June 2, 2023 • 41 mins
In part 5 or our six part series of conversations with Dr. Glen Albaugh we go back to Golf Smarter #559, originally published on September 27, 2016 for an episode we called “The Truth About Playing Better Golf By Using Your Imagination”. Dr Albaugh was a regular guest on Golf Smarter yet he passed away in early 2023, at the age of 91. Sharing his lessons is a small part in how we choose to honor his memory.
In this conversation, we talk about how your can be your own “Coach of the Future” using your creative mind, taking practice swings with your eyes closed, post-shot awareness, and how we can be positively influenced by great writers (“When we play our best we see things in paragraphs, not sentences”). We also discuss the passing of The Legend, Arnold Palmer, who died just before our recording.
The full conversation is also available on GolfSmarterTV at https://youtu.be/i4d8hdrAjTg
Glen was a beloved professor and iconic figure at the University of the Pacific, visionary sports psychologist, and a beloved guest on Golf Smarter. He was also the head coach for the University golf team for more than two decades and was a mental coach and advisor for some of the great coaches including Bill Walsh and Pete Carroll as well as many PGA and LPGA Tour Players.
UoP Men’s Golf Program donations https://www.joinpaf.org/giving/
First Tee of San Joaquin https://firstteesanjoaquin.org/get-involved/(P.O. Box 77919 Stockton, CA 95267.)
“RENOWNED SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST, PROFESSOR AND GOLF COACH GLEN ALBAUGH WAS LIFE-LONG MENTOR” https://pacifictigers.com/news/2023/2/21/general-renowned-sports-psychologist-professor-and-golf-coach-glen-albaugh-was-life-long-mentor.aspx
WINNING THE BATTLE WITHIN (book#1) https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Battle-Within-Perfect-Swing/dp/0984417141/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=cv6nV&content-id=amzn1.sym.ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_p=ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_r=143-6411918-4597021&pd_rd_wg=MHvFS&pd_rd_r=408c30be-5b6c-4668-b601-c66fe051f5e9&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk
THE CLUTCH GOLFER FORMULA (book#2) https://www.amazon.com/CLUTCH-GOLFER-FORMULA-Exactly-Precisely-ebook/dp/B082953C85/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=cv6nV&content-id=amzn1.sym.ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_p=ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_r=143-6411918-4597021&pd_rd_wg=MHvFS&pd_rd_r=408c30be-5b6c-4668-b601-c66fe051f5e9&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk
In this conversation, we talk about how your can be your own “Coach of the Future” using your creative mind, taking practice swings with your eyes closed, post-shot awareness, and how we can be positively influenced by great writers (“When we play our best we see things in paragraphs, not sentences”). We also discuss the passing of The Legend, Arnold Palmer, who died just before our recording.
The full conversation is also available on GolfSmarterTV at https://youtu.be/i4d8hdrAjTg
Glen was a beloved professor and iconic figure at the University of the Pacific, visionary sports psychologist, and a beloved guest on Golf Smarter. He was also the head coach for the University golf team for more than two decades and was a mental coach and advisor for some of the great coaches including Bill Walsh and Pete Carroll as well as many PGA and LPGA Tour Players.
UoP Men’s Golf Program donations https://www.joinpaf.org/giving/
First Tee of San Joaquin https://firstteesanjoaquin.org/get-involved/(P.O. Box 77919 Stockton, CA 95267.)
“RENOWNED SPORTS PSYCHOLOGIST, PROFESSOR AND GOLF COACH GLEN ALBAUGH WAS LIFE-LONG MENTOR” https://pacifictigers.com/news/2023/2/21/general-renowned-sports-psychologist-professor-and-golf-coach-glen-albaugh-was-life-long-mentor.aspx
WINNING THE BATTLE WITHIN (book#1) https://www.amazon.com/Winning-Battle-Within-Perfect-Swing/dp/0984417141/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=cv6nV&content-id=amzn1.sym.ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_p=ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_r=143-6411918-4597021&pd_rd_wg=MHvFS&pd_rd_r=408c30be-5b6c-4668-b601-c66fe051f5e9&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk
THE CLUTCH GOLFER FORMULA (book#2) https://www.amazon.com/CLUTCH-GOLFER-FORMULA-Exactly-Precisely-ebook/dp/B082953C85/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=cv6nV&content-id=amzn1.sym.ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_p=ed85217c-14c9-4aa0-b248-e47393e2ce12&pf_rd_r=143-6411918-4597021&pd_rd_wg=MHvFS&pd_rd_r=408c30be-5b6c-4668-b601-c66fe051f5e9&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
In part five of our six partseries of conversations with doctor Glenn Alba,
we go back to Golf Smarter numberfive hundred and fifty nine, originally published
on September twenty seven, twenty sixteen, for an episode we call the Truth
about playing better Golf by using yourimagination. Doctor Alba was a regular guest
(00:21):
on golf Smarter because of his booksand for being a pioneering sports psychologist who
spent decades enhancing the life and gamesof golfers of all skill levels. Doctor
Alba passed away in early twenty twentythree at the age of ninety one,
and he was such an incredibly influentialguest on Golf Smarter, I wanted to
(00:41):
make sure that, beyond his twobooks, that we pay our respects to
this coaching legend. This conversation wasrecorded on video and is available on our
golf Smarter TV channel. Links tothe video, his two books and where
to make donations in his memory arein today's show notes. Welcome to Golf
(01:02):
Smarter. Mulligan's your Second Chance togain insight and advice from the best instructors
featured on the golf Smarter podcast GreatGolf Instruction never gets old. Our interview
library features hundreds of hours of gameimprovement conversations like this that are no longer
(01:22):
available in any podcast app. Doesn'ttake long to lock into a target.
The target doesn't move to some peoplesat shapes and you see it coming in
landing. What we have to discover, Fred, is how you see best,
because it's not the same for everybody. I can't tell you what you
should see, but you're going totell me what you see when you trust
your swing. The player to playat highest level have wonderful imaginations. So
(01:48):
as a guys the eight handicapped,we want to find out what you see
best and then we can lock inthat particular visual image. It's the same
with the feeling a swing that matchesit. Some people feel of fluid fluid,
fluid motion, but whatever it is, it's a whole movement of the
swing. It's much like creative writers. They see things in paragraphs, they
(02:09):
don't write sentences. So when we'replaying our best, we're playing in paragraphs.
Whatever we feel on our swing,it's it's the whole motion. With
another interview from the archives of GolfSmarter, here's your host, Fred Green.
Welcome back to the Golf Smarter Podcast. Glenn, great to be back.
Fred, It's great to see youagain. I'm glad to see you're
(02:31):
you're doing well. You got ahuge smile on your face. It's it's
wonderful, you know what. Iwas looking back and this is I think
like the fourth or fifth time you'vebeen on the podcast. And what's really
strange is the first episode that youwere on is exactly ten years ago today
(02:52):
that we're recording this. Oh myyeah, September twenty six, two thousand
and six is when we were firstintroduced to winning the battle within. That's
exactly right. Yeah, it's along relationship we've been having, my friend.
Yes, yeah, but we're stillwe're working. We're still working on
(03:14):
winning the battle within. Well,of course, we had to find out
what the battle is and then ofcourse we can win it. Oh,
you didn't tell me that. Waita minute, you've got a secret to
this that you didn't share with mein the first four At times we did
this, you've got to identify thebattle. Well, one of them we
will talk about today is how doI learn to play with my imagination?
