Our Spring Fitness Special

In this episode, we have two fitness and conditioning specialists join us to discuss what golfers need to be aware of when they hit the tee box or the practice range for a proper warm up so that you can avoid injuries and enjoy your best golf. 

In the second segment of our show, we do a "deep dive" into the modern approach to fitness that is a more holistic approach, helping golfers better understand how their body moves, the role that body motion and sequence plays in helping you to generate power and speed in your golf swing.

Milo Bryant is from San Diego, California and is an instructor with TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) and member of the TPI Advisory Board.  He is also the founder of the "Coalition for Launching Active Youth" and he holds several certifications including Level 3 Golf Fitness Instructor (TPI), Sports & Performance coach (USA Weightlifting), and he is a Strength & Conditioning Specialist (NSCA). 

Africa Alarcon is from Sao Paulo, Brazil and is a pioneer in the physical fitness and training field, working with professional and amateur golfers since 2005.  She is the owner of "Golfefit" and the former physical trainer for the Brazilian National Golf Federation.  She graduated from the University of Sao Paulo and holds:  Level 3 Fitness Trainer (TPI), Level 2 certification in Medical, Power and Golf (TPI). 

Transcript

Douglas Maida: 0:13

Hello, and welcome to our show we're talking golf. My name is Douglas Mita, and I'm your host. Now that the weather is warmer across the northern hemisphere, the theme of our show today is spring fitness. As part of the show, we have two fantastic fitness and training experts with us, who will be on hand to discuss topics of interest, and hopefully it will be of help to you. In our first segment, we will discuss how to prepare yourself physically for playing more golf. It's an important topic because too many golfers just wait for the warm weather. Then they break out the clubs and hit the golf courses to start playing. Some will spend time at the range trying to get reacquainted with their swing again. Others just head straight to the tee box and play away. Our guests we'll be discussing how you can prepare yourself so that you can avoid injuries and start your golf season pain free. They will also pass along some tips that they share with their clients, including what to do if you cannot get a proper warm up before your tee time. In our second segment, we're going to do a little more of a deep dive into the topic of modern fitness, movement and conditioning. It's increasingly an important topic amongst physical fitness specialists as they strive to bring a more holistic approach to human performance, regardless of the sport, golf or otherwise. in that segment, we'll be looking at how a person can generate power and speed in their golf swing, how to maintain speed and power for longer terms without injury. Now before I introduce our guests, I would like to welcome our listeners and podcast subscribers from around the world that are downloading and listening to our show. Without you and your support, we would not be able to deliver this show. So thank you for joining us. Now before we get into today's show, we'll take a short break for this message from our sponsor.

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Welcome to our show. We are proud to announce that "We're Talking Golf" has been recognized as one of the top 40 podcasts to follow in 2021 for PGA and LPGA golf coverage. Today's show is being recorded from our studio in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. We are produced by the world of golf and you can find us on the worldwide web at www dot world of golf.org or on our social media channels, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and now on LinkedIn. For those of you in Asia and elsewhere. You can also follow us on Weibo and WeChat. Now, back to our show. Here is your host Douglas Maida.

Douglas Maida: 3:12

Welcome back to the show. And thank you for staying with us. Now we have two very special guests joining us today on zoom. They are both physical fitness specialists with extensive education, training and experience working with golfers and other types of athletes. Africa Alarcon joins us from Sao Paulo, Brazil. She attended the University of Sao Paulo graduating with a degree in physical education. She has been a pioneer in the physical fitness and training field working with professional and amateur golfers since 2005. And she has her own company golf he fit or golf fit. She has her She was also the physical trainer for the Brazilian National Golf Federation and she is a TPI certified level three fitness trainer and she has also completed her TPI level to medical power and golf certifications. Welcome to the show Africa.

Africa Alarcon: 4:05

Thank you very much Douglas. Happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Good, good.

Douglas Maida: 4:13

Our second guest is Michael Bryant joining us from San Diego, California. Milo is an experienced fitness, wellness and health professional. He is skilled in designing curriculum and programs for long term athletic development in a variety of athletic disciplines. Milo is the head coach and founder of the Coalition for launching active youth. He graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and he holds several accreditations including TPI level three goal fitness instructor. He's a sports performance coach with USA weightlifting and he has a certification in strength and conditioning specialist with the National strength and conditioning Association. Milo is also an instructor for TPI, and an Advisory Board member for the organization. Welcome to the show, Milo.

Milo Bryant: 5:04

Hey, thanks, Douglas. Happy to be here. Nice to see you, Africa. I'm ready to get into it. Yes.

Douglas Maida: 5:11

Wonderful, wonderful. So why don't we start a little bit about telling us about a little bit about yourself. Milo, why don't we start with you, maybe you can tell us a little bit about your background in golf, what you do in golf, and maybe a little bit about what TPI is all about.

Milo Bryant: 5:27

Wow, a background in golf, I got into golf, actually, through TPI would have been back in 2006, I went to a a fitness conference. And I saw this sign that said, golf fitness and I kind of looked at it and thought, what what is that all fitness seriously. And then, so let me let me go in there and check this out. And then I go in there, and then the cofounders of TPI, which Dr. Greg Rose and Dave Phillips, they were given a presentation, and it was a presentation all about power. And the power was lower body power, core body power, upper body power. And during that presentation, I'm not a shy person. So I volunteered to get out there and throw some balls around and jump up and then all that stuff. And, and when they finished it all, I was just kind of sitting there thinking like, Wow, cool body power, lower body power, upper body power, I mean, that's, that's football, that's baseball, basketball, that's, that's all these other sports and thought, okay, there's, there's something to this. So and then it enticed me enough to go to my first seminar, which was, which would have been in 2007. So I went to a seminar in 2007. And 15 minutes into it was just blown away. And I literally was on the phone. Texting one of my buddies was like, dude, you would not believe what they're talking about. Like all they've done for 15 years at the time. 15 years is study the golf swing. That's it. That's it is like imagine if you just spent 15 years just studying a jump shot 15 years of studying a, a live 15 years just studying this one thing. And they that's all they did. And so that's what they focus on them. Okay. Let me get into this now. And so I mean, I, I absolutely love the obviously the fitness side from from day one, I still absolutely suck at playing golf, I can hit a ball a very long way. But I have to go and find it after I hit it. Because I work so much I don't give my body or my brain the opportunity to play golf well. But I got into it with with this whole notion of addicting kids to move addicting kids to fitness huge with with young athletes. And I think this world has been too overweight to out of shape. And so I wanted to do something about it by getting in the fight. And and that developed, I developed a long term development program for the fitness side of what the CPI juniors have done. I've done it for a couple of other entities as well. But you look at what what kids are doing these days and amount of bullying that they aren't doing. And you want to change it or at least I want I want to change that. And that's that's what I've been doing. And I've been doing it long enough that I have kids who started with me at five years old, and now they're in college playing golf, I have kids we started and middle school and they're on the they're on different tours. I have kids in high school who are on a PGA Tour on the LPGA Tour on the symetra tour, who I'm just many different tours on all around. And so either I'm just getting old, or or what we're doing is it's actually working. So, so it's it's been fun. And then I've, again, I've worked with with athletes, from numerous sports, but from a golf standpoint. Now I have I still have today I'll be working with a group of 567 year olds, and then tonight I'll be on the phone talking with my 27 year old doctors.

