September 29, 2023 • 41 mins
Jeff RItter returns to discuss what you as a golf student need to understand where you are now, where you’re trying to go, why you’re trying to go there, and then decide if you are doing the right amount, not enough or too much to reach your goals. Originally published on February 28, 2012 as a Members Only episode, so this is really valuable information that is being released to the public for the first time.
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(00:00):
Welcome to golf Smarter Mulligans, yoursecond chance to gain insight and advice from
the best instructors featured on the GolfSmarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction never gets
old. Our interview library features hundredsof hours of game improvement conversations like this
(00:20):
that are no longer available in anypodcast app. So every golf club has
three basic design features. Number one, the club leans on an angle to
the inside of the target line.Well, guess what, that's the angle
you should swing it on. Numbertwo, the club is built so that
when it strikes the vault and leantowards the target. Well, when you
do that, it creates maximum pressureon the golf ball. If the golf
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ball squeezes down to a portion ofits normal size, and when it expands
it shoots like a bullet off theface. What's the third thing? If
you swing it on its angle andthe club face tends to rotate in accordance
with that angle, what we callswing plane. So you're telling me that
the entire secret for how to hita golf ball is presented in the way
the design my golf club. Yes, So why is it that people grab
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these clubs and instead of swinging themon a tilt. They swing them straight
up and down on straight line.Why is it that instead of delivering a
forward winding shaft they deliver a backwardleading shaft. And why is it instead
of having the face where pay withthe plane, it usually rotate somewhere else
because they had no idea what they'retrying to do. With Another interview from
the archives of Golf Smarter, here'syour host, Fred Green. Welcome back
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to Golf Smarter for members only.Jeff, Hey, Fred, again,
thanks so much for having me.I love being on the show. Oh
well, thank you. That's true. I knew love being on the show,
do you. I'm not just sayingthat now it's a great show.
You are just saying that. I'mnot just saying that. Well, listen,
you agree to come back on,so I got to I've got to
believe some of that, of course. Well. Thanks. I truly appreciate
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it because I really get a lotout of our conversations and it helps me
a lot in talking about the GolfSchool, the work that you and Martin
would do over a period of timewith students. When you talk about taking
ownership of making these changes, howmany how many things on a weekend,
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you know, like two days ofschool. How many things can you actually
effectively change on a middle handicap golferand have it stick. That's a good
question, and it really all comesdown to what your perspective is on coaching,
and very early, your perspective asa coach, or your perspective as
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a student, well mostly as acoach, and then how you can relay
that to a student, so speak. So very early in my coaching career,
the way that I taught the fullswing was a little bit different from
how I taught you know, chipping, and then it was different from how
I taught pitching and sand and thenthere was putting, and it was almost
like there are all these different games, so to speak, that you had
to learn, and hey, yourfull swing group was like this, and
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your putting group is like and ifyou're going to try and hit a chip
shot, then you can actually changeyour grip a little bit. And you
know, all those things you mightbe true from a coaching perspective, you
know, based on a certain methodology, but they're not a very effective way
to help people learn and sustain improvements. So over the years and I started
thinking a lot more about, youknow, the similarities, so to speak,
between one shot and the next.And I really found that every golfer
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has a pattern, and that patternexists really in every shot they hit.
So for example, if they're slicingtheir drive, then they're very often cutting
their puts if they hit too muchup on the ball and a chip shot,
and they probably hit too much upon the ball on a pitch,
on a put, on a tshot or whatever, you know. So
what I started doing is looking at, you know, what was the root
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causal problem, what was their onebasic fundamental flaw if you will, that
we're leading to all these issues withtheir golf game, and then we start
tackling, you know, making thatparticular adjustment. So you know what I
do now. And a lot ofthis was really born from a quote that
I heard from Bobby Jones years ago. He said, play as many shots
as possible with the same basic thoughtsin mind, and that really resonated with
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me. So now when I lookat someone's game, Let's say you came
in for a lesson day one andI had never seen your game before.
In the first fifteen minutes, I'llsay, okay, Fred, go ahead
and hit a few six irons,and then go ahead and show me a
couple of tea shots, and thenI'll have you turn to the left and
I'll have you pitch one to thegreen, and then I'll have you roll
a put. You know, withinjust a few minutes, I can see
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what your pattern is in your entiregame. And then from there, based
on what you're looking for, whetherit be full swing work or short game
work, we'll actually spend time workingon that one particular skill. But once
you learn what the new skill is, so to speak, the cool thing
about this approach is now you cantransition through every single shot in the game
playing with the same basic idea.Because the whole key here is changing the
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impact that change the flight. Soyour club's either swinging down too much or
swinging up too much. Your clubbase is either open or it's closed.
You're either hitting off the toe orthe heel, and if you're doing that,
it's happening everywhere. Now. Theone thing about golf is that you
know certain swing flaws are more conduciveto success for certain shots, whereas they
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lead to total disaster and other shots. So, for example, if you
had too much sweep in your golfswing. You might hit your T ball
just fine, but you might absolutelystruggle in the bunker. So all of
a sudden, you say, youknow what, my driver's swing is pretty
good, but you know, something'srollify bunker swing. It's the same swing,
but based on the particular shot,one is getting decent success in the
other one's total failure, even thoughthe flaw is exactly the same. Wow.
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So what I do. I tryand get people excited. I say,
Okay, this is your pattern,this is what we have to work
on. Let's find success with oursix iron or a sandwich or whatever working
on. And then before the lessons, over many times, I'll take them
through every shot and I'll say,no, this is how it applies to
this, and this is how itapplies to that, and look we're putting
Look, it's kind of the samething, isn't it. And that's when
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the light bulb goes on for them, because now people that have viewed the
game as being very big and scaryand daunting, all of a sudden go,
you know what, it's it's justthis this one thing. And you
remember the movie City Slickers, Sure, yeah, you know, and you
know Billy Crystal and and Jack Palancewhatnot, and and they're sitting there and
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all the guys just one yeah,exactly, you know, he goes,
he goes, you know, whatyou need to understand is the secret to
life, you know. And heholds out his hand and Billy Crystal goes,
your finger, you know, that'ssecret life. He goes, No,
it's not not my finger. It'sit's this one thing. And that's
what I try and do with peoplein their golf games. You know,
the secret to their success or changingtheir their ball flight throughout their game is
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usually just just one basic thing,one basic area, one basic concept.
And when you can make that workas a coach man, you can take
someone's game and just totally flip itaround in a very very short period of
time. That's really interesting. Andit makes me actually think of the of
Martin Chuck's The Tour Striker Training Club, because I just realized, by working
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with that a bit, how wheremajor swing flaws. I saw Major's flaws,
and and by you connecting the dotsfor me of saying it's the same
swing, whether I'm the bunker,I'm the tea, I'm you know,
at a hundred yards out or twentyyards out. It's the same swing and
it's the same mistake, just sometimesit works better than others, right,
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And I'm not going to you know, diminish the subtle nuances within the game.
I mean, certainly, you know, we change ball position on certain
shots, we change our weight andcertain shots. There are certain shots wors
are specialty shots we might change,you know, how we're releasing the club
or little things that happen on theadvanced level. You know. So for
listeners that are listening to this going, you know, I can't believe this
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guy's telling me it's just one thing. It's all the same swing. Yeah,
I understand that, right. Butthe thing is is that from a
learning perspective, you know, themore you can take something that's complex and
make it seem simple and doable,the more fun you have and the faster
you progress. You know. Soas we start moving through shots, as
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I start seeing someone's skill level increase, then I certainly like to pepper in
some of these little nuances that cantake them to a more advanced level.
But you know, there is aprogression to learning that exists everywhere, but
people a lot of times don't seemto think that it exists in golf.
