Hi, This is Lisa THOMASO from Mystic, Connecticut and I play Attnyton Country Club.
BAFF Smarter number.
Four hundred and eighty two published on March thirty one, twenty fifteen.
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The only person that's possibly thinking about your three point in the world is you, So it's history.
It doesn't even exist anymore. So you have to.
Physically stop moving, take your four second time out a couple seconds, in, a couple seconds out, eyes closed, and then just revert back to what is my strategy for today? In my strategy for today's relax or my strategy today is quiet mind, or my strategy today is just total or my strategy to say is calm, or my strategy say.
Is just have fun.
So that's why having a strategy and being highly cognizant and aware of your and traps both on and off the golf course is going to help you get through those situations. And Fred, I'm not sitting here saying it's going to work every single time guaranteed.
There might be a day.
Where you're just not allowing yourself to really buy into it, or you're not totally committed to your strategy. So maybe you're not one hundred percent there, maybe you're seventy eighty percent of the way there, or you just haven't done it enough so you're not conditioned enough to really be effective at this.
It takes time, it takes practice, it takes.
Discipline, and like physical conditioning, it's thought conditioning. You have to condition yourself to think better. And I have students who start with me and say, Hey, Greg, you know what, I'm getting so much out of your coaching, but I feel like I'm thinking more. And it's not that you're thinking more, you're just thinking differently.
Three step approach to play your best golf ever with the head coach Greg Loberto.
This is Golf Smarter Premium.
Here's your host, Fred Green. Welcome to the Golf Smarter Podcast. Greg.
Hi, Fred, how are you? I am excited?
How are you tell me why you're excited?
Well, I'm talking to you number one, and I know that we're going to be talking about an innovative three step approach to help golfers play their best golf ever.
So this is what I do, this is what I love.
To do, and there's really nothing else I'd rather be talking about today.
Awesome. I'm glad that you're excited because I went through your book. I really enjoyed it. It reinforced so many things that I think about that I want to accomplish, and to me, it really supported everything that Golf Smarter has been about since episode number one.
Great, great, So let's.
Talk about it. Yeah, go ahead.
You know, can we reverse the table so real quick? Can I ask you? Can I to start by asking you a question?
Oh?
No, all right, let's hey later.
I asked the questions you, buddy. I gotta tell you you're in New York, right, I gotta talk to you like yo, I gotta ask ask. I got to ask the.
Questions, just trying to throw you off a game a little bit that.
I'll go ahead, congratulations, No, go ahead, all right, I'll let you. I'll let you ask the first one and we'll see where it goes from there.
And then I'm done asking questions for the rest of the rest of the time. What what What was your biggest takeaway from the book.
Hm, I knew I don't like having tests. My biggest takeaway from the book was, uh, I'm reviewing right now my notes here to uh not not worry about what your playing partners are doing. Nice, you know. I I have an ongoing issue with my friends who want to play from money, and I'm like, you know what, sure, I'll play for money. I don't care. Tell me at the end of the game what we're doing, right, tell me what I owe you, and I'm fine, but let's not talk about it the entire time. I don't like
to focus on the scorecard. I don't want to talk about the scorecard. I don't want to hear oh this is for Birdie. No, this is for my next shot, you know. I mean it's like and if it's a part, it's a par great so to me, it reinforced that.
Awesome, awesome, good stuff, good stuff.
Yeah, it's I think it's an area that a lot of players and I was just doing a webinar with with a beta group for our Mental Game Assessment and Learning app on Friday and one of the guys was talking about how when he plays for money with his buddies, which is pretty much every time he plays golf, that he really allows them to get into their head and he does better when he's chasing as opposed to in
the league. But he said, there's no question that playing for money, especially in guys that are you know, like to talk while they're playing, you know, so to speak and try to get into his head, it really impacts how he performs. So I think it's it's there's no question, you know, whether it's for five dollars or five hundred dollars or five million dollars, the dollar amount is almost irrelevant.
It's the fact that you're playing for something other than maybe just you know, for trying to just play your best on your own. It's amazing how that little, that little nugget can really not only transform the way that you think in a negative way, but really impact the performance as well.
What does it say about people or what do you learn from people? When there are those who excel when the pressure is on, you know, the guys who are like, give me the ball type of guy, and then they are the people who the pressure is just too much. And they completely collapse.
And I'm sorry for what we're asking specifically about it.
Well, what how do you identify if you're which one of those people? It's pretty obvious to yourself, But how do you get past the fact that if you're one of those people that crumbles under the pressure? How do you get past that?
Sure? I think you know.
