SCPGA Youth Summit Online Webinar featuring Dr. Rick Sessinghaus and PGA Tour Winner Collin Morikawa

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Video transcript

0:00good morning everyone I’d like to take this initial opportunity to welcome everyone to the SCP GA youth teaching

0:07and coaching summit virtual segments series my name is Josh Alpert founder of good swings happened Junior Golf Academy

0:13I am a pga teaching professional member of Southern California teaching community and share for this year’s

0:19youth and teaching summit which originally was scheduled to be held March 23rd at the TGR Learning Lab at

0:25Anaheim for obvious reasons this year’s program had to be canceled a little

0:30business about the flow for today before we get cranking I hope that everyone had an opportunity to watch the interview we

0:36posted with Collin Morikawa at Riviera Country Club during the genesis Invitational if not it is posted on

0:44YouTube and we will send each of you that link as part of a follow up if you

0:49do have questions for column or Ric based on that interview or about anything that comes up in their

0:55discussion during the first part of today’s program please feel free to type in a question and we’ll get to as many

1:01of them as we can at the end of the program that being said we’re happier able to join us for

1:08the next hour to hear our keynote speaker and mental training guru Ric sesang house as well as his longtime

1:14golf student a young man who grew up playing golf here in Southern California on our local tours a nationally

1:21acclaimed collegiate golf Red Cow go bears and now current PGA Tour star and

1:26Tour winner Colin Morikawa Ric is a longtime member of the PGA and currently coaches at Scholl Canyon Golf Course in

1:34Glendale and at Formax indoor facility in Burbank he holds a doctorate in Applied sports psychology and authored

1:41the book the ultimate mind game he’s also the mental performance consultant for UCLA men’s golf team rick

1:48has coached many league juniors collegiate and professional golfers alike I consider myself extremely fortunate to

1:55have worked with several clinics with Rick through the years sharing mental game wisdom with our academy kids as

2:01well as an annual program he leads for our local high school teams without further ado I give you my good friend

2:07Rick sesang house thank you so much Josh thank you for the Southern California

2:13PGA for allowing me to share and this is very

2:18exciting for me because this means a lot to me to be able to help junior golfers

2:23and there’s many different paths that we can go down and today I’m just going to

2:29be sharing the way that I like to coach there’s so many great coaches that are online right now that are viewing this

2:36that I’ve learned from and this is going to be fun to show you and learn also

2:43from Colin of from an early age now being on the PGA Tour so thank you so

2:49much for being here today it is about development is going to be

2:54the key thing for this next hour and it’s not all about victories even though with Colin’s resume he’s had several

3:02victories but as we go along and talk about his development we probably

3:07learned more from some of the defeats and some of the failures than from some of those successes and as we those that

3:16already maybe know Colin’s background but before to all of his accolades are on the golf course I just want to stress

3:22that as coaches I think one of our roles is to help develop the person and I was

3:29fortunate enough that Colin was already a great person and a great young man who has great character and great values

3:36that all of us I know would want to see in the youth that we develop but as I think it’s our role to to cultivate that

3:43as we go along so when we look at Colin’s a wonderful career and this is just a snippet of it

3:50is you know I did not put down all the junior stuff from Southern California

3:55PGA and AJ GA and certain things like that but I do want to show that at every

4:01level he has had success and there has been both a individual but also some

4:08team environment stuff I think a lot especially with the PGA Junior League we’re starting to stress a team and

4:14abilities to get these juniors competing in a fun environment

4:20well Collins played some high-level team events that maybe he’ll talk about later of what he learned from the Palmer Cup

4:27and a walker cup well as I go along I look at it and again that’s going to kind of down memory lane for us but it’s

4:35it’s interesting that again this development from a junior level to a college level to an amateur level to a

4:42professional level and what I look at Colin and you can certainly look at

4:49these great accolades is at what point did you feel that you had kind of I

4:55don’t made it is maybe the wrong word but that you really felt you are now on the other end of it of becoming more of

5:02an elite player yeah well you know start off of thanks for everyone for listening

5:07just like you said but I think going back you you have it right there the Western junior that’s when things change

5:14obviously wins you know solidify everything they they’re the results you want to see and that’s what is gonna

5:20give you the most confidence but after winning that and actually competing on the one of the biggest stages because at

5:26that point I had already played some a JJ’s I had played big Toyota Tour cups with guys you know that I grew up

5:32watching that you know we’re gonna be seniors when I was a freshman in college things like that but winning the Western

5:38junior is something that I think kind of transitioned me from being okay you know

5:44I can compete with these guys I can beat them week and week out to actually trying to win every single week great

5:53and we will talk about this winning mentality again throughout today because

5:58I think there’s a an interesting dynamic with golf is we as a mental game coach

6:06as a swing coach of course I believe the process is very important but I do not downplay outcome and I think it is

6:13important to understand that if we have a goal to win okay that we then have to understand what are those processes that

6:20we need to to get there and unfortunately with golf our winning percentages are not as high as maybe

6:27some other sports and team team events can you tell me a little bit about the Walker Cup experience for you because

6:35again I think as these juniors who may be listening today and some of the coaches is

6:41we have an individual sport and then they’re trying to get into college which now becomes a team environment but I

6:47felt that the Walker interesting because now we’re playing for our for our country can you give me a little snippet

6:53of what you kind of learn from that experience yeah I think team events are some of the best events you can play and

6:59whether it’s you know a local team and your country club or you know with a bunch of friends like team events is

7:05what brings out the best in people because you know then you go from playing for yourself to playing with everyone you know on the team and you

7:12want to represent yourself and your team as best as you can so when you think about the Walker Cup and you think about the first really big us you know

7:20representation for myself it was huge I mean it was probably the most nervous I’ve been to this day one of the most

7:28nerve-wracking things I’ve done is teeing off and you know I was the first tee shot for the u.s. we were the first

7:33match out and having that tee shot to hit it you know at LACC was you know unbelievable but you know when you think

7:40about team events and you represent your country like that you have to remember and you have to step back and realize

7:45what you’re doing you know but you have to remember that the golf is not different from you know when I was just

7:52practicing when I was a ten year old – playing on the Walker Cup like it’s still golf the hole locations are still

7:58on my green it’s not like anything has changed it’s just the stage being there and having you know the American flag

8:05being on your on your shirt everywhere that you know every piece of clothing you’re wearing and it just made it a lot

8:11more special to go out there and just have fun I mean you had to that’s awesome that’s awesome and so we may go

8:19back to some of these accomplishments but I want to start to share a little bit more about my own coaching

8:25philosophy but specifically for Collins development what I felt he excelled at and you will notice there is going to be

8:33nothing about his golf swing as good as it is on I believe what separates good

8:39from great has a lot to do with mindset skills and Colin from an early age already had some of these and I felt my

8:46my job with Colin was to cultivate these and and when I look at and I was talking

8:53to somebody the other day about that where I knew when Colin was going to be a player that whatever you

9:00wanted want to use about 12 years old now again he already had some really good fundamentals when I met him when he

9:07was eight years old he had some great group coaching I hit great hand-eye coordination there’s talents and a lot of us coaches

9:14online here we have a lot of really talented players talent doesn’t always

9:19then equate to success down the road and I believe some of these traits that Colin possesses and that as a coach I’m

9:26trying to cultivate to make a big difference and one back then it we didn’t really have the word growth

9:32mindset but I believe Colin always has been able to learn and be open to

9:39learning and to be curious about learning and just being able to frame that instead of oh I’m doing something

9:46wrong which makes me oh I’m not very good and oh I can’t get this never heard any of that and so if you did not

9:54believe you had a skill or if I believed you did not have that skill at the moment you were open to learning it in

10:02many different ways and maybe not the first time did it work but maybe going down some different roads we finally got

10:08you to develop some different skills the other thing which I do want to ask you a little bit about is I don’t remember if

10:16I ever heard you make an excuse for any of your performances and I hear this a

10:22lot hey I’ve got it is when you have a round that may not go your way or not

10:28get the outcome you wanted I never heard you make an excuse about conditions or pace of play or who you’re playing with

10:35or that breaks can you tell me a little bit about you know you being able to

10:40take ownership for and responsibility for your game yeah I mean I think you

10:45have to take ownership you have to realize what’s going on out there because if you don’t you know you you are gonna blame other things and you

10:52everything that of your control at that point you know I to be honest I’m pretty sure I’ve blamed it myself and I’ve

10:58played the victim during lessons or when I’m practicing because I’m you know my

11:04dad just say when I was younger my dad we might be practicing out there and he might tell me one thing but you know I’m doing it and I just can’t

11:10feel you know that’s where you guys come in that’s where coaches come in because you guys are able to offer a different