Douglas Maida: 9:19

And how about you Africa? Why don't you share a little bit about how you got into golf, golf, fitness and TPI.

Africa Alarcon: 9:26

Okay, well, I graduated from college, like you said, and at the beginning, I was thinking about sports, and I was thinking about how could I help clients and how can I help spread is especially you know, amateur players to be better. And I was a handball athlete at a time actually. But I knew I didn't want to work with handball. I don't know handball in the United States actually, but I know it's very popular in in Europe and I took the Pilates course at that time. And I remember I was like wondering, how am I gonna use this work? You know what my career will look like in the future. And I knew I wanted to work with a very niche group. I was looking for that niche. And I was wondering, where is this gonna take me. And one day, I was doing an exercise at the Pilates certification, and it was about rotation. And the the teacher said, "Well, this is very important for sports like baseball, and tennis, and volleyball and golf". And when she said golf, I was like, Hmm, maybe there's golf in Brazil, I didn't even knew that there was there were golfers in Brazil. So I start looking. And I start researching and talking to And then well, my husband did an MBA in the US. Like when with people. And I realized that golf really existed here in Brazil. And it was very close, it was very niche, and itwas like a small society. But an important one, right, with high financial power to support it, right. And I was looking for that kind of clients, clients that could afford a very specialist and very important work. And I knew that golfers were very dedicated to their sport. And they were like, very obsessed even. So this is the kind of client that I was looking for. So I started my education at the beginning, just doing research at my former college, just reading every every scientific research that I could find. And then one day, I stumbled upon the TPI website, right, and I just devoured it for hours, it was I was very exc ted to found find it. him, we live in Charlottesville for two years. And that's where I started playing golf and taking classes, learning more about it. And I think I did my first TPI course on, it was 2008, maybe? It was the first certification that I took. And I was just hooked. Because it was, I thought it was just amazing. And those people were so amazing. I just wanted to be around them all day. And just, and like Milo, I'm not a shy person. So I was like volunteering during the course says and I was talking to them and just interacting. And that's where I went back to Brazil and started my company. And I've been doing great since then, I really started I think that notion of "blue ocean" in Brazil with a golf fitness. I will say the business model, right. And now I'm branching a little bit more. So I'm more about Latin America, I've been working with the Peruvian Federation, as well with the Colombian Federation, and with athletes all around. And it's been great. And the time I spent on the national team with Brazil was very important for my education and was very important, especially for the networking part. And it got me to work with athletes and work with the Olympic network and the Olympic mine of researching and just trying to do the best for the athletes. So it's always a good experience. But I'm happy to be here today. Let's start it. I don't want to talk too much about myself. That's boring.

Douglas Maida: 13:31

It's mid May, as we're recording this show. So that means good weather, particularly in the more northerly climate areas. So golfers are picking up clubs, they're heading to the courses summer hitting the range first to try and get reacquainted with their swing. And probably even moreso, will be heading to the tee blocks just to start playing again. Now, when we talk about this time of the year, I guess that's when golfers are going to be most susceptible to injuries or things of that nature. So with golfers are returning to play what should they be aware of to avoid their injuries? What are some of the things that they should be doing? I mean, what kind of warmup should they be involved with? Do you want to lead that off Africa? And then we'll go to Milo?

Africa Alarcon: 14:16

Well, I think you know, all depends on the level that you want to play. Right? I guess that most players that have been living in very cold areas, and now are seeing the golf courses opening. They're eager to play and they're very excited. And sometimes they want to do too much too fast too soon. And they don't have that preparation, right? And it all depends on your age, on the level you want to play, and how much do you want to compete and use that skills, right? So you have to be prepared for that. And I'll say that after maybe 30 years old, it's when injury starts to appear more and more often. So if you want to play at a level that you are demanding of your mind of your body, that, you know, to, it's an overload to your, to your articulation and to your muscles, you have to do the work on the gym for that. So you have to be prepared. I will say that for each hour that you spend on that driving range, you should spend an hour on the gym, getting yourself ready. And I know that's not a reality. But that's what people should be doing. That's why, you know, that's how are you going to, you're going to avoid injuries, you don't want to get injured. And I know that golfers have that mentality that it's inevitable, but is it is evitable. Right? You should be avoiding it. You shouldn't be accustomed to pain, and you shouldn't be just thinking that is natural to take a painkiller before hitting the golf course, that is not natural. That is not right. So just try to be prepared. Milo is laughing

Milo Bryant: 16:03

Because I mean, my gym, it's outdoors. And it's it's, it's adjacent to a driving range. And I look out on that driving range. And now I can see people who will literally and I cannot stress this enough, they will take their club out of the bag, no action. So they'll walk up to their spot. They take their clubs, they take one club out of the bag, and just kind of hold it over their head and they made here here, bend that way, bend that way. rub their shoulders around, then they get up and start swinging the club. That's it. Sitting there just thinking Are you kidding me? Now this people, I mean people fail to understand, though the athleticism it takes to swing a golf club with the efficiency. And that's what I was probably in that same mentality. Back when I saw the sign of a golf fitness, like what is this all about. And so I go in and I I have a very lucid understanding now what golf fitness is. And then like when people swing a club, a, if, if swinging a golf club is the most dynamic thing your body does on a weekly on a daily or weekly basis, you are going to get injured. That that's just that's just the fact you're going to get injured. swinging a golf club should be easy. Now the things that they do in the gym, that should be hard. The stuff you do in the gym should make the golf easy. But I'm not naive, I understand that people would want to get out and hit and, and people don't look at Fitness because fitness is fitness can be hard. Now fitness, it can be a challenge and, and understanding what you have to do to play well. So who wants to spend time doing that?

Africa Alarcon: 18:09

Yeah, but it's all about priorities, right? My little you have to have priorities. If you want to play, at a good level, if you want to, you know have distance and have power and just enjoy it. And not being chasing pain all the time. You have to set a priority and and I will say that there is a certain point of at your age that getting prepared to do that. It should be a priority, right? When you're 15 or 20. You can just hit that machine and just play 5-10 rounds and drink on the day after right and the day before and you're fine. But that's not the reality for golfers above. I'll say 30 years old, right?

Milo Bryant: 18:53

But the thing about these golfers who want to just get out and start playing. So Douglas to your question is like now isn't the time to get prepared to play golf,

Africa Alarcon: 19:03

You're late!

Milo Bryant: 19:04

Well, they should have been prepared to play golf. So back in April, back in March back in December, February, January, yeah, December, I mean, they, you get ready to play then. And so that once this time hits, you can go out there and you can play without the worry of getting injury and then the gym becomes a maintenance phase. It's like I like my professional golfers. That's why they have an offseason. So that some of them will take okay like, like a PGA Tour player. Maybe he took a month and a half off from from tour so that he could come here. And we had we had in that month and a half we had like 36 sessions, something like that. And he was working on specific things. And we got those specific things down so that he can go out there and play, See the thing go out there and, and play the way he needed to play where he wants to play without getting injured. Now that's the biggest thing that that fitness does for you is it doesn't just help you play with more efficiency. It helps you play period.

