Speaker 1: Golf Smarter number three hundred and fifty five, published on
October thirty one, twenty twelve. Trick or Treat.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain
insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets Old. Our
interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations
like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.
Speaker 3: I've had clients come in and say, you know why
I should be I practice all the time.
Speaker 4: You know I should be able to repeat this.
Speaker 3: You know I should be able to hit a bunker
shot or a pitch shot, or hit a t shot.
Speaker 4: Like Tyer Woods. I mean, I had people say that, and.
Speaker 5: I said, you know what if you told about the
Tyler woodsy punch in the face right now? Why because
he's one of the world's greatest athletes and he spends
about five thousand percent more time working on his game.
Speaker 4: Than you, And why in the world would you deserve
to hit it like Ken? Can we talk about this?
Speaker 3: Worrying on Golf's not about who hits the best, It's
about who misses it the least people have to understand
that in a coaching environment, if you're open, you are
going to perform at a much higher level, and you
should do that immediately. But to own it and take
you to the course and stand there with half the
people in your clut membership looking at you and rip
it down the fairway just like coaches there. It's not
going to happen until you deserve to have it happen.
And that comes through that journey. And that's why golf
is exciting because it takes a lot of hard work
to play at a high level.
Speaker 4: It doesn't take a.
Speaker 3: Lot of hard work to experience great ball flight, but
it takes a lot of hard work to own that
ball flight.
Speaker 1: Jeff Ritter on his integrated approach to being a better golfer.
This is Golf Smarter.
Speaker 6: Each week we tap the best minds in golf to
help lower your scores with tips, drills, insights and advice
in conversation with course pros, architect authors, players, teaching gurus
and coaches.
Speaker 1: Here's your host, Fred Green. Welcome to the Golf Smarter podcast.
Speaker 4: Jeff, Hey, Fred, thanks again for having me.
Speaker 1: You're quite welcome. I need to apologize to the audience
for being a little bit late. I know some people
like to download this immediately, but I've had some technical issues,
and strangely enough, this is the fourth time that Jeff
and I are trying to record. We've recorded two episodes
already and they disappeared, and so we're trying to get
so we're really well rehearsed. This is the first time
we've had a rehearsed Golf Smarter podcast. You ready, I
am absolutely ready, Yeah, right, exactly, good time. Yeah, sure,
we're par so, Jeff. One of the things, and we're
gonna get right to it. I want to talk about
your approach to integrated your integrated approach to coaching. You
you bring in so many different elements, not just swing
mcare annex and I know that technique is a big
thing for you, but you bring in much more to
your coaching approach.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks, Red.
Speaker 3: The integrated approach is really just trying to create an
extension of the golf performance aspect of things. I mean,
my expertise is in the technical aspect of how to
change or improve your ball flight, you know, from tee
to green. That's what people come to me for first
and foremost on a daily basis. The things that I'm
interested in personally and have been for a long time.
Speaker 4: You go beyond that. I'm really into too, fitness.
Speaker 3: I'm really into the mindset aspect of high performance in sport.
And I'm also very much into nutrition now because as
you know, my fiancee came in a row is a
nutrition coach.
Speaker 4: So all these things.
Speaker 3: That you know I've engaged in on my own over
time have led their way into my coaching. And what
I've found is that that technical environment becomes a lot
more filling and inspiring when you show people not just
how to hit it a little bit better or putter
chit better, but you show them how they can incorporate
some of these other ideas using golf as a vehicle,
and it doesn't only improve their performance on the course,
but it also really improves it off the course as well.
So it's sort of more fulfilling for me and it's
more fulfilling for them, and it keeps me excited about
going to work each day and the possibilities that exist
within this vehicle that we call golf instruction.
Speaker 1: And this past summer, I want to catch up. It's
been a while since we've spoken, and we'll talk about
the individual elements of your integrated approach. But I think
this is going to lead us to that this past summer,
you were running the Nike Junior golf camps down in Monterey.
How did that go?
Speaker 3: It was absolutely fantastic. We were there for us six weeks.
We entirely sold the program out. We had a waiting
list about sixty kids deep. And you know, it's not
too bad being down there in Pebble Beach right in
the middle of the summer, whereas an Arizona sweating my
butt off.
Speaker 4: So I've been involved with.
Speaker 3: With Nike golf schools and junior camps for about ten
years now. Actually, all the golf camps and football and basketball, baseball, soccer,
anything that has a swoosh on it's actually run by
a company out of San Raphael, near your area.
Speaker 1: Called US Sports are known as San Rafel.
Speaker 4: I guess so right, thanks for the correction.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, it's like you don't want to say Frisco.
