Hi.
My name is Darren Chackman.
I currently live in Penalula, but I'm from Los Angeles and I'm playing at Rooster Run today.
My favorite course.
This is Golf Smarter episode nine hundred and ninety five.
Warming up is just to warm up and be ready to play that day. Practice is usually to improve some skills. I don't want to spend my time doing that when I'm warming up. I want to do things that create confidence, but just to access balance, and I hit some shots with slower tempo, medium temple, faster temple, just to see what temple like is functional today because some days my body is more tired and I need to calm it down. Other days I'm totally alert. My body's sharp back and
swing faster, so it's a lot of calibration. My warm up is more about calibrating and getting my body and mind ready for playing the game of off. It's not about improving skills, and it's not about like how hit it on the range is going to decide how I'm going to hit it on the course. Everybody know who's played golf long enough, I can hit it extremely well and warm up and then I go to the first tee and it's gone or the opposite that I feel like not good at all on the range and suddenly
comes together on the course. So it's like no indication anyways for what's going to happen. It's about finding my best way to just warm up and create confidence.
Decision making the key to better Smarter golf With Vision fifty four's Ian Neilson. This is Golf Smarter, sharing stories, tips and insights from great golf minds to help you lower your score and raise your golf IQ.
There's your host, Fred Green.
Welcome back to the Golf Smarter Podcast.
Pia, Hi Fred, Nice to talk to you again.
It's been so great and we've had this relationship going since two thousand and seven, late two thousand and seven, like before episode one hundred, so here we are approaching one thousand. You were episode ninety eight and Lynn was ninety seven, and it's just a great honor to have you both appearing on the show and sharing your insights and advice. Greatly appreciate it.
Yeah, thank you, Fred, and thanks for all you do for the game here as many years of doing it.
Yeah. Yeah, it's a nice contribution that I feel like I've been able to make you know, one of the in the earliest show you guys, you said something that not only have I been quoting probably every round of golf that I play with people, but I used it yesterday, and that would be the think box and playbox. Although I don't know how I caught it to be the thought box and shot box Oka, but it kind of works. You know, you can go on either one. I want
to where am I going with it? So there's a third element to that, the memory box, which I don't remember at all, but I think we should go over it. I think it's something that every golfer needs to understand to help them get into a better mindset before they hit the ball.
Yeah. Yeah, And as you said, we call it the think box and playbox, but it doesn't really matter what words you use as long as oh what the purpose
of it is. And it was because we found so many golfers step up over the shot and they're still thinking, preparing, wondering if they have the right club or where's the wind coming from, And we just wanted to make that distinction that before golf shot you can think, you can think about the target and where you're going and what kind of shot you're going to hit that you need to be like done, you need to have made a decision, and then stepping up and being more athletic and you know, feel.
So it's the separation of preparation and then the performance piece because in golfers in general, because it hasn't been trained, can be so messy. So it is about the future of the shot, the think box, and then the present when actually executing, where no thinking cognitive thoughts is going
to help you. But then we for many years we had that, and then we would also golf schools and coach and talk about the post shot reaction because it's so important how you choose to react two shots, for how much confidence you're going to feel and momentum for the round. But it was kind of separate. But then we realized that's kind of silly because it's this three faces to every shot.
You have it before a.
Shot, you have it during the shot, you have the after the shot. How we actually deal with what just happened. So we just decided it's better put those together. It's the think box, playbox, memory box, and that's your your routine for every golf shot, and it to explore and find what is best for me to do in those three timeframes.
Okay, that's a perfect explanation. I mean I want to ask why, but it should be obvious. The golfers, amateur golfers especially, need to get a good rhythm pre during, and post shot. Why why is that important?
Well? Why it's important because you know, you have a golf shot and you only have the one golf shot you have is the only golf shot. I mean you only have one drive off number one hopefully, but I mean a shot is unique. You know, you don't like your range, I can just see it another one and whatever. You have only have one chance. I mean, you have one shot, and they're all so different in our game
because I'm on the golf course. It goes from two hundred and twenty yards to fifteen yard pitch shot to putt. I mean, it's that variability. So you need to actually make a decision for every shot in golf because every shot you hit you in the around is going to be different. So a decision that you commit to needs to be made. And it seems obvious, but many have
just skipped that part. Yeah, and then and then of course, like you know, golf is a game and anyone who is going to perform, well, it doesn't matter if it's football, basketball, golf, tennis, whatever. While you're performing, you're more athletic, like you see the target or you feel something in emotion, you know, longer
preparing you actually in the moment. But because in golf the ball is sitting still waiting for us, many start overthinking all the ball absolutely, and so that's why it's so important to figure out, you know, what I do best when I just feel that calm tempo when I'm over the ball, or you know what I do best when I do still have an image of the target over the ball, or no, what I do best when
I just sense that constant gret pressure. So you need to figure out what helps me that isn't like working on a swing change, but playing with the swing I got right now and have the best field or sense that for the golf shot.
