GTL: Season Finale - Coaches Corner + Alex Prasad, CEO of V1 Sports - Golf Talk Live

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Look Talk Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
The following broadcast is brought to you by the I
Golf Sports Network.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Golf Talk Live is sponsored by the I Golf Sports
Network and Golf Tips Magazine.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Here's Andrew to tell you more about our sponsors. I
Golf Sports is a live stream, broadcast and media production
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and Golf Tips, the game's most in depth instruction magazine,
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(00:46):
Welcome to Golf Talk Live with your host Ted oto Rico.
Join Ted each week as he speaks with some of
the best in golf. This week's special guest will join
us a bit later. But first up is another great
discussion on Coaches Corner, So let's introduce tonight's Coaches Corner Panel.
All right, good evening, everybody, and once again, welcome to

(01:09):
the season finale, Season twelve finale actually of Golf Talk Live.
I'm your host, Tedodurrico, and we've got a great show
to end the season. We've got a full and I
mean a full panel here on the Coach's Corner segment
of the show, and I'm looking forward to having these
guys on to sort of send us off for a
couple of reasons, the season finales being number one, and

(01:29):
also this will be the last show on this platform
blog talk radio dot com as they are packing it
in as they say, at the end of January of
next year. So all of the and I'll tell you
a little bit more as the show progresses, but all
of the archive shows have been transferred over to spreaker
dot com and I'll give you more details I said

(01:50):
a little bit later on, so you can go back
and listen to all of the previous year shows including tonight's,
will be there after the broadcast, and the next year
are going to be moving to a new platform.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Looks like after checking into a number of different good.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Ones out there, that it's probably going to be going
to Riverside dot Fm, which is actually both video and
audio platform. So I'm really excited about that. And we're
going to be doing a few tests throughout the off season,
but we're gonna take an extended break and I'll be
off the rest of this year in twenty twenty four
to obviously partake in the holiday festive season and then

(02:26):
the month of January and then probably even a few
weeks into February before we start back up for the
regular show.

Speaker 3 (02:32):
And then the coaches corn will be starting.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Up typically the first Thursday of March next year, so
excited about that. But let me introduce the guys and
then we will get into tonight's panel discussion, and then
later on I'm gonna be joined by Alex Bursad. He
is the CEO of V one Sports. He's gonna be
joining us on this last broadcast here on blog talk
radio dot com. First off, of course, is John Decker
is the director of instruction at the Medallion Club in Columbus, Ohio.

(02:57):
He's also a senior contributing editor and a top two
five instructor with Golf Tips Magazine. Formerly, he was the
head instructor at the Grand Cypress Academy of Golf in
Orlando and was the twenty fifteen Southern Ohio Teacher of
the Year. He's authored two books, Golf Is My Life,
Glorifying God through the Game and Fairways to Heaven, One
Shot at a Time. He's also available for public speaking,

(03:19):
and he'll tell you a little bit of how you
can do that range that at the end of the broadcast.
And also joining us tonight is Pete Buchanan. He's been
teaching this great game of golf now for over thirty years.
He's the founder and director of Instruction of Playing Simple
Golf LLC, and it of course houses the Plain Simple
Golf Circuit and the Swing Simple Swing Repeater Training Brace,

(03:40):
and he's been helping golfer's focus on building a repeatable
swing for many, many years now. Also on the panel
tonight is John Hughes, PJ Master Professional and the honorary
president of the North Florida PGA Section. He was the
recipient of the twenty thirteen pg of America's Professional Development
Award and also a senior contributing editor and Golf Tits
magazine Top twenty five instructor, and in twenty twenty three

(04:03):
he received the North Florida PGA Teacher and Coach of
the Year honors. So congratulations again on that, John, And last,
but certainly not least, is Clint Wright, a thirty year
plus member of the PGA and one of the partners
at TGM Golf and TGM is of course has been
a big proponent of the R three approach and certainly

(04:24):
among the best covering the short game and with the
rest of these guys as a favorite here on coaches Corner. So, guys,
welcome to the Coach's Corner Panel, the last one of
twenty twenty four.

Speaker 5 (04:38):
Glad to be here to thank you.

Speaker 6 (04:40):
Thanks, Jed, happy right.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
And.

Speaker 7 (04:45):
Yeah, happy happy holidays. He's going to do the ho
ho ho figuratively speaking. Come on, Clint, I think you're the.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Oldest here, so it's up to you. No, not a chance, yes,
all right?

Speaker 4 (05:08):
And John Decker, I see you made it on the
panel as well, so thanks for climbing on and I
appreciate you being here as well.

Speaker 8 (05:16):
Thank you Ched.

Speaker 9 (05:17):
Sorry I had some technical difficulties, but.

Speaker 8 (05:20):
Poor to being on with you tonight.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
So we have the four of you on tonight for
two reasons. One, as I was mentioned to the guys
earlier on, I had to back out of last week,
so two of you that were scheduled last week are
coming on because as the last show is the season
and I thought we would do something interest So I
don't know whether you guys realized this or that, but
I went back and looked into a little bit of

(05:45):
the history of Coaches Corner and I saw that we
officially started this panel discussion team.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
So it's about eleven years now.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
The show has been on the air for twelve and
it was the second year that I started the Coach's
Corner panel segment. So you guys has been coming around,
most of you anyways, for pretty much all. I know
John for sure, Clint, I think you were pretty close. John, Decker,
I think it was maybe a year or two after that,
and Pete, I think you were pretty much from the
get go as well. So yeah, you guys have been

(06:15):
around for a number of years on the panel.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Yeah, I don't need to remind us you know yet
that we're all getting over.

Speaker 5 (06:25):
Okay, we're all getting over. But it's been fun. It
really has been.

Speaker 10 (06:29):
Yeah, it has been so.

Speaker 4 (06:31):
So here here's my question for you guys, and I'm
asked of each of you, and I'll start off in
the order that I introduced you, So it'll be Decker, Pete,
and Hughes and then Clint. And I'm using the last
names of two of them obviously because they both have
the first name of John. What was something John that

(06:54):
and that's Decker. I'm talking to something that you took
away from your fellow panelists over years. What was maybe
one thing that you of doing all of these shows
you've been on with pretty much. I thank each of
you have been on with one another at some point
throughout the eleven years, and I just want you to
maybe if there's something specific, maybe a moment in one

(07:15):
of the discussions that something kind of resonated with you
that one of your fellow panelists that was talking about
you thought, hmm, you know, I'm going to think about
that a little bit more myself and maybe, you know,
give it a little bit deeper thought. Was there anything
that that sort of struck your mind over these years
that you took away from one of your fellow panelists
And you don't need to mention them if you don't
want to, but if you do, that's fine.

Speaker 8 (07:38):
Well, yeah, that's a great question. Yes, I'll go away.

Speaker 9 (07:41):
Actually from Clint, you know, he's always talking about third
shot and how important it is, and it's something that
I think about in golf. It is because most every
student we teach is going to have a third shot
and you know, setting that up and for most golfers
not gonna hit greens and regulation so learning to really

(08:03):
be efficient at that third shot, whether it's chipping or
or uh maybe it might even shot maybe that you
don't maybe there's uh listeners out there who don't hit
the ball as far as they and so they have
to kind of plead to that position.

Speaker 8 (08:18):
So it's more of the strategy.

Speaker 9 (08:20):
And and so that's something being on with Clinton, I
was on with Clint. It's you know, it's funny because
each year, some years you'll get them with the same uh,
you know, every show and other years. H you know,
this year with Clint nearly as much as I have in.

Speaker 8 (08:36):
The past, that was probably one stands out.

Speaker 9 (08:39):
And uh, you know, I've been with you know, John
Hughes as well quite a bit, and I've learned a
lot from him. We're in the club fitting side. I
think he does a really good job.

Speaker 8 (08:50):
Of explaining that.

Speaker 9 (08:51):
And and uh and with Pete, you know, he's more
golf swing and so I always like to listen to
that because I teach more of a path. But Plaine,
you know, can be relatable related when you're talking about
the golf swing.

Speaker 8 (09:05):
So just really from all of.

Speaker 9 (09:07):
The the panel guests tonight that we have, I've learned
something from all of them.

Speaker 10 (09:23):
Yeah, I still learn.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm my apologies. I'm sorry
I muted myself. Pete, I'm sorry, it's you. So, what
was something that you took away from your Yeah, technical issues,
it's okay, uh, my senior moment, as I say, So,
what was something that, Pete, that you took away from
your fellow panelists? And it can be just one or

(10:02):
a couple of if you want to mention, with all
of the coaches Corner panels that you've been on, there's
obviously something that's resonated with you from one of your
fellow professionals.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
What's your thoughts?

Speaker 11 (10:13):
You know, I think more than anything else, it's just
a collective. Even if you take all of the other
three that are owned and I used, the collective of
how they approach the game, the different ways they go
about it and looking at you know, being prepared for
shots and the different types of practices that you do.

(10:34):
I think it's been pretty unique to listen to how,
you know, different instructors go about you know, how they're
going to teach certain areas of the game, and you
can always find something in that that's going to help
you you know, to pass on to not only yourself,
but to your your own clients. And so I think
for me it's just been you know, listening to how

(10:56):
they approach the game, how they approach teaching, and you know,
how they prepare themselves for the different situations that they're
going to come up against. I think that for me
has been something that's been pretty cool to listen to
and and to try to work into some of the things.

Speaker 10 (11:12):
That I'm doing.

Speaker 4 (11:14):
Yeah, I think it's always good to to listen to,
you know, different approaches. You know, I think we always
all learned something a little bit new, and I think
we each probably have taken a little nuggets here and
there throughout the season. So great answer as well, John Hughes,
what about you. I know you offer a lot of

(11:34):
very savvy tips along the way, but I imagine you've
pulled a few nuggets yourself from some of your fellow professionals.
So what were some of the takeaways for you.

Speaker 6 (11:45):
I got to piggyback with with p and the various
different approaches, and that's just I would I would say
it a little bit differently in that we all say
things differently, but really come to somewhat of the same
conclusions that hopefully the listeners can understand. What's really cool

(12:06):
about the Coaches Forum for me has been if we're
talking about one particular theme or one particular item, as
Pete said, how we all go about it slightly different.
And I think it's a big benefit to the listeners
as far as Hey, I didn't understand what Pete said,
but John said it really good. I can't wait to

(12:28):
hear what Clinton has to say about it. And Clint
might be helping or not helping or whatever. And every
panel I've been on, I think that's what resonates the
most matter who I've been on with, is that when
sticking within the theme, that we all have different approaches
and it's so fantastic to the listener because they're all

(12:51):
so different. And hopefully they've taken that away more so
than me taking away from everybody just countless what I
think we've all taken from each other. But I hope
the listeners have gotten that portion of it.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
Yeah, well said, and and you know you're exactly right.
I mean, it's really about the listeners. You know, we
obviously enjoy helping the folks that are tuning in each
week in some way, whether it's with their golf swing,
or whether it's with the you know, the mental side
of the game, or or some other area that they
need a little help with. And it's good to get

(13:28):
some different perspectives and different ways of communicating that information
because we all, as we all understand, uh, each of
us are different and and learn differently, and sometimes you
need to get a different persp Clint, Clint, what about you.
You've been doing this pretty much since day one with us,
and you've had all of these guys at some point
on the panel with you as well as others anything.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
What are some of the takeaways that you remember.

Speaker 8 (13:52):
Well.

Speaker 5 (13:52):
I tend to want to agree with with John a
little bit. I think that there's a lot of things
that we've all talked about in common. And you know,
it's interesting that we You've brought on a panel of
people from pretty much all around the country, and what

(14:13):
happens is we understand that we're talking in pretty much
generic form but saying it in different ways. So what
I've come off with is that when I have a
student and you remember in the back of your mind
three shows ago that John Decker said this, or John
Hughes repete. They said this about this, can my student

(14:36):
relate to that form better than they're relating to my form?
So you take away a bit of a repertoire of
things to.

Speaker 12 (14:44):
Use to make a connection with your student.

Speaker 5 (14:48):
Because we all know that that's really what matters is
we all have basic understanding and knowledge and how to
hit a golf ball, how to play the game.

Speaker 8 (14:57):
You know.

Speaker 5 (14:57):
That's why we're destructors and teachers and we and we've
stayed with this game as long as most of us
all have is that we have an interest in helping
people improve their ability to play our sport. So whenever
I have a repertoire of different ways of phrasing or
pointing out certain fundamentals and facts about the game, that
just makes me a better instructor, which I appreciate what

(15:19):
all the other guys have said. And most importantly what
I've got out of it is after the shows, I'll
sit down.

Speaker 12 (15:25):
And make some notes.

Speaker 5 (15:26):
It gives me an opportunity to maybe think a little
bit deeper about what I'm trying to do with my
local students. So that's pretty much I think over the years,
what I've come away with is an ability to teach
my students the same thing but in different ways based
on things I've heard on the show.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
Yeah, well, said Clint in your response as well, you
know my takeaway I really have, I mean many things,
but two I'm going to mention and it applies to
all of you as well as many other panelists that
have been on over the years as well. And first
and foremost is the passion and with what you do.

(16:08):
You know, there's a lot of people that go out
and treat whatever their career is another job. That's something
that's very unique about the golf business is it's not
just the job, it's it's a much bigger thing that
because we're doing things to help other people. It just
happens to be golf is the vessel that we're all using.

