November 29, 2019 • 53 mins
Joined by Fitness and Performance expert, Katherine Roberts. You can find Katherine's website by searching YogaForGolfers.com. Establishing and achieving fitness goals (1:00 - 26:50). Seeking a pain-free lifestyle (27:15 - 38:52). Taking advantage of classes to become more healthy, fit and flexible (39:28 - 53:44).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the hank Any Podcast, a production of I
Heart Radio. My guest today is one of the foremost
experts in the world of human performance in sports. She
is a top fifty Golf Digest, fitness professional and the
founder and president of Yoga for Golfers and Human Performance
for Sports. Kathy Roberts joins us next on the hank
(00:20):
Any Podcast. Shot shot Okay, all right, Great to have
(00:49):
my friend Katherine Roberts with us here on the Hank
Any Podcast. Catherine is obviously one of the greatest golf
and fitness trainers there are, and of course I'm very
bias Catherine, but but I love talking talking with you,
learning about the body and how to perform better because
(01:09):
that that is your expertise. And thanks for joining me
this morning on hank Any Podcasts. So thrilled to be
on with you, Hank. Super exciting and you know, you
and I go back a long way, and it's great
that we are having this conversation and a new format.
You've You've been on with me many times before when
(01:30):
I've done my radio show, and always a great guest.
A lot of a lot of questions that that people ask. UH.
Podcasts are a little different. I know you're a fan
of podcasts. I'm a huge fan of podcast I've listened
to them almost daily, and you know, it's really interesting
how the format of conversation has changed so much. Um.
(01:51):
The main reason I love podcasts is because I feel
like I can experience a much deeper conversation to learn
earning in greater depths from the various guests. Uh, you know,
because of what I do. I'm very interested in strength
and conditioning podcast peak performance podcasts, you know, and and
(02:11):
to be able, like I said, to to be part
of a deeper conversation, I think is brilliant to podcast
delivers over other other formats. And you are obviously so
involved and helping people get better. It's the thing that
that I know you well. So it's the thing that
that pushes you, that motivates you. You love doing your
(02:33):
Your website, Yoga for Golfers, is absolutely fantastic. I mean,
you're really a pioneer in this area and you have
been for for many years. UM, talk about your website
a little bit. How you got how did you get
into well, I mean I've been into yoga forever, but
but how did you specifically decide that golf was going
to be. You know, your your main focus. I know
(02:54):
you're doing other things now with with baseball teams, and
my my favorite team, the Cubs, is one of your teams.
But but how did God become the area that you
wanted to focus on? So the way that I got
involved with creating yoga for golfers started with me being
a golfer. By the way, I've been playing golf my
whole life. My parents play. Um, it's very much a
(03:17):
fabric of how we were raised as playing golf as
a family. But I live in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I
was playing golf with a woman up at Desert Mountain.
I was playing as a single. My handicap was about
a twenty eight hank and she was a five and
and I immediately thought, Okay, whatever she's doing, I need
(03:38):
to be doing that now. Let me also explain that
I've always been involved with fitness. I was a group
fitness instructor, you know, basically since I was sixteen years old.
Well turned out this this woman who was a five
handicap was a yoga instructor, and that's when I took
my first yoga class. Okay, well, I was. First of all,
(03:59):
I was immediately smitten with the practice of yoga, to
the point that I quit my corporate job to teach
yoga full time. But on the golf perspective, my handicap
went from about to a sixteen very rapidly. So I
was already sold on the benefits of yoga for the
for golf because I had that experience. So so let
me let me, let me interrview. Okay, so when you
(04:20):
started taking yoga and you first started and you're you're,
you know, a golf for your twenty handicap? What what
what do you think change that got you to a
sixteen so fast? I mean, what were you? You know?
I mean the first thing that would come to mind
is that you weren't weren't flexible. But is that the
case or is there more to it than that? There's
(04:42):
more to it than that. Actually, Hank, I was one
of those people that was that is was hyper flexible,
hyper mobile. So what I was doing was I was
actually overswinging, and then my timing was not good and
it was more difficult for me because I was overswinging
to get the club back to a ball. And what
it actually did for me was it got me stronger
(05:05):
so that I was able to generate more power, so
I was able to increase my distance. My balance was
definitely better. But two of the main things I would say.
One is that I used to get very tired around
the twelve or thirteen pole, not just physically, but mentally.
I would start to check out. And and what I
(05:25):
found with that practice of yoga is that I had
more endurance because I was stronger, but mentally I was
much stronger because I learned how to stay focused. And
that's what yoga. That's what yoga taught me. But what
happened was because I was teaching yoga in Scottsdale, and
I was teaching it all of these facilities in North
Scottsdale where everyone's playing golf, and I was teaching quote
(05:47):
unquote traditional yoga. My classes were getting filled up with
men over the age of fifty who were mostly retired
and all playing golf almost every day coming back to
me and saying, you know what it I was losing
distance before I started taking this class. Now not only
is my distance back, but it's better. Um, I don't
have back pain anymore, you know, I I don't get
(06:11):
fatigued through the round. I don't have to prepare for
the round by taking you know, advil four days before
they play, and their focus is better. And in I
had this aha moment of I'm going to create a
program called yoga for golfers, and you did, and I did,
and now we have. Now we have certified instructors in
(06:32):
forty countries and we're bringing these this methodology of how
to train for golf through the context of yoga for
the not just the body, but also the mind. You know.
It's it's interesting because I mean, obviously, the first thing
that comes to mind, and of course the first thing
I brought up is is that a lot of people
(06:54):
who play go off. I mean they lack flexibility. Of course, everybody,
everybody wants more distance. So I'm always talking about how
the most important factor in the game of golf in
determining a player's potential is their ability to hit the
ball a long way. Their distance there and the speed
that they can create gives you potential. The more club
at speed, the more potential you have. I mean, it
(07:15):
doesn't guarantee you success, but I mean I always use
the analogy. I mean, if you if you hit the
ball a hundred fifty yards, you can play a nice
game of golf, but you're never going to be a
scratch player. If you hit it two h fifty yards,
you can be a low handicapped player, but you're never
playing the PGA Tour. So distance determines your potential. So
that's that's always the first thing that comes to my
mind when I see some way that lacks flexibility, lacks distance.
(07:40):
But who's interesting? I mean you use yoga to help
you with your your your focus and and people you
work with with their focus, um their strength and and
and actually in your case, I mean shortening your swing.
So it's interesting, Yeah, it's it's interesting. People they equate
yoga with this simple fact of getting them more flexible.
(08:02):
And absolutely the practice of yoga will increase your flexibility
and your mobility. But this program will make you exponentially
stronger because what you're doing is you're using the force
of gravity two and your body weight against that force
of gravity to generate strength. So again, because a lot
(08:24):
of my golfers are typically over fifty, primarily male. Um,
I'll make a broad stroke generalization here, Hank. Most men
are inflexible and most women are unstable. And by that
I mean that mostly men can can use more mobility
and women can use more strength. But but to for
(08:47):
people to just equate this practice with just mobility, UM,
would tell me that they don't really have the experience
of it. Because when you look at somebody that does
yoga typically, um, they are they're quite strong. Um. And
so my golfers, what I've been able to do is
also teach them how to use the ground and how
(09:07):
to generate more power from their lower body. Um. Again,
everything that we do is in the context of the
biomechanics of the golf swing and what I have found
in the twenty years of doing this people need to
do so that they can play better golf, but also
hank it also, um, it also impacts their life off
(09:28):
the course in a very meaningful way. And that's important
point to make as well. Right. So, so, I mean
everybody's different. Everybody you know needs needs something maybe that's
different than than someone else. But uh, in general, I mean,
you see a lot of players on the PGA Tour
that and I don't know how much time they're spending,
(09:48):
you know, with yoga or stretching or whatever, but they
there seems to be a trend towards a lot of weightlifting,
and I mean, how should or how would somebody divide
their time? I mean, you know, how much strengthening can
you get from yoga versus having to supplement it with
(10:09):
weight training? I mean, does it all depend on the person?
Give me some some general thoughts, sir well, I think
it does depend on the person, and I think it
depends on their goals. You know, whenever I'm working with
an athlete, the first thing I say is what are
your goals? What are the top three to five goals
that you have? Because everyone is different. I do want
to touch on the concept of the weight training though,
(10:29):
for for golf, because I get to get asked this
question a lot. Is weight training bad for golf? And
I think weight training is great for golf. It depends
on how you're implementing your program, what kind of weight
training are you doing, and most importantly, Hank, is it
balanced out with a good mobility program? And also, um,
(10:51):
when you're doing weight training, you need to make sure
that you're moving the body and the joint in the
full range of motions. So it's not necessarily that weight
training is bad at or yoga is bad or or
pilates is good, or whatever it is. I think it's
all good when it's designed to help the golfer play
better golf and it's designed for that specific body. But
(11:12):
my clients are not going to be doing po metrics
box jumps like you see you know Brooks kept you doing,
or or Dustin Johnson or Rory or any of those guys.
Those aren't the people that I'm helping. I'm helping people
who are generally UM have consistent low back pain. They
have very tight hips, they have um a sea posture,
(11:34):
you know, they have rounded shoulders, it's difficult for them
to turn. They might have poor foot functions. So I'm
helping them with that. But um, you know. And in
terms of dividing the time, UM, I my personal belief
is that if you only have fifteen minutes a day,
you need to be doing yographer, golfers or some type
of more mobility program that will that I believe, from
(11:59):
what I've seen from all these years, can bring you
tremendous benefit. If you just had only fifteen minutes, you
would just you would just do that program I would
do if I only had fifteen minutes, I would do
this program, and I would work on the mobility piece
of it, but I would also work on the strength piece.
All right, let me ask you this. When you said that, Uh,
(12:19):
you know, you ask people what their three goals, you know,
might be. What what kind of answers do you get
when you ask that question. One of the top answers
I get is I want to I want to get
my distance back or I want to gain distance. Always
a big, always a big Maybe Number one, right, I
would say A close second to number one is they
(12:42):
don't want to have any more pain. They want to
be out of pain. And I think the third thing
would probably be yes, just the the increase in in flexibility,
you know, is a big yeah. Just movement, being able
to move. You know. I have a degree in chain
(13:02):
reaction biomechanics, so the way that I look at the
body is very different from kind of a traditional yoga instructor.
