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How To Use Your MIND To Become A Wedge Wizard & Finally Start Scoring! · Golf Psycho Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Today, Rab Wool and I are going to be chatting about the 120 and undergame.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Too many golfers are guessing inside under 120 yards.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: We're guessing at 45.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: We're guessing at 75.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Time and time again, we're losing shots.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to be going over how we can hit these numbers way more often and increase your confidence over those shots and drop that score.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, golf psychos to the golf psycho podcast where golf drives you psycho or your psycho for golf.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Carlos Beneve, this mental game coach out of Austin, Texas.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Again, here with my boy Raul.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: What's up?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're going to be going over the 100 and under game and what it does to your confidence and how every golfer can benefit from increasing their confidence, increasing their knowledge over what to do in the 100 and under game.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into it.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is often a very neglected part of the game.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: You do hear folks talking about it, but again, there aren't a lot of golfers going out there and spending time going, what does it take to get to 30, 40, 50, 75, 88, 90, 100?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: And really understanding, maybe even in 10, 15 yard gaps, what it means to hit these distances.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot of golfers, myself included.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: I did it for years, 100 yards and under, and I'm guessing.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Lob wedge to about here, sand wedge to about here.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, maybe this to about here.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then I blow it over the green 20 yards, and I've got this long of a putt, and I'm probably gonna three putt, or I left it tremendously short.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or because I was insecure over the shot, I duffed or caught my wedge chunky.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me about your 100 yards and under at this tournament.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, okay.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: So I had so you know, lines is technically really short, yeah, especially for those long golfers.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I had a lot of like 100 yards, 90, 80.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: And my default is my old school default was a lob wedge.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the lob wedge cut because I can just feel like I swing more with it, which I think for me gets rid of the nerves.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: But leading up to this tournament, as I was practicing it, I noticed I would hit them a lot of thin or hit a lot of thin shots.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, let me put that away in the bag.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I started using my sandwich.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: So my default on 100 yards and in is kind of like a three-quarter, almost like a knockdown shot.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not as high, but it's more so like a little low with some spin.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: And working with Francis, he kind of mentions like you want to utilize more when you're depending on like if you have a lot of green or not work to work with, you want to utilize more of the loft of the club or the bounce so the ball can get up in the air and maybe settle when you don't have as much green.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: When before I would kind of like do the knockdown, hit like the fringe and then let it roll up.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: But so in this one, when my default was my issues were the nerves, right?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: When I'm like, all right, like I'm in the rough, or I'm like, I'm in the fairway, like it's a good opportunity to make par or birdie.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'll hit the sandwich, it's kind of like the knockdown shot.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: A couple of them I would I had blades, so I know when I don't hit it sweet.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: I I know right off the bat.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I know a lot of them that a lot of them that I hit were the the low knockdown shots that had the spin, but they weren't spinning.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: And that threw me off a little bit because I'm I was thinking, why aren't they spinning?
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like I felt like it's back on my stands.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's like a it's like a default shot for me, a punchy shot, but it's a default shot that I know that that what's gonna the ball's gonna happen, but it wasn't happening.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: So that kind of threw me off right away.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I was already thinking, like, man, do I go to the lab wedge?
