Speaker 1: Golf Smarter number four hundred and twenty seven.
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Speaker 3: There's the external confidence and that internal confidence. External confidence
Speaker 3: isn't long lasting. External confidence is based on how long
Speaker 3: you're playing, and most people think that confidence is a
Speaker 3: result of how well you just played the lost shot,
Speaker 3: or played the lost hole, or played the lost round,
Speaker 3: when really we want to think about confidence being something
Speaker 3: that you can generate within, which then affects your play.
Speaker 3: If you're thinking about confidence as being you have to
Speaker 3: be playing well to build confidence, then you put more
Speaker 3: pressure on your game and you don't feel like you're
Speaker 3: as good a player after hitting a couple of bad shots.
Speaker 3: Whereas confidence can be built from the inside out if
Speaker 3: you can stop to imagining yourself as a good player
Speaker 3: and convincing yourself that you're a good player, and talking
Speaker 3: to yourself in the like way running out on the
Speaker 3: golf course, you can build confidence that is much more
Speaker 3: long lasting and enduring.
Speaker 1: Golf state of Mind Part two in our conversation with
Speaker 1: David Mackenzie. This is Golf Smarter. Thank you again for
Speaker 1: joining us, for sticking around for the rest of this
Speaker 1: conversation because I have so many more questions that I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about with you on golf state of Mind. Right, yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you were And where are you based? If somebody
Speaker 1: wants to start taking lessons from you? How do you
Speaker 1: how does that work?
Speaker 3: I'm in Washington, BC, so I do give you face
Speaker 3: to face lessons in the in the DC metropolitan area
Speaker 3: Northern Virginia, Ireland. But I do a lot of lessons
Speaker 3: on Skype. It's become quite it's quite popular, and uh,
Speaker 3: you know it works. You know, we can fit lessons
Speaker 3: around people's schedules, and you know, we've got to just
Speaker 3: switch on your computer and I use a couple of programs.
Speaker 3: One of them is e Golf Plan and that players
Speaker 3: are able to record stats after their round. So I
Speaker 3: go in and I can check, you know, exactly how
Speaker 3: how someone's you know that how their performance was during rounds,
Speaker 3: and then we you know, a weekly on a weekly basis.
Speaker 3: We meet and we talked about the experience of the round,
Speaker 3: and we also refer to these these stats for areas
Speaker 3: of improvement.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right. One of the things you said towards
Speaker 1: the end of our last part of the conversation was
Speaker 1: you talked about practicing and going to the range, but
Speaker 1: you were referring to practicing the mental game, not just
Speaker 1: working on your swing mechanics. Is that right?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, I'm not. I'm not discounting swing coaches and
Speaker 3: the need for swing coaching, you know. I think that
Speaker 3: that's you know, that is an element of the game
Speaker 3: that you know, people that players need to work on.
Speaker 3: But for me, the more you can you can synchronize
Speaker 3: your body and your mind through visualization, through feel and
Speaker 3: ingraining ingraining those those feelings and is becoming aware of
Speaker 3: your body. So I wouldn't you know, for example, uh,
Speaker 3: an example of a bad session, bad practice session for
Speaker 3: me would be to stand on the driving range one target,
Speaker 3: a bucket of balls, you know, perhaps a couple of clubs,
Speaker 3: and just hitting hitting straight to that same target. That's
Speaker 3: not to me, that's not affective practice. Why effective? Because
Speaker 3: that's nothing like you would be there's nothing like it
Speaker 3: would be on the golf course. On the golf course,
Speaker 3: you're changing shots all the time, and you're you're having
Speaker 3: to play different kinds of shots. So my idea for
Speaker 3: a fulfilling, an effective practice session on the driving range
Speaker 3: would be to hit hit no more than three balls
Speaker 3: with the same club. I'd be picking different targets. I'd
Speaker 3: be trying to hit different trajectories, moving the ball around
Speaker 3: in my stan saying different trajectories I would do. I
Speaker 3: would try to hit as many different kinds of shots
Speaker 3: as I could. I would even try to hit you
Speaker 3: a slice, a hook, a draw. You know, I've got
Speaker 3: a practice drill on the website called the nine Shots
Speaker 3: where you know, you're playing a fade and a draw
Speaker 3: and a straight shot with three different trajectories, and so
Speaker 3: you end up with with nine shots. So it's that variety.