And if you look at gymnastics forexample, you know, you take your
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daughter to a gymnastics class and she'sfive years old and she wants to do
backflips on a balance beam in theOlympics, they don't just put her up
on a six foot high balance beamand say, you know, give it
a go. And that's not whatthey do because there's a consequence, which
is, you know, potentially breakingyour neck, you know. So what
do they do. They have acoach put the arm underneath the little girl
and then they take their their handand they flip their legs over right,
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so that's kind of like an assistedback flip, and the kid does that
a couple of times, and thenfrom there, once the coach feels like
the push off of the legs andthe and the rotation is where it could
possibly be safe, then the littlegirl does it. But they land in
a big, you know, boonepit right uh. And then once they
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see from a coaching perspective that that'shappening, then they go, Okay,
let's try and do this on flatground again, but we're gonna do it
just landing you know, right onright on the turf and we're gonna still
be there, watch yeah, Andthen it goes from there. Then they
paint a white line on the ground, and then they put the balance beam
up six inches and they do itand then they you know, do it
off of the high balance beam.And golfers they show up to the lesson
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t and they all of a suddenexpect to sometimes engage in in technique so
to speak, that is at thetour level, when they don't have the
basic fundamentals to to create the basiccontact behind hitting shots. So we always
get to start with from a coachingperspective, you know what types of ideas
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are going to get you in theair and forward hidden the club face solidly
getting around the course. And thenfrom there, as you start to demonstrate
skill, that's when the coach canreally open up his or her playbook,
so to speak, and give youthe things that you might want day one,
which are really reserved for a daythree sixty. That pretty much answers
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my other question about follow through followup is if you're teaching them to understand
on their own where their flaws are, where the inconsistencies are, they should
be able to take that with themright, absolutely, and a lot of
times, well actually all the time. I talk to my students about trying
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to get into the coach's mind,and the coach's mind is all about understanding,
you know, where we are now, the kind of impact and flight
that we have, now, wherewe're trying to go, why we're trying
to go there, and then tobe able to look at basic cause and
effect and make a decision as towhether or not I'm doing the right amount,
too much or not enough of whatmy goal is. So you know
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right now, for example, ifyou're looking at your your impact, you
might have divids that are too deep. You might be hitting it off the
toe, you might be slicing itto the right. You know, so
you have an impact in a flight. Those are your outcomes. So let's
say you try and flatten your swingthrough you know, whatever idea the coach
gives you, and you understand,you know what he's talking about and why
you're doing it. Now, asyou start hitting shots, I mean,
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you shouldn't be looking for the perfectshot. You should be looking for a
different shot. And to me,a different shot would be less divid ball,
more towards the center of the facemaybe and less of a curve to
the right, maybe a curve tothe left. So I'm never trying to
get people to their perfect flight rightaway. I'm trying to get them to
a different flight that is opposite ofwhat they came in at. And the
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thing is a lot of people theywill sort of be a a non participants
to speak in their learning process wherethey're just kind of waiting for the coach
to say, oh, more likethis, more like that. But the
thing is is I want my studentsto be thinking their way through everything and
the moment they make contact, torealize that that dibbott that you just created
was way different than the dibbie hadten minutes ago, That contact on the
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face was way different than it waswhen you walked in the door. That
ball flight, that trajectory is twiceas high or twice as low, or
that ball's curving you know less ormore. So once you can get them
understanding what's happening, increasing their awareness, you know, then they're really in
a position to coach themselves through it. And this is the same thing that
happened to me when I was takingguitar lessons back in the day. I
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would start playing chords and I thoughtthey sounded great, you know, and
then my instructor would actually record us, and I would be like, what
is all that noise and all thenoise that was surrounding? You know?
The chord that I was playing wasthe buzzing of all the strings that were
supposed to be muted, that werehalf ringing out because I didn't have my
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hands in the proper position to getthat pure sound. And I never heard
it until he made me aware ofit. And once I was aware of
it and understood it, I couldstart coaching myself and making those changes.
And the same thing applies to golf. You know, you got to increase
your golf IQ and increase your awarenessof what's happening in order to really,
you know, coach yourself and thenbe your own coach, so to speak.
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I thought, and I thought forsure you were going to say,
And once I realized that all thatextra noise was there, I just quit
playing guitar. I was like,it's like, well, forget it.
If I can't do this, I'mout of here. And I think they're
golfers to do that. I thinkthat they're golfers who quit well, because
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this game is so damn hard.But I think that people quit because it's
like I can't I can't do that. Well, it usually comes down to
I won't do that. So thething the thing is is that another thing
I started ever your lesson off withis someone will hit this ball flight which
which they are deeming in their mindto be bad or terrible, which we
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all know is just an ego basedresponse. But the thing is is they'll
hit a shot and I'll say,you know, what I want you to
understand here is that your golf swingis absolutely perfect. And of course they
roll the rise and there like,why didn't even show up here to talk
to this guy? I go,No, your golf swing is perfect for
the result that you're getting. Right, So you know your golf ball.
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It's like a computer you type somethingin, it's bit something out right.
And the thing is is that mostgolfers are out there, and I've said
this before in the show, mostgolfers are out there trying to make a
better swing, but your mind hasno idea what better is. Now your
mind can start to conceptualize what differentis. And if you make a different
swing, I promise you'll get adifferent result. So when golfers are out
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there saying, you know, I'vebeen slicing for twenty years and I've taken
fifty lessons and I can't stop slicing, you know what's wrong with me,
I'll say, you keep making thesame swing. How's that possible? You
keep getting the same result? Youknow? So basically what you have to
do if you're a slicer and youhave an overload of slicing fundamentals which are
perfect for bending the ball to theright. So if you understand what those
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fundamentals are, then you can say, okay, well what could I do?
Not better? But what can Ido differently to make a ball bend
left? So if you took yourslicing grip and made it a hooking grip.
If you took the tension in yourarms, which was conducive to slicing,
and you made it softer, whichis easier to hook. If you
changed your posture or the distance youstill from the ball. Anything you change
fred is going to make the balldo something different. You just have to
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know what to change and the ballflight will change immediately. Will it be
comfortable? Oh? Are you?Maybe? Maybe not? It depends on
your It depends on your perspective ofwhat comfort is. So, for example,
golfers also think about their golf swingsand singular terms. Oh, I'm
going to work on my golf swing. This is my golf swing today.
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Well, I mean you think TigerWoods has one swing. I mean he's
got like a hundred swings because he'sgot different ball flights he's trying to hit
during the round. If he hitshis ball into the trees on the right
and he has to hit a sliceback into play, then he has to
incorporate slicing fundamentals into a swing.If he hits his ball into the trees
and the left and he's got tohook the ball back into play, he
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has to incorporate hooking fundamentals in thisswing. He's changing his swing on every
swing based on how high he wantsto hit it, how low he wants
to hit it, how much spinnhe wants or doesn't want, what kind
of curved tree he wants. Isyou want two yards, five yards,
ten yards? I mean everything hasto change to create a change in the
ball flight. I remember there waswas it you somebody always talking to on
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this show, and they said,yeah, well, Tiger Woods has no
ego, and I'm like, whathe says that will Tiger never takes a
shot that he hasn't practiced a thousandtimes? Sure, And it's like,
oh that kind of you go,okay, that makes sense, But you're
right. I mean it's he's notgonna try to which I know that I
do and we do. And youknow, most golfers I would say that
are you know the handicap that I'mthinking about, not talking to a single
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digit thing. But but it's Willdefinitely go yeah, I know I can
do this and with never never eventrying it on the driving lunch. For
this, this whole thing about coaching, it is all about the coach creating
the proper mindset and learning environment fromthe student to make a big change fast.
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It's not about the ownership. Youknow, ownership takes patience, will
and discipline. But any coach thatunderstands how to do this can change your
ball flight, change it immediately andmoving a lot closer to, if not
give you the exact ball flight thatyou want in a very short time.
It's not you know, five lessons, it's not ten lessons. It's not
a six months program. It isliterally in the first fifteen minutes to one
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hour of time that ball flight shouldchange and do something that you've never seen
it do before. And it's allabout embracing this idea of different verses better.
If the students in a learning environmentwhere they're okay with doing something differently
and listening to the coach learning versusperforming, it will change. And it
will change absolutely right now. AndI tell people that all the time.
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In fact, I tell people,I say, Fred, if you come
out to my lesson team and ifyou don't have the best golf learning experience
of your lifetime and hit the ballbetter than you ever have in less than
an hour, then don't pay me. That's how strongly I feel about my
ability to change people's ball flights andchange people's golf games instantaneously based on communication
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and coaching. It's what I hangmy head on. It's what I do.
And if the experience isn't the best, then you can go home and
never come back again. Well that'swhy you keep getting invited back here because
I haven't asked my money back yet. I guess perfect, you know.
But when I think about it froma coaching perspective, I mean how many
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golfers out there would like their instructorto put their neck on the line like
that, Oh yeahs to be ableto say, I guarantee this will be
the best golf lesson you've ever had, or don't pay, you know,
it's that accountability. I don't thinkmost instructors can afford to say that,
you know, not well, ifyou're trained properly, then then you should
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be able to do that, becauseit's accountability, you know what I mean.
It's like you know, when Iwhen I show up and I pay
for a particular service, you know, I'm expecting to get a lot of
value out of the service, youknow, And why shouldn't people expect that
same amount of delivery from from acoach now on their own, you know,
if they're not willing to do thework, you know, then that's
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a different thing. But the thingis that in most cases, people show
up to a golf lesson and theyreally want to learn, They want to
hear what you have to say.Very few people come out and are are
difficult or standoffish or against what youhave to say. They're coming to you
for help, you know, soright now they're in a submissive position.
They're saying, help me learn howto do this, And as long as
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the coach can control that learning environmentand they understand basic cause and effect,
every learning experience should be amazing andfulfilling for everyone that engages in it.
Can I change gears here for asecond, Yeah, go for it.
