Welcome back listeners to the Flow Golf podcast, where we will discuss how to develop a Junior Flow Golfer. We have a slightly different one today, so I’m super excited that we will be introducing two new members of the FlowCode Golf Academy junior section, Ted and also Josh really excited with all of that.
Of course, the Flow Golf podcast, we’ve covered so many different topics over the last few months. We’ve covered so many things from competitiveness all the way to confidence and so many in between.
But today, I really want to introduce the new members of the FlowCode Golf Academy Junior section. We’re launching some new products for ages 12 to 18 and also some others in the future, but really want to dive in first by just bringing these guys on board.
So Josh, start off with yourself. I would love for you just to introduce yourself to all of our listeners. Explain a bit about your background and obviously your role in the Loco Golf Academy Junior section.
Yeah. Hallam Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. So listeners out there, my name is Josh Alpert. I’m a PGA golf professional. I live in the Southern California area, and have been teaching in the South Bay here for 20 something years. I currently have a “Good swings happen” Junior Golf Academy. I run a lot of my youth academy classes out of that, out of that format.
I’m fortunate to have an indoor facility where I do training with precision golf centers. I have a local nine hole golf course that we take kids out on the golf course and run youth camps and various things, you know, sort of in the macro sense of it, positive relationships with the courses around the area, developing those in a larger sense, giving us access to getting kids out on the golf course.
So through 20 something years, a strong relationship with our community to be able to develop players. You know, as a kid, I was baseball, basketball, actually. I played golf with my grandfather growing up. I started with a love of the game. I’m playing with him and trying to make him proud, hitting, hitting cool golf shots. But my competitive juices were with baseball and basketball and played into college.
And those forms I always knew. I love teaching, and always knew I wanted to with kids. I thought maybe a PE teacher once upon a time ago and my baseball aspirations fizzle to one day as they will with shoulders and people being bigger, stronger and faster. If I may be honest. And I fell in love with golf, and I and I went down this road of seeing how good of a player I could become while at the same time coaching and starting into those paths.
I started at a small facility, the lakes, and also then down in Southern California and literally year by year by year went from teaching individual students and and players of all ages, which I still do, but, but really merging into this focus of supporting youth to be better golfers and in the evolution of all of that, and especially as a competitive player who went through my own challenges of, you know, trying to be elite physically and mentally.
You know, Rick and I have had a relationship now for a long time. And the development of the player physically and how you help them do all of the technical elements is certainly a piece that we all know about. But the reality is that a whole rounded player who can think and critically observe and be in an emotional control of their game and all that goes into both sides of it is something that has really fascinated me.
And as I’ve grown and developed, I’ve realized that, you know, how I can best serve and help is through developing players, both mentally and physically and parents alike as it’s transformed. So I sit here at this point, never more excited as a coach to be able to participate with you guys here.
And then and as we’ll we’ll talk about a full rounded coach ready to help players become better golfers and better people. And that’s literally where my evolution has led to today so super excited.
Just love it. Thank you so much for sharing it. And I mean, there’s so many things that we can dove into and we will later on the podcast, dove into your beliefs around junior development, some of the things you’ve learned over those huge, huge experiences you’ve had and all that, all that work that you’ve done, the incredible stuff you’ve done.
So I appreciate that. Josh, before we go back to that and we’ll open up some conversation, I know Rick’s probably sitting there you to open up some topics and ask some questions, but just want to jump to to Ted and Ted, just for you to introduce yourself, your background, some of the work that you’ve done and why you’re a part of like a golf academy, junior section.
Sure. Well, first off, I wish I would have gone first to follow Josh and what he just did. There is no this guy is like a man of words. I mean, the way he articulates and puts things together is like, I should have gone first. Josh Great. Well, first off, you know, I’ve known Josh and Rick for a long time.
And let me just tell the audience that there are no better two people than Rick and Josh with their moral compass, with their motivation, with their, you know, care and love for people for doing the right thing. So this is an honor to be part of the Flow Code Golf Academy. This is awesome. And, you know, we just met earlier and if you’re associated with these two, I want to say you’re a great guy too. Give me a little bit longer.