I think the first step is is golf is so much like life, and you can your perspective on it is everything. So let's say that you know, you go out and you play in a tournament, whether it's against your friends or if it's in competition at whatever level.
And you allow that round where.
You think you had a very poor performance, maybe based on one particular swing that may have cost you the match at the end of the round to really impact how you view yourself as as a player. And I think a really good example is remember when Billy Horses showed before he won the FedEx Cup last year, he had put that one ball in the water and he lost one of the tournaments prior to that, and then I think it was literally the next week he bounces back or maybe two weeks later and he ends up
winning the FedEx Cup. Those are the types of shots where you could really allow that to define yourself as a player, or you can say, okay, if that's my weakest link is not being able to perform, And that particular shot on the eighteenth hole, when the quote unquote pressure was really on, what can I do to get better and how can I get started? To make that happen, you have to put yourself in those situations, number one,
to allow yourself to perform. And everybody knows about all of the game winning baskets that Michael Jordan hit, but there's also the ones that he missed.
Okay, so how many times are you missing? How many times are you performing?
Sure that's relative to the whole conversation, but you're going to learn way more the times where you quote unquote failed to perform or you let your ants or automatic negative thoughts get in your own way and negatively impact your performance. So I'm just going to sum it up by saying, take that as an opportunity to improve yourself.
Recognize that what I call an ant trap or a specific situation where you know you're going to have those negative thoughts and negative emotions, and just figure out what you need to do to get.
Better the next time. And that's what we're going to talk about today.
Yeah, you know, it's you talk about Michael Jordan making the shot or missing the shot, or anybody on the tour. But when Michael Jordan misses the shot on game thirty seven of the season, no big deal. When he makes the shot on game forty two to win the game, no big deal. It's doing it in playoff time. It's doing it when the shot is the end of the season or not. Which There's guys who like, give me
the ball. I'm going to do this. The Lebron James characters right now, Steph Curry of the Warriors, it's like, just give me the ball. You can see it in their eyes. They want the ball absolutely.
And I think you hit a key point here is.
In golf or in any sport, when you're in that pressure situation, you have to want it. You really have to welcome that opportunity because that's all it is. It's an opportunity to escalate your game to the next level and win, lose your draw, whatever the outcome is. It's it is, But you have to put yourself in a situation where number one, you want to be there and then you have to put yourself in a position mentally and emotionally where you're allowing yourself to perform in your
in your most natural state. So very true of everything of what we're talking about here. But number one is you have to want it. And number two, if you do not get the outcome that you desire, it as a learning opportunity to improve.
Okay, you mentioned ants. Let's you talk about ants throughout your book, and you just brought it up, So let's let's clarify that and get into depth on that.
Sure, Yeah, where would you Where would you like to start with that one? Because it's a it's a it's a pretty broad broad concept, Fred, and I think if we talk, well, let's let's do this.
Let's talk about your game specifically.
What are the one or two or maybe three whatever whatever, What are those situations within your game where you know you're going to have that negative energy you always you already talked about, you know, playing against certain opponents, But what else, and maybe it's maybe it's off the course. Are there certain things that you think about a certain ways that you feel in certain situations where you know
you're going to have negative energy? What what comes to mind when you think about that for your game.
Well, I really try to avoid the negative energy, so I'm trying to focus on where would it be in my game during my round that I just you know, the obvious one I guess for me and for so many people is, oh, I have this hole always gives me problems. Yeah, walking up to a t box of a hole that I remember some of the good shots that I had, but of course I'll remember most of the bad shots, including the last time I was here. And I always always try to remind myself that history
has nothing to do with those shot. It really is irrelevant to the next shot, So you know, and I think what happens to me is I think so hard about what what happened last time that that that is I'm overcompensating it and it introduces pressure and tension into my swing, which recreates the problem absolutely.
So we'll we'll.
You know a lot of a lot of players like determine as their their nemesis hole, you know that one that one course that you know just gets their number every single time. So yes, there's absolutely specific holes are certainly one of those. I think some other common and traps for golfers are the first t you know, you're standing on the first tea and maybe you know whether you're whether there's people there or it's just your foursome.
Especially again if you're playing, you know, for in competition of any of any sort, you have that your hands might be shaking, you might have that pit in your stomach, or that you know, that tension in your shoulders or your grip wherever it might be, and you know, you have a tendency to think about all the wrong things
in the same time. So your thoughts are a direct link to your emotions, and they're they're literally committing petty larcy on your game because the impact your performance directly. If you're you know, if you're standing on the first team and you're thinking about your opponent, or you're thinking about the ball going out of bounds or in the water or maybe missing it depending on your skill set,
those are obviously all the wrong thoughts. So you want to basically put yourself in a position where I call being one hundred percent ready, not only on the first tea, but on every single shot right.