Yeah. Well, I have neverbeen to the PGA show in Orlando,
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and everyone, right, everyone,A lot of the instructors, a lot
of the people that I talked toon this show send me email, Hey,
you're gonna be at the show thisyear. It's like, no,
I live in California. That's along way away, and I can't afford
to go. But if you wantto bring me out there'd be more than
happy to go. But you gotto go to the show this year.
(20:51):
I did. I did something thatthat I do every year, and that's
it's a good thing for Well,then let's start with this is if you
go every year, what is thestate of the show. What is the
state of the industry from your perspectivetoday? Well, I mean the show.
I've been going to the show Fredsince since I was a kid.
My my father, you know,we talked about before. He's a he's
(21:11):
a golf professional. He was ayou know, full time PGA professional acting
as a club pro. Now heactually has a product for golf pros called
ghost Tape. Have you heard aghost tape before? No? No,
I'm still thinking it. Well,first, your consumer, you're not a
golf pro. So basically, youknow golf clubs that that professionals purchased for
(21:36):
inventory. Sometimes they loan them outfor people to try, and sometimes some
people try them, they don't comeback. They nick them up though,
they take deep tibbots and they youknow, make ballmarks on the top,
so the inventory becomes worthless to theprofessional. So my dad created this product
called ghost Tape. It protects clubs. So now my point is all this
is that he's down at the showevery year as a vendor as opposed to
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being a buyer. But I've beengoing to this show, so now you
get to go your dad. Yeah, exactly. So I've been going to
the show since I was a kid. When I was a kid, I
used to run through the aisles andI'd be collecting pamphlets, you know,
mountains of garbage that my mother wouldsay, you're not all the freebies.
And the great thing about the showis that it's it's the one week a
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year or three or four days ayear where the literally the entire golfing industry,
you know, across the globe isall gathered or congregated in one place,
and it's just amazing to see howmany brands there aren'ts amazing to see
how many knickknacks there are for saleand training aids and lines of apparel,
and it's some it's huge. Imean, it's it's some you know,
maybe one point two miles or somethinglike that, you know, indoors that
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you walk through all this stuff.It's it's it's massive, and I think
it's actually the world's largest trade show. But some of the companies, man,
they really go all out with withtheir displays. I mean, I
guess it would be sort of likewhen people watch on television, they'll see
some kind of an auto show,so to speak, where four Ward introduces
the twenty twelve line of cars andit's like this big galla event. Yeah,
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that's kind of the way it isfor oh yeah, absolutely. But
but but the state of the golfindustry in two thousand twelve is very different
than it was in two thousand andtwo. Yeah, and how how do
you see that being reflected at theshow. Well, the show used to
be massive. I mean it's stillmassive now, but if you went,
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you know, fifteen years ago,would seem even even bigger. And there
was a time where it really contractedquite a bit where people should up and
they said, what happened? Youknow, it just wasn't the same.
And then the last couple of yearsit's actually you see some of the manufacturers
coming back that maybe weren't there before. But it's not quite back to the
full strength like it like it usedto be, and you know, for
obvious reasons, but it's kind ofa cool thing. I go down there,
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not so much to see the products. I go down there too,
you know, to try and advancemy career as a coach. I mean,
all the top magazines are there,all the TV networks are there.
This year I went down there andI was a product spokesperson for Paying.
They have a brand new uh inflight software app that coaches are using these
days or club fitters using these days. So I did a presentation with them,
(24:10):
and I was also down there withSligoware, which is the company out
of Canada that I am sponsored withas I spent some time in their booths.
So some of it's meet and great, some of it's uh, you
know, trying to advance your careerwith the right circle, so to speak.
And then you know, some ofit's just connecting with your peers and
trying to find out what the bestpractices might be. You know, I
(24:30):
told you a little bit back herethat I started a new company called Square
it Up, which is a marketing, personal branding, graphic design, website
design company for for golf, thegolf business, but you know, most
specifically targeted towards golf professionals, peoplelike myself that are you know, trying
to create a personal brand or apersonal business that you know is relevant,
(24:52):
you know, on a global scale. And and a lot of people that
are small business owners have been conditionedto kind of I think small, you
know, to look at the twentyfive miles that's surround their facility, to
not understand just how much leverage andhow much power they can have in this
market if they can utilize things likesocial media properly. And that don't understand
or they haven't been trained, soto speak, to understand the secrets of
(25:15):
marketing and branding. So I wentdown there and actually did a big presentation
for the Golf Business Network, whichmeets down there every year as well.
So I guess from my perspective,it was you know, part sideshow,
part meet and greet, you know, part launching this new business called Square
it Up, and then just tryingto find a place to rest my feetman,
because it is a long, longday. So since I really wanted
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to hear your perspective on products thatare out there, but clearly that wasn't
it. But but what do youhear? What's the buzz? What is?
Yeah, I think that's what Iwas saying. What's the buzz on
the floor from the industry professionals aboutthe industry. Yeah, well, I
mean let's talk technology for a second. So from a coaching perspective, people
love love technology, and I thinkthat the one piece of technology that I'd
(26:06):
like to know more about. AndI didn't get a chance to look at
it that closely, but it wasreally a big topic of discussion. Podcasting
is a product now, it's aproduct called It was an analysis software slash
program called golf Guru, and itwas really you know, using sort of
three D motion analysis in a verycreative way, much like you'd see in
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an Xbox style video game that alot of coaches were really buzzing about.
It was almost sort of taking thatlesson experience at the next level and doing
things now with seemingly simple platforms interms of you know, size or price
points or whatnot that five ten yearsago, you know, probably would have
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cost twenty thousand dollars for a proto be able to do. So that
was something that was really really cool. Beyond that, you know, are
you finding there are more well,I guess you wouldn't see it. I'm
I guess I'm trying to ask ifthere are more coaches that are like,
I can't continue to do this anymore. They just can't sustain this business.
(27:10):
Because I'm not a businessman, I'ma golf instructor. Yes, absolutely,
I mean that's why we started thecompany and things. I mean, the
thing is is that there are somany coaches in this industry that are losing
ground versus gaining ground. And thesad thing is is that they're all extremely
talented coaches. I mean, whenyou think about, you know, golf
lessons, I don't think about golflessons as just golf instruction. I think
(27:33):
about the potential value or impact agolf instructor who's qualified can have on a
person's life. You know, you'retalking about number one, helping them mattain
a skill level and something to enjoy. If you're coaching, you know the
mental aspect of the game. Youknow, the attitudes that you learn help
you on off the course. Ifyou're coaching infuses nutrition, I mean,
(27:56):
you can definitely help people with youknow, aches and pains and lose weight
and prove their health. If you'reworking with kids, you can help them
get colleague scholarships. I mean itgoes on and on and on. But
when you look at what a coachtruly can do if he hears she is
good. I mean, the impactof the consumer is huge, and it's
a really important thing for coaches tobe able to see what their own value
(28:17):
is, but from there be ableto understand the practices of being a business
person. Like you said, thatallow you to show the world what that
value is and have them engage withyou on a more consistent basis, so
to speak. So you know,that's why it's all about branding these days.
I mean, the only difference betweenJim McClain and David Ledbetter and Butch
Harmon and Han Kaney and and someother instructor that's really fantastic out in the
(28:41):
Midwest that maybe doesn't have the samepotentials. It just comes down to awareness.
And with social media there are nomore gatekeepers. There's no one that
says you can or can't be seenor heard or whatnot. So it's really
about encouraging pros to build brands,to create content, to push it out
there, and to believe in thepossibility that exists within this amazing skill set
(29:06):
that you have of being able tonot only help people have fun, but
also maybe help them find ways toimprove their lives. In that buzz,
do you find that a lot ofthe old school instructors are accepting the power
(29:26):
of what the web can deliver slowly? Yeah, they are, they are
slowly, But they're also the youngguns like you that are coming up going
you're missing the point. They're understandingthat you have to you have to change,
you know, otherwise you're going tobe replaced. And you know my
clientele now, I mean ever sinceyou know, we've talked about social media.
(29:48):
We talked about YouTube, My YouTubechannel just went over four million views,
by the way, which is kindof hostile for me. Whow,
congratulations, thank you. You know, I've got three people on my lesson
to you right now Korea, andI'm teaching them every day for thirty straight
days. That's that's powerful, right. Yeah. I've got someone right after
them coming from from Luxembourg for asimilar program. I just answered a guy
(30:12):
from Australia who wants to try andfind a way to bring me to Australia.
I mean, and that's all becausethe world's heard them. They've heard
you on Golf Smarter. Yeah,that's right, they've treed me on the
Golf Smarter podcast. But you know, so the older guys, to answer
your question, you know, they'rethey're seeing some some younger pros so to
(30:32):
speak, do some really good things. And I think that the the sound
of the noise is loud enough,so to speak, that they're realizing that,
you know, maybe one year ofa down year, or two years
of a down year, or threeyears of having a down year, you
know, can be you know puton the economy, so to speak.