You got to call it San Francisco. It's you know,
when any of you hear is San Raphael, you know
they're from out of town San Rafel.
Speaker 3: Well, you know I'm from Lancaster, PA, which most people
think is Lancaster, which is certainly not correct.
Speaker 1: So well and actually in southern California it is Lancaster.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well they're wrong.
Speaker 3: But I've been involved the company for a long time
and last year around this time, they named me their
national director of Instruction for the golf schools in the camp.
So my first order of business was to really try
and do the best job hossible, trying to run what
we think is a world class experience, you know, in
the Pebble Beach area. So you know, we've had kids
that come from from all over the globe. It was
so cool to see the kids show up and the
parents shop, and you know, kids from Korea and China,
and we had a kid from Russia and a kid
from from Kuwait. And then I asked the kid from Kuey.
I said, how in the world did you find this company?
Speaker 7: Said, you know, Google online, Sure, online, but I mean, obviously, uh,
you know the name Pebble Beach, the area of Pebble Beach,
it's it's you know, it's it's synonymous with excellence and
excitement and the best golf in the world.
Speaker 3: So even though we don't actually play Pebble Beach. We
do play a lot of Pebble Beach properties. We play
Spanish Bay and Spyglass, and we played Delmani. We also
take the kids to Poppy Hills, which is not owned
by the Pebble Beach Company, but it's within that del
Moni force, so you know, it's great golf. We put
together one heck of a staff. I was very lucky
to uh to get so many great coaches to come
out and work with me, and I think it had
a lot to do with the fact that the camps
had a great reputation, but also that area is so
charged with positive energy and everyone.
Speaker 4: Had a great time with it.
Speaker 1: Amazing. Is this an exclusive camp? I mean, do these
kids have to try out audition to get involved now?
Speaker 4: Not at all.
Speaker 3: Actually, if they just go to US Sportscamps dot com
forward slash Golf, they can actually search not only the
Peddle Beach camps, but up to seventy nine other locations.
We're run camps like this throughout the country and there's
different skill levels. We have the regular camps, which are
open to all abilities ages ten to eighteen, and then
we have the advance camps in the literary ture. We'd
like to have the advanced campers be passionate about the game.
They're going to hit a lot of golf balls, They're
going to be doing a lot of walking. So if
they're playing on high school golf teams, if they have
that mindset towards maybe playing in college someday, it's important
that they're honest with where they are.
Speaker 4: Because when they show up, they're going to get a
lot of golf.
Speaker 3: So if there's a parent out there that says, I'm
just going to put them in the advanced camp so
much that the instruction is any different, because the coaching
staff is the same for both weeks, it's just that
the environment's a lot more more intense. So if your
child is just getting involved with the game and you
throw them in there with a bunch of, you know,
stud high school athletes, they might not have a very.
Speaker 4: Good time because they're going to feel like they're way
behind the curve.
Speaker 3: So it's just important that you know, kids and parents
are honest with their ability level and realize that no
matter what camp they go into, the coaches are the same,
and the coaches are trained to give the kid exactly
what they need based on their skill level.
Speaker 1: I love when you mentioned they're honest about what their
game is. And that is not exclusive to child golfers,
to young golfers, junior golfers. I would think for all
of us. Is that something that you do with each
of your students, You talk about or you try to
get them to be honest about where their game is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I try and get them to be honest about
where it is, but I also try and get them
to be honest or authentic about where they'd like it
to go. You know a lot of people they come
in for a lesson, and you know, only only ten
percent of golfers, for it, take golf lessness. So's there's
ninety percent of people that play golf out there that
are not actively engaging in a coaching environment, whether it
be in person or online.
Speaker 1: And isn't it only ten percent of golfers ever break
one hundred.
Speaker 3: I don't know those numbers, but yeah, it's a hard game. Yeah,
it is very is a very hard game. So every year,
just as many people that get turned on by the game,
they get they get turned off by the game. So
it's really up to us as coaches in an industry
to get people excited about their games and excited about
this experience that we call golf, and to find ways
that make them want to stick with it, and the
fact that the game is so hard.
Speaker 4: Is a little bit of a challenge, you know.
Speaker 3: I've always kind of liked this idea that if I'm
going to try something and I'm going to stick with it,
I want to be mediocre fast, you know what I mean,
I'm going to put some skis on my feet or
strap on a snowboard. If I'm falling down the mountain
all day, then the next day, you know, I'm going
to figure out something else to do.
Speaker 4: That, you know, is a little bit encouraging. And the
same thing with golf.
