Speaker 1: Golf Smarter number three hundred and ninety two, published on
Speaker 1: July ninth, twenty thirteen.
Speaker 2: Welcome to golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain
Speaker 2: insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
Speaker 2: Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets Old. Our
Speaker 2: interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations
Speaker 2: like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.
Speaker 3: If you're before kids in career or after kids in career,
Speaker 3: you've got a chance to practice, and you have to
Speaker 3: practice a lot. This isn't that bucket of balls before
Speaker 3: you play. You need to go five six times a
Speaker 3: week and hit plenty of golf balls. And I've got
Speaker 3: one story about a guy I used to work with.
Speaker 3: He was on the PGA Tour back in the sixties
Speaker 3: and he was one of the best college players ever
Speaker 3: at the time of him being on the tour. Ben
Speaker 3: Hogan said that he was one of the best players
Speaker 3: on the tour. He just didn't know it, which he
Speaker 3: didn't know how to take it, whether as a compliment
Speaker 3: or not. But anyways, he was switching his grip and
Speaker 3: he was just making a little weaker so for him,
Speaker 3: he was moving his right hand rotating it to the
Speaker 3: left a little bit, and he asked Ben Hogan how
Speaker 3: long it would take for it to be natural, and
Speaker 3: Ben Hogan told him a year.
Speaker 1: Your intent will impact ball striking success with Ken Doherty.
Speaker 2: This is Golf Smarter, sharing tips and insights from golfers
Speaker 2: and golf professionals to help lower your score. It's worked
Speaker 2: for your host, Fred Green.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Golf Smarter podcast. Ken. Thank you,
Speaker 1: it's good to have you back. I'm glad that you
Speaker 1: guys are keeping very good care of this golf course.
Speaker 1: I appreciate that gives me something to look at. I
Speaker 1: don't have to criticize anything.
Speaker 3: That superintendent does a great job.
Speaker 1: Your superintendent does a very good job. How big is
Speaker 1: the staff his staff?
Speaker 3: Superintendent, Yeah, I believe he's got a round fifteen working
Speaker 3: for him.
Speaker 1: Grounds crew. So because I noticed a a about eight o'clock,
Speaker 1: seven thirty eight o'clock, there are machines running around and
Speaker 1: there's three or four guys cleaning bunkers, and I got
Speaker 1: to imagine they're not the only ones doing They must
Speaker 1: be multiple groups simultaneous.
Speaker 3: That's right, And it depends on the day too. If
Speaker 3: we're doing starting times off the first tea, they can
Speaker 3: start at one and just go and stay ahead. But
Speaker 3: if we have an event like we did this morning,
Speaker 3: they've got to go off into different places to because
Speaker 3: of the shotgun start that starts to day thirty. So
Speaker 3: they get multiple groups that go to different holes and
Speaker 3: go from.
Speaker 1: There, and they have to stay ahead of those groups.
Speaker 3: They got to stay ahead. And you know there's also
Speaker 3: some areas like we have here in a residential area
Speaker 3: where there's noise ordinance, so we have to stay away
Speaker 3: from certain areas until seven am.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get some questions have come in from
Speaker 1: various listeners, and I thought it would be fun to
Speaker 1: talk to you about them. And the first one is
Speaker 1: someone who's saying that they hit their woods really well,
Speaker 1: but they can't hit irons at all. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: iron play versus hybrids and woods. Why, I would think
Speaker 1: that the driver is probably the hardest club to hit.
Speaker 3: Not necessarily, I think the hardest clubs to hit are
Speaker 3: probably the long irons or even the three wood off
Speaker 3: the ground. Those are probably the most difficult clubs to hit.
Speaker 1: Why.
Speaker 3: Well, there's several factors for one. Sometimes somebody's swing type
Speaker 3: or shape can determine whether they are better at irons
Speaker 3: or better at woods. If you have a very descending
Speaker 3: blow on your swing descending angle, well, irons might be
Speaker 3: better for you. You might a wood needs to be
Speaker 3: more of a shallow approach, a sweeping type swing. You
Speaker 3: also have a hozzle that's on that iron, and you
Speaker 3: can hit a golf ball on the heel of a
Speaker 3: golf club and a wood you're going to be fine,
Speaker 3: and an iron you're going to be in some trouble.