Africa Alarcon: 20:19

Safely, safely.

Milo Bryant: 20:21

Yes. Yes. I mean that's and that's the thing so people, people just look at it and and golf has this long standing thought process that"Oh, if I if I get if I don't want to get too bulky, it's gonna mess up my swing. This is gonna mess up. I get too stiff and all" Like no you don't. You look at the Olympic movement. The second most mobile people in the Olympic movement, or the Olympic weightlifters, number one are the gymnast. But the Olympic lifters, people who are pressing 400 pounds above their head and they're in a deep squat position. They are the second most mobile people in the movement. And yet, people don't want to lift weights because they're going to get . . .

Africa Alarcon: 21:02

Especially women, right? Especially women.

Milo Bryant: 21:05

Oh, my goodness and women, women you have another another whole thing to look at and worried about. And I don't want to look back to man. I don't I don't want to look, I don't want to look big. I'm sorry, luck. Unless you take the drugs, you're not gonna look like me. It's not gonna happen. But you can't you don't have enough testosterone to look like me. So. So sorry, for

Douglas Maida: 21:27

You mentioned mobility.

Milo Bryant: 21:30

Yes.

Douglas Maida: 21:31

To the to the listeners at home. What do you mean by mobility? I mean, it's quite easy to visualize with a gymnast. But when you start talking about a weightlifter, having mobility or a golf or having mobility, what do you mean by mobility?

Milo Bryant: 21:46

Well, a golfer so golf is a rotary sport. And so there's going to be what I guess we call it a kinematic sequence, there's a sequence that the body uses to help generate power. And that power is going to start in the lower body. And since it's a rotary sport, the power is going to start in the lower body. And it's going to come up through the whole body and out the hands and into the club. But the way that happens is the body has to rotate for it to happen. But one of the examples we use is it's kind of like a whip. When you crack a whip, though, when you hit that with your, your, you've thrown it out, and then you're pulling it back. So what happens when you pull it back is that that whip it on coils and uncoils. And it gets faster and faster, as it uncoils. And then when it hits that "pop" at the end, oh, that's the power that comes out. So to be able to generate that power, the body must be mobile. So when it comes to a golf, a golfer, having mobility in the ankles, having mobility in the hips, especially the hips, and the T spine, so your thoracic spine and your hips, so are you able to rotate your body on a stable surface, and say, I'm a right handed golfer, if I want to stand on my left hip, on my left foot, am I able to take my left foot and keep it in place, while my body rotates around that foot now rotates around that base, you have to have mobility in the hip, to be able to do that. And the golf swing, I have to have external hip rotation of that internal hip rotation on both sides to be able to be stable and to be able to generate the power. My thoracic spine, I have to be able to rotate my thoracic spine while my lumbar spine stays flat. So I can maintain posture when I'm in a golf swing. There are some people who come up out of a golf swing, or they have what's called a C posture where their body is bent like this. And when they get into the backswing, your whole body has to move a certain way instead of just staying in place. And so from a mobility standpoint, being able to move your body into the positions that your golf pro wants you to wants you to be in so that you can have the most efficient swing for that for that body. If we don't have that, then it's going to be a lot more challenging to maintain consistency with the clubface at impact. We some people come up and out some people come over here, some people come over here. All that is because of either mobility or stability. And so you want to be able to be mobile in the hips, mobile and the thoracic spine, then that's the primary but then we can get into ankle mobility, we can get into risk mobility. there's a there's a lot more involved.

Douglas Maida: 24:49

Right, right. So when somebody is coming to the golf course and say they've got about a half hour before tee time, what are some of the warm up ideas that they should be? Looking to incorporate for before they start playing. Anybody want to take a stab at that Africa?

Africa Alarcon: 25:05

Sure. So I just want to go back to that thought of mobility. So it's very important to remember that mobility is not flexibility. And we see a lot of golfers doing static stretching, thinking they are warming up for golf. And this is a misconception and is potentially dangerously, okay. So there is a lot of research pointing out that static stretching is going to be bad for you, it can get you injured, because you're gonna relax that with those muscles, right, you're telling your body to just relax, relax and loosen up, and then suddenly, you're demanding a very hard and fast contraction on those muscles. So this is going to be very bad, and you should avoid it, what you should be doing, it's something that is going to activate your muscles. So instead of trying to relax your muscles, you should be activating them. So you want to wake up your muscle, you want to wake, your neurological system, your foot, your mobility, your stability, you want to be active and aware, and you want your software and your hardware to communicate properly. So you should be doing movements and not static and passive stretching. Okay, so every everything that is, you know, rotations and exploring the the, you know, the articulations range of motion, and moving three dimensionally, and moving in various planes of motion, not just on the sagittal plane, not just you know, pushing and pulling, but like reaching something that is behind you reaching something that it's on the floor, and just exploring fat before you start hitting balls, okay, so you shouldn't be hitting balls to warm up, you should warm up to hit balls, that's something that has to be very clear on the golfers mind. So it's important to spend at least 10 to 15 minutes doing that, especially if you have an injury, that he was, you know, a previous injury, for example, if you know that your shoulder, is prone to be stiff, and is prone to have instability, right. So you've dislocated your shoulder, for example, in the past, you should be, you know, using the time to warm up properly to stabilize, to awake those muscles, right to activate those muscles. Instead of relaxing and losing. And just making everything smooth and painless, you should be waking up. That's that tip.

Milo Bryant: 27:49

I think to add add to that, like what about the golf swing is static.

Africa Alarcon: 27:53

What golf swing static?

Milo Bryant: 27:55

You said there's nothing about the golf swing, the golf swing is moving. So the golf swing is moving. So your warm up should be conducive to the activity that you're going to do. So you're going to be swinging a club. Said it in seminars many times before the golf swing is a complex, dynamic, explosive movement that required a proper sequencing of muscles if you want to be able to do it consistently and correctly. So your warm up should be something that enables you to do that golf swing efficiently. So if you're exploding during the golf swing, your warm up needs to have some explosive movements, you're going to be rotating during the golf swing, your warm up needs to have some rotate some rotary movements. Now the human body goes through seven primary movement patterns, you flex you extend you rotate one way you rotate the other way you stand on one foot, you stand on the other foot and you squat. So your warmup needs to have all of those and a combination of those as you go through them so that your body is able to be ready to actually do those movements and action. So if if, if your warm up is just bending over touching your toes are warm. And yeah, these numbers Yeah, all that stuff. Oh, you are absolutely asking for injury. I think Africa said it best early on is like what level Do you want to play it? If you want to play at a at a high level that's high for you. Then you will take your preparation to get to that level more seriously. If you just want to go out and and drink beers and smoke with the with the guys or smoke with the girls or whatever it is now and you don't want to you don't want to play well. Okay then then don't do any of that stuff. Now and they'll brag with your friends. Oh yeah. When I play golf, I got injured right there. At least I got injured playing golf. It sounds stupid. But but that's I, I've heard that before.

Africa Alarcon: 30:07

I've also heard you know, I, I had some some times that I was, you know, in tournaments and I will ask people do you want to warm up? and some will say, Oh, no, no, no, I don't need it. I just want to have fun.

