Integrating Mind and Body to Perform – Marcus Bell #388

coming up on the mind, Cady. Look at Tiger Woods went through a life of remodeling. Maybe that was just his purpose to caveat to other projects. Maybe that kept him focused and gave him purpose. For the average guy who's playing golf once a week, maybe going to the range once a week, how'd you get better? That's what I'd ask yourself. What am I doing with this golf ball that's going to enable me to help him eat to get better? Mind, Cady. Hello, everybody. Thanks for joining me again for another session on the mind, Cady. It's great to be back with you for another week. I'm Carl Morris. I've worked as a performance coach for the past 25 years. I saw working with players at every single level. Club players write up to major winners, exploring performance. What are the key ingredients of performance? That fascinating, fascinating subject of finding out what we're truly capable of achieving, what we're truly capable of doing. And within that, many times on the podcast, we've talked about the utter preciousness of time. And I think it only reinforces itself with, we talked last week about the passing of Dennis Dernie and some of the terrible events that are in the world. And we see the preciousness of time and opportunity. And I think it only reinforces to me recently spending time with people who have known for years. We've had a few nice Christmas lunches and things like that. And it's been so special to reconnect and talk about times gone. But also of opportunities going forward. And I think within that then, and I've asked yourself, what is the rest of the winter going to look like for you? What are you going to do with your time in the winter? Maybe if you're a coach, you're interested in developing some of your coaching skills. If you're looking to develop more of a business around performance, I think there's such an incredible opportunity. I really do for coaches in the future who really grab the mantle and run with the baton so to speak in terms of performance and helping people get the best out of the game, not just isolate and only to swing and swing position. So if you're interested in joining us on the MindFactor certification course, the online course, the new learning management system, a number of people have said already, how much at this time of year is I'd an ideal time to just get stuck in some time available to immerse themselves in the learning and build a platform to go forward from next year. Within that course, there's mentoring sessions with myself. If you're interested in performance, if you're interested in really standing out as a coach, not just somebody who works on just swing changes, but helps people actually access the skills out on the golf course. Get in touch with us and take action. Just become part of the community as well with me every month. It's great to share ideas. We've met some fantastic people over the years within this. So it's only going to happen if you take action. So click on the link in the show notes, getting touch with us at themindfactor.com. If you're interested in becoming a certified MindFactor coach. On today's show, though, it's great to welcome back Marcus Bell from GRF Golf. I spent a fantastic couple of days, few three days with Marcus in the summertime at West Hart's Golf Club, with David Griffiths and Matt Foster. We did a Gotter GRF Golf School together. I'm actually going to be doing another one next year if you're interested. March 22nd of the 24th. It seems a long time off at the moment, but you'll be here in no time. So if you're interested in coming on that golf school, getting touch with Marcus, but it's fantastic day. Marcus is tech today on the show about movement and how movement can emerge and freedom of movement and actually enjoying the golf swing for its own set. Marcus has got some fabulous ideas and fabulous drills. If you've not seen any of these work, just put a link. Just put a search into YouTube and just have a look at the GRF stuff. You get some incredible results with people, but above anything else, it seems to me having experience spending time with Marcus. He provides a learning environment for students. A really special environment for people to explore the capabilities. And we talk about that in great depth today on the show. The other thing you're perhaps thinking about in the winter, if you're going to spend some time working on your game, you may be working with your coach on, I'll begin to work on your culture, exploring the idea of making some swing changes. Definitely knows the time. The rest of this month and certainly January and February are great times to do that. But are you going to go about it the right way? And I think there's some secret ingredients to making swing changes, which within the mind caddy app, we've just got a new program within the with the Doctor of Justice talking about how to actually make swing changes. Not what to change, but how to change. So I think if you're going to spend time in the winter time, if you're going to spend a lot of money, go into the range and you're not sure about how to go about it. I promise you, you could very easily waste a lot of time, energy and money. But if you understand the key components within the program, in the mind caddy app, I promise you, you'll short circuit those changes and get pro making progress really, really quickly. For again, the price of a golf lesson, come and join us on the on the mind caddy journey. So click in the link in the show notes. So I just go to the website, the mind caddy.gov and come and join us with the mind caddy journey. Mind caddy. Buffer now, let's spend some time in the company of Marcus Bell. Michael, absolute pleasure to join you again. We had a fantastic few days back in the last summer at West Tarts. You invited me to do a golf school with you and Matt Foster was there. We obviously I've known, we both known for a long time. It was beautiful weather in a great location, a fabulous cook. What's your recollection of that school? For me, it was a special experience. Yeah, it was, it's the first time I've collaborated with another coach. To use me outside of my normal team. And obviously we've worked together in the past and it was