And you know, the.
Way that you do that is a process that we talk about in the book but the very first step to becoming one hundred percent ready is you have to you have to eliminate your ants or your automatic negative thoughts, because there's you hear a lot of times golfers talk about how there's really uh, you know, Matt every talked about it after his when on Sunday at the Bayhill. He said, there's just really no room for for negative thoughts or negative emotions out on the golf course.
And it's so true. It's so true.
And you know, I like to talk to my golfing students about you know, compare this game to being a Formula one race car driver or you know, maybe you're doing what you know, maybe you're you're walking across a rope or a cable like nik We Lenda does over a canyon or over Niagara Falls, and he has to be totally focused and calm and confident for two to three minutes. You know, an F one driver is doing
it for a couple of hours at a time. I mean, their focus level is at a level that is obviously, you know, higher than what most people can even conceive of, and they're doing it for an extended period of time. Now, golf is you're talking about seconds of time where you're actually swinging the golf club, and all you need to do, or what you really need to do first and foremost is you need to eliminate those conscious thought or those negative thoughts and just allow yourself to swing. Just swing
the golf club. If you if you, if you have a repeatable swing that works on the range, the only reason it's not working on the golf course is because you're getting in your own way or you're allowing your own conscious thought to directly and negatively impact your swing.
I'm so conscious of the the the jitters and the situations like the first t jitters, which is how you open your book. I'm so conscious of that that I embrace it and even like if I hit a ball in the bunker, I'll embrace that. I'll like, oh, this is going to be fun, And I know that helps me as opposed to freaking out like oh my god, there's people watching.
Sure, absolutely, And that's that's where you know.
One of the things that that you know is in the book is having a mental game strategy. And if you have a mental game strategy going into the round of relax or have fun or take it easy, that way when you're in that and trap or you hit that Aaron shot, and you can.
Just say to yourself, Hey, you know what, relax.
Just relax, just like what you're talking about, Fred, because it can mean the difference between number one enjoying your round of golf at much higher level, but not allowing one ant to cascade into another, and all of a sudden you have an entire colony of ants and your entire round is ruined. And then what you focus on in the nineteenth hole is how that one shot and that one hole really started to allow the wheels to
start falling. So you're basically making excuses for yourself before you round, during your round, and after your round as to why you didn't play as well as you should have.
Oh, the word should have cut us absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah, And why is it that when we get to the nineteenth hole, And I'm not sure that's exactly what you're referring to in your book when you're talking about when you get to the nineteenth hole, everybody wants to talk about all the crap that went on. No one wants to go. I had said, you know, you didn't want to see the going Boy, did I have a great put on seventeen? Boy was I good? No, it's like I screwed that up. Okay? Are we allowed to brag it all? Or is it just taking the guy's
money at the bar? This is all you need to do?
Yeah, it's about listening to how you talk.
I think it would be good to actually and I'm going to devn meaning to do this, but I'm going to do this now that we're having this conversation. I think if golfers were to just videotape themselves and they're playing partners talking on the nineteenth hole about their game, and then actually watching it and listening to themselves, I think that might be their first sign that they need
to change their communication post round. But you know, and I ask the same question all the time, like why are golfers constantly focusing?
Think about it.
If you just let's say you just scored, or let's just say you shot the best round of your life, right, what are you going to do after the.
Round is over. You're going to tell your score and you're gonna go, hey, I.
Shot a you know, a seventy eight or a sixty two or a ninety eight, whatever the number is for you, it's totally irrelevant and then you're going to immediately go. But it could have been a yep, right, three or
four or five strokes better. Now, I don't think Michael Jordan or any other great athlete, if they have a phenomenal performance, is going wow, you know what could have scored four more points or you know what, I not only I could have had a hat trick plus, or you know what, I could have pitched even a little bit better than that perfect game.
Oh yes, they do. Yeah, no, I think that everybody. But I think that's what draws us back to golf, is that you can always do better. That is why we don't quit, even though you know, we've been shooting in the low eighties and all of a sudden we shoot ninety two and it's like, that's it. I quit. I'm going to leave the game. No, No, you like,
I'm going back because I know I'm better than that. Sure, And so I think that even when when I think about the time that I shot my lowest round and I had a great round there, I still there was a ooh if I only you know hmm. Yeah. I try. I try to remain calm and not get too excited and let other people talk about my score then, you know, than me talking about it. And I think that I don't know, Humility's got to come in at some point.
