It's the Son of a Butcher podcast. We come to you every Wednesday. This week, UM, I thought i'd talk about how I give golf lessons. A lot of the time that I'm you know, over the course of the year, I'm on the road, I'm at tour events, I'm traveling, working with tour players and stuff. But when I'm home and I've you know, I've got a little bit of an off season now, so when i am home, UM, I'm just basically giving golf lessons, you know, pretty much, you know, pretty much most days. UM. A lot of players that I'm working with or trying to compete, they're trying to play, UM, but they're just regular golfers, like a lot of people that are you know, listening to the pod. Um. Yeah. I mean when I'm on tour, I'm working with great players, but when I'm home, I'm working with a lot of players that are just trying to do what we're all trying to do, which is is is get better and improved golf. So I wanted to talk a little bit about I get asked a lot, you know, by instructors, by golfers, you know, how I go about giving um golf lessons. So UM in an ideal world, what I what I like to do sometimes is UM, if I have the time. UM, there's a package that I offer. It's a it's a it's an all day experience where you come in and you spend UM six hours and we spend six hours when we're trying to figure out, UM what we're gonna do with your golf swing. So UM. In most of those UM lately, I've been starting by UM having the person, the player, UH, the student, go warm up and then UM, and then we go to the golf course first. So as opposed to spend time on the range and and look at what you're doing and talk to you about what you're doing on the golf course. UM. I think it's been really beneficial for me to actually go out with a player and watch what they do on the golf course. So we've we've got a little loop here UM at my club, the Fluoridian, which is right by where our learning center building is. So we're gonna go play three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. But sometimes we don't play all of those. Sometimes we just play UM three four and five. The reason why we do that is the third holds part four, the UM fourth holes Part three, and then the fifth hole for us UM is part five. So if I can get out on the golf course and see a player actually play golf as opposed to just hit golf balls, I think it gives me a better idea of what they're going to be doing. UM when we get into the golf lessons, it's very similar UM when you're when you're working with players on on tour, right, UM, a lot of times, UM you will have seen that player play a lot of golf before. UM. You know, when I'm on tour, I'm not only following the players that I'm working with them, also following other players in the group. So UM, I think going tour you have a really good UM, you have a bunch of data points that you can look at. When you're looking at a player, you watch them on TV, UM, you can look at a lot of their stats. But for me, for the regular golfer, if I can actually go out and see what you do on the golf course, see kind of how you shape the golf ball, see how you drive the golf ball. UM, when there isn't a driving range, right, when you've got trees, when you've got water when you've got out of bounds. UM. What to me, I'm also looking at when I'm out on the golf course with a player for the first time. UM, I'm looking at what the quality of the strike and and and the contact is because, UM, that is something and I'm I'm sure you've listened to any of the past podcast episodes. To me, contact and the way that that you strike the golf ball is vital. It's vital for your confidence, it's vital for your development, and it is one of the single easiest and fastest ways to improve as a player is to have that good quality of strikes. So I want to see what a player is going to do, um. From the fairway. Are they taking a divot? Um? Where are they taking divot? And they taking a divot in front of the ball. Are they're taking a divot behind the golf ball, um? You know? Are they aiming at the flag? Are they trying to put the golf ball in the middle of the green? Um? I'm always interested. On part three's to see how um aggressive a player is going to be regardless of where the pin is. UM. And then on a part five kind of seeing um gives us an opportunity to take a little little look at a little bit of strategy how a players you know what's going to happen. The other thing I'm also looking at when I go out with a player on the golf courses, um to see what happens when they get in in trouble. If they get in trouble off the tea, do they try and and and go for the hero shot? Do they get it back and play and then try and play for um, making pars making a bogey as opposed to trying to to maka birdie from a bad t shot and end up making a double. So UM, that's kind of what I'm looking for. I like being able to get out on the golf course and watching a player kind of in the wild, so to speak, watch them kind of see what they do, see how they handle hitting shots, see how they handle um playing golf. Then we want to go to the driving range. Then we want to go see, um, what you're doing. Um. And then it gives me an opportunity to say to player, Okay, now let me go ahead and and talk to you about what you're what you're trying to do, Tell me what what historically you're doing on the golf with your golf swing. Um. When I go out on the golf course with players, first, I don't really ask them um a lot of diagnostic questions. It's more of just me kind of wanting to observe what they're doing, how they're they're they're encountering the actual playing of of of golf as opposed to the concept and the practicing of golf. So then I'll get a pretty good idea of of