How Your Personality Shapes Your Golf Game

Welcome back to another edition of the Frida Egg Podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by the Frida Egg Pro Shop. We have a bunch of new stuff in the pro Shop, one of which is the new frieda Egg hoodie. We put our alternate logo that you may have seen at the ends of some videos on a hoodie. It's a beautiful illustration done by Cameron Hurtis, who does some of our video editing and a lot of our graphic design. It is an awesome hoodie. They are very soft,

Miss a green, for example, upset when I find my ball in the bunker, I'm really upset.

And when I find my.

Ball in a bright egg Friday egg, the dreaded Frida egg, Frida egg egg bride egg lie, I'm.

About ready to run off the golf course. Uh mental golf type. What does that mean?

Well, it's just putting it right on blast there at the beginning. I love it. I mean essentially, what it means is everybody's not the same.

I mean, that's the easiest and simplest way to put it, you know, But in terms of mental game performance, everybody kind of tries to lump everybody into the same category. And you know, when I really was diving into uh sports psychology and mental game and performance and all that stuff, I realized the message was always the same and It never really made sense to me because you just, I mean, you talk to enough people, dude, like nobody's really wired.

The same way.

How people play, how people perform is going to be different, especially when you see different personalities on the tours.

I mean you see your.

Bryson's and you see your Justin Thomas's and your Dustin's and Lexi Thompson's. I mean, everybody's just got their own kind of way of doing things. And what I really noticed was, you know, it was the ones at the higher level that were the ones kind of being okay being them. It was the ones on the lower tours, the minis or college trying to work their way up, that was trying to follow everybody else's way of doing things.

Man. It changed my whole way of thinking.

Yeah, so obviously, like anybody that works in an office can relate to this. I remember a couple of my jobs we did personality tests and just understanding how your colleagues, what their types of personalities they are, help you work with somebody better. So I imagine golf is no different, whether it's you're working with an instructor, you're working with a you know, a physio you're working, or you're just

Well for sure, you know, and people don't like to be lumped in a box. My argument's always been everybody's been lumped into a box, especially into that.

But it's the application that is really unique to what mental golf type does. And you know, I've seen personality stuff around even as a coach, where you know, people would offer, hey, this person you need to be more gentle with and things like that, but it never really gave an application of how does this help players perform better? And you know what John introduced me to, which was really the game Changers is stress is really what tanks

The other way running for dear life.

It's the same thing, but how we internalize that is totally different. And essentially that's what our personalities are doing. Like situations the golf course or pressure or anything is presenting, people are internalizing that different. So how they use their personality is either going to help them get into an optimal state of mind or it's going to stress them

So you're you're a golf instructor by trade, you know PGA, served by golf coach, You've been a teacher, You've been on the you know Golf Digest best teachers under forty. You've got a lot of students, you know, myself being one of them. But I've been the most delinquent student

What I started to notice is the students that I did.

Have, the Jordans that use the ones I had for a long time that really thrived and not saying nobody else did, but you know, the ones that really could thrive where you could not play a lot and still go qualify for US mid Am or you know, win some local stuff. They were my saint personality type.

And it was a lot easier to.

Communicate and get messages across because the stuff that was working for me that I thought was the absolute way to do it fit that.

In our way, fits what like mental game books coach.

The problem is about seventy five percent of the population or more is not even close to like we are, So that message kind of falls upon deaf ears. Like some people need that aim small and this small and need to actually have something in their swing. They think about where some people need to get up like Bubba Watson and say I'm just gonna hit a fade, and like they.

Need to see bigger targets and zones. I'll give you an example.

I have two sisters locally here that are both really excellent players, both collegiate players, ones going off to college, ones starting their college.

Career, and they're why you're totally different.