Unknown: 30:20

True.

Douglas Maida: 30:21

So what are some examples of warm up exercises that will accomplish some of the things that you're mentioning in terms of not being static, more of a dynamic warmup, what are some drills?

Milo Bryant: 30:32

Well, I have one that I use for almost wow I am getting old, almost 18 years now. So far, that is, that is good for all sports. Now. And I mean, I can tell it to you, I don't know if you're going to put any links or anything like this, but, but I can because I have it online. It's skipping, it's hopping, it's shuffling. It's doing high knees is the one a skips, is doing stuff like a bounce on pupcakes. You have a walking hamstring stretch and walk the leg kick. Then there's a lunge with a reach up a lunge with a twist, you have walking quadricep, stretch, walk and glute stretch. Then there's an intellectual hip rotation moving forward until actual rep rotations moving backwards. In all of this, there is not one single point in this where you're staying still. You're constantly moving. Then you finish off with there's a Carioca exercise going one way going the other way. Can you finish off with with stiff legged A skip that we do? And then a power skip?

Africa Alarcon: 31:42

I've never seen anybody do that on the golf course Milo.

Milo Bryant: 31:47

No. And the only people that only people I've seen do it on the golf course are my athletes. And, and they because these these, especially these kids, you get in their heads early on, because most people are embarrassed. Yeah. Like I don't want to. I don't want to get out there and everybody's staring at me at all stuff. I'm like, do you want to be at the top of the leaderboard? Would you want them? Would you want to be there? Oh, you want to get to the top of leaderboard. You're not preparing your body to get that? Yeah, this is what you do to get there because I look at what the best athletes in the world do. Now I will guarantee you that Rory McIlroy is warming up. I bet you Dustin Johnson is warming up. Oh, I bet you I mean, you look look back in the day. I mean, Lorena Ochoa was he was huge about exercise. Look at Annika Sorenson was huge about exercise, look at the women coming up. Now, they are going to exercise. Now they are they are stronger, they are more stable, they are more mobile, they are hitting the ball farther they I mean, everything about it goes back to how they prepare for this and they are preparing for it by getting out there and standing.

Douglas Maida: 33:09

Right, right. Well, we can, we can put some links and things like that up on the website, too for our audience members and readers and things like that. So they'll get a better idea of what kind of static versus dynamic exercising they should be looking at. So I hate to say this, because I know it's almost almost the antithesis of what we've been talking about for the last 10 minutes. But let's say for example, you know, I'm coming from work, I got a tee time, I'm running late. traffic's a little bit heavy. I'm trying to get to the golf course in time, so I can make my tee time. And as I get there, I only have five minutes to make the tee box. What's something I can do in that short period of time to at least activate some muscles and get ready to swing a little bit. I mean, I realize not ideal, not encouraged. But at least to you know, try and get something going and minimize a little bit of potential injury.

Milo Bryant: 34:05

Well, the best thing I would do is sprint. I'd get out there I do some jobs I like jog back and forth 10 yards, and then get that 10 yards, do it faster, do it faster to a passion because sprinting is going to help every aspect of the body. And so I would get out there and and they'll do what I need to do so that I can I can sprint. Now outside of that you're doing no seven things I told you about. Though you can flex you can extend you can rotate, rotate, squat squat. Now, so I do that. It's great that in sprint.

Africa Alarcon: 34:40

One thing that I like a lot, it's just sorry Douglas one thing that I like a lot is just doing just rotations with you know, shoulders, neck, thoracic, your hips, your hips, your ankles, something like that exploring, exploring being in once in one afford. And then the other one. And just like jumping jacks is something that you can do on the same day, you don't have to be running around. But you can do jumping jacks. And I know it sounds a little silly. I would never seen anybody doing jumping jacks on the tee box. But like Milo said, you want to be on the top leader, right? You want to you want that, right. So you shouldn't be thinking, Oh, my God, this is embarrassing, people are looking at me, forget about them, this is about you.

Milo Bryant: 35:27

I have a jump rope in my golf bag. So I have, I have jump rope on the tee box here ready to play.

Africa Alarcon: 35:35

You can use elastic bands, as well as elastic band elastic bands, you know, helps you and it's pretty easy to carry and have on your on your golf bag. And you can use it anywhere.

Douglas Maida: 35:47

Okay, let's say I've been playing a little bit and say it's my fourth or fifth round of the year, I'm starting to experience discomfort or pain mid round, or even at the practice range. What should I be doing? Africa? Do you want to maybe lead off with that?

Africa Alarcon: 36:04

Okay, the first thing is to understand when is this happening? And why is this happening, right? And understanding that not always, the location of pain is going to be the source of that injury, sometimes you can have pain on your low back. And the problem is not because your low back is weak, we hear that a lot like somebody will come with a lot with a low back pain. And they will say -- Oh, my low back is very bad, it's very weak. And then you test that and it's not his his internal rotation on the hip that is very, very bad, or his thoracic rotation that is very, very bad. So you have to investigate, you have to go to the source of that pain of that injury. And one thing that you have to avoid is trying to ignore that through, you know, medicine, and through analgesic, painkillers and stuff like that, because what that that's going to do is just going to shut down that system, that it's acknowledging that you have a problem that you're, you know, past your thresholds of tissue health, right, like, And then and you just have to deal with it pain, it's a sign that something is wrong. And it should not be ignored is is like when you're driving around and you know, a red light pops up on your car, you're not going to ignore that right, you're going to stop immediately. And then you're going to investigate what is that even if you have to read the manual over again, but you want to know what is that because you don't want to be, you know, stranded in the road at night. And it could be dangerous. The same thing with your body, if you have like a small pain on your, say your spine someplace, you know, or is your thoracic spine and then you go off plane and then he hurts a little bit more, it's a bigger sign and then you're ignoring to take a pill, and then he hurts a little bit more. And then suddenly you have a hernia, right, it's going to be like that. So it's going to be a sign that it should be investigated, not ignore it,

Milo Bryant: 38:09

It's physiologically impossible for the body to go through proper movement patterns in the presence of pain. So you are going to alter your your movement pattern. So something is hurting, you get that checked out. And one of the things about what TPI is done and just the whole philosophy is you have a team of people who are around you. So you have your golf professional, you have your fitness professional, and you have a medical professional. So you have your medical professional. So that's someone who can look at the pain because as a fitness professional, there's only a modicum of pain that I understand and know how to deal with that. And so I have several people I have, I have chiropractors, I have physical therapists, I have A.T.C. specialists. So A.R.T. specialist who I can send my athletes to, I will send them to-- Hey, could you make me Could you check out his his lower back, there's something going on there and maybe I did some stuff, you know, there's definitely some weakness and in the in the right glute or something is happening that so she can check that out and find out what she needs to do to help this athlete, get back so that I can then help them get or help her get stronger. So that we can, we can not avoid the injury. We find out what the source of the injury is and make sure that stronger so we don't get that injury again. Now and if we sit there and continually avoid it, then we're going to alter our movement patterns. And then that's going to lead us down the road. It's going to lead the athlete down the road, other injuries and other parts of the body and so you're going to get wrecked all over.