what a player is doing by listening to them. Listen, tell me what you're doing, Tell me what kind of shots you like to hit, what type of shape? What's really important for me is to to get um, a player to tell me what type of shape they're trying to hit. Are they trying to hit draws? Are they trying to hit fates? Um? You know, I'm always asking a player, you know, what are the strengths of their game, regardless of what the handicap level is. Um, if you're a fifteen handicap, if you're a twenty handicap, you're probably going to be better at at one aspect of the game than another. You might not be. You know, Jordan's speeed when it comes to putting, you might not be Patrick Reid when it comes to short game, or Rory McElroy UM or Dustin Johnson when it comes to driving the golf ball. But having an idea of, Okay, what what are the strengths of my game, if there are any, and what are the weaknesses? Do I have more confidence in my woods? Do I have more confidence in my irons? UM? And then based off of what I've already seen on the golf course, that's going to give me a pretty good idea of of what a player he's doing. It's going to kind of when I come now to the driving range, I'm going to have an idea of, Okay, I saw these shots from this player on the golf course, So it's going to kind of put me in a in a frame of of mind, in a frame of reference on what that player is doing. And then the other thing that's really really important is UM seeing what a player does and what they're doing UM physically, UM, what injuries they've had, UM put players through. UM, you know, kind of the basic T P I movement screen. UM. I've mentioned this before. I've had Dave Phillips on the pod before. UM, one of the co founders of t p I coaches John ram Um. Before I really started thinking about how the body affects the golf swing. UM, I used to give golf lessons and if somebody was, you know, not able to make shoulder turn, if somebody was kind of you know, hit, had that a little you know, thin contact lower body goes towards the golf ball. Um, early extent and stuff. I I never really thought, you know, fifteen years ago, um, that any of that had to do with what a player is doing physically. So let's take a quick break to thank our partner for wellness. You guys have heard me talk about it. I'm a big fan of their coffee, big fan of the good stuff. I put it in my coffee on a regular basis. The thing I like about it, no sugars, no artificial sweeteners. It's gotten me off dairy. Um. I've quit putting sweeteners, sugars in just the good stuff. But I also put the good stuff, put a scoop of that in my coffee. But I also put it in smoothies and take it on the road with me. And the other thing that I've been using are their energy bites. UM, I keep them with me on the golf course. UM, A lot of times when I'm out on tour, I don't have a lot of time to sit and eat. So these energy bites, a little coffee hit, a little bit of energy, um, all the good stuff, all natural and UM. If you haven't given those to try, check those out. They've given me a special code to share with somen of a butcher listeners. You can get off your order plus free shipping and a free starter kit worth thirty dollars for a limited time when you visit for wellness dot com slash podcast that's spelled fo r w E l l n E s s dot com slash podcast and enter the code c H three at check out. It's their best offer right now, so give it a try. They even back every purchase with a sixty day money back guaranteed. That's again the code c H three at four Wellness dot com slash Podcast. So now, when I'm looking at a golf swing and I'm watching a player do something and they have a s in flaw a characteristic of their golf swing, UM, the first thing my brain and my mind goes to, is, well, why why is the player unable to make shoulder turn? Is it a concept that they don't understand or is it a UM something physical and UM. I think a lot of times players UM struggle with the concept of what they're trying to do from a technique standpoint, and then UM they struggle because what they're trying to do physically, their body just doesn't allow them to do that. UM. A lot of the people that have that kind of move on the downswing to where the lower body gets closer to the golf ball. We call that kind of early extending towards the golf ball thrusting. UM. That lower body gets closer to the golf ball than the upper body gets back. UM. That can be conceptual, that can be UM, you don't know that you're not supposed to do that, you don't know that you are doing that, and then that can be physical. UM. I have that problem in my golf swing. UM. I back back surgery in two thousand eleven. I've really really tight hips UM, which was really affecting what was going on in my lower lower back. UM. I ended up having a microdyssected me in two thousand may have two thousand eleven. UM, but a lot of what I was trying to do in the golf swing I couldn't fundamentally do physically, my body wouldn't allow me to do that. I didn't have the internal hip rotation to not have my lower body get closer to the gulf, and my glutes were weak, my hamstrings were a little bit tight. All of that kind of leads me into that lower body going towards the golf ball. Now, part part of that is, um, what I was doing in my golf swing. Part of that is genetics. So when I'm looking at a player, I'm asking questions, you know, tell me about your your injury history. UM, I'm gonna probably put players through based off of what I see them doing, um in their golf swing. I'm going to look at what they're doing in their golf swing and then kind of work backwards and say, okay, UM. I always tell players and students when i'm you know, giving