But there are people that are reallythriving in this marketplace right now, and
(30:56):
I'm lucky to be one of them. And it just shows you that when
you deal with a global market versusa local market, there's more than enough
golfers to make a wonderful living coachin the game, and there's more than
enough golfers for for every coach whohas that dedication and that mindset of being
a good person of business to dothe same. So yeah, yeah,
being a club pro is just notenough. Well, it's it's it's difficult
(31:22):
because you know, when you youknow, when you work for yourself,
when you have this ability to createa personal brand, then of course you
have the ability to select who yourtarget market is going to be. You
know, when you're working as aclub professional, you know you're working under
the parameters of of ownership or amanagement company, and they have certain expectations
brand right, yes, someone else'sbranding. So one of the interesting things
(31:45):
is that, you know, Igot this from the book Crush It,
which was the Gary Vanta check Book, and he basically said that, you
know, whether you love your jobor not, everybody, everybody should be
creating and actively building their own personalbrand. Because when you create your own
personal brand and you leverage that brandacross a worldwide market place through things like
(32:06):
social media. I mean, thatis the ultimate offensive strategy in job security.
You know, I hope to beat the Raven Golf Club Phoenix for
a long long time. But ifthere comes a day where for some reason
they want to go in a differentdirection, it's really not going to affect
me. And I'm not that worriedabout it, because you know, I've
(32:27):
got enough traction so to speak,everywhere where there's a million other places,
whether a local or abroad that Iknow that I could continue doing what I'm
doing and having a great time doingit. So it's all about security,
it's all about possibility, it's allabout feeling and powered. It's all about
feeling and control of the things thatyou're doing in life. And I think
(32:49):
that a lot of people don't feellike there's so much in control or in
control as much as they like tobe, you know, and all it's
all starts with the mindset, andall starts with what you build and how
you leverage that. Interesting. So, uh, favorite product that you saw
at this year's PGA Show. Favoriteproduct at the PGA Show this year,
it had to be the Golf Guruthing like I said, didn't see it
(33:10):
that much, but it looked reallycool. Well look for favorite, all
right, then favorite consumer product Favorite, Well it's gotta be slago where of
course it's not trying to do anythingto my game. I don't care about.
It's like, you know, loudmouth pants. I don't care.
I don't want to know what's gonnawhat's gonna that I need to really consider
(33:32):
buying because it's going to enhance myenjoyment, you know, And I'm gonna
give my business partner a plug here. I mean training aids for golf,
I mean they're a difficult thing.I mean there's a lot of training aids
out there, yes, but thething is is that most training aids are
not infallible. So, I mean, you could buy something, but there's
(33:55):
no guarantee that you're going to useit in the way that it was inten
to be used. And a lotof times when when somebody launches a training
aid, they'll they'll hand it toNick Faldo and they'll say, hey,
what do you think of this?Well, he's got a phenomenal swing.
So all the things that all thethings that the training aid is supposed to
do seem to work just perfect becauseyou have a you know, phenomenal golfer
(34:19):
swinging it, so they're real wellyou know, you know, wait,
wait, wait, I gotta saythat that is such an interesting point that
you know, we watched these infommercialsand we watched these guys who are saying
this is great. It's like,what, it didn't change anything for you?
You're absolutely right, thanks you.You know, every training aid really
needs to have a certain level ofcoaching associated with it so that it's used
(34:39):
properly, you know, so thatyou know, there's this blueprint in the
mind of the of the user.So there's a lot of training aids that
people buy they don't know how touse them. They're not being purchased for
a particular problem that the training aidcan fix. And as a result,
you go into someone's garage and there'sa bunch of training aige and they're all
piled up. One thing that's reallyunique about Martin Chuck's Tour Striker product is
(35:04):
that the feedback that you get isimmediate. The understanding of how to use
the golf club is on a levelthat's really not associated with the most training
aids. And Nice did a videothat's on my YouTube channel. I posted
it yesterday and it was all forkids. But you know, most people
(35:25):
when they come out for golf lesson, they want to know the how,
but they never consider to ask aboutthe why. And what I'm referring to
is they come out and said,well, how do I swing my arms?
Where should I put my grip?When do I turn my hips?
Now? Coming down? Is itfrom the ground up? You know?
What is my left need doing?And they want to know all of the
(35:45):
all of the how stuff, butthey never even look at the basic design
of their equipment and ask the question, why in the world did the nice
men and women aping designed this clubto look like this? Well, they've
designed it to look like that becausethey had a certain functionality in mind.
So every golf club has three basicdesign features you know that I look at
(36:05):
when I'm building a golf swing.Number One, the club leans on an
angle to the inside of the targetline. Well, guess what, that's
the angle you should swing it onright. Number two, the club is
built so that when it strikes theball, it should lean towards the target.
Well, when you do that,it creates maximum pressure on the golf
ball. The golf ball squeezes downto a portion of its normal size,
(36:27):
and when it expands, it shootslike a bullet off the face. Okay,
so now we have two design characteristics. Let's swing it on the angle
was built, and let's deliver aleaning shafter the golf ball perfect. How
do I know that? Well,that's how they built the darn thing.
What's the third thing, Well,if you swing it on its angle,
then the club face tends to rotatein accordance with that angle, what we
call swing plane. So you're tellingme that the entire secret for how to
(36:52):
hit a golf ball is presented inthe way they design my golf club.
Yes, So why is it thatpeople I have these clubs and instead of
swinging them on a tilt, theyswing them straight up and down on straight
line. Why is it that insteadof delivering a forwardlanding shaft, they deliver
a backward leaning shaft. And whyis it instead of having the face ropy
(37:13):
with the plane, it usually rotatessomewhere else because they have no idea what
they're trying to do. But ifyou give someone a croquet stick, they'll
use it perfectly every time because theyget it. They'll stand it. They'll
stand it straight up and down,they'll straddle at the move back and forth,
perfect cruque motion, you know,because they understand the implement and what
(37:35):
its purposes. So with Marvin's club, the Tour Striker, it's really revealing
how a golf club is supposed towork. And once people understand that,
they make big progress and make itfast. And that's why from a consumer
product, you know, even thoughhe is my business partner, I really
do believe that he's got the besttraining in the market. I'll tell you
(37:57):
one bucket, one bucket for mewith with the one of the Tour Striker
clubs, and I learned so much. I keep repeating this. I learned
so much about my swing and theflaws that that were so apparent to everyone
but me that I could not believethe impact that just using that club with
(38:17):
one bucket of balls made on onhow I approached my golf shot. It's
really it really is, you know. And I and I get an opportunity
to look at a lot of differenttraining aids. I get people send me
stuff. I had a guy sendme some stuff. He contacted me,
he asked me to look at hisproduct. He sent me the product,
(38:38):
and I feel terrible because I'm notcalling him back because it's like, what
he really this is. No,I'm not putting stickers on my golf club
to tell me how to hit theball. And that's all I'm gonna say
about that. Uh, it's it'shis club. I think that he came
across something that is really brilliant.And it's interesting that you say that about
(39:01):
the club and all the products areout there, but I agree with you.
Well, the other thing is thatyou know, if if someone does
buy the Tour Striker, you know, Martin does a lot of video as
well. It's a lot of videothat's free on YouTube like mine is.
You know, watch watch how theguy teaches who invented the product. You
know, because he used the producta lot of his demonstrations. I mean,
(39:22):
you're going to start to understand alot about why he does what he
does, why the product works.And I think it's a nice connecting point,
so to speak, between an implementthat's designed to help your game,
but also being able to see someof the information in the verbage behind how
to use it. So I woulddefinitely do that. Yeah, and just
to remind people because I haven't mentionedit in a number of episodes, but
(39:43):
if you have a question for Martin, not you know, I mean,
it is your partner. But ifyou have a question about your game for
Martin and you send it through me, you go to click on the Hey
Fred at golfsmarter dot com and tellMartin you have a question. Not only
is he going to respond to yourquestion, he's going to send you a
coupon code for a discount on theTour Striker and free shipping. So yeah,
(40:06):
yeah, I mean it's awesome.So please send your questions about your
game well, Jeff Ritter. Onceagain, it has been awesome speaking with
you. I love the perspective thatyou bring to it. I definitely walk
away from our conversations going, ohnow I get it. I really do,
and I appreciate that very much.Thanks Fred. I will talk to
(40:30):
you again soon. Best of luck. If I don't talk to you in
a while, best of luck withthe with square it up with the Nike
Junior golf camps and your academy withMartin. Great and while I still have
it here, Yeah, any golfprofessionals or actually any small business owners that
are looking for branding services and Theycan find us at square it up dot
(40:51):
com, wh
Welcome to golf Smarter Mulligans, yoursecond chance to gain insight and advice from
the best instructors featured on the GolfSmarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction never gets
old. Our interview library features hundredsof hours of game improvement conversations like this
(00:20):
that are no longer available in anypodcast app. So every golf club has
three basic design features. Number one, the club leans on an angle to
the inside of the target line.Well, guess what, that's the angle
you should swing it on. Numbertwo, the club is built so that
when it strikes the vault and leantowards the target. Well, when you
do that, it creates maximum pressureon the golf ball. If the golf
(00:41):
ball squeezes down to a portion ofits normal size, and when it expands
it shoots like a bullet off theface. What's the third thing? If
you swing it on its angle andthe club face tends to rotate in accordance
with that angle, what we callswing plane. So you're telling me that
the entire secret for how to hita golf ball is presented in the way
the design my golf club. Yes, So why is it that people grab
(01:03):
these clubs and instead of swinging themon a tilt. They swing them straight
up and down on straight line.Why is it that instead of delivering a
forward winding shaft they deliver a backwardleading shaft. And why is it instead
of having the face where pay withthe plane, it usually rotate somewhere else
because they had no idea what they'retrying to do. With Another interview from
the archives of Golf Smarter, here'syour host, Fred Green. Welcome back
(01:23):
to Golf Smarter for members only.Jeff, Hey, Fred, again,
thanks so much for having me.I love being on the show. Oh
well, thank you. That's true. I knew love being on the show,
do you. I'm not just sayingthat now it's a great show.