But you know, so and briefly I have been involved in golf. Fortunately my whole life I was introduced to it by my dad and fell in love with it because I think I probably got to spend time with my dad and then he evolved from there and he knew that I had something. There was a hook that I had for golf.
And whether it was competition or love or challenge, all those buzzwords that Rick uses in his flow code, those were all attracted to me. And my dad saw that. And I think that’s one of the things that I’d like to get into later on is the influences that you have and the mentors that you have that can help facilitate, you know, your love and passion for the game.
But anyway, my dad saw that and then he nurtured it. He got me lessons and I got lessons with Mr. Maron. As Josh and Rick know, he was the head pro at Bel Air for a long time and kind of a Harvey Penick type of person. And so my dad attached me to Mr. Maron’s and nurtured my game that way.
And I was fortunate enough to to love the game, work hard at the game, and earn a golf scholarship to play at UCLA. So I was a college golfer, and maybe we can get into some of that because it wasn’t all roses. I went through a lot of struggle. I know Rick went through some of that as well and we related a lot because of our similar stories.
But anyway, I played college golf and it culminated into just a wonderful experience for me. It was really life changing and that’s when I first tapped into the mental game and how important mindset is and how important reframing things are in your success. And I think reframing is a word that I’d love to tap into later on.
But in any case, I played college golf, then I played professional golf, played in South America, I played in Asia, I tried the Q school. Unfortunately, I didn’t have Rick by my side to lead me to a major championship. Maybe that was the reason. But nonetheless, I, you know, I didn’t make a living playing golf, but I make a living off golf now and my involvement in the game.
And I do deem that a success. That’s my own reframing story, quite frankly. But after I played competitive golf, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, 28 years old, and I kept reflecting back to my experience at UCLA and it was traumatic, quite frankly. And it was a very low point that ended up making me go beyond what I thought I could do.
And again, it was all because of the mental aspect. So I said, You know what? I want to help kids. I want to help kids go through this time, this very impactful and challenging time of their life. And I want to get into coaching. So I got into college coaching after I stopped playing competitively and I coached at SMU and USC.
So I was a Division one assistant coach or head coach for seven years, which was awesome. But I had a young family and I felt like, you know, there’s those coaches, I tell you, they make such in their life. And I just felt like I wanted to try to find something where I could spend a little bit more time with my family, but also be involved in the game, hence what I do now.
It’s the road to college golf. So I’ve been doing that as of July 1st, 16 years and I mentor, advise, counsel, shepherd these families and junior golfers navigate junior golf and ultimately help them try to find their best fit. And it’s a joy I get to be involved in the game. I get to be involved with people like Rick and Josh and now you’re home.
And it’s just awesome. And I’m just thankful that now all these experiences, you know, I’ve always felt like I’ve been in the flow. I didn’t know that’s what it was called, but I love the flow terminology because that was a huge part again of me getting through and working through my toughest challenge and now being able to share that in a more formal way with the Flow Code Academy with my clients and other juniors and golfers around the world.
So I’m super popular. So thank you.
Wonderful. And now you know why I went first.
So, I mean, I have been in the golf industry my whole life. It’s a very small community and we get to know each other. We get to know who are the best of the best. And I think with Flowcode, we have him and I always want to bring the best of the best and we now have two of the best in junior development and coaching.
And you know, with, with Josh, which I want to talk a little bit more about how he views development coaching with, with youth and juniors and with Ted. I’ve had tremendous respect to be able to take him as a player, him as a D1 coach. And then the key word that we keep hearing a lot is development, right?
And I think juniors get hooked up into short term fixes instead of long term development. And we see this as trends of these junior golfers changing coaches really quickly because it’s whoever the flavor of the month is as far as the golf coaches and it it it’s it’s unfortunately revolved around physical skills. Hey I need to have this golf swing look a certain way because that’ll make me shoot lower scores.
