EP 42: Turning Masters Motivation into Better Golf in 2025! "How Bad Do You Want It?"

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In this episode of The Golf Intervention, we ride the wave of Masters-induced motivation and ask the big question: How bad do you really want it?

The Masters always sparks that itch to get better, but what separates the golfers who actually improve from those who just ride the high for a few days? We dig into the keys to making real progress this year—turning that spark of motivation into long-term discipline, learning how to allocate your time, energy, and money in smart ways, and filtering out the noise from social media that derails so many players.

If you’re serious about getting better this season, this one’s for you.

Topics Covered:

🔥 Can you turn short-term motivation into lasting discipline?
 🧠 The mindset shift needed to stop chasing and start improving
 📊 How to invest your time, energy, and money to actually get results
 🚫 Ignoring the endless stream of bad advice on social media
 ⛳ What it really takes to build a better game this year

For bonus content and to support the show, click the link below: 

https://thegolfintervention.substack.com/

Episode Transcript

Tyler (00:00):
Today's episode is brought to you by the premium
content subscribers on the golfintervention substack.
And we would of course like tothank all of our listeners for
tuning in, you make it all worthwhile.
If you would like to support theshow or sign up for our free
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(00:20):
or follow the link in the shownotes.

Eric (00:25):
You know, Rob fails today.
The masters started, I taughtall day'cause people are excited
about golf.
It's that time of year.
The grass is green in CentralVirginia.
We're back on recording the GolfIntervention podcast after a
slight hiatus of busy life.
But we're back and we're fullthrottle ahead because it is now
golf season in Central Virginiaand we are excited about your

(00:48):
golf improvement.
So today on the GolfIntervention Podcast, we're
gonna cover a few topics.
A little catch up with Rob and Isee what we're up to.
I know a lot of you are curiousabout how Rob's Fantasy Dynasty
League draft one a couple weeksago.
So we'll get an update on thatlater for sure.
That we will definitely get alittle update on that later

Rob Failes (01:09):
Yep.

Eric (01:10):
and, but what we're gonna cover today is this question
that I want you to ask yourself.
So this is gonna be aninteractive episode.
I am going to, Rob and I aregonna challenge you today to
just.
Look introspectively a littlebit and think about this
question.
How bad do you want it?

(01:30):
How bad do you want it?
And by it I mean golf superstardom for yourself, whatever
that means.
Goal, accomplishment,satisfaction, plan better.
How bad do you want it?
And what are you willing to door not do to get yourself to
play better Golf today on theGolf Intervention Podcast.

(01:52):
Welcome in co-host Rob Fields.

Rob Failes (01:55):
Welcome.

Eric (01:55):
life been in Charlottesville, Virginia these
days?
Been busy.

Rob Failes (01:59):
it is been busy.
It's, we've, we've had somespells of, uh, summer and some
spells of winter in the lastcouple weeks, so it's been a
little bit, uh, a little bit ofa shock to the system here and
there.
But, uh, but no, we're having agood time.
And like you said, golfers arefired up.

Eric (02:16):
Central Virginia Springs can be a little bit of like
experiencing a bunch of seasonsall in one day.
It, it can be up and down and,but it's been, it was a very
cold winter here, but about amonth ago.
It's sort of like the sun cameout.
But yeah, it's a little bit coldthis week.
The grass is green a littleearlier this year than, than
normal.
That Bermuda grass coming outtadormancy and people are excited

(02:38):
and, and I've been exceptionallybusy with lessons, which is
great.
And one thing that I've beencommunicating, yeah, well, yeah,
true.
But, um, what's been getting meexcited, because I feel like,
you know, I've been doing this along, a long time.
I'm a lot older than you andI've been at this a long time,

(02:59):
but every hour or half hour is anew, it's like a new experience
that you're in, right?
You're on this journey with alot of people.
I mean, I literally teachhundreds of people golf every
year.
Hundreds.
So.
Every time they come in the, uh,in the room, it's a new
experience.
And you know, we've talked abouton the pat on the show and the
before, I love teaching in theoff season because I think of

(03:23):
the off season people are veryfocused on what do I need to do?
Not just to, because I've beenplaying bad the last couple
weeks.
I came to see you for a lesson,but what do I need to do to
improve for next season?
So they're not really worriedabout their scores in the winter
that much.
They're not playing that muchand they just want to improve.
And we have great f facilit.
You have great facilities.

(03:43):
I have great facilities forwinter instruction.

Rob Failes (03:45):
Yeah.
We're both

Eric (03:46):
And so very fortunate we've added TrackMan Range at
the Country Club of Virginiatoo.
So you wanna talk about beingspoiled?
I mean, TrackMan Range is socool.
Um, but we're just gettinggoing.
I'm excited to see what we cando with our students, um, with
TrackMan Range, but.
The fun thing is in the winterwe're really focused on

(04:07):
long-term develop.
It feels like we're more focusedon long-term development,
whereas in the season, it'skinda like, Hey, uh, I played a
couple times last week and Icouldn't hit my driver.
Right?
So those lessons end up being alittle more short-term fix me
type lessons, which are finetoo.
Well, I like it all, but it'sreally fun to sit down with
somebody and talk about theprocess.

(04:29):
The process.
Like how do I improve at thisgame?
What are we currently workingon?
Are we working on your swing?
Are we working on your skills?
Are we working on scoringbetter?
You know, what are we workingon?
And.
It's been really good.
I mean, I've, I've had somestudents tell me things
recently, like record breakingscores, which is so cool to

(04:49):
hear.
'cause measuring success in golfis pretty easy.
I shot a better score.
It gets pretty straightforward.
Right?
I always wondered when my kidsplayed soccer, like how do they
know who the good players arewhen no one ever score?
It's like one, nothing like,huh.
Yeah.
How do you know who's good?
Right.
But who's the best offensivelineman?
It's hard to tell, but in golfit's like, it's you in the golf

(05:11):
course and you shoot scores andwe track it and we have metrics
and all this stuff.
But I had one that I was sharingwith you a little bit, um,
who's, this guy's played golfhis whole life.
He's in his seventies and truthbe told, for probably 10 years,
he's been coming to see me formore of those fix me lessons a
few times a year.
Like, Hey, I can't hit my driverslicing.

(05:32):
Okay.
I asked him the other day afterhe, he signed up for six lessons
and he said, I want to getbetter this winter.
I wanna train, I wanna getbetter, I wanna do whatever I
need to take equipment, workingout, swing, skill, whatever.
And after the fifth lesson, hewas hitting it so much better.
I mean, it was, it was 40 yardslonger with his driver, 40 yards

(05:56):
longer with his driver.
We got him a hybrid that hecould hit, approach shots with
better all this stuff.
And I said to him, what's yourrecord score of all time?
And he said, 88.
And I said, you're gonna averageunder 88 this year, average
under your record score of yourlife this year.
And he shot 38 on his first nine

Rob Failes (06:17):
That's pretty insane.

Eric (06:18):
the other day, 38.
For someone whose record scoreof all time was 88.
Why we went through the processthat you and I have talked about
on this show.
So many times we got into the,into the heart of the matter and
we said, what are we lacking toplay better in your skillset?

(06:38):
What are we lacking?
And is your equipment lacking?
Is your access to skill lacking?
Does your swing need to change?
And a little bit of all that hadto happen.
Okay.
And all of a sudden he's hittingbetter shots and we've never
even talked about scoring andhe's scoring better.
So, super cool.
And I've had several of thosestories this winter with folks

(06:59):
that have come and done a seriesof lessons to, to, to improve in
the winter.
It's just really, really fun tosee and I'm fired up about it.
And carrying that into Mastersweek is so exciting.
Um, I didn't get to watch muchof it today'cause I, I just got
home from work and saw a littlebit, but,

Rob Failes (07:15):
I just saw the leaderboard.

Eric (07:18):
so what's been happening on your lesson t out there in
Charlottesville, Robbie?
We seen anything fun out there?
Any, any big concepts that arereally clicking with people
these days?

Rob Failes (07:27):
Yeah, I think, um, as I try to reflect about it,
you know, I was actually talkingto, uh, mark Grace not too long
ago on the phone.
Um, and it's just

Eric (07:38):
Mark Grace, friend of the pod.

Rob Failes (07:39):
Yes.
And I was just commenting on howthey're starting to look a
little bit more similar thandifferent.
Um, the variability's a littlebit more in the skill and kind
of what skill we're working onand how are we working on it.
I think is where the variabilityis.
But, um, working through Dominonumber one, which is acceptance,

(08:02):
being on time and on task, Ithink I.
are so many lessons where justknocking over that first domino
cleans up so many things downthe chain that you almost don't
need to even go anywhere else.
A lot of times, I had a, I had areally good one earlier this
week where one of my clientswent on a golf trip to Bakers

(08:24):
Bay, and he's a casual golfer.
He just hits balls on the range.
Honestly.
He comes to see me because hewants to hit draws.
Uh, he just likes to see theball of draw.
He wants to see it go right toleft.
He's like, I just have the mostfun when I see the ball do that,
that's all I want you to tell meto, or all I want you to help me
do.
And I was like, okay, let's doit.
I'm, I'm not in the business of,uh, telling you what goals you

(08:47):
should or shouldn't have, right?
If, if a draw helps you

Eric (08:49):
Mm-hmm.