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Do I go to the gap wedge in round?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, oh man, I don't know.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: I don't and all these like guesses of me like now.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: This is like the 80, 60, 70 yard.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't have a lot of them, but those are the ones that were really kind of getting me, like, oh my god, I need to practice right away.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: I knew like I need to practice this because I'm no confident in this side.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: So I resort to that default, like, all right, let's do like a chip.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: If I'm like 50 yards, I'll do like a chip back of the stance, like punch it down and just like hop it in.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: Which if I were to, if I were to just get that down, I think that would limit my three butts because a lot of them I just blew it past the green, you know, and you kind of saw some of them.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: Now I chipped one in, but also it chipped it in within like 15 yards or like 10 yards, but I did the back of the stance because I knew I had so much green to work with, and I'll and also it's a little luck, I'm not gonna lie, but I was just like, I need I need to get that down, and I think I'm too afraid to utilize the loft because I'm afraid to blade it at the end of the day.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Gotcha.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I think that just going back to look over and reviewing the round from what we I could see.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: We mentioned putting, we just did an episode over putting.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't, if you're uh tuning into this one and you haven't heard the previous episode that we just did over uh uh putting and how to handle putting under pressure in a tournament, check that out.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that was one of the areas that I felt that Raul would uh benefit tremendously.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he'd clean up uh, you know, anywhere between three to five shots around just from that alone.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other one, as we just mentioned, is getting a very, very, very, very good understanding of how to reach all of this variety of distances or all the variety of distances under 100 yards because of that, of getting you into position and making sure it doesn't get us into a three-putt position or yet landing short or missing it in a place that we don't need to miss it when we're technically in position, you're right.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably one of the most infuriating things that a golfer will go through is pipe a drive 300 down the pipe and then be left with this wedge shot inside.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, what the hell do I do?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we just cannot take advantage of it.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: So as I always say, confidence is mental game, mental game is confidence.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's something that we can do, and again, I don't touch swing, but I do discuss what we should be practicing.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: What doesn't involve the swing, but it involves how we practice.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And making upgrades in your mental game upgrades the way you practice, right?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So a few a few years ago, I noticed, oh my gosh, I am losing a tremendous amount of shots in the 120 or 100 yards and under.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: So what I did is I spent a good amount of time first in the sim to understand what these distances were.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And very similar to the concept that that you have, that we that I showed you for putting, right?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: This far back gets me to 10, this far back gets me to a 15, this far back gets me to 20, and so on and so forth.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: We can take that same, and again, this is great for field golfers.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, taking a wedge to nine o'clock, this gets me this.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Taking the the gap to nine o'clock gets me this.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Taking the sandwich to nine o'clock, taking it to 10 o'clock, taking it to these get me all of these distances.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: If I shut the face down, it gets me here.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: If I open it a little bit, it gets me here.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: And having that very, very, very deep understanding of what all your wedges do, I'm essentially saying we should increase the confidence by removing the guesswork over what these yardages feel like.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because for most golfers, we approach a 50-yard shot, we approach a 75-yard shot.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's on the day I may take a lob, on the day I may take a sand, on the day I may take a gap.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: And we're just guessing on how far we should be doing this.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're looking at the wind, okay, whatever.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then we shoot over 30 yards and I've got this long birdie putt.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Or maybe, you know, if I'm on, if I stayed on the green or I left it tremendously short, and now I'm chipping and I'm I'm short side, whatever it may be, getting to those distances and having that confidence, like, okay, 65 yards.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: I know exactly what gets me there.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: So getting into the sim was very, very helpful for me and making sure that I could get to a certain distance.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it was just one distance for the day, just 50 yards, just this one club.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then other days I'd spend, all right, let's go to 75 yards.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And what does it feel like to do it with a pitching wedge?
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: And what does it feel like to do 75 yards with a sandwich?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: And what does it feel like to do 75 yards with a lob wedge?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: And just going in there and getting experimental, and then from there writing these down, writing these down so that I go out to the course and I go, okay, the pitching wedge at nine o'clock gets me X.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, great.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: I can go back and I can default to that.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then it's going out to places like the short course or going out to Butler and you know, firing things off of real turf.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: I know Butler has doesn't have real turf, but I I enjoyed going out to the short course at clay because now I can go, all right, you know what, 75 yards in real life today.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: I have an idea of what that gets me in the sim.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's see how it performs out here.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're gonna, you know, the sim's gonna be a little different.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that is crucial.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd like to spend some time going out and doing vlogs with you where it's like today's a 50 yard day, and you're gonna bring three wedges, and then we're gonna decide what works best for you.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: So are you hitting every wedge at 50 yards?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Until we get so intimate with that 50 yards that you're like, when I go out to the course and I I want to be at 50 yards, or I have a very, very good understanding of 25, 50, and 75 and 100.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then so if I if I have a very good understanding of what 25 is and I find myself with a 35 yard shot, then I kind of know to how to give that 25 yard shot a little more juice to get to the 35.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or you know what?