When I look at a scorecard after the round and I see the holes that were issues that contributed to a higher score than I had hoped for, I noticed that, you know, there's definitely going to be shots in there that aren't exactly what I had hoped to accomplish. But that doesn't bother me that that happens to every golfer at every level. What I see in my scorecard, the
higher numbers, it's like I made a bad decision. That's what stands out to me, is like, see, I just I shouldn't have tried to be a hero in this shot. I should have you know, I should have taken an extra club. I didn't consider the wind. I didn't consider the uphill downhill or even how heavy the air is, and I made mistakes at that end.
Yeah, so that's like after the round, is it's really good to just have a little reflection time, like in your case there, Like what is the learning here? You know? Is it that I'm you know, always go to I mean too often to the pin or my routine before the shot. I don't check the wind enough. I mean, that's really want to do the reflection after the round? How can I get better at this in the future.
So there's the post shot routine and the post round routine.
Yeah, definitely, yeah, definitely what.
Are the things that we need to think about? I mean, why can't I recognize that in my post shot routine of like that was a bad decision?
Well, you know, The thing is that if you start to analyze after every shot, you're going to exhaust yourself. You know, it's just has to be too much, and like one shot is not a trend, so you know. So some players can say, you know, just after the shot, you know, okay, it went in you know whatever in the rough and you know, I didn't consider the wind, and then they leave it as such and they move on. So some can do it because they do is do
it easily. But some gets into this too much analyzed and thinking while you have a shot to hit in one minute, you know. So it's that's where we want to explore, and we don't have one way of doing it. It depends on a little bit how you are and how you play on the course. What is best to do after a golf shot? But too much analysis save that after the run.
Right over, analysis leads to paralysis. I guess what they say. So tell me give me an update on what's going on with Vision fifty four down in Scottsdale. You're talking to.
Golf course, Yes we are.
Yeah, so we have been for quite a while.
Yeah, I think we were first like eleven years at the Legacy Golf Course here in Phoenix and then now we're like twelve or thirteen years at Talking Stick, so it's work great, and we like to do a lot of our coaching on the course and we have thirty six holes there, so it's really good. But anyway, so it's doing very well, and we have all kinds of different programs for different golfers. But it still amazes us that it's not as common yet to teach and coach
the non technical skills of the game. But we feel through our books and now we've created more training books and the interest among other coaches that things are happening because I think we, along with so many other teachers and coaches, we care about growing the game and making golfers play better, and we just want the view of playing better to be wide enough that of course we need to keep developing the technical skills and so I can hit the bunker shops the way I want to,
or put well, or hit it further and all of that, but there still is a process of playing the game that often get dismissed or not focused on, and we just think it's too bad. So we just want the fundamentals to be wide enough so if I improve my swing. I still know how to play on the golf course when I only have one try and I need to make a decision, and I need to trust my decision, and I need to be athletic, and you know, so it belongs to the golf fundamentals to learn both the
technical and non technical. And we keep on going. Now we've done it for a few decades, but just doing what we can to shift that paradigm so everybody can see it that way, because I don't know anyone who can disagree with that there is a process to play the game on the course.
You said that you like to give lessons on the course as opposed to just hitting off of the driving range. We talk about this a lot on this show, have been for decades, and that is that there's a big difference between hitting balls and playing golf.
Yeah, it's like two different sports.
It really is. It really is, because when you're hitting balls, generally you're hitting its flat. It's you know, if you're hitting on grass, there's probably a lot of sand anyway, because the way they have to refurbish the grass all the time redo it. But why is it that you prefer to give your lessons on the course you know, in course lessons versus just strictly arranged lessons.