Rob Failes (08:49):
I'll help you hit a draw.
And,

Eric (08:52):
what it's all about.

Rob Failes (08:53):
and he, uh, he went on the golf trip and, you know,
I.
I don't care who you are.
The, the score still matters.
Like people still, uh, have animportance of, of score.
And so he, um, he definitelyexperienced a little bit of
anxiety on the golf course basedoff of his feedback.
He said that my swing startedgetting really fast.

(09:14):
It got really short.
I started hitting these wildfades, and then I started just
aiming 50 yards left and justtrying to bunt my driver out
there.
I stopped hitting, then Istopped hitting driver, I
started hitting seven irons, andit just, it got to be this very,
very aversive experience wherehe is like, you know, I was
seven holes left.
I was like, many holes?
Like, how, how many more holesdo I have to endure this for?

(09:36):
Right?
And so

Eric (09:37):
Ugh.

Rob Failes (09:38):
it was a very, very kind of dark and stormy place to
be.
But I just asked him, I waslike, okay, well, what, did you
regret more?
Did you regret the shots?
Did not going the way you want?
Or do you regret how you wentabout it?
And he, like, without a, like amoment's delay, he's like, oh,
I, I regretted, like how I wentabout it.

(09:59):
Like I just started playingscared.
I started, um, trying to controlthis.
I started, and, and we just hada really good conversation about
like, hey, like you have twotypes of regret.
have type one, which is you gaveit your all, you did it exactly
the way you wanted to do it andthe outcomes just didn't work
out.

(10:19):
And then type two is you allowedsomething that already happened
or hasn't happened yet to changethe way you were doing it, so
you actually didn't do it theway you wanted to do it in the
first place.
Right?
And so he was like,

Eric (10:30):
Yeah.

Rob Failes (10:31):
it was all type two regret.
It's like the entire time I waslike, okay, so what can we do to
help sidestep this in thefuture?
He's like, well, I was like, I,I just really think if I can
just before I go out, just likefind that like rhythm or kind
find that freedom that we'vetalked about.
First I was like, okay, great,then let's do that.
Let's, let's.
Get the club swinging back andforth the way that you wanna

(10:53):
swing it.
And then whenever you're ready,you're just gonna walk that
swing into a golf ball.
And first few, the skillsdefinitely didn't line up right.
Bottom swing was higher, lowerfor the forward, for the back.
Um, but we just kept with it,kept with it, kept with it, and
he probably hit to 20 balls, noteven on the face, like over.

(11:14):
then I asked him like, how didthat, like, were you happy with
how the general swing felt?
He was like, oh my gosh.
Like that felt so much better.
Like it wasn't hurting.
He's like, literally my swingstarted hurting me halfway
through the round because I waslike so tight.
He's like, um, it feels faster.
It feels like I could do it theentire round and not get tired.
I'm like, okay, great.
It's like, so let's keep thatthe same.

(11:36):
Let's not change that and let'sjust explore where you could get
the bottom of that swing rhythm.
I.
In space, higher, lower, furtherforward for the back.
So we did some differentialtraining.
Turns out the bottom of his golfswing was about half an inch
further forward than he thoughtit was, right?
So he is hitting everything offthe heel.
He either didn't recognize it orjust didn't have the confidence

(11:57):
to try to change it.
So we just gave him an intent.
It was like, okay, I want you toswing this thing as freely as
you possibly can.
Just get the bottom of the golfswing about a half inch closer
to you than what you think iscorrect.
So you're gonna try to make anerror, quote unquote, in the
opposite direction of yourtendency.
Flush rocket, flush rocket,flush rocket, flush rocket.

(12:17):
And he just looked at me, he waslike, I fixed the wrong thing.
I was like, yep, you fi, youwere trying to fix your general,
you were trying to solve a skillproblem.
Well, first off, you weren'twilling to accept those
outcomes.
First off, that was, that wasreally the, the big issue,
number one, and then anunwillingness to accept that

(12:39):
could happen caused you to.
Tighten up, try to control thisthing, and you started changing
your general swing opposed tojust changing the thing that's
causing the ball to do what it'sdoing.
And,

Eric (12:51):
Mm-hmm.

Rob Failes (12:52):
and so I think he now understands that next time
that happens, he's gonna pushthe right button.
He's gonna push a much betterbutton.
Right.
To try to, he's gonna flip amuch better switch in order to
try to get that performancegoing in the right direction.
And it's not just to get theperformance going in the right
direction, but our feedback islike, okay, regardless of the

(13:12):
outcome, regardless of what youshoot, can you sign your name to
the scorecard?
Can you finish the round okay,that was, I, I gave it what I,
what I got.
Right?
I, I sent it, I gave it achance, I did everything that I
wanted to do the way I wanted todo it.
It just didn't work out today.
Right.
And that's gonna be so

Eric (13:29):
Mm-hmm.

Rob Failes (13:29):
for him.
And he'll, even though like hemight not shoot the number he
wants, but he's gonna have aheck of a lot more fun playing
these awesome golf courses thanhe will just steering it around
the park.
Right.

Eric (13:40):
Yeah.
That's coaching.
That's coaching, right.
So, and it, for, for a long timein golf instruction, I think it
was, it was all swing.
It was all swing instruction.
Like if you, if you went for alesson, you were getting swing
instruction, driver instruction,iron instruction, short game
instruction, it was just, that'swhat it was.

(14:01):
I teach the swing.
You came to me to learn theswing, right?
And what you just went throughwas an, an encapsulation of
coaching, right?
Like, it, it was, okay, let'sset the table for success.
Let's find out what's gonnadrive you.
Let's find out what's gonna makeyou better.
We all know this from beingstudents in our lives and

(14:23):
playing multiple sports.
Those coaches that influenced usand those teachers that
influenced us.
They understood who we were andthey understood what was going
on with us and what, what theycould draw out of us to play our
best.
And what you did there, this iswhat, this is what instruction's
all about.
It's about drawing out of theplayer and understanding.

Rob Failes (14:43):
Yep.

Eric (14:44):
Of how to play their best.
You asked him questions, helooked inside himself, he
started to understand what thecorrelation between, um, his
issues were and his enjoymentwas.
And by doing that, that thatorganic learning process is what
sticks in the end.
It is not what we do.
Should not be, although it issometimes with, with people that

(15:06):
teach golf,

Rob Failes (15:07):
yep.

Eric (15:07):
here's the thing you need to do.

Rob Failes (15:09):
Mm-hmm.

Eric (15:09):
is why.
'cause I said, so this is what,you know, and I'm hoping we're
evolving in the right.
This is why we have this show.
We're trying to put this messageout.
Right.
A lot of, a lot of instructorsare very much like we are.
Right.
I'm not saying we have all theanswers either, by the way, but
it,

Rob Failes (15:25):
and

Eric (15:26):
it's just, we definitely don't by the way.

Rob Failes (15:28):
Yeah, if I can interject is like, I think that
is the difference in what we'redoing is like you and

Eric (15:33):
Right.

Rob Failes (15:34):
you and I are acknowledging the fact.
we are working with incompleteinformation.
We're

Eric (15:40):
Yeah.

Rob Failes (15:41):
the fact

Eric (15:41):
And it's okay.

Rob Failes (15:42):
it's okay.
We're acknowledging the factthat there are a lot of options
to this.
Right.

Eric (15:48):
Yeah,

Rob Failes (15:49):
Whereas I think a lot of other instructors
operating on the fact that I amthe gatekeeper of the right
answer.
Right?

Eric (15:57):
correct.

Rob Failes (15:57):
is no

Eric (15:58):
Yeah.

Rob Failes (15:59):
this is, this is the way it is.
Right?
no, I think that is probablythe, the distinction

Eric (16:06):
If you wanna see how golf used to be taught, and I'm not,
I'm not doing this to pick onanybody or to criticize, um, but
there's, there's some historicmoments in the golf kind of
instruction world, and one of'emwas, is this famous moment
where.
Two golf instructors basicallyalmost threw down with each
other.
They were arguing so much at a,at a, at a teaching seminar.

(16:28):
And people talk about it.
They'll show it on the bigscreen at different things.
And one of them's name was JimmyBallard, who's a great
instructor.
This is Rocco Mediatesinstructor.
He worked with, um, heard hisstrange at the height.
Like, this guy's great, right?
But he's the epitome of, I'vegot the answers.
Listen to what I have to say.
Everything I say is right.
And this was in the eighties andnineties, so it was a very
different time.