You just want people to patch you on the back, but you don't want to walk up to them and say, hey, pat me on the back.
Absolutely.
Yeah, it's uh, it's communication is is such a big part of life, and it's it's a major part of golf. And you know, that's I think if I were to sum up, you know, the book is eighteen game Changing Tips to Play your Best Golf Ever is a subtitle, but it's really about improving your communication both internally and externally on and.
Off the golf course.
Because that's really what we need to do, is we just need to really clean up the way that that we communicate about our game.
Yeah. Yeah, and I'm again I want to pick stuff out of the book. What do you do about playing to the competition? You have a chapter about playing if you're playing partners horrible and it's interesting how sometimes you step up to the game when you're playing partners better than you and you can get maybe you do get more focused or do you just kind of let it go when you're playing with somebody that you know, you know, you can give him a stroke a hole and still beat them.
Yeah, you know, that's a great question, because this is just this could certainly be a very in depth conversation, but we'll keep it relatively short. Let's let's think about
again what happened this past weekend at Bayhill. Hendrick Stenson was in the lead after fifty four holes, and he was in the zone and he was just firing, just firing at pins on Saturday and making all of his putts, and you know, things changed a little bit on Sunday and then we all found out after the round that he was put on the clock.
I think it was on the fifteenth hole.
He ended up i think three putting three of the last four holes, and he really talked about how being put on the clock, you know.
It threw him off his game.
Oh yeah, well, you know again, I'm just going to go back to you have to use these opportunities as learning opportunities as well as an opportunity to really improve your mental toughness, because I think playing with a difficult or slow or angry player is really one of the most challenging areas in golf. I think from a mental perspective, because you can really allow their negativity to cascade into your own game.
It's very very easy to do.
And you know, I talked in the book about how one of my students, Patrick had, you know, he had gone through my coaching with me, and he was, you know, he had identified his top ten and traps. You know, what are the situations that are going to bring me the most negative energy in my game. And he was on a part three and he hit his t shot into the bunker and he knew that if he jumped into it, into the cart, that his playing partner was going to fill his head with all kinds of negativity.
So he said, you know what, on this whole, I'm going to just I'm going to grab my sand wedge, my putter, and I'm just going to walk up and I'm just going to allow myself to stay in my own little world here. He ended up getting up in down and saving it for a power. But the key story there was he had taken the time to now really become aware of the fact that these an traps were negatively impacting his game, and he put them on
high alert. So this was a very specific situation where he said, you know what, I know what I need to do. I also know that I need to stay awake from my playing part or in this particular shot, because I want to go and do what I'm supposed to do.
When he did it, you know, he got up and down for his power.
So part of it is really number one again identifying the fact that, okay, that this is just an ant trap. This person is just going to make things a little bit more challenging for me today. So maybe my strategy for today is just to have fun because I know that when I play with this particular individual, a lot of times I do not have fun. Or maybe my strategy is just to focus on me, do not allow them to fill to let their negativity cascade into my own game, but really use it as an opportunity to
test and challenge yourself. Because think about it, that the time, the only time that really matters is when you're in your your preshot routine and you're standing over the golf ball getting ready to hit. Everything else that happens outside of that is irrelevant to what happens when you're hitting the golf ball.
So again I go back.
To you know, allowing yourself to put yourself in a situation where you're you're totally calm, you're free of negative thought, and just just swing, just swing, because you can still perform even though you're playing with the difficult playing partner.
I'm going to take you back to the beginning of that that rant, that beginning of your answer there when you're talking about Hendrick Stenson and right that we were talking about how he was put on the clock.
Yes, isn't that.
Interesting, how even at that level that something like that which to me if we have to equate it to our game. And I don't like to sit here and compare what we're doing to what they're doing on the tour, but if there's a way to compare it, it will take me to the thing that fries me on the golf course more than anything, and that is a marshal coming up to me to tell me to pick up the pace when you know we've spent two of the last three holes with one or two guys trying to
find their ball right. And I go on about this forever, but I think that marshals, if they're sitting at the end of the fair way and they see the ball going errant, they should run over, put their hat where the ball is and help us pick up the pace we're picking up. We're losing time on it because we're looking for balls, and we lose balls on a regular basis on the tour, they don't because there's people standing
around going it's right here, right. So yeah, getting put on the clock being told to hurry up, that's gonna throw off even some of the best players at the moment in the world.
Absolutely, absolutely, yeah.