11:15opinion a different you know a nice time to help us realize what we’re trying to do so when you’re on the course you know

11:23you’re out there just trying to make birdies you’re trying to make as the best score you can on every single hole and get out so there’s nothing to blame

11:30you can’t I think when you sit in the past you know it makes it a lot harder to go on to that next hole and I think

11:36I’ve done a really good job of going from you know if I have a bad hole to just kind of moving on you know going on

11:42to the next and forgetting the past because when you sit back and you just you know you dwell on what has happened

11:48you know you’re not going to be able to move forward and golf you know even though it could be five hours long it

11:54goes by quick 18 holes goes by very quickly right and it doesn’t mean I

11:59never said that you had to be happy after a three putt or anything like that and that you you have to be having fun

12:05when you’re not playing how you want to yet what I really want to emphasize here is that you never made excuses so it

12:12wasn’t that hey Rick I had a poor cutting day because the greens were bumpy and oh my god you should have seen

12:18the sand on the green it was never any of that you took ownership that hey I didn’t get the job done today and now let’s learn from it

12:24and I think that leads to also that you were very open to feedback on even though I have some some students who say

12:32they want to get better in there at a golf lesson that you would hope that they’re open to some feedback on they

12:38sometimes look at it as criticized criticism and as a way of uh-oh he’s telling me I’m bad or something

12:43like that you were always open to feedback on and which again leads to the

12:50other one which is I think you have a very curious nature about yourself and that you love to learn would you say

12:55that that is a value that you have with golf yeah and I think it’s just like a

13:01huge personality thing you know it’s a trait that I’ve always had not just about golf but anything I do really

13:08anything I said my you know my sights on is to learn as much as I can and it’s

13:14not necessarily you know it’s not like I’m the most open person during lessons like I’m trying to listen but I want to

13:21take in as much as I can and learn from you and then try and filter out things try and process it in a way that I’m gonna understand you know

13:28I think everyone learns the best everyone learns differently but they learn the best from when they you know teach them themselves when they’re able

13:35to figure it out you know on their own and you could have a bunch of coaches tell you one thing

13:40many different ways but it’s about learning how you learn the best right so we you know we we have figured out

13:46certain cues certain words that help you know make us visualize the shot a little

13:52better make us visualize a certain trajectory we want and you know it’s

13:57taken a long time and we’re still trying to figure out things that work but for me you know learning is it’s just a huge

14:04part it’s not about you know knowing every little part to understand everything but it’s about knowing as

14:11much as I need to know and going from there that’s great and I think part of

14:18when I look at my own philosophy is it can get as a coach we can get super

14:24technical and there’s so much great technology and so many experts out there that we can get down the rabbit hole and

14:31forget what we’re trying to do which is to play a game with a pretty basic

14:36outcome I want to get the low white ball to the hole as few strokes as possible and so when we look at our kind of our

14:44journey you know when I met you at the age of eight and all the way until you

14:49graduated high school we saw each other consistently and yet it wasn’t all about

14:55the range it all wasn’t always about perfect golf swing and get the club on

15:00this perfect plane it certainly was about what I call pattern recognition I wanted to recognize what your patterns

15:06were as a player and yet I wanted to also see what those patterns were on the golf course so over half of our lessons

15:13were done on the golf course I was very fortunate the two facilities that we worked at Short Canyon Golf Course in

15:19Glendale and Chevy Chase Country Club allowed that allowed us to hop in a cart with your dad and being able to hit a

15:27few different shots so I’m very fortunate that I’ve had facilities to support that and yet I always because I

15:34played other sports before played golf and it was about playing the sports and a lot less about coaching you

15:41know you play football and you played football and the coach was there in golf

15:46I felt there was something missing and that’s why I stress so much of on course

15:51so over half of our lessons were done on the golf course and for for me that’s

15:57about the variability of the game is golf is one of the few sports that does not have the same exact field that other

16:06basketball court or all the other dimensions are the same and I think that variability needs to be experienced and

16:13and practiced and so we would do different lies and different shots and different situations because I wanted

16:21again see what your patterns were in as many situations as possible and I think

16:27one of the key things and this is back to your learning is I would put you in a situation where we made put two or three

16:33golf balls down and I would of course allow you to make the first decision I

16:38had to be careful I learned this early in my coaching career of not to over coach and tell somebody what they should

16:45do before they even allow themselves to experience it so that first shot was

16:50Collins decision okay I’m gonna hit this with a wide open 60-degree and I’m gonna

16:56do this great and we see the result then I would ask him okay now that you’ve hit it once what could you do differently if

17:03you do need to do anything differently and then that third ball would be me chiming and saying you know what calm

17:08this is how I view the shot this is how I think about it and doesn’t mean mine was right or wrong it just gives him

17:14another way of having a perspective to it you know I kind of joke with a lot of

17:20my the junior golfers and college players that I’m trying to put all my experience of my head into their head so

17:26they have a different perspective on how to see shots doesn’t mean that that’s the shot they have to play on the other

17:33thing that you know I stress is a lot about competition is I believe it’s important to see how somebody reacts

17:40when there’s something on the line and we always finished our lessons with competition we had a lot of fun with

17:47that and I know joke with Colin said about a month ago said he notices we’re not doing as many

17:52competitions in our sessions as much as possible well I have an ego I have a

17:58coat I’m a coach I wanted to make sure it was in my favor no joking but but he

18:03was always open to that and I on that my and I’ll talk about it a little bit later but with competition here’s the

18:11distinct difference I’ve seen between you and some of my really really good players and some solid juniors but never

18:18quite get there is how they take on competition so even at the age of 8 9 10

18:2311 I would compete against you you never ever ever said oh this is unfair you’re

18:28a professional there’s no way I can win you took it on you wanted to beat me and

18:34I loved that attitude about it okay other people will already complain

18:40even before the competition begin so I think that’s something you did have inherent in you already is a competitive

18:47chip in you that wanted to win but would wanted to take on challenges which i

18:53think is something that we all as coaches want to help our students do is

18:58take on challenges may not always succeed but guess what we can always learn from that we’ve talked a ton about

19:04the growth mindset already which is learn learn learn learn if I don’t have a skill I can always do something about

19:11it which you’ve done great with and one of my roles and we talk about development was once I knew that Colin

19:18wanted to play high-level Division one golf I always professed that I want in

19:24him to own his golf swing when he went to college and what I meant by that was is that we wouldn’t have as much

19:30interaction and he would have to do it on his own and you did mention something earlier

19:35cone which I really admire is sometimes you need to figure something out I don’t

19:42always have to jump in with an answer I think that is there’s a maturity about

19:48that that I think helped you in college tremendously is we did not get to see each other as often but I did want you

19:55to have the tools to be able to understand your shot patterns and what are your common tendencies first so then

20:01you go oh yeah did that again and then yeah of course if you didn’t figure that out of course you would send me a video or we would

20:09talk on the phone and and you know three minutes later we would have a solution for it so that’s something that I do

20:16think is important is that as coaches we don’t always have to fix things immediately I think a little struggle

20:22for the for the player is a good thing they can now figure it out for themselves is as Colin put it before

20:28actually more powerful than a coach just telling somebody what to do and I think

20:34we had a talking about process we had a a coach player process after tournaments

20:40that we were always having a feedback loop back and forth of you know obviously beforehand how are you gonna

20:47prepare for this event what’s the mind second being what’s your strategy but then on the flip end

20:52did you actually achieve those things Colin is there anything on that list or think that Pop’s attitude that you felt

20:58was beneficial for you I mean you know you touch back on the competition but I

21:04think going back you know looking from how our lessons have have gone from you know age eight to now you know

21:10especially our transition from junior golf where I was able to see you a lot to college is we brought well you know

21:16what we could do on the course and you would see patterns we’d hit a few shots at a certain you know distance to when

21:23he was in college where it was not really about how I was practicing or what I was doing but like you said he

21:29was it was talking about after each tournament what were my tendencies what are my tendencies now can we tighten

21:35them a little bit but can we play with what we’re doing you know if I could play with my touch shot or whatever I

21:41was bringing that tournament we were gonna be perfectly fine so what were we gonna focus on that so it was it was you

21:47know there were very similar points in the lessons from whether there was age ten to when I was twenty in college but

21:56it was just a different you know a way of doing it it wasn’t on horse it was through the phone and I had to

22:01articulate you know what I saw what I felt to you through the phone and you know it was a big part on me to be able

22:08to you know open up and you know realize what was going on with my game because if I didn’t I think on that side

22:16you know we wouldn’t have been able if I told you every single time yeah my ball is perfectly straight I’m making every

22:22pilot you know what is there to talk about you know it’s not like you knew every golf course it’s not like every