All of us here know the importance of physical skills. Of course we do. We know the mechanics of it, we know. But all of us have seen. I don’t care if it’s at the age of six, all the way to the age of 22, is that the development is going to come more from the mental emotional state that someone’s in and holy smokes, going from 8 to 22.
There’s a lot of stuff going on. And I. I want to talk real quick, Ted, you mentioned mentorships and I think having a role model and such I think is crucial along the way. You know, I been very, very fortunate to work with some very, very high level juniors who then get to college and then turn pro.
And then obviously with Collin success, you see him get to the highest, highest of levels and, you know, I believe I’m a very good coach, don’t get me wrong. But I think those long term relationships was was about helping people and and juniors go through these different paths and ups and downs, how to deal with parents and how to deal with a recruiting and college coaches watching and the pressures of rankings and all this stuff that is really has nothing to do with hitting the next golf shot yet can create stress and create an interference with this.
The junior golfer. So, Ted, can you tell me a little bit more about how you look at mentorship and role models in that development?
Yeah, that’s a great, great topic. You know, I think that, first of all, I have been so blessed to start with my parents to show me what unkindness personally loves me, you know, what does unconditional support mean? And I really think that the foundation of a true mentor is somebody that is that the student knows they’re not going to be judged by this person.
Based on Rick, what you just said, which is the score and what’s the first thing everybody asks you, when you come off the course, what do you see? So it’s so easy for an individual to be locked in. And I speak from experience with their self esteem is tied to their score. So the mentor to get to your point that what I was blessed to have is my parents saying, listen, what are your control, your attitude, your body language?
Ricky I mean, I’ve always remembered being in seminars with you and you walk around like, what’s Tiger Woods look like? You know, it’s like it’s true. It’s like his body language and his attitude. And so anyways, having mentors and people that can show you the right way to understand that, you know what, it’s okay to struggle. It’s okay to fail, it’s okay to get uncomfortable because that is the time when you’re going to grow.
And so mentors and influence sources and people that have that awareness to be able to articulate that to others, to be able to say, you know, you pick up a phone to a client or like, gosh, such a bad tournament. I shot 78-80 and Rick, I give you credit for this. I asked all my clients, I said, what did you do well and what did you learn?
And you taught me that. I mean, and I stole that from you because I think it’s great. It’s very simple. QUESTION: So the point of having mentors is people that really to me get the bigger picture, but they can slow things down in the moment and give you really practical, pragmatic ways to look at things and.
I mentioned the word, reframe it to me. Mentors can help you reframe things to keep going, and I think that’s what I’ll end in is that the message I got from all the people that I felt I looked up to was Keep going, Ted. Going through the ebbs and flows through the highs and lows, through the great tournaments.
Just keep going, keep learning, keep growing, keep being open to that. And to me, that’s what a mentor means to me personally, because I had that in my life and fortunately that helped me keep going at a time when I wasn’t going to keep going. Yeah.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the Flow Golf Podcast. Whether you’re a coach or a golfer, we have something for everyone. Flow Coach, Golf Academy. I’m so excited to announce that Rick Sitting House has launched two new masterclasses that you can access for free, one for a coach on how to grow your coaching business and, another for golfers on how to master your mental game to gain free access, you just need to head to WW flow code dot golf forward slash master classes.
We look forward to welcoming you to the flow coach family.
No, I love that because I think when we look at most junior golfers and again, I am using this as those who we usually work with are competitive juniors. Everything is serious. All my guys’ ranking points. Yet we must not lose sight that golf is to be played and to be enjoyed and to have fun. And that’s something where I have the most respect for, for Josh that I’ve seen you Josh coach youth at all these ages and you bring a I think you’re one of the ultimate mentors.
You link golf with fun and enjoyment and learning and challenge, and, and I’ve never seen anybody do it better in that. So, Josh and I know you take this role extremely seriously as a mentor, as a, you know, an advocate for golf. Tell me a little bit about that, because, again, I’ve seen you in real time. Go, oh, my gosh.
He’s got the attention of these 40 kids and they’re having so much fun. And you now help them have a link to golf that is not all about score and all that stuff. And that’s something I really appreciate with what you do.