(16:49):
Right.
But if you, you can go onInstagram and find a Jimmy
Ballard Instagram account.
I've been following.
I'll watch these videos.
They're hysterical.
'cause it's just what we'retelling.
It's just what you were saying.

Rob Failes (16:57):
Yeah, for

Eric (16:57):
like, he'll say, you gotta do this with your right hip
because this does this and thisdoes this and you gotta lift
your arm and you gotta do this.
'cause you have to, you have to.
You can't, you can't, you can't.
You know.
And so I just watch it and I,and I learn, you know, I watch
to learn.
'cause I bet he does have somegood answers.
Right.
He taught, I.
Rocco and Curtis Strange and allthese guys.
So he, he, he knows things, butat the end of the day, it's,

(17:20):
it's not a very, it's a verydifferent way of instructing
than what what we just laid out.
Right.
And I think that what we'retalking about is coaching, and I
think there's a distinctionthere, right?
You can go find some sensei thathas, you know, whatever, these
are my answers and my rules or,but at the end of the day,
hopefully what we do is workwith people with what they have,

Rob Failes (17:42):
Yep.

Eric (17:42):
try to draw out of them, try to gain understanding.
And all we try to do is gainunderstanding every day too.
And I think that's what helps usis open-minded, growth-minded
people to coach the game in away that I feel satisfied with
at the end of the day.
Right.
Um, and so I, I'm excited.
I, I've seen a lot of, a lot ofgrowth

Rob Failes (18:03):
Yeah.

Eric (18:03):
outta the people that come to see me.
I, I get, I've been getting, andI'm not saying this to brag, but
I, I'm saying this because Ithink with the golf
intervention.
You and I have discussed this,it almost forced us to come
together and lay out in a way wecould communicate better to a
podcast world what it is we'retrying to do.
And in so doing, I've gottenbetter at what I'm trying to do.

(18:24):
And I, and there's no questionabout it.
And so, and I'm gettingmessages, like text messages or
emails, like I got two emailstoday from people I taught that
literally said, thank you somuch for today.
And I mean, I teach thou I'vetaught tens of thousands of
lessons, right?
But it's pretty rare an hourlater to get a message that

(18:44):
says, Hey, I just really thinkthat was great, you know?
Um, not that it, and so got twoof those today.
Pretty fun.
And, and I'm, and I really docount this show for helping me
not change how I teach, butcommunicate it better and think
about it deeper and, and learnmore.
And, and so thank you for doingthat with me.

(19:07):
Uh, Rob fails.
'cause I think we're.
We're, uh, we're both learningand growing as we

Rob Failes (19:13):
and, and I

Eric (19:14):
move along in our career.

Rob Failes (19:15):
echo the same thing, is like the, the enjoyment in
the session for me personally aswell as my student, is one thing
that I've seen.
Be a lot different from when Iwas more like, I guess,
authoritarian in my coaching.
It was like, right.
Uh, to now.
Um, because it's really justshare with the student, you

(19:40):
know, first what are theoptions?
Right?
We have overall strategy, wehave our process for predicting
and, and having an intention fora shot.
We have skill and we have ourswing, right?
And then swing, I lump kind oflike grip posture right into
that as well.

Eric (19:56):
Yeah.

Rob Failes (19:56):
And

Eric (19:56):
Yep.

Rob Failes (19:57):
I tell them, I was like, Hey, like if we're gonna
go out and perform today,tomorrow, like we're probably
just gonna stay up in thosefirst two.
Like, what is your overallstrategy?
And then can we develop aprocess for creating an
intention and a prediction?
Like, you're never gonna getworse.
You're only gonna get better.
Right?
And it's gonna give you moremargin for error.
Right?
If we're here to learn and, andacquire something that we don't

(20:19):
already have, it's probablygonna be more like something
skill development or swingrelated.
Right?
I don't know currently what thebest option for you is, but
let's start somewhere, right?
And let's let it play out alittle bit and let's see where
we get.
Um, and I think if you can justbe honest with your client and
just say, Hey, look, this is,this is we're gonna explore

(20:41):
together.
It's so much more fun becauseit's almost like this, this
experimentation that we're bothrunning, right?
At the same time, it's like,okay, we're gonna test this for
a little bit.
Let's see what happens.
Give me your feedback.
What did you notice there?
Is that something that you thinkyou could do, on the golf course
or when it matters?
Right?
And so it's, think a much moreintrinsic way of, of going about

(21:06):
it really.
It's, it's, um, less anxiety,right?
Because I used to

Eric (21:11):
Mm-hmm.

Rob Failes (21:11):
there saying, oh gosh, I, I better get this right
'cause I got one shot.
I gotta, I gotta

Eric (21:17):
Yep.

Rob Failes (21:17):
the one thing that's gonna make this person, but now
it's like, no, I can, I'm, I canpretty much do what I want.
Like, and it's, and I'm

Eric (21:26):
Oh yeah.

Rob Failes (21:27):
I'm not gonna be steadfast to say, okay, the, the
first answer I'm gonna come upwith is the, the thing, right?
It's gonna be no.
Like, we've got a ton of optionshere.
Like half the time I'm justmaking a guess.
I'm like, all right, I gotsomebody in front of me.
Do I think that with theircurrent rhythm, if I just do
differential training, if Ithink, you know, is that gonna

(21:48):
get them what they need?
I've been surprised before.
I've been like, I don't, I thinkthey really need some grip
posture, kind of swing stuff.
But we're gonna go differentialtraining here and see what
happens.
And then just like through thedifferential training they get
way back.
I'm like, okay, alright.
That was cool.
That was surprising.
And then sometimes it's theother way around.

(22:08):
Sometimes I'll start withsaying, okay, let's take what
you're currently doing and, anddo some skill stuff and see what
we get.
And it's just like beating ourhead against the wall.
And it's like, all right, cool.
That was, uh, I wasn't expectingthat to, to not get us anywhere.
But that's okay.
We'll we will pivot and, and wewill go into some grip, posture,
swing stuff or you know, we caneven do some process stuff.

(22:30):
Right.
I mean it's, it's,

Eric (22:32):
Yeah.

Rob Failes (22:32):
there's a lot of options.
So, um, yeah, I think just that,that awareness and understanding
of like, we don't have the oneanswer I think is a, a lot more
fun way to coach and, and theplayers, it is a lot more fun
for the player'cause they'rehaving the, the choice, right?
We're giving them like, okay,now you give me the feedback.
Tell me what you perceive there.
It's not, it's not us tellingright.

Eric (22:56):
Yeah.
I would say the one, the onething that cracks me up though,
even it happens several times aweek to me, is the student that
goes.
Tell me, tell me what I need todo.
Right.

Rob Failes (23:09):
I know.

Eric (23:09):
Make, you know, before we sort of go through any of the
process, they'll be like, oh, Icame over the top, or I, I hit
that bad.
What do I usually it's just badcontact.
What do I need to change?
What do I need to do?
And I'll be like, well, let's,uh, hit a few more and then we
will, we will figure it out, youknow, we'll kind of, we'll kind

(23:30):
of work through it.
And so to slow that person downis a little tricky.

Rob Failes (23:34):
and that's,

Eric (23:34):
I just need you to tell me, well, we're gonna get there.
We're gonna, we're gonna getthere.
And then we get there and it'slike, oh, cool.
Like, things are, things aregoing well.
So

Rob Failes (23:44):
job is to be able to take them from.
You know, they, they experiencean outcome and they look right
back at us.
Right.
They're, they're trying to, um,they're trying to look at for,
for outside

Eric (23:55):
I do there?

Rob Failes (23:56):
Exactly.
And our job is to turn thataround and be able to, to give
them the tools to be able tosay, alright, which skill was
outta place?
Or was, did you just steer itright or did,

Eric (24:09):
Yeah.

Rob Failes (24:09):
being able to start to diagnose this thing
accurately, I think is, uh, ismost of our job really.

Eric (24:16):
So as we get into the topic for tonight's episode,
which is How bad do you want It?
Um, I think it's fun.
I kind of, I kind of harken backto an assistant pro that we had
that was from Knoxville,Tennessee, big time, big, like
quintessential Knoxville,Tennessee, SEC football guy,
right?

(24:37):
And when we talk about football,he said, I don't, I don't know
if he wants it bad enough.
I don't know if he wants it.
Everything was about wanting it.
I think at the SEC it's allabout how bad do you want it,
right?
What are you willing to do?
It just means more, but at theend of the day.
When you talk about your goal,when you talk about your goal,
well, you're an,

Rob Failes (24:57):
a Clemson grad.
I can't stand the SEC,

Eric (24:59):
yeah, I'm a Big 10 guy.
Big 10, kind of dominatedcollege football this year, but
I digress.
Don't get mad to me people, it'sjust the facts.
So, um, as we look at how bad dowe want it, what does that
really mean?
Well, I think it's this, I thinkit's like, there, there's some
parallels and, and this is kindof what got me thinking about it

(25:20):
this week, this topic of anepisode, is, I think there's a
lot of parallels in thedevelopment of golf game
development of a lot of things.
But golf is, golf is tough.

