1 00:00:02,160 --> 00:00:08,119 The primary differentiators between professional golfers and recreational golfers is indeed physical skill. Now, 2 00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:13,560 the difference between really good pro players and just okay professional players is psychological, 3 00:00:13,839 --> 00:00:18,000 not always, but primarily so. The difference in skill between a professional 4 00:00:18,039 --> 00:00:22,199 golfer and your average recreational golfer is leaps and balance. You could be the 5 00:00:22,359 --> 00:00:26,359 most confident and the most present recreational golfer and at a ten handicap, you're 6 00:00:26,359 --> 00:00:30,120 going to get killed by a professional player, even if that professional player is 7 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:33,079 playing through anxiety. Like, the skill difference is too I, I don't 8 00:00:33,079 --> 00:00:37,200 want to present to our psychology is the only thing that's important in our performant. 9 00:00:37,399 --> 00:00:41,000 It is not skill matters, but what access we have to that skill 10 00:00:41,079 --> 00:00:45,039 depends on how stable our confidence is. And so if you think about anxiety, 11 00:00:45,119 --> 00:00:50,159 it's a reflection of really unstable confidence, which basically means you're more preoccupied 12 00:00:50,159 --> 00:00:54,399 with trying to avoid a future you don't want than you are pursuing the task 13 00:00:54,439 --> 00:00:58,840 at hand in the present moment. Hi, this is Tony Redden from Such 14 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:03,879 Daddy Ohio. I play golf at Human golf Course. This is Golf Smarter 15 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:14,159 Number eight Golf Beneath the Surface The News Science of Golf Psychology with author Raymond 16 00:01:14,159 --> 00:01:19,200 Pryor. This is Golf Smarter, sharing stories, tips and insights from great 17 00:01:19,239 --> 00:01:25,519 golf minds to help you lower your score and raise your golf IQ. Here's 18 00:01:25,519 --> 00:01:30,200 your host, Fred Green. Welcome to Golf Smarter podcast. Raymond. Thank 19 00:01:30,239 --> 00:01:34,439 you very much, Fred, good to be here. It's great to have 20 00:01:34,519 --> 00:01:38,719 you on. I'm fascinated about this book. It's intense. I have to 21 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:42,760 tell you. This book is intense, but I learned so much. When 22 00:01:42,799 --> 00:01:48,359 you say intense, what do you mean by that? Sometimes it felt clinical, 23 00:01:48,480 --> 00:01:53,519 sometimes it felt academic, and then sometimes it was chatty. So I 24 00:01:53,599 --> 00:01:59,480 really was enjoying it. I was enjoying it, but I find that I 25 00:01:59,480 --> 00:02:04,920 would spend more time reading because I was reading slowly and reading things over like, 26 00:02:04,959 --> 00:02:09,039 wait, let me absorb that a little bit more. But you got 27 00:02:09,080 --> 00:02:15,520 me on the title alone Golf Beneath the Surface the New Science of Golf Psychology, 28 00:02:15,560 --> 00:02:21,800 which I thought was a great title and also a practical guide to composure 29 00:02:21,919 --> 00:02:27,080 under pressure, long term growth, and more fulfilling relationship with the game. 30 00:02:29,319 --> 00:02:34,960 What brought you to write this book, Well, probably the exact reason that 31 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:38,400 your experience was in that A couple of people have told me like, Okay, 32 00:02:38,400 --> 00:02:42,840 this is a little bit of a different read for the performance psychology part 33 00:02:42,840 --> 00:02:46,360 of golf, and it's going to take and reading the book is a little 34 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:50,879 bit more comprehensive, no doubt, and there is some academic information in it. 35 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:57,080 There's also some I discussed pretty significantly the type of stuff that we as 36 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:00,919 humans take personally about golf that keeps us from being as infinite as we would 37 00:03:00,960 --> 00:03:04,000 like to be, in keeping the game from being as enjoyable, and I 38 00:03:04,039 --> 00:03:07,360 talk about them at a mechanistic level, meaning at the deepest level that we 39 00:03:07,439 --> 00:03:10,159 understand thus far. The reason it's been a bit of a read for people 40 00:03:10,159 --> 00:03:14,520 where they might have to go back and really soak things in is because most 41 00:03:14,520 --> 00:03:19,120 golfers don't have a very good understanding about their psychology based on what's been currently 42 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:22,919 available in golf. And quite frankly, the book is a bit of a 43 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:25,520 challenge to the status quo of what's been available for a long time, which 44 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:30,560 has been helpful to a lot of people. I don't want to discount any 45 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:34,199 of that, but the psychology in golf has been due for an upgrade for 46 00:03:34,280 --> 00:03:38,719 quite a while, and there's never been more science and never been a deeper 47 00:03:38,759 --> 00:03:43,919 understanding of human psychology, particularly as it relates to performance. And my hope 48 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:47,599 is that this book provides an upgrade to golfers looking for it. Like every 49 00:03:47,639 --> 00:03:53,719 area of golf is jumping by leaps and bounds because of the science behind it 50 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:58,000 and the research being done, whether that's club technology, golf ball technology, 51 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:02,159 course management. The psychology of the game has been lagging behind for a long 52 00:04:02,199 --> 00:04:06,240 time. So the fact that this book is something that people have to absorb 53 00:04:06,280 --> 00:04:10,319 a little bit more than previous resources, I think is a little bit more 54 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:14,199 of an understanding that people don't understand it very deeply. My hope is that 55 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:17,319 that book, this book will give them that information and so that they can 56 00:04:17,399 --> 00:04:23,160 kind of be a bit of an expert on their own psychology rather than outsourcing 57 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:28,319 it to someone at like kind of more of a surface level. Well, 58 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:30,800 you know, here you are on Golf Smarter, and the premise of this 59 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:38,120 show has always been about you can basically, you can improve your game faster 60 00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:41,639 by working on your mental game and your mental approach to the game. Then 61 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:44,959 you can if you just work on your swing mechanics and I've gotten lots of 62 00:04:44,959 --> 00:04:48,839 confirmation about that over the years. But when when you say it's needed an 63 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:57,680 upgrade, when do you feel that golf, the mental game of golf, 64 00:04:57,759 --> 00:05:05,160 or golf psychology got agnant? Difficult to say, probably before we realized it 65 00:05:05,199 --> 00:05:09,560 does. And that is because it takes a little while, you know, 66 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:13,360 for really good research to be done in any field, but particularly psychology, 67 00:05:13,399 --> 00:05:17,480 Like you're talking about a multi year, multi phase process of kind of exploratory 68 00:05:17,519 --> 00:05:23,680 research moving into more experimental research, into longitude and all research. And so 69 00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:27,959 the stagnation and kind of the lag behind has probably been happening for a couple 70 00:05:27,959 --> 00:05:34,839 of decades. Best guests and much of the stuff that has been available for 71 00:05:34,879 --> 00:05:38,759 a while, and this is certainly true even before I got to graduate school 72 00:05:38,759 --> 00:05:41,800 and was studying it was stuff that was kind of commonly accepted as kind of 73 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:45,279 best practices at the times. But they we know now that we're working those 74 00:05:45,319 --> 00:05:49,160 were working from some outdated models, and that there's more valuable stuff to us 75 00:05:49,199 --> 00:05:53,959 if we understand them a little bit more comprehensively. In the same way, 76 00:05:54,639 --> 00:05:59,399 you know, what is the like, how long has course strategy been lagging 77 00:05:59,439 --> 00:06:02,480 behind for someone like as Scott Fosset comes around and starts doing some advanced math 78 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:05,800 on it and starts figuring out like, actually, this is the best way 79 00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:09,839 to play golf courses. These are the types of things that really do matter, 80 00:06:10,160 --> 00:06:14,319 you know. I had a conversation with lou Stagner last week and he 81 00:06:14,399 --> 00:06:17,279 was talking about like, how on TV you often hear something like, well, 82 00:06:17,319 --> 00:06:19,439 you need to be in this part of the fair way to have a 83 00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:23,800 good angle to a flag or a good approach to the flag. Turns out, 84 00:06:23,839 --> 00:06:27,759 statistically speaking, not true at all. Farther down the fairway the better. 