a fantastic, it was a learning experience for me to be honest. And to, for us to, what we do is so cohesive and there's so much synergy there, it was, yeah, seamless really. But to get your input from your perspective, I thought the school was, the school was a massive success. The feedback's been, been unbelievable. Everybody had a great week. We saw some transformational changes in, in not just movement. I'll always allude to movement more than kind of swing technique, if you like. The swing motions really really took a turn for the better. And they're on cost performance as well. And the perception of it moving forward, how they actually are going to, as you always, as you always like to make people aware of how to access their skills on the golf course. And I think it's one thing training skills, but it's how they access them. And I think your involvement really catalyzed that process and gave a different perspective on it. I'm obviously so close to the line to what you do in your approach, but nevertheless, to have the master by my side was like, was, was, yeah, also really gave me more, gave me confidence in what we're doing, supporting it, supporting the whole approaching philosophy. So yeah, the feedback was amazing. It's a great place, West Arts. It's a fantastic facility, lovely clubhouse, amazing staff, members. I mean, David Griffiths, the pro there's a good good friend, former DP World Tour player. And he's so, he's a GRF golf coach ambassador as well. So he knows I'm enter him and he's very much an advocate of the of what I do and yeah, I love going there. And it's a, we go there. We'll continue to go there because it's such a fantastic place. It's, and it's a little bit, you can't believe it's in Watford, really. It's like a, it's like a, it's like a, well, it's a little haven really, surrounded by trees. You can't see any of the tour buildings. You won't believe as soon as you drive out where it's situated. It's the real, yeah, hidden, hidden gems and overuse phrase, but it's definitely applicable, isn't it? So that's not, to that golf course. And I think as well, it was great seeing Matt Foster there and you know, benefit of his experience on tour and talking about how he used to prepare and things like that. And I think, you know, for him to reflect on his own career about what he would perhaps done, have done, done differently and obviously the the work with you. But I think one of the things that struck me, Marcus, watching, watching the school at first hand, obviously, I've known a lot of the work that you do. But it was great just to see you create an environment where people were kind of free to explore the movement. There was, you know, for me, the big thing is about the brain seeing an opportunity, not a threat. And it was, it was very much that kind of environment where people were willing to and open to exploring movements. Yeah, I think creating that tacit learning environment is so important where, because it's movement so intuitive and you're training intuition. So yeah, just going back to having fuzz on board. We cover in all bases in terms of how someone perceives their environment throughout the week or the three days they're experiencing goal from so many different lenses, which is all contributing to how they perceive their intention because ultimately all boils down to intention. Yes, the environment for them to elicit a more dynamic reactive state whereby they're absorbing information whilst maintaining the focus of attention somewhere else, that's really key for me. So they can be it ultimately multitasking and raising as a coach, as a coach we're raising the challenge point, we're continually on the sliding scale moving the challenge point so that we are, as you always talk about the question is that you ask yourself, what is the, what questions are you not just asking yourself but what does the shot ask of you, what does your environment, what everything is an invitation for opportunity, every experience is an invitation for opportunities, it's searching for the opportunity and as you often say as well, are you in pursuit of avoidance and most people are practicing in avoidance and most people then their mindset shifts to avoidance and that also influences how they perceive learning and how they accept, it's accepting information without realizing subconsciously we can discard information due to our kind of underlying belief system that has developed over years, often unknowingly just by watching YouTube or lessons or whatever it is, reading books, we shape a belief system and then that ultimately creates judgment on information we receive and as a coach, I'm not trying to convince somebody, I'm not trying to kind of just have to be compelling, it has to just, they have to do the invitation and the invitation they have to accept and an invitation to explore. So the journey of self discovery can't be underestimated because it requires them to almost bear themselves and be honest, open, I mean you know what it was like the first morning we have a meeting, we say half an hour for a coffee, it always rolls over to about an hour at least hour and half and because you know what it's like, you get a group of golfers together, we're all like-minded and particularly the people who come to my courses and your course and schools, very like-minded souls and very and all bring in their own golfing experience to the table and we all resonates, we all share common experiences and we can empathise with each other and that in itself creates a real special energy in the group and that the dynamics of a group of group learning and they're amazing, I mean because you're learning as much, I often always say to the group, you learn it as much from just watching each other as you are from just listening to me or being being guided by me, by watching other people because you, you, sorry, you give the same information to six people, I mean not instructionally wise, I'm just talking about what we're doing the movement profiling and you give the same instruction and you get six different versions of it. So I've got an idea. You've been here and this isn't the- Yeah exactly and it's like, it's like you can imagine it's a mind field in terms of say social media