Yeah. You know, I, you know, maybe it’s a blessing curse, if you will. I am going to be five years old in part of who I am. And that that’s always stuck maybe five, seven, eight, 12, hopefully better aspects of those things. But yeah, and from a philosophical standpoint and it’s funny as we’ve done these things and you know, I’ve known, you know, except for, for, for Hallam who, who I you are, you are of the same ilk, my brother.
So I’m again, very, very happy to be joined with you here at the head that I have always started, the instruction side of things or the coaching and the learning side of things from a place of golf is a game meant to be played having fun, and that it is a fun thing that we do.
And when I listen to the mentors that I’ve had in my life and I and I look at the most successful people that I’ve coached, that I’ve watched on television, that I’ve watched, and whatever the word passion and and being passionate about what you do seems to resonate the board for those who are the most successful, those that love
what they do, I love what I do. I love coaching. I love working with people. I love watching them get better as players. I love watching them get better at people when they’re not getting better. I care. I take that home with me. I want to figure out how I can help them? But at the end of the day, what it really, really does become about, it’s how we offer it.
And I would offer the younger programs because it seems so logical. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12 in ways that were fun. That’s just always the way that I would have done it. Here’s a game. How do we play it? Let’s play for ice cream. Let’s go high score, let’s go low score. Let’s do team names.
And then what sort of organically ends up happening when you do those things in all in all facets, individual small group camps, classes, teams is is that you watch people come together and they bond and we all work together and we we motivate each other to be a part of something that’s larger than winning and losing. It’s about having fun in park and rec, outdoor space, enjoying ourselves with rocks and stones and balls and bats and these kinds of things.
And it doesn’t have to be more than that. And maybe, you know, we grew up in a different era. But my mom would say, don’t you dare come home after dark and don’t you dare come home before dark or wherever that line is like you better be home for dinner and better not be home after dark, but you better not be home before that.
We just played. That’s what we did. We created games and we found our way through those things and I know in my core that I got better at everything that I ever did because I was having fun playing whatever we were playing.
And I was trying to figure out a way to get better at it. And I think a big transformation for me as a coach and that’s going to continue to evolve forever, is I sort of believed that that fun was something we only did with little kids and that we stopped at a certain point because it’s not appropriate to keep having fun because, my God, we need to train these people to be elite.
We can not, it’s not that we don’t want to train in elite ways and use the best techniques. And yes, here we are blessed with, you know, Rick, as our leader in the mental space with this incredible platform of information that’s going to help. Like the material is legit, but the people who are presenting it understand that if you, the customer can go out there and bust your butt and do your best and try to achieve the greatest things you possibly can.
And if you don’t and this is back to like what you said, tear a care standpoint. It’s okay. I don’t love you as a student because of the medal around your neck. I much prefer the person who is just like Mom, please can we not leave? I need to try that game again. I couldn’t. I’m like, Yeah, we’ll see you next week.
Just do that. And mysteriously everybody gets better and that’s the thing that I think that I’ve taken away is I’ve watched some kids who I know, and again, I hate on what am I going to say? Any names here? Someone’s going to smack me over the back of the head. They’re some kids that I’ve started working with who are like that.
There’s just not a lot of talent there, respectfully. And we still have fun and we develop relationships and we do all these things. And the parent emails me and says, My son is having so much fun on your program. Thank you so much. They just don’t connect with things. And I’m like, I’m so happy your son’s having a good time.
And because I loved it, I watch those kids become something far greater as a golfer than I would have ever predicted because. They enjoyed what they were doing. And that profoundly, I think, has struck me as an instructor is if we can just offer it in ways that are educational sounding sound in technical sound, in all of these, you know, focus and how do we flow better and what is confidence and how do we breathe and why is it so important?
And what are the advantages of the best in the world? What is it that Collin Morikawa is doing? Honestly, if we can sit in a classroom or discussion format and understand what really goes into being the greatest while we’ve been given the permission to have fun and be kids and grow, that’s where it happens that that’s what it is.