And there's so many things in golf that are just completely out of our control and that that is certainly a great example of one of them.
And you just have to know sometimes you just have to accept it. Fred As.
I know that sounds really really simple as we're sitting here talk about it, but when you're in you know, when you're in that environment and in that situation, I know how frustrating it is and I know how challenging it can be to really just stay focused on your game. But you just also have to realize that there are rules to the game. You know, most sports play with a clock or some kind of a timer, so you know,
most sports are timed as well. And again I'm just going to you know, just reconfirm here that there's just there's just things that are out of our control. The only thing that we really have control of is how we think standing over the golf ball and our ability to put a nice swing on it. Everything else, you know, a bad balance, augusta wind, you know, an unlucky break or what a sprinklert had anything, those are just you know, the marshal that somebody can coughing and your back swing.
There's so many things that are just completely out of our control. And playing with a mental game strategy, constantly focusing on identifying and crushing your stopping those ants whenever, whenever they crop up is what's going to bring you back and get you focused and allow yourself to play in the zone in every shot.
How do we get to that zone? And do we need to be in the zone? Who I hate asking two questions at once. Let me just ask this then. Do we need to be in the zone the entire round?
Absolutely not, No, It's it's impossible to be.
The time in between your shots is when you want to, you know, really just kind of let your mind go and relax, enjoy the walk or enjoy the ride, depending on you know what your preference was for transportation for the day, but you know, you want to use that time to really enjoy just being out there and enjoying the fact that you're healthy enough to play a great
game that you love. But now the time, the time to get you know, to clear yourself of that conscious thought is you know, we're talking about seconds of time here when you're when you're standing over the golf ball. So you know, once you the process really starts when you take your club out of the bag and you you know, in your preshot routine, you want to visualize the type of shot that you're going to hit, pick the specific target, and take what I call a four
second time out. And what that is is just closing your eyes for four seconds, taking a nice deep breath in through your nose, breathing from your belly or from your diaphragm, and then two seconds in and then two seconds out through your mouth with your eyes closed while you are physically stopped. When you physically stop moving, it
stops your thought process, it changes your physiology. And when you take literally four seconds to a couple couple seconds in, a couple seconds out to just breathe and relax, it is the most calming feeling that that you can imagine. It literally takes four seconds. Now, if you're getting further and further on in the match, and you know what, my hands are still shaking, I'm still feeling that anxiety that four seconds didn't do it. Well, Just you do
it again, and do it a third time. If you need to do it behind the ball, do it away from the ball, do it in between shots, do it prior to your round, do it off the course, do it throughout the day. I do it all the time, Fred. It is the most simplistic, relaxing, calming thing that you can do for yourself, and it completely completely changes your physiology immediately and changes your perspective.
So now that.
You've taken that time behind the ball, you visualize your shot, you've identified your target. As you walk up to the ball, you let all of that go. Now all you're going to do. You already rehearse your swing. So now all you're going to do is just step up to the ball, make sure that you're aligned properly, and swing, just swing. You want to swing free of any conscious thought. And it takes time, It takes practice, it takes conditioning. But
if you're doing it at the range. It's so much easier to do on the golf course because what do we do with the range.
We fire golf balls or golf balls or.
Golf ball we feel great, we're hitting the same club over and over. Why not practice this pre shot routine every single time at the range. Now, what you're doing is you're balancing the scale between play and practice, and you're going through the same process and the same pre shot routine to get into the zone every time you practice and every time you play.
You know, we've been talking for almost a half hour now and you opened up with and we've never followed up on your three step approach, So let's start talking about the three step approach.
That sounds great, yeah, and from an on course perspective, but it's really simple. It's showing up to the course feeling one hundred percent ready. And the way that that happens is with the mental game strategy. That step one is playing one hundred percent ready. Step two is getting in the zone and every shot, and we talked about the process to do that, and then step three is focusing on three positives. Is at the end of every
round in every practice session. Again, we talked about all the would have, could have, should have is that golfers like to focus on. But let's transform that communication process and that thought process post round, post practice session and immediately identify, Okay, what are three positives from today? Because what that does it allows you not only allows you to enjoy the game better, but really identify some good things that happened today even though you feel like maybe nothing really did.
But it also allows you to view your.
Game more objectively, so you're not getting so caught up and man, what happened with my swing today? I was great on the range. Yesterday I was great on the range. Before my round I fell apart on the course again. So if you're constantly focusing on the positives, you're not going to put so much focus on your swing. So step one is to show up one hundred percent ready.