And also because I've been working in sports for so
many years, I'm always looking at what is the bibe?
What how is the body moving? As it relates to biomechanics,
and then we say, okay, what are the objectives? How
(13:22):
and what is a realistic amount of time? That people
have and then based on that and talking to their
swing coach and looking at their video of their golf swing,
then I'll determine also by doing an assessment, then I'll
determine what the training protocol is. So, so, how how
would you look at something different than you used to
look at it when you were just a yoga instructor?
(13:44):
What I mean, what are the what are the differences there?
I think one of the big differences is that I
look at the body is a chain reaction. So instead
of looking at someone and saying, well, you know, their
hips aren't really internally and externally rotating, Well, what I'm
looking at is what everything everything that's happening below the
hips and everything that's happening above the hips. Because from
(14:06):
a chain reaction, by a mechanic standpoint, what's happening below
is affecting above, and what's happening above is affecting below.
And let me just give you a good example of that.
I believe the recent number was sixty three percent of
golfers will experience low back pain. And I've literally been
stopped in the airport hank by somebody, by people that
(14:27):
recognize me, and they asked me, Hey, what do you
have from my low back exactly? Well, voodoo pain Voodoo
pain relief cream, for sure, because it's always in my
bag anyway. But but what I'll say to them is,
very often when someone comes to me with low back pain,
I look at their hip function and I look at
their thorastic spines function, and if we can kind of
(14:50):
treat those two areas, very often it will help with
with back pain. So I think the biggest difference is
how I assess the body and look at body and
look at movement, and yeah, it's it's quite fascinating. So
when I walk on a driving range or even just
you know, I mean literally driving by a golf course,
(15:11):
if I see somebody swinging, immediately I'm looking at him,
not thinking all that guy was inside or he was
outside going back, or he you know, I was coming
over the top, or you know, he had the club
halfway back, or his club face was wide open. I mean,
all these these thoughts are popping into my mind as
soon as I see somebody swing. When when you see somebody,
(15:35):
where does your assessment start? I mean just the way
they walk, uh, what they look like on the range?
What are you looking at? First and foremost thing. I
look at his gate and you mentioned that the way
they walk. Um, I am always assessing gate. Gate can
tell you so much about what's happening in a person's body.
(15:58):
And because I've been doing this so long, Hank, I
can look at someone walking down the fairway and have
a pretty good idea about what might be potentially happening
in their golf swing. And let me let me. Let
me also just back up and say, I don't teach golf.
I I won't. Guys that I work with they'll ask
(16:18):
me questions about their swing, and I say, this is
not my job. You talked to you talked to hey
Katie about that. That's not my job, right, So I'm
not looking at anything that you're looking at. But for example,
let's just talk about gate for a second. For example,
when when someone walks, there should be an efficient Shain
(16:40):
reaction that happens. As their example, if their right foot
is hitting the ground first, their heel hits the ground forward.
There should be a specific internal rotation of the hip
and then the back legs it propels forward, and that
that Shane reaction goes up from the heel through the
eamer the thigh bone, the hip, the thorastic spine, the shoulders,
(17:05):
the hands should actually move and swing freely right there.
That the heads should be right over the chest, not
with the forward head position. So if I'm looking at
a golfer and he's walking towards me, and I noticed
that his right hip is not going into internal rotation
the way that it should just because of the way
he's walking, I'm pretty sure that that guy is going
(17:27):
to sway in his back swing right. So gate can
really tell you a lot. Also, let's say, for example,
the position of their hands. So I'm standing and the
listener can do this. Also, if you're standing and you
look at yourself in the mirror, do the backs of
your hands face the mirror or do your thumbs face
the mirror. If the backs of your hands face the mirror,
(17:49):
that's a pretty good indication that you have what's called
a hyphotic thorastic spine, meaning rounded thorastic spine, rounded shoulders.
And that also tells me that you'll probably present with
a sea posture at address, and it's going to be
harder for you to get your shoulders to disassociate from
your hips. So all of these things can be the
(18:10):
the biomechanical information that I'm looking at in my brain
goes directly into what's happening in their golf swing. And
most of the time, not all the time, Hank, but
most of the time, I'm right. And when you when
you see these these golfers and you and you see
that they're presenting themselves a certain way. Um, where where
(18:35):
do you start with them? Most of the time, are
they surprised when you when you ask them your the
questions you ask them? Or do they kind of know
they have an issue? I mean, what are their thoughts?
Usually I think they're surprised at the depth of where
I where I go with them in in terms of
(18:57):
the biomechanics of their body. Right, So they they are
you know, I'm asking them questions about their foot function,
the position of their arch, do they have flat feet?
Can they dorsey flex their ankles? Right? Um? Um? And
and talking to them about areas of their body that
they would never have thought made a connection to maybe
(19:19):
another area that they believe they need to be working on.
And to me, that's the most fun about what I
get to do is I feel like I'm like a
body archaeologist. Right, So, I'm kind of like digging. There's
always somewhere deeper to go to uncover what's really happening.
And you know that because I've worked with you personally,
and you know, you and I worked a lot a
(19:41):
lot together. I think it does surprise people that where
they think it is, it isn't. Yeah. Good point. Good point.
When you when you watch on the golf on TV
and you're you're an avid golf watcher, uh, and you
see the pros on TV you're analyzing them, I'm sure
(20:02):
as well. What what are some of the observations you've
you've you've made, I mean, what what? Let's let's start
with Tiger. I mean, you just had knee surgery again,
did you did you see that something was was up there?
One of the things that I've noticed about Tiger for
years is his gate is how he walks is very interesting.
(20:24):
And I have a hypothesis which is that Tiger has
flat feet and and I don't know that, but I
look at people's shoes and I can see through their
shoes if they have flat feet. And I have noticed
that that Tiger's gate has um an excessive what's called
(20:44):
internal rotation of I believe it's the right the right
femur bone. And I believe the surgeries was on his
right knees. That correct. His last one was his left nee.
I think leftnee, okay. But what happens is and and
this is something that when I'm doing my assessments on
all of my golfers but also for all my Major
League Baseball players, one of the assessments we look for
(21:06):
is what's called hip internal rotation, excessive hip internal rotation
and and above a certain degree of that. It's actually
the research shows that it's a precursor for a low
back injury. So once again, here we go back to, Okay,
you have a low back problem, you go to see
(21:28):
somebody that's going to work on your low back problem.
If that person only looks at your low back and
doesn't look at everything that's happening below and above, I
think that you might want to seek out someone with
a different skill set. And it's you know, I've worked
with guys with knee pain, and all I do is
I work on their foot function and their hip function,
(21:50):
and it takes care of the knee pain. Um and
so it is something that I have noticed with Tiger
Um and I've actually talked to some people to him
about it. Um, no one's no one's asked me for
my opinion, So I believe it as is. But I
have a very strong opinion about his foot function and
how it's affecting his knees and is is you know,
(22:13):
I saw him at Madina at the playoff the BMW Championship.
I just saw him walking. I mean they had a
video when I was on Twitter. I don't know, you
may have seen the same thing. And I mean, you know,
he's in his shorts, he's getting ready to go play
the pro am. And now presumably, and I'm sure this
(22:33):
is the case, he's already done his his workout, which
which is something in the neighborhood of I don't know,
in an hour an hour and a half of whatever
he's doing to get ready to play. I'm sure there's
massage in there somewhere and stretching and who knows what else. Um,
But but he's already done that because because usually he'll
(22:54):
show up in his workout outfit and then he'll he'll
go do do whatever he's gonna do, and then he'll
know change into his golf clothes and that's that's the routine.
So they show him just walking across the parking lot
and I mean, oh, my goodness, I mean he could
barely walk. I mean interesting, you know, it's it looked
just looked awful. And I thought, man, he is not
(23:16):
doing good. And I mean I didn't suspect that it
was his knee. I don't, you know, I mean, but
but who who knows? I mean, is that something that
like you said, okay, so you work on uh other
you know areas like that you you talked about working
on your feet and your hips, and your knee gets better. Um,
(23:38):
so I assume it could be the same thing. You've
got a problem with your with your you know, foot
or your knee, and now all of a sudden or
a foot or your hip, and all of a sudden
your knee gets bad. Is that the case? Absolutely, Because
people do what's called compensatory movement patterns to compensate for
(23:58):
something that's maybe injured or not functioning as well as
it potentially should. So we see that. I see that
all the time. And you know, when somebody likes say,
for example, um has um an injury to an ankle,
let's say, and maybe they're in a cast or you know,
maybe they've had you know, uh, plantar fasciitis or whatever
(24:21):
it is. I my my response to them always is
be very mindful of your gait and of all the
different movement patterns that you're doing to compensate for this injury. Um.
The example that I just gave would be of an
extreme example, but it can be anything. You know, Oh
I listen. I you know, just got back from a
very very long trip and I was carrying a backpack
(24:43):
on my right side that was very heavy, and then
all of a sudden, my left hips started to hurt. Okay,
so here I am hanging this backpack. You think, what
does that have to do with your hip? But I
completely changed my gate to compensate for now this seventeen
pound seventeen pound backpack I have that I'm carrying on
one shoulder. So UM, I think we also to be
(25:04):
we also need to be mindful of how we move
throughout the day, even just something as simple as how
do you drive? You know, are both hands at ten
and two? Is your body? Even? Are you leaning to
one side all the time? Um? And because this really
ties back into golf, is that we're we need to
be mindful of creating as much symmetry as we can.
(25:26):
And golf is a very asymmetrical sport, as is as
is baseball, and you know, we're never going to be symmetrical.