85 00:06:28,079 --> 00:06:30,399 Basically a period dowd of sentence and just being in the fairway is plenty 86 00:06:30,399 --> 00:06:34,480 good enough. Now are you splitting hairs? Sure, depending on if you're 87 00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:38,519 playing Augusta National and you're going to have to hit something into a tuck pin. 88 00:06:38,639 --> 00:06:42,439 But for the most part, just being in the fairway is priority number 89 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:44,720 one. In what side of it on you're on, matters far less than 90 00:06:44,759 --> 00:06:47,120 we thought it does. In the same way that a lot of the psychological 91 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:50,680 models we are working from, like just trust and just don't think and you 92 00:06:50,759 --> 00:06:56,000 got to just relax are all outdated things that seemed really valuable at the time. 93 00:06:56,000 --> 00:06:58,519 But if we take a deeper look at them in a more objective way, 94 00:06:58,519 --> 00:07:02,000 we find out they actually do more harm good. You know, we're 95 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:09,199 talking primarily here this the audience, recreational golfers, amateur golfers. They're just 96 00:07:09,319 --> 00:07:13,360 happy to be in the fairway. Sure, I forget about which side is, 97 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:15,959 you know. I play with guys who regularly, if the ball hits 98 00:07:15,959 --> 00:07:19,240 the green, they're like, great shot, you know, but they're only 99 00:07:19,279 --> 00:07:24,480 eighty yards out, you know. Where we're on the tour level, these 100 00:07:24,519 --> 00:07:30,839 guys are throwing dimes at the pin and if they're outside of five feet they're 101 00:07:30,920 --> 00:07:32,959 upset. Yeah. I will tell you this though, If you told a 102 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:35,920 PGA tour player you're just going to be in the fairway all the time, 103 00:07:35,959 --> 00:07:40,560 and what side of the fairway could be either, why they'll take out every 104 00:07:40,560 --> 00:07:46,399 time. I promise you that if they would. So what brought you to 105 00:07:46,399 --> 00:07:51,519 to this point where you're able to write a book? Are you a PhD? 106 00:07:51,720 --> 00:07:56,759 Are you m D? Tell me your history? Yeah? So? 107 00:07:56,879 --> 00:08:01,279 My by training and trade, I'm a performance consultant. Areas of expertise our 108 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:05,759 performance psychology, performance neuroscience, and sleep science. I have a doctorate in 109 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:11,560 performance psychology, a bunch of different master's degrees in related fields like sports sciences 110 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:16,959 and counseling, a couple of undergrad degrees, so I am abundantly educated, 111 00:08:18,639 --> 00:08:22,519 and then spend a lot of my time researching and trying to understand most fields, 112 00:08:22,600 --> 00:08:28,800 particularly brain related to performance. And I got to it being curious about 113 00:08:28,839 --> 00:08:33,559 what it is that keeps people from really getting better and performing under pressure. 114 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:37,799 And as we find out, the first domino in the order of operations to 115 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:41,000 allow us to physically perform is always our psychology. You know, you had 116 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:45,799 mentioned, you know, people telling you what I get better focusing on my 117 00:08:45,879 --> 00:08:50,000 psychology of how I'm playing more than just beating balls and physic trying to physically 118 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:54,279 practice. The gateway to getting better physically begins psychologically. So for me, 119 00:08:54,360 --> 00:08:58,639 I just wanted to go to the front of the line so that all the 120 00:08:58,679 --> 00:09:01,840 things people do to try to perform better, whether that's their rest and recovery, 121 00:09:01,120 --> 00:09:05,240 their nutrition, the physical training they're doing for their bodies, strength and 122 00:09:05,279 --> 00:09:09,440 conditioning, all the way to actually learning the skills and strategies. Of of 123 00:09:09,519 --> 00:09:13,159 course, they have more access to those because their psychology is not the main 124 00:09:13,200 --> 00:09:16,559 barrier to it. So in a nutshell, that's kind of my job is 125 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:20,320 to help people understand their psychology so that it opens the doors to all those 126 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:24,480 other things. And people have asked me, like, what percent of golf 127 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:26,879 is mental? Is at ninety nine percent mental one percent? Like, I 128 00:09:26,919 --> 00:09:31,559 don't know what the percent is. I think it would be kind of impossible 129 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:33,679 to tell. All I can tell is whatever percent it is, it's what 130 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:39,879 is influencing every single other facet of the game more than any others. And 131 00:09:39,879 --> 00:09:41,679 so if you take care of whether it's one percent or ninety nine percent, 132 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:46,879 if you're training that one percent, you're getting more out of every other area. 133 00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:50,240 And I wouldn't pretend that psychology is everything in our performance, because it's 134 00:09:50,279 --> 00:09:54,559 not. But like I said, it's the first domino in the order of 135 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:56,240 operations, and if we take care of that one, the rest of them 136 00:09:56,279 --> 00:10:01,720 tend to get better. And how do we take care of it well, 137 00:10:01,720 --> 00:10:03,600 first is to understand it, which again is part of why I wrote the 138 00:10:03,600 --> 00:10:07,919 book. You know, even talking with tour professionals, just because they are 139 00:10:07,960 --> 00:10:11,559 the ones performing under pressure like it's a it would be a misconception to think 140 00:10:11,559 --> 00:10:15,799 that they know deeply about their own psychology or how their psychology works, or 141 00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:18,159 even how their brain is designed to operate. Many of them don't, and 142 00:10:18,200 --> 00:10:20,840 why would they. They've been playing golf their whole life and training their golf 143 00:10:20,879 --> 00:10:24,639 swings and their putting strokes the whole time, right, So the bottom line, 144 00:10:24,679 --> 00:10:28,360 do you even understand how your brain is operate, operates, and how 145 00:10:28,360 --> 00:10:33,200 it's designed to learn, how it's designed to respond to stress, to uncertainty, 146 00:10:33,559 --> 00:10:39,200 those types of triggers and all of our performance environments. And then can 147 00:10:39,240 --> 00:10:43,559 you also understand how do I train and articulate the types of things that allow 148 00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:46,159 me to be present more often, build more stable confidence, and be aware 149 00:10:46,200 --> 00:10:50,960 of my own responses to things. It's there are systematic approaches to all of 150 00:10:50,960 --> 00:10:56,159 them, but it's certainly begins with just understanding your brain and your mind on 151 00:10:56,200 --> 00:11:00,720 a more mechanistic level on how it's designed to operate. In the same way 152 00:11:00,759 --> 00:11:03,399 that the tour pros are really good at hitting golf balls because they're hitting golf 153 00:11:03,440 --> 00:11:07,919 balls based on how the club is designed. So imagine if you don't understand 154 00:11:07,919 --> 00:11:11,240 how a golf club is designed, it would be a lot more difficult to 155 00:11:11,279 --> 00:11:13,039 hit a golf ball. Well, same thing with our brain. If you 156 00:11:13,039 --> 00:11:16,080 don't know how it's designed to operate, it's very difficult to deliver it to 157 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:18,559 the things. In the same way, it be much more difficult to deliver 158 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:22,159 the golf face to the golf ball if you don't understand how a golf club 159 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:28,840 is designed to get the golf ball in the air. I find it fascinating 160 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:33,720 that you are a PhD and yet you don't put doctor or PhD on the 161 00:11:33,799 --> 00:11:39,360 cover of your book. That's usually a selling point, isn't it. I 162 00:11:39,399 --> 00:11:43,919 think sometimes I don't feel the need to flaunt credentials in people's faces, or 163 00:11:43,039 --> 00:11:46,159 to try to loom it and use it as a marketing campaign. My name's 164 00:11:46,159 --> 00:11:50,639 on the book because I wrote it. I want it to be something that 165 00:11:50,159 --> 00:11:54,039 when someone walks by it, they might go, that's interesting. I'll pick 166 00:11:54,080 --> 00:11:58,000 it up because I'm interested in golf. I'm interested in understanding myself better and 167 00:11:58,080 --> 00:12:01,200 perhaps playing better. Not because they're some letters after some guy's name. Now, 168 00:12:01,200 --> 00:12:05,000 if that's a selling point for some people, because it adds credibility to 169 00:12:05,039 --> 00:12:09,559 me, open the first page. You'll see PhD after my name. Fine, 170 00:12:09,159 --> 00:12:13,360 but I don't. My ego is strong enough that I don't need it 171 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:16,720 to be on the first page as a means to try to rope people in 172 00:12:16,879 --> 00:12:22,039 awesome. Listen, we're gonna be right back, but we have some sponsors 173 00:12:22,039 --> 00:12:26,320 who want to talk about why they're part of the Golf Smarter podcast. We'll 174 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:39,159 be right back. Raymond. I'm curious to talk about the myths of golf 175 00:12:39,279 --> 00:12:52,720 psychology and golf's mental game that have kind of permeated the conversation and you're finding 176 00:12:52,919 --> 00:12:58,840 to not be not only not true, but maybe not even helpful. Correct. 