Speaker 3: If you're missing it and losing balls and it's taking
you forever and you're just not having a good time
with it, then why would you come back? So it's
really up to coaching to be able to reveal to
people very quickly how good they can actually be. And
when people start to get a taste of what it's
like to have success, they want to come back for more.
And once you do that, you can sort of out
inline what the journey is going to be like, you know,
there's never going to be a day when you say, hey,
I absolutely.
Speaker 4: Have it and you have it forever.
Speaker 3: You see with tour players, you know, one day they
go out and shoot sixty two.
Speaker 4: The next day they go out and they miss the cut.
Speaker 3: So it's all about embracing the challenge associated with the game.
But very early on people have to have that taste
of success. And as it relates to the people that
are already involved with the game.
Speaker 4: You know, Fred, about.
Speaker 3: About seventy percent of my clients are from from outside
of Arizona, which is which is an amazing thing.
Speaker 1: And really incredible because you know, there's so many golf
instructors who are struggling to get any clientele at all,
let alone have them from out of town. I mean,
you said only ten percent of golfers take lessons.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And the thing is that a lot of that
was due to very active in social media, you know,
as you know, I've got my YouTube channel at almost
five million views.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 3: Right before we got on the phone, I talked about
two clients that I've actually secured my services to fly
to Sydney, Australia and spent about two weeks coaching then
down there.
Speaker 1: But the thing, did they discover you on YouTube?
Speaker 8: Is that?
Speaker 1: Is that how they found you?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: They sure did.
Speaker 3: Wow found me on YouTube and they came out here
the last two years and spent about a month working
with me, and then this year they just decided to
stay in Sydney and offer me a trip out there.
I've never been before. We had talked about doing something
special down there, So we're going to go out there
and coach them up a little bit, get they'm ready
for the tournament season, but also try and meet some
of their other fellow tour pros that they work with,
and also maybe meet some business contact and see if
we can't do something on more of a regular basis.
But the thing is that, you know, people have, you know,
different experiences with coaching, and when somebody gets on an
airplane to come out to see me, a lot of
times they're looking at.
Speaker 4: Me as sort of their last resort, so to speak.
Speaker 3: They've been frustrated with the game for whatever reason in
their local market, they hadn't been able to make that turn,
so to speak, and they come out to see me
because they're looking for an answer, you know, and if
they don't get an answer, their enjoyment for the game
is probably going to be extinguished.
Speaker 4: You know, so I take a lot of.
Speaker 3: You know, care and time into trying to come up
with a plan that's going to get them excited about
their game again. And that comes down to very quickly
showing someone, you know, how they can hit it better
than they ever hit it before in a short period
of time. Or make that one swing change that you
know they've worked on for years and they hadn't been
able to change, and all of a sudden, wham, you know,
in fifteen minutes they see it.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 3: That's the thing that's exciting to me. And once I
get people believing in themselves, then it's really easy to
start introducing them to some of these other components that
we call the integrated approach. You know, so if somebody
comes back, you know, a year from now and they go,
you know what, you know, I won my club championship,
but I also lost twenty pounds. You know, those kind
of those kinds of things come from, you know, and
that one experience in the golf performance aspect of things,
and you know, as it relates to this whole integrated approach,
it's it's golf performance it's mindset, it's fitness, it's nutrition.
But people out there have to realize that I'm not
the mindset expert, and I'm not the fitness expert, and
I'm not the nutrition expert. I have a team of
people around me that fill that role. But but my
whole expertise is golf performance. I'm just using that lesson
experience that time there to be able to do the
best I can do to help them make the turn
with their ball striking. And then from there, if they
want to dabble and get involved with some of my
other coaches in my network, as I hope they do,
then I think that they're primed for an amazing experience.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to hold you to these numbers, but
when you say only ten percent of golfers take lessons.
Of that ten percent, how many do you think take
more than one lesson? I mean, is it a lot like, Oh,
I'm going on vacation this week, I need a lesson,
and it's like the only time they ever take a lesson.
Speaker 4: Well, boys, it's hard to say.
Speaker 3: I'm actually a member of this business group called the
Proponent Group.
Speaker 4: It's actually run by a.
Speaker 3: Gentleman named Lauren Anderson who used to be with a
golf magazine, Preeer.
Speaker 4: So he throws out.
Speaker 3: These stats all the time to us as members because
we need to learn about the market that we're dealing
with as coaches and what opportunities exist. So I don't
know what that answer is, but after this conversation, I'm
going to ask him what that is, because you're right,
some people might go out for that one lesson and
be totally turned off.
Speaker 4: This is way too hard. I didn't get it. I
did better before I even showed up.
