Mastering the Finesse Game from 120 Yards & In with James Sieckmann

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Hi, This is Dwayne Dusky from Portland, Oregon, and I
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play at Glenn Deevere East and West Courses in Portland.
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This is Golf Smarter number.
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Four hundred and eighty six, published on April twenty eight,
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twenty fifteen.
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Welcome to golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain
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insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the
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Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets old. Our
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interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations
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like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.
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If we're talking a distance wedge, which will I define
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us between forty yards and maybe your full swing of
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your pitching wage. So let's say one twenty five or whatever.
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You don't want a bigger gap than about twenty yards
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in there. So if I hit my pitching wedge to
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one twenty five, the next club I need to hit
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at least ninety five yards And if I can get
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those nice even spread like that, you can really learn
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to cover any yardage with appropriate spin in trajectory. The
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second would be the bounce options and the soul grind.
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The shape of the wedge you want to have a
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sand wedge with a lot of bounce on it. Bounce
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is the difference between the bottom back of the club
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and the soul to the leading edge, and degrees good
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sand wedge might have between ten and fourteen or fifteen
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degrees of bounce on it. If you have a more
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lofted club, like a fifty eight to fifty nine or sixty,
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you want that one to be low and bounced, so
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probably between four and seven, depending once again on your
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standard technique. With the techniques that I try to get
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people to use, you don't need much bounce because the
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swing's very shallow and you use it as you swing.
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If that's the case, and you have a high bounced
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sand wedge and a low bounce lob wedge, then you're
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really prepared for any turf condition because when the sand
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or grass is soft, the ball comes out slow and
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more bounce is better than less, so you can always
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use your sandwich. If, on the other hand, you're playing
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kind of tight, firm turf, you need more loft and
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less bounce, so you always have a choice. If you
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had that set.
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Makeup your short game solution. Mastering the Short Game from
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one hundred and twenty yards and in with James Siekman.
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This is Golf Smarter Premium. Here's your host, Fred Green.
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Welcome to the Golf Smarter Podcast.
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James. Hey, Fred, thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.
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It's my pleasure because you've got a brand new book
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out just came out last Month's available on Amazon called
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Your Short Game Solution, Mastering the finesse game from one
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hundred and twenty yards and in a favorite topic of
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the Golf Smarter Podcast.
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Oh, I think hopefully a favorite topic of anybody that
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wants to shoot a good score.
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And isn't that the case though? I mean, it really is.
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And I discovered I'm not a PGA professional. I just
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have the right equipment to do these recordings. And I
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love playing golf, but I'm a weekend player and don't
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have a ton of time to practice. But I recently
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discovered in the last year or so, how important the
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short game is. You discovered this a long time.
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Ago, Well, I did, because I mean I played professionally
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and I hit the ball beautifully, and you know, it
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just was a huge competitive disadvantage when I couldn't get
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the ball up and end couldn't kind of keep my
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momentum going in the round. And if you look at
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the short game is so important for a lot of reasons.
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But if you look at just look at statistically, the
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best players make the most birdies and so you think about, well,
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that means all of the best ball strikers then would
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be the best players. But you got to think about
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where you make your birdies percentage wise, and typically you're
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not making them on a two hundred and fifteen yard
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part three. You're not making on a four hundred and
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eighty five yard part four. You know you do that
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one in a while, but it's a bit of an outlier.
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The reality is you make your birdies on the par
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fives that you can't reach. You make them on the
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par fives that you can reach. You make them on
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the short part fours where you can happen to get
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the ball up there seventy yards from the green, And
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so that type of shot called a distance wedge is
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critical for making birdies, and making birdies is critical to
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being a good player. And of course if you make birdies.
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Another way to make birdies is to feel like you
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can shoot at pins. And if you have no confidence
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in your finesse, game around the greens, and you find
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yourself playing in the middle of the green and you know,
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having good shots that end up thirty feet or so.
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So it really is feeds on itself in so many
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different ways as far as just keeping momentum, being able
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to attack, take any advantage of the easy holes. And
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if you're not tidy with your wedge game from one
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hundred and twenty yards at end, you really do not
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have a chance to compete.
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Right book, I loved the story on how you started
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figuring this out with your brother and being on tour
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and started videotaping on your own. Why did you give
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us a little history of your own game and how
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you got to understanding and becoming the guru that you
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are to seventy players.