lessons, I don't think people are doing what they're doing in the golf swing because they want to. They're doing what they're doing in the golf swing because they have to. So I'm always looking at a player and saying, okay, what is this player doing when they're swinging the golf club and I look at everything through the lens of golf, and your golf swing is a series of dominoes, and most golfers have one domino that kind of pushes all the other dominoes in a in a negative direction. So you'll see players, you know, they're they're not trying to hit big hundred yard slices. They're not trying to top it, they're not trying to not hit it fat whatever. They're not trying to not you know, they're not trying to shank it. But whatever they're trying to do. As a player, UM, I'm asking myself, Okay, why is this player not able to do that? Um? What is the body swing connection that is probably not allowing them to do that? And then UM, do they have a bad concept of what they're trying to do? And so based off of what I'm looking at, UM, one of the things I want to do is I want to get a player on video. We've got swing studios, UM at my academy. Here, We've got um here in Florida. UM, we've got them in Dubai. You know, we've got four cameras. We can kind of get a visual view of what you're doing. UM. We use swing catalysts. Big, big fan of that. UM that allows us to have a player UM hit balls. It tells us kind of how they're transferring their weight. UM. You know, whether they are UM a lateral player, whether they are a rotational player. UM, whether there's someone that you know has a lot of push off the ground. So I'm trying to get that information. I'm going to get a player hitting golf balls on a launch monitor. UM. Yes, I'm incredibly lucky at this stage of my career UM to have UM a lot of the modern technology. It is a it is a luxury UM and you know I I'm I pinch myself every day to to have the availability to to use all these diagnostic tools. So I'm going to get players to hit some balls on video. I'm going to have players hit some balls on a launch monitor, so I kind of see what the path and what the face you're doing, what the angle of attack is doing. UM, you know, five ten, fifteen balls. If I get that kind of information, I can go ahead. And I've seen them play golf. UM, I've seen them play some hole, so I kind of know what the bad shot is on the golf course. Then I've watched them hit balls on the range, so I've gone and looked at what their golf swing is doing. Now I'm going to get them in a little bit more of a diagnostic UM space. So I want to video their golf swing from you know, three four different angles. We're when you get some golf swings on a launch monitor. We're getting a golf swings on force plate, so we can figure out, you know, where your weight is in the back swing, where your weight is at impact, where your weight is in the downswing, how your body and how your weight is moving around. UM. We've got a couple of kvs. We can get a player and get them on three D and go ahead and take a look at, you know, a couple of swings, see what they're kuinomatic sequence. Looks like all of that will give me a pretty good idea of being able to say to the player, Hey, this is what you do. And I think it's really important UM for instructors that are listening UM. But also the reason I use technology is, UM, I want to be able to say to the player, listen, this is what you are doing. It's not my opinion as to what you're doing. This is how you're delivering the golf ball. We just hit fifteen golf balls, and the average path was this, The average club face with this on the really good shots you hit, your angle of attack was this. On the really good shots you hit. Your club head speed and your ball speed was was was x right. So I want the player to be able to say, Okay, this is what I do. I have a good idea of what I am doing, and then what I'm trying to do as an instructor, as I think of myself kind of like you know, an American football UM offensive coordinator, right, and you see these guys, they got the headphones on. They're standing there and they've got these laminated sheets with all of the plays on UM that that they can call. And so what I'm trying to do is figure out And I learned this UM, you know, specifically from watching my dad teach something that he instilled UM. You know certainly in me, is UM, what is the one thing that you can change in a golf swing that is going to change the four or five maybe sometimes either six or seven other things that you want to work on, Because listen, whether you're regardless of the handicap level, you're working at You can always find something wrong with the golf swing. So first of all, I want to try and say to a player, Listen, these are the things that that you are doing in your golf swing. The club is working in this direction, the face is working in this direction. Um, this is your angle of attack. This is kind of what you're doing, um, club wise where when you hit a bad one, hopefully we'll get a decent swing on there and say okay, this is the difference between the good one and the bad one. But what I want to then try and do is say to myself, Okay, what can I do really really quickly in this golf lesson? Um that is going to have the player fundamentally feel here or see something that looks very very different than what they did um when they started. So that's where for me, video is is really really important. UM, having a person to be able to draw them you know the picture. Okay, this is where you are at impact in your full swing. Right. Okay, Now what can I do as the instructor that can change a bunch because you're going to see, um, you know, my eye