Speaker 3: So you know, there's again there's different factors. I think
Speaker 3: a lot of people. I think you only find that
Speaker 3: the better golfers really descend into the ball the way
Speaker 3: they should, So the higher the handicap, the better, or
Speaker 3: I think they're happier they'll be with their woods because
Speaker 3: you don't have to descend. It's more of a sweeping
Speaker 3: People tend to jump up and look up and try
Speaker 3: to lift the ball up. Well, you can kind of
Speaker 3: get away with that with a wood, so I think
Speaker 3: you know, when you tee it up with a driver,
Speaker 3: it's funny. Some people have a more difficult time with
Speaker 3: a driver because it's so long and it's so cumbersome
Speaker 3: that they have a hard time getting through it and
Speaker 3: they slice the ball where others the balls teed up.
Speaker 3: So it is easier for them because there's they don't
Speaker 3: worry about hitting the ground. They feel free to swing.
Speaker 3: So it really depends on an individual and sometimes what
Speaker 3: those individual flaws are in their swing it can determine it.
Speaker 1: So you really need to develop different swings for your irons,
Speaker 1: as you do have with you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and here's a perfect example. When I first started
Speaker 3: started hitting at hybrid, I didn't hit it very well
Speaker 3: and I kept one why And it wasn't until I
Speaker 3: figured out that it was it was an iron. It
Speaker 3: was more like an iron. You've got to hit this
Speaker 3: on a descending blow that I you know, I moved
Speaker 3: the ball back a little bit my stands to create
Speaker 3: more of an iron type hit and my intent, which
Speaker 3: I think is a very important thing in golf, is
Speaker 3: your intent. My intent was to swing and hit down
Speaker 3: on the ball instead of trimating and committing to my intent.
Speaker 3: Once I did that, I've it's my favorite club in
Speaker 3: the bag. I love hybrids because of that. Yeah, So
Speaker 3: it's a I think a lot of times it's intent.
Speaker 1: I've actually considered. Recently, I've been struggling with my five
Speaker 1: iron because I have a hybrid for my four and
Speaker 1: my three iron, so and I love them. Guess what's
Speaker 1: coming and I'm I'm really considering getting rid of my
Speaker 1: uh so right now I have driver three wood, two hybrids,
Speaker 1: then five, six, seven.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you a question before you go on.
Speaker 3: Why do you have a three wood?
Speaker 1: Do you like your three I love my three wood? Okay, so,
Speaker 1: but here's the interesting point. So Jesse Ortiz of Bobby
Speaker 1: Jones Golf, he was, I went down. It's about an
Speaker 1: hour away, and hey where his shop is. And he
Speaker 1: made me these clubs, and he said, I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 1: gonna make this club for you, but based on your
Speaker 1: numbers that you provided me once you got fitted, I'm
Speaker 1: going to make it more like a four wood, but
Speaker 1: you can tell everyone it's a three wood.
Speaker 3: Good for him, And so he answered, you answered my question.
Speaker 3: You don't really hit a three wood. Three woods are
Speaker 3: very difficult to hit. And bye, by the makeup of
Speaker 3: your set, I'm thinking if you like all those clubs,
Speaker 3: there's gonna be a big difference between your three wood
Speaker 3: and your hybrid. So there's got to be something in
Speaker 3: the middle. So that forwood helps that it moves it
Speaker 3: a little closer. So two things are going to happen.
Speaker 3: You may not hit it as far as the three wood,
Speaker 3: but I guarantee you're going to be more consistent. And
Speaker 3: that's much more important.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you that I recently have put the
Speaker 1: driver in the bag for the first four or five
Speaker 1: holes because I'm so much more confident with my three
Speaker 1: four wood four three wood, and and and it just
Speaker 1: gives me more confidences that go on. And then as
Speaker 1: I feel like I've got my swing and I know
Speaker 1: where I'm going, I'll pull out the driver. Smart play,
Speaker 1: thank you, but golf smarter. So but I don't you know, obviously,
Speaker 1: on my driver, I'm going to tee it up very high.
Speaker 1: And my and my my hybrid, my three four wood, okay,
Speaker 1: give me crazy. On on the wood, you know, I'll
Speaker 1: tee them up very low. Like if I'm going to
Speaker 1: tee up.
Speaker 3: Where's your driver go right, left, high, low? What's proba?
Speaker 1: Well, if I start with it, it's gonna it's gonna
Speaker 1: go right. Okay, it's gonna go right. Sometimes a nice
Speaker 1: fade my ball has a tendency to fade to the right.
Speaker 3: You're the instructor, I'm asking you. I've never given you
Speaker 3: a lesson. Have you taken lessons? Well kind of yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: So you don't have that answer.