You are just saying that. I'mnot just saying that. Well, listen,
you agree to come back on,so I got to I've got to
believe some of that, of course. Well. Thanks. I truly appreciate
(01:49):
it because I really get a lotout of our conversations and it helps me
a lot in talking about the GolfSchool, the work that you and Martin
would do over a period of timewith students. When you talk about taking
ownership of making these changes, howmany how many things on a weekend,
(02:12):
you know, like two days ofschool. How many things can you actually
effectively change on a middle handicap golferand have it stick. That's a good
question, and it really all comesdown to what your perspective is on coaching,
and very early, your perspective asa coach, or your perspective as
(02:36):
a student, well mostly as acoach, and then how you can relay
that to a student, so speak. So very early in my coaching career,
the way that I taught the fullswing was a little bit different from
how I taught you know, chipping, and then it was different from how
I taught pitching and sand and thenthere was putting, and it was almost
like there are all these different games, so to speak, that you had
to learn, and hey, yourfull swing group was like this, and
(02:59):
your putting group is like and ifyou're going to try and hit a chip
shot, then you can actually changeyour grip a little bit. And you
know, all those things you mightbe true from a coaching perspective, you
know, based on a certain methodology, but they're not a very effective way
to help people learn and sustain improvements. So over the years and I started
thinking a lot more about, youknow, the similarities, so to speak,
between one shot and the next.And I really found that every golfer
(03:22):
has a pattern, and that patternexists really in every shot they hit.
So for example, if they're slicingtheir drive, then they're very often cutting
their puts if they hit too muchup on the ball and a chip shot,
and they probably hit too much upon the ball on a pitch,
on a put, on a tshot or whatever, you know. So
what I started doing is looking at, you know, what was the root
(03:43):
causal problem, what was their onebasic fundamental flaw if you will, that
we're leading to all these issues withtheir golf game, and then we start
tackling, you know, making thatparticular adjustment. So you know what I
do now. And a lot ofthis was really born from a quote that
I heard from Bobby Jones years ago. He said, play as many shots
as possible with the same basic thoughtsin mind, and that really resonated with
(04:05):
me. So now when I lookat someone's game, Let's say you came
in for a lesson day one andI had never seen your game before.
In the first fifteen minutes, I'llsay, okay, Fred, go ahead
and hit a few six irons,and then go ahead and show me a
couple of tea shots, and thenI'll have you turn to the left and
I'll have you pitch one to thegreen, and then I'll have you roll
a put. You know, withinjust a few minutes, I can see
(04:26):
what your pattern is in your entiregame. And then from there, based
on what you're looking for, whetherit be full swing work or short game
work, we'll actually spend time workingon that one particular skill. But once
you learn what the new skill is, so to speak, the cool thing
about this approach is now you cantransition through every single shot in the game
playing with the same basic idea.Because the whole key here is changing the
(04:49):
impact that change the flight. Soyour club's either swinging down too much or
swinging up too much. Your clubbase is either open or it's closed.
You're either hitting off the toe orthe heel, and if you're doing that,
it's happening everywhere. Now. Theone thing about golf is that you
know certain swing flaws are more conduciveto success for certain shots, whereas they
(05:10):
lead to total disaster and other shots. So, for example, if you
had too much sweep in your golfswing. You might hit your T ball
just fine, but you might absolutelystruggle in the bunker. So all of
a sudden, you say, youknow what, my driver's swing is pretty
good, but you know, something'srollify bunker swing. It's the same swing,
but based on the particular shot,one is getting decent success in the
other one's total failure, even thoughthe flaw is exactly the same. Wow.
(05:35):
So what I do. I tryand get people excited. I say,
Okay, this is your pattern,this is what we have to work
on. Let's find success with oursix iron or a sandwich or whatever working
on. And then before the lessons, over many times, I'll take them
through every shot and I'll say,no, this is how it applies to
this, and this is how itapplies to that, and look we're putting
Look, it's kind of the samething, isn't it. And that's when
(05:55):
the light bulb goes on for them, because now people that have viewed the
game as being very big and scaryand daunting, all of a sudden go,
you know what, it's it's justthis this one thing. And you
remember the movie City Slickers, Sure, yeah, you know, and you
know Billy Crystal and and Jack Palancewhatnot, and and they're sitting there and
(06:18):
all the guys just one yeah,exactly, you know, he goes,
he goes, you know, whatyou need to understand is the secret to
life, you know. And heholds out his hand and Billy Crystal goes,
your finger, you know, that'ssecret life. He goes, No,
it's not not my finger. It'sit's this one thing. And that's
what I try and do with peoplein their golf games. You know,
the secret to their success or changingtheir their ball flight throughout their game is
(06:42):
usually just just one basic thing,one basic area, one basic concept.
And when you can make that workas a coach man, you can take
someone's game and just totally flip itaround in a very very short period of
time. That's really interesting. Andit makes me actually think of the of
Martin Chuck's The Tour Striker Training Club, because I just realized, by working
(07:08):
with that a bit, how wheremajor swing flaws. I saw Major's flaws,
and and by you connecting the dotsfor me of saying it's the same
swing, whether I'm the bunker,I'm the tea, I'm you know,
at a hundred yards out or twentyyards out. It's the same swing and
it's the same mistake, just sometimesit works better than others, right,
(07:29):
And I'm not going to you know, diminish the subtle nuances within the game.
I mean, certainly, you know, we change ball position on certain
shots, we change our weight andcertain shots. There are certain shots wors
are specialty shots we might change,you know, how we're releasing the club
or little things that happen on theadvanced level. You know. So for
listeners that are listening to this going, you know, I can't believe this
(07:50):
guy's telling me it's just one thing. It's all the same swing. Yeah,
I understand that, right. Butthe thing is is that from a
learning perspective, you know, themore you can take something that's complex and
make it seem simple and doable,the more fun you have and the faster
you progress. You know. Soas we start moving through shots, as
(08:13):
I start seeing someone's skill level increase, then I certainly like to pepper in
some of these little nuances that cantake them to a more advanced level.
But you know, there is aprogression to learning that exists everywhere, but
people a lot of times don't seemto think that it exists in golf.