(16:29):
So I'm very impressed with all of you, and as
I said, the others that have been on the program
over the years, the passion that you guys bring to
each of the shows. And I know I've said this
probably a million times on air, but I do appreciate
it very much because I know it's not easy. You're
out in the lesson tee all day, you're tired, you
come back now you get to talk for an hour

(16:49):
and listen to me babbelon about whatever, and you guys
have to come in and it's not rehearsed. You don't
get a chance to see notes up front or anything
like that. You have to do what you can do
on the fly, and that's not always an easy thing.
So it's a testament to the passion that you guys
all bring to the show and to your craft. And

(17:11):
so I give you guys a big round of applause
for that, because it's something that a lot of people
in other industries don't always have. The other thing is
the willingness to learn from one another, as you've all
brought to the tension of the listeners. We're all different,
we all have different unique styles. Sure, some of the
core philosophies might be very similar or certainly the same

(17:34):
in a lot of cases, but we each bring a
different uniqueness to it and sort of put our own
little spin, if you will, as you guys have all mentioned.
So that impresses me. But at the same time, what
impresses me even more is the fact that you're all still,
even at this many years that you've all been in
the business, still willing to learn from one another, and
that says a lot about the integrity and the character

(17:56):
of each and every one of you, which again impresses
me very much, because there's a lot of businesses out
there that you don't see that it. Sometimes you'll see
where people get a little bit too, for lack of
better words, full of themselves. And you guys have always
been very humble when you come on the show and
respectful of one another, and even if you may not
always agree with how something was presented, you're still respectful

(18:18):
of it and you may offer some other options or
solutions to whatever the question may be at that time.
So again I applaud all of you for that, and
I thank you all of you for bringing that to
the show because I think that's what really helped make it.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
A really integral.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
Part of Golf Talk Live as the Coach's Corner panel.
So I'm going to go through the list again and
is there anything that and it doesn't necessarily have to
be a tip, but it could be a tip as
an example or a drill of some kind if you
want to do it that way. That you've taken away
again from the panel, that you've now incorporated into your

(18:57):
own instruction. Is there anything that comes to mind for
the deck or I'll go with you first.

Speaker 8 (19:04):
Wow, that's a great question. I I I'm trying to
think ahead of something that I.

Speaker 9 (19:15):
Hearing you know me kind of going back to what
I was mentioning earlier, talking about what Clint was talking
about the third shot. Sometimes when I'm out there during
a playing lesson to my student and we'll talk about
if there's someone that I know that they physically.

Speaker 12 (19:33):
Can't get the ball to the.

Speaker 9 (19:35):
Green in regulation, is about playing to that where they
have a go to shot and you know, I to
the phrase of a go to shot out of yard
is that you're going to play to me?

Speaker 8 (19:50):
That would be.

Speaker 9 (19:52):
The thing that I've taken most out of that because
form we're not doing a lot of demonstration of drills.
We may talk about them, but uh, that for me
playing standpoint and teaching, I think that's something that directly
say that from the patient I've gotten the panel and.

Speaker 8 (20:13):
I actually.

Speaker 9 (20:16):
Have said as well about learning to say the learning
in a way that's different. Sometimes it may be the
you say it, because we all when we're when we're teaching,
we all know that out there who may not with
what we're saying, and to be able to say it

(20:38):
in a different way, and sometimes it can be a
way that you express that.

Speaker 8 (20:44):
The students can make all the difference to the world
in the lesson.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
Well said and a great point as well, Pete, what
about you? Is there anything that you can think of? Again,
going back over the decade or so that we've been
doing the Coach's corner pan know that maybe you thought,
you know what I'm gonna I'm gonna try that, and
it might be just been for yourself. It may honestly
be something you incorporated in your instruction, but you may
have tried it yourself. And so I'm going to give
that a try and see how it works with my

(21:10):
game and if it, if it goes well, I might even.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
Try it on a few students. Anything that comes to mind, well,
you another thing, you.

Speaker 11 (21:19):
Know, overall specific, I think it's more of a as
I said before, more of a collective you.

Speaker 10 (21:26):
Know, a lot of the things that Clint talks about
with a short.

Speaker 11 (21:29):
Game, I think just incorporating some of the different, you know,
variations of things that he does and the outlook that
he has and playing those types of shots, and I
know that, you know, John mentioned the third shot, which
is you know, always something that's that's really you know, necessary,
that that that has to be done. But I think
more than anything else, has just been taking a perspective

(21:51):
of really I think one of them is just slowing
down overall with with the work and the approach that
I used to go with all the clients that I have,
And I think that some of the guys have talked
about that, you know, when you're when you're practicing and
doing some things to you know, keep everything slowed down

(22:13):
so you create more feel I've tried to do a
lot more of that. I've done that in the past before,
but it was just you know, emphasized again with with
some of the some of the guys in here talking
about doing those types of things and you know and
being really specific in you know, trying to if you're
going to make a change, you have to stick to

(22:34):
you know, that sort of a slowed down version of
what you're trying to do.

Speaker 10 (22:38):
To make it work.

Speaker 11 (22:39):
And I know I've incorporated that into into a lot
of things that that that I've done, and uh, like
I said, some of the guys have talked about it,
so that that sort of comes to mind and some
of the things.

Speaker 10 (22:51):
That I've been able to pull out. But there's there's been.

Speaker 11 (22:54):
A lot of things, so it's it's kind of hard
to really really specifically pick one. But you know, I
will say too, you know what echo what you said.
You know, it's really it's really a great thing for
all of us, you know, to continue to learn, and
especially those the guys that are on tonight, you know,
just given their time and continuing to try to get

(23:18):
better at what we do.

Speaker 10 (23:18):
I mean, I've been at.

Speaker 11 (23:19):
This, you know, almost good, this gracious over forty years now,
and so it's really cool to continue to keep your
eyes open and keep your ears open and listen to
what the guys are saying that you know, you can
find something that can enhance what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yep, I couldn't agree more well, said mister Hughes. What
about you.

Speaker 4 (23:43):
I imagine there's maybe something that you've heard on the
show or you talked about in the show, and it's
resonated with with you inside and thought, Okay, I'm gonna
I'm gonna put this into the practice and see how it.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
Works for me.

Speaker 6 (24:00):
John, This is one of the more interesting and better questions.
I think that's ever been asked on this program, and
I'm not I'm saying it sort of chuckling, because, like Pete,
I'm having a hard time pulling just one or two
out of the air. Every time we're on. I think

(24:22):
we all grab a little bit of something and it
sits in our crawl and we use it when the
time comes we're not. I think one of the things
that listeners have to understand is we don't meet once
a month or twice a month or whatever we're scheduled
to brainstorm anybody or anything, so much as the brainstorms

(24:43):
that happen within the program linger in our brains, and
when the right person in the right situation pops up,
we're pulling from that database. Per se. I know, having
been on the show if Peter couple of different times
and then running into a student of his with one

(25:04):
of his swing aids was it was sort of eye opening.
Not because I wasn't concentrating on what that swing aid
was going to do for anybody, so much as it
sort of dawned on me to leave some space open
for that particular possibility to occur. Having John to the

(25:29):
course one day for a photo shoot and watching some
things that he had done and going, hey, I do it,
but I do it differently. Why is he doing it differently?
It's one thing to talk about it on the show,
but then is actually see it as another And then
you know, there's so many things Clinton I share in

(25:51):
common from having lived in the Upstate a while ago.
And I'm just mentioning the three people here because I'm
on with so many different people as these guys have.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Right, just sort.

Speaker 6 (26:05):
Of the down to earth approach that he has sometimes
when I'm in a pickle per se thinking of him
or thinking of some other mentors that really just sort
of calm everything down and take it for one step
at a time. And again we're talking about it amongst

(26:27):
ourselves about ourselves. But I'm trying to put the twist
back on the listener here that sometimes what you're hearing
from us you take from a technical standpoint of view.
But I think this question in a nutshell should communicate
to a listener A, there's more than one way of

(26:48):
getting it done. B. When you get overly excited, start
thinking simple, not complicated, and be just because seeds rather
simply because it doesn't apply to you. Right, now, and
you've got a good coach that is telling you this
doesn't apply to you right now. Doesn't mean you toss
it in the garbage, keep it in the memory bank,

(27:10):
keep it in storage somewhere, because if you progress to
that point where you're gonna need it, having been exposed
to it now, is going to be something you're gonna
you're gonna cherish, you're gonna value when the time is
right to use it. And I think all of us
would agree about that. It's that's why it's so hard

(27:31):
to pull just one or two things out of the
thin air when asked, because the accumulation of what's been
out there over the years, it's it's crazy. Would I
would hate to be the person that you employ to
tag every bit of your archives. I'd go nuts, But

(27:52):
it'd be a lot of the same things. And how
how can I tag it differently? Kind of think, so
so I can pull it. I need to pull it
for something, but that I'm like the other two. I
just can't pull one or two things out. But the
collective intelligence, you know, when you were introducing everybody, I

(28:14):
did the math and including you, t there's over one
hundred and sixty eight years of coaching experience on this
program tonight, There's no way I can pick out one
thing out of all those years.

Speaker 4 (28:30):
And I got to say, nobody on the panel looks
a day over one hundred and sixty seven, So we're
doing pretty good.

Speaker 3 (28:36):
I guess. I know you're right.

Speaker 6 (28:37):
We all feel two hundred and twelve.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
Yeah, some days waking up, that's for sure. You're well,
said John, And you're exactly right. And really the purpose
of this, I mean, being the last show, I just
wanted to have just kind of a casual discussion and
just sort of, you know, celebrate the time we've been
doing this a long time, the group of us and
the many others as well who aren't with us but
have been on many years as well, and I just

(29:03):
wanted to, you know, let you guys get an opportunity
to sort of think about what what the takeaways were. Clint,
I'm gonna let you do it, and then we're going
to move on to the next question. But Clint, what
what was something that that you took away?

Speaker 6 (29:16):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (29:16):
If anything that that maybe you've applied either to yourself
or or students along the way.

Speaker 12 (29:24):
Well, Ted, I think it, as everybody said, it's hard
to hard to say.

Speaker 5 (29:29):
One thing, but I'll promise you that the thing that
I've gotten out of being on this show for the
number of years we have and and have an and
interaction with all the other the people on the panel
is that whenever we've all run into those students that
are difficult, that are having struggling and everything we try,

(29:51):
and it always gave me the sense and confidence that
the other people particularly have great, great credentials on the show.
I would agree with what I was saying. It kind
of gives me that inner confidence to continue to push
through with the more difficult students and helping them learn,
knowing that I'm on the right track and to stay

(30:12):
the course with them, you know. And so to me,
it's more of a personal confidence issue that when you
begin to doubt whether you're really going about this the
right way or not, you can kind of go back
and think about some of the things that's been said
on the show and the confidence that the other panelists
have portrayed towards each other, that that gives you the

(30:34):
staying power to work with those students that are struggling
a little bit, because it's always easy to teach the
good student. It's the ones that are struggling that you
have to keep keep pressing forward with them to get
them over that hunt to where they're going to play
more guy. And this show has given me that insight,
I think in order to stay and be patient and
move forward with them.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Yeah. I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
And just two quick points. You've all again, I agree
with everything that everybody said. I feel the same way.
A couple of quick ones. One that I really found
interesting Clinton. It was yours and you talked about several
years ago, and it was about putting, and you talked
about setting up a benchmark, and you know, the analogy
that you gave is really good one because you see

(31:18):
a lot of people on the golf course on the
practice area that are just sort of putting to.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
You know, they're going around.

Speaker 4 (31:23):
If there's three or four little pin placements there, they're
going around and just hitting them from one to another
and not really putting any thought into it. And I
like the analogy that you talked about. You've not actually
done it a couple of times on the show, but
setting a benchmark, you know, learning what the speed of
it is, the distance control, and understanding that before you
get out on the golf course and giving you a

(31:45):
better chance of success on the putting green. And John,
one thing that always stuck out with me, and I'm
talking about Hughes, is one of the things that you
said very very early on in our conversations on Coach's Corner,
and that was one of your primary functions as a coach,
as a teach professional obviously besides teaching, was to ensure

(32:09):
that your students were having fun. You wanted them to
go out and have fun in the golf course. And
I think that's something in life a lot of times.

Speaker 3 (32:15):
We all uh you know, overlook and.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
And forget to do. And that always stuck with me.
And I know you have that on you know, in
a lot of the verbiage in your website as well
that you talk about that. So that was something that
that stuck with me and Pete always, you know, you've
always given some great points and and tips and and
brought a lot of very good, uh you know, things

(32:39):
to the panel as well, and and always puts things
in a perspective in a in a very simple form,
which sometimes is needed. Sometimes we can get.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
To technical, myself included.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
And you've always managed to uh sort of bring that
into perspective and into a simple form, uh in a
lot of your answers. So I always take that away.
I always have to remember for my own when I'm
working with somebody that to try and keep it as
simple as possible and not try to get too technical.
And of course, my good buddy Decker, I think one
of the things that I've always enjoyed is your energy.