(03:36):
That's one of the battles when welearn to do it. We're towards winning
winning the battle. Yes, okay, I think playing with your imagination is
such a fun topic to cover becauseyou you know, if you're just going
out there and worrying about your swingand not worrying about the target and not
(03:59):
you know, just focus in thecontact, then you're missing out on a
whole lot of golf. I certainlyagree with that. Yeah, it's it's
amazing to me how much imagination andcreativity is required in the single round of
golf, especially for those shots thatyou don't practice. So it's beyond imagination
(04:23):
creativity. It's just well I sawit on TV. I must be able
to do this. Well, youknow, it's a as we say it
would be able to play in yourimagination. You must understand, you know,
your athletic mind, and we haveto understand, you know, we
do have three minds and which wetrain with and which we perform with.
(04:46):
And we understand that, then wecan make that's the next step towards being
able to play in the athletic mind, which you mean to play with your
imagination where we see and feel andhear, and we play in our senses.
That's part of our mind. Thatworks a thousand times faster than our
thinking brain, and so we haveto get there. Of course, we
(05:08):
do know what it is, andwe knew what we have to know more
about how we get there and juststay there consistently. The consistently is,
I think is the struggle because you'realways second guessing yourself on the golf course,
aren't you. I mean, aren'tmost amateurs doing that. I don't
(05:30):
know about the pros, but Iwould think that amateurs are second guessing themselves
NonStop on what they just did,what they're about to do, what they're
thinking about doing. Well. Ourgolf underst we promotes that. It promotes
it in a couple of workshops thatwe've done, we call it the coach
(05:53):
of the future. The coach ofthe future is going to be much more
than a fixed coach. He's goingto be protagonists for self discovery and for
self coaching. In order to dothat, he's going to have to coach
in a different way. Now thatdoesn't ever undervalue the importance of fixing things.
(06:15):
But if you really want to playat the highest level, is possible
that there will allow that your yourskills allow you. You've got to go
beyond that and the cult of thefuture has to be a person that can
lead you and give you those opportunitiesso you can play with the flourish and
unleash your imagination. We think ofcoach, We think of um people that
(06:43):
you've worked with, like Pete Carrollof right in football and wh Yes,
yeah, great coaches, great coaches, but it's as motivators and strategy.
GISs, which is very different thanyou have in golf, is when you
have to coach yourself. Well,one of the things that we want to
(07:10):
have our coaches learned to do,and certainly Pete Carroll purcashonifies that if you
call self coaching, so we canprovide an environment where a person can learn
more about For example, wouldn't itbe great, Fred, that you can
walk into practicing the first see withthis screen you can trust Yes, well,
okay, I can help you withthat. Wouldn't it be great?
(07:34):
Wouldn't it be great if you hada procedure that you use and call a
pre shot routine that we give methe best chance to hit the best shot
possible. Wouldn't it be great?That would be awesome. Wouldn't it be
great that you had a procedure thatwould allows you to bounce back from difficult
(07:56):
situations when we miss shots. Wouldn'tthat be great? That would be great.
Wouldn't it be great also that youhad some skills that allow you to
enjoy there at times in between,As our Marine County friend Michael Murphy tells
us in golf in the Kingdom,if you can enjoy their times in between
(08:16):
in golf, you can enjoy thetimes in between and life ninety percent a
time we're in between and golf aren'tpay. So if self coaching leads,
I got to be able to dosomething in between, they'll give me the
best chance to be ready for thenext shot. Self coaching, self coaching,
(08:41):
self coaching without being one of thosecoaches that just is berating you the
entire time, which is living inmy head right now. Oh yeah,
I said it gets way too muchwith the mic, the kind of Mike
Ditka kind of coach who's yelling andscreaming, or Bobby Knight type of character
(09:01):
that's living in my head right nowwhen I get when I step on the
putting green, Yeah, those arein golf. Our golf torches don't necessarily
but rateists, but they fill it. Oftentimes with so much information, it's
very difficult for us to play automatically, for to me to play in our
(09:22):
play in our athletic mind, youknow if we have If we look at
it this way, Fred, wehave three minds. One is the athletic
mind, which we are allowed tounleash our imagination see feel here shots.
We have another, which is ourthinking mind. They can only do one
(09:43):
thing in their time, and there'scertainly the last thing it doesn't doesn't play
an engolf You can allow us,we can help us learn learn new skills,
but it overpowers us if we thinkabout things. If when we're trying
to swing, the swing takes lessthan two seconds, why in the world
(10:03):
should I be thinking about anything otherthan see the targets and feeling swings.
Why in the world. So oftentimesour golf teachers and well intention give us
a lot of information, which iswhat to be up to us to process
so we can eventually make so thatour swing would be automatic. But if
(10:24):
we're still thinking about the information ourgolf teacher have given us, it's really
difficult to have that fluid motion swing, which of course we see we saw
all weekend, didn't we we seethe great prayers at East Lake, and
of course I watched very carefully,you know, the on Victoria Island rooting
(10:50):
for Scott McCarron, who's my guyfor so long. They had a chance
to win that. But those swingsare fluid and beautiful, and that did
happen overnight. You know, theywent through a process of learning how to
play with see few and trust theirswings. Of course, we coach in
a different way if we wanted tohelp people. I understand this whole internal
(11:16):
feedback mechanism. You know. I'mlistening to and I'm thinking about the round
that I had just this past weekend, and I was getting to a point
where I was losing too many ballsoff the tea. Everything else was going
(11:37):
okay except for the putting part.But and so I started, and then
of course I became a second swingall American, right. I would lose
a ball on the first swing andgo up there and say, Jess,
slow everything down, relax, andI'd have a great drive. So then
I started going up to the teabox going okay, I've already lost one
ball. In my mind, I'dsay to myself, I've already lost one
(12:00):
ball. Just make this your secondswing and I'd have a nice drive off
the tea. Hell, well,you know, if if we expect,
if we if I expect the personto be able to plan their imagination,
then I have to set up trainingso they learn more about their imagination and
(12:20):
the internal feedback mechanism. For example, Friday, I work with the University's
civic golf team. I'm still hangout at the University of course, and
John Brook the coaches listed my aid. So what we're going to do today
(12:41):
with the players is to help themget in touch with their internal feedback mechanism.
So we did quite a few drills, but here's a couple of them.
Okay, Fred, what I'd likeyou to do this time is I
want you step up. I wantyou to have a target. I want
you to have an image with thetarget. Now, people see different things.
(13:05):
Some people see the whole shape ofa shot. Some people see just
the start of the trajectory, somepeople see it land, some people just
see the target. But what Iwant you to do is pick up the
visual image, walk into your dressposition, swing and see how long you're
able to keep that image while you'reswinging. All right, that's all.
(13:30):
So you swing, no judgment,just tell me. So you swing and
you turn back and oh I wasable to keep the image of the target
the whole way through. Wow,all right, next time I watched the
shot and went high right the person. How did you do that time with
the image? I lost the imageright right about before it's coming to impact.
(13:54):
Where did your where did your concentrationgo? Then? Well, I
always wanting to making sure that myswing is coming down in the right plane.
Wow, maybe maybe if you'd havekept the image. Let's try it
again and keep the image and seeif that helps you, you know,
trust your swing. So will theyget to do this a number of different
(14:18):
times, and what they do theyget to practice, you know, keeping
an image and finding out what theimage to visual image is most effective for
them. And it's no judgment onthe shot, just well, how well
they have kept this image, becausethat's that's part of this internal feedback system,
the visual. Then we will takeOkay, now we're going to work
(14:43):
on kind of study the fluidness intentionfree of the swing. So I want
you to swing this time, Fred, and I want you to swing,
and if it's it's free of tension, that would be a ten. You
turn around and tell If it's aone, that means you've probably held onto
it for you know, for derlives. So you swing, you turn
(15:07):
around and tell me, But moreimportantly, you're telling yourself, Wow,
that was about a seven. Ifelt a little bit of attention right about
an impact. Okay, so we'reworking on two one. We have what
visual Now we're on the kind ofsetting, and so the next roll that
we'll do, I'll start for asecond. Take your breath. You might
(15:30):
have a question. No, no, no, no, I don't know.
