My Golf Source
Attention Golf Enthusiasts! Level up your golf game with hosts Darren Penquite and Noah Horstman, PGA as they keep you up to date on the latest trends, equipment, training aids and more. Learn tips and tricks from PGA Professionals to lower your score and grow your love for the game of golf.
My Golf Source
From Blades And Shanks To Confidence: Tempo, Warm-Ups, And Golf Fitness That Actually Works
Ever wonder why the first crisp chip shows up on hole five? We dive straight into the real fixes for blades, chunks, and wobbly contact—and it’s not another gadget. Noah shares a wild par-four “ace” story to set the tone, then we get practical: how a simple Y-to-Y short game motion, steady tempo, and better balance turn chaos into control. From there, we zoom out to what truly lowers scores: a body that can move, stabilize, and repeat under pressure.
Coach Matt Preston, a Top 50 GRAA performance coach with a sports medicine background, joins us to map the path from assessment to results. He explains flexibility vs mobility, why strength is the glue that makes range of motion usable, and how ground-up control solves sneaky problems like over-rotation and drifting low points. You’ll get a concise, field-tested warm-up—reverse lunges with a twist, skater jumps, and split-stance rotations—that primes you to play well from the first tee, not the fifth.
We also tackle the confidence vs warm-up debate, lay out at-home drills that require little more than a mirror and a wall, and share an impact-first checkpoint you can test today: stop an inch before the ball and read the face. One or two degrees matters more than you think, especially with driver speed. Along the way, we spotlight the power of coach collaboration—how swing coaching and performance training align goals, set constraints, and accelerate progress for juniors, busy adults, and competitive players alike.
If you’re chasing tighter dispersion, cleaner wedge strikes, and a swing that holds up when it counts, this one’s for you. Listen, try the warm-up, run the impact check, and tell us what changed. If it helps, share it with a playing partner. And if you’re new here, follow, rate, and leave a quick review—it helps more golfers find the show and level up with us.
Welcome to the My Golf Source Podcast. Welcome to My Golf Source. Welcome back for another episode of Golf Talk Business. Drinking. Tournaments. Fun. Noah can control himself. He literally just walked into the studio from playing in a golf tournament.
SPEAKER_03:So excited, Darren. So excited. I literally hit a golf ball off of a guy's face today.
SPEAKER_04:That's awkward.
SPEAKER_03:You know what was cool about it? Centennial Golf Club. Drivable par four. Oh yeah, dude. 289. And I'm with two people I don't know in.
SPEAKER_04:289 from the purples. Like 250 from the men's sees.
SPEAKER_03:With my buddy. And they're like, call your shot. I'm like, cool. You're only 4'11, but you can reach out and touch somebody with pound for pound, long drive champion of the world. Like later on when Matt's on the show, he's going to tell you all about my explosiveness. You're not really four foot eleven. Don't worry about that. Yeah, yeah. Close. Five foot seven. Hey, anyway, they said, call your shot. You call your shot, you get a hole in one. I said, Cool, I'll hit a butter cut off Rob's face. Buttercut off of Rob's face. I flew him in the face. It deflected onto the green. Hole in one. Where was his face? I think I knocked it down after that shot.
SPEAKER_04:Cardboard cut out at like, you know, 10 times.
SPEAKER_03:At any rate, I have a picture of it, and we're gonna post that to our Facebook. Got it. Yeah. Game on, dude. It was it was so fun. The fact is, when I hit the golf shot, I peered it and I'm like, oh, cool, that looks pretty good. Kind of took my off it, and everyone starts cheering on it, and all of a sudden I see the ball deflect. I'm like, what was that? I thought it hit the back of the green and just deflected. Like, you hit him, you hit him, you hit him. You know, like so. You know what? End of the day, made a hole in one on a par four today. How many of you have done that? I don't know, but pretty cool.
SPEAKER_04:The hole just happened to be six feet wide, but that's right.
SPEAKER_03:Two feet by two feet, you know, you know, a little cardboard cutout. But uh, it'll look good on Facebook today and uh and the gram. So excited for everybody to see that.
SPEAKER_04:Let's get right to our listener questions.
SPEAKER_00:Hey guys, what is the drill I can do to prevent blading and chunking short chips?