(33:12):
And obviously your knowledge is among the top out there,
I firmly believe. But you have a great energy that
you bring to and passion to your game itself and
also to your instruction, and almost a certain youthfulness. And
now you are young, younger than me, but serve certain
youthfulness in your approach and always bring a certain element

(33:36):
of excitement to what you do. So that is always
something that I've taken away, and I try to do
that with whatever I do as well. And you know,
something just to remind me every once in a while.
So you all have given me something over the years
to think about and to try and incorporate in my
own not just instructional times, but in my own life
as well. So thank you for that, all right, Speaking

(34:00):
of mister Decker, uh coming back with you on this one.
This is very very simple. Is there anything guys, and
you guys can chime in if you want, that we
haven't discussed Over the years, We've covered a lot of topics,
uh in at length and and so forth. Is there
anything on the panel any discussions that we haven't talked

(34:21):
about that maybe we'd like to see in the mix
next year? Is there something that we haven't covered maybe
as much, or maybe we need to cover more, or
just something in general that we haven't talked about, anything
that you can think of.

Speaker 9 (34:33):
John, Well, that's that's a great question as well. But
I think that it would have to be the rules.
I mean, I know that there was a time when
John Hughes and I were and there again we don't know.

Speaker 8 (34:47):
But when we go on this show, we don't.

Speaker 9 (34:49):
Dad's gonna we don't know what is this from the
last time, we're we're gonna pull something out of his hat?

Speaker 8 (34:56):
And when he pulled the.

Speaker 12 (34:57):
Rules and there was a little lef because I'm the first.

Speaker 8 (35:01):
And not a rules expert.

Speaker 9 (35:03):
I have to every year, you know, there seems to
be new rules for the US to keep up with
those and I do with all of our ladies and
with our men's clinics, we actually clinic here Ian club
this very well and rules were incorporated with something that
I think that's construction. When I look at fiction, I

(35:27):
noticed teachers simple things like how to make the.

Speaker 8 (35:35):
Whenever I have.

Speaker 9 (35:35):
A student who they'll hit a shot and then they'll
put a ball three feet away from it, go to
pull stop them, and I said, it all needs to
be and I put the ball exactly because I tell
them it's my professional to teach you this. I want
you to go to another club and tell people that
you're taking with me, and then you know, go out

(35:58):
and make divids or feet apart from each other. The
straight though, like the greens keeper now wants you to
to have to make. So taking up less urfs etiquette rules,
I think that is missing an instruction something I think
that would be great topics for your show.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
Hello, it's been sorry about that.

Speaker 4 (36:30):
What I was gonna say is, uh no, you're exactly right.
It was a great a great topic, and I think
what would be something good to have a little bit
more in in depth. What I was starting to say
was that I noticed that you're you were getting a
little bit choppy with your answer, So I don't know
if you're still having some issues on I don't know
if you want to maybe call back in and try
that and see if that clears it up. But I

(36:51):
just want to let you know that it was. It
was fading in and out quite a few times through
your conversation.

Speaker 3 (36:57):
Pete. What about you?

Speaker 4 (36:58):
Is there anything that you can think of that we
haven't discussed that maybe you'd like to see us bring
up next year.

Speaker 11 (37:09):
You know, I think maybe just a little bit more
in depth, because I think it's a it's a little
bit of a lost art. I think in teaching today
is causing effect. You know, you can put it into
some some different categories. I have a flash I do
every Tuesday evening with two gentlemen, one sixty five and
the other one seventy six, and it's just a Q
and A and we basically cause and effect all the time.

(37:33):
And these two guys have have learned a ton in
a very short time because we just talk about, you know,
the overall motions and you know, basically club and bull interaction.
And then you know, if if you're going to get this,
you know, this causes this to happen, and this is
the effect that you're going to get. But I think
if we if we had some more discussions on you know,

(37:54):
just overall cause and effect of what makes you know
the ball do what it does, I think it and
help in a in a more And I always use
the term simplified because it's it's fortunately and unfortunately, it's
the only way I know how to think about this game.

Speaker 10 (38:09):
I keep it as simple as.

Speaker 11 (38:10):
I can, but I think a basic understanding of cause
and effect, I think would be something that I think
would be very valuable to the listeners because, you know,
even in some of the areas and some of the
folks that I'm I'm around and some of the other
teachers and some of the younger teachers, I think that's
kind of a lost art and I think it can

(38:33):
make it a little bit easier for him if they
get a, you know, a good understanding of just what
what you know cause and effect is. You know, I
was very fortunate, and I've told you this before, to
learn from John Jacobs and one of the one of
the best cause and effect teachers I think I've ever seen.
And it was really cool to be able to just
decipher you know, what's going on and make it just

(38:55):
to get to the fix really really fast, because you
could just understand, you know, what's going on in the
dynamics of impact and then what's coming back to the player,
and you know what's what the causes. Uh, you know,
you know affecting those issues are. So you know, I'd
like to see something like that. I know it's it
could be a broad topic at times, but you know,

(39:15):
I think it would be helpful to some of our
listeners to to get a little bit more you know,
understanding of cause and effect.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
In their golf games. Yeah, I think it'd be good.

Speaker 4 (39:25):
And I think especially moving to a new platform which
is going to incorporate the visual side of things, might.

Speaker 3 (39:32):
Be really good.

Speaker 4 (39:32):
Maybe throwing up a few examples of some issues and
what's causing the problem and then what we can do
to to sort of assist and helping. So that might
be something to maybe reach out to, you know, some
of the listeners to the program, uh, and even amongst yourselves,
to some of your students and get either do it
yourself or or get them to give you just a

(39:55):
short little snippet of you know, maybe them hitting a
ball and uh, you know, catching what the issue is.
Maybe it's you know, something as simple as a big
old slights or whatever, and and then you know, sending
it my way and I can introduce that into the
in the discussion, we can talk about that, what's causing it,
what's you know, what they're doing wrong, and and how
do we go about, you know, straightening this out? So

(40:16):
it might be something I agree with that. I think
that's a good a good thing to talk about as well.
John Hughes, what about you, anything that you can come
to mind. I know there's a lot of things that
we can probably throw out there, but anything specific that
you can think of that you like to bring up
next season.

Speaker 6 (40:34):
Well, Pete sort of stole some of my thunder and
then you stole the rest of it because where I.

Speaker 10 (40:40):
Was going to go with it.

Speaker 6 (40:40):
It's something I've always allocated was a little bit more
participation from listeners. And I'm really excited for all the
new things coming around the corner for for you, the show,
for the panel, your guests, and I think it's going
to open up a whole lot more for listeners and
hopefully viewers to open up a whole new can of worms.

(41:06):
When it comes to what can be presented and maybe
even more simply understood. This game, I've always said, is
not easy, but you're always trying to make it simpler.
And I think the news of next year and going

(41:26):
to a different platform, it's going to open up a
ton of different stuff from a visual side, and that's
how we get ninety percent of our information daily anyway,
just through our eyes. I'm looking forward to that.

Speaker 4 (41:40):
Yeah, I'm excited about it too, to be honest. And
I think the platform that I'm going to be going to,
I think is going to be really, really good. It's
gets a lot of great reviews and it's very easy
to use, and I'm going to play around with it
over the next month or two, but just to get
a little more proficient with it. But I think it's
going to be really good and gives a lot of

(42:01):
a lot of perks to it as well. So Clinton,
what about you, anything that you can come to mind
that maybe you'd like to seeing the discussions next year?

Speaker 5 (42:09):
Yeah, I think so I really would like to maybe
give some thought and conversation from an instructor standpoint, and
all the guys on the panel, when do you tell
your student that it's good enough. When when do you
move them from grinding and and and trying to do
something better or different when you can honestly look and

(42:30):
see that fundamentally they're probably as good as they can
be with the time and effort that they spend. So
how do you convince that that student that, hey, this
part of your game is good enough. Let's go over
here and work on this other part. You know, because
we've all had the student that when you want to
talk to them about their chipping and puney and it
looks like it like you're you know, you're from Mars,

(42:53):
and they want to just go out there and beat
balls on the range and grind it out. And so
what what criteria do we use to convince that person, Hey,
you're hitting it good enough. The reason you can't break
ninety is you can't chip and put, or your strategy
is wrong.

Speaker 12 (43:08):
Let's go out on the.

Speaker 5 (43:08):
Course and kind of run some scenarios. But when and
how do you go about convincing that student that is
good enough? And at what point do you you move
them anyway?

Speaker 12 (43:20):
So to that, I think that'd be a.

Speaker 5 (43:22):
Really great topic of maybe several shows, not just one,
because I think it's a it's a it's an interesting
thing to guide into teach your students, but also to
lead them and how you go about about leading that
student through the process of scoring better when they're really.

Speaker 12 (43:40):
Stuck in the fact that they think they need to
hit it better.

Speaker 4 (43:44):
Yeah, and one of the that's an excellent uh. And
you know, I think I think to answer a little
bit is I think people enjoy celebrating their successes much
more than focusing on their efficiencies in other areas. So
I think it's always you know, if you're it down
the middle with your driver, who isn't going to be
excited about that? And if you're you know, your putting's

(44:04):
a little sketchy, or you're chipping or what heavy is
not that up to snuff. A lot of people are
apprehensive because they know that it's not as good and
they want to feel good about themselves when they leave
the golf course. So why not get out there and
hit you know, twenty thirty you know, nice long drives
up there, And I think that's part of it. But yeah,
that would be a great thing as well. And it
might even be an opportunity really to bring some students

(44:27):
on to the panel discussion and you know, with different
scenarios that we.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
Can we can do. So that's something that we'll talk
about that in the moment.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
This next question, I'm not going to go around the panel,
but just sort of a yes or yay or nay
or whatever.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
I think it would be. I think we would.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
Enjoy from time to time, not every week, but maybe
once a month, is to have an industry insider join us,
meaning maybe somebody from a manufacturer, maybe somebody from.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
Another area of the game besides construction.

Speaker 4 (45:01):
To share some of the new trends, some of the
new things going on, and give the panel an opportunity
to pose some questions to them about what some of
the trends they're seeing and so forth. So would that
be something that that would be appealing do you think
for you guys?

Speaker 3 (45:16):
I think it would be interesting for the listeners. But
what about you guys?

Speaker 4 (45:19):
Just very quickly down on the line because I've got
another question I need for you guys to answer before sign.

Speaker 8 (45:26):
From.

Speaker 12 (45:28):
I think it'd be a great show.

Speaker 4 (45:30):
Yeah, all right, John, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
Everybody agree?

Speaker 4 (45:36):
I think yeah, Okay, you know that's something I know
we we tried doing something similar, but I think this
would be again, uh, a little bit more efficient because
now again with with the visual components, you know, we
can bring some you know, cutting edge video that sort

(45:56):
of thing into play with some of these you know,
industry insiders as we call them, to come on and
really talk about some of the things, and there's just
a myriad of things that can happen. So these are
things that I'm going to be looking into in the
off season, reaching out to some people as well. We've
only got a little bit over twelve minutes left, so

(46:18):
my final question to each of them and to go
down to the panel again, So just keep that in
mind when you're giving your answer. If you could share,
as we get ready to close off the Coach's Corner
Corner panel, excuse me for twenty twenty four, is there
a game improvement tip that you'd like to leave.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
With the listeners? John Iff Decker, you go ahead.

Speaker 9 (46:40):
From I guess for me, this is the one that
I always go to with with and I do this
a lot with students early on in the season. Is
you know, working on the pitch shot. I think to me,
the you know, the average golfer, they're not going to hit,
they're not going to hit a lot of greens in regulation,
and they're going to have a lot of shots between
thirty yards and one hundred yards. That's where're going to

(47:03):
come up short. Statistically, the average golfer is going to
come up short of the green. And so learning how
to hit those shots and be proficient with them, because
I just don't see enough time spent in that area
as an instructor. You know, it's one thing to hit
full shots, and there's really no difference in a full
swing between a pitching wedge and a nine iron, but

(47:24):
there's a tremendous amount of difference between hitting a.

Speaker 8 (47:27):
Thirty yard shot and a sixty yard shot.

Speaker 9 (47:30):
As far as you know the club you use, the
swing that you make, you're a lot of times you're
using the same club, but you're having to vary the
length of your swing, and it's very minute changes that
you're making.

Speaker 8 (47:44):
It could be.

Speaker 9 (47:45):
Simply you know how much you widen your stance or
near your stands, how much you lean to your left,
how much you you know, set your weight more fifty
to fifty to control the trajectory of the shots. And
I don't see that my students spending enough time on
that and if you think about it, if you know
that you're not going to hit maybe but one or
two or three greens in regulation, and you're gonna have

(48:05):
a lot of those shots. If you can learn to
be really good at getting that ball on the green
and two putt, you're gonna really bring your handicap down.
And so to me, that's the game improvement tip that
I always think that that's the first one that comes
out of my mouth when someone asks me, you know,
what's the fastest way to improve my score?

Speaker 8 (48:23):
So to learn to hit those shots.

Speaker 9 (48:24):
And you're gonna, you know, because the fastest way to
improve your putting is to hit it closer to the hole.
If I hit it two feet from the hole, I
don't have to be a great putter, you know.

Speaker 8 (48:35):
But if I'm if I'm.

Speaker 9 (48:36):
Thirty thirty yards off the green and I hit it
twenty feet by the hole, then I better be a really,
really good putter.