Well, because the whole point is for everybody who comes to see us is that they want to play better and some even enjoy it more so, and we know how a golfer hits on the range. There's really no indication how they hit it on the golf course, so we are so much more interested in how is there swing, how is their stroke? What happens on the golf course, and when we know that, then we can make more
sense of what to do on the practice area. But you know, even the first day at our golf school, we don't go on the golf course in the afternoon, and we're really careful to keep our mouth shut and not say anything about their swing and before we've actually seen it in action on the golf course. And so it's just like it's kind of a reality check that the truth is what happens on the golf course. So if I am a coach of the game of golf,
I need to observe them on the golf course. So on the golf course, it could be observing what they do and see what's good and what can be better from the technique to you know, how they make decisions and how they stay focused to the finished Very few
on the golf course, it was just a few. It's very common on the golf course that the swing gets abrupted because they're so into the outcome, which doesn't happen on the range because it means more so, you know, and how they act after the shot, and you know, all these things, their pace of play. You know, it's really important for us too. So the reality happens out there and we want to be coaches to help them, and then that helps us what to do when we practice,
and sometimes we go out and they get to explore. Okay, let's try three different things to do in your think box to see which one you like, or let's try a couple different things in the playbox so they get to discover, like this works for me, this doesn't work for me. And being on the golf course is totally different than being on the pudding green or the range because it's more perceived pressure.
Yeah, another huge advancement that we've had in over the decades that we've been doing, these golf simulators have become very very popular, to the point where we now have a professional level Golf Simulator League TGL, which I'm a huge fan of. But how does that impact your instruction because people are playing core I'm using air quotes for courses, but they're hitting into a screen from a flat spot like hitting in the range.
So I mean, I think it's awesome because it's closer to the real thing. You know, it's you know, it's still not obviously the same. You don't have the breaks between shots, and many times you see them in simulators and they kind of skip over the think box, and you know they're still most evaluating performance, they're not evaluating the process. But through the simulators you can do a
lot more good practice and good learning. But you still need to know what to look for if you're going to coach them through the simulators, not just where the ball went or how whatever the trajector and all that just couldn't see behind.
That, right, Well, it's also giving you most simulators, especially things like track Man and all these other advances here, they're giving you a lot of data, a lot of information about the ball itself and what it's doing, where it's going. Is that helped you or is that something that's just an added Is it an added bonus or is it an added distraction?
Both? Well, I think that got a lot of you all this awesome technology is like, it's brilliantly good because we're not guessing anymore. We actually get real number of repacts objective that yes, and we also have to remember there's an outer reality and inner reality. So what we find those that overuse it today? I mean, if you
have juniors that have used it too much. For example, we can be on the golf course, I ask them, okay, tell me the distance to the flag without looking at technology, and they can't see the difference between fifteen hundred and twenty yards because they haven't even they have never needed to train their senses. So if they can be really really good player, it's about art and science. So the technology is great as long as I still learn to know what does it actually mean to trust a golf shot?
What does it still mean to sense a temple? Because sensing a temper is an internal experience that I need to know and not just base it on numbers from the outside. Or if I want to be super focused and totally zero in visualize my ballflight to target, it's like an inner experience. So technology is great. Is still as long as I still honor this the inner skills that is needed that are more subjective. So if I
have a balance of both, it's really good. But many today only go towards technique and technology and dismiss the other part, and then it's never going to be optimal.
Since you guys have started coaching, and you were really, I don't want to say, you were the first, but highest profile to integrate the whole mind body connection into golf, you know, the mental elements of it, the thinking part of it, into just swing mechanics where we come from Ben Hogan's book and we're just talking about the mechanics, and then it started to evolve into mental games, and then you know, podcasting started happening and we're talking about
the mental game a lot here and others as well. How has that evolved since you've been coaching the mind body connection element or was it always there and just didn't talk about it much?
Well, I think for the greatest players, has always been there but never talked about because it's not as obvious and you can't like measure it and you can't like see it on the screen. So I think among the great coaches and great players. He's been there, But then we've been led to believe that it's only the outer view and taken that really matters. But I think so much has happened, but sometimes I feel they can still be too separate. Okay, here's my technical coach, and then
I have this mental coach to help me. But sometimes they're just too separate. I think we in God, as golf coaches golf teachers, we need to honor that big picture. So the golfers from the beginning always get to mixture. Okay, we can work on this. You know. I want you at home, in front of you a mirror, to work
on these positions and these drills. But you know, when you go and play golf, we want to help you with with you know, how you can make a decision, the feel you can have during your swing, and so we like integrate it into anything we're doing. And that integration is not as solid today yet.