SPEAKER_03:Nice, that's an awesome question. And uh shanking and blading are totally different animals, right? So when we look at a shank, that's an open face or it's off the hossle. So it depends on how the person's coming into the golf ball. Um, when we look at blading, it's usually coming out of posture. So what's unique about a chip shot is it's actually a really easy motion. And at golf garage, we teach a lot about how to work from the hole backwards. So we talk about putting to chipping to pitching and so on and so forth back to the T-box. And so when you look at that, a putting motion is very simple in the sense that you're basically moving your sternum. Everyone says you're moving your shoulders, but your sternum's moving the putter. So at the end of the day, it's a very, very simple stroke that moves maybe a foot and goes through a foot max. So it's not a very big motion. When we get into a chip, we talk about a Y-to-Y type of a stroke, which basically doesn't move a lot as well. At the end of the day, what happens when people tend to blade a shot is because they typically take it back a lot shorter. And then the brain says, Oh man, I never took it back far enough. And then they accelerate really hard and they stand up out of posture and they blade it. Because when you stand up and you hit the top part of the equator of the ball, it's not gonna go up, it's gonna go down. And when it goes the very bottom groove of the club, without question. So it goes off the blade or the bottom groove of the club and it goes flying across the screen, and then all of a sudden you play left, right, left golf, right? Army golf. Um, and when we talk about shanking, same idea. It's all tempo. I mean, we got to go tempo town all day long. So a lot of times when I grew up golfing, the best thing that I ever learned how to do prior to all these, you know, equilibrium drills and all these different things was I would just literally sing a song. You'd find a beat of a song and say, Man, I'm gonna sing this, and you kind of get that rhythm going, and you would take some motion, you know, of a chip shot and say, Oh, this feels kind of different because the song leads you. So I would definitely recommend finding a song that fits your motion because tempo is different for every player.
SPEAKER_04:Ain't no mountain.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, dude. It's not like CPR, dude. We're not going that route. That's way too fast. But yeah, I mean, ultimately, even that one to one, even if you clam like three.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you got that.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Day drop, day job. No, you're actually pretty good. You're pretty good. Keep going. Hey, so one, two, one, right? I think if we go into that role, we're pretty solid. And that it's like, hey, one, two, one. So what we're looking at is the one, two is the back swing. The one is impact.
SPEAKER_04:Like a hip-hop beat. About 89 to 92 beats per minute. Is it like brown chicken brown cow? I mean, I'm going back Snoop Dogg, Dr. Drake, Grandmaster Flash, you and me both. 90s, baby.
SPEAKER_03:So ultimately, if we can get into a rhythm or tempo, it allows our shoulders to move, it allows the big muscles to help. Because a lot of times when we blade, also, if we don't pop out of posture, we use our hands and our wrists. And if our wrists come in and we feel like the ground's gonna get in the way, we we move those wrists really quick so we don't hit the ground, and then all of a sudden the ball gets in the way by the blade and we hit it over the green, also. So not only is posture a big thing, but also how we get in the way of the low point of the club or if the ground gets in the way. So a lot of a lot of it again, learn how to putt, learn how to chip, go find your PGA professional. You know, it's super easy because when we look at it, it was we look at it balance points. If you're not balanced at the address, the back swing at the top, and the finish, you're gonna hit a bad shot. It's just what it is. Amen. Game on. I'm still celebrating. You know why? Because your son's awesome. Okay. But that's not the reason. Because you're happy we get to talk today? For sure. Not a boy. That's that's that's the top of it. Because I put a happy face on the scoreboard in our tournament?
SPEAKER_04:Because our league kicked your butt. That's why. My team kicked your team's butt.
SPEAKER_03:You know what's weird about that is we have handicaps, right? League handicaps, so tough. And our team played so good, and I was out of town, that the team handicaps got chopped. So our totaled handicaps are like a four. Do I think that's accurate? Not a hundred percent. Do I think my team's good? Absolutely. Do I think their handicaps based on where they are is accurate relative to what they shot? No, because they didn't have to putt. Because we have auto-put.
SPEAKER_04:Do I think it's accurate that they took my handicap from an 18 to a zero for the final round? That's tough. That's tough, man. Yeah, that's tough. But So I I will say, yes, I want to brag on this show because we won. However, I did not carry what I owed my team or what I should have in the final round because they moved my handicapped to zero and I shot a I shot a nine on hole eighteen. Yeah. Because it was fantasy golf. There's hold on. Don't even get me started on that. Wait, wait, wait. I told I told my teammates, I said, Do you know this is funny? The only if they beat us, the only reason they beat us is because we're playing fantasy golf.
SPEAKER_03:You can say whatever you want. The thing is, is golf garage simulation is exactly the same as on course when it comes to what your mind does to you. And when you put pressure on the code, it's a whole island greens on everything. And the final hole was brutal, right? I birdied it. I shot two under on the TGL course and I wasn't in the playoffs. And I made one bogey. So the thing of it is, it wasn't that it was so hard. It was that if you missed the fairway, you were out of bounds. And so ultimately it was a mental test.
SPEAKER_04:That wasn't my problem. On hole 18, I hit into the first set of bunkers because I couldn't see them. And I should have looked at the diagram, but I didn't. I just saw the fairway process. I hit it. I hit it where I wanted to hit it, but I ended up in a fairway bunker and right up against the lip. So those pink glasses are hot, man. I you've distracted me. So my teammates are like, okay, you're one, you're 181 out. Take your seven iron and pretend like that lip isn't there. So I hit my seven iron, hit the lip, bounce backwards, back into the bunker. No, it bounced backwards and off the cliff into the water. So I had to take a rehit, so now I'm hitting like four or five. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna take a pitching wedge. That'll get over that lip. No, hit the lip, bounce off into the water again. Like, okay, I'm gonna take my 60 degree wedge. That'll surely get out of there. Which wedge? 60. Oh, okay. Yeah, I you know, I should have gone to the 69, but I hit my 60 degree wedge, that hit the lip, bounced back into the water again, and then it was like that was my tenth stroke, and it defaulted me to a nine and told me I needed to just take a back seat and we needed to move on.