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm at 45.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a solid 50 yard shot here.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: Let me take my 50-yard club and I will reduce it ever so slightly so that I can get to 45.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've got a 75 yard shot.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I know that one.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's nice to kind of have that foundation of where I can build off of, right?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: If I got a great 75 yard shot and I end up with an 85 yard, well, then I know I can take my 75, yeah, hit it a little bit harder, and I'm gonna get to 85.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: But you practice that.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's the thing.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: And again, again, that's worth so much more than going to the range and belt, belt, belt, belt aimlessly.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: Most golfers, regardless of where you're at, you'll get more out of throwing, I would say 75% of your practice at the 120 and under.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: Any given day, you're gonna hit the driver well.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: But time and time again, those hundred yards and under shots are going to be there.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: They're not going anywhere.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: And you could say, yeah, the driver's not going, yeah, not going anywhere, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: But to get yourself into position to score, maybe I am in the rough, and I'm not hitting fairways, but I still have these wedge shots.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: I still have this ability to throw myself in there and clean up this hole and still leave with a par, maybe leave with a birdie.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I cannot tell you what it does to your confidence to start removing all of this guesswork.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it starts again with the the wedge game 100 yards and under.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, as we discussed in the previous episode, getting the guesswork out of the putting.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wherever I can eliminate guesswork, I increase confidence.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And confidence is tied to our mental game, right?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So does it not make sense the more confident you are on the course, the less likely you are to end up in a spiral?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So if I can remove worry wherever we can remove it from, golf is already very worrisome for some golf for many golfers.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: If we can give you confidence by changing the way you practice and increasing what it feels like and your understanding of the shots, and then of course, there's the benefits that come from it, right?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, well, I I'm more confident around 75 yards, 50 yards, 25 yards, 35 yards, that I find myself with more 10-foot birdie putts, more 15-foot birdie buttons, more three foot, yes, more opportunity.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: So then you start to kind of like the way confidence can fall apart in a round, confidence can also increase in a round.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's when you find yourself in that flow.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: So getting that locked in is where I want to take your game next between the putts and the the wedge game.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: 100 yards in the end.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want let's get a solid year where the majority of our practice is just that so you feel deadly from any single.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if we could snap our fingers and tomorrow you're deadly from 120 and in, what does that do to your game?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man, it would drop a lot.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: Because uh, maybe half the time when I'm over a shot within like 75, 50, 60 yards, it's like you said, it's guesswork or feel.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like kind of talking about putting the last episode.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm like, okay, if I'm about right here, you know, I'm I'm pretty good.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_02: I have a feel for, or like I'll do what they call jabby.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like, if I don't know anything, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna keep it low and try to spin it or roll it up, and I'll do like this easy and then like jab it down.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I know that's not good, it's not great, it's not consistency.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that I definitely need help in that.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: But also, like you said, practice doesn't show it either.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't spend a lot of time with it.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'll hit I'll hit the I'll hit the range and then maybe a little bit of chip shot, but like on the range, as low as I went, is maybe 150, 120, maybe 100 yards for the last few balls that's left, and then I go straight to chipping.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: So like I looking back in my game as you as you're talking, I don't in my whole practice routine, I don't leave a lot there for those dialed in 120 and in.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's just maybe 150, maybe 100 yards, a couple balls, well, whatever's left.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then I go back to chipping.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you can make an argument that because the wedge game or or doing this to get these very, very, very good understandings of these distances under 100 takes more work.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it takes more practice, it takes more effort.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_02: So how would how would um how would you say I should approach then the practice routine?
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_02: Should I start with like a short game and then build up to like the iron and driver?
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: Or yeah, what do you think?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, i if if you're short on time, I would just give it just give it to the wedges.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the whole time.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then the next time, like just this, just singularly focused, especially when we're not we don't have time.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like the pros, I wake up in the morning, yoga lift, go work on irons, work on the range, go work on they got the time to go work on multiple things for the day.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that I got like two hours a week, maybe three hours, maybe.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I think just throwing the time where it matters the most.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: You're an incredible driver of the ball.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: You've got a solid iron game.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that getting these wedges for most golfers changes everything.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it changes everything.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Even if you've got that that random three-wood second shot that went awry on on a par five, and you've got this 45-yard shot that's off the green.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I got a 45.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: I know what to do with that.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not guessing over that.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Or I've got a short par four and I hit a good drive and I'm I'm looking at 25 yards, I'm looking at 75 yards, I'm looking at 100.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, I got that on lock.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: I got a club for that.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Heck, I got three ways to get there with that, you know.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: So confidence.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think yes, confidence, confidence, confidence is mental game.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Mental game is confidence, right?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not changing swing, I'm not offering you swing advice.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm saying that the way we practice influences how confident we feel over shots.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, you're gonna feel the most confident over that in which you do practice.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: But what I'm suggesting is that if if you're a good field player, then developing what does what and how far each of your wedges go, then that's a really good thing, right?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a good field player, you're gonna be, you'll be able to find nine o'clock over and over.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: You'll be able to find noon, you'll be able to find all of these distances very, very, very easily, especially if you're a golfer like Raul who's been playing for quite some time, and you've and you've got this on lock, right?