Rob Failes (25:30):
know?

Eric (25:30):
Golf is hard.
We don't know when it's gonnaimprove.
It's a little mystic at timeswith what we're doing.
It can, where there's highs andlows and there's cycles and
there's all this stuff, right?
We can feel good, we can feelbad.
Not everything's like that.
Right?
I don't think pickleball is likethat.
You know, you kind of, I.
You play and have fun and youknow it's over.
So, um, but golf is such a toughsport.

(25:52):
You learn so much aboutyourself.
And there, I've always thoughtthere's so many parallels
between just like general healthand wellness and golf.
Like when people are trying tosay, Hey, I need to get
healthier.
I need to get in shape, I needto clean up my diet.
Like, so here I am, I'm a lotolder than Rob is, and now I'm
pushing into my late forties andI'm like, you know what?

(26:15):
I gotta focus on my health andwellness.
Not that I'm like on a superunhealthy, I'm not, I'm not on
any medications.
I'm not, you know, I might have,I kind of got a little
overweight the last few years,but not massively, just a few,
few extra pounds, like as we doin our forties.
And so I'm like, look, I.
I need to figure out, becauselast year I played very little

(26:37):
golf and I didn't feel very goodphysically.
And those two things probablywent kind of hand in hand in a
way.

Rob Failes (26:43):
For

Eric (26:43):
And so I decided I'm gonna focus on my health for a while.
So I've gotta figure out how I'mgonna make time for that.
Right?
We have limited resources in ourlife, right?
And the main resources that westruggle with are time, energy,
and money are the things thatwe're sort of allocating out.

(27:05):
And everybody, most everybodyhas to calculate that out in
some way, shape, or form.
I know me as a 40 something yearold with a, you know, I'm a golf
pro, so we know what thatschedule's like.
And I got four kids at home andI've got a little bit of land
that I gotta take care of hereon this property.
And I got two golden retrieverdog.
I got stuff I gotta deal withhere, right?
So trying to carve out, um.

(27:30):
Time and energy for, to focus onme is a, it's a little bit
outside my personality.
And then b, it's, it's gonna bea challenge'cause I don't feel
like I have a ton of timeanyway.
Right.
So I had to sit down, you know,and basically plan out what am I
gonna give up in my life, whichI don't do a ton of stuff anyway

(27:52):
to make sure I have the time andenergy to do and am I willing to
do the thing I haven't done inthe recent years.
And so I've been, I've been, I.
Now, I'm not moti.
I'm trying not to be motivatedby anything.
I'm trying to be disciplined.
And I think this is kind of oneof our points for today is when
you're trying to improve atsomething, motivation comes and

(28:14):
goes.
It's masters week, which gets methinking about this too.
Everybody gets motivated to wantto play golf and play better
golf'cause it,'cause the mastersis so inspiring and that usually
lasts a couple weeks and then itgoes away, right?
But if you can developdiscipline on what it is that
you're trying to do, I think itcan lend you to improvement.

(28:36):
So the first thing we're gonnatalk about here is that just
allocation of

Rob Failes (28:41):
of

Eric (28:41):
life.
If you are willing to, are youwilling to carve out a bigger,
uh, time in your life for golf?
And how are you gonna do that?
Right?
So.

Rob Failes (28:55):
I,

Eric (28:55):
think this is one of the big things.
If I'm gonna improve at golf,I've gotta change what I'm
doing.
I gotta change a habit.
Is that true, Rob?
Like

Rob Failes (29:01):
Yeah.

Eric (29:01):
habit change is probably like the biggest thing.
And, and growth mindset again,laying the foundation for, yeah,
okay.
So I gotta, I gotta do somethingelse.
Right?
So when you have someone comingto you and they say, Hey, you
know, I really want to improveat golf.
I've been a, I've been a 12handicap for 32 straight years,

(29:25):
and I wanna, I wanna be a, Iwanna be a six'cause I'm going
to Scotland this summer.
And I,

Rob Failes (29:30):
Mm-hmm.

Eric (29:31):
I, I watch the masters

Rob Failes (29:33):
Yeah.

Eric (29:34):
then I, I decided I'm gonna go to Scotland and I'm
gonna play carti and I wanna begood at golf for that trip and I
wanna play better.
Um, what do you, as a coach, howdo you as a coach approach that
conversation?

Rob Failes (29:48):
Yeah, I would, I would probably call timeout and
just get curious about what thatreally means to them.
So like, okay.
Let's talk a little bit aboutthat.
Like what would that mean toyou?
Right.
So the biggest thing, kind ofwhere I'm leading here is that
if your motivation is based offof getting somewhere like this
external, like, okay, I've gottaget to a six.

(30:11):
first off, like the quoteunquote got to, right?
Like, you can see that we'reimposing these, uh, say, um,
requirements, right?
So if we, uh, if we think aboutDr.
Pryor's, um.
A first A shaped versus V-shapedbeliefs, right?
So A shaped would be at the top,very minimal space, which would

(30:32):
be room for error.
At the bottom would bewidespread long-term
consequences, right?
And then conversely, V-shapedwould be at the top, a lot of
margin of error with verytemporary specific external
consequences.
So when I hear, okay, I just, Igotta get to a six.

(30:54):
The first question I was like,okay, well I believe you can get
there, but what?
What if you didn't?
Right?
What if you didn't?

Eric (31:03):
Right.

Rob Failes (31:04):
And I think it just starts to open up the
conversation about like, why arewe doing what we're doing?
And I think the more we canstart to value the things that
we are.
from the process of gettingthere.
Say, okay, well the things thatyou're gonna need to do to get
to a six, well, how is thatgoing to change your daily

(31:25):
behaviors?
What kind of things are youputting in place?
What are you doing to, make thatpossible?
If we can get the value from thething that we're doing while
we're doing it, if you don't getthere, then it's like you're
still coming out ahead, right?
Because you actually enjoyed theprocess.
You actually got something fromit, and whether or not the

(31:48):
outcome was what you wanted isinconsequential, right?
It was always worth the, theeffort.
Whereas if it's like, no, Igotta get to a six because my
buddy's a six, or my, my, myother, like, whatever they're
gonna think of me is gonnadepend on if I'm a six or not.
Well, are you sure you wannamake that sacrifice because

(32:08):
you're gonna get there?
Let's say you get there, thenit's like.
Okay, this, this is all, this isall for this.
Like, what's next kind of thing.
So it's like, me, it, it's, themore that you can, you can talk
about, okay, what are, what arethe, what are the benefits?
Where are the long term, whatoutcomes that, that we want to,

(32:33):
to develop regardless of whetherwe get there or not.
I think, I think that's reallykind of what we wanna try to,
uh, instill.

Eric (32:43):
One of our favorite episode, one of my favorite
episodes that we did was calledAre Your Goals Killing Your
Gains?
And we talked a lot about thiskind of.
Discussion.
And it was, it was reallyfascinating to me to realize how
de-motivating or ab obstructiveof your process, it can be to

(33:03):
put a timeline on a goal likethat.
Like, I wanna be X by X time.
It, it's very destructive,right?
All of a sudden now your mentalstate of like, am I keeping up
to, to your point that, thatlike, am I keeping up?
There's no, there's no marginfor error there, right?
And

Rob Failes (33:22):
gonna

Eric (33:22):
how I'm behind I'm not right, and am I gonna be okay
when I get there?
And so what we have to delveinto a little bit is A, where's
the motivation coming from?
And B, understanding thatmotivation is fleeting so that
CI can focus on the process,right?
So.
You, you're basically coachingthat person up to say, Hey, I

(33:46):
understand what you're saying.
Let's talk about the process.
And then I would say that mybiggest thing I have in that
conversation right there at thesame moment is I basically say,
here's the process, right?

Rob Failes (33:59):
Yeah.

Eric (33:59):
This is what, this is what the process looks like.
And I think that's where golfersare very stuck.
That's why our show, I think isresonating with people is,'cause
we talk about this process allthe time.
It's like, if I'm gonna improve,what is it that I need to do?
What is that process like?
And I think that what, I'm gladwe started with a little bit of
a discussion about, um, how theoff season instruction has gone

(34:22):
and what we're seeing recentlybecause.
When people come in and theysay, Hey, I've got the, I wanna
play better.
I'm ready to, what I'm actuallysaying is, let's take the
timelines off of all that.
Right.
Let's, let's, let's, yeah.
We're, we're taking thetimelines off.
We're taking, we're gonna buildacceptance and, and that we're
gonna focus on what it is thatwe're focusing on.