SPEAKER_03:So hey, you know what? That was whole 18. So can I tell you? We ended rough. Quick question. Right? Are there pictures on the scorecard? No. Congratulations, you won.
SPEAKER_04:All right. I'm just trying to be honest. I'm just trying to be honest and say, hey, this was my struggle. You know, I I had a handful of pars. I'm so proud of you. I'm so nobody.
SPEAKER_03:I am so proud of you right now. It's not any funny. You should be.
SPEAKER_04:You're lying, but I make me feel like that.
SPEAKER_03:Honestly, honestly, I gotta run a business. I gotta do all this stuff, right? Today, you know what was so cool about our tournament? What? On the scoreboard was a happy face. I love that. So the tournament was like a fun event to network and all this stuff. How was Centennial today? It was great, it was awesome. They just tight fairways. The fairways were awesome. The greens were a little slower because they airified, but they were smooth. I mean, you can't complain about it. It was in good shape. And ultimately for us, like the fun thing was I handed the scorecard and we put happy faces and frowny faces for the score. And it was the funniest thing ever when I handed it to the head pro and he looks at it like, whoa, what am I supposed to do with this? Yeah, daggone. What am I supposed to do with this? So, like, just put a happy face. We're gonna get him on the podcast, so we're gonna get him, gotta get him a little whiskey. So I think we shot 54. We shot 1800 as a team with two beginner golfers and Andy Baker and myself, who does franchising, and it was such a fun tournament. And there was like three companies in town that put it on that said, hey, come play in this. There was no fee, it was just networking. And I love it. Dude, we we got two memberships out of it minimum, and we got like two events out of it. And I was like, this is exactly what needs to happen more, and that's what golf garage is for. This is what golf is all about in general, yeah, all day long. And golf garage just embraces that. Yeah. So I want to switch, I want to flip this up. So ultimately, last week we talked a lot about um your son Toby. He is starting to mature um from the standpoint not only mentally but physically. I get the chance to work with Toby every Wednesday for the most part at 8:30 a.m., unless we're back from a road trip with SOU. And Toby is like the kindest, awesome, like I'll do anything type of a soul. But he's starting to understand competition right now. He's starting to mature, he's starting to get clubhead speed. He wants to start winning. Like, you can just see that um he's hungry. Yeah, he's hungry. And if he doesn't do better, he's gonna like start getting upset. So, what's cool about this part of his life is that you know, this is where we get excited as coaches to see that his passion is so high for the sport that this is the game that he's probably gonna play for the rest of his life. So, with that being said, now we have to understand how to try to feed that. And so with Toby, a couple things. One, you know, he's getting assessed by a doctor right now. So tell us a little bit about that, Darren. Um, he's with a PT. Tell us about the first couple weeks with that.
SPEAKER_04:I so Toby, we're we're gonna get real personal here for a second, and I'm gonna be completely honest, has had some developmental issues when it comes to eating and um providing enough nutrients for his body to grow. Uh, he has a little bit of an eating disorder, not not nothing like um strong up meals, nothing like an obsession with with weight loss, but a fear of healthy foods. And we have made a lot of progress over the last year and a half in overcoming that and being able to get some weight on him. Um but during that process, I think he has fallen way behind in the ability to have built built enough foundational body strength, structure, and balance um to support what his needs for his age are. And so we've had a lot of consultations with his with physicians, with nutritionists, uh, increasing his calorie and fat intake. We've gotten to finally put on some weight and start to build some strength, but he's a little bit behind the curve for a 14-year-old. However, he's able to hit a an eight-iron 180 yards and hit a driver 250 yards because of his technique. Once we start to bring his strength online, I think his potential is limitless. And so he just started seeing a physical therapist a couple of weeks ago um who's working on that foundational strength, and I want that to work hand in hand with professional golf fitness training. And that's why we're here today to talk to Coach Matt.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and I and I would just say that to add on from the coach's perspective, there's nothing better than to get a doctor's perspective of where the body is in order to then give complete confidence to a performance coach to say this kid or this person can do anything they want, or they're limited here, and we need you to help them. So, you know, with Coach Matt, our our director of performance at golf garage, once he understands that there's nothing that that person can't do, there's no limitations, or there are, and he understands the parameters, he can take them to that limit and get them dialed in so fast. It's like it's like stupid. I worked out with the SOU golf team about two weeks ago, and Matt knew that I hadn't worked out in probably three or four months, just with everything with business. And he literally had 15 people there, and he just said, Hey, modify this to this for you because you haven't worked out. And immediately I was like, Okay, sounds great. And I was like, Oh wow, I'm glad I didn't have to do what they did because if I did, I'd probably hurt myself. So he was able to make a modification on the fly for someone like me, and the team was able to do what they needed to do, I was able to do what I needed to do, and the next day I couldn't get out of bed, and it wasn't a bad get out of bed, it was like, dang, I worked hard, yes. That was so cool, and I felt like I could do it when I was doing it, and then the next day after that I felt great, and then the next week when I did it again, there was another modification. It was like awesome! Like it's so cool, right?