Are you and Lynn as coaching partners and business partners. Do you each have your own specialty or you each cover both the mental and the physical side of playing golf, or one focuses more on the other.
Well, I know I would I would say we you know, we totally have one hundred percent in the same vision and beliefs about what we're doing and what we think the future needs, and we reflect and talk about it a lot because we want to you know, probably Lynn is my biggest critiquer and you know, question what we're
doing and meet to her. So we have that. But then I came originally more from the background as a player, having played on tour and all of that, and Lynn has an even stronger background as a technical teacher, So our original background is a little bit different like that, even though Lena has still played a lot and I've you know, since then, also have PGA education technical education, so we like Lin has done more in the past club fitting that I have, So we come from a
different little different background and when we you know, when we but when we coach and the things we developed so we can know that someplace it's going to listen stronger to learn in some place, but listen stronger to me. So we just need to have no ego involved with that. And realizing that that we have two voices and we have other coaches too, that we have more voices to
the same message makes it even better. But we couldn't function as a as a company and with a clear philosophy if we didn't one hundred percent agree on what we're doing and how we're doing it.
So, speaking of philosophy, explain why the company is called Vision fifty four.
Yeah, you know. Actually when we started our company we call it Coaching for the Future, and still our incorporated name, and because it was coaching for the future, but then
many thought we only did coach training. So when the fifty four comes from when I, in another lifetime was head of our Swedish national teams and we started this fifty four thinking because many of those Swedish players at that time had very limiting beliefs about what they can do in the future, being from this cold weather country
and so far behind so many nations. So the fifty four realizing to get them to be like a little bit more believing in the future, we asked them, okay, on your home course, the best score in each hole? What have you shot? And actually some have made birders in every hole at one time or another, So we just brought it up as a future possibility. What would it take in the future during the same around, Just let's say it would be possible. So how do you need to swing, how do you need to train, how
fit you need to be? We just start going if you know, we believe it could happen. We don't know which which centuries can happen, doesn't matter. We just think it's humanly possible and let's go towards that. And it's very good for us coaches to because who do we need to be and what do we need to know to support that process. So the vision fifty four is just it's not about being disappointed if I don't shoot fifty four. It's about it's about believing and possibilities and
going for it. So it's it's it's changed our whole culture. And you know, obviously anic A certains Time is one of the famous one who was part of when we start first started this, and she always had that in the back of her mind striving towards that. And she was the first woman and it's the first woman to have ever shot fifty nine.
So maybe amazing. No, you wouldn't be disappointed like shooting fifty four, but shooting fifty five any golfer, you know, I just missed that one pot I could have had a fifty But I only had a fifty five. It's just the nature of golfer, isn't it as it.
Is fifty four? Said tarn It. I could have made an ego there on that.
Yeah, exactly, exactly. Have you seen any of what Bryson Deshamba has done on YouTube with his break fifty series?
No, I haven't.
Actually do you know about it? Are you familiar with it?
I mean a little bit?
Yeah, yeah, where he goes and he'll play. I love this concept. Instead of competing against my friends, it's like, let's team up, right, and what he does is he gets somebody, they play the front ties and they try to break fifty right, and you know, with Bryson's length and accuracy, they get close, but they I don't think
they've done it yet. I think it's very entertaining, and I've told my friends, I said, let's do this instead of competing this week, let's partner up, play from a different tea box, closer tea box, and see if we could shoot par Yeah, I know, combine our scores and see if we could we just shoot par and if we do, then let's try to break seventy. Let's you know, it's like set that goal i'll see a team.
Yeah yeah, I super like it, and it gives so much more positivity outlook in playing the game that I think is really healthy.
Yeah yeah, So how is the state of the game from your perspective? These days? We'll say, let's start with amateur play and we'll go from there. But what is the state of the game from your perspective?
I think you know, it's growing a really healthy way. But I feel like because of the growth in technology and tech knowledge about technique and the body swing connection which is advanced a lot, but we also get many that they get higher level of confusion because we look at the amateurs, so we call it the real golfers
of the game. They get all these suggestions through technology and technique, but most amateurs they understand that, but they honestly don't have time to actually practice to make changes that are suggested. And they keep saying, oh, yeah, I'm going to do it, But the bottom line is that
they have jobs, have families that have other things. So many go about things that are accurate, but it's not realistic they're going to make those changes and get it to function on the golf course because they don't have enough they don't have the time that the professional player has to make that happen. So I think it's really important to be honest about that. If I don't have those hours to make the changes needed, what can I still do to my game to play better?