177 00:12:58,480 --> 00:13:01,399 Yeah, so you're kind of alluding to what we had discussed before, 178 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:05,919 which is perhaps in the past we've been working on a couple of outdated models 179 00:13:05,960 --> 00:13:09,279 that we're actually finding are more harmful than helpful, and not just neutral, 180 00:13:09,399 --> 00:13:15,679 but perhaps harmful. In the book, I dispel probably five or six different 181 00:13:15,759 --> 00:13:20,080 myths that are pretty common practices, not just in golf, but in performance 182 00:13:20,080 --> 00:13:24,600 psychology in general, that we're finding out that don't really work very well and 183 00:13:24,639 --> 00:13:28,360 tend to proliferate the types of struggles that we create for ourselves. You're in 184 00:13:28,399 --> 00:13:31,759 the first section of the book, I address the myth that a little bit 185 00:13:31,799 --> 00:13:35,799 of anxiety is a good thing. This is something you hear in golf all 186 00:13:35,919 --> 00:13:41,279 the time, and the bottom line, our research tells us the exact opposite. 187 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:43,840 Now, it is perfectly normal for us as human beings to feel anxiety 188 00:13:43,879 --> 00:13:48,320 at times. Anxiety, by definition, is worry about the future. It's 189 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:54,559 not the same as feeling nervous. Nervous is our physiological response to when things 190 00:13:54,600 --> 00:13:58,039 are important to us and they're actually happening in real time and results count. 191 00:13:58,559 --> 00:14:03,840 Anxiety is different. Anxiety is worrying about a future that doesn't necessarily exist yet, 192 00:14:05,240 --> 00:14:11,559 and that worry creates multitasking between the present moment and the future, which 193 00:14:11,639 --> 00:14:16,480 disrupts physical skills. And not only that, it makes the experience less enjoyable. 194 00:14:18,559 --> 00:14:22,120 When we are off time, off time meaning dwelling on the past or 195 00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:28,240 projecting the future, it's a low dopaminergic experience to that, and by the 196 00:14:28,279 --> 00:14:31,039 mean it means low dopamine. Low dopamine is another way of saying doesn't feel 197 00:14:31,120 --> 00:14:35,440 very good for us. It's not very motivating, and it makes the experience 198 00:14:35,480 --> 00:14:41,399 feel longer. So dopamine plays a massive role in how enjoyable things feel to 199 00:14:41,480 --> 00:14:46,600 us, even when they're difficult and uncertain and really challenging, and perhaps includes 200 00:14:46,639 --> 00:14:50,720 some adversity, and dopamine also plays a significant role in how we experience the 201 00:14:50,759 --> 00:14:54,960 passage of time. Low dopamine experiences feel like they take forever, which is 202 00:14:54,960 --> 00:15:00,559 why if you play golf through anxiety or frustration where you're just multitasking with timeframes 203 00:15:00,559 --> 00:15:03,399 that don't exist, the round of golf feels a whole lot longer and is 204 00:15:03,399 --> 00:15:07,200 far less enjoyable than it is if you're present more often. The bottom line 205 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:11,200 is, we have decades of research that show us that the more present we 206 00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:13,240 are and the things that are important to us, the more enjoyable they become, 207 00:15:13,559 --> 00:15:18,799 the better we are at dealing with the challenges within them, and ultimately 208 00:15:18,799 --> 00:15:24,039 we're higher functioning human beings and them as well. So, if we're really 209 00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:26,879 talking about what our psychology is gearing as tortoise, does it allow you access 210 00:15:26,919 --> 00:15:31,720 to being present at the times of our lives when it's most beneficial for us? 211 00:15:31,679 --> 00:15:37,559 Indeed, So what separates I don't want to say tour players, let's 212 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:46,879 say elite players from the recreational player as far as anxiety, our nerves, 213 00:15:48,519 --> 00:15:56,360 yet nothing really really The primary differentiators between professional golfers and recreational golfers is indeed 214 00:15:56,360 --> 00:16:00,159 physical skill. Now, the difference between really good pro players and just okay 215 00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:07,279 professional players is psychological, not always, but primarily, right, So the 216 00:16:07,320 --> 00:16:11,320 difference in skill between a professional golfer and your average recreational golfer is leaps and 217 00:16:11,399 --> 00:16:15,559 balance. You could be the most confident and the most present recreational golfer and 218 00:16:15,600 --> 00:16:19,200 add a ten handicap, you're going to get killed by a professional player, 219 00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:22,759 even if that professional player is playing through anxiety. Like the skill differences to 220 00:16:22,879 --> 00:16:26,919 I, So again, I don't want to present to our psychology is the 221 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:30,200 only thing that's important in our performance. It is not skill matters, but 222 00:16:30,360 --> 00:16:36,240 what access we have to that skill depends on how stable our confidence is. 223 00:16:36,279 --> 00:16:40,919 And so if you think about anxiety, it's a reflection of really unstable confidence, 224 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:45,240 which basically means you're more preoccupied with trying to avoid a future you don't 225 00:16:45,279 --> 00:16:49,960 want than you are pursuing the task at hand in the present moment. Do 226 00:16:51,039 --> 00:16:55,480 not make the misconception that all professional golfers are super confident all the time and 227 00:16:55,519 --> 00:16:59,480 their confidence is stable. Most of them don't. Most of them, in 228 00:16:59,519 --> 00:17:03,400 fact, I would say, have really unstable confidence where they are because they 229 00:17:03,400 --> 00:17:07,599 were so good so early they could rely on the fact that they were just 230 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:12,519 getting results really fast and in the ways that they wanted to for so long 231 00:17:12,519 --> 00:17:18,440 that their confidence has been built on that for so long that once that doesn't 232 00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:22,160 become that the skill doesn't become the differentiator. Now you have to generate stable 233 00:17:22,200 --> 00:17:26,359 confidence in a self driven way, not an outcome driven way. And so 234 00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:30,839 if you move up the learning curve in any craft, the more you move 235 00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:33,480 to the top of the learning curve where it takes longer and more effort to 236 00:17:33,519 --> 00:17:38,720 make smaller and smaller increments of progress, and the skill differentiator and the strategic 237 00:17:38,759 --> 00:17:45,279 differentiators between people get smaller and smaller and smaller. Psychology plays a much more 238 00:17:45,799 --> 00:17:49,240 influential role. And if you cannot generate stable confidence on your own, you're 239 00:17:49,279 --> 00:17:52,799 not going to get the results fast enough to be able to maintain that confidence, 240 00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:56,359 which is why they get in these kind of trap loops. I'm amateurs 241 00:17:56,359 --> 00:18:00,519 as well, but pros to the same degree. I have to hit a 242 00:18:00,559 --> 00:18:03,880 good shot to be confident enough to hit a good shot. Is a super 243 00:18:03,960 --> 00:18:08,960 unstable formula for creating confidence because past events do not actually predict future events, 244 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:12,119 and your brain knows that, so what it does is it creates a ton 245 00:18:12,160 --> 00:18:17,519 of self induced pressure to produce an outcome right now, which makes you less 246 00:18:17,559 --> 00:18:21,079 likely to be able to perform it efficiently. And then when you don't get 247 00:18:21,119 --> 00:18:22,720 it, you put even more pressure on yourself to do it again, and 248 00:18:22,759 --> 00:18:26,920 this loop goes around and around and around and gets tighter and tighter and tighter. 249 00:18:26,519 --> 00:18:30,039 On the other hand, stable confidence is I'm going to execute this shot. 250 00:18:30,200 --> 00:18:33,359 I'm going to see where it goes, without needing it to determine my 251 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:40,799 emotional or psychological state in any way. And then you've essentially stopped outsourcing your 252 00:18:40,799 --> 00:18:45,880 confidence to outcomes. And the players that figure that out sooner play more consistently, 253 00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:51,359 They play more, they play better under pressure, and oftentimes separate themselves. 