SPEAKER_04:Toby finishes some exercises, and he's like, My legs feel like jello. That's good, and then the next morning he wakes up, my legs are sore. I'm like, even better.
SPEAKER_03:So no pain, no gain. So ultimately, it's a great time to welcome Coach Matt Preston, top 50 Golf Range Association of America performance coach to the show. Welcome, Coach Matt.
SPEAKER_01:How's it going, guys? Great to be back.
SPEAKER_03:Welcome, Matt. Thank you. Golf clap. Yeah, buddy. Hey, so I also have to say that Coach Matt is um one of the coaches at the SOU Southern Oregon University golf program. He is directly in charge of all the performance with our collegiate players, and he absolutely crushes it. And on top of that, almost any assessment that I do with a player that is a sub-10 handicap, Matt's in the room. So trust this guy, know what he's capable of. Um, most of the time, it comes down to what he sees prior to what I'm gonna do. And then if it's something I want to do based on the student's goals, we have a conversation privately to see if that student can actually accomplish that. And if they can't, then we have to tell them. And if they can, then they got to work harder in the gym with Coach Matt, and then we go from there. So his job is always to do what the player wants, but if they can't do it, then we figure it out. So, Coach Matt, can you talk a little bit about some of your experiences in the gym and just like what you've seen? Because you've had so much success with players very quickly in just warmups, whether that is SOU players or just golf garage players in general, um, based on what they are.
SPEAKER_01:So, yeah, for sure. I think it just kind of comes down to um, you know, assessing things from from the beginning and finding out um the root cause of um where someone can benefit from the most. And a lot of that comes from my background in sports medicine where you know somebody would come to you with an ankle injury, and it's pretty straightforward where their ankle's swollen, so they sprain their ankle, and then their goal is to heal it and get back on the field. But you find out later on it was actually a weakness from their hip that actually caused, um, not caused, but it led to you know the potential for you know injury elsewhere. Yeah, exactly. So there's you know predisposing factors, and you know, you can't you can't uh prevent any injury, right? There's forces outside of our control. Um, but we can do our best to mitigate it as best we can, um, you know, based off of what we see from the assessment, whether that's a mobility restriction or things like that. So um from the golf side of things, yeah, we just try to assess from the very beginning. And, you know, it's really just about being efficient with your time too and steering people in the right direction. Awesome.
SPEAKER_04:Tell me a little bit about your background, what your degree is in, and what do you I mean, how where you are today came to be.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, super long story, but to uh cut it short, my um undergraduate degree is uh is a bachelor's of science in athletic training. So um did a three-year program um in athletic training specifically. Um at the end of that, I had a board exam similar to lawyers and had to pass that and became a certified athletic trainer. So much different than what a personal trainer is. I actually went to school for four years to become a certified athletic trainer in sports medicine.
SPEAKER_04:More on the clinical side.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, most of the time you'll see athletic trainers with collegiate sports, at uh high school sports, things like that, um, kind of in the trenches with athletes. Um, we're trained to, you know, treat, diagnose, um, prevent injuries, uh, certified in CPR and first aid, um, a lot of emergency things as well. Um, and then I went on to get my um master's degree in kinesiology. Um, and that's just the study of human movement. So just overall, um, just understanding the body and the biomechanics and things like that. And then what we're all we were trained to do in school is really break it down based on what sport you were with at the time. Um, so when I was with baseball, the you know, we're turned to play parameters for a baseball player with a shoulder injury is a lot different than a soccer player with a shoulder injury because of the demands of the sport. So I think the school and just the you know hands-on experience with all these different sports really allowed us to learn um kind of a lot about the body and how each sport really you know demands different things from the body, whether that's you know an upper body sport like baseball and golf and volleyball, or you know, lower body sport like cross country, for instance.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, absolutely. So so Matt, obviously we've seen players of all ages and abilities. What do you think you're most proud of so far with your assessments and then being able to see progress?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. I think it's just I'm I'm proud of the students when they can take ownership of what we've gone over and they have the tools to do it on their own because ultimately I can't be there for everything. So, you know, I've worked with, you know, some of our members here for a couple years, and um, you know, when they talk about how influential our time has been um over the past few years and you know how much it's impacted their golf swing and not only that, but their daily life. Like I'm just you know thankful to have a part of that too. Um, you know, I think that's the biggest thing too is that they they've learned a lot. And I I try to teach a lot of people about what we're doing and the whys behind it, not just you know, yelling at them to squat lower or bench more weight, right?
SPEAKER_04:There's a lot of harder, swing faster.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of intent. I use the word intent a lot because there's always a reason behind what we're doing.