is going to go to a lot of different things, UM, A lot of the big changes that I make that UM, I look a lot at posture, I look at a lot at ball position. UM, I look a lot at what a player is doing from a set up standpoint. That is, um, it's all happening before they even hit a golf ball. So UM, I've talked about it on the podcast. UM basic fundamentals, UM, you know are are still really really important because sometimes it can just be a slight tweak in the set up, a slight slight tweak in the ball position, and you know, everything can change. But what I'm asking myself is I'm looking at what a player does, and I kind of make this judgment call based off of what I've seen on the golf course. What I've served, a player's quality of strike and contact to be, what the data is telling me from how they deliver the golf club, UM, what they're doing with the path, what they're doing with the face. And then what I'm trying to do is figure out a way that I can make um some fairly significant changes. Um. Um. I I do a lot of video work where I'm looking at a player, UM with what they started with an impact and then looking to see if I can rather quickly change their impact position, because I know if I can change their impact position, kind of change the way that they're delivering the club to the ball, then we're immediately going to start UM having the player contact the ball different strike the club to the ball in a different way. Um, you can change the interaction between the club and and the ball and the turf. Maybe you can get someone um with their irons. UM by changing their impact position and getting them into a better impact position. You could um make them change the sound of the ball, UM, change the divot pattern, change the trajectory. But I always am trying to say to myself, Okay, what can I do that is going to immediately affect how the golf ball is being struck? Sometimes, UM, you can I work with players and I'll have them make smaller golf swings. And I'll use the analogy of you know, right now, you're struggling as a player to control the car. Um, you keep crashing the car. Using the driver analogy, you are continuing to crash the car. So let's slow the car down, get the club in a little bit different position, Maybe make the overall movement pattern smaller. Because what I kind of believe that most golfers fundamentally never really learn how um to consistently strike the golf ball solid um have really really good consistent impact positions. And so a lot of the players that that I work with that have been playing golf you know, you know, ten, fifteen, sometimes twenty years um, they're struggling with Obviously they're struggling to hit the golf ball straight, but what they're struggling with the most is to hit the golf ball solid. And I always say to players in golf lessons less if listen, if I could go to the golf course with you and stand on the first tea every time you play golf and say, okay, um, I've got a Genie bottle here. I can rub this Genie bottle, and I can give you one of two things, Um, if you tell me which direction you want to hit the golf ball today. Let's say you want to hit draws, or let's say you want to hit fades. I can rub this genie bottle, and I can guarantee you that every single ball you hit full swing wise with all of your clubs, if you want to draw, they'll all cur from right to left. If you want to fade, it the loll curve from left to right. So I can guarantee you the shape. I can't tell if you're going to hit the golf ball solid, but I can guarantee you the shape. Or I can't guarantee you what the shape of your shot is going to be. But what I can do is I can rub this Genie bottle. And what I can guarantee you is with every full swing you make UM with all of your clubs, whether it's a pitching wedge or your driver, you're going to hit all of the golf balls solid um. With your irons. You're going to be taking a ball and then a turf divot and the ball will be contacted um in the center of the club face. So I can't tell you the direction you're going to hit it, but I can guarantee you that you're going to hit the golf ball solid. And I think most people that are listening right now would take the contact over the direction because if the contact is good, then you can figure out where to aim and stuff like that. So I'm trying to figure out how I can affect the contact of the golf ball immediately, and I know if I can do that and then I can show some visuals of Okay, this is kind of a you know, a waiste tied back and waste hie through swing. Um, and now look at where your club position is at impact. UM. I do that a lot of times. I'll have a player that's struggling with contact. They're struggling to control what the club faces doing, They're struggling to control the path. So I'll say, listen, just makebe what feels like a little half swing, make a half back swing, and make a half follow through. And I won't really say anything. I'll just say I'll the cues that all says listen. You know, imagine you're standing within the dial of a clock, your head is at twelve o'clock, your hands are at six o'clock, and you're just going to go back to what feels like about nine o'clock with your with your hand position on the back swing and three o'clock on the hand position on the follow through. So kind of waste tie back, waiste, tied through, um, and just go ahead and hit me shots. And I'll go ahead and film a couple of those, and and and invariably, I think in the majority of the golf lessons that that I give, um, the half swing will produce a different quality of strike, a different sound, a different divot, but also visually a different impact position. So then I'm able to say to a