22:28coach out there knows every every golf course we’re gonna play so it’s about

22:33what are you know what am I feeling in my body you understood that really well which was very bad for me right thanks

22:41Ricky funk if I can jump in here and I may not maybe maybe I’ll be stating the

22:47obvious here the rest of the golfing world juniors we work with in large

22:52numbers and no offense to anybody who’s listening in here do not necessarily have the same healthy mindset that Colin

22:59had innately as a golfer certainly you’ve helped to nurture him Rick can

23:04you speak a little bit maybe about you know the the juniors that that are negative might be a club slammer not

23:11confident all those things that we you know quite frankly do see in the majority of the younger players that we

23:17work with can you share a little bit about about things that you would do to help shape those folks us folks it’s not

23:24just juniors toward toward a better mindset sure I unfortunately was one of

23:29those Club throwers emotional Tantrums when I play college golf and high school

23:36golf and so every players different but I think there’s two distinct things you said in that because one is emotion the

23:43other one is confidence and as coaches we certainly want to cultivate confidence but without giving somebody a

23:49false sense of confidence and I’m seeing and the some would get to this in another slide is it’s okay to challenge

23:57our students we don’t always have to tell them how great they are they win a us kids tournament that’s

24:04fantastic but if we blow it out of proportion that junior golfer is only

24:09going to associate golf with oh I get a bunch of recognition when I win and then

24:14if I don’t win oh my gosh there’s something wrong with me so as coaches we have to be very careful in how we

24:21celebrate but also how we give feedback and you know jumping ahead a little bit

24:28but Colin I rarely talked about hey I saw you shot

24:34this score why’d you shoot that that’s it was not about that and so I think we

24:40have to help the student this is about development remember understand there’s

24:46many many many of these levels and steps along the way and getting back to did we

24:52do today step better did I actually practice what I told my coach I was

24:58gonna practice and can I give him feedback or her that gives some ownership of today’s type of thing I

25:05think a lot of junior skill and a lot of golfers but get way ahead of it there are 13 year old they want to play at a

25:11d1 school and they go oh see I’m not good enough I go you’re 13 years old we’re not even close to that age yet and

25:17they’re so far in the future that as coaches we have to bring him back as to what is something that in the moment he

25:24could learn from and that yeah we want to create success but I think we also have to be careful of our feedback loops

25:30of not blowing out of proportion some success in a tournament uh in and how I

25:37would follow that up with saying hey you won I’m I’m proud of you I think that’s great tell me what you think led to you

25:44winning and rarely honestly rarely do I hear oh my swing plane was perfect and

25:50my my wrist angle on my lag and load release was / no no I usually hear about hey Rick you know what I really stayed

25:56focused this day I really stay composed I did that post shot routine we talked about to be able to deal with the bad

26:02shots now I do want to emphasize that they won but I want them to know why

26:08they won and and get a little bit further away from oh is because I had perfect mechanics it was you know what I

26:15did a good job of staying in my process so I do allow the outcome to be a forum

26:20for questions but I also try to get people coming back they get too far in

26:25the future to get them more in the present – does that answer that yes it

26:35does absolutely very much does not just you know you know I just think that you know

26:41as we work with juniors and just you know as a profession you know we do seem

26:47to spend so much time focused on grips dance posture you know hitting off with the conniving rich max you know if

26:54someone says what’s the definition of a golf son of what it seems like we see we think of a golf lesson as those things

27:01and the reality is that the game is played on the golf course and and the game is about going through the

27:07experience of not feeling comfortable with your swing and not knowing what to do in different situations and I just I

27:14feel in general you know obviously Colin have eight abilities to do these things

27:19and and and that certainly is part of the equation but but your ability to lead him and challenge him to think

27:25about those experiences and I you know as an overarching I think that our industry needs to do a better job of

27:31preparing people to have more fun and play better golf on the golf course

27:36because that’s really what the whole practice element is it’s about preparing to play not preparing to like you said

27:42hold a wrist angle at certain things so you know it’s great stuff if you don’t

27:48mind me adding on to that I think I’ve been touching on this point it’s a huge

27:53point I think I’ve taken really the heart since I’ve turned pro but you know you look and this is very much two

28:00juniors as well as expectations versus goals I know right just heard this but you know Rick and I have set a bunch of

28:07goals for ourselves we’ve been you know when I was a junior – now we’re always

28:12setting goals and I think expectations are what or what people put on us they’re what coaches might put on you

28:18parents family friends whatever it is expectations are gonna be there you know

28:24you can’t not have expectations but it’s not from the you know inside yourself and it’s what you really believe it and

28:30those are the goals and you know I think people get mad you know I still see it today people pros get mad juniors in

28:37that college guys get mad whoever it is you’re your local guy you know your country club people get mad because they

28:43expect to see something happen you know they expect these results to happen because yeah I put in all these hours on

28:49the range but in all these hours on the putting green I expect this to happen but no you

28:55know you have to think of it as a goal and I think that’s what Ric has always done a good job for me is what is our

29:00goal for the week yes our goal is we’ll win if we don’t win we’re gonna come back next week and try and win that’s

29:05our goal but we have other parts of that goal is to you know what is it to you know make

29:12sure you go through our pre-shot routine one second slower to take a deep breath extra goals to help you know filters

29:19through that path and through that process of reaching that ultimate goal if I just expect to win I’m gonna be

29:25very mad because people are gonna expect that I’m gonna expect that now and what am I going to do from there I’m gonna be

29:31mad you know we’re gonna be throwing clubs we’re gonna be doing all this but those those are the people that I don’t think are setting the goals from

29:39themselves they just expect something’s going to happen and if it doesn’t you know that’s when they’re really gonna

29:44take a step back and and realize they’re gonna be behind everyone else because they’re not taking that next step of

29:50learning and getting better so you know people are gonna get angry it happens you know you can be setting goals and

29:56getting mad at yourself when you’re on the range I still do that you know if I’m not reaching to that goal but if I start

30:03realizing what other people expect for me then you know I’m not gonna be learning at all I just had that bat hell

30:09yeah that’s actually three point if I just add in there too

30:14you know on those lines um you know I’ve always thought I get I I didn’t grow up

30:19with a golf club in my hand at four or five I was playing nerf basketball in my room and and and baseball and stick-on

30:26you know we were just outdoors playing games and I you know maybe it was just because we didn’t have someone pointing

30:33at us talking about winning and losing I always thought that losing was the biggest gift and this isn’t just specific to golf obviously but if I lost

30:40something and I didn’t play well it allowed me an opportunity more clearly than when I was playing well to identify

30:45what those problems were and I just I just see a lot of juniors that associate losing losing this being a bad thing and

30:53a failure and they’re discouraged and they don’t want to show their faces and of course parents get mad and you know some coaches don’t do as well if we

31:00could think of losing as the biggest gift of all because it’s going to glare we show us exactly what is going on and

31:06then we take that gift write it down identify acknowledge it and own it we it gives us a map of exactly what it is we

31:13need to be working on to get better and if the goal is to get better then losing is a healthy component of becoming a

31:20champion obviously calling you know you’ve seen and probably experience late in tournaments where things didn’t go

31:25your way or did go your way and you know we hear it every day on tour you know when the questions come you know those

31:31failures lead players to becoming better do you feel that way and your experience

31:37for you and then what you see on tool with the other players that are out there absolutely I mean you it’s just part of

31:42golf you know you you’re gonna not win a lot of the time I mean if you have a

31:48good winning percentage that means you’re doing something really really good you know I’m thinking back to when

31:54you know times we’re you know I look back in my Junior days and caught in high school golf right high school golf

32:00is very different than playing in SC PGA Tour tour cups a jj’s whatever it is

32:05it’s very different you know high school golf is there for us to have fun to be with the team but you look at who’s

32:11working the hardest or the or the guys probably you’re you know you’re three four you’re two three four five guys

32:17same thing in college who’s normally the guys that are working absolutely you

32:23know they’re grinding are the two three four guys because they want to get to the top the guys that are number one are

32:28the guys that might slack off and that’s when you have to realize if you are your number one guy if you are the best on

32:34the team how can you set new goals and motivate yourself to get better you know

32:40the guys at the number one in the world the PGA Tour are not slacking because they know guys are right behind them and

32:47they know you know there’s many other things they want to accomplish and that’s the thing for us for me and never

32:53stopped of just being you know I’m gonna win this tournament I’m okay now we’re done and we’re gonna be perfectly fine

33:00for the rest of the year if I win one tournament we’re trying to win the next we’re trying to get better the next day

33:05and not take a break from anything yes you know I’ve been great about taking breaks especially through college where