Speaker 3: Whereas another segment of the population might have that great
coaching experience where they want to develop something that's more
personal and ongoing with more of a game plan.
Speaker 4: And you know we've talked.
Speaker 3: About in the show before that there's two different kinds
of lessons, right, we said, there's corrective lessons and there's
developmental lessons. And the corrective lesson is when you know,
Fred Green shows up on my lesson team when he's
on vacation and says, you know, hey, Jeff, I am
slicing it out of balance.
Speaker 4: Can you help me because.
Speaker 3: I had to play the Raven Golf Club Phoenix tomorrow
and I want to play really well. I've been looking
forward to this. I mean, that's a corrective lesson and
one can I get your ball in between the trees.
The developmental lesson is when you come out and you say, hey, Jeff,
you know I'm a ten handicap, I want to play
like a five, or I want to play like a
stretch or I had this goal to win the club championship.
Speaker 4: You know, that's more of an ongoing relationship.
Speaker 3: So from a coaching perspective, you've got to be able
to show people the light, you know, very quickly in
both of those circumstances. Otherwise you're not going to be
able to get them to number one, enjoy the game
if it's corrective, or even come back to the game
if it's developmental.
Speaker 1: What I'm curious to know when when somebody comes to
you most of the time, are they just saying, I
just need to be consistent, you know? Is that what happens?
It's because that's what I hear a lot on the
golf course. God, if I was only consistent, I'd be
so much better. It's like, really, you think that's all
it takes?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Sometimes they say that, and sometimes as you say, well,
let's just you know, remove the good one and then
you'll be consistent. We'll just take that nice powerful draw
out of the mix and then then all will be
rolling along the ground like like you've been hitting here.
But you know, sometimes they say that, I mean that
that's sort of the cliche thing to see because you know,
they feel like, you know, they have the ability to
hit quality shots, but they can't do it consistently.
Speaker 4: You know, another thing that happens with my clients a lot.
Speaker 3: I mean, I've been very blessed that the majority of
my clients, I mean they have what I would call
a high golf IQ And to me, that means that
they're they're into the game. They practice multiple times per week,
they enjoy playing in events at the club. You know,
they're on YouTube and E golf, DIYED disc magazine. I mean,
they are they're in it to win it, and they've
been searching for for something. And you know, because everyone
has phones now that that have cameras on them, people
have seen their golf swings and they know what they
want to work on.
Speaker 4: They just don't know how to how to fix it.
Speaker 3: So when people come to my lessons, a lot of
times they're in many cases playing with or practicing with
very good relevant ideas.
Speaker 4: You know, so they're not entirely lost, so to speak.
It's just that they don't know how to how to
make that change.
Speaker 3: So in a coaching environment, it's my job to stretch
the player mentally and physically, uh to the degree that's
necessary for them that actually make that change. Now, in
some cases I have to present the entire entire plan
to it, but it's kind of nice when a client
comes in and they're halfway there and you show them
that for them to accomplish their goal, or they're really
not that far away.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna throw a curveball in this conversation because
it occurs to me that and I'm definitely guilty of this.
How do you know that you have the right coach?
What is it that we should be looking for or
how do we find a coach that works for us?
Speaker 3: The way that you know you have the right coach
is that in that first lesson you should get better immediately.
And that's putting a lot of pressure on coaches out there,
But I'm telling you, if you take a golf lesson
and the coach patch you on the back and says,
don't worry, Fred, you're going.
Speaker 7: To get it.
Speaker 3: You're not okay, because if you can't do it when
the coach is there, there's no way you're going to
figure it out on your right. Now.
Speaker 4: I'm not saying that you have to hit perfect shots,
but what you have.
Speaker 3: To be able to do is see contact in ball
flight and results that are that are way different than
you've had before, and if they're not perfect, in some
way much much closer to what you're looking for. So
if your issue is you hit the ball off the
toe and you take huge dibts and you slice the
ball to the right every time, if that's your pattern,
at some point that lesson you should have a shallow,
a centered hit and a ball that curves the other way.
You know, if you see that that difference in flight,
that's more to your liking, you know, then you can
look at your coach and say, hey, you know you're
onto something.
Speaker 4: I'm going to go ahead and stick with you in
the program.
Speaker 3: But if you keep on seeing the same result, it
means that the game plan is an accurate or the
coach doesn't know how to stretch your mind and stretch
your by to the point where you can actually make
make that change. So I always tell people when they
come out to my lesson, tee, you have a certain
level of expectation, but I guarantee you that that my
expectations of the learning environment and the results we're going
to get are even higher. So I don't try and
diminish someone's expectations. I try and increase their expectations, and
then as a coach, make sure I deliver.