Speaker 1: Why it goes to the right is because I I
Speaker 1: don't know. I I think that it's because I'm going inside.
Speaker 3: Out, outside in. You're most likely swinging to the left
Speaker 3: of your target and your club face is open. So
Speaker 3: now you got to.
Speaker 1: Determine with my wrists breaking too, you.
Speaker 3: Got to determine why you're not closing that club face
Speaker 3: and why you're swinging what they call over the top
Speaker 3: or you know, to the left of your target.
Speaker 1: The lessons that I've been working on recently, I'm just
Speaker 1: learning how to roll my hands over for the impact.
Speaker 1: That's like wow, And that's a hard one because then
Speaker 1: I'm able to keep the right angle on the club
Speaker 1: farther down and then make the roll.
Speaker 3: Just remember this, tend to call me. Let's give you
Speaker 3: a lesson intent anytime we have at our We have
Speaker 3: a hitting bay at our facility with with video and
Speaker 3: a flight scope which is a launch monitor and it's
Speaker 3: radar base and it gives you all the details of
Speaker 3: club face angle and and uh uh swing path and
Speaker 3: ball speed, clubhead speed, you name it, spin rate. So
Speaker 3: it's it's a great tool to have. But I can
Speaker 3: tell you without even seeing in your swing, most slicers,
Speaker 3: and I'm gonna put you in a general category, most
Speaker 3: slicers turn rotate their chest too quickly through the ball,
Speaker 3: and not their wrists and forearms, their hands and forearms.
Speaker 1: Well, that's the other thing I've been working on is
Speaker 1: my hip turn on the back swing.
Speaker 3: Okay, and then.
Speaker 1: Increasingly having one.
Speaker 3: Okay, right, where do your shoulders aim at impact?
Speaker 1: At impact? Probably left? Yeah, it probably should that's right,
Speaker 1: and that should be at They should be square square.
Speaker 3: This is so much fun, and that would that would
Speaker 3: hopefully allow you to turn your hands over. Once you
Speaker 3: turn your shoulders way too past your your target line
Speaker 3: or left of your target line, you are not going
Speaker 3: left unless you will with a short iron, because it's
Speaker 3: easy to keep the clubhead of the short club up
Speaker 3: with your rotation, but because the club is so long
Speaker 3: for the driver, your your body will turn much quicker
Speaker 3: than your hands can get the club head squared up.
Speaker 3: So there's a good there's a good drill to feel
Speaker 3: the right motion.
Speaker 1: And I would love to hear it.
Speaker 3: There's a good drill to feel the right motion.
Speaker 1: And I would love to hear it.
Speaker 3: What you need to do is put get the distance
Speaker 3: away from the ball that you want to hit the ball. Okay.
Speaker 3: Put your feet so they're touching together. Okay, and now
Speaker 3: take your right foot and move it straight back as
Speaker 3: if you're in a walking motion. Okay, so you're gonna
Speaker 3: putting it on the ground. You're putting it on the ground, flat, flat,
Speaker 3: both feet. Okay. So your feet were together, yep, your
Speaker 3: feet were together initially. And you move your front your
Speaker 3: right foot directly back. Now this is for a right
Speaker 3: handed golfer, okay, okay, and I want you to take
Speaker 3: a full swing without either foot leaving the ground, especially
Speaker 3: your right heel. And what that's gonna do is it's
Speaker 3: gonna lock your hips down on the follow through, so
Speaker 3: it's gonna be very difficult to rotate your body through.
Speaker 3: It's going to force you to swing your arms and
Speaker 3: hands more, which is something that when I get somebody
Speaker 3: who who does that, I want them to feel like
Speaker 3: they're using more arms and hands on the downswing. And
Speaker 3: I know that you hear about the rotation and rotate, rotate,
Speaker 3: But I don't think slicers use their hands and forearms enough.
Speaker 3: They don't snap their their their club head through. Interesting,
Speaker 3: So try that drill, and if you're a left hander,
Speaker 3: the left foot goes back.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right.
Speaker 3: So with the The key though, is to keep that
Speaker 3: right heel down if you're a right hander, and that
Speaker 3: in that swing.
Speaker 1: And the goal here is to be square at impact,
Speaker 1: not having one.
Speaker 3: Well, you're gonna be forced to You're gonna be forced
Speaker 3: to use your arms and hands a lot more.
Speaker 1: That's what it feels like. I'm doing this.
Speaker 3: That's right. And the key you got to keep your
Speaker 3: when you swing you hit that ball.