SPEAKER_04:Let's go to one more question. We have you know, we've been talking a lot about um drills and technique lately. Let's hear what Tyler has to ask.
SPEAKER_02:Hey guys, what drills can I do at home with a limited amount of equipment that I have um not at the range, obviously, to improve my game?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's a great question. Um, the nice thing about golf is it is a movement of the body, and your body and a golf club is all the equipment that you'll ever need. So um I know Tyler, we've worked together in the past. So um doing a lot of split stance, balance things, uh rotating the body, learning how to um do the small things really well, like separating your upper body and lower your lower body, um, getting into posture efficiently, um, just having having something to give you feedback. So, like a mirror or a wall, right? Things at home like that are um kind of the most you know beneficial things that you can use to have the feedback.
SPEAKER_03:Hey Matt, will you do me a favor and walk us through like a two-minute warm-up that you'd recommend for any golfer out there? I think that's the key, is like most people are like, what can I do to get better? A golf diet just says this, but we know that's not 100% accurate to stop your slice or whatever they say. Like, but warming up is such a huge opportunity. And you've always asked that question of like, hey, when are you warmed up? Do you usually feel it on hole one, hole two, hole three, hole four? And most people are like hole five. You're like, Well, what would feel what would you say? Yeah, what do you feel like if you were like warmed up on hole one, right? So, what would you recommend for people? And obviously, we can always put some of these videos on the on our Facebook page, obviously, of you showing the warm-up, but just go through what you call them and like what you think would be a benefit for our students.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think the biggest thing with the warmup is physically getting warm. So you have to do things, you know, that are somewhat challenging. Um, and also doing, you know, multipot multiple um movements at the same time. So blending, you know, dynamic movements together. So doing a reverse lunge with a twist, you know, works the lower body and the upper body at the same time while balancing. Um, so you do that. We would do a lateral jump, some people call it a skater jump, um, because that's super important to lower up the w warm up the lower body and also learn how to balance as well. Um, doing things in a split stance like we talked about earlier, and just trying to rotate the club as fast as you can also just kind of feels where you're at with your balance that day, too.
SPEAKER_04:So what what's the philosophy in grabbing like two or three clubs in your hand and warming up? Kind of like swimming swinging two bats in baseball.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, it it's a it's good if you want to. I mean, the club will obviously feel lighter if you go from a heavier club to a lighter club, too. But I think that there are other things, in my personal opinion, that are more worth your time than swinging weighted clubs for two minutes.
SPEAKER_04:It's been popular in social media lately, the John Daly approach, where you don't warm up before a match. You don't warm up before a tournament. You literally show up to the driving range, you take your favorite club in the bag, and you hit it like two or three times. So it's a pitching wedge. For most of us, it's pitching wedge, right? Show and get it. That's our warm-up club. That's what we that's the first club we grab when we get out to the range, is our pitching wedge. Take your favorite club that you hit with confidence, hit it two or three times, hit it well, walk away with that positive mindset. That mindset is better than being physically warmed up. What do you have to say about that?
SPEAKER_01:I think I mean confidence goes a long way.
SPEAKER_04:I disagree.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I I want this debate.
SPEAKER_03:I 100% disagree. Let's have it. Can I say what I want to say? Go ahead. Movement gives confidence. And if you're not moving freely and you think you're gonna hit a good shot and then it goes dead left, why? Because your body didn't move properly. Happens all the time. So you resolve that with more warm-up.
SPEAKER_01:100% I can't tell you the amount of rounds, especially in the late fall winter time when it's cold outside. Well, I will warm up at home for 30 minutes, show up to the first T and walk to the first T and hit my first shot of the day with a thousand more percent of confidence than I would if I hit 100 golf balls.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I know John Daly listens to this podcast, so we've got to have him on to debate this.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, John Daly, though, is one of those. He's a different breed of cat. That's just ultimately, too. Look at the guy, he's hypermobile, obviously. Look at what the club does. He keeps it on plane and he takes it and almost hits the ground with the golf club. So somebody that has the ability to move freer than someone else, regardless of what the build of the body looks like, is no bearing. That is one per like that's one person. Name another one, right? Kenya.
SPEAKER_04:Well, Tiger in his current state, because he's so limited.
SPEAKER_03:Well, no, but what I'm getting at is like when someone has a what we call a freakishly uh looking golf swing or a swing that's totally different, their ability to move is their mobility that day, right? So Matt's actually someone let's so Matt, let's get your definition of flexibility over mobility, because that will explain exactly what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, flexibility essentially um is range range of motion that you have to stretch to attain. So if you, you know, weren't someone that could touch their toes, you would you know, stretch your hamstring and do different things, and you'd be able to touch your toes, right? Uh mobility is kind of more of a combination of flexibility and strength, oftentimes referred to as cold mobility, is the range of motion that you have, um, not at all times, but for the majority of the time, when you hop out of bed, if you can just reach down and touch your toes, um, you have the strength and the flexibility to do those movements.
SPEAKER_04:Boom. There you go. So, where does some mindset play come into play with this and how does that balance?