254 00:18:51,400 --> 00:18:55,359 Like seeing the best players in the world and the highest rankings, competing 255 00:18:55,359 --> 00:18:59,200 in the top twenty and competing in majors every week is not just because they're 256 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:02,519 more skilled than golfers around them. In fact, some of them aren't, 257 00:19:03,559 --> 00:19:07,039 but their psychology allows them to perform freely when it matters most to them, 258 00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:12,759 which is why they're in the in contention weekend in week out. I don't 259 00:19:12,759 --> 00:19:17,759 know if you're familiar with the program that was on Netflix. I'm pretty sure 260 00:19:18,519 --> 00:19:25,440 that went inside the PGA tour and just selected different players and talk about a 261 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:30,640 guy with all the skills in the world who was attacked by clearly it was 262 00:19:30,640 --> 00:19:34,359 like the first time he had ever I'm talking about brooks Kepka. It seemed 263 00:19:34,400 --> 00:19:38,680 like it was the first time he'd ever been presented with worrying about his psychology, 264 00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:45,440 and yeah, it really debilitated him. It can be a real blow. 265 00:19:45,519 --> 00:19:48,279 Now, I'm not going to guess at psychology specifically, because I think 266 00:19:48,319 --> 00:19:52,880 that's just reckless and unethical and rude. But if you're talking about any athlete 267 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:56,839 who has just been sure, if you're talking about somebody who has just been 268 00:19:56,960 --> 00:20:03,200 riding immense and very quick and early success to confidence and then you remove that, 269 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:07,559 which part of it is he's injured and his body not doing what he 270 00:20:07,599 --> 00:20:11,119 wants to yet after having a pretty significant knee surgery and then having to work 271 00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:15,200 back from that, it is a tremendous blow. And you'll see this in 272 00:20:15,240 --> 00:20:18,960 sports or performance anywhere. Would you go, here's the thing that your confidence 273 00:20:18,039 --> 00:20:22,200 is built on. But because it's external and not internally driven, when you 274 00:20:22,319 --> 00:20:26,079 remove it, now you're in trouble. And you've either got to learn to 275 00:20:26,839 --> 00:20:30,960 build it internally, which is difficult to do when you've never had to do 276 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,799 that your whole life, but the far more sustainable method, or you do 277 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:38,400 what many of them do, which is you start chasing outcomes again, and 278 00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:41,920 then that becomes a really slippery slope because you start cutting corners, you start 279 00:20:41,960 --> 00:20:45,359 looking for quick and easy fixes and hacks, and you become highly impatient, 280 00:20:45,359 --> 00:20:51,759 and it's super frustrating, and ultimately it can be that trap loop all over 281 00:20:51,799 --> 00:20:53,759 again. It's just for the first time for many people. That's where the 282 00:20:53,799 --> 00:21:00,240 trap loop starts to get exposed for them. And so at that point points 283 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:04,279 where the outcomes are not creating confidence for us, our psychological framework gets exposed 284 00:21:04,319 --> 00:21:08,359 a little bit. And you know, for Brooks it was in a more 285 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:14,160 public way because he's on a Netflix show, but that is an incredibly common 286 00:21:14,200 --> 00:21:17,680 experience. I imagine there were many people watching that being able to relate to 287 00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:21,400 it, relate to it. I was cheering it. It was like, 288 00:21:21,599 --> 00:21:23,960 oh my god, it's not just us. Yeah, Like I said, 289 00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:29,599 I wouldn't fall for the misconception that tour players have stable confidence all the time. 290 00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:33,599 They are incredibly skilled, but they have the same struggles in terms of 291 00:21:33,599 --> 00:21:37,039 their psychology that we do. Win. Again, we don't understand it very 292 00:21:37,039 --> 00:21:41,119 well. We don't understand what we've built our confidence on before and why that's 293 00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:45,240 not work anymore, or what to move toward that is a more sustainable model 294 00:21:45,279 --> 00:21:49,119 for us. It happens to performers at the top levels in every performance room. 295 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:55,640 Yeah, I guess it. Does you watch that show? I've seen 296 00:21:55,640 --> 00:22:00,680 a couple episodes, Yeah, yeah, And did you feel that they were 297 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:07,960 misrepresenting him or maybe in fact going someplace they shouldn't with him? You know, 298 00:22:07,079 --> 00:22:12,559 I've professionally speaking, Yeah, I've only met Brooks in passing. I 299 00:22:12,559 --> 00:22:15,319 wouldn't even say we really know each other at all, so I can't say 300 00:22:15,319 --> 00:22:21,680 how accurate that is for him. I think there's some of that show that 301 00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:26,720 is extra because it's a show and they want to make it really exciting, 302 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:30,720 to make it really make it really dramatic. I do think it's a good 303 00:22:30,759 --> 00:22:36,559 window into the tour lifestyle for some people. I would be hesitant to make 304 00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:41,599 sweeping conclusions about anything I see in a sixth episode or seven episode Netflix series. 305 00:22:41,599 --> 00:22:45,480 For sure, it's somewhat representative, but I wouldn't say it's the whole 306 00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:48,799 picture by any means, of course, not, of course not. But 307 00:22:48,839 --> 00:22:52,079 we want to believe it is all right. Another spotsor wants to talk to 308 00:22:52,160 --> 00:23:03,160 us, we'll bring back For those who are not watching the video. But 309 00:23:03,039 --> 00:23:07,079 I can listen to this, they can't tell that above your right shoulder on 310 00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:11,599 the wall in the office that you're in, there's a flag from Augusta National 311 00:23:11,799 --> 00:23:19,799 from the Masters. So I'm assuming you've been there before, do you have? 312 00:23:21,839 --> 00:23:26,279 Did you go there as a for work or did you go there to 313 00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:30,920 enjoy golf or both? Of course, well both, but for work, 314 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:34,920 I mean I've been there the last couple about the last decade or so for 315 00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:38,039 work, working with players who have been competing. I've also been as a 316 00:23:38,039 --> 00:23:41,759 fan. Thankfully, one year I did get to go with my father and 317 00:23:41,799 --> 00:23:45,720 we just enjoyed the experience kind of as father and son, which is which 318 00:23:45,759 --> 00:23:49,160 is for anybody who's done that with their dad or their son knows it's a 319 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:52,559 it's a pretty special experience, especially if you both really like golf. So 320 00:23:53,119 --> 00:23:56,799 yeah, I've been been in and around Augusta quite a bit. Actually, 321 00:23:56,839 --> 00:24:00,160 my wife and I used to live in Augusta for Your Soul while she was 322 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:03,519 finishing up her post doc for her work. So it's an area that we 323 00:24:03,559 --> 00:24:07,839 are acquainted with a couple of restaurants that I'm still very fond of. So 324 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:14,680 I always enjoy the experience going back every year. That's awesome. Well, 325 00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:18,680 I'm not going to ask you who your clients have been, But when you're 326 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:23,279 out there and you're watching at the highest level, it really is the highest 327 00:24:23,359 --> 00:24:27,960 level of the game. And you're watching one of your clients, can you 328 00:24:29,519 --> 00:24:36,319 tell what's going on in their head and know when they're they're in a downward 329 00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:41,920 spiral or even if they've they're totally locked in. Sure, it depends. 330 00:24:42,039 --> 00:24:47,440 So I think a really common misconception is that because you have some knowledge of 331 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:51,640 psychology, it makes you a mind reader. It doesn't. My clients know 332 00:24:51,759 --> 00:24:53,000 that I'm going to ask them a lot of questions to them, some of 333 00:24:53,039 --> 00:24:56,599 those questions might seem obvious, but I'm not very good at my job when 334 00:24:56,599 --> 00:25:00,720 I'm guessing. Now, Having said, if I know a client well enough 335 00:25:02,039 --> 00:25:07,640 and the types of things that are within their psychological framework and their habitual response 336 00:25:07,720 --> 00:25:12,119 pattern, when you know that about somebody, things can be somewhat more predictable 337 00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:18,440 because you understand the mechanisms and that person underneath. So if, for example, 338 00:25:18,519 --> 00:25:22,480 someone was getting off the rails a little bit, not only would their 339 00:25:22,519 --> 00:25:26,319 performance probably tell me, but I would probably have an idea of that was 340 00:25:26,400 --> 00:25:30,680 something that was on their radar, or perhaps wasn't and we didn't address well 341 00:25:30,759 --> 00:25:33,880 enough. And when somebody's locked in, I mean, it doesn't take a 342 00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:37,640 psychologist to figure out when somebody's locked in, right and now, locked in 343 00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:41,880 just means you're present and you're single tasking on the only thing that is required 344 00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:44,440 of you, which is whatever's right in front of you, shot, in 345 