Speaker 1: That's always been a problem to keep your balance on
Speaker 1: my driver especially, it's always been a problem where I'll
Speaker 1: take it. You know, I'll finish my swing and I'll
Speaker 1: be four or five steps in a different direction from
Speaker 1: where I started. Well, swing too hard.
Speaker 3: A drill for that is the same one. Make sure
Speaker 3: that your feet are together. Put your right foot back,
Speaker 3: you could even to make it real difficult, put the
Speaker 3: right foot directly behind the left foot, both on the ground,
Speaker 3: not touching each other. In the same distance away as
Speaker 3: if you were walking, and then put both feet down
Speaker 3: and try to take a golf swing and watch how
Speaker 3: difficult it is to keep your balance. But if you
Speaker 3: get to the point where you can take a full swing,
Speaker 3: hit the ball and keep your balance count to two
Speaker 3: or three after you swing, watch how much better your
Speaker 3: swing gets because you're forcing yourself to swing around a center.
Speaker 3: So it's it's very good. You won't find yourself most
Speaker 3: people fall away from it to their back foot and
Speaker 3: you'll find yourself losing your balance quite a bit initially.
Speaker 3: But it's a real good drill to feel your head
Speaker 3: still and have you swing around to around a center.
Speaker 1: All we got to figure out how we can get
Speaker 1: a video of this of that drill. Sure, yeah, we're
Speaker 1: going to have to put that up.
Speaker 3: We'll put you on it.
Speaker 1: No, you you're going to be giving.
Speaker 3: I'll swing. I do it all the time, and I'll
Speaker 3: show you how to do it and keep your balance.
Speaker 1: Awesome, Oh that's great. So what is it? What does
Speaker 1: it mean when occasionally I'll just on a driver t shot, Well,
Speaker 1: I'll just pop the ball up.
Speaker 3: Well, what happens also when you come over the top
Speaker 3: is you create a very steep angle of attack. That's right.
Speaker 3: So you're coming over the top, you create a steep
Speaker 3: angle of attack, and when you hit basically down on
Speaker 3: the ball, the ball goes straight up in the air.
Speaker 1: And how many times have I played with people do
Speaker 1: the same thing. Oh, I tee it up too high.
Speaker 3: That's not the reason, although it's you know, I'm sure
Speaker 3: it's possible, but for the most part, it's an over
Speaker 3: the top move and a steep angle of attack. And
Speaker 3: what you want when you're hitting a driver, you actually
Speaker 3: want to be on the upswing that that ball. That's
Speaker 3: why we put it up by the inside of our
Speaker 3: left heel. If you're a right handed golfer, is so
Speaker 3: you want to hit this thing just as it starts
Speaker 3: the upswing of your of your arc.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there is. I do have one video on golf
Speaker 1: Smarter TV where he's how to hit straight drives a
Speaker 1: teacher up in Lake Tahoe, and he said, you know,
Speaker 1: get your feet together at the ball. Address the ball.
Speaker 1: Put your feet together, take a very little step to
Speaker 1: the left with your right your left foot, and then
Speaker 1: a big step.
Speaker 3: To the right. That's exactly what you want to do.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, if if this is an issue for you. You
Speaker 1: should definitely look at the video on a golf Smarter
Speaker 1: TV on our YouTube channel. All right, Ken, now coming
Speaker 1: to the realization that hybrids are irons, Yes, but they're
Speaker 1: not playing like like woods, and you have to you
Speaker 1: have to have a difference. You have to develop two
Speaker 1: kinds of swings. You can't have the same swing. That's
Speaker 1: not easy to do. Now, it's not what is the difference? Well, well,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times it's intent. And remember
Speaker 1: you're putting the ball forward for a wood, so you
Speaker 1: want to hit a sweeping type motion. And I think
Speaker 1: the big thing with irons is I think people can
Speaker 1: get away from the woods because it is at the
Speaker 1: bottom the swing's arc or with a driver on the
Speaker 1: way up. And I think that the average golfer does
Speaker 1: not hit down on the ball.
Speaker 3: They swing up on the ball. So that makes an
Speaker 3: iron very difficult. So intent has to change. And I
Speaker 3: think another drill that's very good is if you put
Speaker 3: a tee in the ground about an inch past the ball,
Speaker 3: right in front of the ball about an inch and
Speaker 3: make sure that the tea is about grass light, grass
Speaker 3: level or even a little lower. And I want you
Speaker 3: to not only hit the golf ball, but I want
Speaker 3: you to knock the tea out of the ground, so
Speaker 3: the t is barely going to be above the ground.