Speaker 8 (48:43):
And now I'm bringing three putts into play.

Speaker 9 (48:45):
So learning to hit the ball up there, you know,
really close to the old proximity of the hole is
the number one thing.

Speaker 8 (48:52):
To lower your scores.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
Sounds good, Pete, What about you? What tip would you
like to leave the listeners with as we get ready
to wrap up coaches Corner of the season.

Speaker 11 (49:03):
You know, it's it's a little bit more in depth,
but it's it's pretty simple as you look at it.
Learn how to control the club face. I mean, that's
that's one of the paramount things I do with all
of my students is to get them to understand how
to control what the club.

Speaker 10 (49:18):
Fase is doing.

Speaker 11 (49:19):
That's not only in the long game, it's in the
short game as well, and understanding how the club face
and what it does in effect what the ball does,
and I think it helps them to understand a lot
of the issues that they have and how to correct
a lot of those issues.

Speaker 10 (49:34):
But yeah, if.

Speaker 11 (49:36):
Anything, I you know, it would be hitting that club
face under control. And if you can get that down,
it's going to save you a lot of errant shots,
and it's also going to give you a lot of
insight onto some different types of shots you can hit.
Understanding you know, not only square but also often deal offten.
But you know, really understanding the club face and how

(49:57):
it works at impact.

Speaker 10 (49:59):
I think is a.

Speaker 3 (50:02):
Sounds good. I like that one.

Speaker 4 (50:04):
Mister Hughes, How about yourself, what tip would you like
to leave the listeners with.

Speaker 6 (50:12):
Very simply give yourself a goal, give yourself a challenge,
and create a process that's going to get you there.
No matter how distraught he may be, how frustrated he
may be with that, stick with it. I just came
back from the Golf Magazine Top one hundred summit and

(50:36):
there is a neurose scientist there, doctor Richard Boncor from
the Philly area. And it wasn't earth shattering or enlightening.
It was more confirmational to the things that we've always
said on this panel that you know, the technical tips,
the mechanics, all these little hey can you give me

(50:59):
a little man dust is all great, but if you
don't have a goal, then your brain's not going to
want to learn how to get better. It's not going
to be motivated to get better. You've got to have
the goal to reach that goal. You've got to have
processes in place. And all of us have talked a

(51:19):
little bit about that receiving and in the past, and
the most this was probably going to be the most
profound that I'll say this evening, the hardest thing about
golf is not quitting. It was an amazing statement that
this gentleman made. Don't quit on yourself, don't quit on

(51:40):
the process, don't quit on reaching your goal. That's one
of the uniqueness about golf and how it differs from
any other sport.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
It's you, the.

Speaker 6 (51:51):
Ball, the environment, and what are you going to do
to fix that problem and to solve it as you
go through? And you've got to have these goals to
do it in no matter which side you lean to
or which instructor and methodology you lean to. If you
don't have a goal and you don't have a process
to get it, you may as well be out doing

(52:12):
something else.

Speaker 4 (52:15):
I like that. That's a good one. I enjoyed listening
to that one, well, said John Clint. What about you
and a tip you'd like to leave the listeners with?

Speaker 5 (52:24):
Oh, absolutely true. Improvement As far as however you want
to define improvement is going to come from some honesty
to evaluate what your return on your time and effort
will get you towards what as speaking of as your goals.
If you wanted your goals are improved, define improvement. Is

(52:46):
it a lower score or maybe hitting longer drives, whatever
it may be, But you have to be honest with
yourself and recognize the fact and whether you're getting a
reasonably good return on your effort or do you need
to refocus that goal and move on to something where
you can get a bigger return on your.

Speaker 12 (53:01):
Time and effort.

Speaker 5 (53:02):
And John Decker, you are now a certified third shot
teacher because just what you said was exactly true.

Speaker 12 (53:09):
Get your third shot.

Speaker 8 (53:10):
On the green.

Speaker 5 (53:11):
You two put the worst you're gonna shoots eighty six.
So I mean you have now been certified.

Speaker 12 (53:18):
So to be with yourself, yeah, oh that's true. Stifiable. Yeah,
but no, that's cool.

Speaker 5 (53:27):
I certainly you can probably tell I really do enjoy
these shows and it's great being But I think from
a student's standpoints, be honest with your goals, uh, and
to be honest with your return where you're getting it.
That comes back to the thing we talked about a
minute ago, is that win as good and good enough
to where you can move on to get a better

(53:48):
return on something you really need to work on. So
look at that return on time and effort and and
focus your attention on getting the ball on the green
from one hundred yards in.

Speaker 3 (54:00):
I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
And the only tip that I'm going to leave with
the listeners as we wrap up Coaches Corner segment here
in Golf Talk Live, is to go back and listen
to all of the archives as many as you can
get in in the off season, and listen to the
many panel discussions that we've had over the years. There's

(54:22):
a lot of good information in there, not just from
the four guys on the panel tonight, but from many
of the other panelists that are not joining us this evening.
Just go and listen to that. Obviously, there's some great
guests that will follow afterwards, but there's a lot of
great nuggets, as I say, that you'll take away and
at least give you pause to think. But the main

(54:43):
thing is you want to be active. Even if you're
in the cold Northwest or Northeast and you're not able
to get out and actually physically work on the game
out in the golf course because of conditions or maybe
you don't have an indoor facility near you, there's no excuse.
There's so many great tips that you can do in
your own home, things that you can work on, the
fundamentals and so forth that you can be working on,

(55:04):
and if you're able to get away for a week
or so, throughout the winter months, maybe Flora or out
west somewhere in the in the warmer climates and able
to play some golf, take advantage of that. Go and
do that whenever possible, but if not, at least be
working on stuff. Don't just plunk yourself down on the

(55:24):
couch or in a lazy boy chair and spend the
next you know, three to four months doing nothing and
then coming back out. So go and listen to the
Golf Talk Live Coaches.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
Corner segments particularly, but all of the shows.

Speaker 4 (55:37):
In the archives. You can find them now at spreaker
dot com. That's s p R e a k e
R dot com and just type in the search key
Golf Talk Live and you'll find all of the episodes,
including tonight, will be there in this entirety all right
in the last minute or two, guys, as always, let
me just say, first off and foremost, thank you for
another great season. We had a little bit of a

(55:59):
some technical glid this year.

Speaker 3 (56:01):
Maybe that's a sign it was time to move on.
I don't know, but we're going to do that anyways.

Speaker 4 (56:05):
But I want to thank you, guys, and I mean
that sincerely for all of the hard work and efforts
that you bring into the show. I appreciated all of
the great advice and tips that you bring. I know
we learned from one another, and I just really appreciate
you giving of your time. It's been a lot of
fun and I'm looking forward. I'm excited, as you've all
indicated as to next year with the new platform, to

(56:27):
see what we can do with that and make it
even better. But I want to thank you for joining
me on this final episode of twenty twenty four on
Coach's Corner. Going in order again, John Decker, if you
want to just let the folks know where they can
reach out if they want to get in touch with
you before before we come back on air again.

Speaker 9 (56:47):
Well, thanks again Ted for having me on the show,
apologize for the technical issues on my end, and Pete,
John and Clant I enjoyed as always being on with
you tonight. To all the listeners out there, Christmas and
Happy New Year. I hope you have a great twenty
twenty five golf season. If you want to get in
touch with me, go to my website deckergolf dot com.

(57:08):
I'm also available on social media on Facebook.

Speaker 8 (57:11):
Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Speaker 9 (57:14):
My book Fairways to Heaven One Shot at a Time
is just released in July, and Clark Kellogg helped me
release it in September at my club in Ohio. But
it's available on Amazon, Barnes Andnoble, and Walmart dot com.
If you're interested in gift certificates or speaking engagements, it's

(57:34):
that information is available on the website as well. And
I'm down here in Naples now teaching from December to
March at the High Biscus Club in Naples, Florida. So
if you're in the Naples area, I'm available and then
I'll be back in Columbus April through November. But Ted,
thanks for all that you do in giving us the
opportunity to be on the show. And to all you

(57:55):
in your family, I hope you have a merry Christmas
as well.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
I appreciate it. Thank you, John Pete. What about you?
Any final thoughts and how they can reach you?

Speaker 11 (58:05):
Yeah, they can reach me at peteknangolf dot com. All
my contact informations out there again, Ted, you know, thanks
to you. I mean, you do a wonderful job with
this and we're fortunate to be able to be on
with you. The guys and jards the discussion tonight and
then keep keep your eyes out. I'm involved in a
new app that's gonna launch on December seventeenth. It's an

(58:27):
all sports app that I've been able to be one
of the UH coaches on the golf side, so you'll
you'll see it come out. It's a new one. I
can't really give the name out yet until it launches,
but that's something that you'll you'll be able to see
some snippets on my website about that too, So looking
forward to how that turns out this year next year.

Speaker 3 (58:50):
Perfect. Thank you, Pete, John.

Speaker 6 (58:55):
Don, Pete Clint. Always a pleasure. UH, you guys are
fantastic and hopefully get to see you guys down here
in January during the PJ Show. Ted is always thanks
for the opportunity, the many years of opportunities. We're well
taken advantage of us by all of us and hopefully

(59:16):
the listeners took advantage of it too. A happy holiday
to all the listeners there. Start making your goals now,
Start making your dreams come true for next year now
by planning them all out. And if you need my
help with that, he can reach me through my website.
John Hughes cough dot com, all my contact infos there

(59:39):
social media, put the ampersand the hashtag whatever it is,
and you find me the same way. There. A wonderful holiday.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
Season, everybody.

Speaker 6 (59:48):
A great twenty twenty five to you as well.

Speaker 3 (59:52):
All right, thank you John and Clint. Last but not least,
Clinton's still with us.

Speaker 5 (01:00:04):
There we go, guys.

Speaker 12 (01:00:05):
It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 5 (01:00:06):
Yeah, my senior moment.

Speaker 12 (01:00:10):
It's been a pleasure for the last twelve years or.

Speaker 5 (01:00:12):
Eleven years I've been on with all you guys and
all the other people on the panels. I really do
enjoy it, and as everyone else has, I wish everybody
to have a wonderful holiday season, whether it's a Christmas,
Hanukkah or whatever you do tend to celebrate this time
of year, So please have a great time and really

(01:00:33):
looking forward to Lucky thirteen to Ed. I think twenty
twenty five is going to be a wonderful year for
our business and our sport, and hopefully we'll continue to
have some great discussions here. And if people want to
reach out to me, they give me a Clinton got
zero zero one at Yahoo dot com, be more happy
to respond back to them. And again, guys, y'all have
a nice holiday and a safe new.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
Year, all right, appreciate it, guys, Thank you as always,
and happy holidays, Mary Christ and all that good stuff
to you guys. And I will probably see some or
most of you down at the PG Show at the
end of January, but if not, have a great holiday season,
and I look forward to you guys joining me next
season on the panel discussion here on Golf Talk Live

(01:01:14):
Coaches Corner.

Speaker 3 (01:01:15):
Have a great season, you guys. We'll talk to you later.

Speaker 10 (01:01:18):
Good night, good night.

Speaker 3 (01:01:22):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:01:23):
That was John Decker, Pete Buchanan, John Hughes, and Clint
Wright joining me on the Coaches Corner panel here.

Speaker 3 (01:01:30):
On Golf Talk Live.

Speaker 4 (01:01:31):
We're going to take a very fast break and then
I'm going to bring on tonight's special guest, So stick around.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
We'll be right back.

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Speaker 4 (01:03:05):
All right, welcome back to Golf Talk Live. I'm Ted
ro d'urrico, your host, and really excited to have this
evening's guest on. I'm going to tell you a little
bit about him, and then I'm going to bring him
on the show and we'll begin our conversation. His name
is Alex Pisad. He is the CEO of V one
Sports and he is an entrepreneur and seasoned business attorney
with a unique blend of legal acumen and hands on

(01:03:26):
operational experience. With over a decade of expertise in early
stage company and m law, Alex has transitioned from leading
a sports television production crew to practicing corporate law to
now serving as the CEO of V one Sports. He's
a graduate of University of Michigan, Go Blue, and also
Notre Dame Law School. So please welcome the CEO of

(01:03:48):
you one Sports, Alex Posad. Good evening, Alex, welcome, Hey, Ed, good.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
Evening, you for having me. I'm really excited to be
I'm great. I'm just enjoying the winter here in northern Michigan.
We've got lots of.

Speaker 4 (01:04:03):
Yeah, you're not kidding, Go Blue, Yeah you blue cheeks
and everything. Yeah, a beautiful, beautiful area up in Michigan
and so uh so let me ask you something. It
is that before we get into our discussion. So obviously
you're a Michigan fan, but you attended Notre Dame law school.

(01:04:24):
So do you vote a little bit for Notre Dame
too when when when the games are playing or how
do you how do you balance that out? I mean,
I know you said go blue, so I know you're
Michigan is probably first and foremost, right, Yeah, I grew
up my dad went to Michigan.

Speaker 1 (01:04:39):
I went to Michigan undergrad. I grew up in Metro Detroit.
So that's those are the true blue colors, if you will.
And so I tremendously enjoyed my time at Notre Dame,
and the learning law experience was great. Amy Cony Barrett,
the Spume Court justice now was a professor of mine.
You know, this was a great experience. But when it
comes to athletic, Notre Dame can go to ACK and

(01:05:02):
you know, go blue, So yeah I can.

Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
Yeah, I kind of it wasn't the most popular kid. Yeah,
I kind of sensed that when you didn't have anything
following Notre Dame.

Speaker 4 (01:05:15):
So yeah, it was good to get the law degree there,
but uh, not so much when it comes to the
football team. But hey, that's that's the way things shake out.
So let me.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
Biographical fact ted before you before we transition. You're from Hamilton, Ontario,
Is that right?

Speaker 12 (01:05:31):
Yep, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
I researched correctly. Well, began in Hamilton, Ontario of all places,
many years ago.

Speaker 3 (01:05:40):
Now we went.

Speaker 1 (01:05:42):
We went to a tai Cats game on the way.

Speaker 3 (01:05:44):
To try Oh wow, yeah, probably figured out that part.

Speaker 1 (01:05:47):
But so, yeah, I've been to your your hometown.

Speaker 4 (01:05:52):
Yeah, very uh, very interesting. Yeah, the tie Cats, now,
you know, that's a whole different, different league altogether, but
they were always it was always a lot of fun.
The difference was, of course, we were you know, we
were out in the in the stands, freezing.

Speaker 3 (01:06:06):
Or you know what off during it was one year I.

Speaker 4 (01:06:10):
Was actually there when they had the Gray Cup, which
is you know, our equivalent. But yeah, it was pretty
cold in those games. But it was always a lot
of fun. But a little hot chocolate him and when
I was a kid, that's what I had. But when
I got older, obviously gravitated to something a little more serious.
But but yeah, it was always fun to be in
the stands. So what's interesting And I'm familiar with D

(01:06:31):
one Sports, so I'm familiar with a lot of the
products in that. But let's talk about before we get
into what sort of new in coming up in twenty
twenty five, because I know you've got some a launch
of the new V one Coach app let's talk about
if you wouldn't mind for the listeners that aren't familiar
with V one Sports, maybe give them just a little

(01:06:52):
bit of background on what it is and and really
what the purpose of V one Sports is for.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Yeah, yeah, thanks again for the opportunity to you know,
kind of tell the story Ted. So, uh, the one
is twenty plus years old and it's won roughly thirty
percent market share in North America a month's golf instructors,
you know, twenty years ago or so, by sending video
over the internet it sounds quaint today, but twenty years
ago that was pretty stink and cool. And by tellustrating

(01:07:23):
on that video again a really cool I'm gonna call
it a trick, but you know, a really cool feature
right twenty years ago, and you know, to to summarize,
you know, twenty years two sentences, which is completely unfair,
you know, not a ton change over time, and so
a few years ago, we were fortunate and to have

(01:07:44):
a yeah, yeah, a lot changed and you know, pros
are happy that the tool did its job right. But
starting a few years ago, we set forth to kind
of remand imagine, you know what V one was, and
we started by listening, so I'd not come up though
I had that you know, sports TV background, I didn't

(01:08:05):
come up in the golf industry, if you will. It's
not like the roots of my career. And so I
think in some ways that's a superpower. Others have told
me it's a disadvantage at times. I think most could
be true. But you know, I think it's made me
a good listener because they did not come to any
conversation with a preconceived notion of you know what the
answers were. And so I would say, especially a year ago,

(01:08:27):
I probably you mentioned the PJ show, you know coming
up now in a month. Crazy how time applies. We
became we knew we were rewriting what is called the
V one Pro Mobile is the old mobile app for coaches,
and now we have V one Coach out. And when
we were rewriting Pro Mobile and creating this new product,
V one Coach, this new solution V one coach. We're
really purposeful about listening to our pros and trying to

(01:08:51):
understand what their biggest pain points were. And so that's
kind of the what's new, and that's the summary of
V one and what we have become of evolved into
through I think, you know, purposeful listening is a business
growth tool or solution for golf pros. And I can

(01:09:12):
elaborate more, but so we've evolved from I think being
the video tool, and there's lots of over time, right,
there's been lots of entrance into that market, if you will,
with a similar tool. There are a lot of competitors now,
by the way, I think a lot of our competitors
do a pretty good job, maybe even a better job
would go so far to say just on that video piece.
That video piece kind of is what it is at

(01:09:33):
this point. And so we recognized that and knew that
pros are different pain points that we can talk about
that and set out to try to prove not just
do the video stuff, which we've always done and do
it well, super important foundational betrock, right, But so what's
new is tilting towards you know, having listened to the
pro trying to solve some of their business problems. And yeah,
we can elaborate on that. I'll be long winded, ted
you can. I can just go and go if you

(01:09:54):
put a coin in me.

Speaker 3 (01:09:55):
You know, no, that's fine, No, I listen.

Speaker 4 (01:09:57):
That's the whole that's the whole point of the show
is for I guess to take this opportunity to really
talk about what they're passionate about. And you know, you're
exactly right. And what's interesting is, you know, there has
been so much change in the last ten years, for
sure in golf, but more importantly even in the last
two to three maybe four years, even despite COVID. I mean,

(01:10:18):
you've got a whole different gen you know, COVID really
for all of the struggles that many people went through
and obviously tragedies unfortunately that some experienced, the one thing
that did I guess, if you want to say anything
positive that came out of at least from our perspective,
is it brought a whole crop of new people to
the game that had never played before, knew really very

(01:10:40):
little about golf. But one thing that they did bring
was a different way of looking at the game, so
that you know, they weren't the typical country club folks
or even the resort folks. They were coming. They wanted
in the simplest form. They wanted to get as much
information given to them as quickly as possible and see

(01:11:03):
results much quicker than what typically in our business. So
I can certainly understand where you guys would have to
sort of reimagine the wheel, let's say, put it that
way in the last couple of years, because there is
a lot of competition coming out and obviously the industry,
the younger generation particularly is driving it. So businesses have
to be able to adapt in order to stay relevant.

(01:11:25):
So let's talk about as you mentioned, you're obviously known
for the video and video analysis and that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:32):
What are some of the new things that you're bringing
to V one coach.

Speaker 1 (01:11:37):
Yeah, and the first thing you respond to this COVID,
you know, dynamic, if you will, right and new entrance.
One of the first problems is we set out to
really really purposefully listen. Right is ghosting basically, right, the
student that comes to an instructor, once the instructor invests
a lot of time and effort right to get into
that for the person, et cetera, and it goes poof right,

(01:11:59):
never to be seen again. Right, And that was that.
I think that's particularly prevalent, you know, in the last
few years, right, because of these new entrants, right, and
so yeah, kind of we heard three themes, if you will,
ted you know. One is I call it the time problem,
which at first die me to me a little bit,
or it confused me a little bit. Right. Pros would

(01:12:21):
tell us I'm too busy, I can't even think about
growing my business. And I go, great, are you busy
you know in early December, right, and they say no,
So okay, So there's you know, it's overweighted right at
high tide, if you will, right, and underweight that love
those kind of one interesting thing, but this perception I
don't have the time to grow my business, right, like
I can barely breathe, and I need that time to

(01:12:42):
kind of recharge, right. I'd like to be busier than
I am in the winter and maybe not so dependent
on that in person component, needing to stand on the
range for fifteen hours a day or like every hour
of daylight right in the summer, depending.

Speaker 3 (01:12:54):
On you know, you're right, right.

Speaker 1 (01:12:57):
The second theme was I have all the success in
person and none of it or a little of it
has translated to online, and I kind of can see
a vision for I form an in personal relationship, maybe
to continue that digitally, and maybe I could set on
my couch and analyze a swing, you know, after I
have young kids, right after dinner time and after you know,

(01:13:17):
bedtime with my kids, right, depending on your life phase, right,
but it's not dependent on me being in a place
in time. And the third was kind of just I guess,
permeating the first two. It's kind of being overwhelmed, right,
I don't know where to start. And so again I
use this phrase purposeful listening, you know, coming to the
conversation without preconceived notions. We really tried to focus on

(01:13:39):
addressing those problems to grow the business and so the
business of golf professionals. And it actually works both ways,
and it could also keep you closer. You know, perhaps
you're a pro at you know, a private club, right,
you have two hundred and two hundred members, the same tool,
the kind of coincidental the same tools that don't take

(01:13:59):
more time for the pro automated tools to get into
what the you know they are, what the solutions we
think we are These problems will help pro stay closer
to their members, even if the pro at the country
club with two hundred year private club, two hundred hundred
members still feels like they don't do a good enough
job following up right, reminding folks to come back, checking

(01:14:19):
in on them. And those are easy things to fall
off anyone's plague, in anyone's profession. When there's another lesson,
there's another thing that's going to revenue. Right now, you
know that you're not doing the things to keep the
kind of machine rolling right when kind of top of
mind stuff doesn't happen, the student my company wants to
disappear and you've never asked for the sale again, basically

(01:14:39):
right because you don't have the time. And it's been
really purposeful about solving that time element. And I can
get into some of the features, but those are the
three themes that we find are resonating with golf pros.

Speaker 4 (01:14:51):
And you knows for each pro. Yeah, and Alex, that's
that's a great point. I want to focus on time
just for a second, if you don't mind U. Yeah,
I agree. One of the problems I think in our
industry has head for a long time is in order
to be successful as.

Speaker 3 (01:15:07):
A teach professional, you've got to be on the lesson.

Speaker 4 (01:15:09):
Te I mean, I say twenty four to seven, but
it's you know, like you said, twelve to fifty nine
hours in peak times. But one of the things really
is when you've given today's environment, is how effective are
you really and how you know your time management? If
you're out there on the lesson tee and let's say
you're giving ten lessons a day for arguments sake, just

(01:15:31):
to put a number out there, you know that's a lot,
and you're coming back and then you've got to do
amountain of paperwork. You've got to do the follow ups
in that and whatever else you're going to do. So really,
as a golf coach you're almost partially a salesperson as well,
because you're looking for that repeat business. And if you're
constantly going for the one and done, and I don't

(01:15:52):
mean that you don't want people signing up for multiple lessons,
but if you're going to the next lesson, to the
next lesson and you don't have time to do that
proper follow up. So really, what I see V one
coach doing now is also helping with better time management
and being more efficient with the time that you're utilizing
and giving and maybe freeing up some time for the
coaches to be able to do some of those other

(01:16:13):
things because now they've got a tool that's going to
help them streamline in some cases and be more effective
of what they're doing without having to go up there
and you know, beat the pavement as it were. Is
that Am I on the right track with V one coach?

Speaker 3 (01:16:24):
When I say that?

Speaker 8 (01:16:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
Yeah, absolutely kind of right. For a couple of thoughts.
One is, you know this theme of time, so we
knew that whatever solutions you're going to provide, I call it,
it can't be an eat your vegetable solution, right. You
go listen to a health person to say eat healthier, right, like, ah, yeah,
I know, but you know I like oreos, right, Yeah,

(01:16:47):
you can't be It's great, but doesn't really solve my problem.
How can I write in my lifestyle make improvements?

Speaker 10 (01:16:52):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
Another kind of related is you know the more I
am not anti technology, clearly who are for a company, right,
but some of the tools that are coming out, you know,
don't address this problem. It's just more and I don't know.
And when I say I don't know, I really truly
mean it. I don't say it skeptically. I don't know
from the perception of a golfer. If you have, I'm

(01:17:14):
hesitant to I'm not trying to bash anyone, right, but
more data right for the student, you know, I mean,
let's all you know, launch data, ground pressure data, right,
you know, kinematic sequence data, et cetera. Does that bring
the student back? I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:17:27):
I think it's an open question.

Speaker 1 (01:17:29):
But what we do know is that if you follow
up with people, for instance, they will come back. What
we do know, and I say this because we look
at our data. What we do know is that if
you send a lesson recap in person and you give
them a take home, you know, using our software or
the other competitors by the way to ted right, you
can unleash in an automated cadence which serves as the

(01:17:53):
top of the mind or a reminder to the student,
right that you exist. People are busy, right, They're probably
you know, fitting their golf instruction around their life, not
the other way around. No offense, right, right, this is
all the leisure things, the recreational thing, so they will forget.
So two things that we do that one that's you know,
I can standard practice, and one that's kind of neat

(01:18:14):
and new. So the one is we really encourage our
pros to take the last five minutes of every lesson.
So it's not more time, right, This is the key,
Not more time right, better result, not more time to
recap with video, you know, with the student and send
it to them in that hour, in that forty five minutes.
Whatever you're liketh you know, take the last five minutes.
The student's not going to feel short changed because your

(01:18:36):
summarized them the whole lesson. Right, I'll send you a
couple of swings. I'll send it these things for us
in our system. What that does is trigger a whole
bunch of reminders. If they're not going and interacting with that,
we will automatically remind the student, Hey, you got a
lesson or a lesson recap you know you didn't watch
go check it out. That's a free beat that that
pings the student on your behalf. You know, our platform,
there's all the things that you would expect, right, invite

(01:18:58):
system and you're connected to the student and chat the student.
That was new to us. But I think that's table
stake stuff. But one of the things I'm really proud
of is we use AI and to my knowledge and you,
Ted probably have a better view than I do of
what everyone else is doing because I'm so focused on
what we're doing. But to my knowledge, we're the only
folks using AI to help golf instructors communicate with their students.