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: So if we can get something concrete and mix it with your skills and feel, now we're creating concrete things that we can lean on and removing guesswork.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a big one.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Guesswork.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: Removing guesswork.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to be manufacturing shots live in the moment, we just don't need to be doing it.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_02: But it happens, especially when I approach, like like you said, like, oh man, I'm already thinking future a lot.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: Or I used to think I do still, but not as much.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: But when I'm in the fairway or like a hundred yards and in, I'm like, I can knock this close for a birdie, right?
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: But already thinking, I need the birdie, then move on to the next one's a short part four.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't even hit the shot yet.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: So like that's a huge, I know it's not related, but it as far as like thinking about not thinking about the shot, I feel like getting the tempo down instead of worrying about like, I'm just jab it, let it like roll up or whatever, as like a default swing.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think if I can get down stock shot.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, stock shot, stock shot.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: Just like a quick little like sandwich or whatever, whatever that the club is.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: But as long as I know this is smooth, this is uh, you know, the 80 yard, this is a 50 yard, the 60 yard.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that was actually something that was very, very beneficial in working in that was actually something that was very beneficial in working in the sim, is that I get to look at my swing speed.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: So am I swinging at the same speed over so you could come here and you could get jabby.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh shit, it just went up 10 miles an hour.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a good point.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I liked working in the sim at first and a completely understanding that there is a difference between sim and real life, but my swing speed is the same, and that's what's keeping me tuned, right?
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: I I can I can go, oh, okay, I I'm actually pretty good at swinging at 65 miles an hour, 60 miles an hour, 50 miles an hour, and you know, feeling it go up to here.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And can I just do it over and over?
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: The swing speed.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: So you're not even looking so much about where the ball's going, flight and all that, you just care about swing speed.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: Can I be consistent?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, can I put it at the same distance by looking at the swing speed?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's a good one.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then taking a swing speed, and if I put it back in my stance, what happens?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Same swing, same speed.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: If I put it in the front, what happens?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, great.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if I swing let's say 60 mile an hour swing speed and I do it with my lob, sand, and pitch, what does that do?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, it gets me to these distances, write it down.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: My half swing with my pitching wedge gets me to this same swing speed, write it down.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: If I choke down the same swing speed, what happened?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just getting very experimental.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: So by the time I left experimenting with with all of these things, I knew what a choked down pitching wedge three-quarter did, I knew what a choked down sand wedge did, I knew what a not choked down pitching wedge three-quarter did, and writing all of these down.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then just, you know, in the beginning, you kind of just go and get experimental, and then like, okay, the next time I come back in, I'm gonna focus on the 120.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: I remember my 120 was I could choke down on a pitching wedge and essentially swing full 120 over and over and over and over and over and over.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: So one example, you know.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: So then of course there's looking at your game and you're like, well, what do I end up at the most often?