Africa Alarcon: 39:50

Yeah, the first time is always going to be a different movement patterns. So you're going to notice that your swing is off. And sometimes that's going to come before pain. So you should be aware of that when you when your speed is off when your distance is off. Even if you don't have pain, even if you don't have swelling, it that can be a sign that you're, you know, passing your fatigue and you're starting to get injured. That should be a sign already.

Douglas Maida: 40:19

So stop. In other words when you're starting to feel some pass, don't keep trying to play through it. There's no upside to playing through the pain.

Africa Alarcon: 40:27

No.

Milo Bryant: 40:29

I mean, I mean, it's, especially for amateur players, Yeah. Okay. You're not out there.

Douglas Maida: 40:35

You got to go to work in the morning.

Milo Bryant: 40:37

Yes, exactly. I mean, if I'm trying to win the Masters, and I wake up, and my hips hurt, and I'm like, oh, okay, I gotta fight through this. I have a chance to win the Masters. And then if I get to a point where I just can't move my Okay, I tried. But amateur players, what do you what are you trying to prove?

Douglas Maida: 40:54

And I guess the other moral, while there's lots of to be learned there. But on a lighter side, I was gonna say, I guess we should be trying to break the habit of going to the tee box popping a pair of aleve's and getting ready to start playing.

Milo Bryant: 41:09

Yeah, exactly. Because that that's, that's just a band aid. Yeah, that is that that's a band aid. That's a band aid. And sometimes, if the cut is like this, that's a band aid that's like that big and not big enough to cover anything. And so you're I mean, you're not, you're just taking care of a little piece of it. little piece of dough, I just had to feel better. So you can play today. And then you don't know what that's gonna do to you down the line.

Douglas Maida: 41:34

Right, right. All right, good discussion, we're gonna take a short commercial break. And when we come back, In our next segment, we're going to talk about power, strength and movement.

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Douglas Maida: 42:00

Welcome back. Thank you for staying with us. Now we go into our next segment where we're going to talk about power, strength and movement. So Milo, why don't you start us off by sharing with us with this more modern approach to, to Body Fitness, Fitness, training and development is all about.

Milo Bryant: 42:21

I started touching on it a little bit ago. And then the last segment when I talked about the approach that we have with with a golfer. Now, there used to be just a golfer and the golf pro. That's it. Now the fitness for the longest wasn't even a part of this. Now you had you had the golf pro using, sometimes using different gadgets sometimes trying to help the golfer, they'll hit further or hit farther just by altering stances and swings and, and just everything just related to the swing. There was nothing that was related to the body. I was just because what TPI looks at is there's a whole there's a whole body swing connection, and the body was swaying. It's not just fitness, though. So you have the golf pro, then you have fitness is are you getting injured? Now? How do we keep from getting injured? So there's a medical person in there? Like what about the thought processes you have? What are your thoughts going going up? going up to the shot? So so the mental approach to it. And then when we talk about the physical you talk about the mental Well, what about the nutritional now? What are you putting in the body? So there's a lot more holistic approach toward playing golf now than it was years ago. I mean, the the golfers who I work with right now -- they have all those, what I said they have the golf pro, they have a fitness Pro, they have a medical person, they have a nutritional person, they have a mental person. So there's definitely a holistic approach that is toward golf. Now, not every amateur is going to do all of that. Now they're they're not going to want to get all these different people, so but they can do some of that stuff on their own, or they can at least allow it to come in and not not, you know poopoo and say no, I don't need I don't need a fitness person. I don't need a nutrition person. I don't need any of this stuff. And kind of like I said before, what level Do you want to play it. Now if you want to play at a high level for you, then there needs to be a more lucid understanding of how your body is going to react to the swing. If you are dehydrated, how your body is going to react to the swing. If you haven't fuelled properly. Now how your body is going to react to the swing. If you have this big presentation tomorrow that you have to get through and you're nervous about that presentation, oh there's going to be a reaction that happens in the swing. Or if he's playing other sports, basketball, baseball, whatever it is, your body is going to react to that. And then something that we haven't even talked about with women, understanding the hormonal cycle, and how that is going to affect everything. From a nutritional standpoint, from a mental standpoint, all of that. So. So there's, there's a much more holistic approach toward understanding playing golf than there was years ago. And the amateur players. I think they, they definitely need to grasp that. And at least have an understanding of it so that they can employ some of those things, if they want to be better players.

Douglas Maida: 46:01

How would I mean, when I first started out playing golf, a long time ago, a gym session or fitness session or workout session would be a little bit different than it is today? How is it different from your typical gym workout, you know, doing some deadlifts and, and bicep curls and things of that nature, or maybe hitting the treadmill or doing some cardio on the treadmill? to what you have today for a more holistic workout? Africa Do you want to maybe share some thoughts on that?

Africa Alarcon: 46:37

I think you know, everybody should be aware of what their body needs. Okay, it's very easy to fall into that trap of going to the gym and doing only what you like what you're good at, like women, you'll see women doing Pilates and yoga, because they have more mobility, and they have more flexibility. And they enjoy that they enjoy that feeling. And they, they want to work on their lower part, you know, the butt abs and thighs, and they want to look good. And sometimes they have that aesthetic mindset going to the gym, right? Instead of thinking, what my body needs to perform, to perform at a higher level, what my body needs to perform at golf, at baseball, at soccer, whatever the sporty. And for men also, you know, men, you will go to the gym, and you will see them doing biceps curls, and chest press, and you know, pull ups and stuff like that, because they want to look big, and they want to you know, feel good, and they want to look good without a shirt on. But sometimes that is not serving them. So I think the approach should be like, what it's good for myself, what do I need? Like, for example, in my case, I have two surgeries on my knee. So when I go to the gym, I have my knee stability in mind. I don't think about you know, I want like a six pack? No, I just want to play and I want to have fun. And I don't want to have another another injury and I want I don't want to go through surgery anymore. Right? So that's my mindset. And so everybody should be aware of that. And one way to be like that is to have a professional evaluating you, right and assessing your mobility, your stability, just to tell you what your plan should look like. And you know, there's nothing wrong with wanting to look better. Right? And but I think people should be more informed as to what it takes for that, right? Like there's a very wrong assumption that you should be doing more cardio, if you want to be leaner, right? And they don't understand that sometimes your nutrition is has a bigger impact on how you look how lean you are, then, you know, how much cardio do you do, right? We know that explosive movement and explosive sports are much better at that, right? Because you release a lot more testosterone and less cortisol when you're working with power, with speed. But there is there still a lot of myths, I think, around the fitness industry. And people just need to be informed and people should have that mindset of hiring a good professional to help them navigate that. And just to think about what is my plan? What do I want to accomplish? You know, do I want to play better golf? Or do I want to look better without my shirt? Right? How do I accomplish that? What are my needs? Like Milo said, What is the team approach to that right if you want if I want to play golf and I have a previous injury or a previous surgery, do I need to speak to a physical therapist before that? Do I need to have my physical therapist communicate with my golf coach and with my fitness instructor. So I think it has to be very personalized. I think the fitness industry and the fitness model nowadays is more personalized, and everybody wants to have the best results that they can accomplish, right? You don't want to hit the gym three times a week, and not have results. But you're not going to have results. If you're basing your training in what you read on a Fitness magazine, or what you see on Instagram only, right? If you see like a very cool sexy exercise on Instagram, and you think, oh, that's why he's powerful. I'm gonna do that. But I don't have this ability to do that exercise. I don't have the coordination to do that exercise. So that's not for me, you have to be realistic. And people sometimes they are in a rush, they want to have that result yesterday, not tomorrow, right? So they want to do like we said too soon, too fast, too much. And it's all about self regulation and self knowledge. And just having clear goals and clear roadmaps for you.