It makes a lot of sense. That makes a lot of sense. I think people will take a lesson going okay, I'm all good now, and then they don't practice it. But they may just want to say, what is it that I can do without this amount of practice and still try to improve my game? And I think a lot of that ends up being talking about next free shot, post shot.
That's what we're saying. We're seen like remarkable improvements in players game because and we have like one two day golf school that is it's only on course. We don't even go on the range more than warm up. And it's for those players that never practice anyways. All they do is maybe warm up and they play. So let's do a golf school where we just meet that reality and help them how to steal advance to golf games.
So what is the difference between warming up and practicing?
It's a big, big difference. Warming Up is just to warm up and be ready to play the play that day. In a practice is usually to improve some skills.
And.
I don't want to spend my time doing that when I'm warming up. I want to do things that create confidence, you know. So warming up is you know today obviously for many to stretch and warm up the body. But then you know, we always like offers too, because our bodies are different every day, depending on how slap potter eight, what I've been doing working out not working out. I mean,
our bodies are always variable. So to hit some shots to making sure my balance is good if I hit two feet together or you know, one foot, but just to access balance, and I hit some shots with slower tempo, medium temper, faster temple, just to see what temple like is functional today, because some days my body is more tired and I need to like calm it down. Other days I'm totally alert, my body is sharp back and swing faster. So it's a lot of calibration and making
sure my attention level is good. So my warm up is more about calibrating and getting my body in mind ready for playing the game of golf. It's not about improving skills, and it's not about like how hit it on the range is going to decide I'm going to hit it on the course because everybody knows it who has played golf long enough. I can hit it extremely well and warm up, and then I go to the first tea and it's like it's gone, or the opposite that I feel like not good at all on the
range and suddenly comes together on the course. So it's like no indication anyways for what's going to happen. So it's about finding my best way to just warm up and create confidence. There's the only thing that matters and warm up.
Have you had a chance to see TGL I have done it a little bit, I have. What do you think, Well.
I think I think it's really you know, fun. I like real, real, real golf, and like major competitions more. But I think this is But.
That's also a long, major time commitment too to watch and play.
Yeah, so I think it's you know, it's been really really fun great.
Yeah, but so with actual playing and watching it, there's been a lot of controversy about pace of play lately in comments any suggestions.
Yeah, actually, we yeah, actually a lot because it's something you know, we've cared about for decades and every golf school what every player focus on, and so actually put together a pdf last week and we send out to coaches and magazine because I send it to you later on. Yes, because we think sometimes when they focus on they focus mostly on how we can you know, restrict times over the shots and time for the round and all of that.
But we think it has to do with coaches need to pay more attention to players' routines to be sustainable, and I think that is just skipped over. So care about it a lot. We did one interview with Golf Global Golf Post about it and with golf dot com too, because they knew that we have been coaching the pace of play and cared about it for a long, long long time.
M hm. And on TGL they have that forty second shot clock.
Yeah, it's good.
It's really good.
Yeah.
And it adds pressure yeah, which is great, awesome. Yeah. I mean I've watched every episode so far and the only time that the shot clock has been come into play is Tiger putting. It was one time he just let it lapse, which was pretty wonderful to see him. I've loved watching Tiger because he's really been vulnerable during it. So that's been phenomenal. So you've got a new series of books Between Shots, which joins Signature Swing and performance routine.
Between Shots is the new one, right, yes, can you define? You know there's an element in there of manage your body, manage your mind, manage your emotions, and then the variability. Let's pick them up a little bit at a time. Here, start with manage your body.
Yeah and yeah, first one to say, you know, with the books you mentioned now, the main reason we did it is because our big published books, you know, we've been fortunate, they've been going so well. But there is so much material that we couldn't include to make it an easy read book, and the many exercises we couldn't include because it doesn't fit into a book like that. So we decided to self publish this. We call them training books where we can just include those that want
to deep dive into think fox, playbox, memory box. Okay, here we got everything we know about this and all the exercises we know and for balanced temple and tension the same thing. So the between shot is and I think it's an area that many golfers haven't really even thought about because and you can't really practice it on the range. But you know, in golf, we spend three and a half plus hours between shots, so it's a lot of time that that time can either help you
play better or it really hurts your game. And we say like between shots and the things that matter is that I make sure I spend enough time recharging so I can keep the focus for eighteen holes, and that I also make myself ready for the next time I'm going to hit the golf shot. And the third area is that we're always going to be variable. We're never going to be consistent as a human being playing the
game of golf. So there is can be veriability that suddenly I get tight and tense because it's windy, or or you know, I'm thinking too much about work right now, so I'm all scattered suddenly on the backside, I mean, there always can be variability. So between shots, is this time to actually be more aware of is there anything I need to manage right now? Am I getting irritated
because pace of play is slow? Or you know, you need to have a little awareness so you can become a better player and you can like bounce back and you might look more consistent because you manage the variability. So we think it's like a huge area to just find a few things that that can really really help me. So I just want to give that overview first.
