Increased Focus through Hydration and Short Game Academy

for that sweat to evaporate. And when the sweat evaporates, that's when the body kind of cools itself. So because that can't happen efficiently, the internal body temperature starts to go up. And that's when you get into stuff like I say, the heat cramps, and at some point you may even stop sweating because the mechanism's shutting down and you don't want to even get to that point. And that's why it's important to make sure that you start drinking early and drink often throughout the round.

comedy golf Troup The Hackers. I've also scheduled Jeff Mangum, recognized as one of the world's foremost putting experts and the longtime putting guru of golf Smarter to join us for a couple of shows right after that. I appreciate your patience and I hope you will continue to download the show when we come back. Now, Welcome to the Golf Smarter Podcast, Bob.

has gotten better over the years. But you know, I usually correlate that to somebody who goes out and buys a used car and the car does run all that well, and goes out and spends a lot of money to put four new tires on it, thinking it's going to make the car run better, But you're still stuck with that mechanism that's driving a car, and that's the engine. In this case, it's the golfer himself. And most golfers don't realize that it's their own bodies that are holding them back from better golf.

muscle tightness, the muscle weakness, and the muscle imbalance. And then once you identify those to target an exercise program to correct those. And when you do that, you're going to allow the golfer to move more efficiently and therefore they're going to be able to swing the better golf club.

takes a little effort. But if they stay pretty consistent with their programs, like I say, in a relatively short period of time, they're going to feel more flexibility, they're going to have more range of motion, they're going to be making better ball contact distance and we all know distance is still king in golf. They're going to be able to get down the fairway another ten to fifteen

twenty yards. I mean, even some of the eighty year olds that I'm working with in a relatively short period of time, they come back all exciting the fact that they're now, you know, starting to drive the ball past their other golfing buddies. So I mean, you're going to find these results fairly quickly, and it really all depends on your compliance with the exercise.

and or the distance. So once you get into a program in you start correcting those deficiencies, your ball contact is going to improve tremendously.

on the golf course. And then back in two thousand and six went down to the World Golf Fitness Summit that was presented by the titleist performance folks Greig Rose and Dave Phillips, and the three day workshop was phenomenal. I mean, it was one of those wow moments. And I think Golf Week magazine even said this now has become golf's new obsession, and it basically changed the game overnight, and you know, it introduced a whole new spoke of

the wheels we talked about. And so I came back and I run a medical fitness center in North Carolina and started a little golf fitness academy and putting some of those the things that we learned to practice, and I was seeing that these people that were coming through the program were coming back with some real positive feedback. So I went back and got certified with TPI, and I've also have gotten certifications through Flexor, which is a

neuromuscular type program for golf brain body type connection. And then I've also studied a lot of Gary Gray stuff, who has now affiliated himself with Nike, and Gary does movement science, sees up I believe in Michigan does a lot with biomechanics and phenomenal stuff. So I mean, it's real good stuff. I love it my passion and I just love to see golfers improve. And my biggest thrill is getting people back out on the golf course who have been injured.

a regular basis. But what I've found personally is that my biggest issues are sitting because I basically sit at my desk doing computer work all day and sleeping, and I have more pain in the morning when I wake up before I do my stretching exercises than I do it any other time. And also I've noticed that after I finished a round of golf, I feel better. It's to me, it's it's not golf that's wiping out my back. You know, it's not the the left to right lateral

movement that that's hurting me. It's the you know, the bad position in bed and on my chair. And I've even spent a lot of money on chairs.

And that's one of the biggest factories that lead up to bad backs because of the relationship that the hamstrings have to the hip bone, and then how it pulls the hip bone out of balance and that causes a straightening of the lumbar spine and that puts more pressure on the disks and so on and so on and so on. And women we tend to see more tightness in the hip flexors, which are muscles in the front part of the hip, and that kind of does the reverse.

It pulls the hip forward and causes more arching of the lower back. And you see a lot of s posture type address positions in women when they're standing over the ball. It's more prevalent in women. Those two can physically cause problems with the lower back. Now, When you combine that with swing faults like reverse spine, like early extension, where the hips are moving towards the ball, like s posture, as we talked about, that's a perfect storm for back issues.

And it's kind of interesting how you talked about sitting. Excuse me, I wrote a whole article and I've got this whole workshop about the anatomy of a sitter and how sitting impacts your golf game because when you sit, the body adapts to the positions that you place it in most of the time. And we're seeing a lot of sea posture these days, even in younger golfers. I mean, it used to be kind of an old golfers disease.