33:12you know every Wayne or I’d take one week off not such a club get away from the game you know relax you have to

33:18you know the years a long time mm-hmm and you know during this time now you know you gotta take a break but for me

33:25it was you know how can we just get better no matter what position we were on the team no matter where we were in

33:32tournaments how can we get better than next day and I think that was a really big point that I still take on – you

33:40know tournaments today that’s great we’re going to talk about more about

33:45expectations as we go along as we look at this idea of long-term development so

33:55Colin a few of my students and juniors throughout the years have been open to

34:02looking at long term goals with obviously the paths coming down to what do I need to do today so I mentioned

34:09before it’s easy for some of our juniors when I meet them for the first time and I asked them what their goals are and it’s a 13 year old who says I want to

34:16get a full scholarship to tell her clean and that sounds like a very motivating goal which is fantastic but I asked him

34:22how they’re gonna get there and they really don’t have a plan and then they always will talk about well uncie I’m

34:29not good enough I’m not good enough and I said well that’s five years from now we need to know what those stepping stones are as we go along so what I

34:36appreciated with Colin and his parents was that they had trust in me that there

34:41was a plan not only for the next season but where this led to and is that we got

34:46to closer to college you know helping consulting saying hey these are the type of tournaments we need a plan this is

34:52how the recruiting process is going to be this is how our game needs to improve to play across the country I’m as a

34:57coach trying to think ahead and if I don’t have the answers I would ask some

35:03some great colleagues of ours who have gone through it for their answers but I

35:08think back to long term development is back to this learning process is if well

35:16if our goal or Colin’s goal was to win a college tournament which he did we I

35:23always backtrack the question and say okay in order to win this week what type of player do you need to be now I

35:29believe that very open-ended it could be well brick we’re playing this golf course that requires a lot of accuracy off the tee I’m gonna be

35:35hitting three woods and utility irons off the team or I’m going to be trusting my little cut and then also I need to be

35:43of type of players can be patient because with the difficulty of this golf course and you’d be patient for birdies and what we’ve done is we’ve taken the

35:49outcome goal and we brought it down to a process okay so I don’t want people to think this is just process I want people

35:57to have goals I want people to get motivated to wanted to achieve things however if you don’t have the followup

36:03answer of how are you going to do it how are you going to show up to give yourself the best opportunity then

36:09unfortunately you’re going to have some struggles so we have a balance that I have with Colin and other players is

36:16certainly in the moment this tournament is the most important thing as a coach

36:21I’m thinking ahead okay Colin wants to be a PGA Tour winner okay what kind of

36:26what things need to change down I don’t I don’t know all the answers okay but I’m trying to help think ahead on Colin

36:34can you talk a little bit about when you of course graduated which was awesome

36:40the business school at Cal you stayed for years you get the question a lot about hey you could have got turned pro

36:49earlier but the question I have for you is the last year of college as well as

36:54you wanted to play in those events what was something that you did to prepare

37:00for the future oh is I mean it was everything it was you know I was fortunate enough to get a

37:06couple starts on the PGA Tour already as an amateur and kind of learn the ropes but for me it was figure out what was I

37:13gonna do you know for warmup you know the PGA Tour when you’re out in those tournaments everything is at your

37:19fingertips you could get anything any information available you can get any device any equipment whatever you want

37:25and we can all be drawn to that I think we all are you know people that love the game they want to have the new things

37:31they want to have fun with you know whatever is new and exciting but for me it was to figure out how I was gonna

37:37warm up you know what I was gonna do stretching wise what I was gonna do you know with the team the team you know

37:43sometimes with all five we might have to show up here the last tea time off you might have to show up two and a half hours early two hours

37:50early because guys might want to be there but for me I had to know yeah everyone’s out there I want to go be out

37:55there with my team I want to be out there you know getting ready but that’s not my routine that’s not who I was

38:00that’s not the player I am so that’s team a year I really used the time

38:05wisely to you know figure out how I was gonna eat what I was gonna do to stretch you know how I was gonna break down my

38:12time to really be prepared as much as I can but not be you know drained out

38:17before that first round started over for that final round started I used that entire senior year just to figure out

38:23you know how I was gonna plan things and you know I think I did a great job you

38:29know if I translate that from high school to college you know from senior high school to freshman year college

38:35how is gonna plan out I’m going around classes how I was gonna you know have my

38:40classes in the morning whatever like we had to to figure out how I was gonna practice and it’s all evolved from how I

38:46was gonna practice you know in college by myself with the team – how is gonna

38:52practice on the range how was gonna practice by myself as a tour pro now right and I think the other thing that

38:58you utilized in that year was finding the equipment finding you there was

39:04things that we knew you have to make a decision when you turn pro and I’m trying to minimize variables when you

39:10want to play at your best and if you’re now you turn pro and you start tinkering and you change clubs and Club

39:17manufacturers to me that’s a variable that should have been dealt with beforehand I thought you did a good job of you know making some of those expert

39:23experimenting happen in that last year I want to talk a little bit about you know

39:30when you and I talk about a tournament you know I asked kind of the same three questions is kind of what did you do

39:35well right I always want to frame it of a player especially your caliber is going to be very hard on themselves and

39:41sometimes they’re gonna evaluate just based on negatives and I get that yet I always want to frame it say hey let’s

39:46remind ourselves we did some of these things well ah the next one which is I think the question that I want everybody

39:52to take away from today is what did you learn and the and I hope I’m getting

39:58this right but I think you were 16 years old and I remember you come into me for a lesson and I knew you just played an a JGA

40:04event in Oklahoma I believe most Karsten Creek and it and it wasn’t one of your

40:11better tournaments okay and I want you to kind of explain to the coaches and

40:16the juniors that are on of what your process was when you came back when we

40:22asked about what you learned from that experience yeah there’s two tournaments I really

40:28stick out to me about you know really learning something there was there are some crazy Invitational and the polo at

40:36PGA National you know they still have the Honda Classic there and what I realized was I did not have a golf game

40:42to play in the wind at all it was just handed down I didn’t know what to do

40:48I was clubbing up to three clubs trying to hit it it’s just a normal shot trying to play with that and I remember

40:54especially after PGA National I missed the cut miss the match boy or whatever I

40:59spent a couple days there because our flight didn’t leave and I tried to experiment on how to hit the wind you

41:05know it’s hard being in California obviously with the the weather conditions we have the best weather you

41:10know it’s hands down we get the best weather there’s no wind it’s sunny days you know we’re inside when it rains but

41:17when it is windy like it is everywhere else in the in the country and it seems like that it’s windy every tournament we

41:23play now you know I’ve had to learn something I had to figure out how I was gonna play in the wind what I was gonna

41:30do and it wasn’t just hitting in the wind it was how I was gonna putt bullet how was I going to feel comfortable and

41:35I’m still you know tinkering with things here and there week by week you know the debating depending where we are but you

41:43know you look back you were in Hawaii this year when we were playing a kapalua it was you know it was very very windy

41:49and then you know I go the next week to Sony and it’s blowing 3540 miles per

41:54hour so you know those two junior tournaments there really opened my eyes to what’s out there and it’s hard for

42:01everyone to obviously travel to different places that play golf but when you do in an experience like that you

42:07have to really figure out what am I going to do differently and what I appreciate that though is you came to me saying Rick I

42:14am not prepared to play in those conditions instead of some juniors say Rick I played bad because of the wind

42:21and they leave it at that you said this is a skill set I don’t have yet here’s

42:26the key word everybody yet is a growth mindset term I don’t have it yet so you learned it you didn’t call me after

42:34PJ national we met afterwards but you took the time to say hey I’m gonna

42:39figure this out and so I I think that’s a huge learning thing for everybody is

42:45that it doesn’t always go well but I you processed it you said I gotta do something about it and went from there

42:51so those are the things that jump out to me as we went along your development is

42:56you took a lot of ownership for that and didn’t make excuses of why that happened and then of course the follow-up for us

43:02would then be hey what do we need to improve and how I need to improve my my iron play into the wind am I going to

43:08flight it am I going to change ball position we need to change you and now you and I get to experiment but you were

43:13already open to the experimentation of that the other thing we’ve talked about a little bit is embracing getting out of

43:19sight their comfort zones you talked a little bit about the Walker Cup and being nervous yet if I remember

43:24correctly that first match went quite well didn’t it yeah it was nice to have

43:30someone that hit it you know 3:30 down the middle and we’re making a lot of putts putting putting our opponents down

43:37down to the ground it ya know so for all

43:43you out there nervousness doesn’t mean it’s bad nervousness could be excitement nervousness could be used for improving

43:48focus it can get you excited to the point where you go this is important which means I can review my processes

43:54more so comfort zones can help us feel again uncomfortable great and then being

