Finding Flow and Better Butt Movement

[00:00:04] Speaker A: Post shot routine is one of my favorite topics. Never heard me that one. [00:00:07] Speaker B: We should talk about that. Mine usually involves throwing something and my post shot routine takes several holes. Sometimes it's too long. [00:00:21] Speaker C: Sometimes you want the hole that you ladder. [00:00:25] Speaker B: A little bit is better than nada. A little bit or nothing at all. [00:00:38] Speaker A: It's been a good last two weeks, so I don't know if you want to start off with just generic check ins and golf stuff, but whatever. So, yeah, so I played match play, me and my buddy Joe, Round one, President's Cup. So it's best ball match play, right? And we were kind of upset at our first round draw because we had to play a 24 and a 13. So we were going to have to give up shots literally on every single hole, sometimes two on a hole. And my buddy texts me, he goes, did you see our first round match? I was like, no. He goes, it was fun while it lasted. We're like, we're already done, you know, because I was playing off zero and he was getting like three shots. Yeah, that's it. So, but the, the good news is we got there and I sent my buddy Pantera's domination. I said, this is our theme song for match play. Like, we're nice guys, but let's kill. You know what I mean? And he was like, yeah, let's do it. And anyway, I wrote down the scorecard. We talked about it last time. I wrote down commit or compete, have fun. That's what I wrote down, you know, and literally I just thought about that, thought about that, focused on that. When I felt myself trying to slip to like, want to go help them and be friendly with them, I was like, no, compete, compete, compete. That's what I'm here to do. Anyway, we got up six on them on the front nine. We're up six. [00:01:50] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:01:50] Speaker A: So we get to the back, start to go the turn, and they like, do we even have to keep playing? And I was like, well, we should probably finish it, like just because for the points and everything like this, or just for the tournament bracket to make sure it looks legit. And it's not like y' all just gave us the match on like a bye or something like that. And we visit Riverwood. We played Deer and then Riverview. I was probably one over on Deer and my partner was probably five or six over. So we played good. [00:02:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:19] Speaker A: And then we get to number 10, number one of river, number the 10th hole. He and I both make birdie and we're like, we got this. And then the 13, that's the daily hill, par five. Yep, yep. The 13 handicap makes a par, net, birdie. So we're like, okay, Ty, eight holes left, we're six up. Easy money, right? [00:02:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:37] Speaker A: Then the 24 handicap goes net, birdie, net, hole in one, net, birdie, net, birdie. And we're just like, here we go. And we're like, buckle up, because, you know, I'm glad we had this lead. Ended up, I made a clutch birdie putt on the Par 5, literally the River Par 5 to seal it. But yeah, it was. [00:02:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it got intense for a minute. [00:02:59] Speaker A: That was hole. Would have been hole 15. I think we want 4 and 2 or something like that. So. But yeah, it started to get very shaky down the end because you're like. And of course the 24. Oh, just sometimes they go in, you know, and you're just like, I hate the handicapped stuff, you know, But. Because, yeah, they just start. They start coming back like a freight train. But anyway, so the whole thing of committing really helped me. I didn't let my brain wander, didn't let anything like that happen. I played with the Saturday morning group, same thing I wrote down, compete, have fun and commit. Got paired with an older lady who had also been through divorce. She started to ask me questions and I told her, I said, nope, I'm not doing this again. I said, I said, you got five minutes and that's all you got. And then I'm here to play, right? She's like, oh, fair enough. And then she actually held me accountable. She's another fiery Italian lady. And she was like, she. I started bringing up some stuff. He goes, no, shut up. You're here to play golf. And I was like, thank you, I appreciate that. And so then I ended up having a great time. I think I shot 76 or something like that. It was fun. And then I played doing the PGA junior camp all week. And on Monday and Tuesday after I played at Eagle Ridge, shot Good, good round. 75. 75, something like that. Missed a lot of putts, like just, just short, dead center. So they could have been really great rounds. Yeah, got to play with one of my students, who I'm probably gonna end up giving lessons to after the clinic. He's a 13 year old kid and I was such a treat just to play with him and his cousin, you know, it's just we had the whole golf course to ourselves. It was so fun. But yeah, no, the mental focus definitely much improved just by telling myself to write it on the scorecard and look at it and focus. So that's my positive from the last. Since the last time we met. [00:04:42] Speaker B: Well, the last time since we last met, I've finally. So we recorded two episodes and then I hadn't edited any of them. So then I went back and edited the first two episodes. Now this is a third. And going back and listening to it, it was funny to me how much of my own advice I'm not taking and following stuff like that, that's really one of the things that comes in handy for me doing this is it holds me accountable to. [00:05:06] Speaker A: It's like a journal. [00:05:07] Speaker B: Exactly. It is. It's like a journal. And so I've. I've made a few new, you know, commitments. I. We talked last time about me trying to lose weight. And actually on the last episode, talking about grip strength and stuff, I started. I did a lot on the TPI website, just checking out different videos and stuff. [00:05:23] Speaker C: You're a deep diver. [00:05:24] Speaker B: I am a deep diver. [00:05:26] Speaker A: I can apprec. [00:05:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And I started just looking at all the stuff that's out there. So I'm not sure. I can't commit necessarily to a time on it yet. I'm hoping maybe next week I might, but if not, I may have to wait till the kids get back to school. But I want to start getting to the gym and doing some different things to start to work on that. That side of it a little bit. I'm walking and trying to lose weight and I'm not. It's not working. I don't know what it is. I'm not eating as much. I'm walking like five miles a day. I've not lost a bit. I'm getting a little aggravated with that. [00:05:55] Speaker A: But anyway, he needs some strength training in there. [00:05:58] Speaker B: Apparently I need something else mixed in. [00:06:01] Speaker C: But what's your worst meal of the day? You know, breakfast, lunch, or dinner where you're most prone to. [00:06:08] Speaker B: I'm not that consistent with my eating habits, so I have add, so I take Adderall. When I take Adderall, I'm not hungry for hours. So a lot of times I'll eat breakfast knowing that I'm not gonna eat again until later. But then once it wears off, sometimes I play catch up at 9 o' clock at night and grab two double cheeseburgers. [00:06:24] Speaker A: There it Ding, ding, ding. [00:06:28] Speaker C: Double cheeseburgers at 9:00 clock at night. [00:06:31] Speaker A: Not double. Two double cheeseburgers. [00:06:34] Speaker C: Well, are you exaggerating for effect here or. [00:06:37] Speaker B: Actually, no. It's not an everyday thing, but that happens sometimes. Yesterday was totally Different. Yesterday I had chicken breast for. I had some leftover steak and chicken from the weekend, and I had a chicken breast for breakfast and a steak for lunch. Nothing else, just the meats. And then I had Philly cheesesteak from Arby's last night. So it's. [00:06:59] Speaker C: Dr. Atkins would be really proud. [00:07:01] Speaker A: I was gonna say there's been like various trends and stuff. So, like back 15 years ago is eat regular small meals throughout the day, keep the metabolism active. This, that, and the other smaller meals. [00:07:12] Speaker B: That's never worked for me, by the way. I've always been more of a big meal twice a day kind of thing. [00:07:16] Speaker A: And now they got the whole intermittent fasting and then ketosis and everything like that. Yeah. And that seems to have some merit if it's fits your lifestyle and you can commit to it. Right. Like that. But that's the thing is if it's always up and down like this and yeah, it's hard to know if it's going to work or not. You have to really. Do you know anything about the intermittent fasting ketosis? Like, you have to be in that for quite some time. Don't you, like, committed to that for it to really change the chemistry? [00:07:42] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, I've worked with some people that do it and they have a whole. There's like an app for everything. [00:07:50] Speaker B: Right. [00:07:51] Speaker C: And it'll just tell them how long they're going to fast. I've had clients do it and coworkers do it for me. I just stopped snacking. I was a big snacker. And like you said, there's a million different diets out there, because some work, some for people and some don't. But I've had clients that do really well on intermittent fasting. I'm an emotional eater. [00:08:15] Speaker B: Okay. [00:08:16] Speaker C: And so that's. The intermittent fasting thing is good for me because I'm like, I am sad right now or I'm anxious right now and I want to eat. But if I know that I'm not eating again for four more hours, then I'm like, okay, well then what else? What am I gonna do with that? Those emotions that I'm. That I'm dealing with right now. So, yeah, I think it works. [00:08:42] Speaker A: Makes you owned a little more versus just eating it away. Yeah. [00:08:45] Speaker C: Cause I would just eat, you know, when my kids were younger, whatever they didn't finish on their plate, I would just eat. And to the point where they would make fun of. [00:08:53] Speaker A: Of me. [00:08:53] Speaker C: They're like, dad, don't. Please put that in a container. [00:08:56] Speaker B: I want to eat it later. [00:08:58] Speaker C: I would just, you know, I was shoveling food and I was still married and it was like stress eating. [00:09:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:03] Speaker C: And yeah, the quickest way to lose weight is to get separated and divorced. I dropped 25 pounds. The head pro at McGregor was like, he hadn't seen me in several months and he's like, are you okay? Are you sick? No, I just going through a divorce. [00:09:24] Speaker A: Well, what I was gonna say was I do the intermittent fasting too, to a certain extent during like the school year, the academic year, because it's easy for me to wake up in the morning and just have coffee until about lunchtime and then I have my lunchbox ready to go and then I eat. But even if you're like a big meal in the evening type of type of guy, you could still do that for the intermittent fasting and work really well because there's really only so much your stomach can hold. Right. So that's what really helps a lot of people is that it's hard for them to overeat because they get full. Right. The problem is what you. So like, if you just say load it up with protein instead of the double bacon cheeseburger, whatever, just treat yourself to like a nice steak or two chicken breasts. [00:10:07] Speaker B: Double bacon cheeseburger has a lot of protein. There's a cheeseburger. [00:10:10] Speaker A: There's the other part of it. [00:10:12] Speaker B: I mean, I don't understand the problem with that. Just for being honest, instead of, instead of four buns, just eat two. Yeah. [00:10:19] Speaker A: Lettuce wrap, cut the buns and the. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, like, yeah, I mean, if you just load it up with heavy protein and then veggies and some other form of low calorie carb fruits and veggies, I mean, you can't go wrong with that. [00:10:33] Speaker B: So it's just displaying. The summer has been chaotic. The kids are out for school and it's just been a chaotic time. I'm looking forward. I mean, I enjoy the time with them, but when they go back to school and I have an actual routine again, it'll be a lot easier. And I do want to start. I'm not going to go back to the gym and just like try to kill myself an hour a day. But I do think that I can. Can find. TPI has a lot of good things that are. They're flexibility and mobility, but they're all specifically geared towards golf. So they're not necessarily difficult and strenuous, but they train your body how to do it. They're almost just like golf Drills in some ways that you can mix into the workout. So I'm kind of putting together exactly how I want that to do. But I do want to do weighted carries, farmer carries, things like that. And also deadlifting with the fat grips, trying to do some grip strength stuff. I'm excited about the deadlift with the fat grips because you can't really. It can't be too taxing on your back and glutes and all that stuff because you're limited by the grip strength, which I think is one of my weak areas anyway, so gonna implement that. But I've been working really hard on trying to be more disciplined in my practice. And not just. I go into practice all the time and it'll. I always have a plan and it gets derailed very quickly and it just turns into an hour of me just ripping eight irons as hard as I can, which is stupid. It's not. So I've been trying really hard to not get fixated and stay fixated on one swing thought for too long. You know, maybe a couple of balls with on one area and then maybe a couple of balls on something else. I was mentioning you guys in the text. I've been struggling, so I'm not going to get out and play a whole lot right now. I don't have the four hours I need. But I am doing the Sully's golf league summer league. I came out firing early on. I think I tied for first the first week, won the second week, tied for first this third week and maybe tied for third the fourth week and had a huge point lead and got a little cocky probably. And the next couple of weeks I just kind of played when I wasn't really ready. But I just, you know, I needed to get the round in, so I just went ahead and played it when I wasn't ready. And I struggled this week. I tried to be a little more committed. I played a practice round first and I was really working on developing a. I don't know if I like to term is popular pre shot routine. [00:12:47] Speaker A: I love pre shot routine. [00:12:48] Speaker B: Well, I like. I know what you're. I know what it means. I actually am trying to take the pre off of it and say it doesn't. It's not just pre, it's also through the shot. It's through the execution of the shot that I'm trying to stick to this but trying to go through a very specific. I don't want to go so extreme to call it meditation, but it is something that I'm trying to do. To take to put myself in a particular mindset for this 25, 30 seconds. And I actually spent an entire session videoing me. Not the entire session wasn't videoing it, but videoing the routine to time it out and see how long does it take. And these things to make sure I'm not going to end up being, you know, a slow player as a result of it. But I did that and shot 34 yesterday, which I don't know what that'll stack up. That's usually right in the ballpark of winning. So I was getting back and it was a 34. That could have been a really good number. I left two putts literally like on. [00:13:43] Speaker A: The edge ring of the gimme circle. [00:13:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And also had a. I had a two stroke penalty that I. When I watched the ball flying through the air on the monitor, I thought it was perfect. I didn't realize that that was too aggressive of a line to clear the water. And when it, you know, you see the shot to start with and then it zooms into the landing and I see the landing, I'm like, whoa, water. No, I didn't know that was in play. And it's a 350 yard hole and because of the angle that it crossed that I ended up having to re tee. So instead of being 50 yards from. [00:14:14] Speaker A: The green, it was like straight over water from. It was tee shot. Yeah. [00:14:17] Speaker B: And I'm not sure that I agree with the sim. I thought it curved in and should have crossed further down. But anyway, push draw. Yeah. So anyway. But I had to re tee. But I did. I was proud of the way I gathered it up though, because I hit three it off the deck to 50 yards, hit it to, you know, inside the gimme circle and save five. And then I had two holes that I had 50 yards in, missed the green and didn't get up and down. And that's in both of those. I actually thought I hit good shots in. I just misjudged how hard to hit it, I guess. [00:14:49] Speaker A: So. [00:14:49] Speaker B: I mean, it was a round that could have been 30, 31, 32. So I was pleased with that and trying to do a better job of when I practice not just going in there, just wailing at it and getting myself derailed. Keep it to a couple of swing thoughts at a time. [00:15:03] Speaker A: Yeah. So I was going to ask you several things. We can deep dive on pre shot routine. Post shot routine is one of my favorite topics. [00:15:11] Speaker B: Never heard of that one. We should talk about that. Mine usually involves throwing something. And for a Little while. [00:15:18] Speaker A: I want to have a routine so. [00:15:22] Speaker B: Everyone has got their thing. [00:15:24] Speaker A: But just before I forget, so pre shot, post shot routine. And then also you talked about meditation or mindfulness or getting into the flow of the shot or whatever. I had this idea the other day for a study I might do, and I could get it published and everything. But you know how, like, actors, some. Some people who do acting, high level acting, whether it's theater, drama, Hollywood or whatever, they actually have stutters in real life. Like, there's people out there who stutter, but as soon as they go into their acting character mode, the stutter disappears. [00:15:54] Speaker B: Wow. [00:15:54] Speaker A: Right. So there's something about the brain triggering mechanism that shuts off, that disconnect, that whatever the wire is not connecting, it turns that off and finds another route. And I had this idea, and it goes into kind of just mindfulness or visualization. But what if. And you have to have the skill to do this, too. Like, you have to be a decent player to do this. Otherwise you can. Like, I could think I can lift 600 pounds, but it's not happening now. Right? Like, so there's. There's a balance to this. But I was thinking, what about, like, when players get into the zone or they want to try to get in the zone? What if they just told themselves, I'm playing a role? I'm Tiger Woods. I'm the best golfer on the planet right now. You know, like those times where you walk up to a putt, you're like, I know this is going in. It's like, I know I'm gonna make this. Yeah, and you make it, right. Like, I'm wondering if there's something that you can hack. I'm wondering if there's, like, a psychological hack that can be made. [00:16:44] Speaker B: We should definitely figure this out. This sounds like a very powerful tool to have. [00:16:47] Speaker A: You know what I'm talking about, though? Like, I experimented with it for a little while the other day. If I didn't feel comfortable over a shot, I was like, I'm Tiger woods, baby. Like, I can do this. You know, I've done this a million times. Go up there and hit it, you know, And. [00:16:59] Speaker B: Well, there's a lot of things I remember watching. Years. This has been back when you and I were working together, probably. But seeing something about, first of all, visualizing the shot and the way it was described as like, imagining a shot tracer type thing. And that was kind of effective for me. But then I also started thinking about, during my swing, trying to envision Rory's swing Or whoever's swing. And it was interesting to. You put it on video. And a lot of times I made a lot better mechanical swings. Trying to think about almost in your mind's eye, seeing yourself swing the club the way you want to swing it. And to some extent, I still do that. And when you. We've all had those putts or those shots that you just. You just know it's predestined you're going to make it. You don't know how to. You know how to describe it, but I had a felt like that in high school. I was in the regionals, and the rule of thumb was you break 80 and you're gonna get in to the States. That was. And the first year I shot 77 and missed it. So the next year, it was a little harder course. And it was funny the way it played out, because the last two holes that we finished up 17 was a par five, and I hit it 30ft. And I'm thinking, just two, putt this and make your birdie par the last one you should be in. And. But I just. I just stood over it, and I knew. I saw the exact line, and it was perfect and drained it. And I'm like, okay, I got a shot cushion now, part of the last hole. I hit it 30ft, knock it in. Same kind of feeling. And that got me into a playoff. So it turns out that I needed to make those 230, you know, the eagle birdie finish, making 60ft worth of putts to get to the playoff. And I got in. But that's the one memory that I always kind of draw off of in there, is that you just have those times that I can't replicate it, but you can just for some reason. It's like, you see a little cheater. [00:18:40] Speaker A: Code on the ground, it's gonna be a good shot. [00:18:43] Speaker B: And, yeah, I wish we could figure out what that is, what the hack is. [00:18:47] Speaker A: Well, and it's funny, too, because that mash putt that we had, the birdie putt I hit, that closed it out. The 24 handicap, just bumbling and stumbling. Nice guy. But he's like, right as I'm about to hit my birdie putt, he's like, you want to hear something sad? I was like, after I make this birdie putt, yeah, you can tell me all you want. And then I made the birdie putt, right? [00:19:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:05] Speaker A: But, yeah, there was actually a study done. I've shared this with my college students where they gave, like, beginner golfers a putter and told them this is professional golfer whoever's putter. And then they just had them use a regular putter. [00:19:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:18] Speaker A: Which one do you think performed better? Yeah, the professional golfers putter. They just thought there was magic to it or something. I don't know. So there's. I don't know if it's. If it's something to the effect of it relaxes you and it calms you and it de. Stresses you, so you're not tense, you're not tight, whatever. And allows you to actually perform the movement free. Right. I don't know if that's what it is or what. I haven't done enough of a deep dive into the academic literature on the psychology of that stuff, but definitely think there's something to it. Like, there's definitely something to it. And that going to your point about pre shot, a pre shot routine, that's the trigger that can help train how to get into that more often than not or more often. [00:19:53] Speaker B: One of the things that I've. In the past when I've tried to develop pre shot routine, it's always been. I don't know how to describe it, but it's like I became so fixated on making sure I did the routine right that it tensed me up and all that. So I've been trying to be very conscious of how I'm doing it and having a. I do think it's important to have. I've done this before when I get mad on the golf course because I've had such a bad temper for so long and I knew how much it would mess me up. I would say, I have to three putt a hole. I would tell myself, you've got until a certain point to be pissed off. [00:20:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it's fine. [00:20:27] Speaker B: And if I'm walking, it's easier because I will literally look ahead and I'll say, when you cross the road, it's over. And it's funny. As soon as my foot hits the other side of it, it's like a boundary line. Okay, drop it now. [00:20:38] Speaker A: Tiger did something similar with cursing or whatever. He curse himself and be done with it. You would never had known he three putted or made a bad shot. [00:20:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And I've tried to have this. I've also had this thought of, like, okay, once I step into the batter's box, like once I'm addressing the ball, basically, that's the batter's box. And have that as a cue. But you have to have something that triggers the. Okay, now I'm in this zone, but A couple of things that I've. And I'm developing this, right. So it's not something that's a final product. I'm sure I'm gonna be tweaking on it. And it's something you have to practice. I don't think it's something you just, you know, you say, okay, this is what I'm going to do. I'm trying to make it so that when I practice, I do this routine every single shot. If I'm hitting a full golf shot, I'm going to do this routine. But one of the parts of it is I started by. When you're in water, you're in a swimming pool, your bathtub or something, you lay your head back enough that your ears are underwater, but your nose is still out, you can hear your breathing so much better. I almost close my eyes and try to take a deep breath and really feel and hear that breath, right? And that's kind of my trigger. And yesterday when I was playing around with it, I took some practice swings, especially like a little like 50 yard shots around the greens just to kind of feel how far I wanted to take it back and things like that. It's amazing how much more sensation I had