Speaker 3: Otherwise you just get into range with them. I think
Speaker 3: it's very very easy to think that you've mastered the
Speaker 3: game on the driving range, and that's why a lot
Speaker 3: of golfers say, you know, I wish I could take
Speaker 3: my diving range game to the golf course. And there's
Speaker 3: so many things that are wrong with what they're doing
Speaker 3: on the driving range that you know they wouldn't want
Speaker 3: to take that game to the golf course.
Speaker 1: No, we don't, you know. But like if you go
Speaker 1: to the driving range and you'll see, let's just say
Speaker 1: there's twenty five people out there, and you just kind
Speaker 1: of stand back and watch for a while, I can
Speaker 1: almost that ninety nine percent of those guys are hitting
Speaker 1: one club over and over and over again. Why is
Speaker 1: it that that just seems the way you're supposed to
Speaker 1: do it? And what's really interesting, especially if you're warming
Speaker 1: up for a round. I'm guilty of this myself, going Okay,
Speaker 1: that was a shot I wanted. I don't want to
Speaker 1: do that again. I mean, you just as soon as
Speaker 1: you get one that you like, it's like, okay, I
Speaker 1: can move on now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, if I'm under saying the question, I.
Speaker 1: Don't even know if I asked one? Did I long
Speaker 1: pause and like, did I ask him anything?
Speaker 3: Sorry? No, I think I know, I know. You know, yeah,
Speaker 3: they you hit one club, you know, one shot one club,
Speaker 3: and you know, because you're working on a swing drill,
Speaker 3: you know, you're trying to ingrain that that swing into
Speaker 3: your into your your muscle memory and that's that's how
Speaker 3: a lot of golfers spent a lot of the time.
Speaker 3: And it's just, you know, to me, it's not effective.
Speaker 3: And I've been there, and you know I used to
Speaker 3: throw eight dollars down for a bucket of balls, and
Speaker 3: bucket ball off the bucket of balls, and uh and
Speaker 3: and and make those same mistakes over and over again.
Speaker 3: Now I practice in a completely different way. It's it's
Speaker 3: about imagining, imagining holes. It's about trying to create pressure
Speaker 3: on myself playing games. I think that games should be
Speaker 3: a big part of practice, and I actually have a
Speaker 3: book on practice drills which is designed for that purpose,
Speaker 3: to to to create score even on the driving range.
Speaker 3: You can play games against yourself to try and create
Speaker 3: the same thin kind of pressure. Not get into that
Speaker 3: that habit of just you know, you hit one ball.
Speaker 3: Oh I didn't like that shot. Oh hit you know,
Speaker 3: I've got another one here, you know, to pull it
Speaker 3: out of the basket. It's about every shot you know
Speaker 3: should have, should have a purpose and a consequence.
Speaker 1: Give me an example of what you mean by these
Speaker 1: games that you play while you're on the range.