You know, as you got older, you just tended to kind of lose your posture and you got a little more bode in the upper back, and so you would kind of hunch over the ball. But we're seeing that now a lot with younger golfers because of the computer and being over the computer all day and when you sit over a computer, and the same thing with dentists. I mean, all my dentists have ce posture because they're

hunched over their patients. So what happens there is you tighten the muscles in the front part of the body, in the chest area. You elongate the muscles in the upper back. And when you shorten muscles, you tighten, and when you elongate, you weaken, So you start to get that rounded shoulder posture and you take that out on the golf course. In the lower body, when you sit, you basically shorten your hamstrings and you shorten your hip flexers,

So there's the dynamic two. You also elongate your gluts, which are your butt muscles, and that's really where you get a lot of power from in the golf swing, and you shorten the quad muscles in the front part of your thigh. So the fact that you're tightening your hip flexers and your and your hamstrings are going to set you up anatomically for back issues. And then when you go out there and start swinging the golf club, you know, in many cases that can add too. In

your case, it's probably loosening you up. So you're feeling a little bit better after the after the golf game, but at some point that may come back to bite you.

mid back, not the lower back. A lot of people think that their rotation is going to come from their lower back, and the lower back really is geared more for flextion front to back, and it's more geared for stability, not mobility. So when your mid back is tight and you're bringing the club back, it's only going to go back so far. In order for you to get the club back further, you're going to have to recruit the lower back and again, the lower back just doesn't like that.

So over time, that's just going to put stress to the lower back and that's going to add to the issues as well. So that's still a whole nother component that you have to consider.

you're playing, that you take care of yourself. Let's let's talk about that for a minute.

and being down south there. And actually just kind of you know, with the PGA event that just took place at Kiwa, you know, made me think about what the golfers were going to face out there, especially being a little further south and you know, in the environment, and how much it can take a toll out of your game if you're not really prepared to play in that environment. So you know, that kind of led me to write

the article. But it's really key to get yourself to acclimate to the weather conditions, whether it be the heat and humanity or the cold so that your body can function more efficiently, but especially I think in more of the warmer environments where it really kind of takes a toll and and your golf game can suffer if you if you're not prepared to play in those conditions, or if you don't kind of plan for you know, keeping hydrated and stuff like that. And like I say, you'll suffer, not fun.

function you know, the way that functions. Uh So, I mean hydration is vital when you're out there, especially when you're trying to perform an activity, because that what happens is it kind of takes the fluid out of the blood, and your blood becomes very discussed and then that causes your heart to work harder and that can lead to some you know, more serious stuff that you don't want to have to happen. So it's important to make sure

that you're drinking water. And really that's that's the best thing that you can that you can drink while you're outside in an activity is just plain old water. If you tend to sweat a lot, you know, that's the time to maybe start reaching for an electrolyte replacement drink to help get some of the minerals the potassium and the magnesium, the calcium and other essential minerals back into your system that you're going to lose through your sweat. But it can really make or break your game.

the tougher it is for that sweat to evaporate. And when the sweat evaporates, that's when the body kind of cools itself. So because that can't happen efficiently, the internal body temperature starts to go up, and that's when you get into stuff like I say, the heat cramps. And at some point, you know, you may even stop sweating because the mechanism is shutting down, and you know you can. You don't want to even get to that point, and that's why it's important to make sure that you start

drinking early and drink often throughout the round. I mean. The other thing that you can also do to prepare yourself is nowadays, you know, with the sweat wicking materials that are coming out, you know, polyester's making a comeback through the sweat wicking apparel, and that helps draw that moisture away from the body and helps to dissipate it into the environment so that it can keep you cooler

while you're playing around the golf. So that's definitely an advantage that we have nowadays that you know, is popular and will probably continue to gain popularity as the science gets better in that regards.

So if that heat index, especially when the humidity goes up and the moisture in the air is higher than the moisture on your skin, then the evaporation rate decreases, so the sweat basically just stays on your skin instead of getting evaporated, and that's when the cooling mechanism tends to become compromised to the point where you can get into those those heat disorders.

which ones are. Which the electrolyte tablets are. You buy them in a tube and basically they're like alcacelsor you buy a sixteen ounce bottle of water and you kind of PLoP the tablet into the bottle and it fizzes, and they come in different flavors and it gives you the electrolyte replacements that the other sports drinks offer, but there's only six six or seven calories per tablet, so per bottle and no sugar.

your round of golf. Towel towel maintenance. And what they were saying is make sure that you use one end of the towel for cleaning the ball in your club faces and the other end of the towel for wiping off your face in your hands.

that comes in I forward to Terry. Terry reviews every question. He'll respond to your questions, and if he thinks it's appropriate that it's a question that everybody will get something from, he'll pick one or two and we'll do them here on the Short Game Academy. And if Terry chooses your question, and I really have nothing to do with what he's choosing, I send them all. If he picks your question, you will receive a free I don't want to call it a wedge, a scoring club from a score forty one

to sixty one that'll be customized to your fit. And also you'll get a divit tool from golf Smarter so that when you more greens, you'll be able to fix your marks and become a better golf citizen. So let's get right to it and go to our first question that you've selected. This one's from John Shields of Davis, California, and he says, Terry, I'm a big fan of what you're doing over at score and he also comment said he's a longtime golf Smarter listener. Thank you, very much, John.