Speaker 1: And wait, with which club is this any iron? Any iron?
Speaker 3: Any iron? I want you to make sure that you
Speaker 3: take it so that the divot goes forward. Now this
Speaker 3: this what it does is it gives you something visual
Speaker 3: to go after, and it changes your intent. And I
Speaker 3: believe wholeheartedly in intent. If you try to lift the ball,
Speaker 3: that's what you're gonna do. You're going to try to
Speaker 3: get the ball in the air. Your body's gonna come up,
Speaker 3: You're going to lift your hands up. If you change
Speaker 3: your intent and say I'm going to hit the tee
Speaker 3: beyond the ball, I'm going to make the divot beyond
Speaker 3: the ball, you can change the mechanics of your swing
Speaker 3: by changing your intent. I do it a lot in
Speaker 3: the bunker with people too. I do it with chip shots.
Speaker 3: Change their intent and they hit better shots. We didn't
Speaker 3: talk about the mechanics, but yet their mechanics changed. So
Speaker 3: I think that's a very good drill. When you're on
Speaker 3: the ground and you're having trouble making a divot is
Speaker 3: to just put that tea. Put that little carrot out
Speaker 3: there and go after it, and do it until you
Speaker 3: start knocking that tea out of the ground, and you
Speaker 3: watch the difference. You'll compress the ball, You'll hit it farther,
Speaker 3: you'll hit it more solid. You won't believe how good
Speaker 3: it feels.
Speaker 1: It's the whole concept of little ball, big ball versus
Speaker 1: big ball hitting big ball, ball, big ball being earth.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: You need a little ball then the big ball. And
Speaker 1: it is such a hard thing for the average golfer,
Speaker 1: from what I witness and from what I experience, uh
Speaker 1: to to get a good divot.
Speaker 3: We don't grow up well. Some obviously, the people that
Speaker 3: start playing golf early get it. It's easy to learn
Speaker 3: when you're younger, but when you're older, it's harder to learn.
Speaker 3: And also when you're growing up, you don't play any
Speaker 3: other sport. I guess maybe hockey, but you don't really
Speaker 3: play any other sport where you're swinging down to make
Speaker 3: the ball go up. You know, baseball isn't meant to
Speaker 3: hit that way. You don't play tennis that way. So
Speaker 3: I think it's very unorthodox.
Speaker 1: All right now, I want to get back to your
Speaker 1: You're real high on the word intent. Yeah, okay, intent
Speaker 1: is not getting the ball unto the green. That's not
Speaker 1: what you mean.
Speaker 3: I think. I think that that's another level of it,
Speaker 3: if your intent is to get the ball green instead
Speaker 3: of saying I don't want to go in the bunker.
Speaker 3: You know, I think that there's also that positive thought too.
Speaker 1: You know, well, if you're think if you got the
Speaker 1: bunker in your head at all, that's not a positive thought.
Speaker 3: Don't even think about it exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So to find intent in what you mean when
Speaker 1: you're talking about using your wood versus the hybrid, and
Speaker 1: you know what your intent is on the swing? You know,
Speaker 1: you have different types of swings.
Speaker 3: I do, and when when I have an iron in
Speaker 3: my hand, I am trying to purposely stay down and
Speaker 3: take a divit. I can see a blade of grass
Speaker 3: beyond the ball, and my intent is to swing down
Speaker 3: through that grass. Do you.
Speaker 1: Aim when you're addressing when you're at a dress. Are
Speaker 1: you looking at the front of the ball, the back
Speaker 1: of the ball, the center of the ball. What are
Speaker 1: you looking at? What is and is that your end point?
Speaker 3: It doesn't matter what I'm looking at because I don't
Speaker 3: see what I'm looking at and you're gonna look at
Speaker 3: me like what Wait a minute, okay, what Yeah, exactly
Speaker 3: what I do before I take a swing, as I
Speaker 3: pick a target. It could be a chimney, it could be.
Speaker 1: A branch routine.
Speaker 3: Yes, so I'm building the image that I want to
Speaker 3: swing at. If that chimney's above my flagstick, or a
Speaker 3: tower on the hillside, or a tree branch or sometimes
Speaker 3: it has to be the flagstick itself, I'm looking at
Speaker 3: that and I'm building that image in my head. So
Speaker 3: when I finally look back down to the ball, I'm
Speaker 3: there for about a second or less and I see
Speaker 3: that image because I'm swinging at the image in my head.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to stay totally positive.