Speaker 3: So you would be I would be practicing, I would
Speaker 3: be visualizing holes in my mind, and so you could,
Speaker 3: you know, essentially play holes and you know imagine. I mean,
Speaker 3: I Ben Hogan used to talk about this, like playing
Speaker 3: holes in his mind. So you can actually play, you
Speaker 3: play against yourself on the driving range and imagine that
Speaker 3: you're in a certain situation, Imagine that you're on the
Speaker 3: of course, you know, try to you know, I heard
Speaker 3: heard about Gray and McDowell like running on the spot,
Speaker 3: like on the on the driving range to try and
Speaker 3: get his heart ate up. Not that I can imagine
Speaker 3: many listeners are gonna want to do that on a
Speaker 3: pack driving range. But the the point is that you
Speaker 3: know he's trying to he's trying to simulate that feeling
Speaker 3: on the golf course, being under pressure, feeling that, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3: And so you know, it's it's that most of most
Speaker 3: authors just practice thinking that you know, there's just there's
Speaker 3: always that next ball, and that's not the mentality that
Speaker 3: we're trying to practice. Because I think, you know, practicing
Speaker 3: practicing an opportunity to practice your mental game just as
Speaker 3: just as it is your your your physical game. And
Speaker 3: I think that bank gets that gets missed. But yeah,
Speaker 3: so I've got you know, I've got a number of
Speaker 3: different games in my my practice for this book, where
Speaker 3: you know you're you're playing games and get and getting schools,
Speaker 3: so every shot has a meaning on you.
Speaker 1: On your website, I was noticing that you have in
Speaker 1: your mental Game section one of the lessons that you
Speaker 1: have here is how to play non conscious golf. And
Speaker 1: how is that different than unconscious golf. I just answered
Speaker 1: my own question in my head unconscious Golf.
Speaker 3: That I didn't write that article a I called calling Chromac,
Speaker 3: who's a contributor to Golf State of Mind, wrote that article.
Speaker 3: And I'm still conscious, but is subconscious? So I might
Speaker 3: not be able to be able to answer that as
Speaker 3: well as I would like it this at this time.
Speaker 1: But that's fair.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's ahead, Yeah, he's uh yeah. I mean, for me,
Speaker 3: the subconscious your your swing is made with your subconscious mind.
Speaker 3: And so those are just those are just important things
Speaker 3: to think about, like the division, the division of what
Speaker 3: your mind, what what these different parts of your mind plays,
Speaker 3: or the roles of the different parts of your mind
Speaker 3: play in a game of golf. You know, the conscious mind,
Speaker 3: the logical analytical brain, is going to be at work
Speaker 3: only during the pre shot routine. So that's you know,
Speaker 3: that's deciding on which the right shot to play, that's
Speaker 3: calculating you know, the yardage. That's you know, making sure
Speaker 3: that you're going through that sequence of steps throughout your routine,
Speaker 3: keeping you you're focused on the on the right things
Speaker 3: throughout your routine. But when you're ready to go, and
Speaker 3: you you know, you might have some some some confidence
Speaker 3: triggers and some go triggers in your as a part
Speaker 3: of your routine, as soon as you're ready to go,
Speaker 3: that's in the conscious mind shuts off completely. And whether
Speaker 3: it's non conscious or subconscious, it's you know, there's there's
Speaker 3: there's absolutely nothing, but there's you know, a thoughtless swing,
Speaker 3: I thought free, I should say thought free swing. Yeah,
Speaker 3: being executed.
Speaker 1: Actually, Colin Cromac was on the Golf Smarter podcast back
Speaker 1: in two thousand and eight, so and we all right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and we talked to him about target oriented golf, which
Speaker 1: which was an epiphany for me. I love talking about
Speaker 1: target golf.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's you know, that's one of one
Speaker 3: of the fundamentals of his program. But I mean, for me,
Speaker 3: the precise I mean, I tell the players that I
Speaker 3: work with you know, where is your target? Where's your target?