And I actually just took it, took a video of them on the range one day, arguing about exactly what we're talking about. One was like, you know, I can't look at something so small. I feel so constrained and restricted. We're talking about like lines on the ball. You know, It's like, I don't even know how you can see something so big like that just freaks me out. And

So in a in a real like world setting that everybody would understand, you're talking about maybe Bryson versus Dust Johnson. They just like the way they approach the game of golf completely different. Both exceptionally talented and both very successful,

Correct for sure, because that's what motivates them. Their minds kind of light up. Like you know, Bubba Watson had an article or he was talking about someone told him that he had a chicken wing in his swing and he didn't know what that means.

You know.

I like the fear is always if you took someone like that and you put them into more of a Bryson d. Chambeau way of doing things, very mechanical, scientifical, we probably would have never heard of Bubba or Jim Ferrick or players like that. But again, if you if you take a Bryson, you're like, dude, you got to get off track, man, and you know you got to

Mm hm. You know, I think obviously people understand personalities at a broad scale, like you've got your extroverts in your introverts. I think that people understand that so at a very basic level, Like you know, if I'm if I know I'm an introvert, or if I know I'm an extrovert, you know what are the types of things that I could just improve by thinking certain ways, or what should I stay away from? Should I stay away from magazine tips?

You know, Like yeah, no, that's that's a great question. And the extravert instrovert one I don't think is understood all that well. I mean, we just kind of think about as talking and not talking essentially, that's what that really is is our energy source. Extroverts get really energized, like even myself just starting to talk to you, like I get very energized, where introverts will get more exhausted

He's like, I've never broken forty five before. He's like, what is going on?

But like introverts, you know, when they're forced to talk, or like in college settings, sometimes college coaches are are harping on them like, hey, what are we doing on the shot? And they're forcing them to talk and not letting them be internal, and that stresses them out. Essentially, introverts should just always have a little bubble of hey, like, you know, when I get within ten yards of my ball, I'm just gonna just focus on my internal details.

Extroverts should always be kind of talking their stuff out.

But again in terms of articles, like it's just knowing what to listen to, you know. I mean, Sean Foley is a great coach. His stuff is really good for a certain popular you know, and so forth, and there's coaches out there again there, Hey, you know, track man, you shouldn't use that type thing. And that's why there's always this heavy debate because it's really good for some not good for others. And it's just knowing where you fit in that mold.

So you're saying that there isn't one right way to approach and play and teach the game that that wouldn't bode well, that's almost two reasons for you know, the internet discussion right now. You know there has to be just one way.

Right well for sure, right and I mean then people really staunchly believe in their ways and whether it's you know, any walk of life. Which we don't want to go off topic here, but but that's why there's so much argument, because it's like, you don't believe what I believe, you have to be wrong. But that's the thing, is like it's it's different. People are just different, man, and and

It's almost like that there should be a mandatory personality test before you start working with an instructor.

Well, and that helps with this, right, I mean, it has a lot of applications. Caddy players, coaches, students, parents, students, is a huge one, because again, you know, parents and kids butt had a lot over some things where you know, like I had a parent who was just losing his mind because his kid wouldn't use a line of sticks and he just isn't wired to do that, Like he just like he sees shapes of shots, so he's aiming right and drawing and aiming left of fading, and he's

He started worrying about his swing too much and he couldn't hit it on the face.

You know, it's funny. I was talking with a buddy who's a good mid end player, and he was telling me he was struggling, and he was like, you know, he was talking about stuff at impact position, and I was like, it's so funny you're saying that because like, I've never won ever thought about how I'm hitting a golf ball. And he's like, well, what do you what do you think about I'm like, well, I just have like the hardest time in the world getting set up and getting the club to the top of the swig.

Well, I mean yeah, that's always my favorite, right when everybody says, well, what do you think about it?

When you do this? I mean that can lead down some dark pasts.