Please keep going. I have manyquestions, but I don't want to
break your train. Go well,okay, that's true. Now we get
to now what I'd like you todo. I want you to change the
club. Take your eight iron now, and I want you to close your
(15:50):
eyes at impact. Oh about tenyears ago Scott and Karran and his caddy.
In fact, he has the samecaddy. Now, we used to
close your eyes all the way through. They'd say, we're going to close
the eye that impact. And whenyou close your eyes, that impact.
Anybody's listening to this, you cantry this. You have about fifty more
(16:12):
recognition of what happens at the impact. It's amazing what happened? Oh yeah,
it's amazing. And and so allyou do is tell me this time
and yourself, what did it feellike an impact? If you had a
real free release, that's a ten. If you're held on and he shanked
(16:33):
it, that's a two. Soyou just swing and you tell me what
you felt. Now you can seehow this leads yourself coaching, because now
I've learned to really recognize the feelan impact. And also there's a sound.
Of course, I've got those twoothers. I had the auditory and
the tactile, which is the touch. So I'm playing, had to hit
(16:59):
the ball high right, and Isay to my house half, I'm aware
now, huh he held on.Well, I don't have to fix my
swing. I didn't have to fixthe way execute. Okay, come on,
Glenn, come on, Fred,let's let this one go next time.
So, but in do our trainingprocess of intergame training, we have
(17:21):
to go through these drills. Youknow, we have you know, inter
nine of them to help people developawareness of their internal feedback system, because
that's the that's the system in whichwe play. We don't. Yeah,
So that's what I would have youdo. Now, have you developed us
(17:42):
awareness of your internal feedback system youplay system to your appreciate routine, you
might find out that, boy,I'm really visual, so I'm back behind
the ball. I really have toconnect to my targets, and I really
have to see I'm I see thewhole shot. So that's going to be
(18:03):
a really important part of my preshotroutine. So I keep that image.
They're going to my address position,and I keep that image. Now another
person is also visual, but theyreally like to feel that fluid motion.
So when they step in, notonly they're seeing their target, they're feeling
their swing and advance anyway, Sothat mooses, you know, the self
(18:30):
discovery, develop an awareness of aninternal feedback system to put it into our
preshot routine. But now you canalso see how this You were going to
say something, go ahead, allpart of the pre shot routine we're talking
about here. Yeah, well,I was gonna I don't want to advance
(18:51):
the conversation beyond where you are,because I'm sure that there's a post shot
routine as well. That's the nextstep. Okay, go ahead or you
were where you where? I didn'tmean to interrupt. Well, the post
routine is, uh, is theawareness of this. Let's say you've got
(19:11):
a really release, a great trustingswing, hit a nice, beautiful soft
draw into a back left pin.I love it. It's in my memory
and I it's right there. It'snever gonna go away. I can really
feed a lot of shot. Let'ssay that I was stepping up to hit
(19:32):
a soft draw to that back leftpin and wow, it went high.
Right, So my awareness and mypost routine as well. You lost the
image of the target and you startthinking about your swim. So what I
(19:52):
need to do immediately is recognize that. Don't judge it, just describe it.
And if I mind out there ina fair with my seven, I
take the swing and wandered with thatnice fluid motion, and now I'm refocused.
We call it reviewing, replacing refocusing. Now I'm ready for the next
shot, and you better do itquickly. Yeah, you know so that
(20:15):
you're ready for the shot, sure, sure, but that you have time
to for the next shot. Obviouslyyou have time to think about it,
and oh maybe not to think aboutit, maybe to be aware so I
can okay, Yeah, Because inour limited system, the one we're talking
about. It works so fast.It's worth that we watch athletes or anybody
(20:41):
performers, dancers, singers, orwatch anybody that performs beautifully, well,
they're there in that system that worksat least a thousand times faster at least.
Yeah, And so if indeed that'swhat we want to do, be
when we play, a certain portionof our training needs to for us to
(21:03):
train and enhance, you know,our internal feedback system, that's our imagination.
So we can play with our athleticmind. So often. For me,
what what might happen is that I'lldo target golf. I'll pick it,
(21:26):
I'll stand behind the ball, I'lllook at the three points down the
line from the ball to the finalfinal resting place, final target, and
then I'll focus on something as smallas I can in the distance, which
is the line that I'm looking for, and I and I really try to
fine tune that target. You know, I'm not just looking at the mountaintop.
(21:52):
I'm looking of the patch of browninside the patch of green on that
mountaintop. I try to focus,but then I'll step up to the ball
and all of a sudden, I'llI'll see all I see is the ball.
I'll turn my head, I'll takeanother peek out to the distance,
see that target, But I don't. I honestly can't tell you how long
I can keep that image in myhead before I start focusing on clubhead position,
(22:18):
ball position, feet position, backswing. Yeah, on and well,
all of that's got to be youhave to you have to be automatic.
You can't be thinking about any ofthat stuff. Look, it doesn't take
long to lock into a target.The target doesn't move, The target doesn't
(22:41):
necessarily have to be a finite target, a specific one because some people she
shapes it does see a big,wide shape and you see somebody out of
landing. What we have to discover, Fred, is how you see best,
which is most effective way for you? Because it's not the same for
everybody. I can't tell you whatyou should see, but you're going to
(23:04):
tell me what you see when youwhen you when you trust your swing,
what do I see? And thiscan happen at all levels. You know,
this is obviously the players A playerat highest level have you know,
wonderful imaginations and they see they're quitea stute visually, but so as the
(23:26):
guys they ain't handicapped. He seesthings too, but we want to find
out what you see best and thenwe can lock in that particular visual image
for you. M h. Andit's the same with it's the same with
the feeling a swing that matches it. What do you feel? Some people
(23:48):
feel a fluid, fluid, fluidmotion, beautiful fluid motion, and some
people feels a little shorter. Butwhatever it is, it's a whole the
whole movement of the swing. It'smuch like creative writers. You're a creative
journalist. They see things, andthey see things in paragraphs. They don't
(24:10):
write sentences. They write paragraphs.So when we're playing our best, we're
playing in paragraphs. So whatever wefeel in our swing, whatever we feel
in our swing, it's it's thewhole motion. Oh, I need to
write that one down. When weplay our best, we see things in
paragraphs. I love that. Yeah, oh man, that's beautiful. Yeah,
(24:36):
we're done the jazz. You know, I've done a lot of you
know a music fan, sure,and I love I love, I love
jazz and the improvisation they have jazz. Yeah. And Stamp Gets the great
tenor sax player. Uh I methim, his his uh get the person
(25:00):
that lived with him, was BillWalsh's secretary for five years, and stan
Getz came and was a visiting professorat Stanford for one year. Yeah,
and why did he lead be left? Because there was nobody to play with.
And when we talk to stan Getz, he's a great technician, great
(25:22):
technician, as great golfers are.But when he plays, he's in this
wonderful mind of imagination. And that'show they improvise. They don't know where
how they're going, but they doknow. Yeah, but of course that
is after years of technical training.I mean, I don't think that somebody
(25:45):
who has never had let me justsay, art lessons or just experience with
art can paint an abstract that wouldbe appreciated by many others. Where it
takes someone who has How am Itrying to express this? Um hm?
(26:10):
Are you see where I'm going withthis? Is that, Yeah, you
can't. I can't do jazz,you can't do improvisation until you know.