Good, Now let's talk about managing your body.
Yeah, so then when it comes to the body, we know and if you play golf and go on the golf court, can guarantee you you can be tighten your hips. Sitting in the golf court so many between shots, they might know, you know, having three holes or six holes, I need to do a little stretching or losing up or being aware of I've been sitting a lot now waiting on the tea box of other players. I need to know do I need to loosen my shoulders some or do I need to do this for my hips.
You need to have some awareness of how do I keep my body athletic through the round of golf even though I might be standing still or sitting still. And another thing with the body is that it's common. It's like my adrenaline level. You know, sometimes I can get so worked up because maybe I'm on my way to the lowest round ever, or the opposite, I'm super sluggish because it's slow places early in the morning, so you know what, I need to walk a little peppier here.
Maybe it's geography a little bit, or I might do need the opposite. I need to take deep breath and calm myself down because I'm just too you work it up in my body. So, I mean, there's so many things. Obviously, the obvious thing is, you know what are you drinking and eating between shots to keep that energy level? So I was going to bring that up depending on like your level of golf and your ambition in golf, the
between the shots. If I'm only playing golf because I don't care about performance and I'm only here to have fun with my friends, and maybe you don't need to do anything. But if I care about playing well, you should just look into you know what is something that actually helps my body stay athletic and be good for all eighteen holes.
That's an excellent point. It's about if you care or not, because you know there are people out there who they're they're not focused on their hydration, they're not focused on the nutrition. They're drinking coffee and dehydrating, they're drinking alcohol and really not paying attention. But it's for those podcasts for people who would listen to podcasts about this, they care about this. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, there's that's beauty of the game that we can have so many different like we call the spirit of the game, the reason you play the game. Those that part of playing the game is that I want to be a good performer. Then it's good to check in on us.
And then you have managed the mind and managed the emotions. Those are two you have was listed as different elements. Can you explain why?
Yeah, I mean the mind for us is more you know, the the both the cognitive parties. Am I thinking too far in the future? Am I focusing on the past? Am I like scattered? Or am I totally focusing on only my shot? Or do I still focus about who is watching me? So it's managing that, you know, direction on my mind and if I can stay focused during the whole swing and so between shots, it would be for many. I mean some have a tendency I can have that I can easily go too far in the future,
like ooh, my irons better. There are a couple of power fource it's going to be tough coming up and like, ah, bring yourself back.
You even get caught up in that.
Yeah, just feel your feet walking here now, and you know, I'll look at the trees and get yourself back depresent or you know, some hang out in the past all the time, like why why did I miss that put? Or you know that's an easy wed shot in so you're just wasting energy. So it's just doing some exercise and being aware of like am I good at being
in charge of where my mind is? And if you're going to be a peak performer in golf, it's a good thing because between shots it conspiral to really bad stuff, you know, being irritated other players, very irritated with you know, all kinds of stuff. So emotions is more like am I feeling calm and peaceful and confident or am I
anxious frustrated? It's it's you know, the emotions, and sometimes emotions come from the thoughts I have, And sometimes I just get emotions because I have a memory of missing this shot last week at the same spot, and the emotions start and then it triggers thoughts. So it's just knowing that if I have too much negative emotions between shots, and it's so good to learn from science. I'm going to lose access to a lot of my abilities. It's just we go more to fight and flight and I
don't and I can't afford that. Am I going to be a good performer? So it's recognized and I'm getting frustrated, irritated. Okay, I'm going to go to getting myself to a commerce state or whatever, more confident state and use my body maybe to help me and manage that. Because the emotions is going to fluctuate. I just need to figure out what is it that makes me play really awesome.