in my hands of feeling that club throughout that swing with your eyes closed. Because, you know, there's studies, there's things that, you know, blind people have better hearing and deaf people may be able to see better, but you turn off one sense and the other seem to be a little heightened. So, you know, that's, that's kind of part of it. But I'm key thing of all of it is whatever I'm doing in this routine, trying to take it away from anything mechanical and trying to focus on a breathing technique or a meditation technique or whatever. Because you and I are better players. We've trained our bodies. We know how to swing a golf club, we know how to hit a good shot. We just got to get out of our body's way and let it do it, you know, and figuring out whatever you got to do to turn that part of the brain off and say, okay, just go hit a golf ball. [00:22:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So I think it all ties back in together. And you know this from weightlifting or weightlifters, professional Olympians, power lifters, they all have a routine, a trigger that sets them going. Some people get slapped across the face, some people get slapped on the back of the neck. Some people do the smelling salts, some people jump up really high twice and then they walk in, it's going into the badge box. It's the same thing. All athletes in all sports at high levels have some regimen, some routine, some trigger that happens. And what I find working with my players is most of them already have a routine. They don't realize they have a routine. Right. It's not that they don't have a routine. It's when they're not performing the routine, something's glitching them out, they're talking with their buddy, they're laughing, and all of a sudd. I haven't done my routine. You know, I have to go back and do it. And to your point, I don't think it has to be all that convoluted or complicated. I think whatever it is, it just needs to, as you said, have that trigger. And it needs to be, now I'm performing the act, now I'm getting on stage to go, this is the dress rehearsal. It's all been done. Let's go party. And what I do with a lot of students sometimes when they get too mechanical in their heads is we do that, we work on routine. And I say, I'm going to time you and I'm literally going to take a stopwatch. And from the time you, I notice what your trigger is, whether it's you tap the club on the ground or you take that first step towards the ball, I'm just gonna time you. And whether it's 20 seconds, 22 seconds, whatever I'm looking for, how consistent are they and what's the quality of shot they hit when they're close to their average? [00:23:52] Speaker B: Yeah, right. [00:23:52] Speaker A: So I might have 10 shots that are solid and I'm getting an average of it's. And it's, it's eerie how consistent the time is. [00:23:59] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:24:00] Speaker A: Like there was a video of Tiger woods when he won Sunday round of something. And they. It was either Scott Fossett or Adam Young timed every single shot he hit. And he was within half a second, I think, from start, walk towards the ball to impact. It's. I mean, that's autopilot, you know. And Tiger even said in a video I used to show for Sports Psychology, he said there would be stretches of holes, right. Blackout. And all of a sudden I wake up and I'm five under and it's the 16th hole. Yeah, right. So he's obviously performing. He's doing just the acting part of it and it's on autopilot. Yeah. So the pre shot routine, there's a lot to talk about with that. Main things you've got to figure out what's the lie, what's the yardage, what's the wind? What's your target? [00:24:43] Speaker B: And see, I think of a different category of I'm not doing that in what I'm describing as my pre shot routine. I'm doing that stuff first. [00:24:50] Speaker A: Yes. [00:24:51] Speaker B: Committing to a shot, picking my club and saying this is going to be a seven iron choke down a quarter of an inch with a five yard draw. Sometime after that is when I trigger this routine we're talking about. [00:25:01] Speaker A: What I'm saying is all of that can also be part of the routine. And you can make sure that you go through those checklists. It doesn't have to be mechanical, but. Right. People forget to check the line, people try it to check the wind. We all do it right when the rounds going good and it's like, oh. And then your ball comes up 10 yards short, like, what the heck? I hit it good. And it's like I didn't check the wind. Right. [00:25:20] Speaker B: Fascinating to me slightly. Mostly unrelated, but it is kind of. I somehow or another I got geeked out on these documentaries about disasters, especially plane crashes. I get a lot of these videos that pop up on YouTube and I'll see and it's amazing to me. I would. I don't know what the net the number is, But I bet 90% of plane crashes came from one of two things. Either a mechanical failure that was totally outside of the pilot's control or something so stupidly simple in the pre flight checklist that they completely forgot they had flaps at 10 when it should have been at zero or whatever. [00:25:49] Speaker A: Just simple little drop the ball somewhere. [00:25:51] Speaker B: That's right. And it's just one of these things that you literally learn on like day one of pilot school. And they just forgot. One of them took off on the wrong freaking Runway. They went to the wrong Runway, it was too short and they just ran off the end of it and crashed. I mean, just silly stuff that you just. But that traps you as a. I've hit, you know, wedges that I'll just, I'll soar a three quarter gap wedge over the back of the rim. Like, what in the world happened? It's like, oh, it's downhill. Crap. Downhill, absolutely. [00:26:19] Speaker A: I had a shot like that happen to me at Eagle Ridge the other day when I was playing with this student. It was 135 yards, pin was in the back and I was like, easy, it's a pitching wedge. I'm swinging well, everything's fine. There's no wind to speak of. It's a flat lie. I go up there, hit my shot. Perfect club twirl everything. I'm like, that's in the hole. Get up there. It's 15 yards long. Well, it's a blind green. You can't see the bottom of the flag stick. So I didn't know how close to the edge of the green it was. They had that thing like two paces off the back edge and it slopes down after that. So it probably hit. Pitch mark was like pin high, but it was downslope, so you couldn't stop it. So I had to play that at the middle of the green. Yeah, so that was just something stupid. I didn't check where the actual flag was. Yeah, I just shot a number and said, okay, this is the number I'm swinging. [00:27:06] Speaker B: Well, I played the noose. I think it's the last time I played, actually I played the noose. And I mean, first hole, absolutely perfect second hole, I hit a really good sandwich. It wasn't the. It wasn't perfect, but it was a really good one that I thought was going to be fine. And it was like six feet short of the green. I was like, how in the world. Well, I had shot. You know, you got the. You got to be careful about this. Nowadays you got the GPS that tells you the distance to the flag, not the center. And then. But it's just a ballpark based on front, middle, back, whatever. Number two at the noose is about 40 yards deep. So it's a lot of. [00:27:39] Speaker A: A lot of difference. [00:27:40] Speaker B: And when I shot it, save the time on the math, but basically I just miscalculated something and I should have hit it about five yards further if I wanted. I was thinking it was a very, very front pin and it was closer to middle. So just little things like that. And it's. I remember seeing a video of Phil Mickelson talking about all the different variables that affect how far a ball's gonna fly. Early morning versus late afternoon. Dampness on the ground, no dampness. All these. But he rattles them off so fast and you can just tell he's done that. He's a computer. He's done this so many times. It takes some repetition. But as you repeat the same process over and over, they do become automatic habits. [00:28:18] Speaker A: That's right. And the pros got their caddies with them to help go through all this stuff too. It's a two person job. Right. They're through the process. But as far as a trigger to start your pre shot routine, I really like deep breath, like so for mine, I want to get up so bad and go walk and show you. But I'm not going to do it. I'm going to sit right here and be a good boy, Mike. But typically, like, after I've checked everything and I'm beside the ball, it's just one practice swing and I'm walking, almost falling backwards as I do it. Just take my step back to the ball. I go behind the ball. And used to I would do just a tap, tap, tap with my club. And then when I would walk into it, but now it's just. And then I walk into it. Look at the target, one, waggle. Look at the target, two, waggle. And then we go like, that's it, you know, because all the work's been done. Now I'm just performing. It's in one, two, three. One, two, three. One, 2. Right. Now, the thing that I think is really intriguing, that most people don't even touch on is a post shot routine. [00:29:13] Speaker B: I've never even heard of it. [00:29:14] Speaker A: You never heard of a post shot routine? [00:29:15] Speaker B: I never have. [00:29:15] Speaker A: Okay. So a post shot routine essentially, to me is valuable learning time, Right? So what do most people do after they hit a less than stellar shot? They do a few different things. They toss a club, they go like this. Sigh. They're on the driving range. They grab another ball, immediately start hitting it. They've learned absolutely nothing. All they've learned is the shot didn't go the way they wanted to. Right. Now, watch your tour players, lpga, pga. After they hit a shot, it doesn't go where they want. What do they do? They might drop the club back down, check their takeaway position or do something there. But they are taking that moment to. I call it the three A's. Assess, analyze, accept. Right? So that's what I tell my students. Write it down in your scorecard, Whatever. Assess, analyze, and accept. So the assess is, I intended to hit shot A, I got shot C. Okay, I want to go 135 yards. I hit it 120. What happened? Then we go into analyze mode. Well, maybe I hit it fat. Well, maybe I'm aimed too far right. Maybe I'm aimed too far left. Whatever the case may be, okay, I've analyzed it. Now you have to go into accept mode, Let it go, because it cannot affect the next shot. And so in the analyze mode, like, that's where for me, I was talking last time about how I kept missing shots right after I would hit a shot, right? I looked down at my feet, check my stance, check my alignment with my club. Check my shoulders. I'm like, well, there you go, dummy. You're aim 20 yards right of your intended target. [00:30:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:42] Speaker A: So it only took me five or six shots before I started to realize a pattern was developing. But if I hadn't done that, I would just be like, man, what am I doing? I'm leaving the club face open. It must be stuck. I must be, whatever. But it's like, no, everything's fine. You just didn't aim properly. But I would never have learned that had I not gone through a post shot routine. Yeah, you see what I'm saying? I would have wasted the next 18 holes trying to figure out some swing technique. [00:31:02] Speaker B: My post shot routine takes several holes. Sometimes it's too long. The noose. I played the noose that I was talking about and I struggled pretty bad on the front nine. I just couldn't get it going. I was hitting pretty good shots. I just made a stupid little, you know, double cross, went out of bounds on eight and I just went through a funky stretch. But I was getting it together and still had a lot of confidence. I can save this round. And number 13, this was the most aggravated because I did, I did it. I made the right decision. It didn't work. I had 173 flag back pin 191 back to the back edge. Cannot go over this green. There's trees and woods and ob and all kinds of bad stuff behind the green. And I've been working really hard on clubbing down, taking more club, not hitting as hard. But I noticed that there is. This could be a flyer. We're in the just barely on edge of the rough and it's just sitting up enough. It could be a flyer. And I mean, I had seven iron the whole time. And at the last minute I said, now if this thing flies, I don't care how easy I hit it, I cannot go over. And if I hit the eight and it comes up short, I've got 30 yards of green for the flag. It'll be okay. It'll be a long putt. And I hit it pretty full swing for me to get an 8 iron. 173 is getting on it pretty good. And I hit it. And as soon as I hit it, I said, well, I flushed it and I did catch the flyer. So this is going to be all over it, right? And I'm looking at