44:01able to do something with that and the last thing I want to put on this with development which you know in this

44:06particular situation I was very very fortunate that Collins parents they

44:11trusted me Colin’s father Blaine was at every single golf lesson pretty much from the age of 8 to 18 and they were a

44:19great support system now many of you may be thinking of was he really involved was he on you all the time and the

44:24answer would be no he asks specific questions throughout the lesson to make sure he understood

44:30because he knew that he would be with Colin when Colin was practicing so they would be clarifying what where they were

44:37going to be working on and and I know I’ve had the bad parrot situation with

44:43certain juniors and I know it can go sideways in this particular situation the the parents trusted me they looked

44:50at the long-term development they saw how Colin and I acted and reacted to each other and part of that was

44:56certainly having fun but we did have a really strong relationship on that Rick

45:03when you when you are in a situation with which in your lessons specifically and you do have a parent that is not

45:11productive do you have a rule about I mean obviously in Colin situation the parents were very involved and it was

45:16completely appropriate and and it helped the process do you have a rule about how you engage with kids and parents when

45:23you first start working with them to to explain to the parents sort of the rules of the road do you let it sort of go

45:28though you know naturally kind of evolve or how do you how do you handle a parent who who is not productive I kind of let

45:36it go organically to be honest with you I do make it a point that I want a parent doesn’t have to be both parents

45:43there at the very first lesson in interaction because I want them to see how I behave in front of their child to

45:50know that I am a type of coach that is supportive and energetic and so they get

45:55a reality check on that nowadays with technology whether it’s video or email I

46:01would CC a parent to say hey this is what Johnny and I worked on today and

46:07this is what our game plan is so I want to at the start I want to have that relationship with the parent also and I

46:14do say hey if you have questions please you can call me you can email me great but then what happens is I start fit in

46:21this is that expectation words popping out again is we see pretty early on of

46:26what is the juniors expectation compared with the parents expectation is and then

46:31when I’ve had those conversations say oh okay so you think Johnny should be the

46:37number one player in Southern California two years okay well that’s interesting in order to do that I would then say this is what

46:43would have to happen and so then we can kind of get on the same page but then

46:48even there I said that’s maybe not a realistic timeline for us right now let’s look at that so I want to open up

46:54because I know expectations is the number one sticking point I want those out early in the relationship or hey why

47:01are you seeking me out for instruction oh because we want to get a college scholarship I said oh we do or you do

47:08and so those are the some of the conversations that I have early on yeah

47:13I would I would yeah I would say in that I you know working with a lot of juniors and individual group and team formats I

47:20don’t have a specific rule about whether a parent is allowed or not allowed to be involved in it but the more I coach and

47:29teach I definitely and more apt as a coach to be upfront about what it is

47:35that we’re doing with the juniors to that point whether whether the parent has given me an indication or not I want

47:40to share with that parent first lesson or early on in the relationship that what we are cultivating especially with

47:47the younger player 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 you know it might even push into high

47:53school sometimes that that our objectives are certainly to get better

47:58and hitting a golf ball and making the ball go and the whole knows things obviously you have hired me to help your

48:03son or daughter get better at the game of golf but our true objectives and sort of goes along the lines before you’re

48:09talking about is is is that if the kids are having fun playing if they’re if there’s challenges and games and

48:16competitions that are appropriate for whoever the player that you’re in front of Marv and it’s not about winning and

48:22losing it’s about playing it’s about experiencing and we set the backdrop to the parent immediately this is not about

48:28me trying to help your son achieve those things but but just cultivate a love of

48:33playing the game of golf and wanting to come back if we can do that as an initial objective and all those other

48:40things are going to happen kid who loves playing golf and enjoys being there is the one who’s then going to get better

48:46and practice more and be the driver of the car the kid who’s being dragged around and told he has to do something

48:53it’s never worked that well what has anyone ever done really really well that they were dragged by the here to do and

49:00so I think as an industry you know we need to be mindful especially with younger players that that our goals

49:05really should be less about making that player great and more about how can I interact with this kid and his family

49:12and develop a love of playing the game because if you do those things and everything else happens I agree I agree

49:18and so when we have that interaction that’s why I want the parent to see

49:24because I I’m not a fit for everybody I’m not and some parents can concede

49:30that because maybe I’m not as even though I used to be a very technical swing coach back in the day maybe I’m

49:35not a technical enough for that parent and maybe they voice that and I’m fine with that and I’ll have that discussion

49:40but I think it is important to understand the expectations and as we talk about long-term development you hit

49:46it right in the head if they’re not enjoying it at the age of 12 or 13 I know they’re not going to enjoy it at 18

49:5219 when they’re playing d1 and it had coaches on them for showing up late for work out at 6:00 a.m. so it they have to

50:00keep that love of the game it doesn’t mean every day we’re happy but it does mean that they enjoy the

50:06intrinsic reasons of this game so I completely agree with you and the parent has a huge influence on that and I think

50:13along with that with the support system you know is when I look at creating a

50:18team and I know Josh you and I have talked about team environments you know we are so lucky and I’m just gonna talk

50:25about Southern California but obviously nationally we have so many wonderful PGA

50:31coaches at our disposal and let’s just talk about the positive stuff on social

50:37media is we can collaborate with people quite easily and I you know I learned

50:43this you know a while ago is I don’t have all the answers and for those players that are as motivated as Colin I

50:51have a duty to not only up level my own skill set but if I don’t have the answer

50:57to be able to get that and so it’s been I get to learn along the way too and so

51:03with his development we you know started with some physical assessments around the around 16 some basic core exercises at

51:10that age you know he was actually getting some submits a fade now some of

51:17that was body driven a little bit weaker core a little bit weaker left hip he

51:22would slide drop the club under plane so we want to address the physical part of that and a good friend and colleague Don

51:29Parsons one of the best at Kay vest and 3d taking him up there in his college

51:35years to say hey Don am i I can’t see everything and you’re an expert at this

51:41is there anything I could change differently and I think he made some some ideas about posture with him and

51:47stuff like that so III really think you know dawn for his input and then up at Don’s place

51:55- Preston combs a great cutting instructor got to put Collin on Sam lab

52:01and helped him with a few things that about any point not that Collin used the same point but again it’s about learning

52:07and Collin said before he’s going to filter out what works for him and what doesn’t but I needed to give him access

52:14to some of these experts currently right now you know get a advanced kind of

52:20physical assessment with Leo Rooney from you GP and that’s really helped him with

52:25the pre round stretching with some maintenance with all the travel he has to do I’m certified in something called

52:31athlete assessment which personality profiles I want to understand people’s personalities under stress and so I’m

52:38trying to create a team environment and when somebody is 10 11 I can probably answer most of these questions but to

52:44the level Collin wanted to get to I know I was doing a disservice to tell them that I knew all those answers and so and

52:52this is going even in the future right I mean we’re lucky with TaylorMade he’s gonna get you got great clouds getting

52:58collected I mean all these pieces come together but I think what I’m seeing on the good news with collaborations

53:05Southern California PGA we’ve got so many wonderful coaches who can help each

53:10other out and their expertise is because it is it is all about the player it’s

53:15not about the coach and so if we can serve the player better I think were

53:21and I help people enjoy the game more and play more often is there any feedback and give me callin

53:26on kind of the team kind of approach yeah I mean I think everyone needs to

53:32build a team around them and you know are you talking about like who have built my team around but even like reven

53:41right now like you added a team member oh yeah actually to which I would consider JJ the caddy which has been

53:47huge and then you’re a professional now and you have your represented by an agency I mean that is a team thing too

53:54so there’s a lot of elements that go beyond performance but I actually tell me a little bit about your relationship

54:00with with JJ as a caddy as being a key

54:06part of your team it’s huge I mean it’s like it’s it’s almost like you know he’s

54:11another coach he’s not coaching me but the way he talks through it and I never would have thought you know I wouldn’t

54:17need a caddy like that because I thought you know I’d have it all in my head but really I don’t he you know he’s able to

54:25offer that extra opinion or off early five extra opinions of how to hit a shot and they might not he might not even

54:31believe in all them I might not never believe in all them but it allows me to think you know around the straight way I

54:39would normally think and hit that one shot so I have a relationship like that is awesome to had dad into my team I’m

54:46so lucky to have him and you know adding an agent right I made my life way easier

54:54but I think about you know when we’re adding people to our team it’s okay to mess around and to experiment and to try

55:01have a trial with different people you know we can add in a bunch of people but that does not mean I have to keep using

55:07them you know you look at the list like you said with Don Parsons Preston we used him for a little bit we tried it we

55:13saw what worked what didn’t work and then you know even though we’re not continuing with them it was something