It's impossible, you'll never be symmetrical, but we do want
to try to offset, you know, a constant a sport
that requires a lot of asymmetrical movements that are repetitive
and for some people can be that same movement pattern
(25:48):
for years. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's it's interesting because,
as you know, I've had back surgery I had last February,
and you know, my back had been bothered me. It
hadn't been great, but then I ruptured my planner fasciitis,
and that like threw me over the edge. That was
you know, when I was just walking around for you know,
(26:11):
a week where I was just like severely limping, and
the next thing, you know, my my whole back was
just like gone. After that. Absolutely, I think I might
have even sent you a text and and gave you
the advice that I just gave the listeners. Be mindful
of how you're walking. Yeah. Absolutely. One of the things
that definitely gets people motivated is is pain. I want
(26:35):
to talk about how we can motivate people to help
themselves get better with their fitness and their golf. When
when we come back to take a little short break
and hear from our sponsors, will be right back with
Katherine Roberts absolutely all right, So Katherine, I mean, obviously
(27:17):
Payne seems to be the biggest motivator. Is that is
that correct? I mean, that's when I know it is
for me. I mean, I'm That's when I call you
for sure. Is when you know when I'm desperate, Paine. Paine,
I would say, is a great motivator, and especially when
it starts to interfere with something that you love, like
(27:38):
playing golf. You know, I do see a lot. I'll
tell you this quick story. Um, I had a gentleman
that came to see me. He was actually an orthopedic
surgeon seventy one years old. Came to me wearing a
back brace and he said he actually flew down to
Scott's Tale from Denver and he said to me, you're
the last train on the stop. You're the last stop
on the train. Okay, okay, the last stop on the train.
(28:01):
He said, my partners want me to have back surgery.
And I really don't want to do it. And I said, okay,
well let's just take a look at your body and
it was pretty interesting. Let me to share this. He said, yeah,
I'm doing from physio therapy and he I said, what
are you working on? He said, well, I'm just working
on my core to strengthen my core. I said, well,
what does that mean? Okay, this guy's an orthopedic surgeon.
(28:23):
He said, I don't know, you know, just kind of
like strengthen my core. I said, okay, well let's let's
kind of take a step back. But good news was
that after doing about seven or eight sessions with me,
he was about eighty percent pain free. Um. And so
I just want to share that story because here you
have an orthopedic surgeon, right that maybe uh maybe it
(28:45):
was a little skeptical about if the work that I'm
doing can help him, and it did, and here he is.
It's seventy one years old and he's back playing golf
pain free. But pain is definitely a major motivator. And
I think also for for something about golfers that's I
think very unique. And you might disagree being a pickleball guy,
(29:08):
thank but I'm a golf pickleball guy. I'm like, I'm
like half golf, half pickle ball. I love them both. Yeah,
no doubt about you know, you got that right? All right, Well,
what's your what's your point is that golfers are extremely
passionate about their sport, but if they can't play the
(29:29):
way that they used to at a certain level, a
lot of them leave the game. That's a good point.
I don't I don't think there's any any doubt about that.
That's the you know, that's one of my points always.
When you know, I hear the U s J talking
about rolling the ball back or we're gonna you know,
the equipment or this and that, I mean, you cannot
go backwards. I mean people do not enjoy going backwards.
(29:52):
I mean, nobody wants to hit it shorter than they
ever did, you know. Um, and you're right, I mean
when you you feel like, all of a sudden, you
know you can't play like you used to, I mean
it's just if it just kind of goes gradually, I
mean you can sort of accept it because you just
kind of just keep accepting a little bit at a time.
(30:13):
But when it when when you have a drastic drop off,
and usually that's you know, in most cases it's something physical,
and when you have that drastic drop off, I mean it.
I think it does push a lot of people out
of the game. It does push them out of the game.
And I think that's something that's unique to golf. I
don't think. I don't think someone in pickleball that was
(30:33):
you know, maybe not being able to play at the
same level they can. They still have a lot of
enjoyment from playing the game. And I think, I just
this is just what I found. I'd love to hear
your perspective. You know, when people can't play the way
they used to, they seem to just give it up.
And and you know, I've seen I've seen guys that
were that had back pain that you know, maybe somebody
(30:56):
told them, you know, you just have to give up golf.
They go into a fairly deep depression because it affects
them psychologically. They're not part of the community of their
friends playing every day, talking about how the round was
at dinner. There's a social impact, there's a psychological impact
from taking away something that they love. And what I'm
here to do is help people not just stay in
(31:18):
the game, but continue to do something that they love,
which is play golf. You know that that's a good
point you brought up, because I hear that a lot
a lot of people will say, Oh, I've got a
bad back. I I can't play golf, or you know,
I need to give up golf, or I need and
I And I'm thinking to myself, why wouldn't you like
try to work on something to help get your back better.
(31:40):
Why wouldn't you think about your swing and your technique.
Let's see if there's something that you're doing that's, you know,
hurting your back or putting it in jeopardy, or you know,
what about finding a swing that was easier on your back.
But people like just immediately default too, I just can't
play golf anymore. Yeah, And you know this is why
one of my rally cries Hank is always Adherence over
(32:03):
duration is one of my favorite terms, which is, let's
look at what is um an obtainable amount of time
that you have four or five days a week to
focus on your body, And even if it's just fifteen minutes,
I will guarantee that if you put you know, fifteen
(32:25):
twenty minutes five days a week into working on your
body and doing some yoga for golfers work, you will
see a difference regardless of your age or your physical condition.
And I've seen it, Hank for twenty years. It's absolutely
better to take fifteen to twenty minutes, five days a
week than to go out on a Sunday and decide
(32:45):
you're gonna do some major workout, you know, just for
one day. And I've I've had clients that have come
to me that that had virtual no mobility and their
spine when I asked them to move their spine into
like a cat cow because Asian, which is a position
that most people understand, right, You're on your hands and
knees to move their spine, and their spine would not move.
(33:06):
And fifteen to twenty minutes a day, five days a week,
and three months my client who's sixty seven years old
was back playing golf. So you know, it's never too late,
and you have to set yourself up for success. I mean,
this is why on my programs are never longer than
like thirty or forty minutes. Yeah, I think that's one
of the biggest things that that I noticed that makes
(33:30):
your program great is that you're not asking people to do,
you know, an hour and a half a day, and
you know some of these these programs that people are on,
I'm like, there's no way the average guy is going
to do that. I mean, they're just i mean, unless
unless they're so made motivated because they can't get out
of bed. Uh, you know, they might, they might do it,
but but once they can get out of bed, they're
(33:52):
not gonna they're not going to stick to it. I mean,
it's just no one's going to do something that takes
that long to do. I mean, some guys do, the
athletes do. Guys on the tour does I'm sure you know,
Dustin Johnson and Brooks, Captain Tiger Was. I mean, they
do it, but you know that it's also their job exactly.
You know, regular people have other jobs that they have
(34:12):
to do, and uh, fifteen minutes a day seems you know,
like most people can definitely do that. Absolutely. And you know,
we created something on our website which is called the
Golfers Profile. And and when you go to Yoga for
Golfers dot com, if you go to the upper right
hand corner, Uh, there's a thing that says y f
(34:34):
G Golfers Profile. If you click that on, you'll get
a survey that will ask you about ten questions about
what your goals are, your challenges on the golf course
or strengths on the golf course, and then based on that,
you'll receive like five video tips that you can do
that are designed just for your objective. And the reason
why I bring that up is because I created that program.
(34:57):
And by the way, that is all free, complimentary. I
created that program because I wanted to give people an
opportunity to start somewhere right good, good point, Just start somewhere.
It can get overwhelming when you you know, when you're
thinking what should I need to do? Should I be
weight training? Should I be doing this? You know, what
do I need to do? Just start somewhere. And that's
(35:19):
why we started the Golfer's Profile. And you've had thousands
of people and I know we we've we've had a
lot of people that have listened to you and I
before and that have gone on and taking your golfers
Profile and and I've done it, and I mean they
and they, you know, answer some simple questions and then
you know it does get them get them going a
little bit, get some get some motivated. Then people start
(35:42):
seeing some results and then they, you know, take it
to the next next step. Don't think they do. And
again it's designed because people aren't sure where do I start. Well,
if you go to the golfers profile and you click
on let's say, for example, that you want, you know,
more hit turn, or you want more shoulder turn, or
(36:02):
you want better posture, or you need to create more distance,
you know, there's twenty six possible combinations of answers that
can happen in that golfer's profile. So it is very
personalized to what you're looking to do. And um, it's
it has been probably one of the one of the
greatest ways that we've been able to enable people to
(36:22):
get started. Yeah. I think it's one of the things
with golf too. I mean, golf is not beginner friendly.
It's it's intimidating, I think, you know, I mean people think,
you know, it's just so hard to start. What do
I do? Where do I go? Uh? You know, what
what do I do when I get there? Uh? You know,
that's intimidating. I think exercises is the same way. I
(36:46):
mean a lot of people, you know, have a hard
time getting started with exercise because you know, they see
people that are like at a level that's way past them.
I mean, I mean I feel the same way sometimes
when I walk by a a gym or a workout
studio and I see these people in there, and I'm like,
oh my god. I mean, I mean, they really, you know,
(37:07):
clearly know what they're doing and and and I don't
know what I'm doing. And I mean, it definitely keeps
people from getting started, don't you think it does? And
the main reason why I started yoga for golfers, I
wanted to bring the benefits of this methodology to people
who would never walk into a yoga studio. Hank our.
(37:29):
Our classes are not held in yoga studios. They are
held at golf courses. Um all of the classes are
either like at the back of the range or you know,
somewhere on a on a practice tea somewhere typically outside
or maybe in like a ballroom or a dining room
or something. But it's in an environment that golfers are
(37:50):
used to being in. And and again, also because the
methodology is all presented in the context of the why
around golf, that a golf immediately understand, Oh, I know
why I need to be doing this bridge pose, you know,
if I'm laying on my back and my knees are
bent and I bridge my hips up, because I'm making
(38:10):
the correlation that when you're in your finished position and
you need your body upright with your hips and chest
either facing the target or past the target, you need
to have hip extension, which is why we're doing a
bridge pose versus oh, just lift your hips up. This
is really good for your swing. Yeah. Yeah, Well, I
mean if we could just get people to start and
(38:31):
hopefully that they're going to go to your website Yoga
for Golfers and take the free profile and you know,
get a little little start going. There's some other things
that they can do to I want. I want to
I want to get into some of that when when
we come back, we'll take a little break here from
our sponsors. Will be right back with Katherine Roberts. All right, Katherine, uh,
(39:31):
A lot of the great tips you have on your
site to get people started to Yoga for Golfers. You
also have have more and deeper lessons tips things they
can do on there as as well. Um, but you
also do online online coaching too. Let's talk talk about
(39:52):
that a little bit. Some of the results you've had
with with people that have participated in that. Yeah, it's
it's really quite a brilliant way to you to train
the athlete because we do it over FaceTime and I
can see everything that's happening. So what does somebody do
just like set up their camera and then like you
like to see people walk? I know that, So what
(40:14):
do they set up their camera and just video on
themselves walking? I'm watching them. It's live, okay, So it's
a live FaceTime just like you would, you know, FaceTime
your kids, right, So it's a live FaceTime session. And
what I do is I take them through a full assessment,
same assessment I do for all my athletes, even it's
(40:34):
the same assessment I do for my guys in Major
League Baseball as well as golf UM and that assessment
includes a gate assessment, a postural assessment, and I move
the athlete through UM through six upright movement patterns, so
it moves their body in all three planes of motion upright,
so I can establish where there are mobility and stability concerns.