And so I hope what I can bring to this team is keeping that love and that fun while merging it with a higher level and letting those things run right.
You said something key that I don’t believe, you know, seeing players go through all the different development of score and those types of things that you’re right. Why would we change what worked when they were eight, nine, ten, 11, 12?
The creative part of that, the curiosity part of that. And, you know, something that Ted mentioned that we all are about as passionate is if we can make it something that is fun yet is challenging because we know flow is about pushing people outside of a comfort zone and enjoying that challenge, enjoying the ups and downs in the struggle and we’re giving them a safe space to push themselves and to fail and to learn and to be curious and to.
And there’s always that baseline of this is something I enjoy. I’m not saying every time I have three parts, I enjoy it everybody. But it’s a matter of knowing that there’s a framework there. And I really like Ted, what you said about kind of this unconditional idea that’s lost a lot with some of these junior parents.
It’s lost a lot even with some of the coaches. I know how he and I have started working together. You know, we certified coaches in flow code and they’re so attached to what their students’ result is that they forget about it. Wait, are they developing as a player? Are they developing the mental, emotional skills to deal with that 80 that they shot in the final round or something like that?
That to me is becoming a mentor, as is all of us. We want to develop stronger, more resilient passionate people. We happen to use golf as this awesome way of highlighting it.
But, you know, so and this is kind of just an open forum here, but I think when we look at there is going to be struggle yet if we put it in a reframe as as Ted has mentioned is I can look at struggle as hey, I get to develop and I’m going to look at this as something that’s going to push me and something that not going to be judged by.
If I do shoot 80 and I try something new, my gosh, my parents, my coach, we have to create a safe environment for people to push themselves. And notice I didn’t say safe to protect people. No, it’s not about protecting. It’s actually about a safe spot to allow people to push themselves and challenge themselves. And again, I think Josh and Ted, you do an excellent job of framing it and, reminding these players, why are you putting it up in the first place?
And I think they sometimes lose that passion and that purpose along the way and I think us as coaches can remind them of what makes it such a playful, great sport to work with. So I can go on a tirade tirade again.
What I love about this conversation is if we didn’t have these backgrounds and we didn’t have the name of the podcast, I think people wouldn’t know if we were just talking about life in general or golf specifically. And that’s something I know Rick and I connected on so closely was, yes, we want to make better golfers. Of course we do.
But we also want to create just better human beings and everything we’re speaking about here. It’s skill development, life, not just skill development for golf. And I think that’s what’s so important when we talk about junior development, when we talk about having fun, being curious, learning from fighting, creating a safe space to fail so not trying to avoid failure, but actually facing adversity and understanding.
It’s an opportunity to learn. It’s an opportunity to grow all of these things regardless of whether any of the juniors decide to continue with golf into the future, or if they decide to go down all these different avenues. I know something that we’re all super passionate about and, I hope I know I can speak for all of us is that we want to actually help them develop as individuals, not just golfers.
And I think that’s what’s super powerful about everything that you guys are speaking about and that we’re trying to build with flow. Pro Golf Academy, the junior section is life skills as well as golf skills, and they correlate so closely. So I love it. You know.
Well that’s I think the irony is certainly that, you know, the opportunity for us to affect the person across every board is far greater than as a golfer you know, the the math of it is, I don’t know what percentage of people play golf and what percentage of those golfers become high school college IT professionals.
Yeah, it’s small, it gets weeded down, but the persistence that somebody can develop because we nurture a value system for not giving up and a putting drill so that they could achieve it, that I didn’t give up even though I was the worst in that tournament.
It’s okay. You had an experience we read we reframe the quote unquote poor score as a you have now entered the world of competitive we were we were reward and frame positive experience even in among the failure and then if they keep going and persistent persist you’re right where that’s going to help is jobs and relationships and and and those things those are the things that that that our students and our customers, however you want to frame those things, that’s where the greatest gains are.
If it happens to help you at the college golf level on those things. Wonderful. Those are almost the bonuses. But you will definitely walk away with a greater understanding of the mental side, so to speak, of what goes into being successful at whatever it is that you do in life. And that’s the magic of it.
