March 13, 2024 • 32 mins
One this episode, Chris is joined by mental coach Rick Sessinghaus to discuss the importance of mental training for golf performance. Rick breaks down the importance of mental, emotional, and physical state management along with focus, confidence, and emotional regulation.
Connect with Rick:
theflowcode.com/golf-academy/ / @flowcodegolfacademy
ricksessinghaus.com / @ricksessinghaus
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Golf Fitness Bomb Squad podcast with Chris Finn,
a production of P for U S Golf. Welcome to
the Golf Fitness Bomb Squad. I'm your host Chris Finn,
and I am really excited today we have a wonderful guest,
the actual our first guests where we're actually going to
get to get into the mental side of the game.
(00:22):
We're going to so we're taking a little bit of
a break from the physical side, which I'm excited about
because to me, this is any anybody who has tried
to play competitively, who has even just tried to win
money from their friends, there always comes a moment when
your brain sucks. And so we have Rick Sess in
house with us today. Rick, welcome to the podcast. I'm
(00:42):
so excited to have you on. How you doing today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm doing great, Chris, thanks for having me on. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So so, Rick, how do you get into the mental
side of golf? Like you know, you know, my journey
on the physical side was kind of a one of
starting from the ground up, Like you know, I just
worked with any wanted, anybody who might listen to me,
and if they didn't, I s bug them until they said,
just all right, I'll do it. Just leave me alone, Like,
(01:07):
how did how did you get to where you're at
right now? Because I mean the resume is impressive.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Oh well, well thanks. I think part of it. I
don't know about you, but you know I was. I
was golfer starting about the age of thirteen, average junior golfer.
Ended up getting getting better and playing golf at cal
State Northridge at Division I school here in the Los
Angeles area. So I got I got better, certainly with
the mechanical skills and you could hit a ball and
(01:34):
all those type of things. And yet so my journey
in the mental game was more of my own downfalls
of hot head, frustration, throwing clubs, those type of things.
Attitude was horrible. And then when I got into coaching,
you know, I just thought, well, that was just a
me thing, you know, that was just me being a hothead.
(01:54):
But as I started working with better and better players,
you know, certainly on their golf swing. I'm a member
of the PGA and i'm touch golf swing for thirty years,
I started seeing that there was a lot of interference,
a lot of stuff getting in the way of them.
What I thought was to perform at a higher level.
And I'm a coach. I'm supposed they're supposed shoot lower
scores and they're not. And yet their swing looks better
(02:15):
and on the range it looks pretty and they're hitting
the shots they want. And so that's when I think
I really started to pivot and learn more about performance
from a standpoint of the mental side, emotional side. And
we'll talk more about what that is in a moment,
but you know, as I look at it, I think
it's a puzzle piece of many puzzle pieces. That performance
(02:35):
is obviously the physical part. I twenty two years ago
I worked for a company called Body Balance for Performance
that was before TPI and and so I started to
understand and the structure of the body governs the function
function of what it could do. And I was fascinated
with that because as a swing coach, I was early
on in my career, I was too much of a
system coach, like everybody has to swing a certain certain
(02:57):
way and then you and unfortunately I was with a
lot of great athletes, so it made it a little easier,
but it wasn't a great teaching method because not everybody
had even close the same structure, right but my fascination
was with more of the performance end of when somebody's
at the golf course, what where's their focus going? Their
(03:18):
confidence or emotional regulation, those type of things. And so
I went back to school and got a doctorate in
applied sports psychology. I've gone down some big rabbit holes
with other parts of that, which is like positive psychology,
flow states, those type of things. And I've been fortunate
to work with a lot of really really good players
along the way, learned a lot from them because if
(03:39):
you ask them good questions, you're going to get some
great answers. Go oh, I never thought about it that way,
and you start seeing everybody's different, just like in their
physical that makeup, you have different personalities, you have different
learning styles, you have different ways of what triggers a
great performance, what triggers a poor performance. So that's a
little bit of a nutshell kind of where I came from.
I came from a player's perspective first and what I need,
(04:00):
and then as a coach looking at that, I wasn't
seeing results. And then if I really asked the proper questions,
I started to hear from these players that you know
what I'm getting nervous out there. I'm getting stressed out there.
I have a lot of doubt over shots. I got
fear overshots, and at that time I didn't really have
great answers. So that's when that's when I kind of pivoted.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
That's awesome, Yeah, I think that's that's funny listening to
the there's a lot of parallels I think in how
at least on the physical side, we like very much system.
I just do what this on everybody and then you
start to realize, hey, wait, actually that doesn't work for
that person. Why is that right? So I guess so
talk to me. And I think also on the physical side,
particularly you know, on the on the physical therapist side,
(04:41):
which is after you know, a strength coach, and then
the PT side too. Like on the physio side, if
if you don't ask the right questions, it's tough to
get the right diagnosis. So it very similar mentally, it
sounds like, so, I guess there's a lot of people
that I see I get this question all the time,
Like golfers will come in and hey, who's a good
mental coach that you wret com in And it's it's like, uh, well,
(05:03):
there's a lot of people that say they're mental coaches,
fair enough, Like, so how does somebody go about like
maybe this comes into a little bit you chatting a
little bit about the questions that you've started to ask
and kind of what you've learned along the way. Like
obviously you're one of the top guys out there, So
how does somebody, a regular amateur listening right now, like
(05:24):
differentiate between you and I Mean I literally had a
woman come here. I'll tell the story. I'm not going
to use names, but I had a woman locally. She
came as I was probably only maybe five six years in.
I was just looking for some sort of member event
to try to get leads in, like trying to pay
the rent, right, So I have her come in. She
says she's got this big fancy resume. She shows up,
(05:46):
and we probably I probably got like twenty thirty people
in the room. Right, there's juniors and there's adults. And
she has two juniors up there with like blow up
swords like like you would get it like a carnival.
She has like and she has them like slice away
their fears. And I'm like, oh my god, this is awful.
Like I don't know what to do, and everyone's like
(06:07):
looking at each other, and I'm like, all right, yeah,
this is a good learning experience. Don't just let anybody
come in the door. So how does somebody protect themselves
from getting into that situation versus somebody who's actually gonna
help them?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, I mean it's a loaded question. And let me
answer first from a swing standpoint. A lot of golfers
out there, not a lot of excuse me, not a
lot of golfers even take golf lessons, mind you, much
less mental game. So I understand it's a small percentage.
But even if you take golf lessons, you're looking for
somebody who has some experience. Now, experience could be again.
I was a full time teacher giving fifty hours worth
(06:42):
of golf lessons per week. You start doing the numbers
after five ten years, that's a lot of experience. Now,
that's a lot of bad lessons I gave the first
few years. Yeah, totally. But if you have somebody who
only gives four lessons a week because they are already
working in the pro shop and stuff like that, you
got to be careful their learning curve is still way
out there. Also getting mentored. I was mentored by some
(07:05):
of the best coaches. Growing up, I has been mentored
by some great mental game coaches. So now you're gathering
their information and you're getting to tap into their experience,
and then, yes, I think you should have some education.
I'm not saying somebody has to have a doctorate or
a master's degree, but there has to be some level
of understanding cause and effect. And I've gotten really now
(07:26):
into the science based part of it. So I use
brainwave EEGs, I use heart rate monitors, I use a
new thing with blood flow to the prefrontal cortex because
we want to be able to prove these things work,
and we also want to have a basis of what
is triggering these different emotional responses and stuff like that.