(40:58):
Then what I do is I ask them that I
want to see driver seven iron and putter face on
and down the line. They'll just send me a video
of that. What when? What are you? What are you
looking for? When? When with their with their golf swing.
I'm looking for efficiency and movement. I'm looking for where
there could potentially be a collapse or instability in their
(41:22):
movement pattern. I'm looking at their uh, their shoulder to
hit relationship. What's a sign of some of that instable
like the collapse in So here's a good example. So
let's say we'll talk about We'll just say like a
seven iron or something. Right. So, so if I'm looking
at a golfer and when they start to get towards
(41:44):
the top of the back swing, their left knee collapses inward,
not forward, but inward significantly, that's going to tell me
that there's an issue with their left hit mobility, Okay,
or it could potentially be an issue with left ankle.
So I need to see their golf swing so I
can understand what I'm looking at strictly from a movement standpoint, Hank,
(42:07):
I don't look at path or or ball flight or
any of that. That's your job. Can you do that?
I don't do any of that, But I am looking
at their movement and the reason I want to see
driver and seven iron obviously is because the length of
the club is so different, it's going to provide me
with more information. I also look at their putting stroke
because it's going to tell me a lot about their posture,
(42:28):
their ability to hip hinge, keep their lower body stable.
There's a lot of physicality in putting. There really is
one people don't practice. Putting hurts their backs, That's definitely true.
People are very handy with their hands sometimes do with
the fact that they're they're thoractic spine is not rotating efficiently.
And that's what I'm looking for when I'm looking at
(42:49):
their their putting stroke. I'm not looking at path anyway.
So I do a gave estimate, a postural assessment, a
triplane movement pattern assessment it and then I look at
their swing. What's a what's a triplane movement assessment? What's
that mean? Okay, So the body moves in three planes
of motion. The first plane of motion is what's called
(43:11):
the sagittal plane of motion, meaning any time I'm going
into flection or extension. So if you think about a
dress position, my ankle is inflection, my knees or inflection.
I'm hinged forward right, So I'm I'm in this sagittal
plane of motion at address. Then what typically happens is
that a lot of golfers will kind of tilt the
(43:32):
right shoulder right, so there's a little bit of lateral flection.
And any time there's lateral flection or what's called abduction
your arm or leg is moving away from your body,
or adduction where your arm or leg is moving towards
your body. That's all a frontal plane of motion. Anytime
there's any type of rotation, that's the transverse plane of motion.
(43:57):
In the golf swing, your body moves in all those
three planes of motion simultaneously in under two seconds from
a step from a static physician, Hank trying to create
explosive power. And then we wonder why sixty golfers have
low back paint. Okay, So so on this FaceTime session,
(44:18):
what I do is I do these I do all
of these assessments. I'll take the person through a workout
where I will then and the workout, Hank is probably
seven to eight movement patterns. That's it. It's not it's
not a big two hour workout session. I then record
that session and I put it up onto my app
that I use which is an app called coach Now,
(44:40):
and I put it up onto that app and then
they can do those exercises, you know, four to five
days a week. Again, it's probably seven to eight exercises
four to five days a week. And then we come
back in about two and a half weeks and we
reassess and we find out where they are and we
look at their swing again and see if anything has
them up that we need to address, and then we
(45:01):
start to you know, kind of delete some exercises that
maybe aren't applicable anymore and layer in something that might
be a little bit more challenging. And that's how the
FaceTime session works. And you know it's great, Hank, because
I I have clients all over the world that I've
been training for years I've never met in person. Yeah,
I mean like Scotland, Dubai, South Africa, New Jersey. Yeah,
(45:27):
it seems easier than to do that with God. Like
people have tried it with gold, but they haven't really
been very successful with it. It's it's it's much more
difficult to do. I think it's easier to do with
what you're doing. That's a big advantage to the training
that you do with people. It's been tremendous and as
you know, you know, compliance, especially in in my world,
(45:47):
compliance is a very difficult thing because people get distracted
then all of a sudden it's not that important. Or
but to your point earlier, when people start to be
out of pain and they're playing better and they're enjoying
their life more both on and off the course, it's
it's a great motivator. Yeah, there's not no doubt about that.
(46:08):
When you when you watch people and you have people
do the FaceTime and they did. Is there a list
of kind of top two or three things that you
typically see or that you you think you might see. Typically,
I see a lot of hip issues with hip mobility
(46:30):
and glute strength. Now that more guys or girls are
both my clients are mail, Okay, yeah, um, I don't
really have that many female clients there. It's about Mail
and UM I do see that pretty consistently are issues
with tight hips. Because they have tight hips, they typically
(46:54):
have weak glutes. So there's something called lower cross syndrome
which is which basically means, well, what I'm describing is
like what's happening in the in the front with the
tight hip is creating a weak, weak glute pattern. And
the glutes are a very important part of a golf
especially for generating power. So um. And the other thing
(47:15):
that I see a lot is I see issues with posture.
Is I see the rounded shoulders in a forward head
position because heink, let's face it, we're somewhat said. I mean,
you're not sedentary. I'm not sedentary, but a lot of
the world leads a very sedentary lifestyle. And let's say
I've got I've got a guy that's working sixty hours
(47:38):
a week as an attorney, sitting at a desk and traveling,
and then on a on the weekend, he can't understand
why his hips don't turn and he can't generate power
and he can't turn his shoulders. So um, it's I
would say that those are really kind of the top issues.
Are are hips, uh, the thoracic spine posture or the
(48:00):
other thing is a lack of proper foot function is
something I see a lot as well. And I mean,
how how do you correct that? How do you the
foot function issue? How do you correct that? Um? I
have them work on their ankle mobility. Both dorsey flection,
which is when you're if you're sitting, you're pulling your
toes towards you, when your heel away from you. Plant
(48:22):
our flection is pointing your toes away from you. I
have them do things like, um, like if they're standing,
to have a sense that they're kind of lifting their
arches up as if they were puffing up a helium
balloon underneath their arch. I have them roll onto their
toes to lift their heels really high and roll back
(48:43):
and pull their toes towards them. Um. It's what's pretty
remarkable is I've actually had It's funny. I had a
physical therapist say to me, it is physically impossible to
change the shape of someone's foot in terms of creating
an arch or being able to spread their toes or
(49:06):
create more ankle dorsey flection or plant our flection. And
I can tell you that that has not been my experience.
My experience even in my own body, is that I've
been able to change my foot function and make it
much much better. And you know, people, some people they
want to do it with their authotics, and that's fine,
it's but I think that it is very beneficial to
(49:29):
people to take themselves out of their shoes and work
their foot function. They don't ever work their feet, they
don't think about it, but it's a direct correlation to
um to your balance, is your foot function? Yeah yeah, yeah, well,
I mean it's definitely you see a difference. I see
a difference. You've seen a lot of difference with the
(49:50):
people that you've you've worked with. It's just getting people
started that I think that's that's the main thing in it.
That's why you're always preaching that I am, I am,
I am, because you know what, it's so rewarding when
you can see somebody's body change. And when you you
and I have talked about this, you know, my my
(50:12):
ultimate goal is to help people. That's what I'm all
about is helping people. And I get emails every day
and I always call people Backhank and we have a
conversation and they get excited about you don't changing their body.
And when someone says to me, oh, it's too late
for me, yeah, I said, that's just a lie. You're
telling yourself. Don't believe your own lies. What do they
(50:34):
say when you say that? They say, I'm probably right, Yeah,
you are probably right. You hear that. I you know,
I always heard that with teaching too. It's like people
come say, I, you know, I'm too old to change,
or you know, I'm I'm never going to get any better,
and it's it's it's like, I don't know. Sometimes people
just don't want to, you know, they don't want to
(50:54):
accept the responsibility, or they don't wanna have to even
face the possibility that they could have to accept failure.
I mean they'd rather just you know, dismiss it and
not even try. I mean, don't don't you think that's
the case. I do think it's the case. I mean,
it's easy, it's easier not to try. And unfortunately, we're
kind of in a society where it's like if I
(51:16):
can just take a pill and make it better, why
do I have to work at it? Yeah? Good point,
good point. But it's uh, you know, it's very very rewarding.
And it's it's again, it's you know, I have another
client in Scottsdale. He's seventy seven years old, and his
favorite thing is to show me how great his balance
is now, how he can how he can balance on
(51:36):
one leg and do all of this dynamic stability work
on one leg, and how he can spread his toes
wide and how he plays without pain. Yeah. Well, I mean,
I'll tell you what, when you talk about motivation, you're
one of the most motivated people I know. And there
isn't anybody that enjoys helping people more than you do.
So it's always good to talk to Catherine, and I
(51:58):
appreciate you joining me on the Anny podcast today. It's
always great being with you, Hank always. Thank you so much.
Hopefully everybody's going to go to your website Yoga Ford
Offers and sign up for the assessment, get some get
some tips for you, and we'll and and and then
we'll have people call in and you send us their
(52:18):
questions and they can just send them to me on Twitter,
they can send them to our website and we'll you
will get everybody's question lined up and we'll have you
on again and we'll answer some of those questions. All right.
That sounds great. Thanks so much, Hanky, Thanks Catherine. Thanks
for tuning into the hank Any Podcast. Listen, follow, rate,
and share on iTunes, on the I Heart Radio app
(52:41):
or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can make
your thoughts and questions heard by emailing the show at
Hankany goff at outlook dot com, and you can also
tweet me directly by sending your tweets to at Hankiney
on Twitter. Unt i Gotta bo I Gotta said. The
(53:34):
hankany podcast is a production of I Heeart Radio. For
more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart
Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your
favorite shows.