player, Okay, this is where you are when you're making your full swing, and this is what your impact position looks like. Um. And then this is you making what feels like a half swing and a kind of nine o'clock to three o'clock waste tie back waist tide through. And now this is what your impact position looks like. And if that looks better? UM. I always say to a player, well, why does that look better? Because I haven't really told you technically to do anything. I've just kind of told you the length of the back swing and the length of the follow through. So I don't really give a lot of audio cues as to what I'm trying to do. I'm just hey, listen, take this kind of waste tie back waiste tie through. But if the contact improves, if the ability to control the path improves, if the ability to control the club face improves, if if if the quality of of the contact, if the angle of attack changes, I would say it's a generalization, but I would say a lot of the um. The average recreational golfers um that I work with all say the same thing to me. Really after about a pitching wedge or a nine iron um the most players say they don't really take a lot of divots, and if they do take divots, they take divots behind the golf ball. So the club the arc is bottoming out behind the golf ball. So if we make the golf swings shorter, we can change the angle of attack. It's really important that when you're you're hitting golf balls and you're hitting your irons, specifically with our irons, you've always got to remember the golf ball is on the ground and the golf club starts on the ground. So as you swing the golf club up to the top of your back swing, and as you swing the golf club back down to impact, fundamentally the golf club has to get back down to the position it started in. So and if you do that, the angle of attack is going to be down with your irons. We want the angle of attack of the club to be down to the ball. When we stick a golf ball on a t and we're using our driver, we want that angle of attack to be up because the golf ball is in the air. I would say, um, it's a yeah, it's a generalization, but I mean, I think there's a lot of truth is I think most golfers I see um recreationally struggle to take divots because they're trying their golf balls. As the clubs get longer, especially with the irons, the golf balls don't get into the air, they don't fly, so there's this effort to try and swing up with the irons. When you do that, your arc either bottoms out or you start to top the golf ball. You hit it thin, and then most golfers tend to have a iron swing where they're hitting down on the ball with their driver. If you go to your home club and go to the the t box on a par five, you're going to see a lot of divots. You're going to see a lot of divots on par fives. On the te boxes, they're going to be left um predominantly, and there it's going to be divots. You expect to see divots on a par three. But if you go to a PGA Tour event um and go to a yard part part five, you're not gonna see any divots, um tour players, they don't take divots with their woods. So if we can change that quality of strike, if we can change that impact position, and even if we do it in a little bit of a small small um backswing, small follow through, it gives the player the opportunity to say, Okay, Wow, I'm hitting the golf ball more solid. Um, I'm catching it more in the center of the face. I'm I'm taking a little bit of a divot now, Um the golf ball isn't curving that much, and and I'm starting to change kind of how I'm moving. And you know, then it allows me, as the instructor, as the coach, to say, okay, so if we can get your body into these positions, SS get you into a better impact position, UM, get you you know, I see a lot of players, and again this is a generalization, but we see a lot of players specifically that struggle with their irons. Um, they've got more weight on their back foots. If their right handed golfer, they've got more weight on their right footed impact than they do on their left footed impact. Um. A lot of golfers will see have a tremendous amount of weight on their toes it impact. So in reality, they're not even on the ground with both of their feet. UM. So by having them work a little bit on a smaller swing, we can show them listen, you're transferring your weight better now. Your your footwork is better now, um, the way that your body is moving. And then it allows us to say to a player, Okay, so now let's kind of cycle back and forth between what's your full swing and what is kind of the drill swing and kind of go back and forth and UM, A lot of times I don't really have to talk a lot about what the club is doing, how a player is delivering the club. If we can just start to get them to think about where their body needs to be an impact, UM, how their weight needs to be. You know, you've got to have the sensation with your irons that there is more weight going forward it impact and not so much weight going back. Um. And if we can change that, UM, then it gives the player UM a little bit of an exhale because they're like, Okay, I'm starting through the golf ball a lot more solid now, even though I'm not making full swing, starting to hit the golf ball more solid. And then it allows us to kind of ramp up some of the things what we would ask the player to do from a speed standpoint. But what I'm always trying to do is in about three to five swings, I'm playing this game with myself in my head saying, Okay, what can I change that is going to help this player hit the golf ball more solid. If the back swings going very much on the inside, if the takeaway is going very much on the outside, let's take a quick break and we