(07:47):
So I think you have to have some education behind
it experience. I have know some mental game coaches who
don't have high level degrees, and they're fantastic because they
do ask better questions and they are willing to learn
about the person. And I think we as as mental
game coaches, have to remember that the player is coming
(08:07):
to you. They're vulnerable. They're like a mental game coach.
That must mean I'm screwed up, but it really should.
But it really shouldn't be. It should be that's part
of performance, right. You have people that maybe come in
their high level athletes that you screen them and you go, well,
they check all the boxes on the basic screen, but
guess what, they still want to get faster, They still
want to be more, have more endurance. So mental game
(08:28):
is the same thing. And so I would say with
the mental game coaches, I think you got to be
careful if they have zero experience in sports. You're seeing
a lot of clinical psychologists who who look at and go, oh,
that sports stuff looks pretty cool, and they don't know
the verbiage, they don't know the communication, they don't know
what they're going through. So I think somebody who's coming
(08:50):
to it from a standpoint of they've understand sports, it
doesn't have to be necessarily golf, that that's very, very,
very helpful. And I think being willing to again have
some form of a plan, like I have a basic assessment,
and I have a you know, here's some things you're
gonna do, here's worksheets, here's actual training. You know, part
of my company flow code, we have whole portal where
(09:12):
you're doing certain meditations and breathing rates and certain things
we're actually training the Metal Game. I don't want somebody
to come and go, oh I had this nice conversation
with Rick, Okay, I want somebody to say, hey, wait.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
You mean you actually measure things and and look for Oh.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I know, I know, I know. So. So it's one
of those things where you know, when I first was
a Metal Game coach twenty years ago, I was still
trying to find my feet. Don't get me wrong, but
I've learned along the ways of what are we measuring? Right?
Some of it's subjective in the Metal Game. Honestly, you're
doing journaling, You're doing open ended questions and stuff. But
(09:49):
now technology is catching up. We have some cool ways
to help people with feedback, neurofeedback and of like oh, wow,
you mean I did that breathing rate and then I
noticed my brain ways went down. Oh, I have some
control over my situation. So I want to empower the player.
I also want to give them different options, so like, uh,
(10:10):
this would be one. Like with visualization, like I used to,
everybody has to visualize. I found out some people are
more fuel oriented. We call it a deep and body
my triggers. More people are going to be in their body,
body connecting to target. Other people are going to see it.
And then if you see it, should we see a
shot tracer? Should I see a bulls eye in the desert?
There's a So I mean there's all kinds of different
visualizations too. So we want to we want to open
(10:31):
up that there's a lot of different solutions to to
somebody's performance. So again back to the thing a mental game,
they have to have experience. I think communication is important.
I feel I've seen a lot of coaches that are
pretty good and one on one, but then you put
them in a group and it's disaster. And so how
do you get your message across in a very simple
(10:53):
way too? The mental game you can go down roads
and like you know, I ask everybody what is the
mental game? And I hear everything right, And that's fine
because at least they're trying, Oh, it's positive thinking, it's
this great that it's all that's true. But if I
say it's about state management and it's about your your mental, emotional,
physical state as you execute a golf shot, they're going, okay,
(11:14):
what's state management? Well, what are you thinking? What are
you feeling? And then how is that going to respond
to your actual physical makeup, stress response, grip pressure could increase,
my speed could increase, and then you blame your golf
swing or you blame your pe, you blame your pt.
You don't want to be blamed for that. That was
a mental there, you.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Know, yeah, yeah, no thanks, and we get that all
that and we'll we'll see that, right, I mean, this
is just I mean nothing you don't already know. Like
we'll have guys come in and you know, we do
the test. And this is probably to me for anybody
that's like trying to do anything physical, you have to
have in my personal opinion, and also just I think
science you need. I think people need to engage with
(11:51):
with the mental side because there's so many times where
we'll get a player to like, you know, they pass.
All their mobility is great, all their strength numbers are
in the top five percent, all their power numbers are
in their time, and like we had a a young
young woman. She was kind of like fringe. She would
be on a semetra, then she'd be on like LPGA.
(12:12):
She'd go back and like and it was like when
you tested her, she was the absolute, by far, the
best female athlete we've ever seen, but just it was
between the ears. She just couldn't execute when it was
out there. And I see this all the time with
guys that will come in, like just the amateurs. They're like, oh,
I'm feeling great, my game still sucks, and it's like,
what do you mean. It's like when I'm up by myself,
(12:33):
I played great, but when I go out to the
weekend game, I keep having to pay money, right, and so,
just to like to your point, and we've seen it,
there's obviously the sciences you probably know better than I do,
of like when you do have those stress responses, it
does cause physical change, like I said, like the grip
may change, and you can do all the physical prep
in the world, but if we are missing this element,
you're it's not going.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
To be optimized definitely. And I think that's what I've
even tried to simplify my model even more, is that
my goal is to take somebody from a fear state
to a flow state. And a fear state is triggered
by an anxious thought of the future, a threat. Oh crap,
I don't like this hole. Oh no, I made double
on this whole last week. Oh no, let's not mess up,
(13:15):
I don't know, embarrass myself in front of other people.
If that thought is not you know, looked at or changed,
it will have an emotional response, which now physically I
could go fight or flight. Now the fight in somebody
would beat gripressure increases, they steer the ball. Don't go left,
ort go left right, and they steer it. Okay, now
(13:35):
that's changed all their dynamics. Okay, and then you have
a flight, which is what I used to do under pressure,
which is I'm uncomfortable. Let's just get this thing over
with as quickly as possible. My golf swing got short
and fast. I hooked the ball under pressure. Okay, now
I could hook a ball. Go back to my swing coach,
see i'm hooking it again. I got to fix that.
(13:56):
And then within two swings, somebody striping in and all
their track man numbers are exactly what they want. And
the swing coach is like, I'm not sure what to
do right because the player is not being honest saying
I was really nervous on the shot. They're just saying, oh,
it's a swing fault because I'm hooking again. But if
we went a deeper, it's like well, what state were
(14:16):
you in? Well, I was petrified because I don't want
to go right like I did yesterday in this water,
So I felt uncomfortable. Oh, now we're getting to the
actual cause and effect here. Now from there, what do
we do right? I mean, then we could talk about
preshot routine and how to you know shift you know
we call cognitive reframing. How can I look at this differently?
I can certainly do breathing in the in the moment
to regulate some of that stress response, But a flow
(14:39):
state is about being fully immersed in the present moment,
looking at the shot instead of a threat, but looking
as a challenge. Now we take on challenges and then yes,
we we can look do I actually have the skills
to match the challenge? Right? That's our confidence question. And
if we say yeah, then great, And I can recall
great drives I've hit, we all have, wonderful I'll bring
(15:01):
that to now the forefront instead of oh crap, don't
go right like I guess we did yesterday. And so
it's a lot. Certainly, it's about a lot about managing
what's triggering in our environment and if we can get
more aware of those times runcomfortable, there's probably some form
of a pattern there. It might be waters, all right,
and you tend to fade a ball, okay, that would
(15:21):
be a pattern that would trigger something. Or a six
foot downhill left to right putt where it's to win
a skin that may trigger a different response. I want
to know what's triggering different states. Okay. But then on
the other end, I want people to understand when they've
played their best, what are they thinking, what are they feeling,
what are they doing? There might be some a thread
(15:43):
a recipe there that we could start to copy and
we can start to repeat. And then people talk about
preshot routines all that stuff great, but I'm talking about
really deep into those pre shot routines of what was
triggering that. So I'm looking at most people, let the
environment trigger an emotional response. I want us to train
our internal environment so it doesn't matter what I am outside,
(16:06):
I'm still having that focus and that confidence and that
calm as they execute a golf shot.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
So it's funny as you're as you're talking about all this,
I'm thinking, last week I was on a call, I
was on the golf course, like more, it was listening
I didn't really have to be involved except every once
in a while maybe unbute and say something, it's three
under on the on the front nine. And then I
played the other day just you know, competitive. I think
I hooked two into the woods. I think I shot
(16:32):
like five over on the front nine. I think maybe
I just need to stop thinking, just get over and
just hit the ball.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Like I was gonna say a lot of that like that.