Step two is to get in the zone in every shot, and then step three is to always focus on the positives that's on the course, off of the golf course. We put together a process that is backed by science.
So we've developed a mental game assessment with PhD. Jonathan Rich that assesses you in eight key mental and emotional traits and Once you complete the assessment, you go through a review session with me where I can allow you to understand what all this information means to you and your game, but also give you a custom learning path that's going to allow you to play your best golf ever. So step one off of the golf course is to take the mental game assessment, go through the review.
Session with me.
Step two is to go into our one hundred percent Ready coaching program.
Whether that be one on one with me or our live.
Group sessions that are going to be held via Google Hangout and they're also recorded, allowing you to have this information forever. That's done in the group format. And then step three is to use one of the most what I think are innovative coaching tools as well as playing tools for the mental and emotional game, which is called our Head Coach Learning App. And what that is Fred, It's an opportunity for you to track some mental and
emotional data from your round. Have you identify what your mental game strategy was prior to your round, how effective it was, how committed you were to it, what was your confidence level today? What percentage of shots were you one hundred percent ready? What were your three positives from
the round. So now what you're doing is you're starting to track that intangible information from the mental and emotional game and not only do it on a daily basis, but allow yourself to use it as a learning tool to go back and say, Okay, I'm not going to use my swing as my benchmark for performance today. Let me start with what I was thinking about, what I was feeling, Did I fall into any specific and traps. What was my confidence level on a scale of one
to ten going into today's round. Now you're allowing yourself to view some really critical data with an objective perspective. So it allows you to become your own coach, so
to speak. But if you're a coach working with a player, whether it be a high school team or a collegiate team, or a PGA teaching pro working with your student, this gives you a whole new perspective on your player's game or your own game, because now you're able to tangibly identify some key data points on the mental and emotional side of the game, and the way that you perceive your game is totally different. The way that you view
your game is completely different. The way you approach the game becomes completely different and you have data that you can use to constantly learn from every single time you go to the golf course.
You mentioned an app.
Did you yes?
Tell me more about the app and how we can find it.
Excellent question. We are in a beta phase with it right now. We're in phase two of the beta phase with it currently fed. We're looking for ten golfers actually we're down to nine currently that want to participate in the beta of the product, and it's going to become a mobile app within the next ninety days. But right now, what we have is a way for you to gather all this information online and the best part about it is it takes about ninety seconds to two minutes to
complete after the round. So we've got a couple of PhDs that we're working with on the front end with the mental game Assessment with PhD Jonathan Rich and now we're working with PhD Casey Debrian to further develop the head Coach learning app and making a mobile tool that you can that you can bring to the golf course with you.
You only want ten people.
That's what we're looking for currently.
Okay, so you're gonna get that from this audience. That sounds great, So how do they get in touch with you? How do they get to be the first ten? And what if they're number eleven, we'll have well thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, we'll.
Have to set up beta group number two.
But now it's a great question, Fred, and the best way to contact me is Greg Jerg at my Mental game coach dot com and let me know that you're interested in participating in the beta. It really is everybody talks about all I have a revolutionary product for the game and innovative product. This is something that I'm not saying it doesn't exist anywhere else.
I just we haven't seen it anywhere else.
And what we're doing is we were taking a very very good product and we're going to make it great. So if anybody wants to take control of their game and be part of a very innovative mental and emotional coaching tool, please contact us to get started with it.
And please, if you do contact Greg to be part of this study, let him know that you heard about it on Golf Smarter. Absolutely yeah, And if you don't, he's going to ask how'd you hear about this? I'm want to go back into the book and pick on some more things that you talk about in there, and I want to know what you mean by being an emotional mess and how that we can get past that.
Sure, yeah, and we're gonna we'll go back to the ends.
But you know, again, it's it's a mentally having a mental game strategy is such a big part of this.
And we'll use this as a quick exam both.
You know, let's say you're going out to play in a pro am, for example, and you know there's going to be a gallery there, and there's going to be cameras there, and you're not used to playing in this environment, and you know you've played in front.
Of people before, but this is this is at a whole other level.
So now you know, it's very easy to be an emotional mess going into that situation because you're going to start to think about all the wrong things of you know, I hope I don't embarrass myself, and you know, I hope I don't play as bad as I did the last time I played at that particular course, or all of these things are going to go through your head.