are back. I also, I think it's important for everyone listening to to understand that a lot of players, UM are in an extreme position at a dress right, So they're there, a grip is in an extreme position, their posture is in an extreme position, UM they're set up, their alignment is something is extreme. The ball position so you know, too far away from the golf ball, bent over, too close to the golf ball having to stand up. UM, ball being too far forward the shoulders get open, ball being too far back getting closed. So I think a lot of times when we look at players were looking at some flaws that they make before they hit the golf ball, and then that is can be a domino that pushes all these other dominants. If the backswing works dramatically on the inside, if the takeaway gets super super long, and sometimes we can change one of these things. UM, let's just shorten up your back swing. And as the backswing gets shorter, we know that the player is going to have the ability to maybe, UM, control the golf club a little bit more control the quality of the strike. UM. When we're looking at launch monitor technology, if you've got a player that slices the golf ball, I mean, that's pretty much the most common fault that I continue to to see on a regular basis, is the slicer of the golf ball. UM. The technology that's available now, if if we're able to watch a player hit golf balls on a launch monitor, is I'm able to say to the player, listen, Okay, your path is extreme. Right. Your path is you know, seven eight, nine degrees to the left. Um, you can somewhat get lucky and manage that with an iron, a short iron. But as the club gets longer. UM, when the path is that extreme, it makes it very hard for players to just be able to control the club face. UM. So what I'm trying to do from a path standpoint is say, Okay, let's say you're a big slicer. The golf ball in your path is eight nine degrees to the left. Why why don't we just try and cut that in half? Because I know that if we can get that number smaller, um, if we can get it down to maybe um four left from eight, if we can get it um kind of four and under, it's going to give the player the ability to control the club face. So I'm always looking at the extreme thing a player does, whether it's in the setup, whether it's in the alignment, whether it's in the ball position, whether it's in the grip. Um, what's going on in the backswing? Is there something? Is there one extreme thing that's going on in the backswing or as a player losing their posture, losing their heights. And I'm trying to figure out, Okay, if I can eliminate or make this extreme thing the player is doing, if I can somehow just start to minimize the damage that that has on the player, And that has then some of the other things that you're trying to get the player to do um in kind of back door them or they just kind of fall in line in the same way that because of the extreme thing they were doing in the golf swing before there were a bunch of other things that just started to happen, these dominoes. So if I can change the domino and get it going in a positive direction, then some of these things that are working on because I think one of the things that I think gets frustrating for for students is you go take a golf lesson and listen. I can look at, you know, the majority of the golf swings that I work with UM and say, listen, there's four or five things, maybe six things we would want to change. But if you're gonna try and change all six of those um into visually in a thirty minute golf lesson or an hour golf lesson, it's going to be very very difficult for the player to come up with, you know, a way to get their head around that. So I'm always trying to figure out, Okay, what can I do as the instructor that's going to take the extreme thing this player is doing, and if we can make it less extreme, we might not ever get rid of it totally, but if we can just make it less damaging, less catastrophic as on on what that's causing in the golf swing. Then we can get the player to have the idea of you know, controlling the golf club. And then I think it's also my job because I think a lot of golfers, UM play their entire golfing career and they don't really have a good idea as to what makes the golf ball do what it does. Um, they don't know what makes with an iron, what makes the golf ball go into the air. They don't know with the driver, UM, what are the optimal launch conditions. So that's where I think as an instructor, I can take the technology and say, Okay, in order for you to hit the golf ball that you want to hit, in order for you to hit the shot that you want to hit, these are some of the things that you need to do. UM. If it's a player that is a little bit more accomplished, that is trying to compete, UM, that is, you know, let's say a single digit handicap. I'm hyper hyper vigilant on on where a player is starting the golf ball relative to the shot they're trying to hit. So if a player tells me that they're trying to hit a draw, then to me, as someone that's trying to draw the golf ball consistently, you need to be able to consistently start the golf ball right of your target. If you're trying to fade the golf ball, you need to fundamentally consistently be able to start the golf ball left of the target. So a lot of times I'm saying two players, listen, don't worry so much about where the golf ball is going to go. Worry about where you, as the player, are trying to start the golf ball. So, if you're trying to hit a fade, okay, can you stand up and start ten golf balls for me and start all ten of these golf balls left of your target. If you're trying to hit me draws, can you, first and foremost, just