You can't work out of the boxuntil you understand the box. I thought
it said stand get was a greattechnician, right, great technician and obviously
in golf, don't ever misunderstand me. Anybody's listening to this technique is important,
(26:33):
and I am I have the rightstuff. Technology is amazing, but
it's only the price of admission tohigh level play, and we have to
go beyond it. But don't misunderstandme. It's important. It's important to
have a griff that works. It'simportant to understand some of the technique of
(26:56):
me that I know many many reallyreally good golf teach many good and the
ones that I value the highest arethe ones that can go beyond it.
Go beyond can also help people unleashtheir imagination. But but obviously technique it's
essential. Yeah, but look atfred. Our golf industry bombards us with
(27:22):
technology and ways to fix us,saying Arnold Palmer if one of the first
to say, if the open technologyis overwhelmed us, it's overwhelmedness. This
golf swing is really pretty simple.Why are we making it so damn complicated
now? And we do and wehave a great time because that's the stream
of cash, that's where the gold. The golf indurry makes money by selling
(27:47):
you equipment and fixing your swing.Do they make any money by teaching you
to use your imagination? I don'tknow, but I know that's enough.
Step. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do they make any money having you
use old clubs and old technology?No, they want you to keep changing.
Oh it's amazing. It's a look. And I can hit a ball.
(28:10):
I can hit five shots on atrack. Man, I can find
what I find out all kinds ofthings right over everything, all of stuff.
Probably my middle name as well.Yeah, you mentioned Arnold Palmer a
moment ago, and as we're recordingthis, he passed away just yesterday.
(28:32):
And it's almost impossible to get intoa conversation about golf this week without remembering
Arnold and the impact that he hadon the game. And he must have
been coming along and really making hismark when you were a young golfer as
well. Oh yeah, do youcan you share any stories about the influence
(28:55):
that he had on you and yourgame and your philosophies on teaching. Well,
I think if he is right,we're right dead center. You know
that if you read all the Imean there's there's all kinds of information about
him now, all these quotes inetc. But he was he was always
(29:18):
always saying they were making this waytoo complicated. Look at the guy at
Charisma. He was sexy as hell, he really could play the game.
He was so he played with courage, you know, with passion, and
he was just so much fun towatch. I mean, he was he
(29:42):
went for it, and he waskind of unorthodox, wasn't he kind of
kind of orthodox, but some otherplayers are. But man, he could
really he made contact. He washe wonderful, just wonderful, wonderful human
(30:04):
being. I remember one scene whenhe was playing in the eighteen t for
a long time ago, and Iwas following John Flannery, who was one
of my first players. This issometime in the early nineties, and I
was standing in the trees and hewas walking by. He was staying.
(30:26):
I was standing in the trees,and he looked over at me. It
looked right in my eye, thengave me a wink and it thumbs up.
So he did that so often.I mean, that's a that's a
true story. That's the way heand you had never met him before,
he didn't know, you know,but he just made contact. Oh yeah,
(30:51):
he has even the slightest contact andyou feel touched. What he made
everybody feel special when you're with him. That's what great tea, great coaches,
when you're with them you know,you are the most important person that
I'm working with at the moment,and Arnold was beautiful in that way.
(31:17):
So we live in a very differenttime than when Arnie came of age,
where you know, we would wewould hear about Arnie and he built Arnie's
army based on newspaper reports and possiblytelevision recaps because you weren't you know,
right now we live in a obviouslythe twenty four hour news cycle, which
(31:38):
is with the internet's turned into atwenty four second news cycle. Things changed
so rapidly and so fast. Whatwas it about Arnie that you remember at
that time that just had his charisma, had his magnetism, jumped through the
pages of the newspaper and jumped throughthe radio reports in the newspaper and the
(32:00):
television reports. Well, yes,I did, I already did I mention
that before? Yes, he doneas you said. He's a charismatic,
great sex appeal um, courageous.You know, Uh loved competition, was
(32:23):
so acknowledged the the other people hehad competed with. I think he he
loved he loved the action, andI'm not sure it was always all about
the winning. I think he justembraced the opportunity, you know, to
be a closer, to be in, to be there, because I'm in.
(32:45):
He has some heartbreaks so and ofcourse he has some great, great
triumphs. But anybody the laser onthe line, like Arnold Palmer or the
great teams that we watch, orthe coaches, or the athletes the wanted,
truly, truly are blessed with theopportunity to know that they embraced the
(33:05):
opportunity to compete with the best,and they love that, and they love
that more and I think they lovethat more than the winning. And I
think that he he Curty to me, personified that, right, right,
do you remember the time where hejust he was at his best and that
(33:28):
even with his losses, I thinkthat he was so endearing that people would
feel his pain and feel like theylost as well. Have you witnessed any
other athletes in your time since thatcompare to what Arnie's army was? Like?
Oh? Oh, teams are athleteseither or I mean could be the
(33:52):
Celtics of the fifties, or areTiger Woods or Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali.
I mean, there's so many different. How about the Arthur ashe how
about how about the Seahawks were undertwo yard line and they throw the interception,
and so Pete Carroll is a goodfriend, of course, yes,
(34:15):
so let's talk about that and howhe responded. So two days after that,
Martin Lare from Today's Show was interviewingit's a great interview. Yes,
there's a great interview. And hestarted the interview by saying, Pete,
(34:36):
I want you to know when youmade that call, I thought it was
the worst call in the history offootball. So Pete Carroll said, h
not the worst call, maybe theworst result. He said, what did
you do? And that at thatat that moment said I had about fifteen
seconds. He said the next thingI had to do to make a shoot
(35:00):
that we put this in perspective,and it took some time to do that.
But the whole the thing about itis if if they're going to be
judged on one play, well,let me retract, let me go back,
because you ask me an important question. I would say that that the
(35:20):
Peak Carols and their own Palmers andother athletes, they say, it's not
it's not about whether we wanted orlost it. It was about being having
the opportunity embrace the opportunity to bethere, to be there and make the
play and give ourself a chance.It's not whether the play work is having
(35:40):
the opportunity. Look at they talkabout closers. The closer is that guy
that comes in and the giants arelooking for one. By the way,
all the other interviews we do andthey've written about it, the closers are
not always best players. The closuresthe ones that want the ball. They
(36:04):
want to have the opportunity. Andit's note about winning, it's having the
opportunity. So Arnold, Arnold personifiedthat he wanted the opportunity to be in
the action always and he responded,you know, beautifully. And it wasn't
always the green jacket, but hewas always had the green jacket personality because
(36:25):
he always did absolutely embraced that opportunityfor giving me a chance to say that,
Oh, thank you so much forsaying that, that's beautiful. That's
beautiful. Let's let everybody know aboutthe book too. Winning the Battle within
about a brief summary for those whohave not heard about it, Paul,
But Winning the Battle then as alife's work, and the chronicles, you
(36:52):
know, the whole process that wemay need to go through in order for
us to give ourselves the best chance. The last chapter is getting to the
winner circle, and the first chapteris an introduction. Is what all the
steps that we need to take togive herself the best chance. It's never
a guarantee, it's just I canguarantee you if you follow these principles,
(37:15):
you will give yourself the best chance. And that's the critical element, give
yourself a chance to be there.Yeah right, No, I'm growing up.
I always used to say, Idon't necessarily want a Cadillac. I
just want to be able to affordthe option. I like that. That's
really good. Got any other bookscoming down the back? One. I'm
(37:40):
collaborating with Deerk Jones. You know, the Wrong Drive Champion. He may
if you know one of your broadcasts. I don't know. He's he's an
exceptional guy. And we're about eightypercent done. Actually, I hope he's
listening because it balls in his courtat the moment. Well, i'll read
out to him and we'll get himon the show. We'll definitely do that.
