and I've got just really bust my butt to see if I can get 18 in before dark. You know, I mean that's, it's a really. You have to play speed golf. I always play. Great then because I don't have time to think. [01:09:33] Speaker B: You don't have to dwell on a bad shot. [01:09:34] Speaker A: That's it. [01:09:35] Speaker B: Well, we're on to the next tee box. That's right. There's no dwelling, there's no I. I have to move on. [01:09:41] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:09:41] Speaker B: Otherwise I can't hit the next shot. Yes, 100%. [01:09:43] Speaker A: And for me the only way that I can can. You can't make a five hour round go by in two and a half hours. Right. The only way I've got to almost go into a round with some type of a predetermined. This is what I'm going to spend my extra two and a half hours, three hours doing and make sure that it's something that's productive and proactive and helping my golf game and not something that's sitting there thinking about the 13th hole and how I'm going to birdie that par five when I'm waiting on the second tee box. [01:10:08] Speaker B: That's why I do think there's something to say about playing golf with people you like to play golf with. Because you can chat about life. You can chat and have fun about other things. You can rib them and tease them. Or whatever. But, like, so one of the things I do, obviously, is I like to invest in other people's games when I'm playing with them, so that when I'm not hitting, at least my brain is not. And I didn't do a good job of this last time. But, like, I'll talk to them. I'm a people person. I love to talk to them about their lives. What are they dealing with? What are they going through, like, in their golf game, what do they want to work on? Because now I'm like, for when it's not my turn to hit, my brain is not wandering to all the other stuff that's happening, right then I can focus on other people. And that's what I love to do. And so it's whatever your hack is. The modern kid goes to their phone and plays games on their phone or goes to their Instagram. It's anything to. [01:10:52] Speaker A: I mean, I even have taken my computer out there and thought, well, I can do some podcast editing while I'm waiting, or whatever. I mean, that's not the best example. You can't do that in tournament play or anything like that. But, you know, I don't think you did a bad job when we played together. I mean, it's funny, you and I have only played about six holes together after that time I caught you and we played it out. But, I mean, we still spend enough time talking to one another and getting to know one another that we ended up here doing this thing. So you were not impersonable that day, and that was. [01:11:17] Speaker B: No, I never have. Impersonal. [01:11:18] Speaker A: That was at a time that was real. That's an easy time to be clammed up. And that's. Everybody has got something in their mind, on their mind, in their lives, something that can distract them from golf. [01:11:29] Speaker B: But we play to get away from that. [01:11:31] Speaker A: It's all about how you, how you handle that. Is it, you know, is it an escape from it or is it a distraction? [01:11:36] Speaker B: Well, I think too, and I know we gotta wrap it up, but I think, too, I think too, a big problem is the pressure of paying for a round of golf. People are like, I've spent money on this. I need to play. What? Yeah, right? [01:11:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:11:49] Speaker B: And then they double, double the first two holes. And like, man, I just wasted money, right? But it's like, yeah, we've got to reframe. Why are you here? So I think. I think that's what I'm going to commit to. I'm going to commit to writing down on my scorecard at the beginning of each round for the next few times I play. Why am I here? [01:12:03] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:03] Speaker B: And I'm just going to look at that every single time I walk up to hit a shot. If I feel my mind wandering to the crap that's going on in life, I'm like, no, I gave myself these four and a half hours to escape. [01:12:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:12:15] Speaker B: That's what I came here to do. Let the score be what it is, but commit myself to saying, I need this for my mental health, to escape from everything else that's going on. And I'm damn sure not gonna ruin my mental health with this. [01:12:26] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm not gonna let my escape from it be an excuse for me to be more miserable when I finish this round of golf. Yeah. That's the worst feeling in the world when I. When I get out to the golf course and I think it's my escape. And then I end up four and a half hours later, ready to break every club in my bag. And now I'm mad. [01:12:39] Speaker B: Why are we here? [01:12:40] Speaker A: What are we doing exactly? I don't know what