Speaker 3: Always comes down to where is your target? And you
Speaker 3: know a lot of the average players that I speak
Speaker 3: to just aiming center of fairway, center of green. They
Speaker 3: don't even have like a precise target. And it's amazing,
Speaker 3: how I mean, especially for the short game, you know,
Speaker 3: just having like spots that you're aiming at and just
Speaker 3: you become connected with the target, connected with the shot,
Speaker 3: and that takes away, you know, any focus on on
Speaker 3: your swing, which is a negative, which is negatively going
Speaker 3: to impact you your play. It's you know, it's always
Speaker 3: you're always thinking about the shot and the target, and
Speaker 3: you're seeing that in your mind's eye right up until
Speaker 3: you know you take you take the club back. And
Speaker 3: so you know, I can't emphasize enough how you know,
Speaker 3: target shot shape, visualizing becoming connected with that particular shot
Speaker 3: you know is going to help. And I know that
Speaker 3: a lot of players, you know, when they're making their
Speaker 3: practice swings, they're just you know, they're working on a
Speaker 3: drill or they're trying to correct, you know, what they
Speaker 3: thought that problem was in the swing on their on
Speaker 3: their last shot, instead of using that time to really
Speaker 3: become connected with that shot that they're about to play
Speaker 3: for seeing the target, seeing the shot shape, and really
Speaker 3: uh really becoming connected with it. You know.
Speaker 1: I would think that if people had a better sense,
Speaker 1: if golfers had a better sense of strategy or what
Speaker 1: they like to call course management, I think that everybody
Speaker 1: out out on the fairways and at the tea box
Speaker 1: would would be better golfers. They would cut down some strokes.
Speaker 1: But getting onto the putting green, to me, is where
Speaker 1: the mental game seems to have the most powerful impact.
Speaker 1: You recently wrote a piece, uh called you called the
Speaker 1: five most common putting mistakes. Can we talk about that?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I can, and have that article in front of me,
Speaker 3: but yeah.
Speaker 1: I'll try command I wrote it. You know what it is.
Speaker 1: You wrote it. You know what it is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, the I mean the closer you get to
Speaker 3: the to the whole, you know, the closer you get
Speaker 3: to your score. So that's that's where we feel pressure.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's the you know, it's the easiest, the
Speaker 3: easiest shot to play. I mean that, you know, it's
Speaker 3: easier than than any other shot that you're facing on
Speaker 3: the golf course. But yeah, it's where it's where we
Speaker 3: make the most. It seems like it's where we make
Speaker 3: make the most mistakes and.
Speaker 1: Feel the most pressure. I would think, yeah, it's.
Speaker 3: Where we feel the most pressure, and it's where we
Speaker 3: need to have, you know, where we need to have
Speaker 3: a lot of discipline, where we need to make sure
Speaker 3: that the process is good, make sure that breathing is good,
Speaker 3: and you know, not not thinking, not thinking about the
Speaker 3: consequences of you know, of the part and the score
Speaker 3: and what it might do for you. And these are
Speaker 3: things that you know, with with the right techniques, the
Speaker 3: right you know, knowing how to switch off and not
Speaker 3: think about think about score and focusing on process because
Speaker 3: process is just one of those things that that you know,
Speaker 3: you can rely on in any situations that's always going
Speaker 3: to help you calm down. And you've got a good
Speaker 3: putting process, that's that's that's really going to help you,
Speaker 3: and that's that's what you know. Jack Nicholas said that
Speaker 3: he never missed a putt in his mind, and you know,
Speaker 3: and like the you know, I think that's a good
Speaker 3: a good way to think about it, because if you
Speaker 3: know that you've gone through your process, you've you know,
Speaker 3: you've visualized, you've you've felt the part, you've seen it,
Speaker 3: you've done everything you can you possibly can, you've read
Speaker 3: given the part a good read, and you've gone through
Speaker 3: your process. That's all you can do. The rest is
Speaker 3: out of your control. And something another. I think that
Speaker 3: another thing that's important in the mental gain is self
Speaker 3: talk and phrases that you can you can you can
Speaker 3: include in your game. So when you're standing over you
Speaker 3: know ten to fifteen foot part, say to ask yourself
Speaker 3: a question, is this possible? And by asking yourself that question,
Speaker 3: and you know your response should be yeah, it is possible,
Speaker 3: instead of you know, I've got to manke this. You
Speaker 3: know I'm going to make this. It's you know, you
Speaker 3: take pressure off yourself. You're not you're not expecting to
Speaker 3: make anything. You're expecting to go through your process as
Speaker 3: well as you can. And when you think that, you know,
Speaker 3: even on the PGA tour, them is in fifty percent
Speaker 3: of parts of about five feet you know it's there's
Speaker 3: there's there really shouldn't be be any pressure. The best
Speaker 3: thing you can do is just go through your pre
Speaker 3: your routine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know I know that if I were
Speaker 1: to ask myself is this possible? The answer as always
Speaker 1: of course it's possible. Is it probable that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: make it? That's when doubt enters the conversation in my head.