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I just you know, and I I think about just my own children. And then I said, you know, I tell them that I’m so thankful that I had golf because we fail more than we succeed a lot. Right. Relative to par tournaments or whatever. And I said that it’s really made me and this is not cheap, it’s just not easy, but it’s made me a better parent, a better husband.
It’s allowed me to have the skills, start my own business and to do this and to have the that, you know, you said, Josh, the persistence, which was great and just to keep going and and Rick said which was feel safe to go for it basically. Right. And so, you know, there’s nobody I care about more in this world than my own children.
And I’m trying to teach them these kinds of things we’re talking about to, you know, the point of everybody. So anyway, that was right.
So no. And I think as we look at, you know, I use the word development a lot with junior golfers right in it’s easy to have goals. I want to win this tournament, stuff like that. That’s fantastic. I love goals. I think it helps us focus. I think it motivates us. Yet I think what we’ve lost with juniors is this word development and I think parents are a part of that, is that it’s all about the next tournament, so on and so forth.
And you know, we’ve all had those challenging discussions where a player comes to us with they didn’t play well, right. And they’re there. They didn’t reach a goal there. You know, and just a quick, quick story. You know, I was at the U.S. Open, obviously, I’m kind of dating. Yes. But at Brookline. And, you know, Collin Morikawa is the leader after two rounds and he’s playing obviously well and the third round did not go well.
And he would be the first to tell you that was not a good round of golf. And yet I couldn’t be more proud of how he bounced back on Sunday to get himself in contention, which is nice. But to see that smile on his face coming off the 72nd hole, to know that he never did give up and he could have folded up real quick.
And that’s what made me the most proud. And I told him that and I said, hey, you bounce back, you know, and there’s a lot on the line. But the person who has their yeah, there’s a lot on the line. I get it. Everybody’s putting a lot of their effort and motivation into it. Yet things are not always going to go well.
And I think when we build daily habits, daily games, daily challenges, daily, that it helps create that resilience, it helps create that we call it a flow personality of somebody who can take on these challenges, know that things are going to go sideways and be able to build on that. Right. We’re building skill sets on that.
And that’s why I was so excited when Josh came on board and Ted came on board. And and Josh, I want you to tell me just a little bit about we we have a new a new product out there, a 14 day challenge for junior golfers in in when we talked about this and brainstormed this idea, what in that 14 day challenge are you you know, what’s the goal of that for a junior golfer?
You know, certainly the 14 challenges, it’s an introduction. You know, there’s going to be a lot of people who can come in. And it’s a space where you will stay for 14 days, we will have it all lined up and ready to go for you.
So there’s an introduction into the mental game. We’re going to we’re going to bring you up to speed on some mental mantras and some very various aspects of breathing and focus and visualization and some some of these these keywords that that that go into into what flow is all about.
So there are some introductions to some terms as a familiarity, but then we offer the program in a way where it’s really again, because we’re trying to walk the walk here, it’s about playing games. And so there’ll be some challenges, some driving range games that you can play.
We have an A1 to Z 26 challenge where I’m going to challenge you at home to use your mind with a with a parent or a friend holding you accountable to your successes we have a scorecard like like as if you are playing golf and you’re going to spend 14 days listening to me yap a little bit about about some things around flow code and
the mental game while giving you some games and challenges to go experience. And my hope is that, you know, you’ll, you’ll bring some things into your golf game, some, some create creativity, some innovation, some some outside the box practice habits that might challenge you to become a better player at a minimum. But at the end of the 14th day, my greatest hope is that you realize, wow, there’s a lot to the mental game.
There’s a lot of stuff here and that this 14 day challenge is sort of a springboard into a relationship with flow code where we can work with you and see how far we can take it.
Yeah. No. And we’re, and we as a team are so excited because the key things that you just said walk, the, you know, walk the talk is that, you know, we believe flow is is about being fully immersed in the present moment, being passionate about that, pushing ourselves, developing and all that stuff. And we know that flow is very state dependent.