Milo Bryant: 51:09

Africa, I love the fact that you finished that with roadmaps because that's one of the big things that happens when you go to a a qualified trainers-- like Douglas, I have never seen you swing a golf club at all. But I can spend, I could spend 10 minutes with you out here taking you through an assessment. And I can tell you how you swing a golf club, only because the only way you're going to be able to stay a golf club is the way your body moves. And so I take you through an assessment, I know how your body moves. And then if you're coming to me wanting to play better golf, then I give you that assessment. And then I go to your coach and I say Okay, look, Douglas has limited internal rotation on his lead hip. There's thoracic spine, he has limited mobility there. He can't touch his toes right now. His squat pattern, it's off here because his left ankle dorsiflexion is is it's not where it needs to be. Oh, and so what do you want me to do first? Because the golf pro is the one who is leading this charge, what he or she is the one who is going to show you how they want us to how to get you scoring scoring better. But that golf pro wants you to do a specific thing. But you physically cannot do that. There's nothing that golf pro is going to do that is going to enable you to physically do that. That's when you come to me. And then if I can't get you to do that, because you're in pain, then that's when you go to Megan or you go to, to to Vanessa, I'll send you to them and they get you out of pain, then you come to me I get you stronger, I get you more mobile, I get you more stable, then you go to the Golf Club pro, I was like, Oh yeah, this is yes, "bam" now you have it. And so the gym sessions now are specific to what you want to do as a golfer, specific to what you want to do on the course. And so you may come in, and your best friend may come in, you may be doing the same gym session, yet, I have something that is specific to you have something that is specific to your best friend. Even though you both may want power, yeah, power for you, is going to be different than power for your best friend. Because your bodies are different. And your strengths and your weaknesses are different. But so just as African said, just because you see it in a magazine, and or only see it online, somebody has failed this exercise that's given them power. That doesn't mean it's right for you. So you have to find out what is right for your body. And for your strengths, your weaknesses, your mobilities your instability.

Douglas Maida: 54:01

You're basically talking about the importance of individualization with regards to training programs and being able to understand what the needs are of each individual athlete and what their capabilities are, what areas they need to be able to focus on in order to be able to achieve certain movements and outcomes, things of that nature. So let me take this to the next steps. How does one go about like, as a fitness professional like yourselves -- How does you go about helping someone learn how to synchronize their body in a smooth and powerful movement, regardless if it's golf or something else? I mean, obviously, you've talked a fair bit today, Milo and you too Africa about the importance of synchronizing the body and being able to get the body moving in all the right sequence and in the right directions and whatnot. So how do you kind of impart that to say a client and in particular whether it's an elite client, or say somebody who's newer to the sport? And is there a big difference?

Africa Alarcon: 55:05

Yeah, well, I've seen professional players being very, very uncoordinated. Like, I'll ask a professional player to jump rope, or to skip, or to do their Carioca or just to do a throw. And they're awful, because they are so specialized on what they're doing, that their brain cannot fathom anything else. Apart from that, and then you have those type of clients, the amateurs that have spent the last 20 years sitting on a chair for 16 hours a day, not playing sports, not playing with their kids, not not doing anything apart from hitting the treadmill. And, and trying to run outside, right. And that is not enough to give you that coordination, and that body sequence and that, that harmony of movement, right. So sometimes, you know, if I have a new client, and then I do the assessment run, you know, the screening, mobility, stability, whatnot, I'll ask them to do some basic coordination movements like skipping or jump rope or throwing a ball. And if they suck at that, that's where we're starting. We're starting with just walking, and, you know, changing patterns, and then walking backwards, and then sideways, and then throwing a ball, I had a client that I have him throwing balls with me for like, maybe four sessions, he was already getting pissed at me. But at the end of it, like his swing got so much better just because, you know, just the throwing pattern is very similar to the golf swing, you know, you have that sequence, you have the hips, you have the rotation, you have, you know, the, the changing of that ground foot power and the end that, you know, just helped me out, Milo .. . Yeah, the weight shift. Yeah, the weight shave is very similar. So we were just like throwing balls, right handed and then left handed, and then right handed, left handed for sometimes hours. But that helped him getting you know, that sequence better understood, right? So it really takes a very personalized look to each other to see what they can accomplish. And most of the times, I will say it's related to what they've been doing before that. Have they ever played other sports? You know, have you know, when they were kids, what did they do? Did they swim? Did they play tennis? Did they play bass, baseball, or soccer, whatever. Sometimes, you know, even if you've been working for the past 20 years sitting in a chair, but you had that background, it's easier to recover that you know, that store somewhere in your brain. So it's easy to recover, other than you know, a person that never have participated in any sport, you know, the only fitness he has is just walking on treadmills and doing, you know, bench presses and working out on machines in the gym, with that stable, just one plane of motion and very secure and safe environment, not exposing itself to movement in three dimensional way. So that's going to play a really difficult part on you learning a new sport like golf, for example, if you want to start you know, pick up a golf club, you think it's the right time for that and You think golf is safe, you're wrong, you're wrong, because it's not easy. It's not safe. And it's not so rewarding when you're a beginner, right? It takes hard work.

Milo Bryant: 58:58

I think Douglas every every athlete who comes through here, who wants to get on a a personal program. That assessment is absolutely crucial. Because if you don't assess, you don't know where to start. The assessment for me, it helps me create that roadmap. And so I go back to the most primitive thing that we do, and that's breathing. Now, the first thing that everyone who is listening to this, everyone who is watching us, the first thing that they did when they came into this world was take a breath. And so I go back to breathing. How are you breathing? Then from there? You going into primitive postural primitive and postural reflex rotation and integration. So look at how are their reflexes affecting what they're doing now because you go from breathing to reflexes to movement. And so once you get to a point where you understand how their body is moving, then you can create that roadmap to say okay, this is what's first and so on. Everybody goes through goes through that is the fundamentals. So after that, then we can go down the line and say, Okay, well, you're a golfer, and you want to do this, this and this. So let's do this kind of offsets for your baseball player. So let's do this, this and this, because that's going to be more beneficial for you there, you play tennis, let's do this over here. Now, your, your mixed martial artists, let's do this over here. And so everybody is going to be different after a certain point, but up to a certain point, everybody is going to be the same. And so you take everybody through that to see what that baseline is, what are you dealing with? Now, from from here on out. And so at that point, then it becomes, for me, that becomes easy. And that's where I kind of geek out on crunching these numbers and putting this together. And you can see how this movement over here affects this over here and how that affects this over here. And you can put everything together like okay, Oh, sweet, sweet, he is about to be amazed at what's going to happen to his body or she is this is about. And so you get excited, but then you got to calm down and say, Okay, now I have to see how does this person work? Is this the kind of person who wants to really put in the work that it's going to take to get there, because early on, and I tell everybody, some of this stuff is going to be absolutely boring. Because it's not the crazy, cool exercises that you see on Instagram, or you see on the Nike commercials, you see all that stuff. Because guess what, your body is not ready to do those yet. We will get to those. But you have to go through this boring stuff first, this stuff that you might look and think, Oh, my five year old can do this. Yeah, your five year old can do it because they never stopped doing it, you stopped doing this. That's why we have to do this again,