Welcome to the hank Any Podcast, a production of I
Heart Radio. My guest today is one of the foremost
experts in the world of human performance in sports. She
is a top fifty Golf Digest, fitness professional and the
founder and president of Yoga for Golfers and Human Performance
for Sports. Kathy Roberts joins us next on the hank
(00:20):
Any Podcast. Shot shot Okay, all right, Great to have
(00:49):
my friend Katherine Roberts with us here on the Hank
Any Podcast. Catherine is obviously one of the greatest golf
and fitness trainers there are, and of course I'm very
bias Catherine, but but I love talking talking with you,
learning about the body and how to perform better because
(01:09):
that that is your expertise. And thanks for joining me
this morning on hank Any Podcasts. So thrilled to be
on with you, Hank. Super exciting and you know, you
and I go back a long way, and it's great
that we are having this conversation and a new format.
You've You've been on with me many times before when
(01:30):
I've done my radio show, and always a great guest.
A lot of a lot of questions that that people ask. UH.
Podcasts are a little different. I know you're a fan
of podcasts. I'm a huge fan of podcast I've listened
to them almost daily, and you know, it's really interesting
how the format of conversation has changed so much. Um.
(01:51):
The main reason I love podcasts is because I feel
like I can experience a much deeper conversation to learn
earning in greater depths from the various guests. Uh, you know,
because of what I do. I'm very interested in strength
and conditioning podcast peak performance podcasts, you know, and and
(02:11):
to be able, like I said, to to be part
of a deeper conversation, I think is brilliant to podcast
delivers over other other formats. And you are obviously so
involved and helping people get better. It's the thing that
that I know you well. So it's the thing that
that pushes you, that motivates you. You love doing your
(02:33):
Your website, Yoga for Golfers, is absolutely fantastic. I mean,
you're really a pioneer in this area and you have
been for for many years. UM, talk about your website
a little bit. How you got how did you get
into well, I mean I've been into yoga forever, but
but how did you specifically decide that golf was going
to be. You know, your your main focus. I know
(02:54):
you're doing other things now with with baseball teams, and
my my favorite team, the Cubs, is one of your teams.
But but how did God become the area that you
wanted to focus on? So the way that I got
involved with creating yoga for golfers started with me being
a golfer. By the way, I've been playing golf my
whole life. My parents play. Um, it's very much a
(03:17):
fabric of how we were raised as playing golf as
a family. But I live in Scottsdale, Arizona, and I
was playing golf with a woman up at Desert Mountain.
I was playing as a single. My handicap was about
a twenty eight hank and she was a five and
and I immediately thought, Okay, whatever she's doing, I need
(03:38):
to be doing that now. Let me also explain that
I've always been involved with fitness. I was a group
fitness instructor, you know, basically since I was sixteen years old.
Well turned out this this woman who was a five
handicap was a yoga instructor, and that's when I took
my first yoga class. Okay, well, I was. First of all,
(03:59):
I was immediately smitten with the practice of yoga, to
the point that I quit my corporate job to teach
yoga full time. But on the golf perspective, my handicap
went from about to a sixteen very rapidly. So I
was already sold on the benefits of yoga for the
for golf because I had that experience. So so let
me let me, let me interrview. Okay, so when you
(04:20):
started taking yoga and you first started and you're you're,
you know, a golf for your twenty handicap? What what
what do you think change that got you to a
sixteen so fast? I mean, what were you? You know?
I mean the first thing that would come to mind
is that you weren't weren't flexible. But is that the
case or is there more to it than that? There's
(04:42):
more to it than that. Actually, Hank, I was one
of those people that was that is was hyper flexible,
hyper mobile. So what I was doing was I was
actually overswinging, and then my timing was not good and
it was more difficult for me because I was overswinging
to get the club back to a ball. And what
it actually did for me was it got me stronger
(05:05):
so that I was able to generate more power, so
I was able to increase my distance. My balance was
definitely better. But two of the main things I would say.
One is that I used to get very tired around
the twelve or thirteen pole, not just physically, but mentally.
I would start to check out. And and what I
(05:25):
found with that practice of yoga is that I had
more endurance because I was stronger, but mentally I was
much stronger because I learned how to stay focused. And
that's what yoga. That's what yoga taught me. But what
happened was because I was teaching yoga in Scottsdale, and
I was teaching it all of these facilities in North
Scottsdale where everyone's playing golf, and I was teaching quote
(05:47):
unquote traditional yoga. My classes were getting filled up with
men over the age of fifty who were mostly retired
and all playing golf almost every day coming back to
me and saying, you know what it I was losing
distance before I started taking this class. Now not only
is my distance back, but it's better. Um, I don't
have back pain anymore, you know, I I don't get
(06:11):
fatigued through the round. I don't have to prepare for
the round by taking you know, advil four days before
they play, and their focus is better. And in I
had this aha moment of I'm going to create a
program called yoga for golfers, and you did, and I did,
and now we have. Now we have certified instructors in
(06:32):
forty countries and we're bringing these this methodology of how
to train for golf through the context of yoga for
the not just the body, but also the mind. You know.
It's it's interesting because I mean, obviously, the first thing
that comes to mind, and of course the first thing
I brought up is is that a lot of people
(06:54):
who play go off. I mean they lack flexibility. Of course, everybody,
everybody wants more distance. So I'm always talking about how
the most important factor in the game of golf in
determining a player's potential is their ability to hit the
ball a long way. Their distance there and the speed
that they can create gives you potential. The more club
at speed, the more potential you have. I mean, it
(07:15):
doesn't guarantee you success, but I mean I always use
the analogy. I mean, if you if you hit the
ball a hundred fifty yards, you can play a nice
game of golf, but you're never going to be a
scratch player. If you hit it two h fifty yards,
you can be a low handicapped player, but you're never
playing the PGA Tour. So distance determines your potential. So
that's that's always the first thing that comes to my
mind when I see some way that lacks flexibility, lacks distance.
(07:40):
But who's interesting? I mean you use yoga to help
you with your your your focus and and people you
work with with their focus, um their strength and and
and actually in your case, I mean shortening your swing.
So it's interesting, Yeah, it's it's interesting. People they equate
yoga with this simple fact of getting them more flexible.
(08:02):
And absolutely the practice of yoga will increase your flexibility
and your mobility. But this program will make you exponentially
stronger because what you're doing is you're using the force
of gravity two and your body weight against that force
of gravity to generate strength. So again, because a lot
(08:24):
of my golfers are typically over fifty, primarily male. Um,
I'll make a broad stroke generalization here, Hank. Most men
are inflexible and most women are unstable. And by that
I mean that mostly men can can use more mobility
and women can use more strength. But but to for
(08:47):
people to just equate this practice with just mobility, UM,
would tell me that they don't really have the experience
of it. Because when you look at somebody that does
yoga typically, um, they are they're quite strong. Um. And
so my golfers, what I've been able to do is
also teach them how to use the ground and how
(09:07):
to generate more power from their lower body. Um. Again,
everything that we do is in the context of the
biomechanics of the golf swing and what I have found
in the twenty years of doing this people need to
do so that they can play better golf, but also
hank it also, um, it also impacts their life off
(09:28):
the course in a very meaningful way. And that's important
point to make as well. Right. So, so, I mean
everybody's different. Everybody you know needs needs something maybe that's
different than than someone else. But uh, in general, I mean,
you see a lot of players on the PGA Tour
that and I don't know how much time they're spending,
(09:48):
you know, with yoga or stretching or whatever, but they
there seems to be a trend towards a lot of weightlifting,
and I mean, how should or how would somebody divide
their time? I mean, you know, how much strengthening can
you get from yoga versus having to supplement it with
(10:09):
weight training? I mean, does it all depend on the person?
Give me some some general thoughts, sir well, I think
it does depend on the person, and I think it
depends on their goals. You know, whenever I'm working with
an athlete, the first thing I say is what are
your goals? What are the top three to five goals
that you have? Because everyone is different. I do want
to touch on the concept of the weight training though,
(10:29):
for for golf, because I get to get asked this
question a lot. Is weight training bad for golf? And
I think weight training is great for golf. It depends
on how you're implementing your program, what kind of weight
training are you doing, and most importantly, Hank, is it
balanced out with a good mobility program? And also, um,
(10:51):
when you're doing weight training, you need to make sure
that you're moving the body and the joint in the
full range of motions. So it's not necessarily that weight
training is bad at or yoga is bad or or
pilates is good, or whatever it is. I think it's
all good when it's designed to help the golfer play
better golf and it's designed for that specific body. But
(11:12):
my clients are not going to be doing po metrics
box jumps like you see you know Brooks kept you doing,
or or Dustin Johnson or Rory or any of those guys.
Those aren't the people that I'm helping. I'm helping people
who are generally UM have consistent low back pain. They
have very tight hips, they have um a sea posture,
(11:34):
you know, they have rounded shoulders, it's difficult for them
to turn. They might have poor foot functions. So I'm
helping them with that. But um, you know. And in
terms of dividing the time, UM, I my personal belief
is that if you only have fifteen minutes a day,
you need to be doing yographer, golfers or some type
of more mobility program that will that I believe, from
(11:59):
what I've seen from all these years, can bring you
tremendous benefit. If you just had only fifteen minutes, you
would just you would just do that program I would
do if I only had fifteen minutes, I would do
this program, and I would work on the mobility piece
of it, but I would also work on the strength piece.
All right, let me ask you this. When you said that, Uh,
(12:19):
you know, you ask people what their three goals, you know,
might be. What what kind of answers do you get
when you ask that question. One of the top answers
I get is I want to I want to get
my distance back or I want to gain distance. Always
a big, always a big Maybe Number one, right, I
would say A close second to number one is they
(12:42):
don't want to have any more pain. They want to
be out of pain. And I think the third thing
would probably be yes, just the the increase in in flexibility,
you know, is a big yeah. Just movement, being able
to move. You know. I have a degree in chain
(13:02):
reaction biomechanics, so the way that I look at the
body is very different from kind of a traditional yoga instructor.
And also because I've been working in sports for so
many years, I'm always looking at what is the bibe?