Speaker 1: But if I walk up to a putt and you know,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm looking at the putt as I'm
Speaker 1: walking towards the green, I'm going, I got this one.
Speaker 1: I know I got this one. This one, I walk
Speaker 1: in with total confidence instead of questioning myself. I feel
Speaker 1: more comfortable. But then then when I'm standing over the ball,
Speaker 1: that the doubt enters and I start questioning, do you
Speaker 1: really got this one? So, yeah, it's a very thin line.
Speaker 1: You're walking between asking yourself can I do this? Versus
Speaker 1: telling yourself I can do this? Do you agree?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think that you know, the intention is to
Speaker 3: make every shot within I mean, I say within fifty odds.
Speaker 3: I think the intention should be to make every shot.
Speaker 3: The closer, the more positive, and the more precise your
Speaker 3: your visualization for the shot, the closer you're going to
Speaker 3: get to the target. So I would always say that
Speaker 3: the intention is to is to make the shot. But
Speaker 3: I think that there's no I don't think there's any
Speaker 3: harm in sort of pre accepting you know, a miss,
Speaker 3: you know, the worst thing you can do is to
Speaker 3: you know, say you know, I'm going to make this. Well,
Speaker 3: not the worst thing, but it doesn't help you to
Speaker 3: say I'm going to make this because you're you're you're
Speaker 3: setting that expectation that if you don't make that part,
Speaker 3: then you failed. And and so I think the intention
Speaker 3: through your routine, the intention is to is to make
Speaker 3: every part you're seeing it go in. I mean, you're
Speaker 3: even being as detailed as to see you know where
Speaker 3: on the whole that the ball is going to fall in.
Speaker 3: But I think that those you know, building in a
Speaker 3: bit of acceptance into your routine so that you don't
Speaker 3: disappoint yourself when you do this, you know, can can
Speaker 3: can help study the ship.
Speaker 1: Excellent advice in your putting mistakes article. I'm curious why
Speaker 1: you say it's a mistake to Are you saying it's
Speaker 1: a mistake to not find out whether you're a straight back,
Speaker 1: straight through putter or an arc putter, or are you saying
Speaker 1: it is a mistake to worry about that.
Speaker 3: I would say, I mean this is this is it's
Speaker 3: more of a technical thing actually, but but everyone has
Speaker 3: you know, some players take it straight back, straight through
Speaker 3: in some pots, you know, the putter going on a
Speaker 3: narc and you want to make sure you have the
Speaker 3: right equipment for that. You know, there's there's a you know,
Speaker 3: face balance putter and a you know heure or toe
Speaker 3: toe weighted putter. So if you're a you know, if
Speaker 3: you're a straight back straight through, you want to have
Speaker 3: a face balance putter and know and know what the
Speaker 3: difference is because that can that can extra stroke.
Speaker 1: Can you explain face balance for those who don't know.
Speaker 3: So, face balance potter is when there's equal weight across
Speaker 3: across the face of the potter, and you can you
Speaker 3: can test this out by holding the potter, you know,
Speaker 3: a few inches from the from the head of the
Speaker 3: potter on the shaft and you can see how the
Speaker 3: potter is is balanced, whether it's it's balanced in the
Speaker 3: toe or the heel, or it just lies it just
Speaker 3: lies flat.