His question is about the fifty to sixty yard approach shot, which is the bane of my existence as well. He says, for some reason, this in between distance results in undue trepidation for me. Any shorter and I can easily pitch or bump up a shot, and longer is an easy three quarter wedge, but cannot figure out what the most reliable play is from fifty to sixty yards.

make a reliable half swing. When I say a half swing, what I mean is where your backswing position puts your hands roughly about opposite of your of your right armpit, so your your left arm is about parallel with the ground. It's not further back than that. And your hint, your hands do not hinge a lot, just a little bit. One of the things I think I mentioned in earlier broadcast is really go watch Steve Stricker going on YouTube and find videos as Steve Stricker and watch how simple

his swing is. But your your hands are halfway back to halfway through, so your follow through is again your hands end up about shoulder high, complete body turn. Take your take your sand wedge or your lob wedge, your gap wedge, and go out and just practice this half swing uh until you get it really grooved. Hit a lot of golf balls with this. You can go to a ball field or a vacant lot and with your own shag bag and do this, But you gotta hit a lot of shots to get the feel for this

half swing where you can rep implicate this reliably. Then go through the high loft clubs in your set and see what happens with the sixty degree with this half swing, what happens with the fifty six or fifty four, you know, whatever high loft clubs you're carrying. See what happens and how far the ball carries with each of these swings.

Then you can go out on the golf course. You can find out how far it's going to roll out with each of these swings, and with three or four of your high loft golf clubs and this one swing, you'll end up with five or six different shots you can hit with reliability and repeatability because you've practiced it

and you know what that half swing feels like. You can even dissect that further if you want, in these half swings by gripping down on the club a little further, which I talk about in my book The Score Method, which is available on score golf dot com for a free download of our book called The Score Method, and it really dives into the details of using your hand position on the grip to change how far the ball

all will fly. So with your full swing and these different hand positions and four or five clubs, you've got ten or twelve yardages. With your new half swing that you're learning and four or five clubs a couple of hand positions, you've got another eight or ten yards, and you'll find that you can dissect everything inside full swing, pitching wedge down to the grip down half sixty maybe a forty yard shot, and you can really dissect the

golf course. So practice that half swing, learn it, learn it, and just memorize it, and then use your different clubs with that half swing to get the different yardages you're after and.

means don't hit a driver. Fight need to if I can get myself, especially with the confidence that I've I've gotten using the score forty one sixty one wedges man, you put that forty six degree in my hands from one hundred and ten yards and I feel like I'm going to hit the stick. So especially on a par five, if I'm two hundred and fifty out, I know I want to go one hundred and forty. I don't want to hit it, you know, So I'm fifty yards out from the green, I don't want to take a long club.

And I mean even a good lesson from the US Amateur the other day, and the kid that won hit a six iron off the tee on this par four on the playoff hole. The other kid hit a driver over the green. That was the whole Arnold Palmer drove when he won his open there but at Cherry Heels. But this kid hit a six iron off the tee to like seventy eight yards and he knew that my sixty degree wedge and my three quarter swing I'm going to be somewhere around the hole, and he hit it

fifteen feet behind the whole nestles. He had a two putt to win, nestled down. Turned out the ball went in for birdie. But that's playing smart, that's playing two a yard ad. You know, I always tell the story about Zach Johnson. He did that at the Masters when he won. He played the par fives better than anybody and never went for one of them.

his short short game, the thirty forty yard shots. He just he's he has no confidence in it, and so he gets all freaked out and he just can't do it. And any time he lost his cool that day was on a short shot that he screwed up. It's the only time he lost it. And at one point there was a hole that was three hundred and three yards, so he took out his driver. I took out my three wood okay, and he put it within fifteen yards

of the green. He drove it really close. His second shot went ten yards and he still wasn't on the green because he just and I'm like, so, I said to myself, So I don't get it. Why would you put yourself in that position? He says, Wait, you gotta go for it, don't you. I'm like, okay, never mind.

the green or not. My question is what is the best way to play out of wet sand or in the case of a course that I play occasionally sand that is the consistency of fine gravel, or my worst nightmare, a combination of the two. I've tried several techniques, but obviously have not stumbled about the right combination. Maybe you have his answer.