get all ten of these golf balls to start right of the target. Let's not worry about where it's going to go, but let's get this initial start line to happen first. And sometimes we need to make that happen in smaller swings and drill swings. Sometimes we're able to do that in bigger swings, but having players be able to have a really clear understanding as to what they're trying to do. And then one of the things that I think that is vitally important for everyone listening and something that I try and do and all of the lessons that I give is I think it's most golfers can tell you all of the things that they're doing when they hit a bad shot, right when you hit the big week slice, you know all of the things that you're doing. But what I find really interesting is I think a lot of golfers spend the majority of their golfing career and don't really get any positive feedback from hitting good shots. You're on the driving range and you're handicapper, and you go to the driving range and it's you're getting ready to go play, and it's a stripe show, and you're just flushing every nine iron, every eight iron, every seven iron, every six iron. You're just crushing your driver. Everything's out of the middle of the club face. The shape that you're trying to hit is the shape that you're trying to hit. You're a slicer of the golf ball. But now all of a sudden, you're standing up. You're hitting beautiful, high little draws. You're hitting high bomb draws with your driver. Um if that does happen to you, I'd venture to say that most golfers have absolutely no idea as to what is happening, because the following day they can go out and shoot their career best score, come back the following day, do the exact same thing they were doing before, and it doesn't work. So let's take a short break and we will be back right after this, and we are back. So I think it's really important in one of the jobs that I think it's it's vital for me as an instructor is to say to a player, Okay, these are the things that you're doing when you're hitting a good shot. And if we have the technology to be able to show a player that, yes, I understand that not everyone listening has the availability to um to all of the technology that that that I have and that a lot of instructors have. But what I try and do with the technologies say, Okay, that's the best swing you've just made. Let's go ahead and look at how your body was looking when you made this good swing. Does it look different than when we started? Does the impact position look different? Okay, are you now transferring your weight better? Is your impact conditions better? With where your weight is versus when we started. If I can show you that visually as the player, or you'll say, wow, that looks really different. My backswing looks in a different position, my impact looks different, my follow through looks different, my footwork looks different. Um. Then if we've got a launch monitor, we can say, okay, you've now instead of the path being super super extreme, the path is becoming less destructive. And as the path is becoming less destructive, the club face is easier for you to contact. UM. One of the things that I think, UM, I see happen a lot with recreational golfers is when we're looking at club head speed and ball speed. I think most golfers are kind of obsessed with club head speed. What's my clubhead speed? What's my club head speed? But a lot of times when we look at clubhead speed, UM, I'm looking at it, you know, in parallel with ball speed. Because what sometimes we see as we see players club head speeds decrease, you know, one two miles per hour, but their ball speed increases five ten miles because they're catching the ball in the center of the club face more. And then all of a sudden they hit the golf ball ten fifteen yards further. They're actually swinging the golf club maybe one two miles per less. But because their impact position is better, because they're creating a better weight transfer, because they're delivering the club in a less extreme fashion, the ball speed number jumps, the contact is better, and we hit the golf ball further. So I'm always trying to figure out ways that I can show the player. Listen, you are making progress. So then while I'm doing this, going back to the offensive coordinator idea, I'm just thinking, Okay, what plays can I run? And if I can just keep having this student in, this player makes small incremental gains. You know, they're starting to hit more good shots than bad shots. They're starting to hit the golf ball more solid than they're not hitting the golf ball solid. And I know that if I can do that, then we're going to see something that looks better. We're going to hear something that looks better, and they're going to feel something that is different. And then I've got all of these plays that I'm trying to run from having given golf lessons for you know, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of golf lessons over, you know, the better part of two decades. I know that I've got enough stuff that I can say. Um, I'm always trying to look at what this one extreme thing in the golf swing that we're trying to change or eliminate. Um, how can I say the same thing to this player ten different ways? So if you're taking the golf club too much on the inside, UM, what are some things that I can say? Because UM, I know that if I can find, you know, ten different ways to say the same thing, ten different ways to explain the same concept, that sooner or later, the player that's hitting the ball is going to go Okay, that one makes sense. UM. I don't care how a player figures it out. I don't care what thoughts a player needs to use. I'm