Speaker 1: So if you are a straight back straight through, then
Speaker 1: you do want face.
Speaker 3: Balanced You want to face balanced potter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay. And if you are if your your stroke
Speaker 1: is on an arc around like and that arc is
Speaker 1: like around your body, not the arc of a full swing,
Speaker 1: that arc you want to you want to have a
Speaker 1: a heel weighted putter.
Speaker 3: Why is that that's that's a that's a technical question. Okay,
Speaker 3: It's just to do with the the you know, the
Speaker 3: movement that the the put is naturally going to take
Speaker 3: when it gets you know, when you when you would
Speaker 3: if you were to take it back on a pendulum.
Speaker 3: So I would have thought that if you're if you're
Speaker 3: taking it straight back and you've got to you know,
Speaker 3: a heel weighted putter, you're going to be kind of
Speaker 3: like fighting against against the potterst natural movement.
Speaker 1: Getting too technical is is what you think is also
Speaker 1: a very big issue for most people as they spend
Speaker 1: too much time forcing that. Is that what you mean
Speaker 1: by being too technical?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I do. I think that putting, you know, as
Speaker 3: we just discussed, putting is probably the most mental part
Speaker 3: of the game, and it should for me. It's it's
Speaker 3: an art, not a science. And I think that you know,
Speaker 3: even with you know, I don't I could use a
Speaker 3: you know, one of those old bull's eye putters and
Speaker 3: and plays as well as you know, using one of
Speaker 3: the the most recent uh super luper potters, because for me,
Speaker 3: it's all about you know, how while I've visualized the
Speaker 3: line how while I've felt it and and really got
Speaker 3: got into the putt itself instead of anything to do
Speaker 3: with with my stroke. I think that same with the
Speaker 3: with the longer, the long game. If you've got a
Speaker 3: good if you've got if you've got strong fundamentals and
Speaker 3: you know you're setting up consistently to every part and
Speaker 3: you know, I mean, alignment is absolutely key. And that's
Speaker 3: another another one of the mistakes is that you know,
Speaker 3: you could have a you know, a great visualization and
Speaker 3: great great feel and then great green reading, but if
Speaker 3: you don't actually put the potter face down in line
Speaker 3: with where you want the ball to start, then then
Speaker 3: you're not going to you know, you're going to miss
Speaker 3: the put. So good fundamentals and then really good alignment
Speaker 3: and making sure that you are making sure that your
Speaker 3: alignment is absolutely spot on.
Speaker 1: The place where I find the mental game, uh intersects
Speaker 1: so much with the physical elements the swing mechanics are
Speaker 1: in my short game, whether it be bunker play or chipping,
Speaker 1: because where I think I understand what I'm supposed to
Speaker 1: be doing and I have the tools to do it properly,
Speaker 1: but my head gets into you know, like the amount
Speaker 1: of pressure the amount of the back swing, the you know,
Speaker 1: how how much do I hit down on it?
Speaker 3: How?
Speaker 1: You know, there's so many different technical elements that get
Speaker 1: in the way of the mental game when when the
Speaker 1: metal game is so important when it comes to the
Speaker 1: short part of.
Speaker 3: Your game, Yeah it is. I mean there's there's so
Speaker 3: many different ways that you can play those short shots.
Speaker 3: And you know, I know exactly what you mean when
Speaker 3: you're when you're in a bunker and you've got a
Speaker 3: certain kind of lie and you're thinking, you know, well,
Speaker 3: you know how it's going to you know, how it's
Speaker 3: going to pop out, how deeps the sand, and you know,
Speaker 3: there's all sorts of things that are going through your head.
Speaker 3: And I think that you know, commitment is commitment. Commitment
Speaker 3: to a bad shot is going to result better than
Speaker 3: you know, not committing to a good shot, if you
Speaker 3: understand what I mean, so.