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: What do I what do I yeah?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because you know in certain courses, you know, like I'm always around this time.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, when I shoot this pin, I always see X.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: This is the number I see all the time.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Start there.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, start there and then build around that.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: Build around that.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's a good one.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I I always see a 70 shot.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, always okay, great.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Let's work on the 70 to 75.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dial that.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now we can build off of that.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you've got a solid 75, that means we can take a little bit off of it and we're in the 60s, or we can add a little bit to it and we're in the 80s, approaching 90 yards.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we can kind of expand on that.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I said, developing that confidence changes everything.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Then we can go, all right, now let's go apply this to real life after taking in, you know, some work in the sim.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you're curious, uh go work on it in real life and then come try the sim.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: I that's just how I did it.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that by the time I got out to the course, I already had a good understanding.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I had already looked at swing speed and I had already established that I could be consistent with the swing speed and then take it out to real life.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you might notice that things in real life might go a little further.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then you make that adjustment.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, oh, okay, well, in the sim, it was going to this, and it at least put me in the ballpark.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, maybe I'm 10 yards off, but hey, yeah, that's better than what it was before.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was gonna do that.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: So let's say I was in the sim and I was hitting it at 75, but in real life, it's going 85.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay, great.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Information.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's information.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: So next time I go to the sim, whatever I'm hitting, I know that's actually 10 more yards.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: Man, that's a good point.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: I what I started doing in the range is I started shooting the sticks.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: I never used to, I just take their word for like, oh, it says 90 yards or 100 yards, that's 100 yards.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: But nine times out of 10 you shoot it, it's off 10, 20 yards.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh man, that's a huge thing.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't even think about it.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: So when you get out to the course, it it coming as a guy that didn't do this until well over 20 years into his game.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: It really is this like, man, we really do just get locked into bad habits, or we just we don't think about or don't get with a coach to know like these thoughts that you weren't thinking about that you should be thinking about.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then the the the work that you should be putting in to benefit to get over those thoughts.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, you're not thinking about that.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because sometimes like I've we discuss this very often is that the things that we believe over golf, the belief systems that we have over golf, our swings, our wedges, or putters, those may or may not need upgrades.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: We need to rethink about some of the things that we believe about our game.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because those often have a huge impact on how we practice the game.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: So when folks come to work with us, golfpsycho.com come and work with us.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Check it out.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: We can sometimes take out you see how you just said that see how you feel over your putting?
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_00: You see that statement that you just made you must believe X, Y, and Z.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why X, Y, and Z.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Classic example I was working with Raul a couple years ago and I said, How tell me what you believe about your bunker game.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: You said my bunker game is terrible.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's trash or it was trash.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: My bunker game is trash.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh really?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: How do you feel about your driver?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Love my driver.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm confident.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: I remember that.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: So how often do you practice bunker shots?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: Never.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: Never never maybe once a month how often you practice a driver.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I'm out there I'm pin driver tell me how much you hate bunker shots again.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: So often when we have these belief systems that's a lot of the work that we do when folks come to work with us.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me what you believe about this.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me what you think about this.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me how you feel about this part of your game.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's often going to uncover or reveal a belief system and those belief systems it's the things that we believe in golf and life, whatever, we fulfill them like programs, like a computer does a program, right?
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: And a computer is limited to what that program has said it can do and it can't go outside of it, right?
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: We think of AI, it's programmed to do this, do this, do this, and it cannot go outside of it.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: That is us.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if I've got a belief system that says X, Y, and Z, I feel this way about my wedges, more than likely that's going to spill into the way you practice, right?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: So we have to go in there and we upgrade this, which is why we wanted to discuss this today because a lot of us as golfers are not going to go out there and devote this kind of time to the 100 yards and under and maintain it on top of it.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Under the stress or tournament play for sure.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so at the end of the day, what we wanted to do was break down Raul's tournament play, which I'm very, very proud of him because one of the biggest takeaways that we have from this tournament is that he went through a spiral on the very first hole and then didn't get back into that trap.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Again, he was able to use his mental game skills to keep himself out of it and that's huge.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: So today as we kind of break these things down and we go what went well, we're looking at the areas that can use improvement and kind of asking ourselves how can we modify the practice around these areas of the game because at the end of the day if we can give you more confidence then I make you a better golfer.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: If I make you a better golfer we reduce your score and reducing the score feels good.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know so it's it's again it's revealing the potential of the golfer revealing the the potential of your game that's just sitting there on its own and how little we need to do to actually get it out.