What how is the body moving? As it relates to biomechanics,
and then we say, okay, what are the objectives? How
(13:22):
and what is a realistic amount of time? That people
have and then based on that and talking to their
swing coach and looking at their video of their golf swing,
then I'll determine also by doing an assessment, then I'll
determine what the training protocol is. So, so, how how
would you look at something different than you used to
look at it when you were just a yoga instructor?
(13:44):
What I mean, what are the what are the differences there?
I think one of the big differences is that I
look at the body is a chain reaction. So instead
of looking at someone and saying, well, you know, their
hips aren't really internally and externally rotating, Well, what I'm
looking at is what everything everything that's happening below the
hips and everything that's happening above the hips. Because from
(14:06):
a chain reaction, by a mechanic standpoint, what's happening below
is affecting above, and what's happening above is affecting below.
And let me just give you a good example of that.
I believe the recent number was sixty three percent of
golfers will experience low back pain. And I've literally been
stopped in the airport hank by somebody, by people that
(14:27):
recognize me, and they asked me, Hey, what do you
have from my low back exactly? Well, voodoo pain Voodoo
pain relief cream, for sure, because it's always in my
bag anyway. But but what I'll say to them is,
very often when someone comes to me with low back pain,
I look at their hip function and I look at
their thorastic spines function, and if we can kind of
(14:50):
treat those two areas, very often it will help with
with back pain. So I think the biggest difference is
how I assess the body and look at body and
look at movement, and yeah, it's it's quite fascinating. So
when I walk on a driving range or even just
you know, I mean literally driving by a golf course,
(15:11):
if I see somebody swinging, immediately I'm looking at him,
not thinking all that guy was inside or he was
outside going back, or he you know, I was coming
over the top, or you know, he had the club
halfway back, or his club face was wide open. I mean,
all these these thoughts are popping into my mind as
soon as I see somebody swing. When when you see somebody,
(15:35):
where does your assessment start? I mean just the way
they walk, uh, what they look like on the range?
What are you looking at? First and foremost thing. I
look at his gate and you mentioned that the way
they walk. Um, I am always assessing gate. Gate can
tell you so much about what's happening in a person's body.
(15:58):
And because I've been doing this so long, Hank, I
can look at someone walking down the fairway and have
a pretty good idea about what might be potentially happening
in their golf swing. And let me let me. Let
me also just back up and say, I don't teach golf.
I I won't. Guys that I work with they'll ask
(16:18):
me questions about their swing, and I say, this is
not my job. You talked to you talked to hey
Katie about that. That's not my job, right, So I'm
not looking at anything that you're looking at. But for example,
let's just talk about gate for a second. For example,
when when someone walks, there should be an efficient Shain
(16:40):
reaction that happens. As their example, if their right foot
is hitting the ground first, their heel hits the ground forward.
There should be a specific internal rotation of the hip
and then the back legs it propels forward, and that
that Shane reaction goes up from the heel through the
eamer the thigh bone, the hip, the thorastic spine, the shoulders,
(17:05):
the hands should actually move and swing freely right there.
That the heads should be right over the chest, not
with the forward head position. So if I'm looking at
a golfer and he's walking towards me, and I noticed
that his right hip is not going into internal rotation
the way that it should just because of the way
he's walking, I'm pretty sure that that guy is going
(17:27):
to sway in his back swing right. So gate can
really tell you a lot. Also, let's say, for example,
the position of their hands. So I'm standing and the
listener can do this. Also, if you're standing and you
look at yourself in the mirror, do the backs of
your hands face the mirror or do your thumbs face
the mirror. If the backs of your hands face the mirror,
(17:49):
that's a pretty good indication that you have what's called
a hyphotic thorastic spine, meaning rounded thorastic spine, rounded shoulders.
And that also tells me that you'll probably present with
a sea posture at address, and it's going to be
harder for you to get your shoulders to disassociate from
your hips. So all of these things can be the
(18:10):
the biomechanical information that I'm looking at in my brain
goes directly into what's happening in their golf swing. And
most of the time, not all the time, Hank, but
most of the time, I'm right. And when you when
you see these these golfers and you and you see
that they're presenting themselves a certain way. Um, where where
(18:35):
do you start with them? Most of the time, are
they surprised when you when you ask them your the
questions you ask them? Or do they kind of know
they have an issue? I mean, what are their thoughts?
Usually I think they're surprised at the depth of where
I where I go with them in in terms of
(18:57):
the biomechanics of their body. Right, So they they are
you know, I'm asking them questions about their foot function,
the position of their arch, do they have flat feet?
Can they dorsey flex their ankles? Right? Um? Um? And
and talking to them about areas of their body that
they would never have thought made a connection to maybe
(19:19):
another area that they believe they need to be working on.
And to me, that's the most fun about what I
get to do is I feel like I'm like a
body archaeologist. Right, So, I'm kind of like digging. There's
always somewhere deeper to go to uncover what's really happening.
And you know that because I've worked with you personally,
and you know, you and I worked a lot a
(19:41):
lot together. I think it does surprise people that where
they think it is, it isn't. Yeah. Good point. Good point.
When you when you watch on the golf on TV
and you're you're an avid golf watcher, uh, and you
see the pros on TV you're analyzing them, I'm sure
(20:02):
as well. What what are some of the observations you've
you've you've made, I mean, what what? Let's let's start
with Tiger. I mean, you just had knee surgery again,
did you did you see that something was was up there?
One of the things that I've noticed about Tiger for
years is his gate is how he walks is very interesting.
(20:24):
And I have a hypothesis which is that Tiger has
flat feet and and I don't know that, but I
look at people's shoes and I can see through their
shoes if they have flat feet. And I have noticed
that that Tiger's gate has um an excessive what's called
(20:44):
internal rotation of I believe it's the right the right
femur bone. And I believe the surgeries was on his
right knees. That correct. His last one was his left nee.
I think leftnee, okay. But what happens is and and
this is something that when I'm doing my assessments on
all of my golfers but also for all my Major
League Baseball players, one of the assessments we look for
(21:06):
is what's called hip internal rotation, excessive hip internal rotation
and and above a certain degree of that. It's actually
the research shows that it's a precursor for a low
back injury. So once again, here we go back to, Okay,
you have a low back problem, you go to see
(21:28):
somebody that's going to work on your low back problem.
If that person only looks at your low back and
doesn't look at everything that's happening below and above, I
think that you might want to seek out someone with
a different skill set. And it's you know, I've worked
with guys with knee pain, and all I do is
I work on their foot function and their hip function,
(21:50):
and it takes care of the knee pain. Um and
so it is something that I have noticed with Tiger
Um and I've actually talked to some people to him
about it. Um, no one's no one's asked me for
my opinion, So I believe it as is. But I
have a very strong opinion about his foot function and
how it's affecting his knees and is is you know,
(22:13):
I saw him at Madina at the playoff the BMW Championship.
I just saw him walking. I mean they had a
video when I was on Twitter. I don't know, you
may have seen the same thing. And I mean, you know,
he's in his shorts, he's getting ready to go play
the pro am. And now presumably, and I'm sure this
(22:33):
is the case, he's already done his his workout, which
which is something in the neighborhood of I don't know,
in an hour an hour and a half of whatever
he's doing to get ready to play. I'm sure there's
massage in there somewhere and stretching and who knows what else. Um,
But but he's already done that because because usually he'll
(22:54):
show up in his workout outfit and then he'll he'll
go do do whatever he's gonna do, and then he'll
know change into his golf clothes and that's that's the routine.
So they show him just walking across the parking lot
and I mean, oh, my goodness, I mean he could
barely walk. I mean interesting, you know, it's it looked
just looked awful. And I thought, man, he is not
(23:16):
doing good. And I mean I didn't suspect that it
was his knee. I don't, you know, I mean, but
but who who knows? I mean, is that something that
like you said, okay, so you work on uh other
you know areas like that you you talked about working
on your feet and your hips, and your knee gets better. Um,
(23:38):
so I assume it could be the same thing. You've
got a problem with your with your you know, foot
or your knee, and now all of a sudden or
a foot or your hip, and all of a sudden
your knee gets bad. Is that the case? Absolutely, Because
people do what's called compensatory movement patterns to compensate for
(23:58):
something that's maybe injured or not functioning as well as
it potentially should. So we see that. I see that
all the time. And you know, when somebody likes say,
for example, um has um an injury to an ankle,
let's say, and maybe they're in a cast or you know,
maybe they've had you know, uh, plantar fasciitis or whatever
(24:21):
it is. I my my response to them always is
be very mindful of your gait and of all the
different movement patterns that you're doing to compensate for this injury. Um.
The example that I just gave would be of an
extreme example, but it can be anything. You know, Oh
I listen. I you know, just got back from a
very very long trip and I was carrying a backpack
(24:43):
on my right side that was very heavy, and then
all of a sudden, my left hips started to hurt. Okay,
so here I am hanging this backpack. You think, what
does that have to do with your hip? But I
completely changed my gate to compensate for now this seventeen
pound seventeen pound backpack I have that I'm carrying on
one shoulder. So UM, I think we also to be
(25:04):
we also need to be mindful of how we move
throughout the day, even just something as simple as how
do you drive? You know, are both hands at ten
and two? Is your body? Even? Are you leaning to
one side all the time? Um? And because this really
ties back into golf, is that we're we need to
be mindful of creating as much symmetry as we can.
(25:26):
And golf is a very asymmetrical sport, as is as
is baseball, and you know, we're never going to be symmetrical.