Speaker 1: Not at all committed to have no idea what.
Speaker 3: Man so for for example, I would say that whatever
Speaker 3: whatever you decide, no matter how good a player you
Speaker 3: are around the greens or you know, out of bunkers,
Speaker 3: committing and believing that you can hit those shots is
Speaker 3: going to help you out more than any kinds of
Speaker 3: thought thoughts, technical thoughts about you know, how far you
Speaker 3: should open the club face and how far you know,
Speaker 3: you know, how deep you should hit through the sand.
Speaker 3: Those are things that you can figure out in your
Speaker 3: in your practice, your practice things and your preparation for
Speaker 3: the shot. And I think that if you you've had
Speaker 3: more meaningful practice sessions where you actually like put yourself
Speaker 3: in tricky situations and and and you have, you know,
Speaker 3: you're experimenting with different rise and you're experiment experimenting that
Speaker 3: open the club, opening the club place to various degrees
Speaker 3: the game, the game can become more instinctive, and those
Speaker 3: shots can become more instinctive, so that you'll have you'll
Speaker 3: have a lot more confidence over them instead of having
Speaker 3: to fulfill your head with with all the technical stuff.
Speaker 3: But I would just say that committing, committing to the
Speaker 3: shot you've chosen and setting up in the correct way
Speaker 3: to be able to play that shot is all you
Speaker 3: really need to all you really need to focus on.
Speaker 1: Is it possible to convince yourself that you're confident?
Speaker 3: I think so. I think that there's there's a couple
Speaker 3: of types of confidence. There's there's the external confidence and
Speaker 3: there's internal confidence. External confidence isn't long lasting. It's you know,
Speaker 3: external confidence is based on how well you're you're playing,
Speaker 3: And most people think that confidence is a result of
Speaker 3: how well well you just played, played the last shot,
Speaker 3: or played the lost hole, or played the last round,
Speaker 3: when really we want to we want to think about
Speaker 3: confidence being something that you can generate within, which then
Speaker 3: affects your your playing. If you're thinking about confidence as
Speaker 3: being you know, you have to be playing well to
Speaker 3: build confidence, and you put it, you put more pressure
Speaker 3: on your game, and you you know, you don't feel
Speaker 3: like you're as good as good a player after hitting it,
Speaker 3: you know, a couple of black bad shots. Whereas confidence
Speaker 3: can be built through through you know, from from the
Speaker 3: inside out. If you can start to imagine yourself as
Speaker 3: a good player and convincing yourself that you're a good
Speaker 3: player and talking to yourself in the right way right
Speaker 3: now golf course, you can you can build confidence that
Speaker 3: is is much more long lasting and enduring.
Speaker 1: And at what point does the the confidence uh over
Speaker 1: what's the word I'm looking for take control over your mechanics?
Speaker 1: Does that make sense? Like, how do I word this properly?
Speaker 1: So it makes sense, at what point in your game
Speaker 1: that does the mental game have a stronger impact than
Speaker 1: then your mechanics in helping you get get to lower scores?
Speaker 1: Am I is this working? Is is that question making
Speaker 1: any sense?
Speaker 3: It? Does it? Uh?
Speaker 1: You know, because you know we talked earlier about how
Speaker 1: you went from an eighteen or you went from an
Speaker 1: eleven down. You know, you had all the mechanics there,
Speaker 1: and then we talked about, well what about a middle
Speaker 1: handicapper who would love to go from an eighteen nineteen
Speaker 1: down to ten or eleven? I mean, just getting close
Speaker 1: to ten is is a great accomplishment for somebody, you know,
Speaker 1: knowing that the single digits may never be part of
Speaker 1: my life.