And what we talked about at the start of this podcast and what we do now is how do we get somebody in a state of learning and fun? And you did just an unbelievable job with the 14 day challenge to have that be the baseline. And then you’re pushing people and you’re getting them outside their comfort zone and like, wow, this is an interesting exercise and tool.
And so again, I’m so excited about that and some of the other product offerings we’re going to have down the road. And I think one thing, you know, as we develop this idea of flow is, again, talk, personality and habits. And instead, I want to kind of put you on the spot a little bit. You tend to work with that 14, 15, 16, 17 year old who has high aspirations, plays college, golf.
And where do you see if there are one or two key elements? If we talk about mental games or personality styles or something like that, that would be very, very important for that age group to develop as they pursue a goal.
Great question. I think it’s so important that you mentioned it’s important to have goals. Absolutely. And when most people think of goals, they think of a resort goal. And I’m always promoting to my clients, well, what was your goal for the tournament? They said, Well, I want to finish in the top ten. I want to. And I said, okay, great.
But what was your process goal? So one of the key elements I feel for that age is making sure you have goals that are actually controllable no matter what you shoot, no matter what the score is, no matter who you’re playing with, all those kinds of things. So I think process goals for that age group are so important to lock in on and it’s not funny.
Business is made up, know stuff. It’s like, okay, I want to make sure that my goal is to commit to my ideal state before every shot. If I hit a poor shot because most juniors, they spend so much energy on the four shots and no energy on celebrating the good ones. So I want to celebrate the good ones and I want to let go of the ones I don’t like.
So I think process goals for that age group is so important because of all the things we’ve talked about, because of the rankings, because they’re parents, because they’re spending this money going to tournaments and everybody’s talking about the result. And if that’s your only goal, if you’re on the fourth hole and you said, my goal is to shoot 72 and you’re three over, then you feel like, well, what now?
But if you have goals that you can do on every shot and this ties directly into flow code is if you have a mental goal on every shot, one or two that you can rely on to control. To me, that’s a huge thing to keep you going, to keep you persistent, to keep you moving forward, irrespective of what you shoot or where you finish.
You mentioned earlier that there’s no one on this earth that you love more of us that you care more about than your kids. And that’s from a parent perspective. And I think we’ve touched on parents a little bit, but I’m sure there’s tons that will be listening to this episode, probably more so than the journey is actually. So I want to speak to them as well.
And I know, Josh, you’ll reinforce this and I want you to do a better job with words and I will. But the 14 day challenge can be super valuable for parents, too. I mean, we have products, obviously, for a different age group, the 21 day challenge and various other things in our golf academy. But going through this 14 day challenge with your junior child is fun and a phenomenal experience.
Keeping each other accountable, having fun, playful going back to that childlike mindset that we mentioned so many of us lose touch with, going back to that, keeping each other accountable through the 14 days could be a super experience because it’s going to be many things that we learn in that 14 days that we can learn at any age.
To be honest, it doesn’t have to just be that 12 to 18 or anyone else. It can be absolutely everyone. So Josh would love for you to kind of reinforce from the perspective of the creator of the challenge, how this can also be beneficial for parents as well.
No, I mean, I think from that standpoint, you know, certainly the you know, anybody who tapped into the 14 day challenge as a golfer would go through it, coming away with games and challenges and a greater understanding of what flow is and confidence and all the different. So anybody could participate in this by themselves. I think that you know, the cool aspect of the parent child relationship in this.
And again, this is whether it’s a 12 or 13 year old, even newer or an elite player, someone who is an elite top level golfer who is going to jump into this 14 day challenge. There’s a bunch in here that will help, you know, give you some really cool information and or start to challenge the way that you think about things.
Again, leading you to more. If a parent really wants to dove in with their child, you know, like Ted was saying, there’s a relationship opportunity here where and I don’t want to go too deep into the optimal golf parent, you know who is you know who is also result driven. That’s fine. And it’s one thing to have a child who is result result, result driven.