It's impossible, you'll never be symmetrical, but we do want
to try to offset, you know, a constant a sport
that requires a lot of asymmetrical movements that are repetitive
and for some people can be that same movement pattern
(25:48):
for years. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it's it's interesting because,
as you know, I've had back surgery I had last February,
and you know, my back had been bothered me. It
hadn't been great, but then I ruptured my planner fasciitis,
and that like threw me over the edge. That was
you know, when I was just walking around for you know,
(26:11):
a week where I was just like severely limping, and
the next thing, you know, my my whole back was
just like gone. After that. Absolutely, I think I might
have even sent you a text and and gave you
the advice that I just gave the listeners. Be mindful
of how you're walking. Yeah. Absolutely. One of the things
that definitely gets people motivated is is pain. I want
(26:35):
to talk about how we can motivate people to help
themselves get better with their fitness and their golf. When
when we come back to take a little short break
and hear from our sponsors, will be right back with
Katherine Roberts absolutely all right, So Katherine, I mean, obviously
(27:17):
Payne seems to be the biggest motivator. Is that is
that correct? I mean, that's when I know it is
for me. I mean, I'm That's when I call you
for sure. Is when you know when I'm desperate, Paine. Paine,
I would say, is a great motivator, and especially when
it starts to interfere with something that you love, like
(27:38):
playing golf. You know, I do see a lot. I'll
tell you this quick story. Um, I had a gentleman
that came to see me. He was actually an orthopedic
surgeon seventy one years old. Came to me wearing a
back brace and he said he actually flew down to
Scott's Tale from Denver and he said to me, you're
the last train on the stop. You're the last stop
on the train. Okay, okay, the last stop on the train.
(28:01):
He said, my partners want me to have back surgery.
And I really don't want to do it. And I said, okay,
well let's just take a look at your body and
it was pretty interesting. Let me to share this. He said, yeah,
I'm doing from physio therapy and he I said, what
are you working on? He said, well, I'm just working
on my core to strengthen my core. I said, well,
what does that mean? Okay, this guy's an orthopedic surgeon.
(28:23):
He said, I don't know, you know, just kind of
like strengthen my core. I said, okay, well let's let's
kind of take a step back. But good news was
that after doing about seven or eight sessions with me,
he was about eighty percent pain free. Um. And so
I just want to share that story because here you
have an orthopedic surgeon, right that maybe uh maybe it
(28:45):
was a little skeptical about if the work that I'm
doing can help him, and it did, and here he is.
It's seventy one years old and he's back playing golf
pain free. But pain is definitely a major motivator. And
I think also for for something about golfers that's I
think very unique. And you might disagree being a pickleball guy,
(29:08):
thank but I'm a golf pickleball guy. I'm like, I'm
like half golf, half pickle ball. I love them both. Yeah,
no doubt about you know, you got that right? All right, Well,
what's your what's your point is that golfers are extremely
passionate about their sport, but if they can't play the
(29:29):
way that they used to at a certain level, a
lot of them leave the game. That's a good point.
I don't I don't think there's any any doubt about that.
That's the you know, that's one of my points always.
When you know, I hear the U s J talking
about rolling the ball back or we're gonna you know,
the equipment or this and that, I mean, you cannot
go backwards. I mean people do not enjoy going backwards.
(29:52):
I mean, nobody wants to hit it shorter than they
ever did, you know. Um, and you're right, I mean
when you you feel like, all of a sudden, you
know you can't play like you used to, I mean
it's just if it just kind of goes gradually, I
mean you can sort of accept it because you just
kind of just keep accepting a little bit at a time.
(30:13):
But when it when when you have a drastic drop off,
and usually that's you know, in most cases it's something physical,
and when you have that drastic drop off, I mean it.
I think it does push a lot of people out
of the game. It does push them out of the game.
And I think that's something that's unique to golf. I
don't think. I don't think someone in pickleball that was
(30:33):
you know, maybe not being able to play at the
same level they can. They still have a lot of
enjoyment from playing the game. And I think, I just
this is just what I found. I'd love to hear
your perspective. You know, when people can't play the way
they used to, they seem to just give it up.
And and you know, I've seen I've seen guys that
were that had back pain that you know, maybe somebody
(30:56):
told them, you know, you just have to give up golf.
They go into a fairly deep depression because it affects
them psychologically. They're not part of the community of their
friends playing every day, talking about how the round was
at dinner. There's a social impact, there's a psychological impact
from taking away something that they love. And what I'm
here to do is help people not just stay in
(31:18):
the game, but continue to do something that they love,
which is play golf. You know that that's a good
point you brought up, because I hear that a lot
a lot of people will say, Oh, I've got a
bad back. I I can't play golf, or you know,
I need to give up golf, or I need and
I And I'm thinking to myself, why wouldn't you like
try to work on something to help get your back better.
(31:40):
Why wouldn't you think about your swing and your technique.
Let's see if there's something that you're doing that's, you know,
hurting your back or putting it in jeopardy, or you know,
what about finding a swing that was easier on your back.
But people like just immediately default too, I just can't
play golf anymore. Yeah, And you know this is why
one of my rally cries Hank is always Adherence over
(32:03):
duration is one of my favorite terms, which is, let's
look at what is um an obtainable amount of time
that you have four or five days a week to
focus on your body, And even if it's just fifteen minutes,
I will guarantee that if you put you know, fifteen
(32:25):
twenty minutes five days a week into working on your
body and doing some yoga for golfers work, you will
see a difference regardless of your age or your physical condition.
And I've seen it, Hank for twenty years. It's absolutely
better to take fifteen to twenty minutes, five days a
week than to go out on a Sunday and decide
(32:45):
you're gonna do some major workout, you know, just for
one day. And I've I've had clients that have come
to me that that had virtual no mobility and their
spine when I asked them to move their spine into
like a cat cow because Asian, which is a position
that most people understand, right, You're on your hands and
knees to move their spine, and their spine would not move.
(33:06):
And fifteen to twenty minutes a day, five days a week,
and three months my client who's sixty seven years old
was back playing golf. So you know, it's never too late,
and you have to set yourself up for success. I mean,
this is why on my programs are never longer than
like thirty or forty minutes. Yeah, I think that's one
of the biggest things that that I noticed that makes
(33:30):
your program great is that you're not asking people to do,
you know, an hour and a half a day, and
you know some of these these programs that people are on,
I'm like, there's no way the average guy is going
to do that. I mean, they're just i mean, unless
unless they're so made motivated because they can't get out
of bed. Uh, you know, they might, they might do it,
but but once they can get out of bed, they're
(33:52):
not gonna they're not going to stick to it. I mean,
it's just no one's going to do something that takes
that long to do. I mean, some guys do, the
athletes do. Guys on the tour does I'm sure you know,
Dustin Johnson and Brooks, Captain Tiger Was. I mean, they
do it, but you know that it's also their job exactly.
You know, regular people have other jobs that they have
(34:12):
to do, and uh, fifteen minutes a day seems you know,
like most people can definitely do that. Absolutely. And you know,
we created something on our website which is called the
Golfers Profile. And and when you go to Yoga for
Golfers dot com, if you go to the upper right
hand corner, Uh, there's a thing that says y f
(34:34):
G Golfers Profile. If you click that on, you'll get
a survey that will ask you about ten questions about
what your goals are, your challenges on the golf course
or strengths on the golf course, and then based on that,
you'll receive like five video tips that you can do
that are designed just for your objective. And the reason
why I bring that up is because I created that program.
(34:57):
And by the way, that is all free, complimentary. I
created that program because I wanted to give people an
opportunity to start somewhere right good, good point, Just start somewhere.
It can get overwhelming when you you know, when you're
thinking what should I need to do? Should I be
weight training? Should I be doing this? You know, what
do I need to do? Just start somewhere. And that's
(35:19):
why we started the Golfer's Profile. And you've had thousands
of people and I know we we've we've had a
lot of people that have listened to you and I
before and that have gone on and taking your golfers
Profile and and I've done it, and I mean they
and they, you know, answer some simple questions and then
you know it does get them get them going a
little bit, get some get some motivated. Then people start
(35:42):
seeing some results and then they, you know, take it
to the next next step. Don't think they do. And
again it's designed because people aren't sure where do I start. Well,
if you go to the golfers profile and you click
on let's say, for example, that you want, you know,
more hit turn, or you want more shoulder turn, or
(36:02):
you want better posture, or you need to create more distance,
you know, there's twenty six possible combinations of answers that
can happen in that golfer's profile. So it is very
personalized to what you're looking to do. And um, it's
it has been probably one of the one of the
greatest ways that we've been able to enable people to
(36:22):
get started. Yeah. I think it's one of the things
with golf too. I mean, golf is not beginner friendly.
It's it's intimidating, I think, you know, I mean people think,
you know, it's just so hard to start. What do
I do? Where do I go? Uh? You know, what
what do I do when I get there? Uh? You know,
that's intimidating. I think exercises is the same way. I
(36:46):
mean a lot of people, you know, have a hard
time getting started with exercise because you know, they see
people that are like at a level that's way past them.
I mean, I mean I feel the same way sometimes
when I walk by a a gym or a workout
studio and I see these people in there, and I'm like,
oh my god. I mean, I mean, they really, you know,
(37:07):
clearly know what they're doing and and and I don't
know what I'm doing. And I mean, it definitely keeps
people from getting started, don't you think it does? And
the main reason why I started yoga for golfers, I
wanted to bring the benefits of this methodology to people
who would never walk into a yoga studio. Hank our.
(37:29):
Our classes are not held in yoga studios. They are
held at golf courses. Um all of the classes are
either like at the back of the range or you know,
somewhere on a on a practice tea somewhere typically outside
or maybe in like a ballroom or a dining room
or something. But it's in an environment that golfers are
(37:50):
used to being in. And and again, also because the
methodology is all presented in the context of the why
around golf, that a golf immediately understand, Oh, I know
why I need to be doing this bridge pose, you know,
if I'm laying on my back and my knees are
bent and I bridge my hips up, because I'm making
(38:10):
the correlation that when you're in your finished position and
you need your body upright with your hips and chest
either facing the target or past the target, you need
to have hip extension, which is why we're doing a
bridge pose versus oh, just lift your hips up. This
is really good for your swing. Yeah. Yeah, Well, I
mean if we could just get people to start and
(38:31):
hopefully that they're going to go to your website Yoga
for Golfers and take the free profile and you know,
get a little little start going. There's some other things
that they can do to I want. I want to
I want to get into some of that when when
we come back, we'll take a little break here from
our sponsors. Will be right back with Katherine Roberts. All right, Katherine, uh,
(39:31):
A lot of the great tips you have on your
site to get people started to Yoga for Golfers. You
also have have more and deeper lessons tips things they
can do on there as as well. Um, but you
also do online online coaching too. Let's talk talk about
(39:52):
that a little bit. Some of the results you've had
with with people that have participated in that. Yeah, it's
it's really quite a brilliant way to you to train
the athlete because we do it over FaceTime and I
can see everything that's happening. So what does somebody do
just like set up their camera and then like you
like to see people walk? I know that, So what
(40:14):
do they set up their camera and just video on
themselves walking? I'm watching them. It's live, okay, So it's
a live FaceTime just like you would, you know, FaceTime
your kids, right, So it's a live FaceTime session. And
what I do is I take them through a full assessment,
same assessment I do for all my athletes, even it's
(40:34):
the same assessment I do for my guys in Major
League Baseball as well as golf UM and that assessment
includes a gate assessment, a postural assessment, and I move
the athlete through UM through six upright movement patterns, so
it moves their body in all three planes of motion upright,
so I can establish where there are mobility and stability concerns.