Rob Failes (34:44):
Yeah,

Eric (34:45):
And one of the things that I've found in that process,
which is really, really fun tocommunicate to people in their
feedback is this, and we talkedabout this a lot in the last few
episodes, which is people alwayswanna work on their swings.
Okay.
'cause they don't understandskill.
Okay.
And so, right, so you have golfshots, everybody understands
that part.

(35:05):
I'm swinging and then there's ashot, right?
And basically what Robbie hassaid, and I just think it's a
brilliant way to describe, it'slike there's an in-between part
to this.
There's skill in between thereand that skill, what we've
defined on here in most of yourfull, especially in the full
swing part, is.
Essentially the skill is like,okay, can I make good contact

(35:27):
with the ball?
Right?
Proper good contact for what mygoals are.
Consi, you know, in someconsistent way, which is gonna
have variability, but in linewith our goals.
Two, can I control the face andpath relationship with emphasis
on face to control the ballflight, you know, the way I need
to.
And then three is what, what'sthe speed or energy like of the

(35:49):
swing that I'm, that I'mproducing?
So, um, and then those thingsproduce shots, and then you put
the shots into the context ofscoring, right?
And you've got this process thatyou're seeing, right?
So like, somebody came in todayand they were just, they were
swinging, swinging, swinging,hooking, hooking.
And they're like, what did I,what did swing, what did I do

(36:10):
with my swing?
What, why was that swing worsethan this swing?
And, and I said, just let's slowdown here for a second.
Okay?
I said, what if I told you Ithought your swing was fine?
And he was like, what do youmean?
I said, your swing is fine.
But I'm hitting it all over theplace.
Yeah, we're gonna work on yourskills.
Okay.
Okay.
Well, what do you mean?
So we go through just like wewould, well, you know, the

(36:32):
impact location's a little bitiffy.
The face is very variable, swingto swing.
So we gotta kind of think aboutthat for a second.
That's the big controller of theissues that you're seeing.
But your swing itself isfunctioning pretty well.
Balance and rhythm and speed isawesome.
And like we can hit the shotswith the swing you have.
We just gotta work on yourskills.

(36:53):
And he was like, oh.
It was like really freeing tohim, right?
So we spent 10 minutes workingon that.
And so this is the part that'sbeen really fun for me is when
they, when they hit a shot andwe're working on skill and I got
track man running right?
I say, don't worry about theshot.
Why?
Because we're not working on theshot, working on your skill.
Right.
Your skill here is we're tryingto find some, some variability

(37:14):
in the face that's acceptablefor you, right?
It's gonna make you happy, it'sgonna make you score better.
And so when you hit a shot oryou hit a pattern of shots,
we're gonna look at that.
That's what we're gonna judgeourselves off of right now.
We're not gonna judge ourselvesoff of the shots.
What?
Yeah.
Okay.
Or if I'm working on the swing,swing mechanics, right?

(37:34):
Conversely,

Rob Failes (37:36):
Um,

Eric (37:37):
okay, I'm working on this one thing.
Whatever it is, it's temp, it'srhythm, it's, it's whatever.
Okay.
Think of swing mechanics.
Just name one, doesn't matter.
Okay.
Well, we're not looking at theskills right now.
Oh, I missed that one.
Yeah.
Who cares?
We're not focused on that,right?
We're focused on the swing to, Iwant you to judge yourself on
how you did the swing, how youapproached it, how you executed

(38:00):
it, right.
We're gonna try and, and focuson that.
Right.
And then it goes back throughthat process.
Swing skills, shots, scoring.
So you're just, and, and I thinkthat people all of a sudden are
going like, oh, you just taughtme how to practice.

Rob Failes (38:18):
Yep.

Eric (38:19):
You just taught me how to focus when I'm prac.
You just taught me how to learn

Rob Failes (38:23):
Mm-hmm.

Eric (38:24):
better golf.
'cause we had that.
So when they say, when we tellpeople, Hey, there's a process
to getting better.
Well, let's work on the process,right?
Foundation is growth mindset.
We work through these swingprocesses, like producing
skills.
It's really cool.
And so the communication ofthat, this is some of the
tightening, tightening of thecommunication I've been talking

(38:45):
about, um, with my students,which has been really fun.
And so I get them really honedin on that.
Now, ask yourself in the contextof this podcast topic, ask
yourself, listener, am Iwilling?
How bad do I want it?
Am I willing to let go of shotfor a little bit to work on

(39:07):
other things if I have to?

Rob Failes (39:08):
Mm-hmm.

Eric (39:09):
Am I willing to do that?
'cause golfers are really,really hard on themselves when
it comes to the shots that theyhit.
And so I find it's hard whenyou're working on skill or swing
to get'em to let go a little bitthere, to get into the, into the
development phase.

Rob Failes (39:27):
a hundred percent.
And like, the biggest thing thatI, that I've noticed in terms of
why that is, is that oftentimeswe place priorities on things
that aren't relevant.
So number one is other people'sperceptions of us.
So, again, let's go back throughthis.
All right, so golfer walks inand says, okay, I want to get to

(39:48):
a six.
It's like, okay, let's, let'stalk about that.
Like.
To get to a six, right?
We're gonna probably need tolearn to be more focused on the
task at hand.
We're gonna need to be morepresent.
We're gonna be, need to be moreaccepting, And we're gonna need
to be smarter about how we'reallocating our time and work

(40:10):
harder to get better, not lookbetter.
So if we're like, okay, yeah,sign me up.
Like, if I could develop thosefour values or those four core,
um, behaviors, then even if Idon't get there, I know I'm
gonna be better off for it.
I was like, okay, awesome.
Let's, let's go for it.
Let's do it.
Let at no point in that to getfrom here to there, is it

(40:34):
relevant that, oh, Johnny,Johnny really liked that shot.
He said that was a good shot.
Like, at no point is thatrelevant, right?

Eric (40:45):
Is that relevant to you, Rob?

Rob Failes (40:46):
other people, what other people think, right?
Of, of what you're doing.
Has no consequence on whetheryou develop those habits or not.
Right.
So think that is oftentimes the,one of the biggest barriers to
this is that prioritize howwe're perceived.

(41:10):
And, and I know I do.
and I think it's evolutionary.
Like I think Dr.
Pryor was talking about howthere was a time in human
history to where if, know, whenwe were tribal, right?
If, if you weren't liked by thegroup, you get tossed out.
Right.
You're out into the, in thewildness.
You, you're dead.
If

Eric (41:28):
You are the last one to eat or whatever.
Yeah.
Yeah.

Rob Failes (41:31):
So, the pro problem is like, as much as we've
evolved now to where like, okay,we're not actually like that.
Right.
Someone like we could be notliked and it's not gonna
necessarily.
be a, uh, a life-threateningthing.
Our brains haven't evolved atthe speed that, like society has

(41:51):
evolved, right?
So our, we have to literallyteach our brains that this thing
that we're prioritizing is notrelevant, So these come in the
form of judgments of like, okay,this was good, this was bad,
this was great, this wasterrible.
I try to get players to like,spend some time not judging the

(42:14):
shot at all, just say, okay, theball was here.
Now it is there.
That is what happened.
The ball hit the heel.
not good or bad, it's just ballhit the heel.
Face was

Eric (42:24):
Data point.

Rob Failes (42:25):
right?
It's just, it's just a whatexactly what just happened
because that is developing asense of awareness that is a.
A, a key skill, a key behavior,a key value to get us where we
want.
At no point, right?
Is, is judgment.
Is um, is labeling going to helpus get where we want?

(42:50):
So I think that's, I just wantedto make that point as well, is
that, uh, I think that's a hugebarrier for us if we can start
to strip

Eric (42:57):
Well, I also think people use that for motivation.
And again, motivation's thewrong thing here,

Rob Failes (43:03):
Yep.

Eric (43:03):
right?
So if I'm using, if I'mmotivated by, hey.
And that's actually, thishappens a fair amount, Eric.
Um, this guy I play with all ofa sudden is playing better than
me, or he's hitting it furtherthan me.
And just to be honest, like I'ma better athlete than him, or
I'm in better shape than him, orI've always beat him at golf and

(43:24):
now I'm here.
That's the motivation for takingthe golf lesson or wanting to
work on this one.
That'll be so fleeting.
It's crazy.
Like that'll just come and go.
Right?
So when we talk about trying to.
Try to, if we are motivated attimes, like health and wellness,
here's another thing.
You go to the doctor and yourealize, oh my gosh, I'm 20
pounds heavier than I thought Iwas.

(43:45):
Or my blood pressure is up, orI'm, you know, I'm pre-diabetic.
Like, these are things that,again, they're like motivators.
Like, I've gotta get in shape orI gotta, you know, find wellness
or work on my wellness.
And again, if you use that asmotivation, it's gonna come and
go.
What you have to develop is, isdiscipline, right?
You've gotta develop adiscipline.