Africa Alarcon: 1:01:50

it's about consistency, right Milo?, People have to think that, you know, achieving a certain amount of fitness and a certain amount of performance on the golf course, is not a sprint, it's a marathon. And you have to build it slowly. You cannot gain speed and power and coordination. You know, in two days or a week, it's a process and that, you know, it's it's kind of you know, it is very repeated, you know, trust the process, but it's that you have to really trust your coach. And like Milo said, some of the stuff at the beginning is very boring. And people are like, but why am I doing you know, why am I crawling on the floor, I want to be hitting med balls on the wall. Like like Rory, I don't want to be rolling on the floor. I don't want to throw a ball, I want to you know, I went ahead like two clubs, I want to I want to use two clubs to hit a ball, and stuff like that. And people don't have the patience. And like we said, it's all about priorities.

Douglas Maida: 1:02:51

Right? So let me play a little bit of devil's advocate here. Not that I don't agree with TPI in the TPI movement and everything we've been talking about. But I know sometimes you're gonna have those skeptics out there who are gonna have these types of questions. So that's what I want to put out there. You have ... we know the skeptic who's you have the skeptic who says to you look, Jack Nicklaus never had to do any of this stuff. You know, Sam Snead never did any of this and yet they hit the golf ball beautifully, wonderfully with lot of distance. So why would I you know, why do I want to do something like this? Or, or Won't this really limit my ability to hit a golf ball because it becomes too mechanical things of that nature. So how would you respond to that?

Milo Bryant: 1:03:41

The first thing since you mentioned Jack, I would say Why don't you talk with Jack again, because Jack was an athlete. JACK was a gym rat. He is a self professed gym rat now and so he he talks about that a lot. But then when you look at when you look at you have Jack you have Arnie and then oh my i just read thing South African player. Yeah, Gary Player. So when you look at you look at those three who's still playing golf. Who's still playing I mean, Gary Player. He, I mean, Gary Player was one who trumpeted fitness way back when I met Gary play around about 15 years ago. Oh at a at a tournament up in up in Orange County. He comes up to me literally, like kind of grabbed my arm here. So squeezes that squeeze that he's like, Oh my goodness. telling you where your body in my brain. We'd be kicking Tigers ass. I mean, but Gary, he's the one who trumpeted fitness and he's the one who can still go out and play right now. And so when people talk about oh, well fancy didn't do this. I decided I don't I mean that's fine. You don't need to train with me that you're going to play at the level that you that you want to play it. But I can guarantee you right now. Oh, name somebody in the top 100 on any of these tours, oh, the PGA Tour LPGA Tour, European tour, who's not working out?

Douglas Maida: 1:05:22

Okay, I'll throw one name out at you. And it's probably not fair to him. But the one that comes to mind a lot is John Daly.

Milo Bryant: 1:05:30

And he's not in the top 100 on the PGA Tour.

Douglas Maida: 1:05:32

He was though.

Milo Bryant: 1:05:36

They say but but the thing about John Daly, the thing about John Daly, which people will look at him from an aesthetic standpoint, and they'll say, Oh, he doesn't work out. But I would love to get those people who say that. And I would love to take them to the same assessment. I take John Daly through, because John Daly could do a full overhead deep squat.

Africa Alarcon: 1:05:58

He doesn't look like, but its his biology, you know, he's just built like that. Maybe, you know, there's a, there's another player on the LPGA. I remember her name that is also kind of overweight, and everybody, you know, picks on her because of that. But she's an athlete, and the you know, you don't have to be lean and strong and look like a model to be considered an athlete. People have different body types. And that doesn't mean he's not powerful. He's not mobile. He's not flexible. It doesn't mean a

Milo Bryant: 1:06:28

And what did Tiger say about John Daly. What did Tiger say about john Daly? I mean, because if john Daly is that, just because I hope I'm not giving away anything here. Now John Daly was given a gym. I forgot he signed with somebody and they gave him like all this equipment for a gym. And he goes in there, and does some work out one day, and his stupid sore for the next few days. He donated the whole gym to his high school and said, I'm not doing this. And so John Daly, he got to this point where he actually thought about the training, and wanted to take it seriously. But he didn't have someone just gave him a gym, but then give them a knowledgeable person who can help him navigate his fitness journey. So and so that is something that was horrible. I mean, I felt bad for him. At that point. I felt that and I was pissed as well. Because I'm like, goodness, because when I mean to me, Tiger is the best. He's the best person I've ever seen play person. And when Tiger is saying that John Daly has more skill and ability and his pinkie than everybody on this range has put together. I looked at that, and I'm irritated that we didn't get to see that. Because I mean, what would happen if John Daly actually took his fitness more seriously?

Africa Alarcon: 1:07:58

Yes. I agree.

Milo Bryant: 1:08:00

Not that he's just out of out of shape or whatever, because he could still do the things you need to do to play golf, he had the mobility had the stability. But if he took his fitness more seriously, Oh, my goodness.

Africa Alarcon: 1:08:13

I think it's just raw talent. And, you know, and he, he relies a lot on that. But it's true that is not going to take him that far, because he didn't use that power of you know, his training much seriously. But it's true that he's not I think he's an outlier. I don't think he should be a good example of, you know, what about John Daly? No. What about Rory? What about Jason day? What about, you know, the other guys? So that's just one example. We have 1000s to come?

Douglas Maida: 1:08:49

Oh, no, no, fair enough. Fair enough. But, you know, the perception and that's why I perhaps unfairly threw John's name out there as one, I mean, you can't you cannot be able to draw that club back like he does in a backswing without having the stability and mobility to be able to do that. You know,

Milo Bryant: 1:09:06

and you can't hit that ball that far

Douglas Maida: 1:09:09

And the athletic ability to come in and and be synchronized so wonderfully to be able to maximize that power through you know, I mean, he was out-driving Tiger

Milo Bryant: 1:09:19

People, that there are people who look at actually, so people should know. To have power, you have to have strength. You cannot have power without strength, no strength begets power. And John Daly's didn't I mean, he was leading the tour and driving distance for how long so you cannot have that without being strong. And you can't maintain that consistency with the clubface at impact without being stable without being mobile. How And so yeah, so I mean John Daly he's is an incredible golfer. He's athletic enough to be a very good golfer. And I still just wonder what would have happened if? What would have happened if?

Douglas Maida: 1:10:13

As we start to draw to a close here for this episode, Milo, what would you suggest as being some of the things that are important for an athlete to remember? Or somebody who's about to embark on a fitness program? Or already is in a fitness program? What are some important things for them to remember?