You're the one that I stole the phrase from player envy, Like I use that all the time after you and I talked. I think that's a brilliant word, and I deal with that a lot, especially on like the collegiate level. You always kids are you know, somebody else on their teams playing well and they're like, dude, dude, what are you doing? Like, you know, what are you working on. So I think players can get lost when they don't know those things that are right for them.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think like it's it's the whole thing. Like every golfer is just like your fingerprints, like unique, You're unique to yourself. And I think one of the things that's interesting with this whole system is it gives you a better understanding of yourself and from there then you can build how you practice, how you work on your game, how you think about the game around that.

You know.

So if somebody is interested in really drilling into this, they can go to your website mental golf type and you have a free test. I just went through it. Can you walk us through? You know, it's not just an introvert extrovert thing. There's other variables, what what all? You know? It's like it took me fifteen minutes to do the test, but what are all the different things that it pulls out on.

A fifteen minutes?

Man, you must have been lily gag And I mean I think legitimately they'll take five.

Minutes, very easily distractable.

So no, no, no, So it's a good question. And like you alluded to one, you know, you said, like I feel things. So essentially there's four major facets to people's personality. There's there's our energy, which we talked about extrovert introvert. There's our perception and focus. So essentially how we're seeing targets, how we're perceiving the world. You know, what helps us to stress.

Us Like some need to be very darrow, some need to be broad.

Some need to be thinking more targets, the need thinking more about what we call players side, which is swing.

There's how we evaluate and make decisions.

So there's what we call thinkers, which is you know, head deciders basically need facts like you're Bryson d. Chambeau and need a lot of data. They need kind of a system type thing. And there's feelers who are more trust their gut and they just kind of have this emotional intelligence about you know, what the right decision is. You know, they can still use information, but they come to it a little differently, more like using their heart or their gut versus like the percentages fit this, I'm

They need to know they're gonna be at nine to thirty, they're gonna be here.

Like you know or you and I are like, oh man, well, that's like it's funny because like I when I want to write something, you know, if I have if I'm writing for somebody else and they tell me what I need to write, it's like the most excruciating process for me.

Yeah, well it keeps us sharp. And I mean that's that's what it is. Like we get excited to do a new thing. So you know, perceivers do really good with like a practice menu. Like with them, I've learned to just give them, Hey, here's five things I want you to accomplish, and just go do it.

You get to get it done, and they'll get it done. You know, it just might be in a crazy order. Mm hm. We're judgers.

I mean, like if you look at some of these practice plans I write up, like they're painful for me to write up, but essentially it's like, dude, these things are ten minutes. That's ten minutes, ten minutes that this is your goal accomplished this. I mean they're very, very structured. So like my girl tests who's playing on the Cemetra Tour, I mean, her practice plans like make my head hurt, but like she'll go out there and be like, man, I don't really know what I accomplished today because she

It's it's just the whole thing. It's like we're you know, it's this has much more application, you know, to the greater world than just golf. But it's my wife and I are probably polar opposites, you know. She looks at the way I do think. She's like, what are you doing? Like that's how you wash something, and I'm like, yeah, this is the way I've figured out it works for me.

Yeah.

Man, it's it's funny too because my wife is the exact opposite of me, and I've come across that quite a bit. It's just checks and balances. But no, you're right, I mean, you know the thing is is it's it's the stressors and doing things like people, there's learned and natural behavior, like people can learn to do things every one of these facets, Like we do a little of both, so we always have a little bit of extra very

You know. They draw in past.

Experiences and that freaks them out, like, oh, this happened before, so this is going to happen again, you know. Where some people are just like they can't see out in the future too much without having a plan, because the future will become doom and gloom if they don't have their.

Steps, you know.

So tie that back into golf, like a sensor for example, if they don't have like you know, if my setup is good and I.

Hit the spot in my takeaway, the ball will go there.

Like they operate really well, and that if they don't have that and they start thinking about the bunker and all the other stuff, it puts them into a big time stress mode and they can't really perform their best.

We're an intuitive you.

Take them away from just shapes and pictures and how they can get the ball there and their creativity, you know, and then you start getting into the parts and pieces they're swaying, You're just they start to fluster, they start questioning everything, is this right?