00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:47,160 front of you, walking into your next ball, whatever it might be. 346 00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:49,720 It doesn't take someone to figure out that too soon. Now, having said 347 00:25:49,759 --> 00:25:52,359 that, I don't guess with my clients. So if I go, oh, 348 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:56,200 wow, it looks like they're dialed in and I ask about it, 349 00:25:56,279 --> 00:25:57,720 sometimes answers no, I wasn't really dialed in. I was just trying to 350 00:25:57,759 --> 00:26:00,920 figure out how to keep things on the else. And other times when players 351 00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:03,759 go when I go, hey, man, it looked like things were starting 352 00:26:03,759 --> 00:26:04,200 to get off the rails, and they go, no, I had it 353 00:26:04,279 --> 00:26:07,799 under control, just had a terrible eye here, I was in a dibbott 354 00:26:07,839 --> 00:26:11,160 here, or we had the wrong club here, or the wind kicked up 355 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:14,319 here, like there are a variety of different factors. So again, like 356 00:26:14,319 --> 00:26:17,039 I said, our psychology is one of the most important, if not the 357 00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:19,279 most important, but it's not the only one. And so I try not 358 00:26:19,359 --> 00:26:26,079 to guess even when I'm watching clients directly. I just I don't think that 359 00:26:26,079 --> 00:26:30,839 ever really gives us the full picture for human being and takes in enough considers 360 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:33,279 enough variables to have a full picture about what's going on. Like some of 361 00:26:33,279 --> 00:26:37,599 the strongest mental performances many of my clients had, Like they're scrapping around trying 362 00:26:37,599 --> 00:26:41,799 to figure out how to shoot a seventy five and made the cut and they 363 00:26:41,799 --> 00:26:45,559 couldn't be happier with their psychology, but the way things were going for them 364 00:26:45,599 --> 00:26:48,400 that day, they had to figure it out. Had other players win a 365 00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:52,319 golf tournament and go I left five strokes out there, not necessarily in one 366 00:26:52,400 --> 00:26:56,000 round, but over a couple of rounds because I either just wasn't on time 367 00:26:56,000 --> 00:26:57,559 and on target. On time and on target as a phrase I use with 368 00:26:57,599 --> 00:27:02,920 my clients meaning presence and I'm on target, me on the task involved, 369 00:27:02,960 --> 00:27:04,480 which is to get this faull to my target. You know, I hit 370 00:27:04,559 --> 00:27:07,079 four or five shots today, not on time and on target, and I 371 00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:12,440 just kind of got away with them or didn't, and so it would again, 372 00:27:12,640 --> 00:27:17,160 I wouldn't make a conclusion about a short long term conclusion from a short 373 00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:22,279 term event during anyone's round up golf. Are you a good reader of body 374 00:27:22,400 --> 00:27:26,799 language or do you not let that dictate it? Yeah, the body language 375 00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:30,000 is more of a symptom than a cause. So as much as people, 376 00:27:30,519 --> 00:27:36,640 certainly body language does matter and it does give us some indication. Oftentimes, 377 00:27:36,839 --> 00:27:40,720 it's easy to fake body language. You could be an absolute mess internally and 378 00:27:40,759 --> 00:27:44,680 still walking around, you know, with quote unquote good body language. I'm 379 00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:47,920 not much concerned with people's body language. It's much more of a symptom than 380 00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:51,440 a cause, and it's easy to fake. And I'm not interested in fake 381 00:27:51,759 --> 00:27:56,640 anything in terms of our performance because that is a super unstable foundation to build 382 00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,720 anything on. So I might say, hey, I noticed your body language, 383 00:27:59,839 --> 00:28:03,440 like was this at this point? Tell me about it, whether it 384 00:28:03,519 --> 00:28:07,240 was quote unquote good body language or bad body language. But I'm much more 385 00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:11,599 interested in what's going on underneath rather than what's on the surface. Interesting. 386 00:28:12,519 --> 00:28:18,839 When you watch golf on TV and you hear these pop psychology, you're rolling 387 00:28:18,880 --> 00:28:21,839 your eyes. I just bring it up and you're already rolling your eyes. 388 00:28:22,160 --> 00:28:23,359 Wait, wait, you know you hear these I don't even want to call 389 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:26,839 him pop psychologists, but you know they've got to make it TV. So 390 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,079 they're saying, oh, well, his mind is not in it today? 391 00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:34,759 Or do you just start yelling at the television. No. I've long since 392 00:28:34,839 --> 00:28:40,079 let go of the need for commentators to be experts in psychology. That's not 393 00:28:40,119 --> 00:28:44,480 their job. You're you're They're doing the best they can with what they know. 394 00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:48,160 Yeah, some of them think they know more than they do and they 395 00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:52,319 don't. And of course they need to fill airtime, so they're they're saying 396 00:28:52,319 --> 00:28:56,519 a lot of things to try to fill airspace. I would say there are 397 00:28:56,519 --> 00:29:00,240 a couple of people on TV who are pretty good and have a pretty your 398 00:29:00,240 --> 00:29:03,240 idea, like they've obviously done some inner work at some point or been around 399 00:29:03,279 --> 00:29:07,519 somebody who has. There are some that are just wildly incorrect with everything, 400 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:11,759 and there are a couple of people who I actually really like the way they 401 00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:18,640 they tea things up psychologically, which they go. You know, in this 402 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:22,200 situation, it's really easy to fall into this type of thinking, or it's 403 00:29:22,200 --> 00:29:26,400 easy to respond to this without suggesting that a player is or isn't doing that, 404 00:29:26,519 --> 00:29:30,359 which again I think guessing at somebody's psychology, particularly in real time, 405 00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:34,559 is pretty reckless and kind of disrespectful. If you're filling airtime, sometimes you 406 00:29:34,640 --> 00:29:38,400 got to do that. But guessing at what somebody's thinking and feeling when using 407 00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:44,720 body language or outcomes of our performance is a wildly unpredictive method for doing so. 408 00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:52,319 And do you find that the comments that you are impressed with usually come 409 00:29:52,480 --> 00:30:03,680 from former players? Not necessarily? Not necessarily, I think some former players 410 00:30:03,759 --> 00:30:07,880 had a psychological approach that they went from, and the way they talk about 411 00:30:07,880 --> 00:30:11,279 it, they're assuming that it applies to everyone, which isn't necessarily true. 412 00:30:11,319 --> 00:30:15,480 And it also for people who are psychologically trained, would indicate. I don't 413 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,799 you when you hear people talking to everybody, you understand like this person doesn't 414 00:30:18,839 --> 00:30:22,240 really know what they're talking about. They understand their own experience with this, 415 00:30:22,400 --> 00:30:27,480 but the way they're talking about it is incorrect. So for people watching golf 416 00:30:27,519 --> 00:30:33,400 on TV and when they talk about things psychologically by way swing coaches have told 417 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,079 me the same thing. When they hear commentators talking about, oh, he 418 00:30:36,119 --> 00:30:37,160 did this with the ball and that's why I went that way, and they're 419 00:30:37,160 --> 00:30:41,799 like, no, that's not what happened. Actually, same thing with the 420 00:30:41,839 --> 00:30:45,839 psychology. I would just take everything with a grain of salt, you know, 421 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,880 not that they're incorrect all the time. Not that they're correct all the 422 00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:51,519 time either, but I would take everything with a grain of salt. You 423 00:30:51,559 --> 00:30:53,519 know, if you hear somebody saying you just got to get comfortable being uncomfortable, 424 00:30:53,599 --> 00:30:59,480 like wildly incorrect. You got to relax in these situations and just banish 425 00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:04,759 your thoughts and just don't think about anything, also wildly incorrect. But when 426 00:31:04,799 --> 00:31:07,440 you hear someone saying, hey, this is a situation where it's really easy 427 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:11,759 to get ahead of yourself or to start focusing on where you don't want the 428 00:31:11,799 --> 00:31:14,480 golf ball to go rather than where you do. Like, that's some really 429 00:31:14,519 --> 00:31:19,119 valuable insight without actually guessing what people are saying, we're again working from stuff 430 00:31:19,119 --> 00:31:29,279 that we know doesn't work anymore. Fascinating Fascinating is your book Golf Beneath the 431 00:31:29,279 --> 00:31:34,319 Surface The New Science