And if you look at gymnastics forexample, you know, you take your
(08:35):
daughter to a gymnastics class and she'sfive years old and she wants to do
backflips on a balance beam in theOlympics, they don't just put her up
on a six foot high balance beamand say, you know, give it
a go. And that's not whatthey do because there's a consequence, which
is, you know, potentially breakingyour neck, you know. So what
do they do. They have acoach put the arm underneath the little girl
and then they take their their handand they flip their legs over right,
(08:56):
so that's kind of like an assistedback flip, and the kid does that
a couple of times, and thenfrom there, once the coach feels like
the push off of the legs andthe and the rotation is where it could
possibly be safe, then the littlegirl does it. But they land in
a big, you know, boonepit right uh. And then once they
(09:18):
see from a coaching perspective that that'shappening, then they go, Okay,
let's try and do this on flatground again, but we're gonna do it
just landing you know, right onright on the turf and we're gonna still
be there, watch yeah, Andthen it goes from there. Then they
paint a white line on the ground, and then they put the balance beam
up six inches and they do itand then they you know, do it
off of the high balance beam.And golfers they show up to the lesson
(09:41):
t and they all of a suddenexpect to sometimes engage in in technique so
to speak, that is at thetour level, when they don't have the
basic fundamentals to to create the basiccontact behind hitting shots. So we always
get to start with from a coachingperspective, you know what types of ideas
(10:01):
are going to get you in theair and forward hidden the club face solidly
getting around the course. And thenfrom there, as you start to demonstrate
skill, that's when the coach canreally open up his or her playbook,
so to speak, and give youthe things that you might want day one,
which are really reserved for a daythree sixty. That pretty much answers
(10:26):
my other question about follow through followup is if you're teaching them to understand
on their own where their flaws are, where the inconsistencies are, they should
be able to take that with themright, absolutely, and a lot of
times, well actually all the time. I talk to my students about trying
(10:46):
to get into the coach's mind,and the coach's mind is all about understanding,
you know, where we are now, the kind of impact and flight
that we have, now, wherewe're trying to go, why we're trying
to go there, and then tobe able to look at basic cause and
effect and make a decision as towhether or not I'm doing the right amount,
too much or not enough of whatmy goal is. So you know
(11:09):
right now, for example, ifyou're looking at your your impact, you
might have divids that are too deep. You might be hitting it off the
toe, you might be slicing itto the right. You know, so
you have an impact in a flight. Those are your outcomes. So let's
say you try and flatten your swingthrough you know, whatever idea the coach
gives you, and you understand,you know what he's talking about and why
you're doing it. Now, asyou start hitting shots, I mean,
(11:31):
you shouldn't be looking for the perfectshot. You should be looking for a
different shot. And to me,a different shot would be less divid ball,
more towards the center of the facemaybe and less of a curve to
the right, maybe a curve tothe left. So I'm never trying to
get people to their perfect flight rightaway. I'm trying to get them to
a different flight that is opposite ofwhat they came in at. And the
(11:52):
thing is a lot of people theywill sort of be a a non participants
to speak in their learning process wherethey're just kind of waiting for the coach
to say, oh, more likethis, more like that. But the
thing is is I want my studentsto be thinking their way through everything and
the moment they make contact, torealize that that dibbott that you just created
was way different than the dibbie hadten minutes ago, That contact on the
(12:16):
face was way different than it waswhen you walked in the door. That
ball flight, that trajectory is twiceas high or twice as low, or
that ball's curving you know less ormore. So once you can get them
understanding what's happening, increasing their awareness, you know, then they're really in
a position to coach themselves through it. And this is the same thing that
happened to me when I was takingguitar lessons back in the day. I
(12:39):
would start playing chords and I thoughtthey sounded great, you know, and
then my instructor would actually record us, and I would be like, what
is all that noise and all thenoise that was surrounding? You know?
The chord that I was playing wasthe buzzing of all the strings that were
supposed to be muted, that werehalf ringing out because I didn't have my
(13:01):
hands in the proper position to getthat pure sound. And I never heard
it until he made me aware ofit. And once I was aware of
it and understood it, I couldstart coaching myself and making those changes.
And the same thing applies to golf. You know, you got to increase
your golf IQ and increase your awarenessof what's happening in order to really,
you know, coach yourself and thenbe your own coach, so to speak.
(13:22):
I thought, and I thought forsure you were going to say,
And once I realized that all thatextra noise was there, I just quit
playing guitar. I was like,it's like, well, forget it.
If I can't do this, I'mout of here. And I think they're
golfers to do that. I thinkthat they're golfers who quit well, because
(13:43):
this game is so damn hard.But I think that people quit because it's
like I can't I can't do that. Well, it usually comes down to
I won't do that. So thething the thing is is that another thing
I started ever your lesson off withis someone will hit this ball flight which
which they are deeming in their mindto be bad or terrible, which we
(14:05):
all know is just an ego basedresponse. But the thing is is they'll
hit a shot and I'll say,you know, what I want you to
understand here is that your golf swingis absolutely perfect. And of course they
roll the rise and there like,why didn't even show up here to talk
to this guy? I go,No, your golf swing is perfect for
the result that you're getting. Right, So you know your golf ball.
(14:30):
It's like a computer you type somethingin, it's bit something out right.
And the thing is is that mostgolfers are out there, and I've said
this before in the show, mostgolfers are out there trying to make a
better swing, but your mind hasno idea what better is. Now your
mind can start to conceptualize what differentis. And if you make a different
swing, I promise you'll get adifferent result. So when golfers are out
(14:52):
there saying, you know, I'vebeen slicing for twenty years and I've taken
fifty lessons and I can't stop slicing, you know what's wrong with me,
I'll say, you keep making thesame swing. How's that possible? You
keep getting the same result? Youknow? So basically what you have to
do if you're a slicer and youhave an overload of slicing fundamentals which are
perfect for bending the ball to theright. So if you understand what those
(15:15):
fundamentals are, then you can say, okay, well what could I do?
Not better? But what can Ido differently to make a ball bend
left? So if you took yourslicing grip and made it a hooking grip.
If you took the tension in yourarms, which was conducive to slicing,
and you made it softer, whichis easier to hook. If you
changed your posture or the distance youstill from the ball. Anything you change
fred is going to make the balldo something different. You just have to
(15:37):
know what to change and the ballflight will change immediately. Will it be
comfortable? Oh? Are you?Maybe? Maybe not? It depends on
your It depends on your perspective ofwhat comfort is. So, for example,
golfers also think about their golf swingsand singular terms. Oh, I'm
going to work on my golf swing. This is my golf swing today.
(15:58):
Well, I mean you think TigerWoods has one swing. I mean he's
got like a hundred swings because he'sgot different ball flights he's trying to hit
during the round. If he hitshis ball into the trees on the right
and he has to hit a sliceback into play, then he has to
incorporate slicing fundamentals into a swing.If he hits his ball into the trees
and the left and he's got tohook the ball back into play, he
(16:19):
has to incorporate hooking fundamentals in thisswing. He's changing his swing on every
swing based on how high he wantsto hit it, how low he wants
to hit it, how much spinnhe wants or doesn't want, what kind
of curved tree he wants. Isyou want two yards, five yards,
ten yards? I mean everything hasto change to create a change in the
ball flight. I remember there waswas it you somebody always talking to on
(16:44):
this show, and they said,yeah, well, Tiger Woods has no
ego, and I'm like, whathe says that will Tiger never takes a
shot that he hasn't practiced a thousandtimes? Sure, And it's like,
oh that kind of you go,okay, that makes sense, But you're
right. I mean it's he's notgonna try to which I know that I
do and we do. And youknow, most golfers I would say that
are you know the handicap that I'mthinking about, not talking to a single
(17:08):
digit thing. But but it's Willdefinitely go yeah, I know I can
do this and with never never eventrying it on the driving lunch. For
this, this whole thing about coaching, it is all about the coach creating
the proper mindset and learning environment fromthe student to make a big change fast.
(17:30):
It's not about the ownership. Youknow, ownership takes patience, will
and discipline. But any coach thatunderstands how to do this can change your
ball flight, change it immediately andmoving a lot closer to, if not
give you the exact ball flight thatyou want in a very short time.
It's not you know, five lessons, it's not ten lessons. It's not
a six months program. It isliterally in the first fifteen minutes to one
(17:53):
hour of time that ball flight shouldchange and do something that you've never seen
it do before. And it's allabout embracing this idea of different verses better.
If the students in a learning environmentwhere they're okay with doing something differently
and listening to the coach learning versusperforming, it will change. And it
will change absolutely right now. AndI tell people that all the time.
(18:15):
In fact, I tell people,I say, Fred, if you come
out to my lesson team and ifyou don't have the best golf learning experience
of your lifetime and hit the ballbetter than you ever have in less than
an hour, then don't pay me. That's how strongly I feel about my
ability to change people's ball flights andchange people's golf games instantaneously based on communication
(18:41):
and coaching. It's what I hangmy head on. It's what I do.
And if the experience isn't the best, then you can go home and
never come back again. Well that'swhy you keep getting invited back here because
I haven't asked my money back yet. I guess perfect, you know.
But when I think about it froma coaching perspective, I mean how many
(19:02):
golfers out there would like their instructorto put their neck on the line like
that, Oh yeahs to be ableto say, I guarantee this will be
the best golf lesson you've ever had, or don't pay, you know,
it's that accountability. I don't thinkmost instructors can afford to say that,
you know, not well, ifyou're trained properly, then then you should
(19:23):
be able to do that, becauseit's accountability, you know what I mean.
It's like you know, when Iwhen I show up and I pay
for a particular service, you know, I'm expecting to get a lot of
value out of the service, youknow, And why shouldn't people expect that
same amount of delivery from from acoach now on their own, you know,
if they're not willing to do thework, you know, then that's
(19:44):
a different thing. But the thingis that in most cases, people show
up to a golf lesson and theyreally want to learn, They want to
hear what you have to say.Very few people come out and are are
difficult or standoffish or against what youhave to say. They're coming to you
for help, you know, soright now they're in a submissive position.
They're saying, help me learn howto do this, And as long as
(20:07):
the coach can control that learning environmentand they understand basic cause and effect,
every learning experience should be amazing andfulfilling for everyone that engages in it.
Can I change gears here for asecond, Yeah, go for it.