(44:06):
You've gotta have, like you weresaying, I've gotta have
acceptance with myself, I'vegotta have acceptance of
outcomes.
And then I've gotta say, okay,um, in health and wellness, I'm
not gonna be okay with certainoutcomes, right?
Like, I, I can't develop typetwo diabetes.
I can't have high cholesterol.
Like I am not gonna be obese.
I am not okay with thoseoutcomes, right?

(44:28):
So I'm gonna be disciplinedabout how I approach.
This new thing.
So for me, how I fit this intomy life, now we're looking at
how do I allocate, how do I planmy life?
How bad do I want it?
Right?
I've had to say, there's nochance in the world I'm ever
gonna exercise after work.
Zero chance.

(44:49):
Zero.

Rob Failes (44:50):
Yeah.

Eric (44:50):
Because I'm exhausted.
I stand on my feet and teach for11 hours a day.
Like there's just no chance I'mgonna come home and work out.
I can't do it.
Plus I have dad duties, right?
So what I've gotta do, andhusband duties and, and home
duties, like all these thingscome into play.

Rob Failes (45:05):
so

Eric (45:05):
what I have to do, I know, is I've gotta allocate time in
the morning for that.
I've got to, right?
And so I've gotta be disciplinedto.
Plan out my evenings so that Ican plan out my mornings right?
And I've gotta just kind of workon that.
So that's what I've been doing.

(45:26):
Been proud of myself, beengetting up earlier, not crazy,
not crazy earlier, but just alittle bit earlier.
And I'm, and I'm going throughthe motions of, you know, some
level of exercise every morning,stretching, weight, training, a
little bit of cardio here andthere, like whatever.
So it's gonna take time for meto develop that discipline over.

(45:48):
Long periods of time.
But what I'm trying to becareful about is not having any
motivation.
I'm not, I don't have, you know,motivational pictures up of like
six pack abs or something.
Like, I'm not,

Rob Failes (45:59):
yeah,

Eric (45:59):
I'm not worried about any of that.
Right?
So what I'm trying to do is justdevelop the, the discipline and
it's hard.
It's very hard.
It's hard to fit it into mylife.
I don't have tons of time.
So as we look at golfimprovement, we gotta find those
parallels like, how do I fit inimprovement into my life, right?
We're busy, the time is limited,the resources are limited.

(46:23):
And one of the big things that Iwould say is there is definitely
addition by subtraction when itcomes to some of this stuff.
Okay.
So one of the things I would, Iwould say, and I wanted to cover
this point, and I'm sorry, I'mgonna cover this point again, is
that when you talk aboutdevelopment of your game, then.

(46:43):
Trying to quote unquote, changeyour swing, learn a tip from
YouTube, whatever, da da da, da,da, all over and over and over
again.
Guess what that does?
It sets us back in time.
Every time, pretty much.

Rob Failes (46:59):
correct.

Eric (47:00):
Maybe not every time, but a lot of the times, right?
So then we're trying somethingwe have no idea of its context.
Is it gonna help me?
Is it gonna hurt me?
All I know is I keep muddling upmy process, right?
So what we wanna do is say inthat process that Robbie and I
just doled out, how do I knowwhat I need to work on and what
I need to do?
What's not that answer you'renot gonna find on the latest

(47:22):
TikTok?
Um, whatever.
32nd tip video, it's likely notlying in there.
What you need to do is say, Ineed to study this and
understand, right?
I can find some understanding onmy own, or I need to find a
coach that can help me find myunderstanding.
And so when I say, how bad doyou want it?
Yeah, coaching can be aninvestment, right?

Rob Failes (47:43):
For sure.

Eric (47:44):
I think that you have to, it's an investment in time.
It's an investment in, thenfollow up practice, it's an
investment in money.
All those resources are limited,right?
So time, energy, money, allthree of those, if I'm taking
lessons.
But the point is that personshould set you into this process
pretty quickly and say, Hey,here's where we are.

(48:05):
Here's your next step.
Here's the big picture, andlet's work on this one thing,
and I'm gonna give you somethings to do in your time that's
limited to work on it.
So a lot of what I do withstudents is I'm just asking
them, how much time do we have?
Like this is in the beginning,what's your practice?
How much time do you have?
Do you have moment?
Yeah.
What are your constraints?
Do you have an at home setup?
Do you, you know, how's thebody, there's a con constraint

(48:27):
as well.
How bad do I want it?
Right?
Am I willing.
To do something I've never done.
Am I gonna allocate time andresources in a way that are
gonna help me improve?
And I think that that is a stepthat it's just, it's just right
there.
It's right there.
And we all know we need to do itwhen it comes to wellness, and

(48:49):
we know we need to do it when itcomes to a lot of things.
But it's like taking that step,getting outside of our comfort
zone and saying, you know what?
Like I don't have a swing coach,but I'm gonna go, what?
I'm gonna try to find one.
Right.
Um, and I think that that's ahuge deal because just telling
you to practice more, you canuse some of the tips that we

(49:10):
give you and have

Rob Failes (49:11):
Time

Eric (49:11):
fruitful practice.
There's no question,

Rob Failes (49:13):
yeah, time is not a good predictor of quality of
practice

Eric (49:18):
right.
Or improvement in any way,shape, or form it.
It could actually set you backthe other direction.
But the point is, I.
If you're gonna find time, yougotta have, you gotta have
someone helping, in my opinion.
I mean, if, if John Rahm is onthe range right now at Augusta
with his coach, Dave Phillips,then you know, you and I
probably need a coach too.

(49:40):
And so at least to help us inthose moments, right?
Those relationships areimportant too, to, um, to build
and, and, and guide us on ourway.
So I'm a believer I don't haveto sell anybody on golf lessons,
like, you know, you know what Imean?
Like, I'm not, I don't do that.
But I will say that, you know,what I do say is in

(50:02):
relationships are important,right?
And those, and if I could helpsomeone understand the process
and be their guide on the way,that's all I ever want.
It's really fun for me to be onthe ride with them, so to speak.
So, um.
That mo that part of it is, is Ithink the trickiest part, like
what we just described, is like,find the resources, allocate

(50:26):
them, plan your life.
How bad do you want it?
Right.
And what you don't wanna do.
You, you gotta sit down andprioritize a little bit.
And I had to do this right.
I'm not gonna sacrifice my timewith my children or my wife.
That's not happening.
Right.
I can't necessarily work less.
I could maybe be a littlesmarter about the hours and try

(50:48):
to figure out how that allworks.
Get, maybe if I needed time inthe morning to exercise, I could
go in later a couple days andjust stay later, you know, that
kind of thing.
But I had to sit down and planall this out.
Right.
I just had to do it and put itin a schedule and say this is
what I'm doing.
Right.

Rob Failes (51:02):
So

Eric (51:03):
when it comes to golf and you're coaching with people,
Robbie, do you feel like, do youspend a lot of time in this
moment, like trying to helppeople construct.
Sort of the process of theirimprovement.

Rob Failes (51:15):
for sure.
Yeah.
We start with, um, start withkind of the, the end goal in
mind.
And, and by that I mean likefrom a, from a, how you're doing
this standpoint, right?
lot of times it's like, Hey,like golf is not fun for me
right now.
I want it to be more fun.

(51:35):
Can you help me make it fun?
So I want to come out and do itkind of thing.
It's like.
I don't really care what yourstats are, if we're always off
time, if we are always off task.
So I, again, I, I always tend tostart with that because I mean,
I'm, I'm a huge believer that weplay our best when we're having

(51:56):
fun, So I get people to, tounderstand that piece first.
And then once you're able tocheck that box pretty
consistently, and, um, Dr.
Pryor said again, there's, he,he hasn't had someone in a, in a
good while submit a, uh, ascorecard that's been a hundred
percent on time and on task,right?