(01:19:20):
And so what we will do with the instructor's impact
we spend time or input. We spend time building the
right kind of model for the instructor, but we will
take that lesson follow up and we'll create a chat
sequence and an email sequence for the instructor to follow
up in a personalized way to that student.

Speaker 6 (01:19:40):
For instance.

Speaker 1 (01:19:41):
We're not replacing the instructor, but we are augmenting instructions. So,
for instance, Ted, you come to me, then you mentioned
that you have this big tournament coming up and seeing
you to work on your shark game, making a silly example. Right,
you're going to say that in your lesson recap? Right,
doesn't take you any more time? Yep, you're going to
send me I'm getting confused a by the instructor of
the student. Right, I'm gonna send you the lesson recap. Deed,

(01:20:02):
you're gonna get reminded if you don't consume that content.
And then also on whatever cadency you know that I
want as the instructor, I'll follow up and I'll say hey, Ted,
thanks for coming to see me. And this is the
first message. Maybe five days later we can talk about
the sequence, right, Teddy's great, they came seemed. I really
hope you do well in this tournament coming up in
a couple of days. You know, just a reminder I

(01:20:24):
sent you, you know, thrill x y Z, right, I think
will really help you in day seven and day fourteen
or whatever you know sequencing you want with I think
most importantly that last sequence being a call to action. Right,
I'd love to see you come back. Here's a link
to book another lesson, but I'd love for you to
send me another swing because we're gonna do some online
stuff and we can talk about asynchronous work. If the

(01:20:46):
student starts chatting back like we're not going to you know,
you say hi to spoof. You know, Alix's person flity
with Ted. But we are going to turn that flywheel,
as you will for the instructor in a personalized one
to one way. That's gonna everyone's you know, AI AI
what is it really? But this is a real practical, simple,
impactful application of the technology. And I've got some great testimonials, right,

(01:21:10):
and folks that are doing it and love it. Because again, now,
as the instructor in our little scenario, Teed, I know
that I'm going to be sending you, you know, these
warm and fuzzies, if you will, right over a period
of time to try to re engage you, absent that
I probably won't and so kind of our macro conclusion

(01:21:30):
and all this on, all the like, how can we
grow your business for you or help you grow your business?
Is the competition, if you will, is in action because
these things aren't getting done right. And it's because of
that time element that we discussed.

Speaker 4 (01:21:45):
Yeah, and let me just add to and that's that's
a great explanation. That's really what what I was looking for.
You know, one of the one of the problems I
think from an instructor standpoint, which which I am one,
is one of the biggest pet peeves that we have
is you know, let's say we said every two weeks,
our student wants to take lessons every couple of weeks,

(01:22:07):
and you know, before things like v one and all
that was out there. You know, you relied on the student.
You know, we would give them something similar everycap or
whatever you want to call it, at the end of
the session, and so I could hear some things, some
drills what have you that you know, I want you
to work on until we meet again. And so what
often happens is because they didn't get a reminder, and

(01:22:31):
because I'm busy on the lesson tea, I don't always
get a chance to follow up with every single person
except for maybe the night before and say hey, don't
forget and you're coming at two o'clock, you know tomorrow. Whatever, right,
it gets by the wayside. So when the student comes back,
you know, two weeks Wednesday, they're coming back, and you know,
the first thing was saying, well, how did those you know.

Speaker 3 (01:22:51):
Drills or what have you work?

Speaker 4 (01:22:53):
Well, you know, I had a wedding to go through
and I got and you know, the excuses come out.
So having this technology giving me intant feedback, so that
I know that, hey, they're utilizing the tools that I've
provided for them, they're looking at the recap, they're viewing
the videos that have gone back and forth. Gives me
an idea of whether they're doing their homework for lack
of a better term, Yeah, and that's important to me

(01:23:15):
as an instructor because I want to know because if
you know, everybody gets busy, you know, once in a
while and things come up and that can't be helped.
But if as an instructor, if you start to see
a pattern where people are coming to you and wanting
to improve, but they're not putting any work in between,
there comes a point in time with the conversation gays, Okay, yeah,

(01:23:37):
love getting the payments, but you know, are are you
really serious about improving your game? Because I don't see
you doing it. So I can see this being a
very valuable tool for the coaches to be able to
have that interaction and to be able to get real
time feedback with the follow up portion of it as well,

(01:23:57):
because it gives them an idea of who's really doing
the you know, the deep dive into the into the
game improvement side of it, or who's just sort of
going through the motions. And you know, if I've got
let's say i've got one hundred students a season, and
twenty five percent of them are not doing anything, I
don't certainly want to lose the money, but at the
same time, maybe I can find another ten or fifteen

(01:24:20):
percent who are going to be like the other seventy
five percent.

Speaker 3 (01:24:23):
And going to be more interactive and more you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:24:25):
I mean, you don't want to lose clients, but at
the same time, you sometimes you have to shed the
dead woods.

Speaker 3 (01:24:30):
So I can see that being.

Speaker 4 (01:24:33):
One of the benefits of your your app for both
students and for the coach is it engages the students,
but it also gives real time feedback to the coach
to see whether or not what he or she is
doing is being received and is being you know, utilized
to its full potential or even partial potential. And that's

(01:24:54):
valuable as a coach for me. So I just wanted
to point that out so people really understand and not
just so much the technical side of it. But no,
I think that's a great thing. So what is the
essential list then for coaches? What is it for them
to to you know, get to see growth in their business.
What is it that they need to be doing on
their side?

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
Yeah, we kind of I have a metaphor which it
always comes back to cars for me being from Metro Detroit.

Speaker 6 (01:25:23):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:25:23):
So you know, there's the chassis, which is the body
of the car, there's the engine, and there's a fuel
that goes in it. That's that's how we kind of
view this, and so that knows lesson recaps and using
video doing that top of mind stuff. You know. I
think with the AI stuff is really neat and cool
because you can see the results. That's part of the chassis.
But we learned something really interesting. I was having a

(01:25:46):
conversation with a pro recently in a rural area and
it basically his thesis was I tried to do online
and it didn't work. I said, okay, great, what did
you do? And basically that hey, you could send me
videos and I could you know, look at them and
send them back to you. And he said it a
few times and no one really took them up on it. Right,

(01:26:08):
So we'd call it like the minimally viable you. That'd
be like your business term, right, But like, do you
have e commerce infrastructure as an instructor? Yes or no?
So this points back to the asynchronous or the time
component ted But so if you're not sending videos back
and forth through students, give them a take home, you know,
not strike one, but like that's a missed opportunity, right

(01:26:28):
if you don't have automated follow ups and then maybe
they're not personalized right and not using AI whatever, that's fine,
another missed opportunity because it's going to be much easier
to grow your business even shed the dead wood. But
the other side of that is someone who already paid
you is much more likely to pay you than a
random person. And then third is having this you know,
minimal or minimally viable infrastructure. And that's can a student

(01:26:53):
buy a digital good from you? Yes?

Speaker 8 (01:26:56):
Or no?

Speaker 1 (01:26:57):
If they cannot, it's gonna be really hard to scale
your business right outside of time and place. In person,
I'm standing on the range. That's kind of one length.
That's the body. The second is the engine, and that
is actually doing you know, marketing thing. So we have
this great partner Withtolius Golf. Ross Liggett is their founder CEO.

(01:27:17):
Actually doing the webinar on Monday next week talking about
this model and there's a there's a slide of the
car and the engine and the gas tank. And again
from a time perspective, Patolius has been very successful working
with Golf courses and driving foot traffic and they're kind
of coming along with us for this ride to help
grow pros businesses. But that's the typical marketing stuff sad right,

(01:27:40):
the email, social, digital advertising, that's what everyone does. So
that's again that's the engine. It's in our opinion, if
you don't have a body, you know, you're not gonna
get get anywhere, right, you need to have the body
of the car. You need to put the engine in it.
Now it's ready to go somewhere, and then you need
to fuel it. And that's a really interesting, unique opportunity
that we have. And again I try to be very
uh personicity if you will, about what I know or

(01:28:02):
what I think I know, and I think they have
not anyone prove it to the otherwise. There is no
one who has more avid golfers looking for coaches in
their ecosystem than we do. So every day we get
three hundred golfers that come into our platform and register
for our app. And there's some seasonality there, but just
on average, right, and we're getting hundreds a week now

(01:28:24):
that we survey them telling us they want to be
introduced to a coach. When someone calls us, we have
a conversation and they say, hey, I want to grow
or I heard that you got all these golfers, give
them to me. We say, great, we love people that
like to grow. We want to help grow your business.
We got these tools that we think can do it.
But let's understand where you are on this journey, because
I want you to be successful. And if you don't

(01:28:47):
have a kind of those minimal viable steps, right, you're
not using video or maybe it's something else, right, but
you're not sending your student home with a takeaway from
in person. You don't have a follow up regime. You
don't have this digital e commerce if you will functionality
again either not rocket size. That's billing and scheduling, right,
and a landing page or a website somewhere where the
person can go to purchase from me. Right, this is

(01:29:07):
not rocket science. If you don't have that, I'm not
just gonna pour golfers at you. Because you don't have
this minimum infrastructure to be success, You'll get frustrated. You're
not gonna like doing that. And then if you're not
doing these marketing activities even just internally to your existing customers,
like email on a regular basis and doing it. Well,
that's a yourly opinion statement. Again, I can't pour a

(01:29:28):
bunch of gas onto a.

Speaker 6 (01:29:30):
Car with no engine.

Speaker 1 (01:29:31):
This doesn't make it sense, right, onto a body of
a car with no engine. So I mean we found
maybe that's a good sales tactic, but it's genuine right
because we've had all these conversations. You had this conversation
like the guy I was telling you about on leaving anonymous,
right that I tried. Actually, you know it's a sequencing issue, right,
like you've done some of in each of the three
categories if you will. You know, the chassist, the body

(01:29:53):
of the car, you know, the engine and the gas,
but you didn't do them in the right order. You
pour gas on nothing, and then you decide to do
some of the body but not the full body, and
then you can put an engine in, so you're not
going to go you know, right, So we have in
that order those things lead to success, and so we're
really excited and people gravitate when we talk to them

(01:30:15):
and get oh my gosh, like hundreds of golfers where
they telling you like, well they felt the survey and
they answer what they want to work on tomorrow. We
have nine call eight or nine calls books between instructors
and golfers that came into the golf app. That's a
that's a high side number. Ted, I'll be, I'll be,
you know, honest with you. But still I'm sure that
you know that's the highest. That's a record day. But
that's still there's real traction there and it's really exciting

(01:30:39):
a little side note, and I don't want to dig
at anyone in particular. People read between the lines. But
another thing that we learned, and again this is I'm
just gonna repeat myself. Everyone's rolling their eyes, right, But
from this purposeful listening is a marketplaces check some of
those e commerce boxes for instructors. But it's an incomplete

(01:31:01):
solution for ninety percent of the instructors for two reasons.

Speaker 3 (01:31:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:31:06):
One from the instructor's perspective, this is a new competition
that they have to win, right, how do I look
good online in that format? I think astructors are really
good at building trust one on one with golfers, and
I think instructors have to learn a new skill set.
Maybe they're great at it and that some are, right,
but how do I make this page look good? And

(01:31:26):
how do they make myself look appealing? And these offers
and which one's going to work and whiche's going to sell?
Which one's not a new game to play, right, And
the second is golfers have a hard time evaluating instructors
online because there's so much social and emotional and personal
about that relationship. Right, So what ends up happening is

(01:31:50):
the winners in a marketplace setting, when it's like the
phone book of instructors clump together like there are fewer
and fewer, and they get wildly successful because they kind
of cracked the code, spoken to a lot of them,
and I think it's great they have found a way.
But for everybody else, it's kind of a numbers game.

Speaker 8 (01:32:09):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:32:09):
So if I'm on Airbnb right looking for a vacation,
you know, destination, and there's two houses on the same block,
they both look nice, you know in general, right, no
one's got no one looks like they smell in the
instructor perspective, but one has a thousand reviews and one
has two. You're gonna choose a thousand person every time.
And it's the only criteria by which could really decide.

(01:32:30):
So when we talk about our gasoline, if you will
in my silly metaphor, but these golf users were matching
them one to one with instructors, not you know, kind
of throwing everyone into a big mix and hoping that,
you know, the cream rises to the top, if you will.

Speaker 3 (01:32:48):
So that's a lot of.

Speaker 1 (01:32:49):
Things I just said. But it's really crystallized in the
last couple of months and we're seeing the results and
it's pretty exciting because it's been taking us years. So
listen to that, and you know, I can point out
some of the stumbling blocks or hurdles or that doesn't
make sense. We need to learn more there right to
get to this conclusion.

Speaker 4 (01:33:05):
Well exactly, And it's important you raise a really interesting
point because the truth of the matter is there's a
lot of great golf instructors out there, very proficient at
what they do. But I've noticed over the years, and
I've interviewed a lot of them, and I've had the
chance to meet many of them as well in person,

(01:33:26):
is they're great at what their craft is, but they're
terrible marketers and they're terrible at you know, And that's
really what you're getting at, is they're not getting out there,
especially for some of the older ones.

Speaker 3 (01:33:38):
I'm being fair.