Don't think he's an interesting one because when I ask
people what the mental game is, they say it's about
not thinking. I said, well, I disagree, because I believe
a great part of the game is thinking. When I
get to a second shot in a par four, I'm
gonna I am going to look at the lie and
how the ball is going to get affected by the lie,
and I'm gonna look at wind, and I'm looking at
(16:59):
how firm that is I'm gonna do. There's a lot
of thinking happening at the right time, correct, and then
we transition into you know, now the cliche thing now
to say is be an athlete. Well, be an athlete
means I want to be reactionary to a target and
not have the interference. Okay, so there's a thinking part
definitely at the part of the first part of the
pre strivertine, and then there is a shifting of reacting
(17:22):
as an athlete to a target and that's where people
do to work out a little.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Bit clearly me as well. But so let's so I'm curious.
So one of the big things that that I'm passionate
and just really believe a ton and is assessing and
not guessing. And that's clearly something that you that you
do as well. So just to like to give listeners
kind of an idea of like they go to to
flow code, like what are the things that that you
(17:46):
look at, like like when you like necessarily what do
you do with them? But like what's what's an assessment?
Like what are the things types of things like for us,
how's their rotary mobility, how's their upper body power the
lower bite? Right? Like what are the stuff that they
should when they go to Floa code, which all of
you should by the way, ps what is like what's
something that they should like that you're going to be
(18:08):
looking at with them and that they should expect.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Right. Yeah, So a lot of my clients are on
zoom and over, you know, all over the world, and
so I'll answer this two different ways. All of my students,
whether I see them in person or in virtual environment,
are going to fill out a five to six page
mental assessment. Now it's a very subjective. They're filling it
open ended questions. I'm asking them about goals and motivational
(18:30):
styles and practice habits and how do they prepare for
tournaments and focus and confidence emotional. I'm giving them some
frameworks of some of the skill sets we will work on,
but I want to get there at least what they
think their baseline is. They've never been asked a ninety
percent of these questions, by the way, so just the
exercise of filling it out is an actual training exercise
(18:53):
because they go, I never thought about when I play
really well, what's going on? Or I don't even know
how my practice anymore? I mean, And so they said
this was really valuable. Go great. Now Again, that's not
scientific and all this stuff, but it's a subjective way
for them to start to measure where they're at and
where we want to go. And then if I see
somebody in person, we call it a mindset fitting. I
(19:15):
use some different technologies to it, and I don't do
it necessarily in the first session. I'll be honest with you,
because I think there's so much stuff that needs to
be kind of filtered away. But once we get to
that idea of what are we actually training, we're training
state management, then I look at what the interferences are.
(19:35):
The interferences could be distractions, they could be doubts, they
could be fears, they could be certain situations right, and
then we look at, Okay, how do we make those shifts?
So with flow code, we have different triggers and different
we believe there's different paths for everybody your own flow code,
but the player needs to be more aware of what
are those skills in the first place. Remember, most people
(19:56):
have never seen a mental game coach. They vaguely, aguely
think they know what it's about, but usually they don't.
So there's a lot of education at the start of it.
What is the mental game? These are the things we're
going to work on. Focus. Are you paying attention to
the correct cues? And can you keep your focus on
what's relevant in that moment? Oh Rick, I get distracted
by my iPhone. I got texting all the time, and
(20:17):
I'm thinking about what I don't want. Well, we might
want to start focus. Then yeah, there's a key thing.
Flow follows focus. The only way to be in a
peak state is to be fully immersed in the present moment. Okay,
we usually start with that. Then we get confidence. You know,
do you believe you have the skills to match the
challenge in front of you? If some people say well,
yeah in the range, but now not on the golf course,
(20:38):
we have a disconnect there and we start we start
talking about confidence, and then emotional regulation is a big one.
I do a lot of stuff on post shot routine,
but what happens after a golf shot? Most people are
very reactionary, very critical, very judgmental, and I'm looking at well,
let's be curious, let's learn. It's not about positive thinking,
but it's about Hey, I hit the ball left. I
would want to know why it went left. Most people
(21:01):
blame swing. I say, well, were you even fully committed
to the shot in the first place? And they go, oh,
what does that mean? Well did you have a clear cleartograph?
Well no, because I didn't want to go right? And
I go, okay, right there we got so. So a
lot of it's educational, a lot of it's me asking
questions me trying to We certainly put them through pre
and post shot routine, but the measurement starts to occur
(21:24):
more and more and more. We do, you know, on
somebody's scorecard, we may have a different process goal. Okay,
every time that you feel your emotions are getting to
frustrated level, we're going to do a post shot routine,
you know. And we have very precise what the routine's about,
not just hey, did you do your pre shot routine?
If it's rick, I'm gonna work on visualization to get
(21:45):
more clarity on my preshot routine. That would be a
specific process that we are working on. Now. We have
a feedback loop did I do it or not? And
at what clarity in those So it gets a little
tricky because it's definitely not one size fits all, right,
and I do personality styles and all that kinds of
stuff too. So Yeah, the assessment part is a lot
(22:07):
of subjectives, of a lot of questions, a lot of
people now thinking in new ways that they haven't thought
about before.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, So for all of you listening right now, if
you go have gone to a mental coach or do
go to somebody and they don't do all that go
some flow, cot go see right. But I just think
I'm so passionate about that because there are so many
people in our space, in the fitness space that like,
you know, oh, it's golf fitness, let's do golfee thing,
(22:33):
and they don't the big, big passion, whole reason why
we are where we are. We test everything, and it's
like we know that ninety percent of the stuff that
people test right now it just doesn't matter, like literally
ninety percent of stuff that matters is can you rotate
for how much lower body power upper body power? And
like and then let's let's figure out what you're trying
to do, right. And so I just I love hearing
that that's occurring on the mental side of the space
(22:55):
as well, because that's so important for people to assess
know exactly what it is that you need to do.
There's listening to you talk. There's so many different ways
that somebody listening could go right, whether it's visualization or's focus,
appreciate our tea. And so I think that's the importance
of somebody like yourself in a program like FLoC to
help people kind of cut through the noise and say, hey,
(23:15):
this is what you need to do. This is what's
the most important. And I know in the fitness space
for golfers hate the gym. So our whole mission has
been how can I get the minimal effective dose? Because
if it's more than ninety minutes in a week, that's
we've gotten it based on our science where it's like
if it's at least ninty minutes, and if you give
me ninety minutes, I can guarantee we're going to get
to where you need to go. And like fifteen minutes
(23:37):
a day. You can't tell me you can't do that
for five days and a week, right, Like, But so
I think that's so important on the mental side too,
because I think it's very easy to feel like you're
getting hit in the face as an amateur with a
water like a fire hose of information.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Totally, And I'm glad you said that is because one
I know when somebody's coming to me for mental game,
I get one or two type of players. I get
the serious player who's competitive, who says, Rick, I want
to try this. I think it's important. Most of the
time it's I'm broken, fix me right, I'm screwed up
mentally amps now again, like we.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Get too like where were you three six months ago
when I told you your hip didn't rotate? Well, I
felt five. Now I can't play because my back's gone.