Is this right?

And they lose their gift of the future. Like in tune, it's like you and I when we have an idea, like we always see the end goal first, like always, like if I have a plan, like when you saw the Friday Egg, like you were like, dude, this is where I see this thing going, and you just then you're like, all right, I'll figure it out from there.

Like censors, our counterparts can't think like that at all.

They need to know, well, look if I create this blog and then I create this and then I create that, it might get to hear and they're they're very linear thinkers, where we're very out of the box kind of thinkers.

So obviously this has a huge impact on your instructor, your caddy relationship. How would you say it impacts you on the golf course and how you should think about, you know, getting through hold the hole, and how you think about, you know, just approaching playing golf.

So I mean the.

Idea is, you know, we class the zone as an absence of stress because it really is, like anytime anybody's just went lights out, usually most people have no clue why they do it. They'll just randomly go crazy, like Kevin Chappell shot fifty nine in between a seventy one and seventy two, seventy four last year, just one random fifty nine, right, So people don't really understand how they just go lights out one day and the next day is something totally different. But what they will always say

So, you know, take us in the NFP.

If we're standing behind the ball, first thing I'm doing is I'm talking on my shot. I'm getting clarity of where I want the ball to go. That's already making my brain like light up and become active and positive. And then from there I'm rehearsing in a way that I feel the shape of the shot. So it's all about what's the ball flight doing, where's it taken off, and how's it going? And then from there when I

That's it.

Like that's how an E NFP would really operate very well, is just going through those meticulous steps that fit their personality. A sensor like an IS type, like an ICTJ was the complete opposite of us, would go through those zones very different, like they would be internalizing here's my start line and then rehearsing very meticulously of moving their slaying that they know if I hit this, I will you know, hit my spot. So like Austin Trussel is a perfect example.

It's crazy how much he takes.

In and then he basically John just reminds him all the time, like, you know, can you get to your move at the top. I'm pretty sure he just feels like he sets the top and then hits it and that's it, like that's his task. It's nothing about the target. It's purely can you hit that spot at the top, like it's his job. And he knows if I do that and I hit it over my little intermediate divot, it's going to be money with this.

You know, obviously we've talked about a few applications. How can people find out more about that? You know, obviously your website mentalgolf type dot com. They can do the free test which is going to give them their personality type now takes ten minutes we'll say for a normal person or less. Yeah, you get your your results. How do you kind of dive in and learn more about this stuff?

Yeah, so there's tiers.

So we have we have a free portal that everybody gets kind of access to when they start, and we got a couple just intro lessons in there, things they can use, so just even how to use your extrovert introvert qualities. We got a few things about how to develop a shot process on there. You know what that really looks like and you know, for record. I hate, hate, hate the word pre shot routine because I think it's damaging, like mindlessly doing two pract swings and walking in a

Or whatever it was.

But that's a great example, right, like you know, using that introvert equality. You know something extroverts do, They get very quiet and very pulled in and like don't talk to me type thing when they're upset about stuff.

Yeah, you're just you know, now you're opening you know, dark skeletons as I'm thinking about in my past, you know life, and I think whenever things go wrong, that's generally what happens.

Right. But so so we have that program.

We have you know, online courses, So we have one that just teaches people how to go through their shot process with their personality type. We have a program that teaches people exactly how to practice and it's like a structure that we put together and something I've actually been developing for a long long time with.

Help of other sports coaches.

You know, I've actually worked with this Navy Seal a little bit on just how they trained and just started to put together structure of what I really feel is one of the best practice structures out there, and we teach people how to do that, how to set up their practices to really maximize it using their personality as well.

So we have those out. We have something coming very soon.

We call it the Confidence Code, which is kind of something we're going to do where we send people a weekly like basically done for you.

Plan like follow these steps to build your confidence.

It's like a little practice plan how to use a faster their personality and just literally follow this and your confidence is going to go crazy.