Speaker 1: So the ball is not the target.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so no, I look at the ball, but I
Speaker 3: really am not seeing it. I mean, that's more of
Speaker 3: him when I periphery, because I'm still I still have
Speaker 3: that object in my head because I want to swing
Speaker 3: positively at something where I'm going, and that does a
Speaker 3: few things. It takes the mechanics out of my head.
Speaker 3: Too many people think mechanically and they think backwards when
Speaker 3: they're swinging and playing golf. Think backwards on the range.
Speaker 3: When you're on the golf course.
Speaker 1: What do you mean thinks backswing?
Speaker 3: Oh okay, thinking of their backswing, their position, cocking the wrists,
Speaker 3: whatever they have to think of. I think that you
Speaker 3: need to think of that stuff on the range when
Speaker 3: you go play golf. You need to play golf and
Speaker 3: think forward. Always think forward when you're playing golf.
Speaker 1: Are you an advocate of target golf? Yes, focusing on that.
Speaker 3: Target absolutely, because again, it takes mind off your mechanics
Speaker 3: and trouble there's people think of mechanics, they also think
Speaker 3: of oh no, there's out of bounds over there, so
Speaker 3: they're right, Oh, I got to stay away from that bunker. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Don't hit it in the water. You know that type
Speaker 3: of thing.
Speaker 1: And I've always cracked up that when you and you
Speaker 1: just said, you've set me up perfectly. Don't hit it
Speaker 1: in the water. Don't hit What are the last three words.
Speaker 3: That hit it in the water? Exactly?
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And that's why I think that building that image in
Speaker 3: your head and swinging at it, it does several things
Speaker 3: and they're all positive. It keeps mechanics out of your head.
Speaker 3: It makes you think of forward, and you don't think
Speaker 3: of hitting it someplace negatively. You think of hitting something
Speaker 3: authoritatively at a positive object, and I think that's very important.
Speaker 3: And you go ahead and think of other sports. When
Speaker 3: you're shooting a basketball up and do a hoop, do
Speaker 3: you think of how you're cocking your arm back and
Speaker 3: the philosophy there you're exactly you're looking at your target
Speaker 3: and shooting at it. And I think we do that
Speaker 3: in most sports. The golf we don't. And one of
Speaker 3: the reasons why we don't is we can think about
Speaker 3: it before we swing.
Speaker 1: Well, right, I mean, I have a book over there
Speaker 1: and we've done this show. The head pro over at
Speaker 1: Pinehurst did this book on and I can't I think
Speaker 1: an intentional putting. But it's it's he looks at the hole.
Speaker 1: He doesn't look at the ball. I mean, he gets
Speaker 1: all set and then he's you know, he does. Why
Speaker 1: why are we looking down at the ball when that's
Speaker 1: not the target.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's still a rarity to see.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, practicing like practicing like that.
Speaker 3: I see people practicing like that, but I don't know
Speaker 3: if I've really seen anybody on the golf course doing it. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's a good question. Why I don't. I'm not quite sure.
Speaker 1: But would you ever try to putt like that?
Speaker 3: No, but I can understand the practice of either looking
Speaker 3: at the hole or even better yet looking at the hole,
Speaker 3: going back to the ball and closing your eyes. I
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 1: Whoa, whoa, wha, wha.
Speaker 3: What you closing your eyes when you're talking about I'm
Speaker 3: talking about practicing now? Oh okay, yeah, because I think
Speaker 3: it's important to get the feel and when you take
Speaker 3: the vision out of it, you have to feel the
Speaker 3: stroke and feel how much you're swinging and so on.
Speaker 3: So I think that's very good because I think we
Speaker 3: sometimes allow ourselves to use our vision too much and
Speaker 3: it can fake you out. And I think it's a
Speaker 3: comfort to have yet another sense working for you.
Speaker 1: So a lot of what you're talking about makes sense
Speaker 1: for somebody who's been playing golf for most of their
Speaker 1: life and they don't think about it. Then you get
Speaker 1: to person and there are so many people, and I
Speaker 1: receeve emails from people I just started playing golf, or
Speaker 1: I've just picked it up again after being away for
Speaker 1: twenty years, or you know, I'm about to retire and
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of playing golf. A lot of that, Okay,
Speaker 1: So you people who start out at a different part
Speaker 1: of life, and so they're much more in their head
Speaker 1: than a kid. Right, the ball just landed in my backyard.