It's like, oh, I'm glad you came now.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Exactly So, but along those lines is that I could
fire hose them with all this material that I have
and all this kind of stuff. But we do want
to get back to you said it perfectly right. The
minimum dose is still get somebody progressing. And that's why
with flow Code we have something called a flow Club.
It's basically a mind jim. So we have these breathing
(24:43):
rates and these meditations. We actually have coaches that are
doing them live in our in our app throughout the day,
so people can understand how to do a proper breathing rate,
how to do a visualization, how to use their body.
This is what's cool. You can use body to get
into a flow state. Big time movement is very important
one just all the neurochemicals that go through you. But
(25:03):
in order to focus to do the exercise correctly is
a mental process, right, And so we want people to
do five minutes of day of maybe some box breathing
or maybe they're going to spend five minutes in the
car before they go play, and we have these guided
meditations for the visualizations of how they want to show
up on the first te So we want to do
(25:25):
it in small type of things, okay, Or here's journalize
your best shots that you hit today. Right, that may
take two minutes. Great, So I agree with you. Is
that How do we get it into a habit though, right?
And the habitual part of it to where they go?
That's I love doing this stuff now because it helps
me on the golf course, It helps me deal with
stress at work, it helps right now. It becomes part
(25:45):
of who they are, even the physical side. I'm playing
better golf, but man, I can get around better. I
can I'm not hurt when I wait. We want to
link more of those benefits and yet doing them in
those small increments. Then it becomes a habit.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Like what sort of time commitment do people like a
lot of people look for. Because I don't know if
you've seen the full swing. They actually have an episode
of Wyndham Clark going in like doing mental coach. That
was a big part of the season last year. So
I'm sure all of a sudden, the mental side is
going to be is at the center of full swing
for like an entire episode, so awesome, Like what is
(26:21):
like what should people expect, Like how much time does
it actually take to do the assessment? They know exactly
what they need to work at, Like what's the commitment
level for people to see a result?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Sure, I mean, let's just say the average player who
maybe and again you're I don't know who's listening here.
If we have a competitive player who can put in
fifteen to twenty hours of practice, that's obviously high level
commitment per week, totally get it. If I have somebody
who's a fifteen handicap whose dream is to get a
nine handicap and says, Rick, I want to try this,
(26:52):
and maybe they're only practicing two hours a week, I'm
going to ask them to take a chunk of that,
maybe twenty minutes on the range to go and look
at full pre shot routine and post shot routine and
work on visualization. Do some random practice, variability practice stuff
like that. Pressure practice too is like put them in
some stress states. But I would do some stuff off
of the golf course first. I would have them understand
(27:13):
what proper breathing does for them physiologically, but also from
a focus standpoint, So they have the skill already. So
then when they take it to the range, then they
take it to the course, and they take it in
a tournament, it's already something that's been practiced. Journaling and
stuff like that's important too, not only to kind of
process what's going on, but also to reinforce what's working.
(27:35):
We can start seeing like, oh wow, I was more
calm there. And so I don't think it's as big
as what people think, but I think just the awareness
of oh there I go again. My thought went to this,
and I'm oh coach Rick talked about what's the last
time I hit the shot? Well, oh yeah, yeah, I
did it last week here? Okay, cool? What and now
I can shift that takes practice, Okay, but it's not
(27:57):
necessarily I need to do an hour of day. But
you can start with five minute increments and then bleed
it into a pre shower team and then bleed it
into that. That's how I like to do it. Now.
When they and I've worked with tour pros is like
they're more of like, I gotta get something done now.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
My livelihood's on the line here, Rick, come on, and.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
So you see you may see them dive in with
more gusto. But but then there's a lot of things.
And I have not seen the wynd and Clark episode,
so I don't want to speak on that, but I
know a lot of these other players are utilizing mental
game coaches for like life coaching and being able to
time manage and be able to deal with the stresses
and expectations that are having that are happening in the
(28:39):
world on them that can affect their performance. And then
there's other mental game uh coaches that are just purely
performance based. What's happening in between the ropes, right, I'm
probably a little bit of both, because I do believe
that your your life is going to affect your golf
and vice versa for sure.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
So what I'm hearing for everyone listening is like, you
got five minutes of a day that you waste on
social media, you can get better and just and just
to clarify that people that are listening, Rick, I don't
think there is just a regular random golf like fan
listening to a golf fitness performance podcast. I think these
(29:18):
are all pretty from from everyone I've talked to, these
are pretty serious golfers. They're there, you're playing them a
couple of times a week, like these are you know,
if you're listening to this, you are the type of
person who definitely needs the mental side. So uh rick,
if you can leave, you know, one last thought for
people like like I don't know, I don't want to
say a tip, but like a takeaway from the conversation
(29:39):
that they really kind of wish people would kind of
internalize and move forward with.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah. I think with the mental side is that I
want to empower people that they have choices, and it
starts with self awareness. I'm aware right now that I'm distracted.
I'm aware right now, I'm nervous, I'm fine now. The
awareness is the first superpower everybody. Okay, now, some people
make three bogies in a row. They're frustrated, and they
look back and go, huh, how'd that happen? I was
(30:07):
mad for three holes? Like whoa, You should have been
very aware on the first shot that you were frustrated. Right,
So self awareness, let's work on that. Let's understand what
am I thinking, feeling, and doing right now. Okay, if
I'm not in the state I want to be, making
the shift, then become step two. Now that shift can
be I can think about something in a different way.
(30:27):
I can use physiological breathing, I can use my body differently.
There's a bunch of different triggers, but you do have
control over your how you feel, okay, And I really
want to empower people. That's like, well, I always get
mad because I'm playing with the slow play and that
always gets me mad. I go, okay, that's on you, okay,
because guess what slow play is going to be here
forever and you're gonna play with people you don't like,
(30:49):
you don't like as bumpy greens, and you can give
me all the excuses you want, but you have a choice.
And so I really want people to understand they have
a choice in how they feel. And yes, sometimes it
takes a lot of work, and I I think I
know a lot, and sometimes I still get frustrated other
golf course, that's that's normal. But how much is it
affecting you now? Is super important? So awareness empower you
(31:13):
can make a change. But yeah, let's be let's let's
let's take some more responsibility for our actions. For sure.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Well, Rick, where can people find you? Where's the best
place for them to go after. Well, actually we'll put
everything in the show notes. But the person who right
now is like, all right, I got five minutes I
want to do it. Like, how do they get in
contact with you and get help?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah? No, thank you. So the web, the easiest website
is flow Code dot Golf, flow Code dot Golf. It
has all, uh we do certifications for coaches, we've got
certainly for players, we've got Junior Academy. We're very very
motivated to help every type of golfer out there. And
then on Instagram, we certainly have flow Code Golf Academy,
but Rick sessing Houses on Instagram and that we do
(31:58):
a lot of video based off there on my website.
Also Ric Sessinghouse dot com has some other information on there.
But I really appreciate, uh, the opportunity to share awesome.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Well, thanks so much for coming on, Rick, and thank
you everybody for hanging out with us on the bomb Spot.
Hopefully Rick has diffused the little bombs and drop some
drop some some knowledge bombs on you. But hopefully we've uh,
we've we've diffused the next blow up hole that you
have coming because you're pissed off at your last hole.