And I can relate to being an emotional mess because I carried a crippling fear of public speaking with me for many, many years, and every time that I found out that I had to speak, my heart would raise immediately, my hands would start to sweat. Almost It's almost like having a shot of adrenaline pumped into you immediately knowing that I had to go speak somewhere. I just it was my greatest weakness, and I really abhorred the thought
of speaking in front of others. Well, when I finally had the the courage to join an organization called Toastmasters and overcome this faces fear and overcome it and now use it as one of my strengths. You know, it wasn't until then that I was really able to take my whole emotional mess of how I perceive myself as a public speaker, in my own self image and really transform it. And now it's it's one of my strengths.
So it's the same thing with your golf game. You have to change your perception of who you are as a golfer, but you have to start practicing and playing with a mental game strategy that's going to allow you to focus on playing your best. So going back to playing in this pro am, there's a lot of different strategies that you can have. But what you want to do is put yourself in a situation where you're totally calm, totally confident, you're excited.
Let's reverse that fear.
Because it's it's the same chemical that's going through your body. You're just sending it down the wrong track basically, So let's take that adrenaline that's in your body, that excitement that's in your body. I talk about it in chapter one where your mind says, your mind sets stop, but your body is saying, oh, so you're feeling excited, but your mind is telling you all the wrong things.
So there's a conflict that occurs. So now if you just change.
Your thought process and say, hey, this is what an exciting opportunity to play in this program.
I'm going to meet some great people. I'm going to go out and play the best I can play.
Whatever happens happens, but you know what, I'm just going to go out and have a great time today. So again, it's it's changing your perspective. It's having a mental game strategy. It's conditioning yourself to think this way both on and off the golf course. So it all goes back to communication. But it's really about putting yourself in a situation where you're feeling one hundred percent ready going to the course on the first he standing over the golf ball every
single golf shot. So playing with the mental game strategy is by far and away the most powerful concept that I teach, and it's one that can really level the playing field between practice and play.
Absolutely, and it's so helps to get past those first tee issues. I can't tell you how many times I've played with people who after their first t shot, they're like, Oh, this is gonna be a long day. And it's like, really, you're gonna let that shot dictate what's going to happen the rest of the four hours here?
Oh, isn't an amazing Absolutely.
Yes it is. It's like what And then, of course the front nine to the back nine always two completely different rounds of golf, and you're still talking about that first the first shot that you had, come on, Get past it, Get past it. How lastly, because we're gonna break soon. But increasing confidence. I know that playing with confidence is so huge. I mean when you are out there going I got it. I got this shot. Again,
as we talked about early, give me the ball. But when you're playing with that kind of confidence, it really it really lowers your scores. But it only takes a three put It only takes one ball in the water to have it all come crumbling.
Down, no question, no question about that one. And you know, you you you it. It happens at every level or that that that one shot, that one three putt, it can it can absolutely throw your game off. And and again, not to sound like a broken record, but that's you know, that's why playing with the mental game strategy is so important.
We didn't really talk about the specific three step process to stop your answer your automatic negative thoughts, but this is a perfect example, I think to talk about it. So you know, let's say you have that three button.
You're just you're cruising, You're on the fifteenth hole. You're you're just unconscious, you're not even you're not keeping track of your score, which is the proper way to play golf, by the way, you know, you're just you're just you're on cruise control and you're not thinking about the wheels falling off, and you're you are you're just beaming with confidence.
You're just enjoying it.
You're relaxed, you're calm, you're not getting overly excited, You're just playing right. And then all of a sudden that three button. Then you go ooh, and then maybe a thought of score might creep in and you might go, well, you know what if I can just par out here still, I know I'm going to have a great round. So now you start thinking about score, right, So it's it's interesting how that one little that one little nugget, that one little window of opportunity of a three put can
cascade into another ant in another and another. So what you need to do is to what I call stop the ants dead in their tracks. And the way that you physically do it is by being aware of the fact that, Okay, hold on, this is just a trap. This is just an ant trap that I'm falling into right now. That hole is over. It never even it's it's history. The only person that's possibly thinking about your three put in the world is you.
Okay, So it's history. It doesn't even exist anymore.
So you have to physically stop, stop moving, take your four second time out a couple of seconds, in, couple seconds out, eyes closed, and then just revert back to what is my strategy for today? And my strategy for today's relaxed, or my strategy today is quiet mind, or my strategy today is just total focus, or my strategy today is calm, or my strategy today is.
Just have fun.
So that's why having a strategy and being highly cognizant and aware of your and traps both on and off the golf course, is going to help you get through those situations. And Fred, I'm not sitting here saying it's going to work every single time guaranteed.
If there might be a day.
Where you're just not allowing yourself to really buy into it, or you're not totally committed to your strategy, so maybe you're not one hundred percent there, maybe you're seventy eighty percent of the way there, or you just haven't done it enough so you're not conditioned enough.