It's cool. I mean, it'll help you in more ways than golf. It's so true. And like personality, Understanding your personality is going to help you more than golf. And whenever your rest of your life is better, you usually are playing better golf too. That's another thing.

Yeah, I'll make a note on that too.

Is Like you know, I've had some conversations where people try to kind of debunk these personality things. I mean, there's a reason why so many people use them. And the reason people try to debunk them is because people typically answer in a way they were taught to do things, so it might not fit like what they truly are,

You know that might not be the right thing. For them.

So the important thing is just to go, Look, this is who I am. It's not a good or a bad thing. This is just how I can use some things and really go. But when I've had one on one conversations or even conversations with college teams and I can kind of basically predict or call out people what they do when they're struggling, it kind of becomes spooky. It's so predictable when I'm saying, hey, like, actually, I'm sure you're getting quiet, but like if it's one of us,

I mean that's when we're at.

Our worst, right Yeah, That's that's where I am right now and my absolute worst.

But when we're at our best, we just see our target hit it. I mean we can't even explain it.

Like I remember having rounds when like I remember this one tournament round I've never felt ever since, but like I almost could see a path to the to the whole.

I had like twenty three putts.

I made every single thing I looked at that day and I literally felt like I could walk up slap it in one hand.

And it was going in. It was this feeling. I can't explain it.

But that was literally me just looking at where the ball is going to go and hitting it. And when I started to get into more of set up in my putting and how the stroke is moving and all that stuff. As I became a teacher, I couldn't putt save my life. Man, I couldn't make a four foot or for anything.

I've been there. I know exactly what your time. I've seen the line like this is weird. It's the weirdest thing in the world. And then when you don't see it,

I mean, that's that's well put.

Man.

I don't know, I don't know how much I can put any better than that, But that's you know, one thing I'll always kind of credit back to John Weir, who was the one that introduced me all this stuff.

I mean, I think what he found was absolute magic. And you know, it's kind of one of those things.

Where it's like almost, did we just keep it to ourselves and just be a unique type of coach and but we can't, you know. I mean, it's like, this is something I feel everybody really needs to understand because I know how it's how much has changed what I do.

And how much it can help people, and.

Just seeing some people get over some struggles just using certain things. Like I had one corn fairy guy. I don't know if he wants to use his name, so I won't, but you know, he had a couple of good weeks and he just emailed us and said, I can't believe you said it's okay not to talk like He's like that is so relieving.

He's an introvert.

He's like, I was always out there trying to be social cause I thought everyone thinks I'm a dick if I'm not talking to him. And he's like, you know, it's just I just did what you said. I got within you know, twenty yards of my ball and just shut up. I wasn't talking to my caddie. We just did basic decision making. And you know, I haven't felt that good playing in a long time. So, I mean, it's just crazy how something so little like that can make such a big difference.

I mean, it's still just fascinating to me.

So how can people find you, get a hold of you?

They can follow us on Instagram, you know, we just have a newer account or post and stuff there, so we're trying to grow that and that's mainly where we post social media content Instagram, not really on a lot of other stuff. I think Twitter is pretty evil at this point, so I'm just staying off of that.

Man, I've seen some of your battles, so dark plass.

I'm guessing my battles mostly come with people that are the opposite type of uh person.

I was going to mentioned that, but I don't want to give anybody any any name credit.

Here, so.

Yeah so but yeah, so that, and then if anybody wants to reach me directly, it's just my first name.

Kyle k I E l at mentalgolf type dot com.

I do help individuals at this mainly the higher level players though, Kyle's players, people working you know, up to the corn ferries stuff like that.

Awesome. Well, thanks for coming on, Kyle, and I hope everybody checks you out. This episode was edited by Mega Adkins and Garrett Morrison. And if you have some time, if you want to read great golf writing, you should sign up for the Friday Egg newslater. It's sent out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It's filled with wit, insight, and I guess humor. It's written by our own Will Knights, and you can do so by visiting the Frida Egg