So thanks a lot rick. It's a bit a pleasure
having you on. I'm sure we'll have you on again
sometimes soon.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
All right, thank you.
Welcome to the Golf Fitness Bomb Squad podcast with Chris Finn,
a production of P for U S Golf. Welcome to
the Golf Fitness Bomb Squad. I'm your host Chris Finn,
and I am really excited today we have a wonderful guest,
the actual our first guests where we're actually going to
get to get into the mental side of the game.
(00:22):
We're going to so we're taking a little bit of
a break from the physical side, which I'm excited about
because to me, this is any anybody who has tried
to play competitively, who has even just tried to win
money from their friends, there always comes a moment when
your brain sucks. And so we have Rick Sess in
house with us today. Rick, welcome to the podcast. I'm
(00:42):
so excited to have you on. How you doing today.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm doing great, Chris, thanks for having me on. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
So so, Rick, how do you get into the mental
side of golf? Like you know, you know, my journey
on the physical side was kind of a one of
starting from the ground up, Like you know, I just
worked with any wanted, anybody who might listen to me,
and if they didn't, I s bug them until they said,
just all right, I'll do it. Just leave me alone, Like,
(01:07):
how did how did you get to where you're at
right now? Because I mean the resume is impressive.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Oh well, well thanks. I think part of it. I
don't know about you, but you know I was. I
was golfer starting about the age of thirteen, average junior golfer.
Ended up getting getting better and playing golf at cal
State Northridge at Division I school here in the Los
Angeles area. So I got I got better, certainly with
the mechanical skills and you could hit a ball and
(01:34):
all those type of things. And yet so my journey
in the mental game was more of my own downfalls
of hot head, frustration, throwing clubs, those type of things.
Attitude was horrible. And then when I got into coaching,
you know, I just thought, well, that was just a
me thing, you know, that was just me being a hothead.
(01:54):
But as I started working with better and better players,
you know, certainly on their golf swing. I'm a member
of the PGA and i'm touch golf swing for thirty years,
I started seeing that there was a lot of interference,
a lot of stuff getting in the way of them.
What I thought was to perform at a higher level.
And I'm a coach. I'm supposed they're supposed shoot lower
scores and they're not. And yet their swing looks better
(02:15):
and on the range it looks pretty and they're hitting
the shots they want. And so that's when I think
I really started to pivot and learn more about performance
from a standpoint of the mental side, emotional side. And
we'll talk more about what that is in a moment,
but you know, as I look at it, I think
it's a puzzle piece of many puzzle pieces. That performance
(02:35):
is obviously the physical part. I twenty two years ago
I worked for a company called Body Balance for Performance
that was before TPI and and so I started to
understand and the structure of the body governs the function
function of what it could do. And I was fascinated
with that because as a swing coach, I was early
on in my career, I was too much of a
system coach, like everybody has to swing a certain certain
(02:57):
way and then you and unfortunately I was with a
lot of great athletes, so it made it a little easier,
but it wasn't a great teaching method because not everybody
had even close the same structure, right but my fascination
was with more of the performance end of when somebody's
at the golf course, what where's their focus going? Their
(03:18):
confidence or emotional regulation, those type of things. And so
I went back to school and got a doctorate in
applied sports psychology. I've gone down some big rabbit holes
with other parts of that, which is like positive psychology,
flow states, those type of things. And I've been fortunate
to work with a lot of really really good players
along the way, learned a lot from them because if
(03:39):
you ask them good questions, you're going to get some
great answers. Go oh, I never thought about it that way,
and you start seeing everybody's different, just like in their
physical that makeup, you have different personalities, you have different
learning styles, you have different ways of what triggers a
great performance, what triggers a poor performance. So that's a
little bit of a nutshell kind of where I came from.
I came from a player's perspective first and what I need,
(04:00):
and then as a coach looking at that, I wasn't
seeing results. And then if I really asked the proper questions,
I started to hear from these players that you know
what I'm getting nervous out there. I'm getting stressed out there.
I have a lot of doubt over shots. I got
fear overshots, and at that time I didn't really have
great answers. So that's when that's when I kind of pivoted.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
That's awesome, Yeah, I think that's that's funny listening to
the there's a lot of parallels I think in how
at least on the physical side, we like very much system.
I just do what this on everybody and then you
start to realize, hey, wait, actually that doesn't work for
that person. Why is that right? So I guess so
talk to me. And I think also on the physical side,
particularly you know, on the on the physical therapist side,
(04:41):
which is after you know, a strength coach, and then
the PT side too. Like on the physio side, if
if you don't ask the right questions, it's tough to
get the right diagnosis. So it very similar mentally, it
sounds like, so, I guess there's a lot of people
that I see I get this question all the time,
Like golfers will come in and hey, who's a good
mental coach that you wret com in And it's it's like, uh, well,
(05:03):
there's a lot of people that say they're mental coaches,
fair enough, Like, so how does somebody go about like
maybe this comes into a little bit you chatting a
little bit about the questions that you've started to ask
and kind of what you've learned along the way. Like
obviously you're one of the top guys out there, So
how does somebody, a regular amateur listening right now, like
(05:24):
differentiate between you and I Mean I literally had a
woman come here. I'll tell the story. I'm not going
to use names, but I had a woman locally. She
came as I was probably only maybe five six years in.
I was just looking for some sort of member event
to try to get leads in, like trying to pay
the rent, right, So I have her come in. She
says she's got this big fancy resume. She shows up,
(05:46):
and we probably I probably got like twenty thirty people
in the room. Right, there's juniors and there's adults. And
she has two juniors up there with like blow up
swords like like you would get it like a carnival.
She has like and she has them like slice away
their fears. And I'm like, oh my god, this is awful.
Like I don't know what to do, and everyone's like
(06:07):
looking at each other, and I'm like, all right, yeah,
this is a good learning experience. Don't just let anybody
come in the door. So how does somebody protect themselves
from getting into that situation versus somebody who's actually gonna
help them?
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yeah, I mean it's a loaded question. And let me
answer first from a swing standpoint. A lot of golfers
out there, not a lot of excuse me, not a
lot of golfers even take golf lessons, mind you, much
less mental game. So I understand it's a small percentage.
But even if you take golf lessons, you're looking for
somebody who has some experience. Now, experience could be again.
I was a full time teacher giving fifty hours worth
(06:42):
of golf lessons per week. You start doing the numbers
after five ten years, that's a lot of experience. Now,
that's a lot of bad lessons I gave the first
few years. Yeah, totally. But if you have somebody who
only gives four lessons a week because they are already
working in the pro shop and stuff like that, you
got to be careful their learning curve is still way
out there. Also getting mentored. I was mentored by some
(07:05):
of the best coaches. Growing up, I has been mentored
by some great mental game coaches. So now you're gathering
their information and you're getting to tap into their experience,
and then, yes, I think you should have some education.
I'm not saying somebody has to have a doctorate or
a master's degree, but there has to be some level
of understanding cause and effect. And I've gotten really now
(07:26):
into the science based part of it. So I use
brainwave EEGs, I use heart rate monitors, I use a
new thing with blood flow to the prefrontal cortex because
we want to be able to prove these things work,
and we also want to have a basis of what
is triggering these different emotional responses and stuff like that.
(07:47):
So I think you have to have some education behind
it experience. I have know some mental game coaches who
don't have high level degrees, and they're fantastic because they
do ask better questions and they are willing to learn
about the person. And I think we as as mental
game coaches, have to remember that the player is coming
(08:07):
to you. They're vulnerable. They're like a mental game coach.