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Yeah, it's kind of an interesting tale, you know. I
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played in college, I played nicely, turned pro afterwards and
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played those days. There was no such thing as a
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web dot com tour or a hoving tour. It was
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get all the way through tour school or play overseas
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or many tour events. So I went overseas and I
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played in Asian South America and did that for about
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five years, traveling around the world playing great experience, but
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it became very clear to me that everything that I
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was working hard on to improve was actually making me
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much worse. And I had a great touch around the
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green when I was a kid, but I had no
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thoughts either. I just kind of did it. And then
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as I started to get formal coaching, you know, I
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got much much worse. I quit, got married, and took
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a job working for Dave Hills, who's kind of a
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famous short game coach. After two or three years there,
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having an opportunity to kind of learn from him and
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dabbling a little bit more specifically in short game coaching,
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and an opportunity to start my own business. And one
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thing was very clear at that point, even after working
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teaching short game schools for three years, I had no
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clue what good technique was. I didn't know what worked
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and why. I just knew that the things that I
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was teaching in those schools and the things that I
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was taught when I was going through college and as
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a pro were not working. And they were not only
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not working for me, but they weren't helping for the
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people I was seeing. So I decided I need to
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go on a little bit of a journey or quest
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to try and figure this out, since I was just
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getting ready to open my own academy and my oldest brother,
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Tom's a PGA tour player before I was on tour
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for eleven years and was close friends with Seve among
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a lot of great players, and asked me to come
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caddy for him at the Players Championship. So I had
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a a kind of a unique opportunity to be around
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the best wedge player in the on the planet, as
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well as many others like Raymond Floyd and Corey Pavin,
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and I had a huge need to try and figure
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out what the heck, you know, what worked and why,
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because at this point I only knew what didn't work,
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And uh, you know, I went and took video and
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I studied it just like a football coach would study
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a film of a of a of a game, and
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you know, kind of wiped the slate clean and just
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started my own my own theory. Since I didn't know
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what to teach, I thought the most logical thing would
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would be to study what they'd do and atually just
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teach what they do. And I found it to be
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amazingly opposite and completely different than anything I'd ever heard.
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That's what I found so fascinating is the epiphany that
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you had when you were doing this What was it
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that you discovered? Well before I asked ask that question,
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I just want to announce to the audience that we're
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live on periscope right now, and if the people watching
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on periscope have any questions that they want to submit
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to James while we're having this conversation, please tim up
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type them up on the screen and I'll try to
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get to them as I can. I already have one
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question that came in earlier today from Twitter when I
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announced that I was going to do this interview with you.
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But tell me about you know, when you went through
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the footage, James, what was it that you found? How
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were you able to get to the place where you're saying,
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you know, this is very different than anything we're teaching.
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Yes, I mean so so. I mean it's different in
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every single facet. I mean I could run through and
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list seventy things that are completely opposite of what you
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should be doing in your full swing to generate power,
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and it just kind of just kind of came to
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the realization as the goals change and the goal becomes
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to be weak, to have a soft touch to control
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the speed instead of generated to use loft and bounce
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to the club. That the technique should change right along
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with the intent. And you know, I wasn't thinking this
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far ahead, but after a while I kind of I say, well,
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this makes sense to me. Now, why wouldn't it be different?
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But you know the first thing I noticed was that
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these great players Sebe Bellisteros, Raymond Floyd, what not, Corey
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Payment had a little reverse pivot in their backswing, which
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you know that they might start with their weight fairly even,
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which is another difference. I was taught to left and
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you put your hands ahead that they had to weight even,
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and they reversed weight shifted to add pressure in their
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left or lead leg a little bit, and the backswing,
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their head literally moved two or three inches towards the target,
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and then as they delivered the club, their head would
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stay forward. And if you think of a full swing
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or even a seventy yard shot, as you turn back
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behind the ball and swing your arms and turn your shoulders,
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you actually load pressure into your trail leg and your
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head typically moves three or four inches behind the ball
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as you deliver a lot of times to add especially
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with a driver, to hit up on it or at
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least hit a level. As you shift your weight your body,
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your upper body tilts back. So the entire motor pattern
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was different, not only with balance, but with the sequence
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of events, with the setup, with how they released the club,
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or the role of the of not the role the
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rotation of the arm movement. Everything about it was completely opposite.