55:20for me to you know try it if it didn’t work it didn’t work we’ll push it aside on to the next and I think that’s what

55:26we’ve been doing a really good is my team is very small but we’ve tried a lot

55:32of different options we’ve tried to see what works best and sometimes you’re gonna hit the you know

55:38hit it spot-on with the first one we try sometimes we’re not but you know you I look at you know JJ for an example I’ve

55:45I hit it I think I hit it out of the ballpark on that one I’m really lucky to have him I know he communicates well

55:52with you and that goes the same with you know as a caddy I think that the same

55:57relationship in college is you know your college coach do they understand who you are you know I’ve been pretty fortunate

56:04to have you get to know Walter when I was in college get to know him a little

56:09bit you know who he is we’ve talked about him he’s talked to you and that helped you know the transition from

56:16junior to college golf because you know it was an extra factor of okay I’ve got

56:21another coach how is he gonna coach me how is he gonna respect what you’re doing with me well we’re learning we

56:27were work before and you know he was really open to you know when you had to

56:32say and and realize you know both of you guys wanted me to become the best player in the country but you know who was

56:40gonna put their input in what areas and how are you guys gonna work together and that’s what JJ has done really well now

56:46to take over that spot great and that’s again part of active development right there’s these different stages which are

56:52gonna require different input from outside sources now I do want to respect

56:58everybody’s time we’re gonna go over yeah or allotment link if you need to

57:06leave I understand that with a few more things that we want to talk about I know we’re have some questions at the end so

57:11as I now looking at the other side of the coin which is what I think is

57:17detrimental and I’ll go through some of these somewhat quickly but I mentioned this before is that as coaches we have

57:23to be careful of how much we’re praising these youth golfers only when they medal in a tournament via Instagram post or a

57:31Facebook post I know as a coach I’m very proud of when my students do well I totally get it

57:37I’m just telling you from a juniors perspective I’ve had this was a fairly recent one a parent come to me and said

57:44hey little Johnny used to win all the us kids to her of when he was 11 he’s now 17 and he

57:53doesn’t win it anymore and I go okay but if little Johnny gotten better is

57:58his scores got there oh yeah yeah he’s gotten better I go okay well competition changes okay but this player when I had

58:05a mental game session unfortunately he had no confidence because it was all about the past is that I used to win all

58:12the time now I’m not winning thus I am a failure and so we have to be careful with the fine line of celebrating III think again

58:20I’m proud of your students that’s great I know some other coaches like Dan

58:25Martin who I respect a lot he’s gonna post a lot about what the process that is going on well hey I’ve worked with

58:32this player and they’re really doing a great job of going through through a pre-shot routine and I saw them playing

58:37in this tournament did this I love those type of things obviously because now that’s more growth mindset of this is

58:43something I can do over and over again the other thing is I’m seeing a lot of juniors jumping coaches a ton and I’ve

58:50been people coming jumping to me and people jumping away from me so it happens all over the place we got to be

58:58careful with that and I think as coaches we want to certainly up level our skill

59:03set so we’re prepared for the level of player that is coming to you we’ve already talked about parents with their

59:09unreasonable expectations we’re helping them understand the challenges that Junior Golf provides and giving them a

59:16path and educating them also um the other thing that has come up a little bit more recently is I’ve

59:22actually seen juniors who are not open to competition they’re not embracing competition they say then and I’m not

59:29ready for tournaments yet I go okay that’s fine that’s fine but then if I want to compete with them in a lesson oh

59:34no no I’m not good enough to say no we got it let’s learn how to compete let’s learn how to push ourselves you got to

59:40take tests in English class right you’re going to get tested so we need to do

59:45that on the golf course too and the ones that I’ve seen succeed the most the highest level tended to have a very

59:51highly competitive chip in them as they go so I’m seeing that is changing a

59:57little bit the last one is in I fell into this early as a coach was perfect golf swing I

1:00:03think now that we have the technology of track man in forceplates and 3d fests and all this stuff I don’t know if that

1:00:11always equates it into a better player and actually playing the game and that’s the same thing with Instagram oh here’s

1:00:16a picture of the student and yeah the positions look great and then you look

1:00:22them up on and I go oh that person can you break 80 yet you know so I I think

1:00:27we have to do a better job of developing the entire player a golf swing is of

1:00:33course a key component of that but does it translate to the course and we they

1:00:39have to learn how to play more so that’s me on my little high podium there but I

1:00:44think some of those things that need to be addressed as coaching and also from the player’s perspective understanding

1:00:52that some of these challenges get in the way of development Ric from from the coaching standpoint side if we’re going

1:00:59to be critical of ourselves as as a profession as as instructors you know

1:01:04we’re not obviously a lot of us work hard to you know help our players get better if there was two or three things

1:01:12that maybe our industry should be doing less of because I think we do way too

1:01:17much as an industry what what might be some things that that that us as coaches working players could just do a little

1:01:23bit less of I mean I’ll go back to some of this list

1:01:29I think we need to do less technology at early ages I know Colin and I have joked

1:01:37about Trackman I don’t even know if we use Trackman before he went to college

1:01:44or any kind of radar system but I think as coaches and those that have used

1:01:51track men are very good very good at just giving the amount of information they need to some young coaches that

1:01:58rely on track man I think of too much information and what are we what are we

1:02:03trying to accomplish so I think understanding causes an effect using

1:02:09technology okay that’s fine but now I have a ball below my feet and in a thin

1:02:15lie to a back-right hole location with the wind crossing I’m not sure what the track man is going to help me with in

1:02:20that particular case so I would say less technology early as they get older and they can take information in and they

1:02:26they need to understand more cause and effect I’m fine with that and I I really

1:02:32have to be careful with the social media step I don’t do a lot of social media um but you have to understand the players

1:02:39perspective too is if they’re only getting praised for when they win it

1:02:44sets them up for some issues issues down the road so those are the I come back to

1:02:51those two things because because I think that does take away from the playing at the game yeah I think you know maybe

1:02:58bring in a conversation back to to us as professionals working with with youth you know on the practice range or in

1:03:05lessons in those areas and it’s kind of funny when I first started teaching once upon a time ago I would almost be scared

1:03:12starting a golf lesson because I was like what if I what if I see something and I have no idea what to do I was

1:03:19almost felt like the student when I first started teaching is I didn’t know what I was going to encounter and and it

1:03:25was exciting because I you know what’s gonna happen what if I what if I can’t help this person given tens of thousands

1:03:31of golf lessons now that’s not the case necessarily anymore but it’s kind of ironic that the more I feel like I could

1:03:38say a 5 or 10 things to a student on anything that I see the more I’m

1:03:44starting to realize and something I’m working on as professional that that learning actually happens much better

1:03:50for the player when they’re allowed to experience things and try things on their own I just think as an industry

1:03:56and i curious your opinion on this you know letting letting players come up with the solution you know what’s going

1:04:03on there what what did you just do on that shot okay so if you could if you were to make a change that you think

1:04:09would help that shot get better what do you think that it would be and try to involve the student in coming up with

1:04:15the answer if I could if I could go through a lesson and and ask questions

1:04:21that allow the player to come up with the solution themselves versus me telling them what the answer is and then

1:04:28them doing what I tell them I think that that’s a deeper level of learning do you do you have any thoughts on that but

1:04:35well I totally agree I mean I’ve been teaching for a long time now over 26 years and I would say the first five

1:04:41years it was me telling people what to do that’s not a very good feedback loop

1:04:47as I call it so I want to create feedback immediately Collin hits a great

1:04:52shot I want to know more about what he experienced on that shot what was he feeling what was he thinking what was he

1:04:58doing because I I can see something and go oh wow great it looked like a great

1:05:03release position so what he is experiencing so I asked a ton of questions and that’s how I learn what’s

1:05:11best for the player but I also agree that the student needs to be allowed to

1:05:17experiment as a junior yes I had lessons every now and then but I had some more

1:05:22fun learning how to hit a flop shot and sculling some and into people’s backyards and all and you figure out a

1:05:28way I think is extremely beneficial down the road

1:05:36uh we have about maybe 10 to 15 minutes left that I know I can you guys an

1:05:41opportunity to wrap up if you have if you have thoughts and then I wanted to try to get to some of the questions that

1:05:47have been asked of you sure sure yeah so I’m going to share one more slide here is is talking about what are you know

1:05:53some of the things that we do have these challenges right and I I mentioned that I get to do a lot of playing lessons I

1:06:00know not all facilities allow you to do that but maybe you can have three of your juniors that are similar skilled

1:06:06and do a playing lesson together and they pay for a nine-hole green fee or something like that and go out there with them have them play a scramble and