SPEAKER_03:I would just say from a coaching perspective, that if you know what your body's capable of doing, you're gonna have more confidence than someone that is not knowing that, right? So if I if I've never skied before and my buddies are trying to get me to go to the top of the mountain on the chairlift, right? Maybe you're more athletic physically than they are, but I I could be so much better at basketball, baseball, softball, whatever, whatever that is, right? Soccer. But I go to the top of the mountain and I freeze and I'm like, okay, I watch them just grind down that mountain and you fall down that mountain. I fall down that mountain and injure myself. Jump.
SPEAKER_04:Did a bit of comedy bit on that. That's hilarious, by the way.
SPEAKER_03:100%, right? So I think ultimately you know what you know, and ultimately we have to learn behaviors, we have to learn movement. And I think, Matt, like that's really your forefront, is what I see golfers and what you're really good at is making them aware of maybe something that needs some help. And once they're aware of that, you know, limited mobility, if you will, um, all of a sudden, in a short amount of time, what they wanted becomes a reality versus someone that's a golf coach. Oh, I can make you do that, just do this drill, do it over and over again, go to this position, go to the top of the swing, go to position one, go to position eight. Like that doesn't work because the body doesn't allow you to ever make it work. But in two seconds, if Matt puts you into a split stance, right? Trail leg back, you know, and all of a sudden, you know, get in golf posture, make some rotation over that lead leg, and you start feeling something new, your brain says, I can do that motion. And then, like that, all of a sudden, you're able to hit a golf shot the way the golf pro wants you to. So I think the collaboration between a fitness professional and the golf coach has to happen moving forward because every player is different.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, for sure. I think when we think about like what does golf-specific movement or golf-specific exercises look like, we're just trying to get to a point where a golfer's body isn't an issue in the swing. They can have other issues in the swing, right? But we're trying to take you know any issues of flexibility and strength, yeah, physical limitations out of the question. So, you know, for me personally, when I go play around to golf, if I can warm up properly, that trumps the ability to hit you know 20 golf balls and build confidence that way.
SPEAKER_04:So you put the rest of it on your mind. Yeah. Technique. What you know?
SPEAKER_01:I don't even I don't need I know a if my body is feels the way I want it to feel on a daily basis, my swing will be where I want it to be. All right.
SPEAKER_04:So here that's that's like mind-blowing. I mean, yeah, 100%. But it's true.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, you think about it, it makes sense. Well, the kicker on top of that is what really matters? And the answer is impact. So you could say the golf swing, like you got somebody coming across the line at the top. So right-handed golfer goes to the top of their golf swing, golf clubs pointed dead right at the top of the swing. We don't want that. No, right? Everything says aim it at the aim it at the clo at the flag, aim it at your target, aim it, you know, even you know, left of your target. It should be close proportional. It doesn't even matter where the club face is at that point. It's like the club is so far out of quote unquote position. So who cares if that happens if the club face gets back to square relative to where they're trying to hit it at impact? And I think what happens with a lot of these coaches is they get caught up in this perfect golf swing that no one knows how to make. And I have an amazing story for that. So early on, um, I don't know if you guys knew about 3D capture systems, but 3D capture systems create an avatar of your body. I work in that industry, but not with bodies. Yeah, exactly. Right. So it's like the green screens, like Spider-Man's, you put all these like new markers of physical buildings. 100%. You got markers on the body, you got all this stuff. So so essentially that that was a thing for the golf swing. And so I got about 16 markers put on my body, and I go up to Columbia Edgewater Country Club up in Portland. Taylor Maid had this big vault, and I'm marked up and I'm ready to go, and I'm I'm just pumped. I'm like, cool, I'm I'm playing good golf, I'm a plus three handicap, and I start hitting golf shots. And then I find out Tiger Woods's golf swing is on this, and they can mirror Tiger swing with my swing. So we get up.
SPEAKER_04:His old swing or his current?
SPEAKER_03:It was probably okay, 200 uh eight. It's probably his older swing. Yeah, old older swing, but really good swing. Yeah, he was playing great right before some of the injuries that he had. So we get up there and I'm like, just go to the top of the swing. Let's see what it looks like, right? And I I I was striping it that day, so it felt good. So I get up there and I match it, and I'm laid off a little bit relative to Tiger, so I go into that, and then I get to a position where my body's like tiger, and it feels fine. But then I have to move my wrists into Tiger's position, and it hurts so bad to do it. And so right then and there I realized injuries, right? But no, it's that's Tiger's golf swing, that's not Noah Horstman's golf swing. Right. So immediately I was like, every player's different. That's when I came up with the philosophy that I teach on now is that I'm not Tiger Woods, I'm not six foot two, I haven't done everything that Tiger's done in his life. You're right. So if I'm not, you know, a relative of Tiger even, like, how can I swing like Tiger? I'm my own person, and so I have to figure out my what works for my golf swing. And so when I did that, I hit the ball and I hit it fine, but I but it hurt to make tiger's golf swing. And so ultimately, nobody is gonna ever make a golf swing that hurts because your brain doesn't allow you to do that. So I think I was young enough to say I want to swing like tiger, but I was mature enough to say I'll never swing like tiger because it hurts and I don't want to hurt.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, so I get out here in the driving range on the simulator and I wind up my swing more. I can do a whole lot more of a backswing than what what I typically do, and I can do it without hurting. But the problem is, is once I get to the top of that backswing where I have a lot of rotation, a high backswing, nothing hurts, but I feel vulnerable, if that makes any sense whatsoever. And now I feel like, okay, I've got this windup. How am I now gonna collect it to bring it to exactly where I want to be in a comfort zone on impact?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, so I think this is I'll I'll start and then Matt, I think you need to finish this because Do you understand what I'm saying on that point? I do. I mean, part of this is mental. So like you get to the top of the swing and all of a sudden you're like, ooh, where do I go?