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So I just started to just write down the common
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allies that Sevy had. He was my main guy that
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I studied because I had the most footage of him
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and he had the reputation of being the best. But
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Graymond Floyd and Corey Pave and my brother who was
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an amazing wedge player, and you know, I have Wayne
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Grady and Jody my lot of great players that I
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had this footage of, And I just thought, well, you
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know what, I don't know what the heck I'm doing,
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so I guess I'll just write down what they're doing,
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and that's what I'll teach.
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And it's worked for you.
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It has it's you know, it not only worked for me,
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because now all of a sudden, it's like I started
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to rediscover some of the touch and feel I had
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when I was young, and I had no thoughts, but
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the students that I began to teach once again, you know,
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when I was working for Dave pel Squad, honestly, people
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were not getting leaving those schools improved in my opinion.
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Now on my own, I really started to see some
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major growth, you know, some excited phone calls and emails
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of people telling me how much better they were doing.
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And you know, at some point you need that confirmation
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as a coach that things are working.
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I'm fascinating you said they weren't improving at schools. Is
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that the nature of the schools themselves or it was
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what was being taught, because I've talked to so many
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people who've gone to golf schools and they feel so
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great after doing a long weekend or even up to
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five days in a school, and they go home and
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without somebody there to you know, keep correcting them and stuff,
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they don't remember much and very frustrated and feel like
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they spent money that didn't really turn their game around
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at all.
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Yeah, it's a little bit of both, but I would
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say more than anything, it's just really bad information. And
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you get bad information on technique. That's bad enough, but
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Unfortunately those schools don't say this appropriately. I would say this.
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I am a coach. I'm not a teacher. So if
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you came to me and needed help and I said, hey,
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I'm going to teach you to do this technique that technique,
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and we're going to perfect this movement, you could walk
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away with perfect movement. But Fred, but you won't be
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a better player because as a coach, I'm interested only
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in performance, and so you can improve technically to improve,
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but you can also make your training time more effective
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so that you develop skill, which is really what performance is,
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and that those skills have nothing to do with technique.
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They could be picking the right club, picking the right
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landing spot, adapting for upslopes and down slopes. What do
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I do? You know when the balls into the grain?
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You know?
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So that type of stuff was just not being taught.
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And what's worse is that the technical information was poor.
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What's worse yet, is that when you're thinking about technique,
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the thoughts are internal. And so, Fred, if I could
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ask you, as a recreational player, what's the worst thing
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you could do on a golf course.
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The worst thing that I can do on the golf
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course is keep doing I keep repeating the mistakes over
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and over again.
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Well I would, I would argue that it's thinking too much. Absolutely,
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you overthinking golf and you, you know, especially with internal thoughts,
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it's so harmful for your game. Great golf is not
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internal thoughts. It's external. You're you're you're picturing your you're
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feeling energy to the target, your you know, the thoughts
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live outside your body, not in Well, you go to
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this golf school, you learn this great technique. One hundred
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percent of the time is is focus. Uh, have internal thought.
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There's no mention of skill development, there's no mention of
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how to improvementally. And yeah, it's long and tiring, and
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you do this for three days, you get sent home
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and it's no wonder people weren't getting better because they're
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doing going about the process of improving all wrong. There
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has to be not just this technique that I discovered.
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I mean, that's great and it works, but more importantly,
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there has to be an approach to improving and an logical,
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simple way that you could spend a few minutes each
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day to get better, to not only improve your technique
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but your skill and the confidence of what great golf
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demands and that's really what coaches do that teachers do not.
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You know, they think about the whole picture as opposed
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to just some little technical tip.
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Oh that's amazing. Actually, I guess the answer to your
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question is that I'm actually struggling with right now with
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my putting, is I'm getting in my own way.
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Yeah, yeah, that's well. I got the putting book coming
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out next year, Fred, so we'll have to do this
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again in the year. Okay. But it's the same whether
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it's people getting their own way off the tea, they
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getting their own way when they chip, they get in
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their own way when they putt. But if I was
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going to share with you, that's such a multifaceted, interesting problem.
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And I do go into great detail on this next
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one about that very topic because that's I think a
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very common problem, that might be the most common problem.
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But if you're getting in your own way, there's two
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things happening. Once again, thoughts are internal. You're thinking about
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how to move the club. You're thinking about a position
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of your head or your arm, or the motor of
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your stroke, or what you want the club to do.