That must mean I'm screwed up, but it really should.
But it really shouldn't be. It should be that's part
of performance, right. You have people that maybe come in
their high level athletes that you screen them and you go, well,
they check all the boxes on the basic screen, but
guess what, they still want to get faster, They still
want to be more, have more endurance. So mental game
(08:28):
is the same thing. And so I would say with
the mental game coaches, I think you got to be
careful if they have zero experience in sports. You're seeing
a lot of clinical psychologists who who look at and go, oh,
that sports stuff looks pretty cool, and they don't know
the verbiage, they don't know the communication, they don't know
what they're going through. So I think somebody who's coming
(08:50):
to it from a standpoint of they've understand sports, it
doesn't have to be necessarily golf, that that's very, very,
very helpful. And I think being willing to again have
some form of a plan, like I have a basic assessment,
and I have a you know, here's some things you're
gonna do, here's worksheets, here's actual training. You know, part
of my company flow code, we have whole portal where
(09:12):
you're doing certain meditations and breathing rates and certain things
we're actually training the Metal Game. I don't want somebody
to come and go, oh I had this nice conversation
with Rick, Okay, I want somebody to say, hey, wait.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
You mean you actually measure things and and look for Oh.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I know, I know, I know. So. So it's one
of those things where you know, when I first was
a Metal Game coach twenty years ago, I was still
trying to find my feet. Don't get me wrong, but
I've learned along the ways of what are we measuring? Right?
Some of it's subjective in the Metal Game. Honestly, you're
doing journaling, You're doing open ended questions and stuff. But
(09:49):
now technology is catching up. We have some cool ways
to help people with feedback, neurofeedback and of like oh, wow,
you mean I did that breathing rate and then I
noticed my brain ways went down. Oh, I have some
control over my situation. So I want to empower the player.
I also want to give them different options, so like, uh,
(10:10):
this would be one. Like with visualization, like I used to,
everybody has to visualize. I found out some people are
more fuel oriented. We call it a deep and body
my triggers. More people are going to be in their body,
body connecting to target. Other people are going to see it.
And then if you see it, should we see a
shot tracer? Should I see a bulls eye in the desert?
There's a So I mean there's all kinds of different
visualizations too. So we want to we want to open
(10:31):
up that there's a lot of different solutions to to
somebody's performance. So again back to the thing a mental game,
they have to have experience. I think communication is important.
I feel I've seen a lot of coaches that are
pretty good and one on one, but then you put
them in a group and it's disaster. And so how
do you get your message across in a very simple
(10:53):
way too? The mental game you can go down roads
and like you know, I ask everybody what is the
mental game? And I hear everything right, And that's fine
because at least they're trying, Oh, it's positive thinking, it's
this great that it's all that's true. But if I
say it's about state management and it's about your your mental, emotional,
physical state as you execute a golf shot, they're going, okay,
(11:14):
what's state management? Well, what are you thinking? What are
you feeling? And then how is that going to respond
to your actual physical makeup, stress response, grip pressure could increase,
my speed could increase, and then you blame your golf
swing or you blame your pe, you blame your pt.
You don't want to be blamed for that. That was
a mental there, you.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Know, yeah, yeah, no thanks, and we get that all
that and we'll we'll see that, right, I mean, this
is just I mean nothing you don't already know. Like
we'll have guys come in and you know, we do
the test. And this is probably to me for anybody
that's like trying to do anything physical, you have to
have in my personal opinion, and also just I think
science you need. I think people need to engage with
(11:51):
with the mental side because there's so many times where
we'll get a player to like, you know, they pass.
All their mobility is great, all their strength numbers are
in the top five percent, all their power numbers are
in their time, and like we had a a young
young woman. She was kind of like fringe. She would
be on a semetra, then she'd be on like LPGA.
(12:12):
She'd go back and like and it was like when
you tested her, she was the absolute, by far, the
best female athlete we've ever seen, but just it was
between the ears. She just couldn't execute when it was
out there. And I see this all the time with
guys that will come in, like just the amateurs. They're like, oh,
I'm feeling great, my game still sucks, and it's like,
what do you mean. It's like when I'm up by myself,
(12:33):
I played great, but when I go out to the
weekend game, I keep having to pay money, right, and so,
just to like to your point, and we've seen it,
there's obviously the sciences you probably know better than I do,
of like when you do have those stress responses, it
does cause physical change, like I said, like the grip
may change, and you can do all the physical prep
in the world, but if we are missing this element,
you're it's not going.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
To be optimized definitely. And I think that's what I've
even tried to simplify my model even more, is that
my goal is to take somebody from a fear state
to a flow state. And a fear state is triggered
by an anxious thought of the future, a threat. Oh crap,
I don't like this hole. Oh no, I made double
on this whole last week. Oh no, let's not mess up,
(13:15):
I don't know, embarrass myself in front of other people.
If that thought is not you know, looked at or changed,
it will have an emotional response, which now physically I
could go fight or flight. Now the fight in somebody
would beat gripressure increases, they steer the ball. Don't go left,
ort go left right, and they steer it. Okay, now
(13:35):
that's changed all their dynamics. Okay, and then you have
a flight, which is what I used to do under pressure,
which is I'm uncomfortable. Let's just get this thing over
with as quickly as possible. My golf swing got short
and fast. I hooked the ball under pressure. Okay, now
I could hook a ball. Go back to my swing coach,
see i'm hooking it again. I got to fix that.
(13:56):
And then within two swings, somebody striping in and all
their track man numbers are exactly what they want. And
the swing coach is like, I'm not sure what to
do right because the player is not being honest saying
I was really nervous on the shot. They're just saying, oh,
it's a swing fault because I'm hooking again. But if
we went a deeper, it's like well, what state were
(14:16):
you in? Well, I was petrified because I don't want
to go right like I did yesterday in this water,
So I felt uncomfortable. Oh, now we're getting to the
actual cause and effect here. Now from there, what do
we do right? I mean, then we could talk about
preshot routine and how to you know shift you know
we call cognitive reframing. How can I look at this differently?
I can certainly do breathing in the in the moment
to regulate some of that stress response, But a flow
(14:39):
state is about being fully immersed in the present moment,
looking at the shot instead of a threat, but looking
as a challenge. Now we take on challenges and then yes,
we we can look do I actually have the skills
to match the challenge? Right? That's our confidence question. And
if we say yeah, then great, And I can recall
great drives I've hit, we all have, wonderful I'll bring
(15:01):
that to now the forefront instead of oh crap, don't
go right like I guess we did yesterday. And so
it's a lot. Certainly, it's about a lot about managing
what's triggering in our environment and if we can get
more aware of those times runcomfortable, there's probably some form
of a pattern there. It might be waters, all right,
and you tend to fade a ball, okay, that would
(15:21):
be a pattern that would trigger something. Or a six
foot downhill left to right putt where it's to win
a skin that may trigger a different response. I want
to know what's triggering different states. Okay. But then on
the other end, I want people to understand when they've
played their best, what are they thinking, what are they feeling,
what are they doing? There might be some a thread
(15:43):
a recipe there that we could start to copy and
we can start to repeat. And then people talk about
preshot routines all that stuff great, but I'm talking about
really deep into those pre shot routines of what was
triggering that. So I'm looking at most people, let the
environment trigger an emotional response. I want us to train
our internal environment so it doesn't matter what I am outside,
(16:06):
I'm still having that focus and that confidence and that
calm as they execute a golf shot.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
So it's funny as you're as you're talking about all this,
I'm thinking, last week I was on a call, I
was on the golf course, like more, it was listening
I didn't really have to be involved except every once
in a while maybe unbute and say something, it's three
under on the on the front nine. And then I
played the other day just you know, competitive. I think
I hooked two into the woods. I think I shot
(16:32):
like five over on the front nine. I think maybe
I just need to stop thinking, just get over and
just hit the ball.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
Like I was gonna say a lot of that like that.