I'm committing to. I think my biggest commitment right now is that I'm committed to losing £15 in the next. Whatever, £2 a week. So about eight weeks. I'm trying to. I'd like to lose because I really. I don't know. It's on the high side. Yeah, I've done it before. I'd like to see myself back to my. My fighting weight by the end of summer. [01:13:00] Speaker B: You turn 40 next year. [01:13:01] Speaker A: What's that? I turn 40 in about three months. Four months. [01:13:04] Speaker B: Nice. I'm the same way. I said when I turn 40 next year, I want to be shredded. Like, I want to be. Like, I'm not gonna be back. It used to be. Well, but we're similar. We want to. We have some physical. [01:13:13] Speaker A: I'd like to be. I'd like to be for two reasons. Number one, I want to test my hypothesis that'll help me hit the ball further because I do feel like I have a better understanding of what creates power now. And now that I'm not trying to overpower the golf ball, I think being a little trimmer will help with that. But the other side, I'm positive that I'll feel better after 18 holes if I could be a little trim. [01:13:31] Speaker B: Okay. [01:13:31] Speaker C: What size shirt are you currently? [01:13:33] Speaker A: I think this would be a medium, but it's a baggy medium. [01:13:36] Speaker C: All right, so buy a small, hang it up in the front of your closet, and wear it around the house. [01:13:44] Speaker A: Until let that motion shame yourself. [01:13:47] Speaker B: Wear it when you eat dinner. [01:13:48] Speaker A: I bought a great. I was walking through Target one day. I tucked that shirt in. I saw a shirt at Target. I can't remember what it said exactly, but it was something like coffee, Whiskey, repeat or something. I can't remember what it was, but it was some really cool shirt that they only had in a small. So I bought it as motivation. I'm gonna buy this. I can't wear it right now. I still have not Put that thing on. It was years ago. I say the biggest motivator I have is that I have every. I have a whole wardrobe that's appropriate that I fit into when I weigh, you know, 165 to 175. [01:14:22] Speaker B: Yep. [01:14:22] Speaker A: And I only have about three shirts that I can wear the rest of the time. That's why you seem to be wearing the same stuff over and over right now. So my motivation is I don't wanna go shopping for new clothes. If I can just get. Get back to my fighting weight. Then I was say, I have a job. [01:14:36] Speaker B: I have a picture of myself at 30. That is my motivation. I got 10 years. Right. A lot happens. But I have it. And I have it saved to my favorites because I'm like, nope, this is, this is what I want to be again. But it's the same clothes or whatever. You have a picture, right? And that's like, that's what I want to be. [01:14:50] Speaker A: So I'll be totally honest too. One of my motivations is I'd like to date again at some point. But I ain't going out like this. I'm really not. I mean, I'm not taking pictures from my profile. To put like this, that was me at 30. Wow. Totally. You guys send me that so I can put that on screen during this too. Do it before and after in reverse. This is me now. [01:15:07] Speaker B: This is 40 or whatever. [01:15:09] Speaker A: 47. [01:15:10] Speaker B: 30 versus 40. [01:15:11] Speaker A: I ought to be 40. [01:15:12] Speaker C: I'm 49. [01:15:13] Speaker B: Yeah, when you be 50, you look great for 49. January. [01:15:15] Speaker A: Thanks. You really did. [01:15:16] Speaker B: I know. [01:15:17] Speaker A: If you hadn't told me you did. It wasn't that long ago that you told me you're 49. I didn't believe it. Like I didn't know about you being that old. [01:15:23] Speaker B: And your personality is very chill and laid back. You got the A and M baseball hat. I got my A and M gigam. [01:15:29] Speaker A: You know, cool, cool 49. You're a cool, smooth 49. [01:15:33] Speaker B: It's living with those 30 year olds and his roommates. [01:15:35] Speaker A: That's right. Yeah, yeah. Full house. [01:15:37] Speaker B: That's right. [01:15:38] Speaker A: Well, cheers guys. Jordan, Cheers. [01:15:42] Speaker B: I'm done. [01:15:44] Speaker A: See y' all next time. [01:15:45] Speaker B: Hey. [01:15:49] Speaker A: Kind of zeroing in on a concept here. We'll, we'll round table it for a little while and then we'll try to to work on Mike's mechanical prospects. Mike can't decide. He's a right handed or left handed golfer. That seems to be a key first element. That's the big starting point. [01:16:03] Speaker B: Well, he's got to give it something, right? I mean, there's only a few ambidextrous golfers that I know, but yeah, you can't decide which way you're gonna play. [01:16:10] Speaker A: That's not a good start. That's not a great start. Seriously. I mean, I think we should know which side of the ball to stand on first. Sentimental starting point. [01:16:17] Speaker B: At least pick one and stick to it. But ye.