of Golf Psychology by Raymond Pryor available now wherever you buy 432 00:31:34,319 --> 00:31:38,240 your favorite books. Is an audiobook available as well. An audiobook will be 433 00:31:38,279 --> 00:31:42,359 available soon, So I'm happy to say that Tuesday was the release date, 434 00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:47,279 so that would be have been May ninth for whenever this podcast hits. Golf 435 00:31:47,279 --> 00:31:49,839 Beneath the Surface was the number. The audiobook and the e book were number 436 00:31:49,839 --> 00:31:53,359 one in two on new releases in sports Psychology, and the books actually cracked 437 00:31:53,359 --> 00:31:59,519 into the top selling list, which has been great asked, Yeah, thank 438 00:31:59,559 --> 00:32:01,079 you, And as of this morning, it is currently out of stock on 439 00:32:01,119 --> 00:32:05,799 Amazon, but you can get it wherever bookstores are, wherever books are sold, 440 00:32:05,839 --> 00:32:09,640 and Amazon Wilbury stock immediately, is what I've been told. So yeah, 441 00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:14,640 it's been off the great. Yeah. Oh that's fabulous news. I'm 442 00:32:14,640 --> 00:32:16,440 glad to hear it. All right, let's take a pause right here so 443 00:32:16,519 --> 00:32:20,079 that people can make the order right now, and then we'll come back and 444 00:32:20,119 --> 00:32:23,599 dig into the book. Excellent. This week on Golf Smarter, Mulligan's is 445 00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:29,960 part of our continuing tribute to doctor Glenn Alba, who appeared on Golf Smarter 446 00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:35,839 six times but unfortunately passed away at the age of ninety one this past February 447 00:32:35,880 --> 00:32:39,799 In this third episode, originally published as Golf Smarter Number four hundred and twenty, 448 00:32:39,960 --> 00:32:45,599 we hear part one of two from January twenty one, twenty fourteen, 449 00:32:45,839 --> 00:32:50,960 called practice like you play for better results on the course. The next time 450 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,200 you go to the range, why don't you do first shot practice? It's 451 00:32:53,279 --> 00:32:58,039 okay, what's first shot practice? Change targets on every shot. I could 452 00:32:58,119 --> 00:33:00,559 use the same club. If you really have some skill, you can change 453 00:33:00,599 --> 00:33:05,079 the shape of the shot. You can change clubs on each shot, but 454 00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:07,880 you can't repeat anything. Well, you're going to find probably won't practice as 455 00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:13,000 well when you hit fifty seven irons in a row, but it's going to 456 00:33:13,039 --> 00:33:16,640 correlate more significantly to what you do when you play on the course. Maybe 457 00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:21,640 the next time you practice, you tick a wedge out and get some targets 458 00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:25,400 out there at ten yard intervals thirty forty, fifty sixty yards, and you'll 459 00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:31,039 practice hitting your wedges the correct distances. That's Golf Smarter. Mulligan's episode two 460 00:33:31,119 --> 00:33:37,640 hundred eleven, the third of six episodes in our series featuring another incredible mental 461 00:33:37,680 --> 00:33:43,160 game coach whom we recently lost but allow his legacy to live on. Doctor 462 00:33:43,160 --> 00:33:49,519 Glenn Alba, author, coach, and pioneering sports psychologists. Check the show 463 00:33:49,519 --> 00:33:52,279 notes or our blog posts to learn more about Glenn, how to get either 464 00:33:52,279 --> 00:33:57,519 of his books, Winning the Battle Within and The Clutch Golfer Formula, and 465 00:33:57,839 --> 00:34:01,960 information about donations in his memory. Please subscribe for free to both of our 466 00:34:02,000 --> 00:34:07,680 golf podcasts, Golf Smarter, published every Tuesday since two thousand and five, 467 00:34:07,159 --> 00:34:13,440 and our sister podcast that revisits the best of Golf Smarter that is no longer 468 00:34:13,480 --> 00:34:17,440 available, and it's called Golf Smarter Mulligans, being released every Friday from wherever 469 00:34:17,480 --> 00:34:28,039 you're listening right now. What I found fascinating about the book is it seemed 470 00:34:28,039 --> 00:34:37,920 to go in and out of you know, hard psychology to wellness to actually 471 00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:45,840 mindfulness, which I thought was really an interesting It was interesting to be included 472 00:34:45,880 --> 00:34:50,039 in that. Let's let's break down the book a little bit. You start 473 00:34:50,079 --> 00:34:52,800 with the brain, and that's like, oh, this is getting clinical, 474 00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:54,559 this is going to be I'm gonna be challenged. Then all of a sudden, 475 00:34:54,559 --> 00:35:00,920 we're on awareness and mindfulness. That flowed seamlessly right into it, which 476 00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:06,360 I thought was just really well done. Congratulations, let's talk about this. 477 00:35:06,519 --> 00:35:09,559 Why we start with the brain, and then end with the mindfulness element. 478 00:35:10,159 --> 00:35:14,679 You start with the brain, because if you don't understand how the brain as 479 00:35:14,719 --> 00:35:17,679 an organ is designed to work, your psychology is not going to make sense, 480 00:35:19,159 --> 00:35:22,559 and why you would train certain things also wouldn't make sense. You know, 481 00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:28,280 for example, just telling someone to relax does not make sense when you 482 00:35:28,360 --> 00:35:32,199 understand how your brain is designed, because it's not designed to relax when outcomes 483 00:35:32,199 --> 00:35:37,280 matter to us. It's designed to elevate. Right, So understanding how your 484 00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:40,000 brain works, you don't need to be a neuroscientist. But if you've got 485 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:45,920 a couple of mechanistic fundamentals, which I introduce in the first chapter, you're 486 00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:50,079 going to start to understand why some of the things you're doing work or don't 487 00:35:50,079 --> 00:35:52,599 work. Again, the analogy ill uses if you don't understand how a golf 488 00:35:52,599 --> 00:35:57,599 club is designed to get a golf ball off the air, the physics of 489 00:35:57,599 --> 00:36:01,760 your swaying are not going to make sense. So just a basic understanding of 490 00:36:01,760 --> 00:36:06,320 the brain in the first chapter and addressing one of the more common myths and 491 00:36:06,559 --> 00:36:10,400 understanding why it's a myth based on how our brain is designed to actually operate, 492 00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:15,000 then we move into the next section, is awareness. Which I touch 493 00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:20,079 largely on mindfulness, and the reason mindfulness is really mindfulness is just another way 494 00:36:20,079 --> 00:36:22,880 of saying awareness, but it's a very specific type of awareness that is proactive. 495 00:36:23,440 --> 00:36:28,679 It is more accepting and flexible with our own thoughts and feelings, and 496 00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:30,840 it's more grounded, meaning that it focuses on what's going on right now. 497 00:36:31,639 --> 00:36:37,199 This awareness is invaluable because for our brain, awareness is the first line of 498 00:36:37,239 --> 00:36:40,559 information processing. Something could actually be happening, but if you are unaware of 499 00:36:40,559 --> 00:36:44,400 it, your brain doesn't do anything with it. And so if we're not 500 00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:49,880 training a proactive, grounded and accepting awareness, things are going to go buy 501 00:36:49,960 --> 00:36:53,320 us faster and we're not going to be ready for them before we need to 502 00:36:53,320 --> 00:36:58,000 be ready for them. And also what happens is we start fighting our own 503 00:36:58,039 --> 00:37:00,280 thoughts and feelings. And again, if you understand how your brain is designed, 504 00:37:00,679 --> 00:37:06,039 fighting thoughts and feelings creates more thoughts and feelings. And if we're trying 505 00:37:06,079 --> 00:37:09,880 to streamline our thoughts, being aware of them in a more mindful way allows 506 00:37:09,960 --> 00:37:14,639 us to interact with them with a little bit of space between us and them. 507 00:37:15,199 --> 00:37:20,039 In psychology, we call this cognitive diffusion, meaning we are not fused 508 00:37:20,159 --> 00:37:23,760 to our thoughts and feelings just because they exist. And in that space between 509 00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:28,400 us and our thoughts and feelings, we can focus on anything that we want 510 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:31,280 to do for at least short periods of time. So if you're not training 511 00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:37,039 awareness in a way that gives you that flexible and durable backbone, your brain 512 00:37:37,159 --> 00:37:39,000 is going to work based on how its default settings are going. And then 513 00:37:39,039 --> 00:37:43,079 you're at the whip's end of how your brain is designed to respond to stress 514 00:37:43,159 --> 00:37:47,119 and a trigger rich environment, in which case then you can tell yourself relax, 515 00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:50,920 just don't think, just be confident, just trust, just commit, 516 00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:53,719 And you're literally working against how your brain is designed in the same way that 517 00:37:53,760 --> 00:37:55,639 if I told you you need to hit this ball in the air and you 518 00:37:55,679 --> 00:37:59,440 try to hit it, hit up on it when it's a wedge on a 519 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:01,199 tight life, good luck, you're probably gonna scull it or duff it. 520 00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:07,159 Right from after the awareness section, we move into habits because the bottom us, 521 00:38:07,159 --> 00:38:08,840 as human beings, we are habits. The way our brain is designed 522 00:38:09,280 --> 00:38:15,760 is to take habits, both psychological and physical behaviors, and put them into 523 00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:20,159 automatic mode so that we can go learn and understand and explore new things. 