it, I'm thinking, I mean, just go in. I mean, it could not be any more down the center of the flagstick. Never saw that golf ball again. It Flew so far into the back of the green, it was like, about halfway there. I was like, oh, yeah, I definitely caught a flop. That might be too much. Wait, do you need to sit? You do need to sit down. Oh, crap. [00:32:53] Speaker A: Just the perfect knuckle. Yeah. [00:32:54] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a perfect. I mean, I flew it like 195 easy, if not 2. [00:32:58] Speaker A: So do it now. Go through the post shot, routine, assessment, analyze, accept. [00:33:02] Speaker B: I don't know how to. The assessment can be as long or short as you want. The assessment is, I just caught a hell of a flyer. That's all there is to say about it. [00:33:10] Speaker A: That's all there is. [00:33:11] Speaker B: And that sucks. And sometimes crappy breaks cost you two shots, Right? So analyze, assess, analyze, and accept. So I just gotta accept. Well, I've accepted now. [00:33:23] Speaker A: Three months ago. The thing is, people think they've only gotta do it on a portion. You do it on every shot, good shots, bad shots. Because on the good shots, you're learning and you're ingraining. Okay. What I intended do worked, right? Pitching wedge does go this far. Yeah, right. The swing takeaway that I'm working on is producing the result I want. And then you accept, like, cool, good shot, and then you move on. But you still don't. You don't dwell on the positive of it too long either. You just move on to the next shot. But again, the whole thing is just getting into a routine. Because the worst thing that happens to golfers, again, is they hit that shot that they think should be perfect, and then they just dwell on it. Like, we. We played one day. Who are we playing with? It was some tournament. We were playing it. This guy was just miserable. I mean, and like, if he didn't hit a solid shot on one hole, right. That just didn't work out. Well. We heard about it for four straight holes. [00:34:12] Speaker B: You guys believe that? [00:34:13] Speaker A: Last minute we're like, yeah, man, we remember. We heard it. We saw it. You hit a great shot, didn't work out. Why are you still upset about it? You know, but that's. You can't play golf. It's too challenging a game if your mentals are not in it as well. I know. I'm prime example of that, right? So just little things like that. It's very simple. Assess, analyze, accept. Just little reminders. Get out of your head, you know, or stay in your head for the right period of time and then get out of it. [00:34:39] Speaker B: Yeah, Mike, I saw a video the other day. You'll appreciate the pitcher, and he's got an O2 count. And then he throws three strikes in a row that are on the edge that the umpire calls a ball and he goes to a three two. And he ends up fouling a couple off. And this thing ends up playing out enough that the batter fouls off a couple pitches. Then he hits a little weak dribbler that gets through the first second base gap. And then the next play, that. The next one was a shallow. It was a slow grounder in the infield, which was enough to get the. It was slow enough that the runner was able to score. They lose the lead. All this stuff from this is two outs in the inning, too. Yeah. All of this should have never happened because he's thrown three strikes. He threw five strikes before he walked and got. You know, and it happens in all sports where you've got. You've done everything. You had to have that in baseball occasionally, too, where you just. You do it everything by the book the way you're supposed to do it. You just don't want to. [00:35:36] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, you hear it, you know, just in interviews with golfers and baseball players. Like, I made the right pitch. I didn't get the right results. And for people that are going to be good long term, you can't be results oriented. And I was watching a game yesterday. It was Twins, Dodgers. The Dodgers have the highest payroll in baseball by $100 million. And they're playing the Twins, who are probably, you know, in the bottom half. They have the game won. It's the bottom of the ninth. They decide to walk Ohtani to get to a replacement player who had replaced a really good hitter. But this guy is a rookie. He walks him. He can't throw him a strike. The guy's going up there. The coach is like, do not swing because they have Freddie Freeman on deck. [00:36:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:32] Speaker C: All this guy has to do is just basically make this guy put it in play. He's overmatched. [00:36:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:38] Speaker C: And he walks him. And he couldn't run to first base fast enough. He gets Freeman down, O2, O2. Bounces the ball. He's not going to, you know, he bounces it two feet in front of the plate. It's base, is loaded, but he's still got him down one ball, two strikes, like, throw something on the edges. Try to get him to chase. You're still in a good pitcher's count. He throws it center, cut right down the middle. Freddy hits a line drive to the left fielder, who dives. Should have caught it for the last out. That should have been the third out. But he threw a cookie right down the middle, you know? But anyway, how do you get. How do you get over that? It's just. You can't. You have to have a short memory, whatever you want to call it, whether you. Like you said earlier, when you step past the sidewalk, you know, you just. You. But yeah, I just listen to you guys talk. I was thinking about. I've had these conversations with people and heard professionals talking about they have an alter ego, right? They even have a different name. They even, like, they even give their alt. Their Persona a name. And I was having a conversation like I even have one. Cause I'm not a very good golfer. And I gave myself the nickname Billy. Billy the Kid. Mike's not a good golfer, but Billy is good. Billy can hit that shot. And every once in a while, I'll think, yeah, Billy, Billy, Billy can make this shot. [00:38:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:38:10] Speaker C: So it's funny. I just piggyback on what you're saying, Tony, whether it's an alter ego or just how to. The pre shot routine. You know, my dad was a competitive marksman. He was a police officer, and I mean, his office littered with medals and trophies. And I used to think when I would go shooting with him or even on my own, I'd be like, I am the son of Steve Hendricks, who was an amazing marksman, and I would have that Persona. Like, I can do it because he did it. And that's in the bloodlines. [00:38:49] Speaker A: That's cool. [00:38:49] Speaker B: Yeah. And baseball, it's a little bit. A little different because it's more. Slightly more reactive, especially batting. Pitching, you're maybe the proactive one, but in batting, you're reactive. And I think in a lot of ways, that's an advantage in sports is when you. When you can be reactive. How many good basketball players can't shoot a free throw? Or, you know, when you're the one who has to initiate, they talk about that. Rotella talks about that. And golf is not a game of perfect. And to some extent, I'm even trying to play around with little things in practice to make myself more reactive. I know a lot of good players. Chase Duncan might even talk about this. Initiating the backswing by shifting weight to the left first. That's kind of how he. How some people will do the forward press right is they start neutral, and then they put their weight on their left as that trigger to start the backswing. I was playing around with that today. I didn't. I've never liked it. It's never felt natural to me. But I am trying to incorporate swing thoughts that are initiating an athletic sequence rather than trying to think about set your hands at this angle and turn. I mean, like, it's fascinating to me how many. Some of my takeaway and trying to work on my takeaway, and I'm not 100% sure that I'm not setting my hands too much, that I'm just setting my hands so much that I'm starting to do a roll in that process. [00:40:07] Speaker C: You know, you took a little adjustment, and then over time, it becomes exaggerated. [00:40:12] Speaker B: Well, because I've always exaggerated movements to try to train myself the right way to do it. And I think, honestly, my takeaway is not that bad. I think it needs to be. I just need to set it that much. That much is what I'm on. But I'm trying to set it like this, you know, and then I whacks up the whole rest of the swing. [00:40:30] Speaker A: Asking for a mile to get an inch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's different philosophies on that, too. I've got some. Some good buddies who are instructors who say they think exaggeration is terrible because all you're doing is training an incorrect feel. [00:40:42] Speaker B: That's right. [00:40:42] Speaker A: So there's different ways to look at it. Obviously. [00:40:46] Speaker B: One of the things I really missed about working with you is there were so many things when we were in the gym that you were. And this is what TPI does, right? And there's so many of these. That's why I geeked out on it for, like an hour that night. There are so many exercises and drills and things that you can do that to do them correct. You know, medicine ball slams are a good example of that. You know, that's a very. We all naturally pick up a ball. If we're going to slam it as hard as we can, we're going to follow a natural sequence of motions that is going to create that power. And we don't have to think about it. It's just intuitive. And the more you can learn to do that with a golf club in your hand, the more athletic, the more of these swing flaws fix themselves. Right. But taking. It's one thing to do it in the gym when you don't have a golf club in your hands. Right. But then when you get to the golf course now, you're starting to think about your target and your swing and all these different things. And it can be. It can cloud your focus. But I guess I'm trying to almost compartmentalize my practicing a little bit and say, okay, the gym is a good Place for me to practice activating the right muscles. The simulator is a good place for me to practice the execution of golf shots and maybe practicing my pre shot routine. The driving range is a good place to practice working the ball with wind, whatever your areas are. But the golf course is never the place for any of that crap. That's just a to time. [00:42:08] Speaker A: Just go try. Yeah. See what you see if what you're doing is working. See what you. You've been focused on and committed to is actually playing out right. [00:42:15] Speaker B: Yeah. I got a question for Mike real quick before I forget. I think it's a two parter. You take the first part and then you both might chime in on the second one. But you. I was on my TPI rabbit hole the other day, but. And I started thinking, I was like, I think Mike actually did this at one point. Did you try to. Am I remembering this correctly that you asked me or tried to assess me? I don't know how you would have assessed this, but basically, could I activate one glute at a time? Yeah, you did that. Okay. So I did not realize how difficult. [00:42:48] Speaker A: Was it leg bridge or what was it? [00:42:50] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, just standing there. Can you activate? [00:42:52] Speaker B: Yeah, because you. I remember you asked me to do that and I was like, yeah, it's kind of like you're doing the chest thing and you activate one pec and tie. I can't do that. And I didn't realize how hard it was to just flex one butt cheek. But it is really hard to flex just one butt cheek. [00:43:06] Speaker A: See, that's the thing though. But this is. I'm so glad you brought up butt cheeks because. No, but literally, this might be a fascinating segment. No, but it's all about proprioception. Like we. You obviously. Yeah, you obviously can use your muscles every single day. You just haven't. And most people haven't developed enough time to control individual muscles. Like my feet. Check this. I'm not getting up. I'm staying right there. [00:43:32] Speaker C: Well, you're sort of up. [00:43:33] Speaker A: So my feet is a weak part for me because I was basketball cross country runner. I had good arches, but I could never like actually curl my toes because it was just bang, bang, bang. But look what I can do now. I can flex just the big toes. [00:43:45] Speaker B: Impressive. [00:43:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And the only way I did to train this was I would sit there at night while watching TV with the kids or whatever. I'd start scrunching up socks with my toes. And then it just got to the point where I'd be standing there at work, at my stand desk. And I was like, can I activate individual toes? And I started pressing my big toe on the ground hard. Like as hard