Speaker 1: And it's okay if we walk away from a lesson
that there was no moments of okay, I got it.
That we should try other coaches.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean people that they shouldn't.
Speaker 1: Worry about hurting their feelings right.
Speaker 3: Well, the thing is when people want to try on
the coaches if they haven't seen any results, you know,
and the results could be you know, it looks better.
You know, I'm not reverse pivoting anymore. I'm finally getting
my way to my front foot. My swing plane is flatter,
like I mean, it's got to look better and perform better.
Speaker 4: But you know it's going to be a journey.
Speaker 5: I mean.
Speaker 3: The thing is that I expect people to improve immediately,
but that doesn't mean that they are going to be
granted with immediate ownership over the new skill level.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 4: So here's the whole thing.
Speaker 3: I mean, you can change your ball flight right now,
but to go to the first t and the second
team and thirteen own that ball flight, I mean that's
going to take you know, patience, will and discipline. It
means you've got to go out there and you got
to put in, put in the time.
Speaker 4: And I've had.
Speaker 3: You know, clients come in and say, you know why
I should be I practice all the time. You know,
I should be able to repeat this, you know, I
should be able to you know, to hit a bunker
shot or a pitch shot, or hit a t shot
like Tyer Woods. I mean I have people say that,
and I say, you know what if you told about
the Tiger woodsy, you punch you in.
Speaker 4: The face right now.
Speaker 3: Why Because he's one of the world's greatest athletes, and
he spends about five thousand percent more time working on
his game then.
Speaker 4: And then you know why in the world would you
deserve to hit it like him?
Speaker 3: You know, he puts all that time in. So we
talked about this before. You know, golf's not about who
hits the best. It's about who misses it the least
people have to understand that in a coaching environment, if
you're open, you are going to perform at a much
higher level, and you should do that immediately.
Speaker 4: But to own it and take it to the core and.
Speaker 3: Stand there with you know, half the people in your
club membership looking at you, you know, while they're holding
their mint julips, and rip it down the fairway just
like coaches there. It's not going to happen until you
deserve to have it happen. And that comes through that journey.
And that's why golf is exciting because you know, it
takes a lot of hard work to play at a
high level. It doesn't take a lot of hard work
to experience great ball flight, but it takes a lot
of hard work.
Speaker 4: To own that ball flight.
Speaker 1: Now, let's get back to the integrated approach and the
different elements of it that requires more than one lesson
or does that get all tied together when you meet
with somebody on that first day.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean when people come out to see me
for a lesson, they're coming out, you know from my
time personally, which is dedicated to that area of golf performance,
which is the technical aspect of what we're trying to
do in terms of creating.
Speaker 4: A game plan. Now, as they learn more.
Speaker 3: About my brand and what I do, you know, then
of course they can schedule additional time with a nutritionist,
or they can schedule time, you know, outside of the
lesson to go over and work with our fitness team
or mindset coaches. So you're going to have to be
willing to commit to spending some time outside of the
lesson if you want that in person experience. But although
the writing that I do, the stuff I do on YouTube,
the stuff that's on my blog, it has valuable points
of directions, so to.
Speaker 4: Speak, for all of these things. So I want people
to be able to kind of see.
Speaker 3: What my brand is all about, to be able to
read something or see something on video and start to
put it into their lives. And if they really want
to get deep into it, then of course they can
engage in that one on one interaction with a part
of my performance team.
Speaker 1: I recently received an email from you about your new
initiative called make the Turn, and is this all part
of your integrated approach and explain it please?
Speaker 4: It is it is make the Turn.
Speaker 3: It's really a it's a high performance lifestyle based initiative,
you know, to try and get people excited about the
game and to get people in position to experience you know,
great success and amazing things. You know, in all these areas.
Golf performance mindset fits nutrition. So when you make the turn,
it's when that level of possibility is revealed to you
and you feel like it's it's attainable. You know, it's
when people are authentic with their desires. We've used that
word before, but they realize that those desires are also
visible and within reach and those sometimes those are you know,
how we think, you know, throughout the day.
Speaker 4: Sometimes there are the.
Speaker 3: Things that we eat and how they make us make
us feel. It's how strong and how flexible we are,
and you know whether or not we like walking around
or for a joint sort of back hurts. And of
course then it's going to the golf course and you know,
being able to see that ball sing through the air
and hint, the golf ball grade is the amazing feeling,
you know, and the more you can do that, you know.
Speaker 4: Level of enjoyment, entertainment goes up.