(52:18):
I think 80 percent's great.
if you can get up to, you know,80 ish percent of your round on
time and on task, you're gonnabe having a good time and you're
also gonna be aware of what'shappening, So if you're aware of
what's happening, then we cansay, okay, well, what could we
do?
What would be the most efficientallocation of time to get your

(52:40):
score moving in the positivedirection?
And that's where we would startto look at stats of like, okay,
you know, what's, what's themissing link here?
Is it off the t?
Is it approach to green?
Is it short game putting for,for the level of golfer that
you're at to get to the nextlevel?
Where do we need to be?
Right?
And then to eventually getthere, like we've said many
times, it's gonna be somecombination of scoring,

(53:02):
strategy, shot, process, skill,and swing, right?
So it's a matter of, typicallyif you're on the earlier side of
that learning curve, you'regonna start with swing stuff
first and kind of work your wayup.
if I'm working with a collegeplayer, I typically start at the
top, And then swing is the very,very last thing that I would do
with them.
but it's always gonna be amatter of, of looking at this

(53:25):
thing objectively, getting themto, um, assess using facts, um,
nonjudgments, right?
And then starting to teach themwhat actual.
Training looks like it's notcreating an environment that is
the easiest for you to performin.
Right?
So a lot of people have theperception that, okay, if I
perform well in practice, thatmeans that I'm learning, that

(53:47):
means I'm getting better.
So they will organize theirentire environment make the
performance as good as possible,which taking away all the
spacing, all the variability,having the lowest challenge
point humanly possible, Sogetting them to understand,
okay, well we actually wannastretch our capacity.
We want to get ourselves just tothat, you know, like 50 50

(54:08):
success failure rate, don'twanna stay at like 80, 90% where
it feels great, or it's likegoing out and, and having ice
cream, right?
It, it tastes great.
It's not the greatest for youkind of thing, right?
Um, so there's a lot of thateducation too.
Um.
And that's, and that's prettymuch, I mean, I do a lot of

(54:30):
concept each, like education.
It's not a whole lot of like,okay, you're gonna spend five
minutes doing this and then fiveminutes doing that, and you're
gonna do this for three days aweek, and you're gonna like, I
just don't think that, I don'tthink that's sustainable.
Now, if it's, if it's organic tothe individual, if I give them
these concepts and if then theycome to me and be like, okay,

(54:51):
this is what I'm gonna do basedoff of my life, then I'm be
like, okay, great.
Now let's take that time andthen let's start to organize
that the way we want.
But,

Eric (54:58):
Mm-hmm.

Rob Failes (54:59):
I, I teach them concepts like when you're gonna
come out to the range off ofwhat you're trying to do, where
could you spend your time?
Well, how could you do this?
That's typically how I like to,and whether it be right or
wrong, um, that's kind of howI've, I've typically done it.

Eric (55:14):
Yeah, I think that the, um, me as a older, you know,
you're what, 30 turn 30 thisyear, right?
So you're 30.
Um, I'm, I'm an elderly 40, youknow, in my late forties.
And so, you know, with two, butyou have a 2-year-old, I've got
two in college.
Right.

Rob Failes (55:32):
Yep.

Eric (55:33):
I think when, when I, I, I sort of have lived through this
crazy, crazy life period, whichyou're gonna get to, you know,
like where it's like, you feellike you're in the weeds and
you're just all over the place.
And so I think that it's, it'speople will come to me and be
like, Hey, I gotta figure thisout.

(55:53):
I gotta figure out, like, and,and one of the things that I've
heard someone say, which I thinkis really great is.
What can I do the least amountthat's gonna be the most
effective?
What can I do the least of?
That's gonna be the mosteffective?
And that's why I kind of go backto the process.
Like when we're talking aboutwhat we're working on.
Like if you go straight to swingchange all the time, that is not

(56:17):
the least amount.
Uh, it's not, it's not the leastamount.
Um, if you are constantlytrying, every swing tip you come
across, that is not the leastamount to be the most effective.
It is not, it is actually theleast efficient thing you could
probably do, and least effectivething you could probably do.
So what we're saying is don't dothat.

(56:37):
You've got limited everything.
Figure out a better way.
Right.
Um.
One of the things that Irealized a few years ago is that
with a lot of things, like Iused to think in my mind, like,
if I'm gonna do something, likethat's, I play the guitar,
right?
Play the guitar.
I love to read, I love to workout, I love golf.
Like I got, uh, some things thatI do, right?

(56:59):
Um, and what I also, also, whatI used to think in my mind all
the time was, I need an hour.
Like, I would, it would be like,I need an hour to figure that
out, right?
If I'm gonna work out, I need anhour.
If I'm gonna practice, I need anhour.
I don't know why.
It's just, I think our mind islike, we're used to dividing
everything up an hour blocks.

(57:20):
I take a lesson, it's an hour.
If I'm gonna practice guitar,it's an hour.
Well, none of that's true,right?
If you do a really good,efficient workout, you can be
done in 15 minutes with, and doa lot of stuff, right?
Go stretch for 15 minutes andtell me it wasn't effective.
You're gonna feel better in 15minutes.

Rob Failes (57:36):
yeah,

Eric (57:37):
So what I'm saying is you can fit nooks and crannies a
little bit, especially if you'rekind of like a club member.
Like that's helpful, right?
If you're a country club memberand you're around pickleball and
tennis and the fitness centerand the restaurants and the
kids' activities, like you canfind little nooks and crannies.
I tell people, I tell the dadslike, Hey, when you're, when
you're picking your kid up fromjunior clinic on Wednesdays,

(58:00):
just, just try to get there 15minutes earlier or have little
Johnny come over and get'em a,you know, get'em something to
play with and you can hit ballsfor another 10 minutes at the
end, right?
Or when you're dropping yourkids off for swim, team might go
practice then, or tell yourwife, I'll take him to swim
team.
Right?
Then it's like you're doing aduty and you're.

(58:21):
Practicing at the same time, orI'm gonna play pickleball, get
there 15 minutes earlier and putpractice your aim point.
You know, like you can do, youcan fit these little nooks and
crannies in.
Um, and those add up just likeit does in exercise.
It adds up.
Speaking of aim point, Rob failsa little bit of an aside here.
The AIM pointers are doingpretty well at the Masters, are

(58:41):
they not?

Rob Failes (58:42):
doing okay.

Eric (58:45):
I have a great story.
I mean, it's interesting to mealone and maybe, maybe some of
the listeners is, as thelistener knows, if you've just
tuned it in for the first time,if it happens to be you.
A couple things.
We've alluded to Dr.
Raymond Pryor, we've interviewedhim on the show.
We did a, we did an episode, wekind of reflecting on that
interview.
Uh, golf Beneath the Surface ishis book.
He's brilliant.

(59:05):
If you're interested, I'll linkit in the show notes.
So that's kinda, we're referringto the on time on task.
Those, those references, um, areall Dr.
Pryor, uh, and he's justawesome.
So, um, those insights are greatand we've also done a lot on Aim
Point.
Robbie's a great aim pointinstructor.
I use it now and I'm just.

(59:26):
I really floored with how wellit works.
So I played the other day and Itexted Robbie like I, I couldn't
believe it.
Um, I was doing a playing lessonand I had a putt for par 6, 6,
6, 7 feet.
I didn't measure it, but it waslike that distance.
And I walked up and I'm like,this is a four now.
A four is like four is four is asteep, you know, we, I, we don't

(59:49):
have a lot of fours.
Okay?
4% is, that's, that's a, that'sa pretty big slope that you're
putting across.
So the guy I was playing withalso did our clinic

Rob Failes (01:00:01):
yeah.

Eric (01:00:01):
and he uses it too.
Loves it, by the way.
Loves it.
And really what I've noticed iswith a lot of these guys that I
teach, they kinda like, theylearned it in the fall last
year, if you remember.
And in the winter they haven'tplayed much or used it and
they're not even doing it quiteright and they're still getting
great results, like pretty darngood results.
We'll put it to you that way.
So we were refining, I kind ofrefining is as we went and um, I

(01:00:23):
stood out and I go, oh my gosh,that's a four.
And then I second guessed it fora second and I'm like, Nope,
it's a four.
So that thing downhill right toleft seven footer was probably
eight.
I was probably aiming 16 or 18inches outside the hole.
And I was like,'cause the greenswere fast.

(01:00:43):
And I was like, oh my gosh, justtrust.
And I hit that, put it, and itwent right in the middle.
And he was like, what?
Are you serious?
Like, we went and looked at it.
There's like, there's no way inthe world we'd have played that
at 16 or 18 inches of break.
There's no way.
No way ever.
And so aim point, you know,getting a bad rap, it slows

(01:01:05):
everything down and all, itabsolutely does not slow
anything down if you do it theright way.
So if you're watching theMasters, um, Justin Rose, he's a
big aim point guy.
Had a decent score today, LudwigOberg.
Hmm.
Big aim point guy had a greatscore today.
Scotty Scheffler Caddy at leastuses it and helps him read the
green.
So I think that, uh, you'reseeing more cows playing great

(01:01:27):
with, he's been a big defenderof it recently, which is pretty
cool to see.
So, um, yeah, those top players,they're, they're aim point.
They don't show it, they don'tshow it on the screen.
But,

Rob Failes (01:01:37):
don't always

Eric (01:01:37):
uh, it's pretty cool to see.
Have you, have you followed someof the commentary, like the
hateful commentary that's beengoing around about any point
recently?

Rob Failes (01:01:47):
My, my head's in sand.

Eric (01:01:50):
Yeah, it should be because it just, it just doesn't matter
in my opinion.
Like again,

Rob Failes (01:01:54):
social media anymore, honestly.
Yeah.