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And I would move your thoughts and train to try
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and think of external and kind of a subconscious reaction
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to what you picture. And the way I do that
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with my students is I separate training time by intent.
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So if the intent of training is to work on
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and improve your technique, then we eliminate the whole we
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put into open space and we think of only technique.
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Those are those internal thoughts, and we do it in
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a manner where there's some feedback whether we know we're
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doing it right or not. So might just create a
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simple workstation for your putting or for your wedge play
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or your bunker player or whatever, and it just might
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be some swings without the ball or certainly without a
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pin where we evaluate the technique. Then you just have
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to flush that completely and you have to think about skill.
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And so you do that through random practice instead of
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one ball after the other. In the same you scatterballs everywhere.
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You have all your clubs, and you go through an
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organized process to get yourself ready. And in the book,
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I talk about this process starting with assessment of the lie,
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the wind, the grain, all the factors that would influence it,
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choosing a club, choosing a trajectory, choosing a landing spot,
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visualizing the ball go in. So now all of a sudden,
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as I visualize, the thoughts are external, Right, have my
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thought walking in clear and committed, taking a rehearsal swing,
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thinking of nothing more, that kind of energy to your picture,
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and then then reacting like you tied your shoe this morning, Fred,
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which is you don't know how you did that, you just.
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Did it, you think about it.
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You can take that approach to putting as well. When
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you're taking a rehearsal swing or you're over the ball,
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are you reacting to a vision or are you consciously
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trying to move the club a certain way? And that
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that's the definition of to some extent of getting in
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your own way, you know. So that's the pre shot
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kind of portion of that equation. There's also a post shot,
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a portion where the most important time in golf is
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what you do after a bad shot. What's the what
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do you what's the first five seconds you after a
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bad shot? How do you react? How do you respond? Well,
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the typical person, let's say you miss a short pot,
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you miss a two footers. If they get angry, they
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get frustrated, they get despondent, they go, oh, I can't pot,
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I'm horrible at this, you know, all the negative self talk, right, So, uh,
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that's certainly not making the next one easier, right that
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that your your self image is taking a big blow
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every time you say I can't do this, I'm no
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good at it, this is frustrating or just feeling that
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negative emotion. So that's not what champions do. Champ think
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about the results unemotionally and allow them to direct direct
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them in a positive way so they can do the
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next one better. So that's literally why I titled my
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book Your Short Game Solution, because as a coach, I
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ask the same question probably five hundred times a day,
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and I always asks, Okay, what's the solution of that? So, Fred,
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you missed this two footer? What's the solution? Well, it
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could be more break could be less energy, could be
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more commitment, could be I didn't quiet my eye and
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do my breathing or whatever it is that we're working on, right,
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and you say, well, next time, I'll just recommit and
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I'll do that foundational thing better. And so therefore you
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missed your two footer, but you've recommitted in a positive
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way to your plan, as opposed to missing your two
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footer and going wow, I suck. I can't put. So
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there's a lot of little pitfalls mental pitfalls to to
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putting or performance in golf that people just don't quite
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get right. They just don't quite have the mental discipline
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or the knowledge to to kind of self coach in
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a positive way.
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You know, your your book. It's actually it's very hard
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to do in an audio podcast go over the book
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in detail because it's such a technical book and there
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are great drills in it. There's there's so much great
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information that it's the type of thing that you need
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to go over multiple times. But there are a couple
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of things in the book that I'd like to talk
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about and just get your you know, rough explanation on
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this and tease tease the audience to obviously go out
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and buy the book. And that Let's talk about the
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the choosing the correct wedges for for your your game.
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Right, so in your set makeup, you know, you're looking
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for some versatility and the bounce options, okay, and also
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kind of an even gaps total distance between your wedges.
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So let's just look at those two criteria. You know,
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if we're talking a distance wedge, which I define as
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like between forty yards and maybe your full swing and
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your pitching wage. So let's say one twenty five or whatever.