To really be effective at this.
It takes time, it takes practice, it takes discipline, and like anything else, physical conditioning is is like thought. It's like physical conditioning. It's thought conditioning. You have to condition yourself to think better. And I have students who start with me and say, hey, Greg, you know what, I'm getting so much out of your coaching, But this is very very early on, maybe the first one or two times out on the course, somebody might say, you know,
but I feel like I'm thinking more. And it's not that you're thinking more, you're just thinking differently.
Okay.
So it's like when you when you hear that song by your favorite artists for the first time and you go, oh, yeah, you know what that's it's it's pretty good. You know, I kind of like not it's not like it as much as the other stuff, but I kind of like it.
And then you hear three, four or five times and you go, wow, you know what want Because what happens is, you know there was there was new pathways that were being created in your brain the first time that you heard it, so it was a little bit foreign, but the more that you listen to it, the more that
you liked it because now now as familiar. It's the same thing with conditioning yourself to overcome your ants or overcome these ant traps, is maybe you aren't great at it the first time out or the second or the third, but if you're constantly working at conditioning yourself to stop those ants on and off the golf course, that particular situation and maybe you know maybe it's in that that that that pressure pack situation, that's when it might really
pay off because you've been working at it for so long and you've conditioned yourself to become very adept at it. So it definitely takes time, it takes practice, and it absolutely takes conditioning.
Okay.
I have a suggestion for everybody, including you, that when you start to get into your aunt traps, if you need a visual to help you remind you to get out of it, just think of the duck right and trapped, the flex duck and traps and traps.
I love it. I thought I thought, you know, I thought you were gonna have to.
Take take take take your ant spray out of your golf bag and spray yourself with.
No no, do do that.
I love the traps trap.
I'm sorry it's your accent that got me there, but it's the upstate New York accent.
Uh. It worked, But we just get we just with something that's going to work for something for everybody.
I love it exactly.
Great.
Tell us how to get the book.
Sure, it's either at our website at my Metal gamecoach dot com. You can you can find it there on the blog page and feel free to subscribe to our blog.
We're doing two video blog posts every single week.
Now and they're they're fun, they're creative, they're innovative, they're all unique, and it's it's you know, they're they're about a minute or two in length, so they're they're very short and very direct to the point, and they will definitely help transform the way you think about your game on and off the golf course. So that the book is definitely available through the website, but it's also available on Amazon. It's just if you just type in eighteen holes.
I think it might come up first. I don't know, I Fred it comes up first on my left the.
Search because exactly you typed it in many times.
Eighteen holes. Greg Loberto l I B E r t O. Will absolutely help you find it on Amazon. So you can get the print version on Amazon or the Kindo version. It's a little bit less than eighteen dollars. Eighteen Holes is eighteen game changing tips to play your best golf ever. It's literally, as you probably saw, Fred, it's about an eighteen minute read, it's about a minute per chapter, and it really is the bestest way to improve your game.
Great how about a quick tip here on the three step approach from your book Eighteen Holes.
Sounds great.
So step one is to definitely play with the mental game strategy, and we want you to be one hundred percent ready arriving to the golf course on the first tee and every te elsewhere. And step two is to
get in the zone in every single shot. And one of the ways that we talked about doing that is to take a four second timeout, which is to demonstrate very quickly here Fred, it's to close your eyes and you're going to breathe in from the belly or from the diaphragm for two seconds, so it's in through the nose.
And two seconds out. Okay. So I know it's hard for most people to do that.
They think, Oh, I don't want to embarrass myself in front of other players or especially in front of my opponent.
It feels kind of weird.
Practice it on the range, practice it away from your shot, but allow yourself to be totally calm, totally confident, and just eliminate those ants or those automatic negative thoughts that are going to creep in the way when you're playing in competition or whenever it might be out on the golf course and just allow yourself to perform in your most natural state and just swing. So that's step two is to get in the zone. And then step three is to focus on three positives at the end of
your round or the end of your practice session. What do we talk about earlier today every golfer likes to focus on that would have, could have, should have? Is
how about the three things that went well today? You probably made a putt if you played eighteen holes of golf, maybe somewhere along the way you got a lucky bouncer, you made a great par saving put or maybe you know what, you had that one t shot on that one hole that you usually have a tendency to go out and bounds in that hole, but for some reason, I striped it right down the middle. Okay, So three positives after every single round, every single every single practice session.
And you said, simple three step approach to allow yourself to transform the way that you communicate from start to finish and go out and play your best golf ever.