Eric (01:01:57):
Wow.
I, yeah, I actually, there waslike Wall Street Journal
article.
Which a lot of people sent me, Igot like four emails one day and
a couple texts like, did you seethis Wall Street?
And the Wall Street Journalarticle actually was really fair
about it.
Um, it was after that picture ofthe woman who was standing on
like a one foot putt andeverybody was losing their mind
over it.

(01:02:18):
Like, gimme a break, you know,like whatever.
So, um, any point Green ReadingTech, again, if you're new to
the show, green ReadingTechnique, Mark Sweeney, um, was
on the show so you could goback.
That's one of my favoriteepisodes.
Very entertaining guy.
Super sharp.
Um, university of Virginia Guy,which I hadn't realized, you
know?
Did you know that?

(01:02:39):
I just didn't know that.
I guess I would've talked to hima little bit about that, but

Rob Failes (01:02:42):
big,

Eric (01:02:43):
son goes to UVA and obviously

Rob Failes (01:02:44):
Yeah.

Eric (01:02:45):
Robbie works at UVA, so the UV of course.
So anyhow, how bad do you wantanything else you add to.
When you see students, and youand I are not this way, we're
not SEC football guys, so wedon't like grab people and ask
'em how bad do they want it?
Like, how bad do you want it?
Like how bad, how much does thismean to you?

(01:03:07):
We don't really do that.
But anything else you see thatpeople are doing and you're just
like, man, why do we keep doingthat?
You're just, if you just didthis other thing, it would be,
it would be better.

Rob Failes (01:03:21):
no.
Yeah.
No.
I think we covered it.

Eric (01:03:24):
But there's many, there's many, there's many.

Rob Failes (01:03:27):
How much time we got

Eric (01:03:28):
So in this week of the Masters, which I've been on
record, I'll tell everybody,everybody will tell you.
And, and obviously today is theend of the first round.
We're recording.
And Oberg played great, but I,that's been my pick since I
watched that Cyborg play lastyear.
O Oberg, he's bel, he's builtfor Augusta, right?
Like.

(01:03:50):
He's a machine.
I don't think he's human.
I don't think he's human.
I think he's, he's from someother planet, but such a great
player.
Gosh, he's a good player and uh,it's fun to watch him play.
And he's built for Augusta likejust bombs it and hits a draw if
he wants to.
And Hess that any point, degree,the green's really well.
So I think he's gonna be a forceto reckon with.

(01:04:12):
So we're gonna take themotivation from seeing the
masters, we're gonna turn thatinto a disciplined approach to
playing golf better.
We're gonna focus on process.
We're not gonna focus onresults.
We're gonna get a coach if weneed it.
And we're gonna allocate ourtime, energy, and re all of our
resources towards planning out away to play better golf to the

(01:04:35):
full enjoyment for 2025.
Does that sound pretty good,Rob?
Fales?
All right, so I think that wrapsup the less important part of
the show.
Now, the most important part ofthe show, Rob, we talked last
time about Dynasty.
You had a di so this is fantasyfootball talk.

(01:04:56):
Just for aside, just indulge usplease.

Rob Failes (01:04:58):
Nope.
There

Eric (01:04:59):
You had a dynasty league draft start up,

Rob Failes (01:05:01):
folks.

Eric (01:05:03):
super flex startup, uh, which means that the quarterback
position's pretty much the mostimportant.
You had the number one pick.
You were gonna pick the Redskinsquarterback.
Did you go ahead

Rob Failes (01:05:15):
I did.

Eric (01:05:15):
and take our guy?

Rob Failes (01:05:17):
I got, Jayden

Eric (01:05:19):
You had to take him.

Rob Failes (01:05:20):
had

Eric (01:05:20):
Uh, it's hard not to take em.

Rob Failes (01:05:22):
he's

Eric (01:05:22):
hard not to take them.
Where did, where did my guy, um,Ash Genti go on that drive?

Rob Failes (01:05:29):
Yeah.
So this was a cool draft becausewe actually picked, um, kickers
as placeholders for our rookiepicks, which is gonna be, um,
after the draft is when we'll dothe, uh, the actual supplemental
rookie draft.
But Ashton Gente went 2.8 in astartup.

Eric (01:05:48):
Way too late.
Way too late.

Rob Failes (01:05:51):
He

Eric (01:05:51):
Just write this down.

Rob Failes (01:05:52):
just, he went just after Jamir Gibbs.
he went after Bijan and Gibbs.
I would put him, I would've puthim RB three right now.
Right behind Gibbs and or Imean, I don't know.
Gibbs.
I

Eric (01:06:03):
SA one still RB Saan Still RB one in this startup for now,
in my opinion.

Rob Failes (01:06:08):
a dynasty.

Eric (01:06:09):
Yeah.
Yes, in a dynasty, just trustme, I've been doing Dynasty for
many years.
Saquon is gonna be great for atleast three more years.
Just trust me.
When I did our dynasty Dr.
Start up,

Rob Failes (01:06:21):
what's happened

Eric (01:06:22):
I took a couple of players that everybody thought was
washed.
I took, I took LaShawn, McCoyand like the six round,

Rob Failes (01:06:28):
Okay.

Eric (01:06:28):
I took, uh, Larry Fitzgerald in like the eighth
round.
Oh, they were old.
They're this, that and theother.
And they produced for like fourstraight years and they were
awesome.
And Saquon has no, no slowingdown ahead of him.
The Eagles have an absolutelyoutrageous offense that he's
gonna produce in year, overyear, over year.
He's gonna be at least threeyears.

(01:06:49):
Great.
And he is absolutely the numberone, um, fantasy dynasty startup
guy in my opinion, for runningback.

Rob Failes (01:06:57):
That's

Eric (01:06:58):
Um, but

Rob Failes (01:06:59):
I don't think I, yeah,

Eric (01:07:03):
Jamir Gibbs, are you kidding me?
Jamir Gibb.
He's fine.
He's whatever.
He's 200 pounds, like whatever.
Gimme a break.

Rob Failes (01:07:10):
Jamir

Eric (01:07:10):
went to Alabama.
Those guys always fade.

Rob Failes (01:07:12):
might be the RB one in Dynasty.
I mean, when you

Eric (01:07:15):
I don't think so.
No, I don't think so.

Rob Failes (01:07:17):
I, I have Bijan Gibbs, uh, Genty, maybe in the
same tier, and then next tierdown would be Daon.
And then,

Eric (01:07:30):
my gosh, you got so much to learn.
Grasshop.
You got a lot to learn here.

Rob Failes (01:07:36):
but there's a

Eric (01:07:37):
Now if you said, oh yeah, Derrick Henry should go in the
10.
Yeah, well that makes sense.
Derrick Henry might have one.
He might have zero Good yearsleft, right?
He had a great year last year.
We don't know.

Rob Failes (01:07:47):
No, I

Eric (01:07:47):
Saquon is not anywhere close to the end of his.

Rob Failes (01:07:50):
Yeah.

Eric (01:07:51):
He has nowhere close to the end of this career, and
you're going to just, we'llrevisit this in three years and
we'll see who's done better.
Jamir Gibbs or Saquon.
We'll see how that, how thatplay and be John's in a terrible
offense.
So he, he had good year, but canyou trust the Falcons year after
year?
I'm not sure you can.
So we'll see.
We'll see how that all playsout.

Rob Failes (01:08:10):
take, I'll take Jamir three year, uh, total
points.
I'll take Gibbs.
You take Barkley.
Let's do it.
Let's, let's, let's

Eric (01:08:19):
Done, done.
DUN Done and thus ends ourfantasy Football minute.

Rob Failes (01:08:27):
We're gonna come out with a

Eric (01:08:28):
I hope you have all have enjoyed

Rob Failes (01:08:29):
Yep.

Eric (01:08:30):
the Golf Intervention Podcast.
There may be a fantasy footballspinoff, but I think my wife's
gonna shut that idea down.
You don't have time for that.

Rob Failes (01:08:39):
Yep.

Eric (01:08:40):
see as fantasy football season approaches.
But thank you for tuning in.

Rob Failes (01:08:44):
should make that a, uh, the last 10 minutes of every
podcast should be about fantasyfootball.
I, I, I

Eric (01:08:50):
We'll see, we'll see.

Rob Failes (01:08:51):
make that a, make that a tradition.

Eric (01:08:53):
it's, I think it's fun for the listener to be understanding
that we are humans that haveother interests other than golf,
right?
So it is pretty cool.
Thank you for tuning in toanother episode of the Golf
Intervention Podcast.
You know, it can always send usquestions.
We have a Gmail or we have awebsite, or we have a substack,

(01:09:14):
and any one of those you canreach out to us or our Instagram
and uh, and send us a questionand we'll try to address it on
the show.
We love question and answerepisodes, so maybe, maybe the
next one, we'll do one of those.
Outside of that, I have nothingleft to say.
Hope you all are motivated andtherefore gonna be disciplined
to improve your game in 2025.

(01:09:35):
Have a great night everybody.