(38:02):
Oh, he's good, he's good. He's you know. He won
the long Drive Master and Championship intwo thousand and four. Then he repeated
in two thousand and twelve, infact, I have a great podcast of
(38:22):
my interview with him. You knowwhat he need to you, you know,
in an order to give himself thebest chant. Now he hits it
really far, and he's not abig guy. And now of course he's
a teacher of gold and he's reallyexplored and taking the whole thing about sports
psychology and teaching technique and bringing themboth together. The name of the book
(38:45):
is trust your Swim. And whencan we hopefully see it? Erica,
you're paying attention with balls in yourcourt. When we get to see this
book? Oh yeah, you know, I think for sure by February,
okay, twenty seventeen, it's abouteighty percent done. Okay, so then
(39:07):
in February twenty seventeen, you betterexpect to hear back from me to get
you back on the show. Oh, I'd love that. That would be
great. This is sound so good. Anytime opportunity to talk about this.
You know, I'm absolutely delighted andI appreciate you give me the invitation.
(39:29):
You know you've done You've been doingthis for ten years. Yeah. Wow,
it's morphed into quite a deal.Thank you. Podcasting is morphed into
quite a deal because when when Ifirst contacted you in two thousand and six
and said podcast, I'm sure yousaid what Yeah, it's like, what
(39:49):
are you talking about? What's apodcast? So yeah, I've definitely watched
this thing grow and uh, podcastinghas taken taken front seat to many of
there are forms of media. It'sit's awesome. I love it. It
is amazing. Yeah. Yeah,yeah, let's remember remember it though.
The technology is only the price ofadmission to the various high level play doesn't
(40:14):
matter what the endeavor is. Andit's tough that you do because you're beautifully
spontaneous, by the way, thankyou, and that that takes practice.
Well yeah, it definitely does.And I'm going to repeat that and ask
probably call you, and my wifesays, can you just stay focused on
one thing? No, but Glennsaid, I'm beautifully spontaneous, So thank
(40:39):
you for that. I really appreciatethat. You're welcome, Fred, Glenn.
It's always great to talk to you. I thank you so much for
your time and it's great to seeyou this time. I think the first
time we've done this through video.Um. Yeah, but thank you.
You look great and I wish youall the best and wait for the next
(41:00):
book to come out. Thank you, Fred M.
In part five of our six partseries of conversations with doctor Glenn Alba,
we go back to Golf Smarter numberfive hundred and fifty nine, originally published
on September twenty seven, twenty sixteen, for an episode we call the Truth
about playing better Golf by using yourimagination. Doctor Alba was a regular guest
(00:21):
on golf Smarter because of his booksand for being a pioneering sports psychologist who
spent decades enhancing the life and gamesof golfers of all skill levels. Doctor
Alba passed away in early twenty twentythree at the age of ninety one,
and he was such an incredibly influentialguest on Golf Smarter, I wanted to
(00:41):
make sure that, beyond his twobooks, that we pay our respects to
this coaching legend. This conversation wasrecorded on video and is available on our
golf Smarter TV channel. Links tothe video, his two books and where
to make donations in his memory arein today's show notes. Welcome to Golf
(01:02):
Smarter. Mulligan's your Second Chance togain insight and advice from the best instructors
featured on the golf Smarter podcast GreatGolf Instruction never gets old. Our interview
library features hundreds of hours of gameimprovement conversations like this that are no longer
(01:22):
available in any podcast app. Doesn'ttake long to lock into a target.
The target doesn't move to some peoplesat shapes and you see it coming in
landing. What we have to discover, Fred, is how you see best,
because it's not the same for everybody. I can't tell you what you
should see, but you're going totell me what you see when you trust
your swing. The player to playat highest level have wonderful imaginations. So
(01:48):
as a guys the eight handicapped,we want to find out what you see
best and then we can lock inthat particular visual image. It's the same
with the feeling a swing that matchesit. Some people feel of fluid fluid,
fluid motion, but whatever it is, it's a whole movement of the
swing. It's much like creative writers. They see things in paragraphs, they
(02:09):
don't write sentences. So when we'replaying our best, we're playing in paragraphs.
Whatever we feel on our swing,it's it's the whole motion. With
another interview from the archives of GolfSmarter, here's your host, Fred Green.
Welcome back to the Golf Smarter Podcast. Glenn, great to be back.
Fred, It's great to see youagain. I'm glad to see you're
(02:31):
you're doing well. You got ahuge smile on your face. It's it's
wonderful, you know what. Iwas looking back and this is I think
like the fourth or fifth time you'vebeen on the podcast. And what's really
strange is the first episode that youwere on is exactly ten years ago today
(02:52):
that we're recording this. Oh myyeah, September twenty six, two thousand
and six is when we were firstintroduced to winning the battle within. That's
exactly right. Yeah, it's along relationship we've been having, my friend.
Yes, yeah, but we're stillwe're working. We're still working on
(03:14):
winning the battle within. Well,of course, we had to find out
what the battle is and then ofcourse we can win it. Oh,
you didn't tell me that. Waita minute, you've got a secret to
this that you didn't share with mein the first four At times we did
this, you've got to identify thebattle. Well, one of them we
will talk about today is how doI learn to play with my imagination?
(03:36):
That's one of the battles when welearn to do it. We're towards winning
winning the battle. Yes, okay, I think playing with your imagination is
such a fun topic to cover becauseyou you know, if you're just going
out there and worrying about your swingand not worrying about the target and not
(03:59):
you know, just focus in thecontact, then you're missing out on a
whole lot of golf. I certainlyagree with that. Yeah, it's it's
amazing to me how much imagination andcreativity is required in the single round of
golf, especially for those shots thatyou don't practice. So it's beyond imagination
(04:23):
creativity. It's just well I sawit on TV. I must be able
to do this. Well, youknow, it's a as we say it
would be able to play in yourimagination. You must understand, you know,
your athletic mind, and we haveto understand, you know, we
do have three minds and which wetrain with and which we perform with.
(04:46):
And we understand that, then wecan make that's the next step towards being
able to play in the athletic mind, which you mean to play with your
imagination where we see and feel andhear, and we play in our senses.
That's part of our mind. Thatworks a thousand times faster than our
thinking brain, and so we haveto get there. Of course, we
(05:08):
do know what it is, andwe knew what we have to know more
about how we get there and juststay there consistently. The consistently is,
I think is the struggle because you'realways second guessing yourself on the golf course,
aren't you. I mean, aren'tmost amateurs doing that. I don't
(05:30):
know about the pros, but Iwould think that amateurs are second guessing themselves
NonStop on what they just did,what they're about to do, what they're
thinking about doing. Well. Ourgolf underst we promotes that. It promotes
it in a couple of workshops thatwe've done, we call it the coach
(05:53):
of the future. The coach ofthe future is going to be much more
than a fixed coach. He's goingto be protagonists for self discovery and for
self coaching. In order to dothat, he's going to have to coach
in a different way. Now thatdoesn't ever undervalue the importance of fixing things.
(06:15):
But if you really want to playat the highest level, is possible
that there will allow that your yourskills allow you. You've got to go
beyond that and the cult of thefuture has to be a person that can
lead you and give you those opportunitiesso you can play with the flourish and
unleash your imagination. We think ofcoach, We think of um people that
(06:43):
you've worked with, like Pete Carrollof right in football and wh Yes,
yeah, great coaches, great coaches, but it's as motivators and strategy.
GISs, which is very different thanyou have in golf, is when you
have to coach yourself. Well,one of the things that we want to
(07:10):
have our coaches learned to do,and certainly Pete Carroll purcashonifies that if you
call self coaching, so we canprovide an environment where a person can learn
more about For example, wouldn't itbe great, Fred, that you can
walk into practicing the first see withthis screen you can trust Yes, well,
okay, I can help you withthat. Wouldn't it be great?