524 00:38:20,199 --> 00:38:24,079 But our habits will run based on their default setting unless we intervene with them 525 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:29,000 in a very systematic way. And so if you have built the habit of 526 00:38:29,159 --> 00:38:32,920 building confidence off of outcomes, that some point that habit is going to become 527 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:37,800 unproductive, even though it was really productive before. Take anxiety for example, 528 00:38:38,079 --> 00:38:40,840 If you are on the low end of the learning curve, which basically means 529 00:38:40,880 --> 00:38:45,519 you kind of suck at something, and anxiety is motivating you, you're gonna 530 00:38:45,559 --> 00:38:49,800 get better because you're going to go study more, you're going to go practice 531 00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:53,599 more, you're gonna go work out harder, etc. And you're gonna see 532 00:38:53,639 --> 00:38:58,559 some improvement at the top end of the learning curve, where the margins between 533 00:38:58,719 --> 00:39:01,960 success and failure arealler. Not only is anxiety you're going to make it more 534 00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:07,239 difficult for you to perform freely, particularly under pressure. It's also going to 535 00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,599 make the experience not enjoyable and you're not going to have the outcomes coming at 536 00:39:10,599 --> 00:39:14,599 a way that can counterbalance that. And ultimately, what it's going to do 537 00:39:14,719 --> 00:39:16,599 is it's going to lead to a level of burnout to some degree or another. 538 00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:21,000 So if you do not address that habit at its source, it's going 539 00:39:21,039 --> 00:39:23,320 to keep running, because the way our brains is designed is to keep it 540 00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:29,079 running unless you show it one it ain't working and two here's a better option 541 00:39:29,119 --> 00:39:32,679 for you. And then from habits we then move into our psychological framework, 542 00:39:32,719 --> 00:39:37,000 which psychological framework is a fancy way of saying how you see yourself, how 543 00:39:37,039 --> 00:39:42,000 you see the world around you and yourself interacting with it, including our golf 544 00:39:42,039 --> 00:39:45,400 game. And this is important because our psychological framework is for running the show. 545 00:39:46,039 --> 00:39:51,960 Our core beliefs and assumptions. The thoughts we have about things determine what 546 00:39:52,119 --> 00:39:54,400 value and meaning they have to us. And so if you have the thought, 547 00:39:54,599 --> 00:39:58,840 I must be perfect, otherwise this whole thing is a waste of time. 548 00:39:59,360 --> 00:40:04,840 It's going to trigger a series of avoidance based habits, frustration, anxiety, 549 00:40:05,199 --> 00:40:08,519 avoidance, etc. And based on how your brain is designed, it's 550 00:40:08,559 --> 00:40:14,559 going to perceive any situation where imperfection is part of the formula as something that 551 00:40:14,679 --> 00:40:19,119 is threatening and worth avoiding. And as you get into situations where perfection doesn't 552 00:40:19,119 --> 00:40:22,679 exist nor is it required, it's going to make performing in that way very 553 00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:25,679 difficult. It's also going to make getting better over a long period of time 554 00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:30,119 much more difficult because you're going to start usually start coupling things like your identity 555 00:40:30,159 --> 00:40:35,280 and your self worth and your level of motivation, and how you're going to 556 00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:38,199 create a very transactional relationship with your craft, which is not super fulfilling. 557 00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:44,239 And so the book is ordered in a way that they build upon each other 558 00:40:44,400 --> 00:40:46,519 sequentially, so you understand, like, Okay, here's all my brain works. 559 00:40:46,599 --> 00:40:51,760 Here's the awareness to develop that allows me to then address my behaviors and 560 00:40:52,199 --> 00:40:57,320 address the core beliefs and assumptions and perceptions I have that are keeping me from 561 00:40:57,360 --> 00:41:02,559 being present when I really want to be present, and all those I mean, 562 00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:06,159 when I was looking through the book, I'm like, Okay, habits, 563 00:41:06,199 --> 00:41:12,239 that's gonna have a profound impact on your golf game. But they all 564 00:41:12,360 --> 00:41:21,119 do, especially if you follow the order that you've you've laid out here to 565 00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:24,639 improve your game. There's a term that I came across multiple times in the 566 00:41:24,639 --> 00:41:30,280 book that I really love a further explanation about because I wasn't quite because I 567 00:41:30,679 --> 00:41:37,039 wasn't familiar with the term in all my reading. And that's mode of mind. 568 00:41:37,079 --> 00:41:39,719 Talk about that. Sure, if we're talking about mindfulness, we can 569 00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:45,280 think about how we interact with our own thoughts and feelings through two different modes 570 00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:47,519 of minds. You might just think of as two different modalities, two different 571 00:41:47,519 --> 00:41:52,239 options, two different types of relationship. Is really what you're talking about. 572 00:41:52,360 --> 00:41:57,199 So one is a doing mode of mind. Doing is like a problem solving 573 00:41:57,239 --> 00:41:59,760 approach, you know. For example, let's say I have the thought, 574 00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:02,519 oh, don't hit it left. The doing mode of mind approach would be 575 00:42:04,519 --> 00:42:07,679 just stuff that thought away, don't think about it, banish it, or 576 00:42:07,119 --> 00:42:09,599 pretend it doesn't exist, Sweep it under the rubs. So I'm trying to 577 00:42:09,639 --> 00:42:15,440 problem solve this thought. Conversely, a being mode of mind would be one 578 00:42:15,440 --> 00:42:19,840 where we can have that thought and it just be a thought. It's not 579 00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:24,519 a fact, it's not a precursor of future outcome or anything of that nature. 580 00:42:24,639 --> 00:42:27,880 Essentially, like it's just a thought, period, end of sentence, 581 00:42:28,039 --> 00:42:30,840 nothing more. And what happens is we stop wrestling with our thoughts, and 582 00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:35,559 a being mode of mind we start wrestling with our feelings. So mode of 583 00:42:35,599 --> 00:42:39,159 mind might just be another way of saying, like how we interact or we 584 00:42:39,239 --> 00:42:44,400 relate to our own thoughts and feelings. And to be clear, one is 585 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:47,760 not good and one is not bad. A doing mode of mind is super 586 00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:51,679 helpful. For us with external problem solving. You know, if you're going 587 00:42:51,719 --> 00:42:54,599 to do math homework, trying to solve a math problem through a doing mode 588 00:42:54,639 --> 00:42:59,639 of mind would be super helpful. Our inner experience, meaning our thoughts and 589 00:42:59,679 --> 00:43:04,599 feeling is it's not a formula that needs to be solved. Our body and 590 00:43:04,639 --> 00:43:07,679 brain is designed to create sensations, feelings, and thoughts. They're not a 591 00:43:07,760 --> 00:43:13,679 vending machine that needs to be serviced just because they feel scratchy or their quote 592 00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:17,440 unquote negative or disruptive. If we learn to interact with our thoughts and feelings 593 00:43:17,440 --> 00:43:20,920 in a way where we can have them and they can just be a thing 594 00:43:20,960 --> 00:43:23,760 without having to be anything more, then you don't have to worry about having 595 00:43:23,880 --> 00:43:28,840 quote unquote negative thoughts because if you do, it's just like any other passing 596 00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:30,960 sensation, a site, a sound, a smell. They can come and 597 00:43:31,000 --> 00:43:35,599 go, and things that come and go for us become less disruptive to our 598 00:43:35,599 --> 00:43:38,320 performance, less disruptive to our lives. And the bottom line is, if 599 00:43:38,360 --> 00:43:43,079 you're fighting your own thoughts and feelings, you're never gonna win that fight. 600 00:43:43,079 --> 00:43:45,400 It's kind of like the hydro, like you chop off one and two heads 601 00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:47,920 just keep coming up and many people can relate to this because they're trying to 602 00:43:50,119 --> 00:43:57,960 meet their thoughts and feelings with resistance rather than allowing them to coexist. Yeah. 603 00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:01,519 We frequently, my wife over frequently talk about, especially when it comes 604 00:44:01,519 --> 00:44:07,440 to mindfulness, how we've always been human doing as opposed to a human being. 