Milo Bryant: 1:10:31

Well, first of all, what is it you want to do? Well, always keep that goal in mind. I mean, what's the goal you are you're trying to achieve? And then I tell a lot of my athletes out, I tell all my athletes, because I there should be no point in our relationship as an athlete, and coach, where you asked me -- How is just going to help me on a golf course? There, should, I should always be able to answer that question. Oh, you're doing this, this is how it's going to help you. Oh, and so the athlete should have an absolute belief, and absolute trust and the process that he or she is going through, and how that process is going to help them become a better athlete, so that so that they can become a better coach, he or she can become a better golfer, or a better baseball player, or a better then volleyball player. When I get these kids out here, I have a group of kids who come out three times a week, I have volleyball players in there, I have baseball players, I have golfers, I have tennis players in there. And each exercise that we do, I sit there and tell them, this is why this is going to help you in tennis, this is why this is going to help you in golf, this is why now. So they have to know and understand that then. So understand the goal. And the goal is always gonna be that that's the target. That's what you're always trying to reach for. So that's one, Then two -- have a trust, and the team that you have around you. And so that team is the trainer, it's there's no nutrition, people, even if it's a young athlete, guess who the nutritionist says, It's mom and dad. So they have to be a part of it, they have to be enrolled in it. So and I have no problem telling mom and dad when they need to step their game up, though, because we have some kids - No Mom, I mean, the kid comes here eating an ice cream cone. So getting ready for it for practice session. I don't get mad at the kid. I'm like, Dad, what are you doing here? We're, this athlete is about to come out here and try to become a better athlete. And you're sending him here on this kind of fuel. Are you serious? and, and he's Oh, he was griping about this, he was hungry. He was he's hungry. So you give him ice cream. Really? That's not going to help him become a better athlete. So it's just making sure that athlete has complete trust and an understanding of his or her role on that team too. Because guess what the athlete is a part of that team. So they need. So they need to understand the goal they need to have have the right team around them. And then they need to have fun during that journey, too. Because if you have the goal is out there you have the team around you. So that part is set. That's great. But then you still need to have fun doing it.

Douglas Maida: 1:13:38

Right? So how does somebody find a trainer like yourself? Africa? Do you want to maybe?

Africa Alarcon: 1:13:43

Sure, people can go on my website golf.com or they can see my work on Instagram. I have a ton of videos there. But I'm helping golfers around the world nowadays. I think one good thing that came out of the pandemic is that everybody now is using more than online platforms. And I can speak for myself that I was one of those like I was only doing in person sessions. But now I'm reaching out clients all over the world, like I have an online program that it's based on five different programs is very, you know, is very one step at a time. So people don't go straight to power. They have to start with the basics, even if it's boring, but I make everybody start at the beginning. And that online program is available worldwide. So they can reach out and talk to me through Instagram or just send me a message through my website and we can start the conversation there.

Douglas Maida: 1:14:49

Great and how about yourself Milo?

Milo Bryant: 1:14:52

Well, first of all, just just in general, if you're looking for a a golf trainer, you can go to the TPI website.

So I believe it's: 1:15:02

www.mytpi.com, You can go in there and there's a find a, find a pro outside there. And so wherever you are on the world, there's about 30, some odd 1000, certified golf pros, trainers, medical, medical professions around the world. So you can go in there, put in the city you live in, and they'll find everybody around there who's who's TPR certified, but for me, personally, I have, I have my website, also, which is milostrong.com. So you can go there and get in contact with you there. And then looking on Instagram, I'm on Instagram, you can find me on Facebook, then I have my play program. So which is the Coalition for Launching Active Youth. That is a program that's also online. And that's what I use to help teach adults how to work with young athletes. And this is of all sports, and

that's at: 1:15:59

clay.life so you can go there. And that is an online program that we'll be able to use that will take you through 18 years of understanding how to work with with young athletes. So and then the the online I wish, then this is sad for bad for me to say probably, I wish I were a better online trainer. But it's like I'm still I have people who I work with online because they're not going to work with somebody else and I'm moving, I'm gonna, I'm gonna stick with you, but they've been with me for years. So I can work with him. But I'm still so much of an in person trainer. So it's it's, it's an it's unreal. But though from an online training standpoint, I can teach you how to train kids. But if you want to go to online training Africa, is the one to go to. Africa will be able to help you.

Africa Alarcon: 1:16:59

Thank you Milo.

Douglas Maida: 1:17:02

Okay, as we end, I want to say thank you for, for taking the time out of your busy schedules to be here with us today and to talk all things fitness today. I know time is flown by, but it's been an hour already. So that's how quickly it's gone. Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I'm sure our audience will be even more appreciative. So what's next, for either of you? Africa, you anything coming down the pipe for you in the next little while?

Africa Alarcon: 1:17:33

Well, I have, I've been invited to participate in our new online platform called LATAM golf, and is going to launch soon. And this is a platform idolized for by some golfers, and sorry, some golf coaches in Latin America, the best of the best. And I was very lucky to be invited. And I feel very humbled to say this, but I'm the only woman on that team, and the only one from Brazil as well. And it's an online platform with master classes, with all range of subjects from putting, chipping, I have a lecture there that it's about the female athletes, and how to gain more power and how to work through the hormonal system as well. And that's going to be launched soon. And just I'm just enjoying the process right now. I'd like I don't have anything that I want, you know, I'm just enjoying my career and everything that comes up, it's going to be a surprise, and it's going to be fun to just participate in.

Douglas Maida: 1:18:45

Great, great. And Milo, any last words that you'd like to share or anything like that?

Milo Bryant: 1:18:50

Ah, many coming up, there's getting the relaunch of the CLAY website, then, oh, one big thing I'm doing which is, which is definitely a little bit different. I have been studying a lot about life coaching. And so I am going to add that into the programs that I have from a fitness standpoint. So it makes it even more holistic. And I think some of the stuff that's already happened with my athletes has been, has been huge. So I'm very happy about that. And so this is going to be another another piece of the puzzle that I'm trying to put together to try and create a little more joy in this world.

Douglas Maida: 1:19:31

All right, wonderful. Well, everyone, thank you so much, again, for taking time out of your schedules to be with us. And hopefully we can do this again sometime in the near future.

Africa Alarcon: 1:19:41

Thank you. Thank you.

Douglas Maida: 1:19:44

Yeah, thank you Africa.

Milo Bryant: 1:19:45

Thanks a lot. All right. Thanks, everyone. Have a great day.

Africa Alarcon: 1:19:50

Bye, guys. Thank you very much.

Douglas Maida: 1:19:52

Okay. Thank you. Bye bye. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is our show for today. Thank you for listening with us, we did go a little bit over time, or at least longer than our normal show goes. But we do hope you found it really informative and something that's worthwhile to listen to that you can incorporate in your day to day life. So on behalf of our guests and the producers, thank you very much for listening in. Have yourselves a wonderful day and we look forward to a new show coming to you in a couple of weeks time. Thank you.

Amy (Studio): 1:20:28

You are listening to we're talking golf produced by the world of golf. The views expressed by our guests are the sole views of the guest and not at the podcast show. We're talking golf, nor have the producer the world of golf or any of its personnel, including the host dadless Mater. This episode was recorded on Wednesday, May 19 2021. If you have an idea for a future show, please send us an email to info at World of golf.org please include podcast show in the subject line. This show is the copyright of the world of golf. Thank you for listening.