just interested in the player going Okay, that made sense. I like that thought. Okay, let's work with that thought. And then I just try and keep things as simple as I can, work on one specific thing, trying to change that one domino. And I know if I can do that, then we're going to have the ability for the player to you know, relax a little treadwater exhale, no longer feel like they're drowning, because that's what it feels like, right. I mean, everybody listening um has gone through that that phase of their golf to where they're on the range, the shank one, the top one, they hit one fat and what you do is you freak out as a player, right, you start to feel like you're drowning and you're like, oh my god, I've lost it. I had it and I've lost it. So my goal with giving golf lessons is to have players not have that feeling that they're losing it, that they're out of control, that they have the ability to control what the golf club is doing. Remember, the golf club will stay in your bag. Your seven iron will stay in your bag until you or someone else pick it up, take it out of your bag and move it. So always remember that it is you, as the player you were moving the golf club. Golf club is not moving you. And if you can fundamentally say okay, how can I move this golf club effectively? How can I move this golf club consistently? How can I have my body work efficiently? Um? And so that's what I try and do with players. I try and make golf as simple as I possibly can. Yes, there are a lot of things happening in your golf swing. It's complex. You've got all these different body parts. It's near. The golf swing is over in second and a half to two seconds. It's a very very small, short dynamic movement pattern, and there is a lot going on. But if my if I do my job, I can help a player say, Okay, I have a better idea, a better concept of what I'm trying to do. Now. Um, when I hit good shots, I have a really good understanding as to what I'm trying to do when I hit a good shot. Okay, if I hit a good shot, that means I'm doing these things in the same way that when you hit a bad shot, and you can tell somebody all the things you did. If you hit a big week slice, Yeah, I came over it, hung back with my way, cut across it, chicken wings off the toe. Okay, those are the things you do when you get a bad one. All right, you just did a really good shot. Talk me through what you just did to hit the really good shot, and hopefully the player can start to have those feelings. I think it's really important for everyone listening that really really take notes and really really clue in on your good shots um as much as your bad shots, because if you can do that, you can start to have a better understanding UM as to what is happening on a regular basis. UM. And if you have to make the movement pattern smaller in the beginning to gain some control over the golf club, to gain some control over the path and the face um. And then maybe you cycle back and forth between one drill swing that is a half swing, and then one full swing with a seven iron, and then back to a drill swing with the seven and then back to the full swing, and then asking yourself as a player, Okay, what feels different about my drill swing. The drill swing feels solid, it's in the center of the club face, I take a good dividu. I feel on balance when I hit my full swing. Okay, I'm still feeling these things. And then work kind of as a power of you know, deducting some things. Okay, yeah, let me get my weight forward like am in the short shot. But making the movement pattern smaller, I think are really really important. And remembering that that golf really is a fairly simple game that tends to confuse smart people. So when you're hitting golf balls, UM, just remember, yes, there's a lot of things going on, but you as the player have to control the golf club, and you as the player need to have less extreme things in your golf swing because if there are less extreme things, it's going to make the golf club and the and and make your ability to control the golf swing much easier to do. And then I don't think it will seem as confusing if you're able to say, Okay, what am I doing when I hit a good shot of a really good clear picture of that? Okay, and that's the opposite of what I'm doing when I hit a bad shot. So, um, yeah, that's just kind of how I give golf lessons and some of the things that you know, I think I've listened. I could talk every eek on you know, what it's like to give golf lessons and stuff like that. But UM, I think it's important, um for people to understand that when you're taking a golf lesson from an instructor, UM, you know what that instructor is is thinking, and and that's kind of, you know, my blueprint of giving golf lessons, UM, I've had some success doing it, and the reason why I continue to do a lot of the things that I do in golf instruction is because I have had success with it. So UM, when I look at players and I look at instructors, and you know, I don't necessarily agree with every instructor's methods, UM, I have my own personal preferences. What I look at is the body of work from a student. So UM. For the instructors listening, if your players are improving, if your handicaps UM with the players that you're working on are coming down, and you're helping players get better, keep doing that because obviously what you're doing is working. So UM, thanks everyone for listening. I hope that helped UM and UM, next time you go get a golf lesson, UM, you know, maybe use some of those UM ideas and thoughts that UM we talked about in this episode. Son of a Butch comes to you every Wednesday. Thanks everyone for listening. We will see you next week.