as I could. And I can freaking do whatever I want with my feet. My feet were completely turned off, shut off. And now I have better foot mobility or foot function than 90% of the population. Right. Just by focusing on doing it. [00:44:16] Speaker B: So look, intentional. [00:44:18] Speaker A: Intentionality. That's right. Same with your butt cheeks and your pecs and all that stuff. When I was a kid, I was like, you know, like, you're talking about your boys, right? And young kids and they. To walk around. I remember young Lee and I was like, can I do the pec thing like Dwayne the Rock Johnson or whoever? It's like, I can figure that out. And then the eyebrows, I learned how to do the people's eyebrow. Remember all that? Just because you focus on it, you take time to do it. It's fascinating. [00:44:40] Speaker B: So second part of that question is now it's turned into a three parter. How important is it in the golf swing to be able to just use one butt cheek at a time? And second of all, how do you train it? Because I know there's something on TPI the that for training that, but because I don't think I. I do think I struggle with it a little bit. One of the. So the second swing thought that I'm toying around with a little bit is early extension. I'm classic early extension. And that's something. Maybe even when we get on video, I wouldn't mind looking at that. But that's. I don't do it terribly and I can focus on not early extending, but it kind of comes at the expense of something else. So I'm trying to work on that. And in one of the. I got so frustrated one day last week, I just literally googled early extension golf to try to find drills and different things. And that led me to TPI and things. But one of the things that I read was talking about your glutes and which glute is activating at different point. I'm like, I can't activate one glute at a time. And how much is that? Henry, I do believe I think I said this last time, but I do. It's not a joke. It sounds like one. My butt is. I have a strong butt. Okay. I can squat a pretty decent. [00:45:47] Speaker A: I'm a hard ass. [00:45:48] Speaker B: There you go. I'm a hard ass. I like that. [00:45:50] Speaker A: That. [00:45:50] Speaker B: But I've got a pretty strong butt. So I hate that it's going to waste in my golf swing, you know what I mean? Like, I got such a strong ass that I'm not getting to use it, so. But when I try to activate. Activate the glutes, when I do that, all that does is early extension. It's totally. I just come into like a power clean. Yeah. I just jump and I just early extend everything. And I would. I'm trying to figure out how to give that same activation without early extending. [00:46:17] Speaker A: Well, the glutes are an extender. When you flex your glutes, your hip scope, your basic barbell hip thrust. Right. Or whatever, like that's what they're for. [00:46:25] Speaker C: Right. [00:46:26] Speaker A: So when you activate them, you are going to go up. [00:46:28] Speaker B: So you can't. So that's where it becomes important to activate one at a time. Because I guess in the downswing, you're activating. That's a technical question. Is it? Which one am I activating at the downswing, you might be in which cheek? [00:46:40] Speaker C: In the weeds? [00:46:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I would say it's. [00:46:42] Speaker C: Your glutes might be the least of your. Your problems as far as, like, this. [00:46:47] Speaker B: Might be a head thing. [00:46:50] Speaker A: All roads lead to. [00:46:53] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:53] Speaker C: If you're worried about which. If it's turning on too soon or. [00:46:57] Speaker B: But I will say I don't know if it's too soon or too late or not at all. It's just not being used. Correct. [00:47:01] Speaker C: So size. Size is not an indicator that your glutes are turning on. Like, hey, yeah, I've got a big butt. That doesn't mean they're turning on. You know, TPI has a basic single leg glute bridge test that they do. And I can't tell you how many people fail it. We just say your hamstrings are. Your glutes are inhibited, your hamstrings are trying to take over for your glutes. And guys, they start cramping in the hamstring or they say, I feel it in my quads. It happens. People are real set. If you're sedentary, you're sitting for long periods of time and. And it's simple. Like you're saying, even the wiggling the toes, doing. Turning on the glutes on and off individually is just a great proprioceptive way. Not necessarily something you have to focus on, Garrett, but just while you're playing. But just like. It's just like turning everything on, you know, doing your work. [00:47:58] Speaker B: I guess that's what I'm getting at. If I were to spend time in the gym and Just made that part of my. I mean, what I'm envisioning in my mind is that, like, Monday, Thursdays, I'll do deadlifts with the fat grips, and then Tuesday, Fridays, I'll do kettle carries with the fat grips. But both of Those be about 20 minutes of the workout time, and then maybe 20 minutes or so of explosive stuff like box jumps or medicine ball slams, things like that. And then 20 minutes of just mobility functionality, things like that. And that way it's not too taxing on my body. I'm not going to kill myself doing that. And it's golf specific, and I'm working things that are helpful in the golf swing. But as I. Let's just say hypothetically, that in six months in the gym, I do get really good at activating one glute at a time or whatever. How much of a difference is that gonna make in the golf swing? I mean, is it. Is it a critical thing in the golf swing or. [00:48:49] Speaker A: I think it's. I think the point Mike's making, and correct me if I'm wrong, I think the point he's. He's making is the better you get at being able to activate stuff outside the golf swing, the more. The less you have to think about it during the golf swing, and the more proper it will be. Your body will function better. [00:49:04] Speaker B: So if I'm. [00:49:05] Speaker A: If I work on it and turn on all the switches. But you forgot to turn on this one. [00:49:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:09] Speaker A: It's not going to run. Right. [00:49:10] Speaker B: So if I work at it on the gym, it's something that, as I work on it more and more in the gym, it's going to creep into my golf swing without it being a swing. Thought so to speak, in my practice sessions. [00:49:19] Speaker A: Is that in theory? Yeah. I mean, because again, it's just like with everything else, the better you get at something, it becomes subconscious, and then you have to worry about it. It just. [00:49:27] Speaker B: But is my body gonna know that it's supposed to do that in the golf swing? [00:49:31] Speaker A: To my point earlier, I think you're a little in the weeds on the glute activation. I think. Tiger starting glute activation. I think it's a little. [00:49:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:38] Speaker A: Not gonna say it's overrated because, again, like, the ver. [00:49:40] Speaker B: But you're not losing 20 yards of. [00:49:41] Speaker A: Power because you're not turning on your left butt. The vertical part of the swing is where your glutes are activating. [00:49:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:49:49] Speaker A: Or if you squat and coil in the backswing, this, that, and the other, like anytime you're going up and down. Your squats are gonna be moving. [00:49:54] Speaker B: Yeah. When do you squat in this way? Like, do you swat into your back? [00:49:58] Speaker A: Show you. [00:49:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. We'll do that in a minute. Okay. Well, to put a. [00:50:03] Speaker C: To put a bow on. [00:50:04] Speaker B: On. I'm just getting started. [00:50:05] Speaker A: Okay. [00:50:08] Speaker C: We haven't gotten to the third follow up yet. [00:50:11] Speaker A: How Many follow up? 3A. [00:50:13] Speaker B: This is my job. My job is to ask. [00:50:15] Speaker C: Facilitating. [00:50:16] Speaker B: That's why I finally found a job that was good at asking questions. Podcast. [00:50:23] Speaker C: Like I mentioned before in the other podcast, you know, I work with older guys, and so I'm getting there. [00:50:29] Speaker B: I'm about to be in your target demographic. [00:50:32] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:32] Speaker C: So, you know, it's very common in most listeners. You know, like back pain. [00:50:38] Speaker A: Right. [00:50:38] Speaker C: People come in with a stiff back or just their back hurts, it's stiff. And nine times out of 10, their glutes aren't firing. So to what you. When I. You say, well, how's this going to help my golf swing? For me, I'm thinking, well, this is going to help you from your back stiffening up. If your legs are strong, your glutes are activating, that's going to help other things from overcompensating and then getting tired and getting tight and limiting your swing and later on in the round. So that's where my mindset is. My mindset is not. How can this help Garrett hit the ball farther. [00:51:15] Speaker B: But see, that's where I'm going with it. This is where we were disconnected back in the day. Right. [00:51:19] Speaker A: Right. [00:51:19] Speaker B: I want to hit it farther. You want me to be able to play long. You want Rory swing. [00:51:24] Speaker A: And I'm going to support Mike in this one and say I do the glute activation for back health and longevity, not for five yards of. [00:51:33] Speaker C: But which is going to. [00:51:34] Speaker B: So boring. Yeah. Playing a long career does not sell. We need to hit the ball 30 yards further. That gets people listening. What are you talking about? So how was your. Have you. You don't. Have you been playing at all or hitting balls? [00:51:46] Speaker C: So this is something that I wanted to mention at the beginning just to like, give a shout out that I went back and listened to the podcast and I've been trying to incorporate things that we've been talking about. And one of the things that Tony and I, we talked about off camera was, thankfully my swing wasn't on camera. But you talked about the 30% rule, and you're like, mike, hey, let's just have that 30% mentality. So I did not get a chance to play golf the Last time I saw you. But I got to play tennis with my girlfriend who is a 5, 0 tennis player, which is a very good, very, very competitive amateur. And we haven't played together in well over a year because she doesn't like playing with me because I don't listen and I hit the ball too hard and I got out there. So this is kind of a two part story. I got out there Saturday morning at 9 o', clock, which was way later than I wanted to, but I just wanted to hit the ball 30% and it was like a warm up like you were talking about. The driving range is not where you just start mashing the ball, it's where you just warm up. And so I'm hitting, all I'm trying to do is hit the ball back to her at 30%. Well then I just. She gives me a few pointers. Long story short, we get done, it's so hot out there, I. The other part we talk about hydration. Okay, I drank my pre, my hydration packet. I'm drinking all the water, but I haven't been outside for. I work in a gym, an air, you know, 68 Degree Gym. It's nine o', clock, I've come, it's. Well, it's well past nine now. I've completely sweat through my clothes. I'm drinking coffee because I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, I've already had my hydrator thing. I've had my pre workout because I want to perform well with my girlfriend. I want her to think I've got all this great energy. I sweat through my clothes and we take a break. She's drinking water, I'm drinking coffee. She's like, what are you drinking? [00:53:45] Speaker B: I'm just drinking my coffee. [00:53:47] Speaker C: I've already drank my water and I'm like, how long have we been out here? [00:53:53] Speaker A: An hour. [00:53:54] Speaker C: I'm thinking we're pushing up on two hours. I'm just. You could wring my shirt out. I'm breathing hard. I'm not panicked or anything, but I'm just, I can't catch my breath. And I think part of it was the hydration. But, but again to put a bow on the story, just that whole thing. [00:54:10] Speaker B: But you're drinking your coffee out there while you're. [00:54:12] Speaker C: Yes, because it was part of my routine, right? It's the morning I'm at. Even though I'm not at the gym, my routine is I drink my coffee, I drink my water and I'm like, that's my routine. [00:54:25] Speaker B: Whether it's Cold brew. [00:54:26] Speaker A: We're going hot. [00:54:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:26] Speaker C: Whether it's good or whether it's good or not. But I just. [00:54:30] Speaker A: 30% eat. [00:54:31] Speaker C: Yeah. I guess to put it. Yeah, I hit that 30. And anyway, we get done and she's like, that's the best I have ever seen. You hit the ball with me. And I just let