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You don't want a bigger gap than about twenty yards
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in there. So if I hit my pitching wedge one
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twenty five, the next club I need to hit at
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least ninety five yards, The next club I need to
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hit at least seventy five full. And if I can
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get those nice even spread like that, then through this
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distance wage system that I expound upon in the book,
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you can really learn to cover any yard which with
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appropriate spin and trajectory. Okay, so that's one criteria. The
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00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:11.599
second would be the bounce options and the soul grind,
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the shape of the wedge. And I mean that's a
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00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:17.480
book in itself, just kind of going to all the
402
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different detail there. But if I could just generalize it
403
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to this one point, I think it would be helpful
404
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for anybody listening. You want to have a sand wedge,
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your middle wedge, whether it's fifty four or fifty five,
406
00:23:31.400 --> 00:23:36.319
fifty six doesn't matter with a lot of bounce on it.
407
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Bounce is the difference between the bottom back of the
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00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:43.119
club on the soul to the leading edge and degrees,
409
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So good sand wedge you might have between ten and
410
00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:52.559
fourteen or fifteen degrees of bounce on it. If you
411
00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:54.759
have a more lofted club like a fifty eight to
412
00:23:54.799 --> 00:23:57.400
fifty nine or sixty, you want that one to be
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low and bounce between four and seven, depending once again
414
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on your standard technique. So with the techniques that I
415
00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:11.680
try and get people to use, you don't need much
416
00:24:11.720 --> 00:24:14.359
bounce because the swing is very shallow and you use
417
00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:17.759
it as you swing. So if that's the case and
418
00:24:17.799 --> 00:24:20.759
you have a high bounced sand wedge and a low
419
00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:24.559
bounce lob wedge, then you're really prepared for any turf
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condition because when the sand, the sand or grass is soft,
421
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kind of like it usually is in the Northeast or
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maybe up there in the northern California or whatever, you
423
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kind of soft conditions, the ball comes out slow and
424
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:48.759
more bounce is better than less, So you can always
425
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use your sandwich perfect you need you need a little
426
00:24:52.279 --> 00:24:54.519
bit more energy, you need more bounce. If, on the
427
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other hand, you're playing kind of tight, firm turf you
428
00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:00.599
get in a lot of places, whether it's exis or
429
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maybe it's just have a little bit of a drought
430
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going on the course or whatever, or firm sand sand
431
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that's been where it's rained and it's kind of packed
432
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in and baked. Then you need less bounce is more
433
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effective and the ball comes up fast or flies off,
434
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so you need more loft and less bounce. So you
435
00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:27.119
always have a choice if you had that set makeup awesome,
436
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that makes sense, I hope. I mean, no, it does.
437
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It does.
438
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:33.559
Topic, Yeah, it is, but there was there was a
439
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line It's almost not a throwaway, but it was kind
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of buried in there that I also thought is actually
441
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perfect for what Golf Smarter is all about for this
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podcast and how we approach.
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Golf here, well, how I approach golf, and that is
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bad decisions versus bad shots.
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Yeah, there are certain conditions or trajectories that you might
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play based on the lie, and of course this is skill.
447
00:25:59.480 --> 00:26:02.960
Once again, this is not technique. It's a judgment. And
448
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so the most common one that I see is a
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ball laying into the grain on a tight lie. And
450
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in that case, a lot of people they may have
451
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their favorite club out, which is a lob wedge, and
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they might see a little lower shot with it because
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they have some green to work with, So they lean
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the shaft a little forward and they take this club.
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When you lean the shaft forward, you reduce the effective bounce,
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and he's sharpened the leading edge, which is just an
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00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:34.960
awful thing to do into the grain, where if you
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hit just a little behind it with a sharp leading edge,
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it's just going to dig a trench. I mean, we
460
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all saw that. I think the listeners think back at
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Tiger the Hero World Challenge where he's into the grain
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on that sticky Bermuda and he's digging the leading edge
463
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in the ground, just duff and shot after shot. That
464
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is much about that certainly was technique in his case,
465
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but it's more about shot selection. So if you take
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00:27:00.799 --> 00:27:03.480
your sand wedge and just just roll back the clock
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to nineteen seventy pre lobledge and take your sand wedge,
468
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and we can hit the same trajectory shot as we
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did with the sixty by hitting a little higher than
470
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normal shot with that sandwich, and effectively you add bounce
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and soften the leading edge and it just works so
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much better. Now the problem is that skill development, that
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judgment element requires decision making and training. How are you
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supposed to learn that? How did I learn that? You know, Well,
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the way I learned it is that I trained properly
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by throwing balls everywhere, and you know, learning through experience
477
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:49.039
of a bunch of different trials. But that's not what
478
00:27:49.319 --> 00:27:52.319
average golfer does they. I mean you, even at my
479
00:27:52.359 --> 00:27:54.839
own club. You think these people would have read the
480
00:27:54.839 --> 00:27:57.640
book and known better or whatever. But they go out
481
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to the sharcame area. They stand in the same spot
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for twenty minutes, and they'll hit ten shots to one pin,
483
00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:06.880
and they'll hit ten shots to the next pin, and they're
484
00:28:06.920 --> 00:28:09.279
all from the same lie, and they tee them up
485
00:28:10.119 --> 00:28:14.799
and it's just horrible practice for trying to develop skill
486
00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:18.599
and learn the little nuances of being a great player.