(07:34):
Wouldn't it be great if you hada procedure that you use and call a
pre shot routine that we give methe best chance to hit the best shot
possible. Wouldn't it be great?That would be awesome. Wouldn't it be
great that you had a procedure thatwould allows you to bounce back from difficult
(07:56):
situations when we miss shots. Wouldn'tthat be great? That would be great.
Wouldn't it be great also that youhad some skills that allow you to
enjoy there at times in between,As our Marine County friend Michael Murphy tells
us in golf in the Kingdom,if you can enjoy their times in between
(08:16):
in golf, you can enjoy thetimes in between and life ninety percent a
time we're in between and golf aren'tpay. So if self coaching leads,
I got to be able to dosomething in between, they'll give me the
best chance to be ready for thenext shot. Self coaching, self coaching,
(08:41):
self coaching without being one of thosecoaches that just is berating you the
entire time, which is living inmy head right now. Oh yeah,
I said it gets way too muchwith the mic, the kind of Mike
Ditka kind of coach who's yelling andscreaming, or Bobby Knight type of character
(09:01):
that's living in my head right nowwhen I get when I step on the
putting green, Yeah, those arein golf. Our golf torches don't necessarily
but rateists, but they fill it. Oftentimes with so much information, it's
very difficult for us to play automatically, for to me to play in our
(09:22):
play in our athletic mind, youknow if we have If we look at
it this way, Fred, wehave three minds. One is the athletic
mind, which we are allowed tounleash our imagination see feel here shots.
We have another, which is ourthinking mind. They can only do one
(09:43):
thing in their time, and there'scertainly the last thing it doesn't doesn't play
an engolf You can allow us,we can help us learn learn new skills,
but it overpowers us if we thinkabout things. If when we're trying
to swing, the swing takes lessthan two seconds, why in the world
(10:03):
should I be thinking about anything otherthan see the targets and feeling swings.
Why in the world. So oftentimesour golf teachers and well intention give us
a lot of information, which iswhat to be up to us to process
so we can eventually make so thatour swing would be automatic. But if
(10:24):
we're still thinking about the information ourgolf teacher have given us, it's really
difficult to have that fluid motion swing, which of course we see we saw
all weekend, didn't we we seethe great prayers at East Lake, and
of course I watched very carefully,you know, the on Victoria Island rooting
(10:50):
for Scott McCarron, who's my guyfor so long. They had a chance
to win that. But those swingsare fluid and beautiful, and that did
happen overnight. You know, theywent through a process of learning how to
play with see few and trust theirswings. Of course, we coach in
a different way if we wanted tohelp people. I understand this whole internal
(11:16):
feedback mechanism. You know. I'mlistening to and I'm thinking about the round
that I had just this past weekend, and I was getting to a point
where I was losing too many ballsoff the tea. Everything else was going
(11:37):
okay except for the putting part.But and so I started, and then
of course I became a second swingall American, right. I would lose
a ball on the first swing andgo up there and say, Jess,
slow everything down, relax, andI'd have a great drive. So then
I started going up to the teabox going okay, I've already lost one
ball. In my mind, I'dsay to myself, I've already lost one
(12:00):
ball. Just make this your secondswing and I'd have a nice drive off
the tea. Hell, well,you know, if if we expect,
if we if I expect the personto be able to plan their imagination,
then I have to set up trainingso they learn more about their imagination and
(12:20):
the internal feedback mechanism. For example, Friday, I work with the University's
civic golf team. I'm still hangout at the University of course, and
John Brook the coaches listed my aid. So what we're going to do today
(12:41):
with the players is to help themget in touch with their internal feedback mechanism.
So we did quite a few drills, but here's a couple of them.
Okay, Fred, what I'd likeyou to do this time is I
want you step up. I wantyou to have a target. I want
you to have an image with thetarget. Now, people see different things.
(13:05):
Some people see the whole shape ofa shot. Some people see just
the start of the trajectory, somepeople see it land, some people just
see the target. But what Iwant you to do is pick up the
visual image, walk into your dressposition, swing and see how long you're
able to keep that image while you'reswinging. All right, that's all.
(13:30):
So you swing, no judgment,just tell me. So you swing and
you turn back and oh I wasable to keep the image of the target
the whole way through. Wow,all right, next time I watched the
shot and went high right the person. How did you do that time with
the image? I lost the imageright right about before it's coming to impact.
(13:54):
Where did your where did your concentrationgo? Then? Well, I
always wanting to making sure that myswing is coming down in the right plane.
Wow, maybe maybe if you'd havekept the image. Let's try it
again and keep the image and seeif that helps you, you know,
trust your swing. So will theyget to do this a number of different
(14:18):
times, and what they do theyget to practice, you know, keeping
an image and finding out what theimage to visual image is most effective for
them. And it's no judgment onthe shot, just well, how well
they have kept this image, becausethat's that's part of this internal feedback system,
the visual. Then we will takeOkay, now we're going to work
(14:43):
on kind of study the fluidness intentionfree of the swing. So I want
you to swing this time, Fred, and I want you to swing,
and if it's it's free of tension, that would be a ten. You
turn around and tell If it's aone, that means you've probably held onto
it for you know, for derlives. So you swing, you turn
(15:07):
around and tell me, But moreimportantly, you're telling yourself, Wow,
that was about a seven. Ifelt a little bit of attention right about
an impact. Okay, so we'reworking on two one. We have what
visual Now we're on the kind ofsetting, and so the next roll that
we'll do, I'll start for asecond. Take your breath. You might
(15:30):
have a question. No, no, no, no, I don't know.
Please keep going. I have manyquestions, but I don't want to
break your train. Go well,okay, that's true. Now we get
to now what I'd like you todo. I want you to change the
club. Take your eight iron now, and I want you to close your
(15:50):
eyes at impact. Oh about tenyears ago Scott and Karran and his caddy.
In fact, he has the samecaddy. Now, we used to
close your eyes all the way through. They'd say, we're going to close
the eye that impact. And whenyou close your eyes, that impact.
Anybody's listening to this, you cantry this. You have about fifty more
(16:12):
recognition of what happens at the impact. It's amazing what happened? Oh yeah,
it's amazing. And and so allyou do is tell me this time
and yourself, what did it feellike an impact? If you had a
real free release, that's a ten. If you're held on and he shanked
(16:33):
it, that's a two. Soyou just swing and you tell me what
you felt. Now you can seehow this leads yourself coaching, because now
I've learned to really recognize the feelan impact. And also there's a sound.
Of course, I've got those twoothers. I had the auditory and
the tactile, which is the touch. So I'm playing, had to hit
(16:59):
the ball high right, and Isay to my house half, I'm aware
now, huh he held on.Well, I don't have to fix my
swing. I didn't have to fixthe way execute. Okay, come on,
Glenn, come on, Fred,let's let this one go next time.
So, but in do our trainingprocess of intergame training, we have
(17:21):
to go through these drills. Youknow, we have you know, inter
nine of them to help people developawareness of their internal feedback system, because
that's the that's the system in whichwe play. We don't. Yeah,
So that's what I would have youdo. Now, have you developed us
(17:42):
awareness of your internal feedback system youplay system to your appreciate routine, you
might find out that, boy,I'm really visual, so I'm back behind
the ball. I really have toconnect to my targets, and I really
have to see I'm I see thewhole shot. So that's going to be
(18:03):
a really important part of my preshotroutine. So I keep that image.
They're going to my address position,and I keep that image. Now another
person is also visual, but theyreally like to feel that fluid motion.