(40:58):
Then what I do is I ask them that I
want to see driver seven iron and putter face on
and down the line. They'll just send me a video
of that. What when? What are you? What are you
looking for? When? When with their with their golf swing.
I'm looking for efficiency and movement. I'm looking for where
there could potentially be a collapse or instability in their
(41:22):
movement pattern. I'm looking at their uh, their shoulder to
hit relationship. What's a sign of some of that instable
like the collapse in So here's a good example. So
let's say we'll talk about We'll just say like a
seven iron or something. Right. So, so if I'm looking
at a golfer and when they start to get towards
(41:44):
the top of the back swing, their left knee collapses inward,
not forward, but inward significantly, that's going to tell me
that there's an issue with their left hit mobility, Okay,
or it could potentially be an issue with left ankle.
So I need to see their golf swing so I
can understand what I'm looking at strictly from a movement standpoint, Hank,
(42:07):
I don't look at path or or ball flight or
any of that. That's your job. Can you do that?
I don't do any of that, But I am looking
at their movement and the reason I want to see
driver and seven iron obviously is because the length of
the club is so different, it's going to provide me
with more information. I also look at their putting stroke
because it's going to tell me a lot about their posture,
(42:28):
their ability to hip hinge, keep their lower body stable.
There's a lot of physicality in putting. There really is
one people don't practice. Putting hurts their backs, That's definitely true.
People are very handy with their hands sometimes do with
the fact that they're they're thoractic spine is not rotating efficiently.
And that's what I'm looking for when I'm looking at
(42:49):
their their putting stroke. I'm not looking at path anyway.
So I do a gave estimate, a postural assessment, a
triplane movement pattern assessment it and then I look at
their swing. What's a what's a triplane movement assessment? What's
that mean? Okay, So the body moves in three planes
of motion. The first plane of motion is what's called
(43:11):
the sagittal plane of motion, meaning any time I'm going
into flection or extension. So if you think about a
dress position, my ankle is inflection, my knees or inflection.
I'm hinged forward right, So I'm I'm in this sagittal
plane of motion at address. Then what typically happens is
that a lot of golfers will kind of tilt the
(43:32):
right shoulder right, so there's a little bit of lateral flection.
And any time there's lateral flection or what's called abduction
your arm or leg is moving away from your body,
or adduction where your arm or leg is moving towards
your body. That's all a frontal plane of motion. Anytime
there's any type of rotation, that's the transverse plane of motion.
(43:57):
In the golf swing, your body moves in all those
three planes of motion simultaneously in under two seconds from
a step from a static physician, Hank trying to create
explosive power. And then we wonder why sixty golfers have
low back paint. Okay, So so on this FaceTime session,
(44:18):
what I do is I do these I do all
of these assessments. I'll take the person through a workout
where I will then and the workout, Hank is probably
seven to eight movement patterns. That's it. It's not it's
not a big two hour workout session. I then record
that session and I put it up onto my app
that I use which is an app called coach Now,
(44:40):
and I put it up onto that app and then
they can do those exercises, you know, four to five
days a week. Again, it's probably seven to eight exercises
four to five days a week. And then we come
back in about two and a half weeks and we
reassess and we find out where they are and we
look at their swing again and see if anything has
them up that we need to address, and then we
(45:01):
start to you know, kind of delete some exercises that
maybe aren't applicable anymore and layer in something that might
be a little bit more challenging. And that's how the
FaceTime session works. And you know it's great, Hank, because
I I have clients all over the world that I've
been training for years I've never met in person. Yeah,
I mean like Scotland, Dubai, South Africa, New Jersey. Yeah,
(45:27):
it seems easier than to do that with God. Like
people have tried it with gold, but they haven't really
been very successful with it. It's it's it's much more
difficult to do. I think it's easier to do with
what you're doing. That's a big advantage to the training
that you do with people. It's been tremendous and as
you know, you know, compliance, especially in in my world,
(45:47):
compliance is a very difficult thing because people get distracted
then all of a sudden it's not that important. Or
but to your point earlier, when people start to be
out of pain and they're playing better and they're enjoying
their life more both on and off the course, it's
it's a great motivator. Yeah, there's not no doubt about that.
(46:08):
When you when you watch people and you have people
do the FaceTime and they did. Is there a list
of kind of top two or three things that you
typically see or that you you think you might see. Typically,
I see a lot of hip issues with hip mobility
(46:30):
and glute strength. Now that more guys or girls are
both my clients are mail, Okay, yeah, um, I don't
really have that many female clients there. It's about Mail
and UM I do see that pretty consistently are issues
with tight hips. Because they have tight hips, they typically
(46:54):
have weak glutes. So there's something called lower cross syndrome
which is which basically means, well, what I'm describing is
like what's happening in the in the front with the
tight hip is creating a weak, weak glute pattern. And
the glutes are a very important part of a golf
especially for generating power. So um. And the other thing
(47:15):
that I see a lot is I see issues with posture.
Is I see the rounded shoulders in a forward head
position because heink, let's face it, we're somewhat said. I mean,
you're not sedentary. I'm not sedentary, but a lot of
the world leads a very sedentary lifestyle. And let's say
I've got I've got a guy that's working sixty hours
(47:38):
a week as an attorney, sitting at a desk and traveling,
and then on a on the weekend, he can't understand
why his hips don't turn and he can't generate power
and he can't turn his shoulders. So um, it's I
would say that those are really kind of the top issues.
Are are hips, uh, the thoracic spine posture or the
(48:00):
other thing is a lack of proper foot function is
something I see a lot as well. And I mean,
how how do you correct that? How do you the
foot function issue? How do you correct that? Um? I
have them work on their ankle mobility. Both dorsey flection,
which is when you're if you're sitting, you're pulling your
toes towards you, when your heel away from you. Plant
(48:22):
our flection is pointing your toes away from you. I
have them do things like, um, like if they're standing,
to have a sense that they're kind of lifting their
arches up as if they were puffing up a helium
balloon underneath their arch. I have them roll onto their
toes to lift their heels really high and roll back
(48:43):
and pull their toes towards them. Um. It's what's pretty
remarkable is I've actually had It's funny. I had a
physical therapist say to me, it is physically impossible to
change the shape of someone's foot in terms of creating
an arch or being able to spread their toes or
(49:06):
create more ankle dorsey flection or plant our flection. And
I can tell you that that has not been my experience.
My experience even in my own body, is that I've
been able to change my foot function and make it
much much better. And you know, people, some people they
want to do it with their authotics, and that's fine,
it's but I think that it is very beneficial to
(49:29):
people to take themselves out of their shoes and work
their foot function. They don't ever work their feet, they
don't think about it, but it's a direct correlation to
um to your balance, is your foot function? Yeah yeah, yeah, well,
I mean it's definitely you see a difference. I see
a difference. You've seen a lot of difference with the
(49:50):
people that you've you've worked with. It's just getting people
started that I think that's that's the main thing in it.
That's why you're always preaching that I am, I am,
I am, because you know what, it's so rewarding when
you can see somebody's body change. And when you you
and I have talked about this, you know, my my
(50:12):
ultimate goal is to help people. That's what I'm all
about is helping people. And I get emails every day
and I always call people Backhank and we have a
conversation and they get excited about you don't changing their body.
And when someone says to me, oh, it's too late
for me, yeah, I said, that's just a lie. You're
telling yourself. Don't believe your own lies. What do they
(50:34):
say when you say that? They say, I'm probably right, Yeah,
you are probably right. You hear that. I you know,
I always heard that with teaching too. It's like people
come say, I, you know, I'm too old to change,
or you know, I'm I'm never going to get any better,
and it's it's it's like, I don't know. Sometimes people
just don't want to, you know, they don't want to
(50:54):
accept the responsibility, or they don't wanna have to even
face the possibility that they could have to accept failure.
I mean they'd rather just you know, dismiss it and
not even try. I mean, don't don't you think that's
the case. I do think it's the case. I mean,
it's easy, it's easier not to try. And unfortunately, we're
kind of in a society where it's like if I
(51:16):
can just take a pill and make it better, why
do I have to work at it? Yeah? Good point,
good point. But it's uh, you know, it's very very rewarding.
And it's it's again, it's you know, I have another
client in Scottsdale. He's seventy seven years old, and his
favorite thing is to show me how great his balance
is now, how he can how he can balance on
(51:36):
one leg and do all of this dynamic stability work
on one leg, and how he can spread his toes
wide and how he plays without pain. Yeah. Well, I mean,
I'll tell you what, when you talk about motivation, you're
one of the most motivated people I know. And there
isn't anybody that enjoys helping people more than you do.
So it's always good to talk to Catherine, and I
(51:58):
appreciate you joining me on the Anny podcast today. It's
always great being with you, Hank always. Thank you so much.
Hopefully everybody's going to go to your website Yoga Ford
Offers and sign up for the assessment, get some get
some tips for you, and we'll and and and then
we'll have people call in and you send us their
(52:18):
questions and they can just send them to me on Twitter,
they can send them to our website and we'll you
will get everybody's question lined up and we'll have you
on again and we'll answer some of those questions. All right.
That sounds great. Thanks so much, Hanky, Thanks Catherine. Thanks
for tuning into the hank Any Podcast. Listen, follow, rate,
and share on iTunes, on the I Heart Radio app
(52:41):
or wherever you get your podcasts, and you can make
your thoughts and questions heard by emailing the show at
Hankany goff at outlook dot com, and you can also
tweet me directly by sending your tweets to at Hankiney
on Twitter. Unt i Gotta bo I Gotta said. The
(53:34):
hankany podcast is a production of I Heeart Radio. For
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