kind of that natural athleticism and she. She helped me with my grip because she gave me a better grip. And all of a sudden I'm just. And then every once in a while, yeah, I just let it go and I'm like hitting the ball off with no feet, just kind of jumping in the air, doing like a tall. But it's like going back over. [00:54:59] Speaker A: They say like basketball, tennis, tennis, golf, they're fluid sports. It's like a dance. It's like a dance or just flowing with water and energy. And you know, you got a few Jack Nicklaus, real aggressive in a helicopter. You got a few that play like that. But the swings we truly admire. The athletes who truly admire. Steph Curry, he's just flowing like he's not trying. He's just trying through life. [00:55:22] Speaker C: So normally, because I. [00:55:23] Speaker A: That's the other thing we go off. You don't hurt. [00:55:26] Speaker C: I struggle with a lot of low back tightness and discomfort is something I always have to stay on top of. And I felt great, even though I got dehydrated. [00:55:34] Speaker B: Apparently not activating your glutes. [00:55:38] Speaker A: Going back to. You said you've done a lot of practicing, not a lot of playing. I've been the exact opposite. All I've done is play with. No. [00:55:44] Speaker B: I'm dying to play. It's hard for me to find four, four and a half hours to get out there and play right now. But I'm looking forward to it in the fall. Hopefully being able to get out more. [00:55:51] Speaker A: But to the heat. I've been teaching PGA Junior clinic all week. And you guys are used to it, so. We're used to it. [00:55:57] Speaker B: I'm not used to it. [00:55:58] Speaker A: Yeah, it's different. Ye. [00:56:00] Speaker C: And I don't know how. And I didn't. Thankfully I didn't stay out long enough to affect my cognitive brain function. But I mean, we were probably hour and 30, maybe an hour and 45. That was it. And I was like done for me. [00:56:12] Speaker B: I watched a video on athletic motion golf. They have some really good stuff where they talked about the golf swing being a three part. We think of as backswing, downswing, but it's backswing, transition, downswing. And I've tried to feel like like, it's okay to be quick off the ball, get the weight to your right side quickly. That's fine. Slow transition. And then once you do that, you don't really have time to think about reactivating and firing. Hard gravity and the earth and everything is just going to make it go faster. And some of my today was from my own practice when I was working on technique. My eight iron speed was like one, it was like 91, 92. And then when I go to rhythm and start working on rhythm with the same amount of energy and same amount of effort, it's 93, 94. Just focusing on rhythm gives you. You don't feel that way. I hated people telling me this for a long time, but it is the truth. When you slow down, especially that transition, you get that efficient, effortless power. If you want extra distance, that's probably where you need to find it. Would you agree? [00:57:13] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it's cracking the whip. It's a kinematic sequence. [00:57:16] Speaker C: Right. [00:57:16] Speaker A: So it's a 3 to 1 ratio. It has to be that way. If you were to. I have a rope. I just literally made a rope training aid. It's. It's thick rope. You bend it, you fold it in half, tape a handle together. And when I see people that are too aggressive with the downswing, whatever, I say swing this rope. And you cannot swing a rope rhythmically if you're pulling down on the handle or firing around this way, like, you physically can't do it. So it naturally teaches people how to get into a rhythm. Like even just sitting here, Right. This flow. And my arm is relaxing, it's just flowing. So I think sometimes the implement that we use in golf, it's a stiff shaft. It's not a flexible shaft. A lot of times it forces you to do something different with the club. You think you have to manufacture on speed. But again, it's like effortless power versus powerless effort. Right. That's really kind of the way to think about it. And it's not that you're not putting energy into the system. It says it's efficient. [00:58:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:05] Speaker A: And it's timed well. And it all releases when it's supposed to versus trying to manufacture something. We went to, I'll shout out one of my alumni's places. Dave Mistowski, Dogwood Country Club. I took some friends out there and they took care of us. And we had the main bay. Right. The main. Similar bay. So I'm helping this. This guy, he just got married. Him and his fiance were hanging out and his now wife, we're hanging out. He's a golfer, but he's taking some time off. And he was like, I'd love free advice, free lessons. So we worked on some things and then we started playing. [00:58:34] Speaker B: That's why I'm here. [00:58:36] Speaker A: We started playing some games, right? We did close to the pin and then he wanted to do long drive and I didn't bring my own club. So I just grabbed the rental thing and it was a Shrix ZX5. But the shaft was a regular 55 Flex. It's nothing. It's not for me, right? And so I told him, I said, okay, watch. Two things are going to happen here. I'm going to try to hit this first ball really, really hard. The ball is going to go a mile, right? It's going to have way too much spin. It's not going to go anywhere. He's like, okay, whack. Sure thing, right? I said, it's not the right club. The shaft is too flexy for that swing. Blah, blah, blah. So now I'm going to go into like a 75% swing whack. 295. You know what I mean? He was like, that's so stupid. You hit that so easy. I was like, I know because one, I was working with the equipment that I had, using it with what it can do. And two, it was sequenced well and I got the most out of it I possibly got. Said, look at the numbers. Ball speeds down, club head speed is down. But smash went up, spin went down, carry went up, total went up. Right? [00:59:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:28] Speaker A: Because again, like sometimes you have to use what you got. And this is a whole nother rabbit trail. But when clubs don't fit you, they're not fit to your swing. You are fighting everything, Tank. [00:59:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm a huge drive shack. [00:59:41] Speaker A: And try to play with those golf clubs. Yeah, they're not for you. No, they're not for you. [00:59:46] Speaker B: I'm one of these golf stops when I go to golf. When I go to top golf, I take my own. I really do. I mean it's. And you look weird when you do that. But I always. [00:59:53] Speaker A: I take polo and shirt tucked in and a belt and everything usually. [00:59:56] Speaker B: What's wrong with that? [00:59:57] Speaker C: Golf shoes. [00:59:57] Speaker A: Nothing's wrong with it. I just was trying to get the picture in my head. [01:00:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't know why. I'll never get second dates. But. [01:00:06] Speaker A: He'S got his range finder, his cat. [01:00:10] Speaker B: That white flag isn't 148. It's 146. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The first deck. [01:00:15] Speaker C: Are you on the third deck? [01:00:17] Speaker B: Yeah. I need the elevation change. Yeah, yeah. [01:00:20] Speaker A: No, but there's definitely something to that. Right. And it's like with anything in life, you can try really, really hard and spin your wheels. Right. You mash the gas off the line, all you're gonna do is spin. [01:00:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:00:29] Speaker A: Or you can get that sweet spot and launch it. [01:00:31] Speaker B: So I think this is a good time to plug that for each. For all the episodes. We, We. We have been trying to try to video the episodes, and it's not really work because Tony can't sit still and he keeps wanting to go grab a golf club and go do drills. So we're breaking it apart. We're gonna do an audio segment, and then for each episode, we'll have some. Some accompanying videos. So I want to show you, when we get to the video segment, something that I struggle that when I do get into that rhythmic part, there is a. I tend to tug on it maybe a little bit over the top. I need to work on my sequencing or something on that. But. But yeah, when you. And it's nice to. To learn those things because then when you get on the golf course, you just start to. When you're going through that pre shot routine, you're starting. You're trying to find that. That rhythm a little bit. Also. I've been hitting balls my eyes closed a little bit, and it's amazing to me how well I can hit a ball my eyes closed now because. Yeah, I mean, I can. As long as I'm. As long as I can see it to start with, close my eyes, I can. I can stripe it because you can feel that. That weight and that. And it makes you focus on what your body's doing and not killing it. That's right. Yeah. [01:01:32] Speaker A: 100%. I've done that too. I've done the eyes closed trail. You got to do it safely, though, because, like, you just got to make. [01:01:37] Speaker B: Sure there's no one, no anyone around. I mean, be realistic here. You could still. [01:01:40] Speaker A: You could still mess it up. But it's. No, it's a great. It's a great thing. And the other thing it teaches you too, is that it's a measurement. Once we've measured, like my. You said. You said Joshua's got a good swing, and I appreciate that he was using big adult clubs, so that wasn't for him. But the only things I told him back when he was a kid was I said, line up, measure, hit it. That's all I told him. So the measurement was how Far do we stand from the ball. Right. Once we've got our arms and everything set. And he just. Why measure? Hit it. Boom. He's just like a little kid saying his little three piece thing. And he smacked the hell out of the ball. Having so much fun. But we can show a drill for the rhythm stuff too. [01:02:15] Speaker B: Yeah. We'll wrap the podcast portion of this and we'll go do some videoing. [01:02:19] Speaker A: So the only thing I'll say is I've got a two day club championship coming up this Saturday. Sunday. I have not practiced. Like I said, I've only played a few rounds this week. Is this the old Liberty Fred Smith Club Championship? Yeah. [01:02:31] Speaker B: So the Fred Smith Club Championship, is it, does it rotate courses? [01:02:35] Speaker A: They have one for each course. [01:02:36] Speaker B: Oh, so you're at the old Liberty one. [01:02:38] Speaker A: The old Liberty one. And the course apparently is still in terrible shape. [01:02:41] Speaker B: If you are a member of Fred Smith, can you play in all three or four of the Cliff Trains? [01:02:45] Speaker A: Yeah, all of them. Yeah. It's going to be a mental slugfest because you are going to get bad bounces and bad breaks and bad lies. They said said the fairways are crab grass and the bunkers are overgrown with grass. So it's no disrespect, but they know it's not up to snuff, so. And I've only played the course one time, so I'm going in blind. But I'm gonna have fun. [01:03:04] Speaker B: This is when? This, this coming weekend. [01:03:06] Speaker A: Saturday. [01:03:06] Speaker B: Sunday. [01:03:07] Speaker A: Saturday. Sunday. [01:03:08] Speaker B: When are your tee times? [01:03:09] Speaker A: I don't have them yet, but I think they said they're starting at nine each day or maybe a little earlier, but. [01:03:15] Speaker B: So what are you doing to prepare? Let's talk about your preparation for that because that's a good time. I want to hear like, what are doing you, what are you doing between now and Friday night to get ready? So I played. [01:03:25] Speaker A: I'm just gonna be honest. I mean, I played Monday and Tuesday. [01:03:27] Speaker B: Rip it and rip it. [01:03:29] Speaker A: I played Monday and Tuesday and I was, I shot 75. 