SPEAKER_04:Where do I go from here? And how do I how do I take this wound up, yeah, how do I take this wound up energy that I've now created and bring it, collect it and bring it back into a controlled form to have impact with the face where I need it to be at impact.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So so ultimately what happens is the brain says, I'm in a position I could do two or three different things from here, right? Not just one.
SPEAKER_04:It could be 10 different things from here.
SPEAKER_03:And so ultimately, I'll let Matt talk about from the ground up and how he could modify different positions to stop you from over-rotating. But but oddly enough, like what happens is we have to feel a sense of arm body connection. And arm body connection can only happen um, you know, if you find out what your mobility is. And so the assessment process is the single most important thing. And what's odd about it is the assessment happens when we first see you. And then we have to reassess, right? So, based on your goals, if you're in here, you know, weekly, we might reassess after eight weeks, we might reassess after four. It's up to the professional to decide when Matt needs to come in to do that reassessment. But ultimately, it's like any doctor you go to like, how much range of motion do you have in your shoulder and external rotation? How much range of motion do you have in your hip? Like all of those things are measured activities. And in the golf swing, you are moving your body in the same way. It's a dynamic movement, but Matt knows how to assess that between separations. And so, what's really cool about this is that because you're so good at moving in one way, you get caught up in saying, I'm so good at this that maybe you move too much instead of us teaching you how to stabilize a part to get you to not move so much, to say, I can go really fast through impact. So now all of a sudden, because your brain's like, where do I go over the top? Underneath, underneath, you know, inside out. How do you compensate for that? So you would need someone to tell you that, right?
SPEAKER_04:And that's where, and and I know I'm speaking for a lot of people who listen to this podcast as an amateur. I can I can I have more range of motion than what I typically use on the golf horse and do it comfortably. Yes, but it pushes my comfort zone not in like pain level, but in feeling and control.
SPEAKER_03:So, Matt, I think this is a perfect place for you to take over to talk about why people over-rotate and the ground up philosophy that you have, because I think that's super cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think the biggest thing is what Darren is explaining is balance. Right? When you rotate too far, your center of mass changes position and your balance is off. So immediately, once you're off balance, then what are you gonna do? Do everything you can to not fall over.
SPEAKER_04:Right. I just feel like I'm not in pain. I feel this is in my comfort zone, but I feel like I have too much physically and mentally to collect and bring into alignment on impact.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly. It'd be like you know, once you left the ground, right? Do you feel like you could jump on a one-inch box better or a ten foot box?
SPEAKER_03:Right. Of course. Right. And how would you do it? Jump onto the one inch box. And how would you do it relative to the 10-inch box? Well, it would be easy.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a lot less force, less requ less control.
SPEAKER_04:Or within my control. Yeah, exactly. More in my comfort zone. Right.
SPEAKER_01:So like you don't nobody starts at a 10-foot box. But I mean, uh you have to start somewhere. So you know, every sport is a learned skill, especially golf, right? So you have to start small and and work your way up, right? And so that's where you know strength and conditioning comes in too, is because we're doing controlled movements, right, under the eye of a trained professional where you're building and developing load. That's where weight training comes in too. So, you know, just doing stretches on your own isn't enough load to you know build strength and control, right? You have to actually put enough weight on the bar per se to actually challenge the body to you know make changes. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I think ultimately, Matt, the stuff that you do with your players is incredible. Not only are you good at assessing, you're really good at helping them develop. And what's funny about this whole thing is I've worked with performance coaches for uh let's see, or since 2007, and it is a game changer. I mean, the stuff that I don't know about the body and having someone that does, um, and the way that you can coach it, um, and the way you can communicate it back to the coach allows the player to be successful. So I think the biggest thing, you know, that I look at is it's always up to what the player comes in for. It's it's their goal. It's it's like, man, I want to break 90. I want to break 100, I want to break 70. It doesn't matter what it is. And we get somebody that's 65 and they've laid brick all year, right? That's a totally different animal. Um, then we get somebody that's a banker and they sit at their chair all day. That's a different animal. And what's really great about this process is as our academy gets to know that person, and as you know, Matt gets to know that person, he can give them something they can do in their chair at the bank or a 15-minute break after laying brick, or something that just allows that person to relax those muscles or move those muscles in the right way that allows them to feel like they can go out and play good golf, regardless. I think that's kind of the lost leader here is the fact that we need more performance coaches in our industry. And if you're only working with a swing coach, you're making a big mistake. And I'm gonna say that again, you are making a huge mistake. And the other thing about it is if that swing coach can't give you exercises and explain why you're doing them, then you need to question why you're taking those lessons. I will always say that I love every PGA professional. However, some professionals are meant to work behind the counter and some professionals are work meant to teach golf. And there are very few it professionals out there that can teach the game of golf to the masses. And we're just fortunate here at Golf Garage to have six PGA coaches that care about people number one, want to build a relationship with you, but ultimately have the ability to also say that if I don't know why this person can't do it, I have help from five other coaches that will help me get that person to the next level. And that's what a team amounts to. That's huge.