Speaker 4 (01:33:38):
I mean, a lot of the younger ones coming in,
as you say, have cracked the code. They understand that
you've you've got to get yourself out there. And it's
more than just it's kind of like, you know, back
a few years ago, we started seeing a trend for
a little while. It seems to have leveled off a bit,
but you started seeing a lot of golf course closures,
and you know, people thought, okay, well that was partially

(01:34:01):
that was pre COVID. You started seeing a lot of
places that have been around for years clothing. And I'm
not saying this is, you know, after profit for all
of them, but what I noticed with a lot of them,
and I'm going to use myself as an example when
I first started the show. I've been doing the show now.
I'm going into my thirteenth season next year, and so
I've been doing this for a little while. When I
first started this program, I was one of the early

(01:34:24):
people to do podcasts for golf. I mean, there were
other podcasts, but there wasn't really a lot of them.
So I won't say I was a pioneer, but I
was an early early to the game. And so you know,
I got to see a lot of things, and what
I noticed was there were a lot of professionals and
there were a lot of facilities that were running old school.

(01:34:46):
And what I mean by that is, you know, they
were used to people coming to them, so they would
open up the gate in the morning, open up the
pro shop, you know, and people would come to them. Well,
when more competition started coming around in the area, courses
were built, stuff like that. Now they've got to find
a new way, and they weren't reaching out to their communities. Well,

(01:35:06):
when you start to see some of these younger professionals
coming out that are very tech savvy, very used to
being on social media and things like that, they know
that you've got to go to the people. You can't
wait for them to come to you. And I think
what's happened is and I think it's starting to change.
I think you're starting to see some of the and
it's not just an age thing, but it's just part
of a personality. Is you're starting to recognize some of

(01:35:27):
the established golf professionals have been out there for years,
recognizing that, hey, I've got to start getting out and
active in my community and reaching out and finding ways
of connecting and as you said, listening to what it
is people. It's not just a matter of, well, hey,
sign up for five lessons and they'll see.

Speaker 3 (01:35:42):
If I can help your game.

Speaker 4 (01:35:43):
You've got to really listen to what it is they want,
because that's changed. It's not like it was twenty thirty,
forty years ago. The golfers today coming out now and
it's not just about speed and having They don't have
the same time. They can't afford to spend maybe an
now on the range, so they're looking for ways to
interact with that professional in a way that meets their needs,

(01:36:06):
not just so much the coaches need. So that's what
they have to do, and you have to kind of
find a way to marry the two. And the only
way you can do that is you've got to get
out there and communicate. And that's one of the benefits
that I've had doing this program over the years is
I've gotten to listen to a lot of people in
the business here, some of the good, the bad, and
the ugly. But it give me a little bit of

(01:36:28):
insight as well. And that doesn't mean I'm perfect, but.

Speaker 3 (01:36:31):
Give me a little bit of insight to what you're
talking to or talking about.

Speaker 4 (01:36:34):
Excuse me, and you're exactly right. You've got to listen
first and foremost. That's why we have two years one mouth. Unfortunately,
some people talk talk twice as much as they listen,
and you have to be able to you know, I'm right, so,
but so how to.

Speaker 1 (01:36:51):
Normally right?

Speaker 4 (01:36:53):
No, No, that's okay in this format, it's okay because
you're an invited guest, and that's what I want you
to do is to talk to you know, passionately about
what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (01:37:02):
So let's talk from the students. What is it about
the v one golf app that they really like? What
you I mean? I know there's a lot of reviews
and we'll send people to the website after if they
want to read some of the reviews and things.

Speaker 4 (01:37:12):
But what what has been some of the feedback and
why do they really love the v one golf app?
What is it about the app they really enjoy?

Speaker 1 (01:37:21):
Yeah, I'd have to say this, summarize what you just said, Ted.
Golf instructors became golf instructors to instruct golf. That's the
that's what they did it for, right, because they like
constructing golf, not because they wanted to buil the whole
business round. And actually there's a great parallel to attorneys.
Same thing. I don't know how to develop the business

(01:37:41):
because no one taught them. They can be a good attorney,
and they go, wait, why, you know, why aren't all
the clients lining up out the door. I do go
to legal work, right, because it's a different game. So yeah,
so the students, there's this great symbiotic, if you will,
relationship between our two sides of the business. So the
V one golf app is a simplify, if you will,
right because it doesn't have a customer listened, invitations and

(01:38:03):
so on and so forth, right version of what we
offer pros. So a student comes to an instructor, gets
this lesson recap, this video analysis, and then can do
it on their own on the rings. They can take
the video from their lesson, the lesson recap and say
this was my swing fault. You know, here's the goods

(01:38:25):
and the bads right from my previous session. How does
that compare to what I'm doing right now and the
results that I'm getting on the range. It's funny because
there was a time where I think internally we believe
that there was a tension between giving the student, you know,
this tool. In some ways it was maybe competitive with
the instructor. But to your point earlier about basically giving

(01:38:49):
the same lesson, you know, five times in a row
to the same individual because they didn't do their homework
again intentionally, you know, listening. That's not the feedback we've
gotten from instructors.

Speaker 10 (01:38:58):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:39:00):
As an instructor, you want your students and athletes right
to improve and grow and listen to what you said
and hopefully try to replicate you know, the good right
or the corrections, or at least identify, you know, when
you know they have, you know, a fault that you
have pointed out that they need to work on.

Speaker 10 (01:39:16):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:39:16):
So in a lot of ways that convincing a golf look,
the most avid golfers understand that a foundational fundamental you know,
if you can't, if you don't want to watch yourself
swing the golf club to be really hard to get
better foundational fundamental thing, right, you can look at your

(01:39:37):
smash factor and all these other things. But if you don't,
if you can't, you know, look at the what you
see and what you feel and try to you know,
connect those two things. It's gonna be hard to improve.
Maybe you will, you know, by luck or whatever, but
it's gonna be hard to replicate it, et cetera. Right,
So that's that's number one, and then number two. By
going to an instructor who believes the same and uses

(01:39:58):
video as a tool, you know, you're more or less
convinced right of that. Maybe you didn't understand that before,
or if you didn't believe it before, if you will,
but if you're going to an instructor, actually, whether or
not the instructors using video, they're using their eyes to
watch you, like why you're going to see the person,
and so video is a very short, you know step,
not even a leap right from that, and then for

(01:40:19):
you to do it yourself and quote unquote do your
homework is another very short step. So yeah, we've made
it much easier. There's also a we call it custom
store feature where the golf instructor can put some of
these e commerce offers et cetera in front of their student.
So really trying to make this the one place where
instructors and golfers can interact. We have read receipts like

(01:40:40):
in WhatsApp, from any other messaging apps, you know, in
our app as well. Now, so the other thing we've
heard from golf instructors is like, hey man, people are
whatsapping me, they're texting me, they're calling me in my phone,
my phone. Now we can direct all those communications into
one place. It still could be cau took at a
lot of you know, communications, but at least you have
a folder, if you will, you know, a place where

(01:41:01):
that's the work stuff. But they're not texting your personal number.
I mean to give it out great, right, but they
have a way to get to you now in the app,
as opposed to you know, through eighteen other communication methods.
And you can you know, really create this you know
are you know, we call it stored value, right, but
build up this library of your own swings, of your
instructor's content that they've pushed to you to get better.

(01:41:25):
So it pairs very nicely, if you will, right with
the already existing in person relationship, which is where a
lot of you know people are starting again. We're trying
to build this completely asynchronous, completely digital channel as well.
But we also recognize the reality the vast majority of
these relationships you know have at least some in person component.
Or did you know at their inception?

Speaker 4 (01:41:48):
You know, And what's interesting too is, again as I
talked about a little bit earlier in our discussions, you know,
the generations coming up now are communicating much differently than
you know, when I was growing up. You know, you
went to the golf course, you spoke the instructor and
you you know, talked about a game plan if you will,
and working through some of the areas that need help
in or you you know, you call the pro shop.

Speaker 3 (01:42:09):
And you leave a message and it goes back.

Speaker 4 (01:42:10):
Look, the generations now coming up are communicating through apps
and communicating through other services. So you know, I was
laughing internally to myself when you mentioned about you know,
the phone number and that I got to be honest,
I don't know how many these young guys would even
pick up the phone and call me anymore, because they're
more interested in he can I text you?

Speaker 3 (01:42:29):
Or can I do this?

Speaker 4 (01:42:29):
So you know, they're communicating in other ways because it's
more efficient and also too, I mean, let's be honest,
they're not used to taking up the phone and having
to explain. They can just up and they you know,
there it goes. They can send you the video they
can shoot that when they have a few minutes, they
can you know, do whatever. So they found more efficient
ways to communicate and you know, so this is again

(01:42:53):
a way that the coach can now get that information
quickly doesn't have to be you know, returning. You know,
this was one of the pet peeves you know, years
ago that a lot of coaches you had to you know,
get on the old predictive dial phone and you know,
dialop all your your clients and you know, give them
a call and follow up and things like that.

Speaker 3 (01:43:13):
Coaches don't have that kind of time anymore. So you
need an.

Speaker 4 (01:43:16):
Effective way to communicate with your with your clients, and
this is something the integration of the app between student
and coach is great that you guys are offering and
you know, I don't want to be I would be
remiss if I didn't mention for those again that maybe
aren't a familiar with V one is from the coach's perspective,
you've got a great tool function to be able to

(01:43:39):
isolate some of the issues, the swing plane, things like that.
So there's uh, you know, there's components on the built
into the app for them to show certain things, certain
points within the swing with lines with circles, what have
you uh to be able to show their students and
dial in on specific areas that need need help or
that are uh, you know, deficient in some way. So,

(01:44:00):
I mean it's a very robust and.

Speaker 3 (01:44:03):
A side by side comparison.

Speaker 4 (01:44:04):
You're able to do all kinds of things with it.
So it's very versatile, and so it's not just a
matter of snapping. The reason I want to mention that
I don't want people to think it's just a matter
of sending a video and that's it. There's other components
that your app offers from the coach's perspective that's valuable
to both the coach and the student to be able
to get that real time feedback. So I just want
to make sure I got that in there for those
that maybe aren't familiar with V one. So what has

(01:44:27):
been from your research that you've been doing on behalf
of V one from a student's perspective, Let's get away
from the coach for a second. What has been some
of the top things that they've been looking for that
helped you decide when you've been revamping the last couple
of years, What has been the feedback that you guys

(01:44:48):
have gotten from them to say, this is what we'd
like to see more of this maybe not so much.
What has been some of the feedback from some of
the students that have been using V one or that
are coming to the yeah for the first time, that
maybe have been elsewhere and seen other things that they liked.
What is some of the things that you guys have
been picking up on.

Speaker 1 (01:45:08):
Uh, you know, I repeating myself to some extent, but
I've I mean pleasantly surprised, but almost the level of
shock at how many golfers that come, you know and say,
use theirs golfers right to come to the D one
golf app want do not have an instructor and want
help in finding an instructor. I think we presumed when

(01:45:33):
we did, I know, at one point we kind of thought,
you know, it was men are from Mars and women
are from Venus, but it was you have an instructor
and the box is checked, and you know you don't
and there's a reason for it because they don't want
one leave me alone, right, But there's really it's fundamentally,
if you want to improve at something, there's only really
a few ways to improve. You can you know, consume

(01:45:56):
everything yourself, right and try to teach yourself. That's what
people are doing. You know, by the way, pros spoiler alert,
your students are watching YouTube videos from other instructors, right,
They're looking at anything and everything, right, So right, teach
yourself if you will. You know, again we talked about video, right,
and so you teach yourself by watching yourself. So consume

(01:46:18):
content right, watch yourself or have an expert help you
along the way. I mean, there's really a finite number
of buckets, right, maybe there's two or three others that
you know, you can come up with, you know, listeners
can come up with in their heads. But having an
expert guide you is one of the fundamental ways to
improve at something. And so you know, in retrospect it
seems like simple. But again at the time, we really

(01:46:39):
thought that if we call them affiliated and unaffiliated users, right,
are you affiliated with an instructor? Clearly you have a
very different relationship. We treat you differently or connecting you
with the instructor. You're seeing a branded experience, your instructors
being put front and center, their contents being put right,
I mean, you are cabined off if you will, right,
We're obviously very purposely respect that relationship. And just to say,

(01:47:02):
you know a detail here, but one of our kind
of Touchstownes principles is this app is never going to
your student is never going to be charged to interact
with you. If they choose to kind of grow right
and go on their journey of self improvement and they
want premium tools, et cetera, they can do that and
they can decide to pay right, but we are not
putting a pay wall in any way. Right between the
instructor and the student, there is that opportunity for the

(01:47:23):
student right to proceed. But so, yeah, we were shocked
at that. You know, seventy eighty percent of our users
that are not affiliated with an instructor, they're not coming
you know, through this invite system that we built, et cetera.
They are random people. They're random golfers who want to improve.
And the average user, the average active user, not paid

(01:47:44):
or unpaid, all of them spends over twenty one minutes
a month in our app. So the people that are
here coming in, so these are little breadcrumbs that we saw, right, Wow,
the people that you know are here. The peaked at
just sort of one hundred thousand monthly active users this summer,
so eighty thousand people a month in August spent twenty

(01:48:07):
one plus minutes a month in the V one golf
ap And what we're finding is a big chunk of them.
And I say a big chunk. You know, it is
not a majority of them. It's like thirty percent pace
right now, and it's a very ish number because it's December,
and there's also of caveats there, right, But if we
start to do that eighty thousand, you know, math, there's
a lot of people there that want an instructor, and

(01:48:32):
that's our really unique opportunity is trying to build that bridge.
And so then we said, okay, wow, this is really
a thing. You know, it's always lingering in our imagination,
but we've tested it up to know there's something here.
How are we going to do that? We've iterated a
bunch of times. But sorry, your question was about the consumer,
what do they want?