So when they step in, notonly they're seeing their target, they're feeling
their swing and advance anyway, Sothat mooses, you know, the self
(18:30):
discovery, develop an awareness of aninternal feedback system to put it into our
preshot routine. But now you canalso see how this You were going to
say something, go ahead, allpart of the pre shot routine we're talking
about here. Yeah, well,I was gonna I don't want to advance
(18:51):
the conversation beyond where you are,because I'm sure that there's a post shot
routine as well. That's the nextstep. Okay, go ahead or you
were where you where? I didn'tmean to interrupt. Well, the post
routine is, uh, is theawareness of this. Let's say you've got
(19:11):
a really release, a great trustingswing, hit a nice, beautiful soft
draw into a back left pin.I love it. It's in my memory
and I it's right there. It'snever gonna go away. I can really
feed a lot of shot. Let'ssay that I was stepping up to hit
(19:32):
a soft draw to that back leftpin and wow, it went high.
Right, So my awareness and mypost routine as well. You lost the
image of the target and you startthinking about your swim. So what I
(19:52):
need to do immediately is recognize that. Don't judge it, just describe it.
And if I mind out there ina fair with my seven, I
take the swing and wandered with thatnice fluid motion, and now I'm refocused.
We call it reviewing, replacing refocusing. Now I'm ready for the next
shot, and you better do itquickly. Yeah, you know so that
(20:15):
you're ready for the shot, sure, sure, but that you have time
to for the next shot. Obviouslyyou have time to think about it,
and oh maybe not to think aboutit, maybe to be aware so I
can okay, Yeah, Because inour limited system, the one we're talking
about. It works so fast.It's worth that we watch athletes or anybody
(20:41):
performers, dancers, singers, orwatch anybody that performs beautifully, well,
they're there in that system that worksat least a thousand times faster at least.
Yeah, And so if indeed that'swhat we want to do, be
when we play, a certain portionof our training needs to for us to
(21:03):
train and enhance, you know,our internal feedback system, that's our imagination.
So we can play with our athleticmind. So often. For me,
what what might happen is that I'lldo target golf. I'll pick it,
(21:26):
I'll stand behind the ball, I'lllook at the three points down the
line from the ball to the finalfinal resting place, final target, and
then I'll focus on something as smallas I can in the distance, which
is the line that I'm looking for, and I and I really try to
fine tune that target. You know, I'm not just looking at the mountaintop.
(21:52):
I'm looking of the patch of browninside the patch of green on that
mountaintop. I try to focus,but then I'll step up to the ball
and all of a sudden, I'llI'll see all I see is the ball.
I'll turn my head, I'll takeanother peek out to the distance,
see that target, But I don't. I honestly can't tell you how long
I can keep that image in myhead before I start focusing on clubhead position,
(22:18):
ball position, feet position, backswing. Yeah, on and well,
all of that's got to be youhave to you have to be automatic.
You can't be thinking about any ofthat stuff. Look, it doesn't take
long to lock into a target.The target doesn't move, The target doesn't
(22:41):
necessarily have to be a finite target, a specific one because some people she
shapes it does see a big,wide shape and you see somebody out of
landing. What we have to discover, Fred, is how you see best,
which is most effective way for you? Because it's not the same for
everybody. I can't tell you whatyou should see, but you're going to
(23:04):
tell me what you see when youwhen you when you trust your swing,
what do I see? And thiscan happen at all levels. You know,
this is obviously the players A playerat highest level have you know,
wonderful imaginations and they see they're quitea stute visually, but so as the
(23:26):
guys they ain't handicapped. He seesthings too, but we want to find
out what you see best and thenwe can lock in that particular visual image
for you. M h. Andit's the same with it's the same with
the feeling a swing that matches it. What do you feel? Some people
(23:48):
feel a fluid, fluid, fluidmotion, beautiful fluid motion, and some
people feels a little shorter. Butwhatever it is, it's a whole the
whole movement of the swing. It'smuch like creative writers. You're a creative
journalist. They see things, andthey see things in paragraphs. They don't
(24:10):
write sentences. They write paragraphs.So when we're playing our best, we're
playing in paragraphs. So whatever wefeel in our swing, whatever we feel
in our swing, it's it's thewhole motion. Oh, I need to
write that one down. When weplay our best, we see things in
paragraphs. I love that. Yeah, oh man, that's beautiful. Yeah,
(24:36):
we're done the jazz. You know, I've done a lot of you
know a music fan, sure,and I love I love, I love
jazz and the improvisation they have jazz. Yeah. And Stamp Gets the great
tenor sax player. Uh I methim, his his uh get the person
(25:00):
that lived with him, was BillWalsh's secretary for five years, and stan
Getz came and was a visiting professorat Stanford for one year. Yeah,
and why did he lead be left? Because there was nobody to play with.
And when we talk to stan Getz, he's a great technician, great
(25:22):
technician, as great golfers are.But when he plays, he's in this
wonderful mind of imagination. And that'show they improvise. They don't know where
how they're going, but they doknow. Yeah, but of course that
is after years of technical training.I mean, I don't think that somebody
(25:45):
who has never had let me justsay, art lessons or just experience with
art can paint an abstract that wouldbe appreciated by many others. Where it
takes someone who has How am Itrying to express this? Um hm?
(26:10):
Are you see where I'm going withthis? Is that, Yeah, you
can't. I can't do jazz,you can't do improvisation until you know.
You can't work out of the boxuntil you understand the box. I thought
it said stand get was a greattechnician, right, great technician and obviously
in golf, don't ever misunderstand me. Anybody's listening to this technique is important,
(26:33):
and I am I have the rightstuff. Technology is amazing, but
it's only the price of admission tohigh level play, and we have to
go beyond it. But don't misunderstandme. It's important. It's important to
have a griff that works. It'simportant to understand some of the technique of
(26:56):
me that I know many many reallyreally good golf teach many good and the
ones that I value the highest arethe ones that can go beyond it.
Go beyond can also help people unleashtheir imagination. But but obviously technique it's
essential. Yeah, but look atfred. Our golf industry bombards us with
(27:22):
technology and ways to fix us,saying Arnold Palmer if one of the first
to say, if the open technologyis overwhelmed us, it's overwhelmedness. This
golf swing is really pretty simple.Why are we making it so damn complicated
now? And we do and wehave a great time because that's the stream
of cash, that's where the gold. The golf indurry makes money by selling
(27:47):
you equipment and fixing your swing.Do they make any money by teaching you
to use your imagination? I don'tknow, but I know that's enough.
Step. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do they make any money having you
use old clubs and old technology?No, they want you to keep changing.
Oh it's amazing. It's a look. And I can hit a ball.
(28:10):
I can hit five shots on atrack. Man, I can find
what I find out all kinds ofthings right over everything, all of stuff.
Probably my middle name as well.Yeah, you mentioned Arnold Palmer a
moment ago, and as we're recordingthis, he passed away just yesterday.
(28:32):
And it's almost impossible to get intoa conversation about golf this week without remembering
Arnold and the impact that he hadon the game. And he must have
been coming along and really making hismark when you were a young golfer as
well. Oh yeah, do youcan you share any stories about the influence
(28:55):
that he had on you and yourgame and your philosophies on teaching. Well,
I think if he is right,we're right dead center. You know
that if you read all the Imean there's there's all kinds of information about
him now, all these quotes inetc. But he was he was always
(29:18):
always saying they were making this waytoo complicated. Look at the guy at
Charisma. He was sexy as hell, he really could play the game.