Speaker 3: So just trying to create a platform through this program
to get people dialed into this whole lifestyle based approach
to playing well and living well, and I really think
that they're very closely intertwined, and there's so many opportunities,
not only in a golf lesson or in a coaching relationship,
to be able to tap into some of these other
areas which are really powerful as well. So one of
the things that we're doing with the Turning Initiative to
get people really dialed in is we're going to have
a fifty two week make the Turn Weekend challenge program
and it's going to be done through Facebook. So once
we get all the challenges shot and dialed in, people
be able to go to my Facebook page, which is
jeffard or Golf, and on Friday, first Friday we start,
you'll have a performance based.
Speaker 4: Challenge in the area of golf performance.
Speaker 3: The next Friday it will be a mindset challenge, and
then it goes on to a fittest challenge and then
a nutrition challenge. So it's basically getting up in the
morning ford and seeing something in one of these four
area that's going to give you a sense of purpose
as you go to the golf course or as you
move throughout.
Speaker 4: Your day and one of the things with golf.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, we've been talking about golf for
a long time, and golf's been in magazines on TV,
and you know, golf is all.
Speaker 4: Just tips, tips, tips, and you know, as a coach, I.
Speaker 3: Started really getting tired about looking at something that's just
a tip that doesn't have any kind of purpose or
movement behind it. So what I'm hoping to accomplish with
this make the term challenge program is for someone to
engage in each challenge and then be able to start
seeing a positive change in their golf game, in their
thought processes, in their nutrition, in their their waistline, and
how their body feels, and at the end of the
year look back and say, Wow, that program got me
dialed and it was fun to participate in. And not
only do I play better, but I feel better, I
think better, and I'm glad that I participated in it.
Speaker 1: I'm intrigued. What is the time commitment your and are
there report cards? I mean, how does that work? And
how much are we supposed to be doing each week
with each challenge?
Speaker 4: Well, it's it's a very low time commitment.
Speaker 3: For example, a golf performance challenge might be as simple
as if you're going to go to the range on Saturday,
I want you to go ahead and complete this one
short game drill for example. Some will be more difficult
at some mobile bit easier, but it's not something where
you have to spend all day doing it. It's just
going out there instead of just whacking balls, you know,
having some purpose behind what you're doing, and trying to
create a benchmark for your performance. If it's a fitness
based challenge, it's going to be something that you can
hop out of bed and do in your living room.
I'm not going to require people to go climb a
mountain or go join a gym or anything like that.
It's just the idea of creating momentum. And of course
with nutrition, you know stuff that you can look at
on a menu and make a choice that's a little
bit different than what you normally make at.
Speaker 4: Your local clubs.
Speaker 3: So you know, life is all about rating momentum. Anyone
who's been involved with fitness or running or anything like that,
you know, once you get a little bit of momentum,
a little bit of steam in your engine, it's.
Speaker 4: Amazing how much farther you can go.
Speaker 3: So this program is designed to get people started and
to build momentum slowly over time, so that the sum
of all the parts, so to speak, lead up to
a much greater hole which is hopefully exciting and inspiring
and gets people pumped to.
Speaker 4: Be involved in the game. That's all.
Speaker 3: That's what I'm all about, is helping people get pumped
about their golf games. And because I've got this great
team of people around me, you know, we have the
ability to expand on that influence into these other areas
as well.
Speaker 1: I'm pumped, I'm ready. And when does this begin? At
jefferd or Golf. Got jefferd or Golf Facebook page, jefferd
of Golf Facebook page, and when does when's the first
challenge being issued?
Speaker 4: I'm hoping it's going to be out.
Speaker 3: I don't want to get the deadline here too close
because we've got the holidays coming up. But I've been
actively doing some video in some writing and putting the
challenges together.
Speaker 4: So we'll have.
Speaker 3: About thirteen challenges in each category, but I would imagine
in the next six weeks you'll start seeing them there.
And one thing people can do is they can just
go to my Facebook page, which is jeffer Golf. Another
incentive form is fred, I'm giving away a pain Answer
driver this month, so going to give away pay Answer driver.
And it gave away one, We're going to give away
another one. So all they have to do is like
the page and they can actually register right there.
Speaker 1: Okay, and wait now, this is what you're talking about
November twenty twelve this month or October twenty twelve this month.
Speaker 3: Well, actually we're going to give them away multiple months.
So if somebody enters today and they don't win the
next driver, they'll be enrolled to actually win either a
driver beyond that or another prize. They've actually got a
top secret sweepstakes giveaway in order, which is going to be.
Speaker 4: It's going to be big.
Speaker 1: Fred Am I eligible to it.
Speaker 3: I told you before if you want some one, man,
I think that would be possible.