Yeah. Well, I have neverbeen to the PGA show in Orlando,
(20:30):
and everyone, right, everyone,A lot of the instructors, a lot
of the people that I talked toon this show send me email, Hey,
you're gonna be at the show thisyear. It's like, no,
I live in California. That's along way away, and I can't afford
to go. But if you wantto bring me out there'd be more than
happy to go. But you gotto go to the show this year.
(20:51):
I did. I did something thatthat I do every year, and that's
it's a good thing for Well,then let's start with this is if you
go every year, what is thestate of the show. What is the
state of the industry from your perspectivetoday? Well, I mean the show.
I've been going to the show Fredsince since I was a kid.
My my father, you know,we talked about before. He's a he's
(21:11):
a golf professional. He was ayou know, full time PGA professional acting
as a club pro. Now heactually has a product for golf pros called
ghost Tape. Have you heard aghost tape before? No? No,
I'm still thinking it. Well,first, your consumer, you're not a
golf pro. So basically, youknow golf clubs that that professionals purchased for
(21:36):
inventory. Sometimes they loan them outfor people to try, and sometimes some
people try them, they don't comeback. They nick them up though,
they take deep tibbots and they youknow, make ballmarks on the top,
so the inventory becomes worthless to theprofessional. So my dad created this product
called ghost Tape. It protects clubs. So now my point is all this
is that he's down at the showevery year as a vendor as opposed to
(21:56):
being a buyer. But I've beengoing to this show, so now you
get to go your dad. Yeah, exactly. So I've been going to
the show since I was a kid. When I was a kid, I
used to run through the aisles andI'd be collecting pamphlets, you know,
mountains of garbage that my mother wouldsay, you're not all the freebies.
And the great thing about the showis that it's it's the one week a
(22:18):
year or three or four days ayear where the literally the entire golfing industry,
you know, across the globe isall gathered or congregated in one place,
and it's just amazing to see howmany brands there aren'ts amazing to see
how many knickknacks there are for saleand training aids and lines of apparel,
and it's some it's huge. Imean, it's it's some you know,
maybe one point two miles or somethinglike that, you know, indoors that
(22:41):
you walk through all this stuff.It's it's it's massive, and I think
it's actually the world's largest trade show. But some of the companies, man,
they really go all out with withtheir displays. I mean, I
guess it would be sort of likewhen people watch on television, they'll see
some kind of an auto show,so to speak, where four Ward introduces
the twenty twelve line of cars andit's like this big galla event. Yeah,
(23:04):
that's kind of the way it isfor oh yeah, absolutely. But
but but the state of the golfindustry in two thousand twelve is very different
than it was in two thousand andtwo. Yeah, and how how do
you see that being reflected at theshow. Well, the show used to
be massive. I mean it's stillmassive now, but if you went,
(23:25):
you know, fifteen years ago,would seem even even bigger. And there
was a time where it really contractedquite a bit where people should up and
they said, what happened? Youknow, it just wasn't the same.
And then the last couple of yearsit's actually you see some of the manufacturers
coming back that maybe weren't there before. But it's not quite back to the
full strength like it like it usedto be, and you know, for
obvious reasons, but it's kind ofa cool thing. I go down there,
(23:47):
not so much to see the products. I go down there too,
you know, to try and advancemy career as a coach. I mean,
all the top magazines are there,all the TV networks are there.
This year I went down there andI was a product spokesperson for Paying.
They have a brand new uh inflight software app that coaches are using these
days or club fitters using these days. So I did a presentation with them,
(24:10):
and I was also down there withSligoware, which is the company out
of Canada that I am sponsored withas I spent some time in their booths.
So some of it's meet and great, some of it's uh, you
know, trying to advance your careerwith the right circle, so to speak.
And then you know, some ofit's just connecting with your peers and
trying to find out what the bestpractices might be. You know, I
(24:30):
told you a little bit back herethat I started a new company called Square
it Up, which is a marketing, personal branding, graphic design, website
design company for for golf, thegolf business, but you know, most
specifically targeted towards golf professionals, peoplelike myself that are you know, trying
to create a personal brand or apersonal business that you know is relevant,
(24:52):
you know, on a global scale. And and a lot of people that
are small business owners have been conditionedto kind of I think small, you
know, to look at the twentyfive miles that's surround their facility, to
not understand just how much leverage andhow much power they can have in this
market if they can utilize things likesocial media properly. And that don't understand
or they haven't been trained, soto speak, to understand the secrets of
(25:15):
marketing and branding. So I wentdown there and actually did a big presentation
for the Golf Business Network, whichmeets down there every year as well.
So I guess from my perspective,it was you know, part sideshow,
part meet and greet, you know, part launching this new business called Square
it Up, and then just tryingto find a place to rest my feetman,
because it is a long, longday. So since I really wanted
(25:40):
to hear your perspective on products thatare out there, but clearly that wasn't
it. But but what do youhear? What's the buzz? What is?
Yeah, I think that's what Iwas saying. What's the buzz on
the floor from the industry professionals aboutthe industry. Yeah, well, I
mean let's talk technology for a second. So from a coaching perspective, people
love love technology, and I thinkthat the one piece of technology that I'd
(26:06):
like to know more about. AndI didn't get a chance to look at
it that closely, but it wasreally a big topic of discussion. Podcasting
is a product now, it's aproduct called It was an analysis software slash
program called golf Guru, and itwas really you know, using sort of
three D motion analysis in a verycreative way, much like you'd see in
(26:26):
an Xbox style video game that alot of coaches were really buzzing about.
It was almost sort of taking thatlesson experience at the next level and doing
things now with seemingly simple platforms interms of you know, size or price
points or whatnot that five ten yearsago, you know, probably would have
(26:47):
cost twenty thousand dollars for a proto be able to do. So that
was something that was really really cool. Beyond that, you know, are
you finding there are more well,I guess you wouldn't see it. I'm
I guess I'm trying to ask ifthere are more coaches that are like,
I can't continue to do this anymore. They just can't sustain this business.
(27:10):
Because I'm not a businessman, I'ma golf instructor. Yes, absolutely,
I mean that's why we started thecompany and things. I mean, the
thing is is that there are somany coaches in this industry that are losing
ground versus gaining ground. And thesad thing is is that they're all extremely
talented coaches. I mean, whenyou think about, you know, golf
lessons, I don't think about golflessons as just golf instruction. I think
(27:33):
about the potential value or impact agolf instructor who's qualified can have on a
person's life. You know, you'retalking about number one, helping them mattain
a skill level and something to enjoy. If you're coaching, you know the
mental aspect of the game. Youknow, the attitudes that you learn help
you on off the course. Ifyou're coaching infuses nutrition, I mean,
(27:56):
you can definitely help people with youknow, aches and pains and lose weight
and prove their health. If you'reworking with kids, you can help them
get colleague scholarships. I mean itgoes on and on and on. But
when you look at what a coachtruly can do if he hears she is
good. I mean, the impactof the consumer is huge, and it's
a really important thing for coaches tobe able to see what their own value
(28:17):
is, but from there be ableto understand the practices of being a business
person. Like you said, thatallow you to show the world what that
value is and have them engage withyou on a more consistent basis, so
to speak. So you know,that's why it's all about branding these days.
I mean, the only difference betweenJim McClain and David Ledbetter and Butch
Harmon and Han Kaney and and someother instructor that's really fantastic out in the
(28:41):
Midwest that maybe doesn't have the samepotentials. It just comes down to awareness.
And with social media there are nomore gatekeepers. There's no one that
says you can or can't be seenor heard or whatnot. So it's really
about encouraging pros to build brands,to create content, to push it out
there, and to believe in thepossibility that exists within this amazing skill set
(29:06):
that you have of being able tonot only help people have fun, but
also maybe help them find ways toimprove their lives. In that buzz,
do you find that a lot ofthe old school instructors are accepting the power
(29:26):
of what the web can deliver slowly? Yeah, they are, they are
slowly, But they're also the youngguns like you that are coming up going
you're missing the point. They're understandingthat you have to you have to change,
you know, otherwise you're going tobe replaced. And you know my
clientele now, I mean ever sinceyou know, we've talked about social media.
(29:48):
We talked about YouTube, My YouTubechannel just went over four million views,
by the way, which is kindof hostile for me. Whow,
congratulations, thank you. You know, I've got three people on my lesson
to you right now Korea, andI'm teaching them every day for thirty straight
days. That's that's powerful, right. Yeah. I've got someone right after
them coming from from Luxembourg for asimilar program. I just answered a guy
(30:12):
from Australia who wants to try andfind a way to bring me to Australia.
I mean, and that's all becausethe world's heard them. They've heard
you on Golf Smarter. Yeah,that's right, they've treed me on the
Golf Smarter podcast. But you know, so the older guys, to answer
your question, you know, they'rethey're seeing some some younger pros so to
(30:32):
speak, do some really good things. And I think that the the sound
of the noise is loud enough,so to speak, that they're realizing that,
you know, maybe one year ofa down year, or two years
of a down year, or threeyears of having a down year, you
know, can be you know puton the economy, so to speak.