Don't think he's an interesting one because when I ask
people what the mental game is, they say it's about
not thinking. I said, well, I disagree, because I believe
a great part of the game is thinking. When I
get to a second shot in a par four, I'm
gonna I am going to look at the lie and
how the ball is going to get affected by the lie,
and I'm gonna look at wind, and I'm looking at
(16:59):
how firm that is I'm gonna do. There's a lot
of thinking happening at the right time, correct, and then
we transition into you know, now the cliche thing now
to say is be an athlete. Well, be an athlete
means I want to be reactionary to a target and
not have the interference. Okay, so there's a thinking part
definitely at the part of the first part of the
pre strivertine, and then there is a shifting of reacting
(17:22):
as an athlete to a target and that's where people
do to work out a little.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Bit clearly me as well. But so let's so I'm curious.
So one of the big things that that I'm passionate
and just really believe a ton and is assessing and
not guessing. And that's clearly something that you that you
do as well. So just to like to give listeners
kind of an idea of like they go to to
flow code, like what are the things that that you
(17:46):
look at, like like when you like necessarily what do
you do with them? But like what's what's an assessment?
Like what are the things types of things like for us,
how's their rotary mobility, how's their upper body power the
lower bite? Right? Like what are the stuff that they
should when they go to Floa code, which all of
you should by the way, ps what is like what's
something that they should like that you're going to be
(18:08):
looking at with them and that they should expect.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Right. Yeah, So a lot of my clients are on
zoom and over, you know, all over the world, and
so I'll answer this two different ways. All of my students,
whether I see them in person or in virtual environment,
are going to fill out a five to six page
mental assessment. Now it's a very subjective. They're filling it
open ended questions. I'm asking them about goals and motivational
(18:30):
styles and practice habits and how do they prepare for
tournaments and focus and confidence emotional. I'm giving them some
frameworks of some of the skill sets we will work on,
but I want to get there at least what they
think their baseline is. They've never been asked a ninety
percent of these questions, by the way, so just the
exercise of filling it out is an actual training exercise
(18:53):
because they go, I never thought about when I play
really well, what's going on? Or I don't even know
how my practice anymore? I mean, And so they said
this was really valuable. Go great. Now Again, that's not
scientific and all this stuff, but it's a subjective way
for them to start to measure where they're at and
where we want to go. And then if I see
somebody in person, we call it a mindset fitting. I
(19:15):
use some different technologies to it, and I don't do
it necessarily in the first session. I'll be honest with you,
because I think there's so much stuff that needs to
be kind of filtered away. But once we get to
that idea of what are we actually training, we're training
state management, then I look at what the interferences are.
(19:35):
The interferences could be distractions, they could be doubts, they
could be fears, they could be certain situations right, and
then we look at, Okay, how do we make those shifts?
So with flow code, we have different triggers and different
we believe there's different paths for everybody your own flow code,
but the player needs to be more aware of what
are those skills in the first place. Remember, most people
(19:56):
have never seen a mental game coach. They vaguely, aguely
think they know what it's about, but usually they don't.
So there's a lot of education at the start of it.
What is the mental game? These are the things we're
going to work on. Focus. Are you paying attention to
the correct cues? And can you keep your focus on
what's relevant in that moment? Oh Rick, I get distracted
by my iPhone. I got texting all the time, and
(20:17):
I'm thinking about what I don't want. Well, we might
want to start focus. Then yeah, there's a key thing.
Flow follows focus. The only way to be in a
peak state is to be fully immersed in the present moment. Okay,
we usually start with that. Then we get confidence. You know,
do you believe you have the skills to match the
challenge in front of you? If some people say well,
yeah in the range, but now not on the golf course,
(20:38):
we have a disconnect there and we start we start
talking about confidence, and then emotional regulation is a big one.
I do a lot of stuff on post shot routine,
but what happens after a golf shot? Most people are
very reactionary, very critical, very judgmental, and I'm looking at well,
let's be curious, let's learn. It's not about positive thinking,
but it's about Hey, I hit the ball left. I
would want to know why it went left. Most people
(21:01):
blame swing. I say, well, were you even fully committed
to the shot in the first place? And they go, oh,
what does that mean? Well did you have a clear cleartograph?
Well no, because I didn't want to go right? And
I go, okay, right there we got so. So a
lot of it's educational, a lot of it's me asking
questions me trying to We certainly put them through pre
and post shot routine, but the measurement starts to occur
(21:24):
more and more and more. We do, you know, on
somebody's scorecard, we may have a different process goal. Okay,
every time that you feel your emotions are getting to
frustrated level, we're going to do a post shot routine,
you know. And we have very precise what the routine's about,
not just hey, did you do your pre shot routine?
If it's rick, I'm gonna work on visualization to get
(21:45):
more clarity on my preshot routine. That would be a
specific process that we are working on. Now. We have
a feedback loop did I do it or not? And
at what clarity in those So it gets a little
tricky because it's definitely not one size fits all, right,
and I do personality styles and all that kinds of
stuff too. So Yeah, the assessment part is a lot
(22:07):
of subjectives, of a lot of questions, a lot of
people now thinking in new ways that they haven't thought
about before.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah, So for all of you listening right now, if
you go have gone to a mental coach or do
go to somebody and they don't do all that go
some flow, cot go see right. But I just think
I'm so passionate about that because there are so many
people in our space, in the fitness space that like,
you know, oh, it's golf fitness, let's do golfee thing,
(22:33):
and they don't the big, big passion, whole reason why
we are where we are. We test everything, and it's
like we know that ninety percent of the stuff that
people test right now it just doesn't matter, like literally
ninety percent of stuff that matters is can you rotate
for how much lower body power upper body power? And
like and then let's let's figure out what you're trying
to do, right. And so I just I love hearing
that that's occurring on the mental side of the space
(22:55):
as well, because that's so important for people to assess
know exactly what it is that you need to do.
There's listening to you talk. There's so many different ways
that somebody listening could go right, whether it's visualization or's focus,
appreciate our tea. And so I think that's the importance
of somebody like yourself in a program like FLoC to
help people kind of cut through the noise and say, hey,
(23:15):
this is what you need to do. This is what's
the most important. And I know in the fitness space
for golfers hate the gym. So our whole mission has
been how can I get the minimal effective dose? Because
if it's more than ninety minutes in a week, that's
we've gotten it based on our science where it's like
if it's at least ninty minutes, and if you give
me ninety minutes, I can guarantee we're going to get
to where you need to go. And like fifteen minutes
(23:37):
a day. You can't tell me you can't do that
for five days and a week, right, Like, But so
I think that's so important on the mental side too,
because I think it's very easy to feel like you're
getting hit in the face as an amateur with a
water like a fire hose of information.
Speaker 2 (23:51):
Totally, And I'm glad you said that is because one
I know when somebody's coming to me for mental game,
I get one or two type of players. I get
the serious player who's competitive, who says, Rick, I want
to try this. I think it's important. Most of the
time it's I'm broken, fix me right, I'm screwed up
mentally amps now again, like we.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
Get too like where were you three six months ago
when I told you your hip didn't rotate? Well, I
felt five. Now I can't play because my back's gone.