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't want to talk about it anymore then,
so listen, here's what I would like to do. Because
we've hit our time limit for today because I want
to get to our score Zone Short Game Academy. But
here's can you come back? We'll do another episode next week,
a members only episode, and can I drag out of
you a couple of these specific fifty two of your
not all fifty two, but a couple of the make
the Turn challenges for the next episode. Absolutely awesome. Okay,
So for Golf Smarter members, you will get to hear
some of the challenges that Jeff's going to be providing
over the next fifty two weeks. So when he starts
and we will speak to Jeff on the next episode
and get some of these challenges. Okay, Jeffy All right?
Speaker 4: Fred sounds good, can't wait.
Speaker 1: It is time once again for the score Zone Short
Game Academy with our wedge Guy Terry Kaylor Hi.
Speaker 8: Terry, Hi Bred. How are you doing.
Speaker 1: I'm doing well, thank you. I just want to remind
all of our listeners that they can participate in this
segment of the show. If you have a question about
your short game, we invite you to go to Golfsmarter
dot com and click on the button that says score
Zone Short Game Academy and Terry along with his blog
the wedge Guy dot com. Is that what the u
r L is for your your blog?
Speaker 8: Yes, yes, it is.
Speaker 1: Okay, so yeah, he even addresses I've been reading the
Wedge Guy blog and I've seen some of the questions
that have come up on Golf Smarter on your blog.
Thank you very much for doing that.
Speaker 8: Well, you know, people have questions. I want to provide
answers when I can.
Speaker 1: And why not. And we actually have a question today.
This one comes from longtime Golf Smarter listener and supporter.
Thank you, Hugh Deandrade out of Summit, New Jersey, and
he it's a very simple question, but I think it's
a relevant one because I want this answer as well.
It is, Terry. You frequently speak of the release. Would
you please define and explain that term.
Speaker 8: Well, I'd love to, Hugh, thanks for asking, because I
just out in Las Vegas last week and speaking to
a group of LPGA teaching professionals and we got into
a dialogue about proper release of the golf club and
they all agree this is one of the most misunderstood
parts of the golf swing. Is this thing we call
the release of the golf club and the working with
your short shots and your half swings, your chips and
pitches is the easiest place to learn the real proper
move and the release of the hands through impact because
you're doing everything in slow motion and if you learn
it and you learn a proper release on your on
your short pitches and your half wedges. You can then
migrate that if you will up into your short irons
and your middle arms and all the way to your driver.
The release of the golf club when we talk about that,
is that the way the hands and the golf club
react through the impact zone, and that that magic moment
where the hands are moving from just behind the ball
to a head of the ball, and the clubhead is
moving from well behind the ball to well in front
of the ball. It's very hard hard to do without video,
but I'll give it my best shot. You'll stand and
your listeners, if you'll take your club, your imaginary grip
in front of you and you're you're looking right down
at your thumbs, and if you'll roll it to where
the club would be pointing dead to the right, so
the back of your left hand, if you're right handed,
is facing straight up in the air, and then roll
it to the left so the back of your right
hand is facing straight up in the air. That is
the rotational release that has to happen through impact. It's
not really an unhinging. And we talk about cocking our
wrisks and releasing our risks. You're really not changing that
that break is changing in your swing. But the release
of the club is this rotational move from right before impact.
If you will, if you, I mean, everybody, get up
out of your chair and stand up. And I want
to show you this because I think if you take
your hand, your hands like an imaginary golf club, and
you rotate them to where the back of your left
hand is facing straight away from you and the club
is parallel to the ground facing to your right if
you're a right handed player, and then when you move
the hands about a foot down the target line, and
as you do, make a complete one and eighty rotation,
so that when you move a foot down the target line,
now your back of your left hand is facing straight
down and the back of your right hand is now
facing straight up. Do that back and forth cup. That
rotational move is the magic move through impact that magnifies
the power of the golf swing exponentially. It's the most
it's if they're to me, that was Ben Hogan's secret
that he never talked about. You heard it here first
time The wedge Guy reveals Ben Hogan's secret.
Speaker 1: That's the very first time that had Ben Hogan's secret
has ever been revealed on this show.
Speaker 8: Unbelievable from the wedge guy. So but Hogan talked about
pronation and supernation and all this, but what he really
meant is the rotate. And to me again, I said,
my opinion is this rotation of the hands. And if
you have a golf club in your hand and you
do this, watch that I told you. You move your
hands one foot toward the target from just behind the
ball to just in front of the ball. But while
you do it, you do this full one hundred and
eighty degree rotation. While your hands move afoot, the clubhead
moves about eight feet and that is a huge magnifier
of power. It's an accelerator of your hands are moving
one foot and the clubheads moving eight foot. That's an
eight to one acceleration factor. And while you're doing that,
you're rotating your body course, or your hands are rotating
and they're staying right in front of your chest. And
you actually release your hands by releasing the body. And
you don't have to force this rotation, but let it happen.