It’s another to have a parent who has result in result and result driven, because we know the dynamic of what that can do to children and relationships and how lack of how non-poor of that can be in a larger scheme, even with best of intentions, that if we’ve got these 14 day challenges and a parent is listening in with their child, if that’s how they want to do it or or following along as they go, you can do it together or separate.
If there is a putting game and a parent wants to take their child to the golf course instead of hounding them about hitting shots, go play a game go play a game with your kid. There’s going to be three or four driving ranges and chipping and putting games where you guys can go out there together and go have fun, seeing if you can develop them.
So my hope would be parents can tap into this as a relationship opportunity for you to go to the golf course and have fun with your kid specifically. But then maybe in a macro to say, wait a second, wait a second. I think these guys are telling me something here. And maybe as a parent, you can reflect and we can help lead you in a better parental direction.
Just and just too, for the parents out there? Because I’m dealing with parents all the time again in this age group, this high school age group. And one of the most common things I get is, you know, and golf is unlike any other sport, meaning when you go to soccer practice, the coach has the whistle and they have the plan.
Right. And this is what we’re going to do. What’s interesting about golf is you’re on your own. You might take a lesson once in a while, but there’s no really direction between the lessons.
And I think this is where the 14 day challenge is really cool is that there’s a structure and I’m always met with somebody yesterday and they’re like, we’re just trying to find some structure to help, you know, our son when we drop him, our daughter when we drop off the course and what better way the structures built and what better way to engage in something, have a plan for the parents, for the kids and them knowing that, wow, we’ve got direction for them when they’re on their own now.
We’ll help them be accountable. We’ll help them follow up. But this kind of program, it’s not out there. So to have that as a litmus test and then get excited about it and then build on the other things down the road that we’re going to put together I think is awesome.
And it’s a missing piece, quite frankly. And the key word that we’re talking about, which is development.
Right. And into something that we know we’re going to create products for parents. You know, I have three kids and I grew up in a very sports minded household and there’s good and bad about what my parents did. And we have experiences as coaches and as parents and stuff that we’ve seen. What is detrimental to relationships now?
I didn’t say performance. I said relationships are much more important than the performance. And yet you parents out there, you’re going to have no relationship and you’re going to affect them in a negative way, the performance. So it’s really, really, really we’ll be doing some training and some special products for those parents out there. But I want to just go back to as we finish up here, what Ted said before, kind of that unconditional mentor, that unconditional parent, that that is so, so important.
So parents out there, I know you want your kids to do well. I want my kids to do well. I get proud when they do, I get it. But we want to promote. How did they behave that day? How did they know, and you give them that approval of, hey, I’m so proud of how you handled that in there.
And hey, you dealt with those rules officially in a very, very respectful way. I’m so proud of you. And it was hey yeah, it was great. You played really well. I love those birdies. Tell me about those birdies and. Oh, okay. I was a little rough on. That’s great. Now you are having a conversation about the experience, not just what you shoot and I can’t believe you three putted the last hole.
Oh, my gosh. That means the ranking points are not going to be there and oh, my God, we’re not going to get a scholarship. You know, those kids are taking that in like sponges and sometimes they don’t have the capabilities of filtering it. And so that’s kind of my last thing that I want to say is that we as coaches want a safe environment, have fun, learn and be able to push people.
But parents, you’re one of the most important have the most important impact on your kids. And you don’t realize how they’re perceiving some of that. And so that’s something that we are very passionate about, that we will go down the road and talk in very detail because we want parents to have access, to be able to know how they should respond to their kids, how they should support.
And so that’s why I’m so proud of what we’re putting together is, yes, we want to develop junior golfers, we develop better people. But I know the parents can have and can also improve and they can also develop and they can also look at things differently and we can develop better relationships along the way. So I thank you, Josh.
I thank you, Ted, for being part of this because it’s going to be very women who make a lot of impact out there. So I thank you for being a part of it.
Absolutely. No, thank you. From my side as well. And one episode, super excited the projects that we have coming up in the future. Thank you for listening and we’ll catch you on a few trips.
Thanks, guys.
How to develop a junior flow golfer