He was so he played with courage, you know, with passion, and
he was just so much fun towatch. I mean, he was he
(29:42):
went for it, and he waskind of unorthodox, wasn't he kind of
kind of orthodox, but some otherplayers are. But man, he could
really he made contact. He washe wonderful, just wonderful, wonderful human
(30:04):
being. I remember one scene whenhe was playing in the eighteen t for
a long time ago, and Iwas following John Flannery, who was one
of my first players. This issometime in the early nineties, and I
was standing in the trees and hewas walking by. He was staying.
(30:26):
I was standing in the trees,and he looked over at me. It
looked right in my eye, thengave me a wink and it thumbs up.
So he did that so often.I mean, that's a that's a
true story. That's the way heand you had never met him before,
he didn't know, you know,but he just made contact. Oh yeah,
(30:51):
he has even the slightest contact andyou feel touched. What he made
everybody feel special when you're with him. That's what great tea, great coaches,
when you're with them you know,you are the most important person that
I'm working with at the moment,and Arnold was beautiful in that way.
(31:17):
So we live in a very differenttime than when Arnie came of age,
where you know, we would wewould hear about Arnie and he built Arnie's
army based on newspaper reports and possiblytelevision recaps because you weren't you know,
right now we live in a obviouslythe twenty four hour news cycle, which
(31:38):
is with the internet's turned into atwenty four second news cycle. Things changed
so rapidly and so fast. Whatwas it about Arnie that you remember at
that time that just had his charisma, had his magnetism, jumped through the
pages of the newspaper and jumped throughthe radio reports in the newspaper and the
(32:00):
television reports. Well, yes,I did, I already did I mention
that before? Yes, he doneas you said. He's a charismatic,
great sex appeal um, courageous.You know, Uh loved competition, was
(32:23):
so acknowledged the the other people hehad competed with. I think he he
loved he loved the action, andI'm not sure it was always all about
the winning. I think he justembraced the opportunity, you know, to
be a closer, to be in, to be there, because I'm in.
(32:45):
He has some heartbreaks so and ofcourse he has some great, great
triumphs. But anybody the laser onthe line, like Arnold Palmer or the
great teams that we watch, orthe coaches, or the athletes the wanted,
truly, truly are blessed with theopportunity to know that they embraced the
(33:05):
opportunity to compete with the best,and they love that, and they love
that more and I think they lovethat more than the winning. And I
think that he he Curty to me, personified that, right, right,
do you remember the time where hejust he was at his best and that
(33:28):
even with his losses, I thinkthat he was so endearing that people would
feel his pain and feel like theylost as well. Have you witnessed any
other athletes in your time since thatcompare to what Arnie's army was? Like?
Oh? Oh, teams are athleteseither or I mean could be the
(33:52):
Celtics of the fifties, or areTiger Woods or Mike Tyson or Muhammad Ali.
I mean, there's so many different. How about the Arthur ashe how
about how about the Seahawks were undertwo yard line and they throw the interception,
and so Pete Carroll is a goodfriend, of course, yes,
(34:15):
so let's talk about that and howhe responded. So two days after that,
Martin Lare from Today's Show was interviewingit's a great interview. Yes,
there's a great interview. And hestarted the interview by saying, Pete,
(34:36):
I want you to know when youmade that call, I thought it was
the worst call in the history offootball. So Pete Carroll said, h
not the worst call, maybe theworst result. He said, what did
you do? And that at thatat that moment said I had about fifteen
seconds. He said the next thingI had to do to make a shoot
(35:00):
that we put this in perspective,and it took some time to do that.
But the whole the thing about itis if if they're going to be
judged on one play, well,let me retract, let me go back,
because you ask me an important question. I would say that that the
(35:20):
Peak Carols and their own Palmers andother athletes, they say, it's not
it's not about whether we wanted orlost it. It was about being having
the opportunity embrace the opportunity to bethere, to be there and make the
play and give ourself a chance.It's not whether the play work is having
(35:40):
the opportunity. Look at they talkabout closers. The closer is that guy
that comes in and the giants arelooking for one. By the way,
all the other interviews we do andthey've written about it, the closers are
not always best players. The closuresthe ones that want the ball. They
(36:04):
want to have the opportunity. Andit's note about winning, it's having the
opportunity. So Arnold, Arnold personifiedthat he wanted the opportunity to be in
the action always and he responded,you know, beautifully. And it wasn't
always the green jacket, but hewas always had the green jacket personality because
(36:25):
he always did absolutely embraced that opportunityfor giving me a chance to say that,
Oh, thank you so much forsaying that, that's beautiful. That's
beautiful. Let's let everybody know aboutthe book too. Winning the Battle within
about a brief summary for those whohave not heard about it, Paul,
But Winning the Battle then as alife's work, and the chronicles, you
(36:52):
know, the whole process that wemay need to go through in order for
us to give ourselves the best chance. The last chapter is getting to the
winner circle, and the first chapteris an introduction. Is what all the
steps that we need to take togive herself the best chance. It's never
a guarantee, it's just I canguarantee you if you follow these principles,
(37:15):
you will give yourself the best chance. And that's the critical element, give
yourself a chance to be there.Yeah right, No, I'm growing up.
I always used to say, Idon't necessarily want a Cadillac. I
just want to be able to affordthe option. I like that. That's
really good. Got any other bookscoming down the back? One. I'm
(37:40):
collaborating with Deerk Jones. You know, the Wrong Drive Champion. He may
if you know one of your broadcasts. I don't know. He's he's an
exceptional guy. And we're about eightypercent done. Actually, I hope he's
listening because it balls in his courtat the moment. Well, i'll read
out to him and we'll get himon the show. We'll definitely do that.
(38:02):
Oh, he's good, he's good. He's you know. He won
the long Drive Master and Championship intwo thousand and four. Then he repeated
in two thousand and twelve, infact, I have a great podcast of
(38:22):
my interview with him. You knowwhat he need to you, you know,
in an order to give himself thebest chant. Now he hits it
really far, and he's not abig guy. And now of course he's
a teacher of gold and he's reallyexplored and taking the whole thing about sports
psychology and teaching technique and bringing themboth together. The name of the book
(38:45):
is trust your Swim. And whencan we hopefully see it? Erica,
you're paying attention with balls in yourcourt. When we get to see this
book? Oh yeah, you know, I think for sure by February,
okay, twenty seventeen, it's abouteighty percent done. Okay, so then
(39:07):
in February twenty seventeen, you betterexpect to hear back from me to get
you back on the show. Oh, I'd love that. That would be
great. This is sound so good. Anytime opportunity to talk about this.
You know, I'm absolutely delighted andI appreciate you give me the invitation.
(39:29):
You know you've done You've been doingthis for ten years. Yeah. Wow,
it's morphed into quite a deal.Thank you. Podcasting is morphed into
quite a deal because when when Ifirst contacted you in two thousand and six
and said podcast, I'm sure yousaid what Yeah, it's like, what
(39:49):
are you talking about? What's apodcast? So yeah, I've definitely watched
this thing grow and uh, podcastinghas taken taken front seat to many of
there are forms of media. It'sit's awesome. I love it. It
is amazing. Yeah. Yeah,yeah, let's remember remember it though.
The technology is only the price ofadmission to the various high level play doesn't
(40:14):
matter what the endeavor is. Andit's tough that you do because you're beautifully
spontaneous, by the way, thankyou, and that that takes practice.
Well yeah, it definitely does.And I'm going to repeat that and ask
probably call you, and my wifesays, can you just stay focused on
one thing? No, but Glennsaid, I'm beautifully spontaneous, So thank
(40:39):
you for that. I really appreciatethat. You're welcome, Fred, Glenn.
It's always great to talk to you. I thank you so much for
your time and it's great to seeyou this time. I think the first
time we've done this through video.Um. Yeah, but thank you.
You look great and I wish youall the best and wait for the next
(41:00):
book to come out. Thank you, Fred M.
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