For most of us are much more troublesome. The tour player never runs into what you're talking about because their bunkers are all held to PGA Tour standards and that's why they get to hit those fabulous shots out of the bunkers. But the rest of us, you know, the sand texture can change from hole to whole, course to course, even from one place to another in the bunker, and that's the golf that we all plays recreational players. So to me, there's there's several keys. When you walk into

a bunker. The first thing you want to do as you walk in with your feet, size up the firmness the resistance of that sand. Is this sand gonna gonna really kind of eat the golf club a little bit? Or is this sand going to play like, you know, almost like hardpan. Is it going to play you know, much more firm. So the first thing you want to do is feel that and get a feel for how much resistance that that sand is going to give to

the golf club in a firm, wet sand situation. I like to play that shot almost like it's a little pitch out of the hard pan, just you know, don't worry about hitting behind the ball a lot, Just hit you a nice little soft pitch shot with your highest lofted club, the ball is going to come out a little hotter as it would off of a tight lie, and and you know, just aim for a point a little past the flag to allow that this sand, the heavier sand, is going to slow your club down a

little bit. If you get into the fluff of your sand or the or the gravel, the fine gravel. A lot of times your feet will just really move into that gravel and you'll find that there's not a lot of resistance here to the golf club. So when that club makes contact with the sand on the way down, that sand is is not going to reject that club, for example, as much as the as the firm sand will.

So there it's just a bunker shot. It's you know, lay the club open, so you increase the bounce of the golf club, pick a spot about two inches behind the ball, make that half wedge swing, and just float the ball out of the bunker. If you are not a low single digit or if you are not a self proclaimed sand expert, then understand that bunkers are hazards. You know, you're not a tour player. The tour players

get up and down out of bunkers. But bear in mind, they spend more time per day in the practice bunker, the most recreational golfer spending a lifetime.

the Buy dot Com Tour. Now, you go to that tour and fifty percent up and down percentage ranks you about thirtieth. So I mean a real difference between the Big Tour and the little tours. It's the quality of short game performance. Guys all can hit the ball, but you know, when you go into a bunker, Paul, size it up and determine what your standards, what your goal needs to be. If this is going to be a tough bunker shot. Then anywhere on the green is a

good shot. Forget the flag, play to the safe side of the hole, and you know, leave yourself a good two put If if you're a good bunker player, you got a nice clean line and sand that makes you feel confident, then go ahead and take it a little

more aggressive line to the flag. But you understand, for most of us as recreational golfers, I mean, you take the average twelve handicap, and I don't ask what any of y'all's handicaps are, but a twelve handicapper, if you think about it, there are six par holes on the golf course and twelve bogie holes, and you just beat your handicap. So you know, you don't have to go out and make a bunch of pars to shoot eighty

two or eighty five. Just have to make a handful and then not have any blow ups and these three or four stroke later things. So if you hit the drive in the fairway, back to the program, is golf smarter. If you hit the drive in the fairway and hit a good approach on the green, this is now a par hole, maybe even a birdie. But if you hit the drive in the rough, this hole is starting to be a Bogie's going to be a good score. If you hit the second shot into the bunker, bogie's not

going to be a bad score at all. So you know, adjust your standards as you move from the tee toward the hole. Adjust your goals as to what this ought to be. I mean, you may be on the shortest par five on the golf course, but you know, if you hit your drive behind a tree and have to pitch out sideways, this complexion of the soul just changed a lot. It's now a hard hole because you know you've you've had to sacrifice a shot, So all the

holes are equally difficult. If you hit two really good shots, they all play easy, and if you hit two really bad shots, they all play hard. It really doesn't matter what the handicap ranking on the card is.

of like the scratch guy making a birdie. You stole one there, and you know, but but be realistic about your expectations. This is a very hard game. And what is it like five percent of the golfers can break ninety regularly. So you know, I hear people all the times say why I'm not a very good golfer I shoot in the eighties? Really, because shooting in the eighties is a very good golfer.

But yeah, okay, So there's a FOURD a quarter inch hole a quarter of a mile down there across the country, and I've got this little round white ball and an implement poorly suited for striking it, and I'm going to put it in that.

a teaching pro. And I love your perspective on this, and this is why I'm so excited about the Short Game Academy.

own take. But we're very focused at score golf. On the short game. We're very focused on scoring because very you know, I mean, golf is difficult game, but good scores are very gratifying, and very few people come off the golf course really happy that I hit a lot of good shots. I scored miserably, but I'm delighted. I mean, we kind of boil it down to the numerical gratification at.

because they're good with their scoring clubs. And you know, we are very focused on that at score Golf, and we know we can help any golfer, regardless of their skill level, regardless of their physical strength attributes. We can help any golfer become better inside nine iron range. And if you can be really good inside nine iron range, you can play anybody's golf course. You can score better than you ever have because that's where the game is played.