Speaker 10 (01:48:47):
And they.

Speaker 1 (01:48:49):
Maybe it to your point earlier, Maybe it doesn't manifest
in an in person relationship, right, Maybe it doesn't manifest
in even a communication. Maybe it's just the content of
an instructor. But people want help. I mean Our app
is not for we talked about growth during COVID or
you were talking about it at least ted right, Yep,
this is not for the top golf golfer. Right, It's

(01:49:12):
just fundamentally right. The top golf golfer is not going
to you know, go home and spend twenty one minutes
a month, you know, looking at their swing. I mean
some do, right, but the person that that's all the
high golf that they do, and they're more casual and
they're always going with friends, so they're really high quality. Again,
this is our theories. They have been born out, and
we have of those. Our coaches have a forty percent

(01:49:32):
batting average when you know, the student comes to them
and they interact in continuing the relationship. So I think
it's really interesting. We're proving to ourselves that there's a
high quality, if you will, group of golfers here that
they really want an instructor. And I say that with
a tone I do because we did not believe that.
We said to kind of be convinced ourselves. It is

(01:49:54):
super fun and exciting to see it play out and
to have some instructors. You tell us, we have we
have one instructor I'm keeping them anonymous because I think
it's their permission to you know, there, I guess another lane, right,
I could use it. But I have one instructors at
a resort course. And he said, Alex, look, we met
with him at the PGA show. He's a great you know, resource, right,

(01:50:16):
and he's kind of come on this journey for us.
And he said, Alex, I've tried so many things to
grow my business, you know, shooting a bunch of drills
and hosting, you know, with these bigger companies that have
a big platform, et cetera. And he goes, I've gotten
zero out of all those efforts. I said, no way,
zero did is zero? I've never been able to prove.

(01:50:37):
And you also maybe there was something to those things, right,
So they'd never been able to prove that that is
what brought someone to me and no one has never
told me those activities. And he listened several Right, is
there reason that how I got on their radar?

Speaker 10 (01:50:50):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:50:51):
I said? I said, I can't, but I can't believe that.
He said, it's true. I've been doing this for twenty
five years.

Speaker 13 (01:50:58):
It's true.

Speaker 1 (01:50:59):
So it's really exciting. You know, we had to I
think change our minds. I mentioned the kind of to
eat your vegetables concept. We had to reprogram our brains
to be a solutions company. We talk about you know
my car metaphor and you know the body and the
engine and the gas tank or in the gasoline, the fuel.

(01:51:19):
But we have reprogrammed our DNA to be a solutions company.
And it's become more fun because Ted, you call us
and say, hey, tell me about d one coach, right,
and we say, uh no, well, Ted, tell me about
your business. What are your pain points? What works for you,
what doesn't? And you could say, hey, like I already

(01:51:40):
got a video analysis tool, right, I'm busier than I
could ever be. I do a bunch of online stuff
and it's great. You know, you know, I think I
saw you know that you're moving around geographically, right, you know,
so like my business doesn't go down when I spend
my winter somewhere else and I go bounce a route,
it doesn't matter, Like I'm great, you go, I don't
have a solution for you, Ted, congratulations on your success,

(01:52:01):
like best, you know, best of luck, and you know
I don't.

Speaker 11 (01:52:05):
We don't have.

Speaker 1 (01:52:05):
To convince anyone anymore, right because We've reprogrammed our minds
to say we sell solutions, and so our job is
identify or understand whether you have the problems that our
solutions address and if you don't, but if you do,
I would be really excited because we love to see
you be successful and it's going to be a really
good partnership. So yeah, it's been a fun evolution. This

(01:52:29):
is my first rodeo as a CEO, so I've learned
a lot and I've been super super thankful for this experience.
And you know, it's been so fun to watch everyone
else kind of learn together. You know, we're fairly young organization,
not by age right, the organization itself, but you know,
the team. We're all learning together every day about ourselves
and about you know, how to do this, and it's

(01:52:50):
been thrilling.

Speaker 3 (01:52:53):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:52:53):
One of the things Alex about you know, just thinking
about the coach that you that you mentioned, you know,
there's there's a lot of them out there that you know,
certainly spin their wheels, do a lot of different things,
and you know.

Speaker 3 (01:53:07):
It's all good.

Speaker 4 (01:53:08):
But one of the things that goes to a point
that you raised a few moments ago about accessing a
lot of information elsewhere. One of the biggest hurdles that
a lot of coaches are finding now is because of
the onslaught of online teaching tools. Online videos, I mean,
YouTube is just loaded with them, some good.

Speaker 3 (01:53:31):
Some bad.

Speaker 4 (01:53:32):
The problem that most coaches have is that they're spending
you know, the first fifteen to twenty minutes of a lesson,
you know, identifying issues in a video that they didn't
produce because the students ask.

Speaker 3 (01:53:46):
Me, un why is it right?

Speaker 4 (01:53:49):
And so they have to change their mindset and recognize
that it you know, it's like this, I mean, I
even find myself. So when I find something that I need,
the answer is what am I doing? I'm googling and
I'm looking for it. I'm trying to find Okay, what's
the what's the video that I can find? They will
teach me this and teach me that. So it's a
new way of learning for a different generation. And I think,

(01:54:14):
what's happening, And if I'm hearing you correctly, what you're
really doing is you're instead of just saying, Okay, here's
our product and we think you should do it, you're
trying to find solutions to navigate around some of the
challenges that these coaches might be faced with and helping
them grow their business as well as helping them to
streamline their business to be more effective in what they

(01:54:34):
do and more responsive to their clients. So, like you said,
you're finding solutions to be able to help them do that.
It's not just about throwing the product in front of them.
And you know, there, as you said, there's going to
be some that maybe have got more on their plate
and don't you know, Nessie want any more. But there's
still an opportunity for them to again be more efficient

(01:54:55):
and maybe free up sometimes so they're not you know,
you know, getting to the point by the time they're
ready to retire, you know, they're falling on the ground
because they're exhausted. So you know, there's a marriage there somewhere.
But now I think it's it's great and I think
the approach that you're taking is is in line with
the way the market has been going for many years now,

(01:55:16):
especially again since the onset of COVID. The marketplace has
changed and you either change with it or you become
stale and stagnant and you fall by the wayside. So
I you know, kudos to you and your team for
recognizing that and making the adjustments and pivoting to a
solutions based product and slash service as opposed to just

(01:55:40):
you know, throwing out product like everybody else does. So
I think that's good. Let's get the folks. Is we
only have a few minutes left. Let's give the folks
an opportunity. Where can they go to learn more? What's
the website that they can go to to get more information?
And if they want to reach out to anybody on
your team, is there a way that they can communicate
interact to get more information.

Speaker 5 (01:55:59):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:56:00):
Absolutely, Please. If any of this resonated again for an
exploratory conversation, feel free to reach out to me and
I'll loop in the team. It's very simple. It's Alex
at v one sports dot com. You know, it's as
in Victor the number one sports dot com and that's
where you can find us too, v one sports dot com.

(01:56:21):
So yeah, we're we learn.

Speaker 8 (01:56:26):
Ed.

Speaker 1 (01:56:26):
When we see people that are really successful where we
don't think we can solve their problem, we still reach
out to them and say, hey, do you have ten minutes.
I'd love to hear your story because there's something for
us for us to learn from you. So if you
find any of it's interesting, if these pain points sound
like your pain points, or you think you just have
some success stories that you'd like to share. Again, we're
a learning organization and we're listening, and we would love

(01:56:50):
to learn that none of those no conversation that we
have with a golf instructor is a waste of our
time because every single one we learned a thing or
two that makes us better and hopefully we then turn
that into a solution and that makes more instructors better.

Speaker 3 (01:57:03):
Well, that sounds good. I think it's a great V
One has always been a great business.

Speaker 4 (01:57:08):
Out there and as you said, have been there for
a couple of decades, so they've definitely got their their
foothold in the market and obviously they recognize, along with
yourself and the rest of your team that you know
you have to you have to make adjustments and changes
as you go along in order to continue to service
the marketplace. And you guys have done a great job.
So again, the website is v on sports dot com.

(01:57:30):
UH to get more information, and you can reach out
to Alex at v on sports dot com if you
want to start that conversation. Alex, I'm gonna send you
an invite, not a physical invite, but a verbal invite.
I don't know if you've had a chance to listen
to a little bit earlier on the program, but we
have a segment called Coaches Corner where we have a

(01:57:50):
group of professionals that come on and we have conversations.
And next year I'm going to be moving to a
new platform, which will include of course video. I'd like
to invite you to come on next year on the
panel to maybe talk about with some coaches some of
the things that you guys are offering, some of the
things that you're doing, and allow them to maybe ask
some questions of you. If you'd be interested in participating.

Speaker 1 (01:58:13):
Yeah, that'd be tremendous. I think i'd be an invite,
but I will only accept if you send me a
physical invite to Now I'm joking, I would love to.

Speaker 4 (01:58:21):
Do it, all right, Well, we'll set that up and
we'll go through the proper channels and all that, but
I just wanted to put that out there. I think
it would be a lot of fun. This is one
of the things that I want to do with the
show next year, with the panel, and in addition to
just you know, interviewing guests, and I appreciate you coming
on and taking the time to do that tonight and
talk about some of the exciting things. I know that
there'll be a lot more things coming in twenty twenty five,

(01:58:42):
and I look forward to meeting with you down at
the PGA show and at the end of January and meeting.

Speaker 3 (01:58:48):
Face to face.

Speaker 4 (01:58:49):
But a lot of great stuff that you guys have
been doing and much continuous success, and we will set
something up in the new year when I come back on.
This is my last show of the year for twenty.

Speaker 3 (01:58:58):
Twenty four and then I'm on for an extended break.

Speaker 4 (01:59:00):
So thank you for joining me, and now look forward
to you coming back on a future show.

Speaker 1 (01:59:06):
My pleasure Ted takes a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:59:08):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:59:09):
Yep, you have a great holiday and thank you very
much for joining me tonight in Golf Talk Live.

Speaker 8 (01:59:14):
Than you I'll see you, all right.

Speaker 4 (01:59:18):
That was Alex Barsad, the CEO of V one Sports.
As I mentioned, this is the last show of Golf
Talk Live for twenty twenty four. We do an extended
break and we'll be starting up again sometime probably around
the middle of February.

Speaker 3 (01:59:33):
If I was the hazard of guests as I get ready,
and for those of you that may be.

Speaker 4 (01:59:37):
Tuned in a little bit earlier in the broadcast, I
mentioned to you that the current platform, blog Talk Radio
dot com is actually closing its doors at the end
of January next year, so this platform will no longer
be available, but not to fail, all of the archive shows,
including tonight's show, recorded versions will be available at spreaker
dot com. For both this show and my Tuesday More

(02:00:00):
show with my good friend and co host LPJ professional
Cindy Miller, the Women of Golf Show is available. You
can just go to spreaker dot com and you can
type in Golf Talk Live or Women of Golf and
you can go to those respective pages and all of
the archives for the last twelve years of Golf Talklive
and the last eleven years of Women of Golf are

(02:00:20):
on there, and moving forward, will be going onto the
Riverside dot fm platform for both programs, which will include videos.
So I'm excited about that, as the guys and I
were talking about.

Speaker 3 (02:00:32):
On Coaches Corner, so looking forward to next season.

Speaker 4 (02:00:36):
I will let everybody know through social media when the
official dates for both shows for startups will be but
it'll probably be sometime around the middle of February.

Speaker 3 (02:00:45):
Coach's Corner won't be starting.

Speaker 4 (02:00:46):
Up until the beginning of the first Thursday of March
of next year, so it'll be a little bit longer.
But I usually start with a few warm up programs
in February just to get the season started off right.
So on that note, I want to thank everybody.

Speaker 3 (02:00:59):
For another a terrific season here on Golf Talk Live.

Speaker 4 (02:01:02):
God Bless everybody. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, all the best
to everybody, Be safe this holiday, be good to your neighbors,
and thank you for supporting this program. And I look
forward to season thirteen next year on Golf Talk Live.
Have a great holiday everybody, and I will see you
in twenty twenty five. God Bless everybody.

Speaker 2 (02:01:20):
By bye, Thanks for joining us. We hope you enjoyed
this week's broadcast of Golf Talk Live. We'd like to
thank this week's Coach's Corner panel and a special thank
you to tonight's guests. Remember to join Ted every Thursday
from six to eight pm Central on Golf Talk Live,

(02:01:41):
and be sure to follow Ted on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
If you're interested in being a guest on golf Talk Live.
Send Ted an email us Ted dot golf Talklive at
gmail dot com. This has been a production of the
I Golf Sports Network

Speaker 8 (02:02:00):
And the band

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GTL: Season Finale - Coaches Corner + Alex Prasad, CEO of V1 Sports

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