SPEAKER_04:If I have a 50-minute lesson one-on-one with Coach Ryan next week, what should I ask? What's my biggest why?
SPEAKER_03:I think your biggest why more than anything is um, you know, you're getting it probably in the simulator. Yes. And it's gonna be about contact. Why do I hit the ground first? Or why do I blade a shot? And and and ultimately do I narrow it down to a range of clubs or do I go through the whole bag? I think for you, you're gonna need to start with the short game first. Okay. You're gonna need to figure out how to have good contacts. Short game is in wedges, or short game is in like nine through seven iron. No, with wedges. You're you're gonna have to figure out how to make good contact with your 60 and your 52 or whatever you have, right? I mean, ultimately, because you have a motion that's pretty consistent with all your clubs, and so it'd be interesting to see how you hit a 70-yard shot when your 52 goes 90, right? So those in-between yardages, do you keep your tempo or do you always just quote unquote lash at it? Right. And I think that's where a lot of people struggle, is the fact that they don't understand what it feels like to have those balance points. And those balance points can only happen if you have a good tempo if you're golf swing. Awesome. I love it.
SPEAKER_04:Well, we're on that goal to break break 80. Yep. Um, this fall before the end of the year. I'm close. I shot an 80. Yep. Uh, I gotta break it. Um Matt, we'll be talking more.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we'll get you and Toby both dialed.
SPEAKER_04:For sure. Any words uh wisdom before we end and move on to the next week?
SPEAKER_03:I had one more thing I was thinking about, and when I talk about tempo, I I heard something from a very good player. He's a mini tour player, he's a good friend of mine. He was the assistant pro at Beachmont Country Club in Cleveland, and his name's Mark, and and Mark made this awesome comment to me probably three years into my director of instruction there that I really took to heart. And he said, You can't teach the backswing, you can't think about the backswing when you're trying to make a golf shot. Like it was something to that extent, and I was like, huh, okay, sounds good. And and I let it go, and then all of a sudden it just stayed with me. And it was like two weeks of like, what was he talking about? Because as a director of instruction, I was like, you know, I've got this person's inside on the backswing, they're they're way outside on the backswing. I gotta fix the backswing, I gotta fix grip, I gotta fix aim, I gotta do all this stuff. But what he was really talking about was when you're playing golf, you can only think about what's in front of you. You can only have a downswing thought, you can only think about what it feels like to hit the ball at impact. Um, and so I think one of the coolest things about that is for any listener that doesn't even want to take a lesson that's listening to this, is think about the last foot prior to the club face getting to the ball. Is the club face left? Is it right, or is it pointing at your target? And you can do a simple drill of just making a backswing, look at the ball, come down, and then stop your club face just an inch before the ball. And where's that club face? If it's one degree left, or if it's right, right, open or closed, that's gonna be a huge difference difference in a sand wedge versus a driver.
SPEAKER_04:And it'll be exaggerated the longer the club gets.
SPEAKER_03:Right. So if you have less loft like a driver and you swing at over 100 miles an hour, one to two degrees open could be the difference between the fairway and the rough, depending on where you start the ball. And so I think it's really relevant right now for a lot of you on the show to say, hey, I'm gonna take a backswing and go back to the ball and just see where my club face is pointed. Because ultimately you can look at it at address, but most people just look at it and say, that's normal, and it could be closed, right? So get with your pro, figure that out, right? I mean, I'm not trying to toot go spending a bunch of money on professional help, but like you need to get that. If you want to play good golf, it's gonna be worth it for you. And then number two, just check it out at impact. Put an alignment stick perpendicular to your target line of where you're standing and see if your club face points to it. So super, super simple stuff. Um, I'd love to hear more about that. I'm happy to put some videos on there, but please call in, ask some questions, post to our Facebook page, let us know what you want to hear about because you know your questions mean a lot to us. Indeed. Hey, that was a great show. That was needy, man. That was in depth. Matt, thanks for being on the show with us, dude. We love you, man. You're you're literally you're number one in our hearts, buddy.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks, guys. Appreciate it.
SPEAKER_03:Appreciate it. Until next week. Let's do it.