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: To me making these changes in putting making these changes in the way we practice wedges or have the the understanding and the confidence that we have over wedges changes everything.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if we can make these modifications, why not?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: I I think that until we do, we don't we don't see how good we actually we actually I think that's why I keep coming back to the game because I I you know like long were the days of like oh I'm going to go in college D1 and I'm going to go pro and all that now like now I just enjoy playing competitively and like what is the best that I can produce you know and I want to make sure I'm utilizing all the tools like you and and swing coaches and whatnot to get me to the best I can even though I'm not out there every day practicing but like this is what I can shoot.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know and I and that drive that momentum that that hunger to just constantly improve just keeps like fueling me.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_02: And all these tips that I'm learning from you and from Francis and all these guys like there's just so much still out there 20 some years playing the game and I still like learning new stuff.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah it's crazy.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: It goes to show you too how stuck we can get in our cycles.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the times when when golfers hit plateaus look at the practice tell me how you practice and I guarantee you if you've hit a plateau I can almost with complete and total certainty tell you that you have not changed the way you practice in quite some time.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't changed the way you practice in all likelihood what's gone rigid is this guy that's stays stuck in its routine again.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what the brain naturally wants to do.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: It just wants to repeat what it knows, repeat what it knows.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: And anything new it's going to be very, very resistant of so that's why we have to step out of our comfort like we have to make that effort because our brain is sure as heck going to want to keep us in that in that box.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I think over the course of the next few months as it as we've got good weather here in Austin it's hot AF, but I think we can get out there a little more often to document this little journey that we're going to go on where we make these upgrades and these modifications to our putting and into our wedge game 120 yards and in and then take it out for a test and see what happens.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think we should go out and practice this, document it and I think we should go out and play document it.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that when we go out and play we should do a scramble together so that we can we can work on these things together and and watch the decisions that we make kind of hold each other accountable.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: There you go.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then we should compete against each other very very often to simulate competition.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: So the next tournament comes along we're very used to competing against that's a good one.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: I like that yeah and then like tournament rules you know like everything there's no like foot wedge involved or whatever that people do just like you gotta play by the rules and as your mental game coach I might be there to get in your head and just we should be good.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like what was it Tiger's dad used to throw keys or whatever in his match noise back there playing drums you know and just get his the psyche down.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah and I think that you know if I can get you to focus during that stuff then there's nothing that's going to shake you.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah because I really want to to keep this going especially I'm gonna try to find another tournament before the end of the year that the city has.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: If not for sure next year line up ahead of time the firecracker qualifier, uh the the tri-city championship like all the ones they have in the meetings because I already got a connect from down there that I can get a submitted application for filming.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: So if I can get you out there and maybe you know probably get you either on the bag or or however we want to do it to kind of also walk people through like this is tournament play but also the issues we're overcoming that I'm having yeah you know that'll be huge I think for people to play especially competitively agreed.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah agreed yeah because to me it's just it's a lot of juice for the squeeze.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah it's a lot of juice for the squeeze like even if you just take one distance one distance in your wedges what is the most common one that comes up all the time for you and then just work on that one.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because as I mentioned before you work on a particular distance then based off of that one swinging a little bit harder gets you just a little bit above that number and swinging a little less gets you below that number.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: So my tip to golfers today is pick that number.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Pick that number and then just become a master at that number it's it's a really really really quick way of making sure that you have a very deep understanding of what that is.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And you know if your pitching wedge at nine o'clock gets you to a hundred and then you know your your your sand wedge all the way up to to 11 gets you a hundred and then you know just play with it.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's gonna be a little bit different but generally getting locked into just one number and having a very good understanding of what that does for you is going to change your confidence on the course and I guarantee you you're gonna score way more often.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then what you can do is that you can play to that number right if there's if if you're teeing off well maybe maybe I don't need to hit driver because then I'm gonna end up at 25 yards and I don't want 25 yards.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: I can I put it to some okay well then you know what I'm gonna hit the three wood I'm gonna hit the five wood I'm gonna hit the two R and put me at 75 yards or you know what?
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna lay up to this number more often rather than you know it it it's helpful.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's helpful having these things laid out and having a concrete number and a very good understanding again wherever wherever we can remove guesswork we drop strokes.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Love that man yeah I love it.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Great job yeah thank you so much for tuning in if any of this is resonating with you leave it in the comments let us know what you think are are you deadly with your wedges what yardage are you deadly with what yardage are you deadly with are are are you also a victim of all of the guesswork when it comes to the 120 and under game are you lob wedge one day, sand wedge the next and kind of just floating around based on how it feels let us know.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Let us know what you think and if you have this issue let us know if you've fixed this issue and seen the benefits let us know as well.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: We'd love to hear from you guys.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: And once again if there's anything we can do to help you on your game, golfpsycho.com, book your lesson that's the place to go to make sure that we pull the full potential out of you.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking to buy a new club, if you're looking to buy a new putter and it's never worked out for you but we're locked into that habit and it feels safe to do it because that's just what we've been doing for years and years and years.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: I urge you to try something different.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: I urge you to go into a different direction.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Book a lesson it's so worth it it's going to drop shots for you it's gonna change your game and we can't wait to hear from you.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Catch you in the next episode peace