75. But I was satisfied. Right. Because I hit the ball great off a tee. I hit the wedges good. I rolled the ball really well. Didn't make a lot of putts, but I rolled it well and I read them well. So I'm, I'm fine with where I'm at. [01:03:43] Speaker B: What's your expectation as far as the competition? Like, do you know who else playing and. [01:03:46] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. I look at the roster. [01:03:49] Speaker B: Roster. [01:03:50] Speaker A: I'm playing at a zero and it's a. It's a gross. It's not a net. It's just straight up we're playing and the guys that I'm playing with, there's a few plus threes, a plus two. [01:04:00] Speaker B: There's really good players. [01:04:01] Speaker A: Yeah, they're really good players. So I'm. My whole thing is just I want to continue to focus on committing and competing, not getting into the friendly side of things. I just want. I just want to go out there and trust my process and play and see what happens. And again, I've only played the course one time, so I don't really know. I don't even remember half the holes. But I just want to be an. [01:04:23] Speaker B: Advantage sometimes because it forces you to hit it where you can see it and play it on the conservative side. Yeah, yeah. [01:04:31] Speaker A: No, I'm not worried. I mean, it's just like. Because again, like I'm just out there to go and test myself and see where I'm at. But yeah, no, I haven't. I'll probably look at the course. I make my own course maps with Google Earth. I might do that Friday night. But now I'm happy with my game. Is. So it's just a matter of going and trusting the process and seeing where the cards fall. So do you. [01:04:52] Speaker B: Are you going into it with a. Do you have a. An outcome related goal in mind or is it play your best all process? [01:05:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I want to. My. My three goals are compete. Like, don't let myself get into friendly mode. Like, I'm not gonna like deep dive like we did when, like, you know, I'm not gonna make friends. You know, I know most of these people already, so I'm glad I met. [01:05:14] Speaker B: Him before he turned into this mode. I just want to go. [01:05:17] Speaker A: I want to go like compete. I want to go turn myself back into an athlete again and like try to trust the process or try to get into competitiveness. I just want to. That's my main goal is just to compete and see what happens. And then two, just accept whatever happens. Because again, I haven't practiced. I have played sparingly. I just kind of want to see what happens. But that's what I was going to ask you. And this goes all the way back to the beginning when you're talking about your practice goes off the rails sometimes. And you said you don't want to treat it like the gym. I think you should treat it like the gym. I think you should write out a practice plan and say, I've done this many reps of this drill and this. I think that's what you have to do. [01:05:50] Speaker B: I think that's something I've tried to. I'm inching that direction in my practice. Right. [01:05:55] Speaker A: Because if you said you have add, right, that should hold you more accountable. [01:05:59] Speaker B: I'll tell you exactly where this is so stereotypical. I go in, it's like, okay, today I'm going to do this drill and I'm going to do this drill. I'm going to work on that. I'm going to do five balls of this and then 20 balls of this. And I have this plan. And then I'm hitting sand wedges, you know, 105, and I'm thinning them just a little bit and I'm tweaking it. I think if I really get this thing right, I can get it up to 115. And then I end up stuck on a sandwich for 75 balls. And then I'm like, man, my hours almost up and I haven't even got to the eight hour. [01:06:25] Speaker C: No one. But that's, you know, no one gets to the putting. I talk to my guys and, you know, they complain about their putting. I was like, if I. If I would have. [01:06:34] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:06:34] Speaker C: And I was like, well, I mean, how do you spend as much time on the putting green as you do at the range? [01:06:39] Speaker A: They don't. None of them. [01:06:40] Speaker C: 99% of golfers, because they get derailed down the. [01:06:43] Speaker A: I gotta hit it good. I gotta hit it good before the round. [01:06:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:45] Speaker C: I gotta feel good about the. [01:06:46] Speaker A: That's what I'm saying is like, you have to. And this is where like in all of the sports, you have a coach there to dictate practice time. We're doing 15 minutes of shoot around. Then we're doing man on man coverage, theory and drill. Then we're moving to 30 minutes of zone, right? They guide the practice. You don't have that, so you have to do that yourself. And if you don't, if you ever. [01:07:08] Speaker B: Knew, if you haven't ever been. So I go to most years, I don't think we can do it this year, but most years we go to Carolina Panthers training camp used to be in Spartanburg. Now at Charlotte, it's fascinating to me to watch how attentive to detail these things are. They have a clock on the field, they have horn that goes off at the 3 minutes, 5 minutes. It's never more than 10 minutes at one station. But it's short. And here's the thing about it, to me, this is what I think is the biggest hindrance. If you're Last, if you're a linebacker doing a tackling drill or whatever you're doing, and the very last opportunity you get, you just stumble and blow the tackle and that horn blows, you don't get another shot at it. You go to the next. But for me, in golf practice, if I shank that last round, I'm doing it again. I'm going to do it again. Well, that's not the way golf is played. [01:07:57] Speaker A: It's not the way golf is played. And it goes all the way back to episode one where I said this is the only sport where we don't train. Like athletes training. [01:08:04] Speaker B: That's it. Yeah. [01:08:04] Speaker A: Right. [01:08:06] Speaker B: So give me a sample. What does your practice look like when you say you put a professional plan together? What does that look like for you? And I want to kind of compare that in my mind's eye, what I'm trying to do. [01:08:14] Speaker A: Well, so this is a bigger discussion too, because when I'm working with, like, my college players, it's all about stats, too. What is their stats? Trending strokes game, this, that and the other. If, you know, I notice that they've been working on their driving really well. They've stuck to the driving practice plan, their strokes gained, driving gets better, then the putting starts to suffer. Then. Well, then we have to alter the plan a little bit, right? It's like, well, once you've peaked at deadlift, we need to add in some other things to make sure we're not. The three lifts in the power lift are not all neglected, right? You have to balance it out. So, for example, let's say it might be a Monday, Wednesday, Friday practice plan, Tuesday. Thursdays are playing nine holes. Saturday is 18 hole ran round or whatever it might be something to the effect of, you are to, after you've warmed up for 20 minutes, your body's loose, you are to hit, block, practice, drill 20 balls in between these two spots on the driving range. Lonnie pool. And you to track your stats of how many you got in play. So you and you track that over the weeks. Am I getting better? Am I, am I cut? And there's a benchmark, right? Like 66% of fairways hit. That's the, that's the average on tour. Once we get to that, that skill has been capped. The ceiling is reached, right? We don't, we're not. We're spin our wheels trying to chase more. So now we find the other one. [01:09:27] Speaker B: So if you're in 14 out of 20, then you're not. You're. You're not you're not going to spend an hour of trying to get. Practice a day trying to get. Yeah. [01:09:36] Speaker A: No. You've done the drill. You've done the work. You've assessed what you're working on. So that's like. That would be an example of like a block practice stats drill. The next. If we were working on driving as well, like day one of that might have been. You're gonna do 20 balls of this drill, 20 balls of this drill, and then you're gonna do the test, you're gonna do the game. Right. And then whatever other skills you have, putting games or whatever I want them tracking, are they getting better? Is whatever. 20 minutes of this drill working, correlating and improving the game. The test we have. Does that make sense? [01:10:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And you have. [01:10:06] Speaker A: But you get no more, no less than that. That's it. [01:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And it's very. I love the test part of that because that is something that you go to Knight's play and just walk up and down. What are you seeing? I listened to a guy I was hitting balls with Reese, one night, and the guy right behind me, it was impressive how many different versions of cuss words he was putting together. I mean, he was inventing new ones, and I knew he was struggling a little bit. And then as I'm walking off, he started asking this question. We talked a little bit. But that story plays itself out, I think in 95% of the practice hours amateur golfers put in, myself probably most included. [01:10:44] Speaker A: They're just chasing that good feeling shot. [01:10:46] Speaker B: Yeah. But when. When I focus on putting. I used to love Twelve Oaks driving range. Had these bunkers scattered out, and they were pretty small. And I played a little game with myself where it was like, if I can hit it in that bunker, it was like 100 yards away. That was one point. If I can hit it in the 125, it's two points and. And play a game and see, it was like 21 shots or something. See how many I could hit, hit, and see how many points I get. That was much closer to a real topgolf is actually kind of cool. They've got some cool games that you can play at topgolf, you know, but that's a much more effective way to practice than just sitting there pounding out seven irons as far as you can. And 95% of golfers don't do that. And again, I'm trying to get better at doing that myself. [01:11:29] Speaker A: I kid you not. Literally, take an excel sheet, print off REPs. This drill, 20 shots, give yourself a tick, tick, tick, tick. Write them all down. [01:11:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:39] Speaker A: And then when you're done, cross it off. You're done. [01:11:41] Speaker B: Well, I like how you said about the gym, too. Because if I have a gym, I mean, when I put together a workout plan for the gym and say, okay, I'm gonna do, you know, 10 deadlifts, whatever, if that 10th one doesn't feel exactly right, I'm not doing another one. I'm not gonna just, okay, I need to do another set. Because that one didn't do. You do it and you move on to the next one. [01:12:00] Speaker C: You know, that's a really good analogy. [01:12:02] Speaker A: That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Like, it's got. You got to treat like the gym. [01:12:05] Speaker B: You have to. You didn't like the. [01:12:07] Speaker C: The 10th rep. [01:12:08] Speaker B: I didn't activate my glute enough. My left glute wasn't firing enough in that last rep. So let's do one more rep to get that left glute really into it. [01:12:16] Speaker A: I mean, golfers, we just gotta train like athletes. And that's the problem is people don't train like athletes. They don't. [01:12:21] Speaker B: They. [01:12:21] Speaker A: Yeah. It's because the golf is such an emotional game, right? And it's like, I didn't hit it perfect, so I gotta chase that feeling again. I gotta chase that. That seeing it go through the air, seeing it fly. And it's so challenging. I don't like the word hard, but it's challenging enough to where you don't get success that often. Like, the perfect shot, it's like swishing basketball. Like, once you get good at basketball, you can swish it over and over. But like golf, to hit a shot exactly like you intended to, with the height, apex, curve, everything, that's one out of 50, you know, so that's my advice to you for the next few weeks or whatever, is literally write something down and check it off and see if that doesn't help you to focus your brain a little bit better. Because it's not so much that you can't do it, it's just that you need a plan. Just like working out, you need a plan. [01:13:05] Speaker B: Well, I know I'm dragging this point on, but I did write down as even a podcast topic at some point, quality over quantity. In practice, I would rather hit 50 great shots or 50 good shots. Let's not set the bar too high. 50 good shots, then 200 just to get the reps in. Just focusing on how many good shots can I hit today, not how many shots can I hit. [01:13:27] Speaker A: So well, there's, there's a lot of games you can play too, even at home or in here or whatever that don't involve wearing your body down. Because the other thing about practice, especially as you get older, is it's overuse. [01:13:36] Speaker C: Oh my gosh. [01:13:37] Speaker B: Well, that's, that's the thing about the quantity or quality over quantity thing is that as I get older, I appreciate that because when I focus on, okay, I'm gonna practice for, I mean, this is oversimplified, but I'm going to practice until I hit 25 good shots. Well, if I focus on each shot and really commit to, okay, what would I really do to hit a good shot here then I'm probably not going to hit as many shots if I just wail at it for an hour straight. And that saves my body rips, which I've learned to appreciate as I get a little bit older. [01:14:04] Speaker A: Well, that's where games come into play so much better because games focus you and they give you objective metrics to see if you're getting better. So rather than going too practice, why not go to play a game? Right? And the game is I'm going to do this chipping and up and down game and I'm going to give my. And that gives you