487
00:28:19.559 --> 00:28:21.480
And what would you walk up to them and have
488
00:28:21.640 --> 00:28:22.599
them do If.
489
00:28:23.960 --> 00:28:26.279
I would not, I would just say, you know what,
490
00:28:26.359 --> 00:28:29.079
the reality is, if they're not going to practice properly,
491
00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:31.839
they're better off just going to have a beer because
492
00:28:32.599 --> 00:28:36.319
they're probably doing more harm than good at that point. Interesting,
493
00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:38.200
think about it. When you're in a pile, you hit
494
00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:40.519
a bad shot, what do you do? Well? You think
495
00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:42.880
internally about what you did wrong, and then you fiddle
496
00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:45.519
and you try something new, and then you at some
497
00:28:45.640 --> 00:28:48.119
point you stay there long enough, you're going to hit
498
00:28:48.200 --> 00:28:52.440
a shot you don't like, you know, it's just there's
499
00:28:52.519 --> 00:28:55.279
no resiliency in it, there's no toughness in it, there's
500
00:28:55.319 --> 00:28:57.640
no skill development in it, and so they're just better
501
00:28:57.680 --> 00:29:00.599
off just like skipping all together.
502
00:29:06.799 --> 00:29:09.720
You mentioned Tiger and I'm That kind of leads into
503
00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:12.640
the question that did come across on Twitter today from
504
00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:17.119
Nick at Golf Progress. What did you see in Tiger's
505
00:29:17.160 --> 00:29:22.440
wedge play that was so radically different between Augusta and Phoenix.
506
00:29:23.720 --> 00:29:27.200
Yeah, well, let's just backtrack a little. Let's say what
507
00:29:27.319 --> 00:29:33.359
was so radically different between Phoenix and what he did
508
00:29:33.400 --> 00:29:37.480
in two thousand? Technique in two thousand, when he was
509
00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:43.079
at the top of his powers, there was spotless, very
510
00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:48.119
fundamentally sound that this technique in Phoenix and before was
511
00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:53.839
just absolutely awful. Everything awful. Know, the setup was bad,
512
00:29:53.960 --> 00:29:56.480
He's backing up in the middle of his motion. The
513
00:29:56.559 --> 00:29:59.880
backstriing was wrong, and he think, how could a person
514
00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:06.920
of that talent regressed that far? Uh? And the reality
515
00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:09.440
is only when you the only way to get that
516
00:30:09.440 --> 00:30:12.839
far is to work hard on the wrong things. So
517
00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:17.319
he got some bad information at some point, practiced it diligently,
518
00:30:18.599 --> 00:30:21.079
you know, wasn't quite getting what he wanted out of
519
00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:23.799
it and the whole thing regresses. And in this case,
520
00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:29.240
I know for a fact that the changes he was
521
00:30:29.319 --> 00:30:31.960
making in his backswing, with the way he moved his arms,
522
00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:35.200
and you know he's working on his full swing first
523
00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:38.960
with Haney and then with Sean Foley, that the arm movements,
524
00:30:39.039 --> 00:30:42.519
the motor patterns that he was working on hard or
525
00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:46.519
change that dramatically. He was. He just kind of crept
526
00:30:46.519 --> 00:30:49.000
into his finesca and he was literally moving his arms
527
00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:54.240
exactly the same way, and that ultimately ended up making
528
00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:56.960
him change his set up and the whole motor pattern.
529
00:30:57.039 --> 00:31:02.720
So that's very common mistake. The major premise of my
530
00:31:02.759 --> 00:31:06.039
book is that the full swing and short game are opposites.