605 00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:12,679 Yeah. Yeah, the human doing is kind of this idea that like, 606 00:44:12,719 --> 00:44:16,960 I need to do extraordinary things to be an extraordinary person. And again 607 00:44:17,159 --> 00:44:20,880 it's not right or wrong, good or bad. But what often happens with 608 00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:23,559 that is we create a transactional relationship with the world around us where we have 609 00:44:23,639 --> 00:44:29,599 to meet some certain threshold of success or rate of success in order to feel 610 00:44:29,679 --> 00:44:34,920 that we are doing enough to be enough. And oftentimes I think we get 611 00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:38,920 that order of operations backwards sometimes where it's actually better to be a human being 612 00:44:39,000 --> 00:44:44,880 and allow for the doing and the performing to flow from there, because not 613 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:46,360 only does it create more space for us to be able to do that, 614 00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:51,199 but the bottom line is that transactional relationship, I have to do this in 615 00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:53,440 order to be this. It doesn't work, it runs out. We build 616 00:44:53,440 --> 00:44:58,199 a tolerance to success and it doesn't matter how much money, how many trophies 617 00:44:58,199 --> 00:45:00,519 were wrapp there's a certain point it can not keep pace. And again that 618 00:45:00,639 --> 00:45:06,320 is based on how our brain is designed to interact with extrinsic motivators. In 619 00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:10,000 our current world, it's trophies and money and status. In our previous iterations 620 00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:15,639 of our brains it was food, resources, etc. And our brain is 621 00:45:15,679 --> 00:45:20,280 specifically designed to say enough is enough so that we don't overconsume. But we 622 00:45:20,320 --> 00:45:24,559 live in a world of abundance now, not a world of scarcity. So 623 00:45:24,599 --> 00:45:30,400 I want to make a recommendation to the audience. If you love this kind 624 00:45:30,440 --> 00:45:34,880 of content, then you definitely need to pick up this book. If you 625 00:45:34,960 --> 00:45:39,719 think that this is all fooy, if this is the stuff that you don't 626 00:45:39,719 --> 00:45:45,639 necessarily put into your game, then you have to read this book. You 627 00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:50,000 don't miss out on this opportunity. Again, it's called Golf Beneath the Surface, 628 00:45:50,280 --> 00:45:52,880 The New Science of Golf Psychology by Raymond Prior. Yeah, Raymond. 629 00:45:52,880 --> 00:45:58,320 This has been fascinating. I appreciate it and finished with one thought. The 630 00:45:58,320 --> 00:46:00,079 book might be a little bit more different, The book might be a little 631 00:46:00,079 --> 00:46:06,079 bit more difficult to read than what's currently available. That's a good thing. 632 00:46:06,840 --> 00:46:10,079 Like we don't get better and we don't understand things more deeply without challenging the 633 00:46:10,119 --> 00:46:15,360 stuff that we already know and trying to build more knowledge and more understanding and 634 00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:19,000 a more comprehensive knowledge of something. So what I'll say is if the book's 635 00:46:19,000 --> 00:46:22,320 a little bit more then previous, that's a good thing, because that's actually 636 00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:23,400 the same thing is going to a golf lesson. You go the same golf 637 00:46:23,440 --> 00:46:25,679 lesson over and over and over again, You're not going to get better. 638 00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:30,800 You need someone who's going to challenge what you're doing, perhaps provide use of 639 00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:35,280 different options that might be a little bit more comprehensive, and stretch your limits 640 00:46:35,320 --> 00:46:37,760 a little bit. That's what this book is going to do. And I 641 00:46:37,760 --> 00:46:42,320 would challenge anyone to read it and not find something of value that can help 642 00:46:42,360 --> 00:46:47,519 them be a better velfer and also enjoy golf a little bit. Our d 643 00:46:47,559 --> 00:46:51,239 argue with the doctor on that one, isn't it? You know? I 644 00:46:51,320 --> 00:46:54,280 just realize the other day that this part of the podcast after we finished the 645 00:46:54,320 --> 00:47:00,480 interview, is really our nineteenth hole, where I share some stories from latest 646 00:47:00,559 --> 00:47:05,920 rounds, have a refreshing beverage, and recruit more ambassadors like Tony Redden of 647 00:47:05,960 --> 00:47:10,960 Cincinnati, Ohio, who opened today's episode. This Golf Smarter Ambassador program has 648 00:47:10,960 --> 00:47:15,599 been far more successful than I ever imagined, so I just really want to 649 00:47:15,639 --> 00:47:21,280 thank you all for participating and sharing with our global community where you're from and 650 00:47:21,599 --> 00:47:24,960 where you play. As you heard at the opening of today's episode, Tony 651 00:47:25,039 --> 00:47:30,400 Redden of Cincinnati, Ohio plays at Newman Golf Course and for his effort of 652 00:47:30,639 --> 00:47:36,960 leaving a voicemail, he's going to receive Tony Manzoni's video of the lost fundamental. 653 00:47:37,519 --> 00:47:42,519 You know you two are eligible to win one of three great prizes just 654 00:47:42,760 --> 00:47:47,559 for leaving a voicemail. You can select Tony's video a glove and glove storage 655 00:47:47,559 --> 00:47:53,000 compartment from Red Rooster golf dot com, which is a unique glove subscription service 656 00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:59,199 that offers many styles of gloves and twenty six sizes for men and women. 657 00:48:00,119 --> 00:48:04,039 Or you can get a box of X one balls with a golf Smarter logo 658 00:48:04,159 --> 00:48:08,559 from Odin Golf, the golf brand that sponsors and pays everyday golfers. These 659 00:48:08,599 --> 00:48:13,639 tour quality balls are a fraction of the price of what you'll usually pay, 660 00:48:14,280 --> 00:48:16,639 and when you use the code golf Smarter at check out, you'll receive an 661 00:48:16,639 --> 00:48:22,079 additional twenty percent off the order. Their link is in today's show notes. 662 00:48:22,239 --> 00:48:25,119 Just send an email and I'll get back to you with some instructions of what 663 00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:31,119 to do and what to say. And you're a golf Smarter ambassador. Right 664 00:48:31,159 --> 00:48:36,920 to golf Smarter podcast at gmail dot com or visit golf Smarter dot com and 665 00:48:37,039 --> 00:48:40,239 click on the Hey Fred button. Now. I played with my friend Neil, 666 00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:45,159 whom I'm going to Abandon Dunes with next month, and we played at 667 00:48:45,159 --> 00:48:49,599 his club, the Richmond Country Club, and I've played there multiple times with 668 00:48:49,719 --> 00:48:53,159 him, and he and I are always so close when we played at each 669 00:48:53,199 --> 00:48:57,159 other, even if I have to give them strokes. I only beat him 670 00:48:57,159 --> 00:49:00,280 by one or two. This time I beat him by one, but did 671 00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:02,760 match play. He crushed me, so it's his course. Got to give 672 00:49:02,800 --> 00:49:08,519 him that anyway. The greens were so fast. I've never played on greens 673 00:49:08,559 --> 00:49:14,760 that were this fast or this subtle before. I was very happy with how 674 00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:17,480 I was making contact all day, but wow, the greens killed me. 675 00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:22,639 I had forty one, yes, forty one putts in my round. I 676 00:49:22,800 --> 00:49:29,840 generally strive to be in the thirty to thirty two put range, but realistically 677 00:49:30,039 --> 00:49:34,239 I'm generally closer to thirty four to thirty six. Still gotta work, but 678 00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:39,039 forty one ouch. I'm gonna go out there and try again this weekend and 679 00:49:39,199 --> 00:49:43,960 maybe I'll do a little bit better. I gotta focus on that. Tomorrow, 680 00:49:43,960 --> 00:49:46,719 I'm getting together with three college buddies to play a fun track designed by 681 00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:52,519 Rhys Jones and Alameda, California called Coraca Park. You may have heard of 682 00:49:52,760 --> 00:49:55,960 it before if you've been listening a while, because we feature that course and 683 00:49:57,079 --> 00:50:02,199 Golf smarterback in twenty nineteen on episode seven hundred and five. I'm actually going 684 00:50:02,239 --> 00:50:07,039 out there. It's an Australian link style course, and that's again, this 685 00:50:07,119 --> 00:50:10,800 is all in my preparation to play better when I get out to Bandon Dunes, 686 00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:15,480 play windy, play links, you know, everything I can do. 687 00:50:15,559 --> 00:50:21,280 I've been were walking a lot, playing a lot, and I'm starting to 688 00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:22,840 get nervous of how I'm going to do when I get out to Bandon. 689 00:50:23,760 --> 00:50:29,000 If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for upcoming episodes, I'd 690 00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:31,320 love to hear from you. Just click on the Hey Fred button when you 691 00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:34,320 visit golfsmarter dot com.