Speaker 3: The hazards are living on a golf course.
Speaker 1: I rarely ever hear it hit the Uh it must
Speaker 1: have hit the card path ors. I'm because I'm so
Speaker 1: glad my wife isn't here, because I've convinced her that
Speaker 1: we'll never get it's yeah. Wow. So so when someone
Speaker 1: like myself who started playing at forty okay, and then
Speaker 1: I played for a number of years before I took
Speaker 1: my first lesson, and now all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: mechanics are just driving me nuts because how do I
Speaker 1: I've got a nice preshot routine. I focus on a target,
Speaker 1: I step up to the ball and try not to
Speaker 1: think of it. But there are now all these things,
Speaker 1: and it's not easy when you've been through as much
Speaker 1: life as you've been and you understand process to knock
Speaker 1: that stuff out of your head. How do you do that?
Speaker 3: Very good question, that's a that's a book of psychology.
Speaker 3: I mean, really, that's the mind game, which there's books
Speaker 3: you know it. Yeah, that's a great question. You do
Speaker 3: have to separate range from golf course and you can
Speaker 3: be analytical as you as you want on the range,
Speaker 3: but you need to be free spirited in that golf
Speaker 3: course and you need to find a way to do it.
Speaker 3: And I think that if you can think of that target,
Speaker 3: you'll you'll do a better job of it. Some people
Speaker 3: are also just built analytically, you know, they rip apart
Speaker 3: everything in detail, and you're not going to change that.
Speaker 1: Right right? Are there people who who that your experience
Speaker 1: that are new to taking lessons as an adult and
Speaker 1: and they are not analytical? After they walk away, don't
Speaker 1: you kind of test them's like what did you learn?
Speaker 1: What's your takeaway today?
Speaker 3: And oh yeah, yeah. I think when you take a
Speaker 3: lesson and I took about fifteen years ago, I took
Speaker 3: a tennis a bunch of tennis lessons just to just
Speaker 3: to be on that side of the ball. And also
Speaker 3: I had people that played tennis and golf because I
Speaker 3: was at a country club that and I just wanted
Speaker 3: to see the differences between ball contact and everything. And
Speaker 3: what I found was something I took away something different
Speaker 3: than I thought I would. I was thinking of where
Speaker 3: my right foot, my left foot, where my racket should
Speaker 3: be when I should take it back behind me. The
Speaker 3: ball went. You know, I held onto the racket so tightly.
Speaker 3: I was terrible because I was thinking so mechanically. So
Speaker 3: I think when you get involved at our age with
Speaker 3: a new sport, that's what you're going to do. And
Speaker 3: it's only time that's going to get you separated from
Speaker 3: all those mechanics to feeling the game, because I think
Speaker 3: you need to get to a point where you're feeling
Speaker 3: it more than you're just thinking mechanically. I don't think
Speaker 3: you can help, but once you take a lesson, you're
Speaker 3: going to be thinking about it well.
Speaker 1: And then you go. You take your lesson, and you
Speaker 1: be huzz You're paying for lessons. Now you're diligent about practicing,
Speaker 1: which is not always easy to do when life gets
Speaker 1: in the way. It's more about, oh, I have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to play golf grade. I'll hit a bucket of
Speaker 1: balls before that, but practicing in between is not always
Speaker 1: an easy thing to do. And so now I've gone,
Speaker 1: I remember what I had my lesson. I've been thinking
Speaker 1: about it at night. I go and I practice, and
Speaker 1: I come out to the course and now a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks go by and I feel like I'm starting
Speaker 1: to get the hang of it. I go back for
Speaker 1: my next lesson and I'm doing everything wrong. I gotta
Speaker 1: start all over again. I hate this game. And it's like, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? What is that where you're not
Speaker 1: getting a right? And then there's one more thing he
Speaker 1: wants to add, and one more thing he wants to add.
Speaker 1: It's like, how do I break this down? How do
Speaker 1: I keep this all straight?
Speaker 3: I want to how often do you practice? You just
Speaker 3: you answered the question a few seconds ago about practice
Speaker 3: and making it difficult, And it is very difficult if
Speaker 3: you're you know, if you're before kids in career or
Speaker 3: after kids in career, you've got a chance to practice,
Speaker 3: and you have to practice a lot. This isn't that
Speaker 3: bucket of balls before you play. You need to go
Speaker 3: five six times a week and hit plenty of golf balls.