1:06:13have you talk about each shot as you go along we’ve talked already about we need to educate parents better on the

1:06:19development of this journey over just short term results and again going against kind of this perfect golf swing

1:06:25trend you know it’s interesting in this day and age obviously with with Colin

1:06:30and Matthew Wolfe to play a lot together seeing them in practice rounds you have different swings that produce great

1:06:36results so we got to get away from the perfect swing idea we have to also understand that these juniors are

1:06:43feeling more pressure earlier and earlier these twelve year olds which used to be oh I’m gonna go have some fun

1:06:49now we’re feeling pressured if they don’t win this us kids tournament get enough points to get the regional

1:06:55championship they can’t go to and so we have to understand that as coaches and

1:07:00yes they want to win but we have to be aware that they may not be among a we

1:07:08alluded to this earlier if the motivation is just extrinsic reasons for hey I need to play golf because of a

1:07:13college scholarship I’ve seen too many people they get the college scholarship and then the first year they they stop

1:07:20playing golf so we need to understand that there we want to have the the internal love of the game and the

1:07:26challenge and the intrinsic reasons to play some more so now Josh we can get

1:07:33into some questions yeah Colin Ashley this one just came through kind of related it’s Colin can you give some of

1:07:39your goals as a junior golfer when you were 8 9 10 11 12 years old

1:07:46yeah wow that’s hard to think back there

1:07:51I think some of my goals were set you know I was playing SC PGA and the next

1:07:57goal was can I make it to Toyota terka you know I had it was the best you know

1:08:03local area tournaments to play I mean I remember looking at Bo Hossler and try

1:08:09and just even get into bed with him and now I’m playing with him on the PGA Tour and I know I’m pretty well but it’s like

1:08:15you know you see a bunch of these guys in this tour how was I going to get to the circle I had to earn enough points

1:08:20in whatever the fall spring summer whatever season it was was the other so I was so focused on trying to earn as

1:08:27many points as I could to get to chartered shortcut so like that was one of my goals back then was you know can I

1:08:33go and play in the torture Cup but also you know how are we gonna do that how was I gonna get ready to play an a JJ

1:08:40was I gonna be ready to play them you know I felt like by the time you know because there’s that age you know I

1:08:46think it’s like 13 or whatever for a JJ how was I gonna be ready when I was 13

1:08:51to go and compete with those guys you know I started off playing junior all-stars was like the 13 to 15 age

1:08:56group but you know I wanted to feel as prepared as I could when I got to that

1:09:01level so when I was that young when I was 10 when I realized what a JJ’s were what Toyota shortcuts work how was I

1:09:08gonna get there and how was I gonna be ready not just show up and just hit me like a freakin train hit me like wow

1:09:15what just happened this is a whole different tournament no you know yeah you know I didn’t play great not in

1:09:20every event but it was you know was I going to be ready to get out there calling this question just came through

1:09:27obviously in the tough times that we’re facing right now would stay at home orders actually couple the same question

1:09:35came through from a number of people here for the coaches that are on this call parents and or players what are

1:09:41some suggestions that folks could do at home that would help to keep them sharp in their golf games

1:09:48I mean it’s tough it’s I mean we talked about a lot of motivation stuff and how do we stay motivated and for me and I

1:09:54mean it’s I’ll be honest it is tough right now because we don’t know when we’re gonna get back out there we don’t

1:09:59know when the next tournament will be when you know one will be playing again especially you know for you guys in

1:10:05California and I think everything’s closed so I think good thing this is the time to really you know get your basics

1:10:12set up so if you could just even stand in a room and look how your setup is are

1:10:17you aiming straight that’s the best because you know a lot of the times when Rick and I talk about what’s going wrong

1:10:23with a certain tournament or a certain week it goes back to certain basics

1:10:28where my shoulders are aligned where my feet are aligned what you know how my posture isn’t it’s always going back to

1:10:35the basics so yeah you know we can’t see a ball fight we can’t see what’s the ball is gonna do what the the feel of a

1:10:40shot is gonna be like but how do we get our basics to where you know I can step out in two weeks I know when I set a

1:10:48club down this is where I’m gonna be standing and from there you know you’re gonna have to swing it who knows what

1:10:54the ball is gonna do but from there at least you know your basics are where you know where you want them to be but I’m

1:11:01using this time to really work out as much as I can you know work out at home do something strengthen certain body

1:11:07parts if you’re a junior you know do something fun have fun at home make it creative and just keep going without not

1:11:16that you get very many of them but what steps do you take moving on from a bad

1:11:22shot when you’re in competition I I mean I have to realize I had a bad shot you

1:11:28know sometimes you’re gonna laugh it off sometimes you’re in you’re in a position to laugh it off and you have to brush it

1:11:33off like that loudly and that’s going to be okay other times when you know just say we’re around the cut line and you

1:11:40know you hit a bad shot when you need to hit a good shot you have to take in and realize what you’re doing in that moment

1:11:45and then move on to the next shot if you you know like I said earlier you can’t dwell on the previous shot yeah I’m okay

1:11:53and I think you know rich and talked table most I’m okay you know walking after that next shot and thinking from

1:12:00just say I hit the Badshah I’ve got all that time to walk to my next shot if I dwell on that shot that’s

1:12:06okay you know I’m gonna think about what I did wrong what was it a mental error physical error try and figure out that

1:12:12really quick process since you know we’ve practiced and we’ve learned what cause and effects are try and figure

1:12:18that out if I’m still mad okay the one I get to my next shot a pre shot routine when I step into that shot

1:12:25everything else is going I have to focus on that next shot I have to focus on what I’m trying to do here because at

1:12:31that point I’m already in that situation and I have to realize okay I can’t do anything it’s out of my hands

1:12:37let’s go try it and hit a great shot the next one I could I I am dogs is a

1:12:48poached shot routine again is about understanding what what we learned from

1:12:55the shot again it could be a mechanical thing could be a mental thing and again it’s okay to keep learning but not have

1:13:00the self critical of all I’m horrible on this it’s like oh that shot went left I wonder why I went left

1:13:06let’s learn so again Cohen’s always done a great job with it it doesn’t mean you have to be happy okay but it does to me

1:13:13we can move on and learn from that this question could go to either one of you

1:13:18or both of you with respect to scholarships and we have players let’s let’s even maybe say especially that

1:13:26socio-economic factors wouldn’t allow someone to to just pay for getting into

1:13:31to a school what are some things that that coaches look for in players maybe even beyond some of the physical things

1:13:37and what are some things that players should be aware of about how they handle themselves that admit that are

1:13:42make-or-break with respect to being candidates for playing on college teams

1:13:51you mean you want to start off quicker you want to go yeah I had a hard time hearing the whole question to be honest

1:13:57with you a little break up on that just with respect I used with respect to

1:14:02scholarships and let’s just assume that the player doesn’t have the money to go you know what is it that coaches are

1:14:10looking for in players maybe even beyond some of the physical things and or what are some things that young players

1:14:16should be aware of and and and what are some things that we as coaches should be aware of to instill in our players that

1:14:21are make-or-break for a player being a candidate for Turin scholarship in college I can I can just say from a

1:14:31coach’s perspective because they got to work with some division 1 division 2 coaches who say they’re looking for

1:14:37character they’re looking for how does somebody bounce back after a poor shot they’re looking like how do they react

1:14:43to their parents coming off the 18th hole how do they interact with the volunteers have them you know that has

1:14:50nothing to do with was their golf swing look great they’ll obviously see your scores they’ll know if you’re a player

1:14:55or not but I would say what I’ve heard when you’re in that 16 17 age group is it’s a lot more about character issue is

1:15:02are you gonna be a good teammate are you gonna be who somebody who’s coachable so that’s what the coaches have told me Collin I don’t know you’ve been on a tee

1:15:09where you guys have had big goals on what do you think what do you think the coaches are are looking for I mean

1:15:16everyone’s different and I think that’s what you have to embrace is that when you show up to these meetings and when you’re having you know official visits

1:15:23and whatever you’re eating lunch with the guys you do not have to be this perfect spotless person you know because

1:15:30then they’re gonna look at you and feel like something’s off you’ve got to be you and I know it’s really tough I was

1:15:36very nervous when I was eating lunch with a bunch of these visits when I would go on these you know these tours and see these guys and I’m like oh wow

1:15:43these guys are gonna be the next guys on the PGA Tour yeah I’m gonna be nervous but you gotta

1:15:48be you I mean the coaches you know they’re gonna be looking for you know obviously good people like Rick said

1:15:55they’re going to be looking for who’s gonna benefit our team not you know create create chaos and be the one

1:16:01person that’s going to stick out like a sore thumb and you know just make it harder on