parameters. You only get 10 balls because that's how the game is played, right? So I'm going to hit these 10 shots and I'm going to take my score and I'm going to compare it to my last week and my best and whatever. And am I staying steady? Am I going up? Am I getting worse? What's going on? And then the other good thing about games, you can make them challenging, more challenging, less challenging, whatever. And they really focus you and they simulate the pressure of an actual round of golf better than just wailing away, Correct? Yeah. And so you can spend less time putting yourself in more golf specific situations than just wailing away at golf balls on the driving range, which does nobody any good. All it does is overuse. Oh, I got tennis elbow from golf. Well, yeah, because you hit 400 balls off of a driving range mat every single three or four days. [01:15:05] Speaker C: That's a that. So I was a Division 3 baseball player, you know, nothing special but that I had enough. [01:15:13] Speaker B: Unless you made D3. I only made it community college. [01:15:17] Speaker C: Enough ability or self aware that I was like, okay, I didn't maximize whatever ability was there. I know I could have played. I left more on the table than it was there. I was a field guy. So I know you're Saying I was always chasing that feel. And when I felt it, I would go good, I was real streaky. I'd go, well, good for a while and then I didn't feel right. And so then I was always just chasing that feeling. And yeah, I love, I would, you know, if I could go back. And I think that's what I started to do is like I was when I started coaching is I was trying to take all the things I was terrible at and trying to help the guys with what I struggled with. But I love that if the more you can put yourself in a game mentality and the, the times where I was playing a lot of golf a few years ago, like, I love that I go to the range and I would just hit a terrible shot. Like, all right, my. I'm gonna grab a different club because now I've teed off. And now Billy, yeah, Billy didn't like that shot. But Billy's. This is what Billy's gonna do on his second shot. But I think what you're saying is we're never too old to improve the mental side. We're always talking about all these hydration, working out, mobility, flexibility. But if you can just improve your mental game, I mean, there's so many different things, right? If we can improve 10 different things, you know, a couple notches on the belt and. [01:16:50] Speaker B: Okay, so I don't know how to phrase this question, but I would say maybe it's not a question, maybe it's a statement to give you guys a chance to argue with me on it. But I would say if you're a five handicap, there's probably a decent chance you're making five shots worth of mental mistakes per round. If you're a 25 handicap, there's a. Probably a good chance. I don't know what the metric or formula is, but you're probably making 10 shots. There is, I don't know, 75, 80, some weird, some random high number, percentage of the mistakes you're making are probably mental. Whether it's in your practice, your preparation, your execution. It is so much more of a mental game than it is a physical game. [01:17:30] Speaker A: So that's where I said, I think I mentioned with the frowny face thing I have people do on. [01:17:33] Speaker B: I like that. I've been using that a little bit too. [01:17:36] Speaker A: So what have you noticed? Maybe you'll notice hard part is frown. [01:17:38] Speaker B: So analytical. I'm like, what defines a frowny face? What about a two foot putt that I did try my best. Is that a frowny? [01:17:46] Speaker C: What's just a line across. [01:17:48] Speaker B: Yeah, it's squiggle. Yeah. [01:17:50] Speaker A: It's got, like, hashtag, dollar sign, dollar sign, exclamation point, curse next to the thing. [01:17:56] Speaker B: When I first started keeping stats, a guy was playing me one day and he looked over about the seventh hole, and he's like, what are all these hieroglyphics you've got? I've got so many symbols and stuff, it took me an hour to, like, decode my own squirtle. [01:18:08] Speaker A: But to your point of, like, making mental mistakes, I think I told you, like, I hover between a 0 and a 2 right now because I don't get. I don't have routine, whatever. But what I notice when I keep track of the frowny faces is if I keep it to five or less, I typically play amazing. Go golf. [01:18:21] Speaker C: There you go. [01:18:22] Speaker B: And that's a good goal to have going into. Around it. Can I have five or less frowny faces? Yeah. Fiberless is. What was your peak? What's your lowest handicap you've gotten to. [01:18:31] Speaker A: I think it was slightly on the plus side. Yeah, that was recent. [01:18:35] Speaker B: Okay. But you're playing some decent golf, it sounds like. I mean, most of the text updates we get from you right now or you're playing pretty decent golf, it sounds like. Especially in competitive. [01:18:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it's fine. I mean, there's. It's just. I know for me, marginally, I've got to get better at everything. I've marginally got to get better at my putting. I've got to make a few more putts around from distance, like from 10ft. I just have to make a few more. I've got to work on the mental commitment side of things and making sure I don't, you know, not take account of the wind or the lie or is it going to fly, like. But again, it's so hard for me because I get into that friendly mode, that coaching mode that you just talk in, and all of a sudden you walk in the shot and hit it. You're like, ah, I totally forgot to go through. And so that's why, for me, like, I'm saying, I want to focus on commitment, on competing. [01:19:18] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:19:18] Speaker A: I want to turn myself into an athlete again. [01:19:20] Speaker B: We haven't really touched on putting at all, but I will add. So I've always drawn the line on the golf ball and aligned it that way. And I saw a random Facebook or Instagram post about that, and I don't know if it's true or not, but. [01:19:33] Speaker A: I have my golf spy test where they did Line versus no line. [01:19:36] Speaker B: That's it. Yeah. And then no line putted better than the line. [01:19:39] Speaker A: Certain distance. [01:19:40] Speaker B: Yeah. And at the news the other day, I was getting frustrated. I had putted decent, but I was burning edges, I mean, and I felt a little line locked. And I just. I've always drawn a cross on my golf ball. So I take the normal line that you would usually draw on the. Over the logo or whatever or the brand of the golf ball, and I just make it into a cross. And that was. I always joked that was my cuss word filter. It would remind me not to. [01:20:03] Speaker A: That's his Southern Baptist coming up. [01:20:05] Speaker B: That's Southern Baptist coming up. But the other day, I got frustrated enough with my pony. I was like, I'm going to put a dot on a random part of the golf ball and I'm gonna put that as my focal point so I can just focus on the dimple. That's sort of the other way people do it. So I did that. I put it better because I get so line locked when I've got that line on there. And I don't. I'm not so precise that I make sure it's exactly where I want it. I just want it in the general direction. But even having that, it made me focus too much on the stroke itself, where putting the dot helps me focus on just. There's the dot. Look at that. [01:20:35] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:20:35] Speaker B: And it keeps my mind off the other stroke. [01:20:36] Speaker A: Yeah. When it comes to putting, I think probably the most important of the three line speed read. I think speed is the most important by far to helping people get better at putting in general, because you can pick a line, but it has to be married to a speed. [01:20:50] Speaker B: That's it. Every line, there's. I don't know how many. There's a hundred different lines you can take depending on your speed. [01:20:55] Speaker A: Yep. So you can be. [01:20:56] Speaker C: When you say speed, you mean this is how hard. How hard you're hitting it? [01:21:00] Speaker B: Not. [01:21:00] Speaker C: Not your takeaway? [01:21:01] Speaker A: No, no. Yeah, yeah. Like how fast the ball is rolling if it were to go into cut. Yeah. So there's die in putters, there's slamming in putters. There's all different philosophies on it. [01:21:10] Speaker B: You know, on a flat putt, it doesn't matter. But if you've got, you know, one degree of slope, you can take it, you know, right edge with speed, that's going to go three feet past the hole if it misses. Or you can take it three cups. Right. [01:21:22] Speaker A: And I'm more of it. [01:21:22] Speaker B: And it's just Barely going to trickle in. [01:21:24] Speaker A: I'm more of a dive putter. So for me speed is extremely extreme. [01:21:27] Speaker B: And I believe in. I was kind of tall ram at the back of the hole because that's going to take the most break out of it and be common and all this. And I've grown to feel almost the opposite that I want my ball. The cup is the widest when the ball is dying into it. [01:21:44] Speaker A: Correct. So here is six feet past the hole, dead center. That's your margin. The slower the ball enters the hole, the bigger the margin of error you have. [01:21:53] Speaker B: That's it. [01:21:53] Speaker A: The capture size. It's called the capture size of the hole. So you can hit a ball fast enough to where the hole does not exist exists. Gravity will not have enough time to put it into the hole. Yeah, you can skip it right over the hole. [01:22:04] Speaker B: Yeah, well we've all done that probably at some point or another hit a putt that went right over the top of the hole and never even skipped. And if you're to me I heard a stat at some point perfect speed is 17 inches past the rate to me perfect speed is zero. It's dying at the hole. And maybe that's not correct but that's kind of what I subscribe more to the I want it to be at almost zero when it gets to the front edge of the hole. [01:22:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm similar. I mean I don't want a four foot comebacker like no one. Those get stressful at the end of the day, you know you want. Because most people once they have a general idea of read they're not going to miss. Read a putt by six feet. [01:22:43] Speaker B: The only argument against it is if I. The only argument against that is that if I'm. If I hit it two feet past then I always get to get a read on the comeback putt by watching it post shot routine. If you. [01:22:54] Speaker A: Okay. But if you missed it by two feet and that you say you gotta read the rest you really need to. [01:22:59] Speaker B: Read on a two foot putt. [01:23:00] Speaker A: Well, no, but the rest of them means you miss by less than 2ft. So it's tapping anyways. [01:23:04] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. [01:23:05] Speaker A: We can do a lot on putting speed control is something I'm very good at teaching. People have a pretty good system with that with speed control I almost always know what I'm looking for and nine times out of ten it's the same thing over and over. So. [01:23:16] Speaker B: Well, maybe next time we move outside to the putting green. You guys didn't know we had a Putting green here. We've got a nice little putting chipping area. Love it. So. So. [01:23:24] Speaker A: Well, so do you want to film a little bit? [01:23:25] Speaker B: Yes, sir. [01:23:25] Speaker A: Let's do that. [01:23:27] Speaker B: Wrap the show. See y' all next time. [01:23:32] Speaker A: But I was also. Did we float the idea of making the turn? [01:23:35] Speaker B: No. [01:23:36] Speaker A: What do you think about that one? [01:23:38] Speaker B: I do like there. That's an interesting one. That plays well. It speaks to our personalities and who we are and where we are. Making the turn certainly speaks to our life. I like that. That's actually part of my pre shot routine. This is not something. No, not whiskey. Other side of that coin. [01:23:56] Speaker C: It would help my game. [01:23:57] Speaker B: Yeah, without a doubt. But I have a Bible verse that people don't know that the Bible talks about golf, but Proverbs 3:5 and 3:6. That is a beautiful final thing to hear before I take the club back. Just acknowledge him and he will make my path straight. Eagle Ridge a few months ago. Get to the 18th hole, and I'm finally in a position to break 80. [01:24:16] Speaker A: That's a prayer hole. That'll turn a believer out of an atheist. [01:24:18] Speaker B: Well, I'll tell you, I'm not gonna ask God to help me me make par. That's not important enough. But, you know, whatever happens, you help me to handle myself the right way. And then I have rope hooked one into the water so fast, I looked up, I said, seriously? Are you serious right now? I made an eight. But I did shoot 79 on the dot.