531
00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:09.319
They're not the same, and if you use the same
532
00:31:09.359 --> 00:31:12.279
motor pattern for both, you'll only be good at one.
533
00:31:13.720 --> 00:31:15.480
You know, you just got to pick your one you
534
00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:16.119
want to be good at.
535
00:31:16.160 --> 00:31:19.240
I guess I was very I was very surprised when
536
00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:22.160
I came across that part in the book. Is like, wa, wait,
537
00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:24.920
completely different swings on your short game.
538
00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:31.039
Now, I should say I finished that comment. I guess sure.
539
00:31:32.200 --> 00:31:37.200
Tiger's new coach, Chris Como, a smart guy friend of mine,
540
00:31:38.200 --> 00:31:42.319
has a ton of knowledge and he inherited this issue
541
00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:45.680
with Tiger, he didn't create it. So I think the
542
00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:49.200
reality is I think that was a shocker as a
543
00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:51.119
coach when he shows up and he's working on full
544
00:31:51.160 --> 00:31:53.240
swing and to find out that his player can't ship.
545
00:31:54.279 --> 00:31:56.240
Kind of found that out after the fact, and then
546
00:31:56.519 --> 00:31:59.359
I think, given, you know, then Tiger takes a break
547
00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:01.599
and they sit there and they focused on that part
548
00:32:01.640 --> 00:32:04.160
of the game and worked it through. And I think
549
00:32:04.200 --> 00:32:07.759
now the difference that Augusta is just operating with good
550
00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:13.119
information and everything has changed. Like setup is completely different, backswing,
551
00:32:13.200 --> 00:32:17.160
arm movement patterns different, is balance, and the way he
552
00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:22.480
releases the club was completely different. So one technique interesting.
553
00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:26.720
Yeah, I've asked a number of different coaches that we've
554
00:32:26.759 --> 00:32:32.160
had on the show, if you had the chance to
555
00:32:32.200 --> 00:32:34.720
talk to Tiger for fifteen minutes or you know, if
556
00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:37.200
he called you and said would you help me? What
557
00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:41.039
would you do? And so many have said, just go
558
00:32:41.119 --> 00:32:43.039
back to what got you here in the first place,
559
00:32:43.440 --> 00:32:44.640
stop playing with it.
560
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:47.279
Yeah, but how do you do that? I mean, it's
561
00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:50.799
like putting the toothpaste back into the tube once you
562
00:32:50.839 --> 00:32:54.720
sweeze it out. It's just like it's impossible motor patterns
563
00:32:54.720 --> 00:32:58.599
have changed, your body, motor memories have changed. You know,
564
00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:02.319
everything's different. So you like the reality is that's why
565
00:33:02.759 --> 00:33:05.160
you got to have foundational beliefs. They need to be
566
00:33:05.240 --> 00:33:08.960
well defined. You got to have ways to train so
567
00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:12.839
that you never really degenerate or get lost and move
568
00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:16.119
away from them. And I think that's that's really what
569
00:33:16.200 --> 00:33:19.960
happened when he switched kind of coaches. He switched complete
570
00:33:20.039 --> 00:33:22.759
concepts of how to do it, and then at some
571
00:33:22.839 --> 00:33:25.319
point he didn't know. It was kind of like me
572
00:33:25.400 --> 00:33:27.680
when I was teacher. It's like, well, I don't know
573
00:33:27.720 --> 00:33:36.559
what's right, but I know that's wrong, you know, So.
574
00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:36.039
So tell us where where you're teaching now, and if
575
00:33:36.039 --> 00:33:39.480
people wanted to reach out and work with you, where
576
00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:41.200
they would go and how they would get in touch
577
00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:41.400
with you.
578
00:33:42.200 --> 00:33:45.079
Yeah. Well, I have a golf academy in Omaha, Nebraska,
579
00:33:45.279 --> 00:33:49.440
Shadow Ridge Country Club. The easiest way to get a
580
00:33:49.440 --> 00:33:51.079
hold of me would pre to send me an email.