1:16:07everyone else in the team you know are the golf teams ranged from 7-8 guys to

1:16:12you know I had 15 16 guys at some point so you know if you compare that to other

1:16:18teams were pretty small and the amount of time you spent with the eyes is

1:16:23enormous and you spend so much time with them you want to be able to mesh well together and that’s what they’re looking

1:16:29for I think one thing you know people might and scholarships are important you

1:16:34know hands down you know and I think that CWI is offering all this stuff but you know I wasn’t one of those players

1:16:41where I was pushing myself when I was 14 to have to get a scholarship by of 16

1:16:49you know I didn’t set a deadline of you know man if I don’t get to this score if I don’t have a scholarship if I don’t

1:16:55commit to this school so early you know I’m gonna feel like I’m out of place I still you know felt like I was one of

1:17:02the better players during that junior time but there was no rush to get that done because I knew I was getting up I

1:17:09was gonna find a spot I know recruiting is has changed a little bit with you know timing and

1:17:14everything’s a little later now but you know there you see oh so many people and you see it on Instagram whatever it is

1:17:21you know you see someone commit and you’re like oh there goes a spot you know what am I going to do with this

1:17:26what am I going to do with that and yeah you know it’s gonna create some worry it has to because you know yeah there’s a

1:17:32spot taken away from you but you have to realize there are so many schools out there that you can still be the best

1:17:38player you know it doesn’t you don’t have to go to the biggest school you don’t have to go to a school that everyone has heard of and become the

1:17:45best player you can be and become you know whatever goals you set you can still go to any school and get our

1:17:52scholarship and go make something out of it and become a better player from that

1:18:02just from sorry kind of a follow up on that in a way I got a question that came through about how do you balance golf

1:18:09and social life and that would be both for a teenager but then also with college is that we know time management

1:18:15energy management very important eating any ideas of what you feel is the best way to you know balance golf and

1:18:22school and social life yeah I mean time management is very important and I think it’s all about

1:18:28being really efficient you know like I said I’ve never been a person to spend a

1:18:34lot of time on the range you know I probably should have spend more time on the putting green but and I’m doing that

1:18:40now but you know it’s how efficient can you be with your time you know in high school your times are set you know you

1:18:47go to school at 8:30 get out of three and then you have that afternoon to practice and sometimes there’s not a lot

1:18:53of daylight so you are out there and you’re in you’re playing you’re practicing or whatever when you have a lot of time on your hands like when you

1:18:59go to college and you have just say one class a day or two classes in the morning and then you

1:19:05have a full afternoon you have lunch or just say yeah from 10:00 to 6:00 p.m. what do you do does that mean you have

1:19:12to be out there at all times no I don’t believe that I mean you can you know there’s gonna be some days where you

1:19:17want to be out there but if you don’t really want to be out there you’re not going to be practicing smart you’re not

1:19:22going to be doing things you’re gonna be almost you know hurting your game in a sense of just being out there instead of

1:19:28learning something so you know I think you’re better off going out there for an hour hour and a half and trying to

1:19:34figure something out as quickly as you can in that hour and a half you’re gonna go by so quickly and then you can go

1:19:39spend you know your social life go hang out with friends go do other things and you’re gonna feel like you accomplished

1:19:44a lot more than just say yeah you know I was out there for six hours today that was always a tough question when

1:19:50people asked me as a junior you know when I was in college oh you must practice you know how many hours do you practice a day I I don’t

1:19:58know you know I’m not gonna say I practice eight hours a day like I’m not

1:20:04gonna lie to them because I don’t and you know even as a pronoun I have to be really efficient with my time I have to

1:20:10know what I’m doing because on these off weeks if I just grind grind grind yes

1:20:15you know they’re gonna be certain weeks where I need to do that certain tournaments I needed prep for but if I

1:20:20do these on these off weeks and you’re gonna go out and try and have fun and try and play and compete you’re gonna be

1:20:25mentally burnt out by the time you get there and I think you have to be ready

1:20:30that first day of the tournament to the last so do all your prep you need to but

1:20:36if you’re gonna balance your golf life your social life your school you just have to be efficient with what you do you guys I know you guys

1:20:44mentioned that you did weekly lessons when you were even eight nine ten I asked how long were the golf lessons

1:20:51that you guys did on a weekly basis when you were younger man Rick do you have a you know how long do you think lessons

1:20:57should be with pros teaching kids when they’re at younger ages you broke up a little bit was it how

1:21:03much time was each lesson yeah how long was each golf lesson that you guys did

1:21:08when you’ve met weekly when he was a junior golfer and can you think that that should be how long golf lessons are

1:21:14for other pairs that are teaching tips well I mean if these eight nine and ten

1:21:20I’m not gonna spend one hour on the range working on a golf swing so maybe

1:21:25some of the early lessons were thirty minutes long but as it went along and more of the lessons were done on the

1:21:31golf course anyways the hour was a good chunk of time now again he everybody has

1:21:36different attention spans Collins was very good okay so he wasn’t good start goofing around and stuff like

1:21:41that so of course the juniors maturity level their attention span is gonna have

1:21:46a big part of this but I don’t want I me personally don’t wanna hit golf balls for an hour straight under range so why

1:21:53would I want to make my students do that so I would change things up if it was going to be a one-hour session it

1:21:59wouldn’t be always a swing type of lesson so I think that has a lot to do with the maturity and the attention span

1:22:05again I was fortunate to go on the golf course which you know half hour goes by way too quick so an hour was a good

1:22:11chunk of time Colin a couple questions related I’m gonna lump them together so

1:22:17we can get get more of these voices in here non golf related activities that

1:22:23you engage in outside of golf that you think help you with golf and on that point you know how do you keep calm do

1:22:30you do work with Zen and yoga or the role of music either when you’re

1:22:36practicing or not practicing I think anything other than golf is gonna help

1:22:41you with golf I think so many people you know with breathing and I love it and I

1:22:46that’s I do live and breathe golf but anything you do outside of golf is gonna help I mean you know I love playing

1:22:52basketball with a bunch of friends you love going on hikes I love spending time the ocean whatever it is everyone has their own hobbies but

1:23:00you know from for me I love staying active but get myself away from the gold I think that’s the best thing I did for

1:23:06myself in college was I took a week off actually you know during that winter time didn’t touch my clubs at all and it

1:23:14was the biggest it was the best thing because when I did come back I loved it even more I wanted to get out there one

1:23:20video sharp in my game I want to get better and I wish I did that when I was a junior and I probably did just not

1:23:26knowing but you know I wish I did that a little more often not more often but I

1:23:33wish I did that you know at least once or twice a year as a junior and then I think you know I I don’t do yoga we did

1:23:40a little yoga in college I think what helps me is is just you know what we’ve

1:23:46done Rich’s helped me with a lot of breathing exercises I do it a lot of breathing if you watch me during my

1:23:52peers our routines during tournaments you know I try and stay as calm as I can

1:23:57I actually used to listen to music I used to listen to the same song for an

1:24:02hour I’ll repeat during her warm-up throughout high school and even probably

1:24:09like the first couple years of college which sounds crazy and they would just go on repeat but you know it’s not like

1:24:15I’m listening anything you just you know keep me relaxed and you got to find what keeps you relaxed and you know for me it

1:24:23was just having some music I love practicing with music you on I love listening to it while I practice because

1:24:31it’s just it keeps you at ease you know we we do so much of grinding and trying

1:24:37to figure what’s right is that you need something to kind of balance that yeah I don’t think it’s it’s not necessarily

1:24:43wrong to grind you still need to do that but for me you know having some music on

1:24:48while you practice nothing wrong with that um that’s awesome that’s awesome really

1:24:55appreciate that on behalf of the SC PG a teaching committee the SC PG a Youth

1:25:01Summit that we do every year I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you guys take taking time to help us become

1:25:08better professionals and those who are poor players and parents alike listening in to today’s podcast I hope you guys

1:25:15enjoyed the conversation with with Rick and Colin and again this will be this

1:25:20will be filmed so you will have an opportunity to see this at a later date it was all recorded and I think we’re

1:25:26pretty much out of time Rick if you want to close with anything feel free otherwise again thank you guys so much

1:25:33and looking forward to the next opportunity to connect with you again thank you so much

1:25:38Thank You Josh I love your passion for the game and for youth development I

1:25:44think we’re very fortunate like I said before being in Southern California section we’ve got so many talented

1:25:49coaches and professionals that are growing the game I do have my contact information here if if somebody wants to

1:25:56ask me questions and and I’ve always here for that but I want to thank all

1:26:03those those parents and those students across the years who have trusted me and dad so Thank You Colin for all these

1:26:10years it’s been fun thanks guys thank you go bears