But there are people that are reallythriving in this marketplace right now, and
(30:56):
I'm lucky to be one of them. And it just shows you that when
you deal with a global market versusa local market, there's more than enough
golfers to make a wonderful living coachin the game, and there's more than
enough golfers for for every coach whohas that dedication and that mindset of being
a good person of business to dothe same. So yeah, yeah,
being a club pro is just notenough. Well, it's it's it's difficult
(31:22):
because you know, when you youknow, when you work for yourself,
when you have this ability to createa personal brand, then of course you
have the ability to select who yourtarget market is going to be. You
know, when you're working as aclub professional, you know you're working under
the parameters of of ownership or amanagement company, and they have certain expectations
brand right, yes, someone else'sbranding. So one of the interesting things
(31:45):
is that, you know, Igot this from the book Crush It,
which was the Gary Vanta check Book, and he basically said that, you
know, whether you love your jobor not, everybody, everybody should be
creating and actively building their own personalbrand. Because when you create your own
personal brand and you leverage that brandacross a worldwide market place through things like
(32:06):
social media. I mean, thatis the ultimate offensive strategy in job security.
You know, I hope to beat the Raven Golf Club Phoenix for
a long long time. But ifthere comes a day where for some reason
they want to go in a differentdirection, it's really not going to affect
me. And I'm not that worriedabout it, because you know, I've
(32:27):
got enough traction so to speak,everywhere where there's a million other places,
whether a local or abroad that Iknow that I could continue doing what I'm
doing and having a great time doingit. So it's all about security,
it's all about possibility, it's allabout feeling and powered. It's all about
feeling and control of the things thatyou're doing in life. And I think
(32:49):
that a lot of people don't feellike there's so much in control or in
control as much as they like tobe, you know, and all it's
all starts with the mindset, andall starts with what you build and how
you leverage that. Interesting. So, uh, favorite product that you saw
at this year's PGA Show. Favoriteproduct at the PGA Show this year,
it had to be the Golf Guruthing like I said, didn't see it
(33:10):
that much, but it looked reallycool. Well look for favorite, all
right, then favorite consumer product Favorite, Well it's gotta be slago where of
course it's not trying to do anythingto my game. I don't care about.
It's like, you know, loudmouth pants. I don't care.
I don't want to know what's gonnawhat's gonna that I need to really consider
(33:32):
buying because it's going to enhance myenjoyment, you know, And I'm gonna
give my business partner a plug here. I mean training aids for golf,
I mean they're a difficult thing.I mean there's a lot of training aids
out there, yes, but thething is is that most training aids are
not infallible. So, I mean, you could buy something, but there's
(33:55):
no guarantee that you're going to useit in the way that it was inten
to be used. And a lotof times when when somebody launches a training
aid, they'll they'll hand it toNick Faldo and they'll say, hey,
what do you think of this?Well, he's got a phenomenal swing.
So all the things that all thethings that the training aid is supposed to
do seem to work just perfect becauseyou have a you know, phenomenal golfer
(34:19):
swinging it, so they're real wellyou know, you know, wait,
wait, wait, I gotta saythat that is such an interesting point that
you know, we watched these infommercialsand we watched these guys who are saying
this is great. It's like,what, it didn't change anything for you?
You're absolutely right, thanks you.You know, every training aid really
needs to have a certain level ofcoaching associated with it so that it's used
(34:39):
properly, you know, so thatyou know, there's this blueprint in the
mind of the of the user.So there's a lot of training aids that
people buy they don't know how touse them. They're not being purchased for
a particular problem that the training aidcan fix. And as a result,
you go into someone's garage and there'sa bunch of training aige and they're all
piled up. One thing that's reallyunique about Martin Chuck's Tour Striker product is
(35:04):
that the feedback that you get isimmediate. The understanding of how to use
the golf club is on a levelthat's really not associated with the most training
aids. And Nice did a videothat's on my YouTube channel. I posted
it yesterday and it was all forkids. But you know, most people
(35:25):
when they come out for golf lesson, they want to know the how,
but they never consider to ask aboutthe why. And what I'm referring to
is they come out and said,well, how do I swing my arms?
Where should I put my grip?When do I turn my hips?
Now? Coming down? Is itfrom the ground up? You know?
What is my left need doing?And they want to know all of the
(35:45):
all of the how stuff, butthey never even look at the basic design
of their equipment and ask the question, why in the world did the nice
men and women aping designed this clubto look like this? Well, they've
designed it to look like that becausethey had a certain functionality in mind.
So every golf club has three basicdesign features you know that I look at
(36:05):
when I'm building a golf swing.Number One, the club leans on an
angle to the inside of the targetline. Well, guess what, that's
the angle you should swing it onright. Number two, the club is
built so that when it strikes theball, it should lean towards the target.
Well, when you do that,it creates maximum pressure on the golf
ball. The golf ball squeezes downto a portion of its normal size,
(36:27):
and when it expands, it shootslike a bullet off the face. Okay,
so now we have two design characteristics. Let's swing it on the angle
was built, and let's deliver aleaning shafter the golf ball perfect. How
do I know that? Well,that's how they built the darn thing.
What's the third thing, Well,if you swing it on its angle,
then the club face tends to rotatein accordance with that angle, what we
call swing plane. So you're tellingme that the entire secret for how to
(36:52):
hit a golf ball is presented inthe way they design my golf club.
Yes, So why is it thatpeople I have these clubs and instead of
swinging them on a tilt, theyswing them straight up and down on straight
line. Why is it that insteadof delivering a forwardlanding shaft, they deliver
a backward leaning shaft. And whyis it instead of having the face ropy
(37:13):
with the plane, it usually rotatessomewhere else because they have no idea what
they're trying to do. But ifyou give someone a croquet stick, they'll
use it perfectly every time because theyget it. They'll stand it. They'll
stand it straight up and down,they'll straddle at the move back and forth,
perfect cruque motion, you know,because they understand the implement and what
(37:35):
its purposes. So with Marvin's club, the Tour Striker, it's really revealing
how a golf club is supposed towork. And once people understand that,
they make big progress and make itfast. And that's why from a consumer
product, you know, even thoughhe is my business partner, I really
do believe that he's got the besttraining in the market. I'll tell you
(37:57):
one bucket, one bucket for mewith with the one of the Tour Striker
clubs, and I learned so much. I keep repeating this. I learned
so much about my swing and theflaws that that were so apparent to everyone
but me that I could not believethe impact that just using that club with
(38:17):
one bucket of balls made on onhow I approached my golf shot. It's
really it really is, you know. And I and I get an opportunity
to look at a lot of differenttraining aids. I get people send me
stuff. I had a guy sendme some stuff. He contacted me,
he asked me to look at hisproduct. He sent me the product,
(38:38):
and I feel terrible because I'm notcalling him back because it's like, what
he really this is. No,I'm not putting stickers on my golf club
to tell me how to hit theball. And that's all I'm gonna say
about that. Uh, it's it'shis club. I think that he came
across something that is really brilliant.And it's interesting that you say that about
(39:01):
the club and all the products areout there, but I agree with you.
Well, the other thing is thatyou know, if if someone does
buy the Tour Striker, you know, Martin does a lot of video as
well. It's a lot of videothat's free on YouTube like mine is.
You know, watch watch how theguy teaches who invented the product. You
know, because he used the producta lot of his demonstrations. I mean,
(39:22):
you're going to start to understand alot about why he does what he
does, why the product works.And I think it's a nice connecting point,
so to speak, between an implementthat's designed to help your game,
but also being able to see someof the information in the verbage behind how
to use it. So I woulddefinitely do that. Yeah, and just
to remind people because I haven't mentionedit in a number of episodes, but
(39:43):
if you have a question for Martin, not you know, I mean,
it is your partner. But ifyou have a question about your game for
Martin and you send it through me, you go to click on the Hey
Fred at golfsmarter dot com and tellMartin you have a question. Not only
is he going to respond to yourquestion, he's going to send you a
coupon code for a discount on theTour Striker and free shipping. So yeah,
(40:06):
yeah, I mean it's awesome.So please send your questions about your
game well, Jeff Ritter. Onceagain, it has been awesome speaking with
you. I love the perspective thatyou bring to it. I definitely walk
away from our conversations going, ohnow I get it. I really do,
and I appreciate that very much.Thanks Fred. I will talk to
(40:30):
you again soon. Best of luck. If I don't talk to you in
a while, best of luck withthe with square it up with the Nike
Junior golf camps and your academy withMartin. Great and while I still have
it here, Yeah, any golfprofessionals or actually any small business owners that
are looking for branding services and Theycan find us at square it up dot
(40:51):
com, wh
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