It's like, oh, I'm glad you came now.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
Exactly So, but along those lines is that I could
fire hose them with all this material that I have
and all this kind of stuff. But we do want
to get back to you said it perfectly right. The
minimum dose is still get somebody progressing. And that's why
with flow Code we have something called a flow Club.
It's basically a mind jim. So we have these breathing
(24:43):
rates and these meditations. We actually have coaches that are
doing them live in our in our app throughout the day,
so people can understand how to do a proper breathing rate,
how to do a visualization, how to use their body.
This is what's cool. You can use body to get
into a flow state. Big time movement is very important
one just all the neurochemicals that go through you. But
(25:03):
in order to focus to do the exercise correctly is
a mental process, right, And so we want people to
do five minutes of day of maybe some box breathing
or maybe they're going to spend five minutes in the
car before they go play, and we have these guided
meditations for the visualizations of how they want to show
up on the first te So we want to do
(25:25):
it in small type of things, okay, Or here's journalize
your best shots that you hit today. Right, that may
take two minutes. Great, So I agree with you. Is
that How do we get it into a habit though, right?
And the habitual part of it to where they go?
That's I love doing this stuff now because it helps
me on the golf course, It helps me deal with
stress at work, it helps right now. It becomes part
(25:45):
of who they are, even the physical side. I'm playing
better golf, but man, I can get around better. I
can I'm not hurt when I wait. We want to
link more of those benefits and yet doing them in
those small increments. Then it becomes a habit.
Speaker 1 (26:00):
Like what sort of time commitment do people like a
lot of people look for. Because I don't know if
you've seen the full swing. They actually have an episode
of Wyndham Clark going in like doing mental coach. That
was a big part of the season last year. So
I'm sure all of a sudden, the mental side is
going to be is at the center of full swing
for like an entire episode, so awesome, Like what is
(26:21):
like what should people expect, Like how much time does
it actually take to do the assessment? They know exactly
what they need to work at, Like what's the commitment
level for people to see a result?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Sure, I mean, let's just say the average player who
maybe and again you're I don't know who's listening here.
If we have a competitive player who can put in
fifteen to twenty hours of practice, that's obviously high level
commitment per week, totally get it. If I have somebody
who's a fifteen handicap whose dream is to get a
nine handicap and says, Rick, I want to try this,
(26:52):
and maybe they're only practicing two hours a week, I'm
going to ask them to take a chunk of that,
maybe twenty minutes on the range to go and look
at full pre shot routine and post shot routine and
work on visualization. Do some random practice, variability practice stuff
like that. Pressure practice too is like put them in
some stress states. But I would do some stuff off
of the golf course first. I would have them understand
(27:13):
what proper breathing does for them physiologically, but also from
a focus standpoint, So they have the skill already. So
then when they take it to the range, then they
take it to the course, and they take it in
a tournament, it's already something that's been practiced. Journaling and
stuff like that's important too, not only to kind of
process what's going on, but also to reinforce what's working.
(27:35):
We can start seeing like, oh wow, I was more
calm there. And so I don't think it's as big
as what people think, but I think just the awareness
of oh there I go again. My thought went to this,
and I'm oh coach Rick talked about what's the last
time I hit the shot? Well, oh yeah, yeah, I
did it last week here? Okay, cool? What and now
I can shift that takes practice, Okay, but it's not
(27:57):
necessarily I need to do an hour of day. But
you can start with five minute increments and then bleed
it into a pre shower team and then bleed it
into that. That's how I like to do it. Now.
When they and I've worked with tour pros is like
they're more of like, I gotta get something done now.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
My livelihood's on the line here, Rick, come on, and.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
So you see you may see them dive in with
more gusto. But but then there's a lot of things.
And I have not seen the wynd and Clark episode,
so I don't want to speak on that, but I
know a lot of these other players are utilizing mental
game coaches for like life coaching and being able to
time manage and be able to deal with the stresses
and expectations that are having that are happening in the
(28:39):
world on them that can affect their performance. And then
there's other mental game uh coaches that are just purely
performance based. What's happening in between the ropes, right, I'm
probably a little bit of both, because I do believe
that your your life is going to affect your golf
and vice versa for sure.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
So what I'm hearing for everyone listening is like, you
got five minutes of a day that you waste on
social media, you can get better and just and just
to clarify that people that are listening, Rick, I don't
think there is just a regular random golf like fan
listening to a golf fitness performance podcast. I think these
(29:18):
are all pretty from from everyone I've talked to, these
are pretty serious golfers. They're there, you're playing them a
couple of times a week, like these are you know,
if you're listening to this, you are the type of
person who definitely needs the mental side. So uh rick,
if you can leave, you know, one last thought for
people like like I don't know, I don't want to
say a tip, but like a takeaway from the conversation
(29:39):
that they really kind of wish people would kind of
internalize and move forward with.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Yeah. I think with the mental side is that I
want to empower people that they have choices, and it
starts with self awareness. I'm aware right now that I'm distracted.
I'm aware right now, I'm nervous, I'm fine now. The
awareness is the first superpower everybody. Okay, now, some people
make three bogies in a row. They're frustrated, and they
look back and go, huh, how'd that happen? I was
(30:07):
mad for three holes? Like whoa, You should have been
very aware on the first shot that you were frustrated. Right,
So self awareness, let's work on that. Let's understand what
am I thinking, feeling, and doing right now. Okay, if
I'm not in the state I want to be, making
the shift, then become step two. Now that shift can
be I can think about something in a different way.
(30:27):
I can use physiological breathing, I can use my body differently.
There's a bunch of different triggers, but you do have
control over your how you feel, okay, And I really
want to empower people. That's like, well, I always get
mad because I'm playing with the slow play and that
always gets me mad. I go, okay, that's on you, okay,
because guess what slow play is going to be here
forever and you're gonna play with people you don't like,
(30:49):
you don't like as bumpy greens, and you can give
me all the excuses you want, but you have a choice.
And so I really want people to understand they have
a choice in how they feel. And yes, sometimes it
takes a lot of work, and I I think I
know a lot, and sometimes I still get frustrated other
golf course, that's that's normal. But how much is it
affecting you now? Is super important? So awareness empower you
(31:13):
can make a change. But yeah, let's be let's let's
let's take some more responsibility for our actions. For sure.
I love that.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Well, Rick, where can people find you? Where's the best
place for them to go after. Well, actually we'll put
everything in the show notes. But the person who right
now is like, all right, I got five minutes I
want to do it. Like, how do they get in
contact with you and get help?
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah? No, thank you. So the web, the easiest website
is flow Code dot Golf, flow Code dot Golf. It
has all, uh we do certifications for coaches, we've got
certainly for players, we've got Junior Academy. We're very very
motivated to help every type of golfer out there. And
then on Instagram, we certainly have flow Code Golf Academy,
but Rick sessing Houses on Instagram and that we do
(31:58):
a lot of video based off there on my website.
Also Ric Sessinghouse dot com has some other information on there.
But I really appreciate, uh, the opportunity to share awesome.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Well, thanks so much for coming on, Rick, and thank
you everybody for hanging out with us on the bomb Spot.
Hopefully Rick has diffused the little bombs and drop some
drop some some knowledge bombs on you. But hopefully we've uh,
we've we've diffused the next blow up hole that you
have coming because you're pissed off at your last hole.
So thanks a lot rick. It's a bit a pleasure
having you on. I'm sure we'll have you on again
sometimes soon.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
All right, thank you.
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