581
00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:56.480
Just go to my website JS golf Academy dot com,
582
00:33:57.279 --> 00:34:01.119
and there's a place where they can kind of see
583
00:34:01.119 --> 00:34:03.240
some tips and do all those sort of things, but
584
00:34:03.279 --> 00:34:08.559
also a place where they can contact me. I honestly,
585
00:34:08.719 --> 00:34:11.599
not here very often. I work in one on an
586
00:34:11.599 --> 00:34:16.559
airplane pretty much every week, working with tour players and
587
00:34:16.599 --> 00:34:21.559
doing different things. But I'm usually here, you know, two
588
00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:25.239
or three days a week, and you know, if they
589
00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:26.760
want too bad enough, we can certainly find a way
590
00:34:26.800 --> 00:34:27.320
to get together.
591
00:34:28.039 --> 00:34:30.800
How about giving us a quick tip right from the
592
00:34:30.840 --> 00:34:34.199
book again, it's your short game solution mastering the finesse
593
00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:36.639
game from one hundred and twenty yards and in how
594
00:34:36.639 --> 00:34:38.159
did you give us a quick tip from the book.
595
00:34:39.239 --> 00:34:42.400
Yeah, one of the key issues around the green, especially
596
00:34:42.400 --> 00:34:47.559
inside thirty yards, is to sequence your swing properly. And
597
00:34:48.639 --> 00:34:51.800
there is a power sequence where you start your downswing
598
00:34:51.840 --> 00:34:56.639
with your body some shift and some wire on your hands,
599
00:34:56.679 --> 00:34:58.320
move faster in the club and you get this little
600
00:34:58.320 --> 00:35:00.679
down cock so you get this little whip there. Well,
601
00:35:01.199 --> 00:35:03.480
the short game is opposite, so I call it a
602
00:35:03.480 --> 00:35:06.239
finesse sequence. And the easiest way to learn what the
603
00:35:06.239 --> 00:35:09.239
finest sequence is, which is essentially at the start of
604
00:35:09.239 --> 00:35:12.960
your down swinging the club moving faster than your arms
605
00:35:13.400 --> 00:35:15.360
at the start of the downsing so these angles are
606
00:35:15.440 --> 00:35:18.920
starting to be let out, is to chip with your
607
00:35:18.920 --> 00:35:24.800
trailarm only just in training. So I just pretend like essentially,
608
00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:26.320
like I have a ball in my hand which I'm
609
00:35:26.320 --> 00:35:28.039
gonna grab here, and if I was going to do
610
00:35:28.079 --> 00:35:32.880
a little underhanded toss, I wouldn't do it by starting
611
00:35:32.880 --> 00:35:36.559
my hips. I'd start my arm, the club would come out,
612
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:40.880
and then I just release the club past my body
613
00:35:42.760 --> 00:35:45.039
to get this nice, gentle little toss there. And it's
614
00:35:45.039 --> 00:35:47.280
the same motion. And only think I'm gonna do differently
615
00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:48.599
is I'm gonna do it with the club in my hand,
616
00:35:48.679 --> 00:35:51.719
So just grip the club and the trail arm only
617
00:35:52.239 --> 00:35:54.599
set up to this normal I really like to level out,
618
00:35:54.639 --> 00:35:56.079
so I'd like to put my left hand kind of
619
00:35:56.079 --> 00:35:58.320
down on my thigh. Now I'm just gonna make a
620
00:35:58.400 --> 00:36:00.519
one handed swing. Just pretend I can do it a
621
00:36:00.559 --> 00:36:05.719
little five yard toss with my trail hand, and that
622
00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:09.320
gives you the perfect perfect sequences. You release the club
623
00:36:09.800 --> 00:36:12.960
past your body, and I get a lot of calls
624
00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:15.840
and or texts saying, well, I chip so beautifully one
625
00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:18.199
hand only doing your drill, but when I put my
626
00:36:18.280 --> 00:36:20.280
left hand on there, it's not quite as good. It's
627
00:36:20.360 --> 00:36:24.480
just the perfect drill that allows you the sequence your
628
00:36:24.519 --> 00:36:28.719
swing properly, release the club pastor body and nice soft
629
00:36:28.760 --> 00:36:29.679
touch around the greens.
630
00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:35.440
Fabulous tip. Thank you, and I'm just so impressed that
631
00:36:35.480 --> 00:36:37.159
you can hit balls around the house and not get
632
00:36:37.159 --> 00:36:37.639
in trouble.
633
00:36:38.239 --> 00:36:40.639
Oh yeah, I watch out found that's the only reason