Yeah. One thing that I see creeping into both the mind element and the emotions element is pace of play, which we talked about a little bit. But how does slow pace of play affect the amateur golfer? And then what's the cure to not let it bother you?
Well, you know, some slow play doesn't affect them at all, Because he said, I'm only playing with my friends, and I like this golf course and I paid a lot of money to play it, so I wanted to take six hours. You know, they're probably nobody does, but anyway, so you know it does because if you play with plays that you feel are very very slow, it can
get you really irritated. You know, you start having all the self talk and emotions and it's going to get your body tight, or you can start rushing and making up for them being slow. I mean that happens a lot all the time. So I think every golfer needs to know how long time their routine takes the preparation. Think box in the playbox. I think it's really important.
And you know, we have a goal to keep it thirty seconds in under and it's just that the time that the LPGA is used for a long time that you have an average of thirty seconds per shot, and I don't think we need more than that. But many today, especially think box because of so much more technology that there's so many ways of measuring the distance. You know, you might have it on your watch, you might have you know, your bush and hel glasses, you have sprinkler heads,
you have screens in your cart. They can be like a cillion different ways of doing that. And there are many systems how to check green reading and all of these things. But then players to and players try to do all of that all the time, and it's like it doesn't work, it's not sustainable because they usually lose access to their own instinct and feel over time because there's so much up in the numbers.
And.
They get you know, you get tired and done basically. But we don't know anyone who wants to be slow. They have just never been aware of it or coached how to do it different so they can so they can be more efficient, but also play as good or better doing it in a more simplified way. For example, we we can have many that you know, there we go on the golf course and they start having you know, two three four practice wings. We never saw that on the range, but suddenly on the course and they do
two three four practice wings. So you know, I after one whole used to ask cluck, okay, so what's the intention for those practice wings? And then depending on the answer, just try to help them sort it out and how can you actually accomplish that in one And you know, we usually say if they're player shooting ninety, you know, if you also make three practice wing, that's ninety plus
two hundred and seventy. It's a lot of swingings anyway, So but they haven't thought about that, or some think a practice swing it needs to be perfect before I can move on, And like that belief is like never good. But what I'm saying is, this is this area that most golfers haven't really reflected on and they haven't had any coaching to help them sort it out and make it more functional on the golf course. So I think it's really really important. And I said, like, let's try
for three holes. You know, you can get a feed for the swing and move your body, but let's just not do in the practice swings. Just you see what it would be like. And then some discover like, wow, I like that better, or some realize that no, yeah, it's good, but I just want something a little bit. So we just need to work it out.
Yeah, And I think that if you start practicing your own think box playbox that you don't need as long as you do it consistently, you shouldn't have to be self conscious about feeling like you're holding up the because if they see you're doing your routine on the first second hal you know, first four or five shots, that's your rhythm and you don't have to be self conscious about it, people will like start accepting it's like okay, that's his pace of play.
Well as as long as it doesn't take too.
Long Yeah, yeah, of course, of course.
But I want another thing about the routine that is really important for us. Sure, the only thing that matters about this we talk about the pre shot routine now, is that I made a decision and I have an internal go signal whatever that is. So that's what's important.
It's not that I always do the exact same outer routine, because what I'm saying is like I normally don't make practice wing, but if I have like a shot around the green, or I'm going to have a certain lie, i might make a practice wing whatever to get the field, but it's just to get the go signal. So I can have a structure, but it is with flexibility because what I'm saying this is because we can have many
more lead players that have been taught. If they do the same exact routine from the outside looking, it's always going to work. And we know that's not true because it's what you feel inside that needs to be feel really awesome, like I got this. I know what I'm doing, and I feel what I'm doing. I'm ready to go. So sometimes that can happen in different ways. But if I still feel like I still need to step off this Pat, I still need to do practice wing because
I'm supposed to. I might I might be too late. I lost that go signal.
You mentioned a few minutes ago that your books, these three books in this series are self published. Where can we find.
Them on Amazon or Buns and Noble.
Great. Oh so it's not just on your website, but it is available at Amazon and then the website Vision fifty four dot com. You got it, and check out the schools. If you want some of the best instruction the world has to offer, you should definitely check out Vision fifty four because Lynn and Pia are superheroes in the game of Game Improvement World.
Absolutely, that's really nice of you.
Oh well, thank you again. It's great to talk to you, and it's always a joy to talk to you, and I really value your time. Thank you so much.
Thank you Fred, Thanks for all you do for the game.