Speaker 3: Right, I think that I think that no matter what
Speaker 3: level of player you are, you can instantly take shots
Speaker 3: off your game with a better mental approach. And I
Speaker 3: do understand a completely agree with question. But most people
Speaker 3: that you know, people that either visit my website or
Speaker 3: talk to me about the mental game. And you know,
Speaker 3: when I'm out on the golf course and I'm talking
Speaker 3: to people, they don't think they're ready for the mental game.
Speaker 3: They think that it's for the elite player, and you know,
Speaker 3: they haven't mastered the golf swing yet, so why you
Speaker 3: know what, why would they be thinking about, you know,
Speaker 3: trying to learn learn the mind game when I I
Speaker 3: would say that there's no sooner time than than now
Speaker 3: to start learning the mental game, no matter what player
Speaker 3: you are. I mean, that's just it's just you know,
Speaker 3: when I when I watch tour players or walk around
Speaker 3: with very good players, there's just things that they do
Speaker 3: that don't require any physical skill that probably you know,
Speaker 3: you know, makes them like, you know, four or five
Speaker 3: shots better go round? And you know who doesn't want
Speaker 3: to knock four or five shots off the off their score,
Speaker 3: no matter you know what, you know, whether twenty eight
Speaker 3: handicapper or sixteen handicapper, it's just it's it's it's stuff
Speaker 3: that doesn't require any physical skill and just you know,
Speaker 3: following following a process. I mean, these you know, these things,
Speaker 3: it's not instantaneous. You know, you have to go through
Speaker 3: the practice, just like you do with the mental game.
Speaker 3: But it is it gets you there, It gets you
Speaker 3: there quicker.
Speaker 1: And I think you can help us get there too, yes, yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, and I certainly can. It's it's it's a
Speaker 3: fascinating area of the game. And you know, my eyes,
Speaker 3: you know, were just you know, open to it through
Speaker 3: through my in my performance that you know, when I
Speaker 3: when I started on this route of really trying to
Speaker 3: understand about the mental side of the game and how
Speaker 3: it is a game of of of of mostly you know,
Speaker 3: emotional and mental management. And you know, as I said before,
Speaker 3: I'm not discounting looking swing mechanics. What I am saying
Speaker 3: is that there's way too much focus on swing, on equipment,
Speaker 3: and you know there's other things like ego and score
Speaker 3: stuff like that. But if you if you can and
Speaker 3: can refocus on what's really important and really and it's
Speaker 3: really going to uh to take you, take you to
Speaker 3: the next level quicker and more effectively, and and you'll
Speaker 3: have more fun as a result.
Speaker 1: I hope so, and I think so well, David, You've
Speaker 1: got I was saying before on the previous episode that
Speaker 1: your your website, Golf State Offmind dot com is just
Speaker 1: a wealth of video and and and writings and articles
Speaker 1: on the mental game. But it's not just focused on
Speaker 1: mental part. You go into the short game and putting
Speaker 1: and practice and make recommendations on books. It's really a
Speaker 1: great website and I want to thank Nick Chirtak, who's
Speaker 1: a golf long time Golf Smarter listener, for introducing us.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, I appreciate that too. Yeah, he's been he's
Speaker 3: been a friend for quite a few years now and
Speaker 3: I always enjoy you know, his little his his him
Speaker 3: sparking the conversations on on Facebook, and you know, he
Speaker 3: knows his stuff.
Speaker 1: And if anybody wants to contact David, you can do so.
Speaker 1: Just go to his website and again you can get
Speaker 1: his free newsletter and he's got a lot of goodies
Speaker 1: he's given away. But if you want to spend more
Speaker 1: time with him, I'm sure he's not given that away,
Speaker 1: but you can check it out. David Mackenzie, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for coming on to the Golf Smarter podcast
Speaker 1: and sharing your methods and your teachings.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much, fred I. You know I love
Speaker 3: talking about this stuff. This is my passion and you
Speaker 3: know I've been a big fan of your your You're
Speaker 3: Both Smart podcast for for a long time now and
Speaker 3: it's been an absolute pleasure talking to you.