Speaker 3: And I've got one story about a guy used to
Speaker 3: work with. He was on the PGA tour back in
Speaker 3: the sixties, and he was one of the best college
Speaker 3: players ever. And at the time of him being on
Speaker 3: the tour, Ben Hogan said that he was one of
Speaker 3: the best players on the tour. He just didn't know it,
Speaker 3: which he didn't know how to take it, whether it
Speaker 3: was a compliment or not. But anyways, he asked ben Hogan,
Speaker 3: he was switching his grip and he was just making
Speaker 3: a little weaker so for him, he was moving his
Speaker 3: right hand rotating it to the left a little bit.
Speaker 3: And he asked ben Hogan how long it would take
Speaker 3: for it to be natural, and ben Hogan told him
Speaker 3: a year. This is a guy who plays for a
Speaker 3: living and he practices every day for several hours. So
Speaker 3: if it's going to take a guy.
Speaker 1: Well, Tiger Woods is a perfect exact Well, hey, he exactly.
Speaker 3: He switches his swing and he disappeared for a couple
Speaker 3: of times, for a year or so and more. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so I mean it. You know, you don't want to
Speaker 3: discourage the average joe out there, but you know it's there.
Speaker 3: You're all average joe's and it's it's it is golf,
Speaker 3: and it's very difficult to change. And when you to
Speaker 3: be have it become natural is very difficult. What you will.
Speaker 3: What I do tell people is when I give them
Speaker 3: something to change, I said, okay, for a long time,
Speaker 3: you're going to have to do this consciously and you're
Speaker 3: going to have to exaggerate it because in most cases
Speaker 3: I'll probably get one or two people a year of
Speaker 3: all the lessons I give that when I say take
Speaker 3: it more to the inside, they yank it way to
Speaker 3: the inside. Usually when I make them change something, I
Speaker 3: have to tell them. The expression in life is you
Speaker 3: give an inch and somebody takes a foot. Well, when
Speaker 3: I give lessons, I have to ask for a foot
Speaker 3: almost always to get an inch. And it's great to
Speaker 3: have video to back it up because people feel dramatic
Speaker 3: change and they say, well, I did I shortened my
Speaker 3: swing like you asked me to. Uh? And then I
Speaker 3: show them on the video and they haven't at all,
Speaker 3: you know, or it's been so incremental they feel like
Speaker 3: they've made a half a backswing. So I think that
Speaker 3: in most cases people have to do it consciously and
Speaker 3: exaggerate it for a long time. And you you need
Speaker 3: you know, this day and age, you can video yourself
Speaker 3: very easily.
Speaker 1: You know, oh my gosh, your phone on your phone,
Speaker 1: you can right to a teacher and you.
Speaker 3: Can do that pretty simply. So I would I would
Speaker 3: recommend doing that. Now, there's some things that people aren't
Speaker 3: too keen to see that. You know, they don't. They
Speaker 3: don't swing enough or know the game enough to know
Speaker 3: what the problem is. But I think if we told
Speaker 3: you something simple like hey, you got to have your
Speaker 3: swing shortened and it should be about at this point
Speaker 3: in your swing, I think they can do that pretty
Speaker 3: easily on their own.
Speaker 1: Well, when you when you leave a lesson, you're at
Speaker 1: the level of conscious incompetence. Yeah, and the goal is
Speaker 1: to get to unconscious competence, right, so you're not thinking
Speaker 1: about it and you can do it. But that's a
Speaker 1: long haul. It's a lot. There's there's many levels between
Speaker 1: unconscious are conscious incompetence and unconscious competence.
Speaker 3: And you better know when you leave a lesson what
Speaker 3: you're doing wrong and what you need to do to
Speaker 3: correct it. And it might be different for different people,
Speaker 3: you know, we're all different. I have a saying that says,
Speaker 3: if you think of chocolate ice cream and you hit
Speaker 3: the ball, well, then that's your thought. And what I
Speaker 3: mean by that is I can tell four people four
Speaker 3: different things. You never know what's going to work for you. Well,
Speaker 3: it could be it could be intent, it could be
Speaker 3: swing thought, it could be imagery, it could be something
Speaker 3: you feel you just never know right.
Speaker 1: And I think that as a golf instructor that you
Speaker 1: have to it's not one size fits all. You have
Speaker 1: to understand what each person is is doing.
Speaker 3: I'll try the most common thing that works, and then
Speaker 3: I'll just go down the list and I'll just keep going.
Speaker 1: You know, so interesting, Ken, Thanks, thank you,