But it's not an unhinging And if you get into
golf posture, I guess I'm have to get up out
of my chair like here all the rest of us.
If you get into golf posture, and you have this
imaginary glove or real club in your hand, if you'll
rotate your body in your hands together, but let your
hands rotate so that the back of your left hand
is facing straight away from you and away from your body,
and the club is pointing directly behind backwards down the
target line, parallel to the ground. So if you can
and you've maintained this angle between your forms and the
golf club, and then just pull the heel of your
left hand from your right thigh across your left thigh,
and at the same time rotate your hands so that
the back of your right hand is now facing away
from you as your hands past your left thigh, and
do that one hundred and eighty degree rotation of the
golf club. The hands move a foot, and look how
far the golf club moves. The golf club moves from
pointing way back behind you to pointing right down the
target line. So you've taken this three and a half
foot golf club, and you've moved your hands a foot,
and you move that clubhead seven or eight feet there's
a huge magnification of power there, and that applies in
every shot in golf. And the hands don't unhinge, the
hands stay close to your body and doing this so
that your body core rotation can be faster, which is
where all your power comes from.
Speaker 1: You know, as we record this, we're in the midst
of the twenty twelve Major League Baseball postseason, and Terry's
from Texas. I'm from Bay Area and in my Oakland
areas kind of beat up on your Rangers and now
the Giants are doing well as well. But my point
is that with these super slow mo cameras that Fox
keeps using, I have noticed that when they show a
batter swinging the bat to hit the ball, the rotation
like you're talking about of his hands as the ball
as the back crosses the plate. Are you talking? Is
this the same thing?
Speaker 8: It's similar. But if you look at when and as
all of your viewers watch golf on TV and watch
the destructional videos, really watch the pros with their short
clubs because they're moving slower. Everything's happening slower, and you
have a better chance of seeing it. But when you
get an opportunity to look down the target line. You'll
see a lot of times they'll have a camera angle,
even in the magazines, from behind the golf and looking
straight behind the golfer down the target line and look
at the address position and the impact position. If you
can get fortunate enough to see these with a wedge
or a short iron in their hands, and their hand
are hanging. Their arms are hanging straight down from the
shoulder where the hands are in a very natural position.
I mean, they're just hanging. They're not pushed out toward
the ball. And as you take the club back and through,
you want your hands to come right back through that
exact position, and so the club has to rotate and
maintain what I call the magic angle. And looking from
this position, the arm is hanging straight down, but then
it goes off at a sixty three or four degree
li angle to the golf ball, and that's just what
I call the magic angle, and that angle doesn't get straight. Now,
the more powerful swing you make, the more the centrifical
force of your body. Rotation is going to make your
arms swing away from your body a little bit. But
if you want to maximize the power of your golf
swing consciously, think of keeping your hands close to your
body as you turn through impact and letting those hands
kind of come across your thighs if you will back
through their address position, and you will find that you
can swing easier and hit the ball harder than you
ever have.
Speaker 1: Phenomenal. Thank you very much. Great explanation. It really clarified
a lot for me, and now I have something to
focus on on that that on my short game swing there.
That's great. Thank you. All right, great question, Hugh, Good job.
Speaker 8: It was very good, Hugh. Thanks for asking that because
I love talking about this topic. I like showing people
this because it's the aha moment for most golfers when
they really understand this concept of release.
Speaker 1: And over the last couple of shows, I'm sure that
people have realized. And please keep submitting your questions. And
your question, of course, may be something that's plaguing you
in your game, but just think about the fact that
you're not the only one. And the type of questions
that Terry seems to be responding to are those that
he knows he hears a lot from a lot of
different people. So your your question may be about your game,
but it also could be covering a topic for a
lot of people. So the little little hint there on
what to do?
Speaker 8: Do you agree with that, sir exactly? There are millions
of golfers and there are dozens of problems, so everything,
every problem somebody has is shared by thousands of other golfers.
So please ask, please send it in. And there are
no stupid questions. There are only questions that don't get asked.
Speaker 1: There you go. That's it for today, Terry, Thanks so much.
We'll talk to you in a couple episodes and hopefully
it'll be another question that will cover information for all
of us.
Speaker 8: Well, I look forward to it, Fred, and we'll talk
to you then.