watching these instructional videos on YouTube, I mean I've got obviously a channel myself and try to keep the message so clear, concise and neutral but nevertheless it's open to each individual's interpretation and how they translate that into movement is very different as you can see we see six different versions of the same thing. And so it multiplied that by however many people are watching a video so you've got 5,000, 10,000, you've got a lot of different versions going on so not that we're trying to- there's no, that's not a model if you like, that's just exploring movement, that's like just getting people to explore their own movement and recognize what the system's capable of because we don't, we've got to- I mean we've got to develop our own and hands our own self-awareness of our capability, what do we possess and how do we access that and how do we configure that and apply it and then access it time and time again so most people are- I mean I- the first thing is I mean we could go so deep into this is you don't really see the true mover, you don't see a true mover with the person with a golf club in the hand, you see a version of somebody, you see somebody almost acting out a script, yeah. If I throw you a ball or kick a ball to you, I'm going to see the real moving you, I'm going to see the authentic genuine version reactionary dynamic even you don't have to be like a wheel class athlete, I'm going to see you respond, yeah. And then by- by adapting that task I can really start to kind of trigger these responses and start to learn a lot about how you move and I'm starting to see the real kind of the dynamism that exists there in the system that is often it's suppressed, I mean most people stand to a golf ball and they're anything but reactionary, they're anything but dynamic and because there's some real conscious- what do you say of the right thing? They're just script aren't they? Yeah, it's like watching an actor and so there's no wonder there's an illustration there because they don't apply themselves to any other form of movement in their life that way and there's no movement is unconditional so that you don't place conditions on how you move, you just allow the body to react, movement is emergent behavior. So what is triggering that emergent behavior? Well, it's your environment and it's your intention within that environment and then how do you respond to that invitation? How do you recognize the affordances or the constraints if you like both of a task? And not just that, how do you recognize the affordances and constraints of yourself? So my focus, I have a philosophy of my, of a motion body mind. People often think my body motion but motion, you can take yourself through a motion and it's experiential learning, you're starting to experience movement and I mean it's how we it's how we develop, how we develop as a fetus and then as we go as we as we go through that development process, the brain connects through movement and then we meander through the birthing canal and we start to create movement reflexes, we connect the brain. So the brain is used to it's driven by movement, it's stimulated by movement so it's the key to large movement and an engulf were almost suppressing that. There's been a reductionist approach to from my eye in my through my eyes in coaching and from my perspective and it's the complete opposite. We should be we should be encouraging exploration. But with with the purpose and understanding, there has to be some conceptualization and there has to be re-conceptualization. So if you read and the thing is it's such a it's such an integrated dynamic system that everything's connected to everything, everything affects everything. So whenever you're you're never working on one aspect of a golf swing if you like and if you are focusing on I mean say you're working on some other there. We I don't work this way but say people come to me all the time I've been working on my impact on my pit my delivery my P456. The question is is what's happening before and after? So you're looking at a snapshot in time and trying to recreate something that is a product of forces of motion and it's a result you look when you're all seeing something in a golfer you see in the result of something else. So where's the pathology and and and how do you trace all that back deterministically in terms of feeling the golfering is over in under one and a half seconds so it's a it's a blink of an eye how do you recognize what you've just done? So that really underpins the whole kind of approach to to my golf schools. By first of all recognizing allowing the individual to recognize themselves and then they can start to express themselves within their environment more freely externally and and feel free to to do that and allow them to connect to a golf club the golf club is ultimately part of your anatomy when you pick it up it becomes if you pick a golf club up and hold it up in the air behind you and you can tap it with your hand you don't you don't need to look at it your body you won't miss the club bed you won't be looking at it you'd you'd sense it wouldn't you? Your body senses it knows where it is in space the proprioceptive system that we've that's evolved gives us that sixth sense if you like and we've got to trust it and often that's when everybody experiences playing their best golf no matter what level the rap and when the you don't switch the mind off it's it's engaged I think the I think the key thing is, because a couple of things that you're making, making points about there is that the movement itself actually becomes an enjoyable experience in and of itself to move your body in a certain way. But also, with what you're talking about there, you're actually quite in the thinking mind that so many people are trying to play a golf and the thinking mind is so dominant and so overloaded with stuff that actually the experience of the movement is lost, isn't it? Because people are so much in their head rather than in the body. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think the pre-existing mindset belief system is the driver in terms of how they adopt new information and adapt to it. And that can be the problem because they're trying to make something meet their pre-existing ideals, ideology of a swing. So I normally do it like this and they're trying to make such minor changes that may have some effect, but it's not enough of a reboot, if you like. And you're right. I mean, completely agree. The mind quietens naturally through that level of, I mean, when you possess a level of proficiency, that very flaky word confidence, but a level of proficiency, if you train in a way that creates a level of proficiency and is adaptable, you're able to shift your attention into other places, which could be, well, which are going to quieten the mind because no longer are you, no longer are you so apprehensive about what you're about to do. It's almost a simulation that's playing out in your mind. You've done it before, before you even get to the golf ball, you know how this swing is going to feel. You pictured the shot, the image is there, the kinesthetics are there. You are going through the motions with the golf shot and then you've got feedback loops. You've got, and if you're training is good, you've got tactile feedback loops. So you've got, you've got, if you've been training with it in a, in a, in a, in a, in a movement based learning, learning with a movement based learning style, you're recognising yourself, you're recognising the feed as you, as we've done before in our video on that we put on the channel when you, when you get put, we through a session and putting me through a session is the right way. It was, I felt like I was going through the, the, the meal ground, the grinder. And you know what I was, it was, it was such a, a unique experience for me to be honest, because I've not felt like that for a long time. But towards the end of that session, I was moving in a, yeah, just, and I could see myself when I watched the video back, I could see a change of state in my body. And I could see the tension kind of removing from in our movement. I could see, see myself in a more reactive state. I could see myself focusing on what is useful, not useless. I could see myself, allow it, give him, give him a body license to just express itself with a more, be more reactive. And yes, I, of course, I've played golf most of my life, but nevertheless, as a coach, you don't play that much these days, you venturing out onto the golf course, you don't know what you're going to get. And that, that, that session proved at the beginning, it was kind of very all over. And then as we started to shift and started to differentiate between the shot, one, two, three, movement, one, two, three, grading it, it gave you a framework to explore, didn't it? That it gave you. Yeah. But the, the threat was reduced. I think what we'll do is link that, Marcus, in from the, in the podcast, a link in the show, not because I think everybody should see that because you, you know, it was raw and naked, wasn't it? But it just worked so well, really. Yeah, yeah. I was fully exposed there. And that's, that's not a great, great side. But, but I, yeah, also, I mean, if the links, if it's able to, the links to the West Arts Golf School, we've got the coaching there. So we've got three or four links there, which can give a viewer an insight into what a golf school entails in terms of the coaching from, from my perspective, you from your, from your perspective, your side of things, the on course. I think there's a bit of something there for everyone. And it offers a different, a different, yeah, a different, an alternative approach, which, which makes sense to me, I mean, it's, it's, it's, we're learning through, we see, we, we adapt to our environment, picking up a golf club and expressing ourselves in that environment. I mean, you only have to look at everybody's golf swings. I mean, I'll, look at all the world's best players, okay, they all swing it different. I mean, they may be having similar lessons, they may be having similar instruction. You only have to get a group of coaches together and start to put a swing upon a screen and all the coaches that we've seen as swingers, probably a similar way. There'll be different views and things, but a swing is steep, it's flat, it's inside, it's outside. And there's, these grips too strong, as grips too weak. And yet, yet the system is so adaptable, it functions. And these guys are, I mean, we're looking at the, the 1% of the 1% of the 1%. So they, you're going to get as some amazing performers in any sport is, and worldwide. But these guys, despite what goes, I mean, I saw a brilliant, and they don't, I think the social media, the DP world, I don't know, they don't really, they don't really do it anymore. But a few years ago, probably through during COVID or just after COVID, they must, they had some guys who were trying to get in behind the scenes. And it is a long time ago, because Stenson was on it and Polter. And they're on the tee. They're on a really difficult par three tee box. And it was a, it was like, sometimes never a true word is spoken is in, in jest is it? It's like, it's like, they were like, using it as a bit of a joke video, like a comedy, kind of, yeah, entertainment say. And they're on the tee and they're asking them questions completely like what you haven't beauty, what you've been doing, blah, blah, blah, just trying to completely distract them. And these guys are ripping it. And they've already got one shot. It's not like they're at the practice said, they're on this par three. And as the coming round on the practice ground, you've got this guy on the tee and he's asking him questions as they're about to tear off, distracting him. And the players are talking to him while they are swinging and playing the golf shot and they're flushing it and stiffing it and playing shots as they always would. Yet, I mean, it's the ultimate of in terms of the ultimate display of automatic pilot. And these guys are just so aware and so they possess such a high level of pattern recognition that they just, yeah, it's habits. And they're just, they're able to shift their attention anywhere, distract themselves and perform. Now we're all capable of that. We all drive a car. We all operate in our everyday lives by multitasking and we can be having lots of different things going off at once in our mind. And we don't overload ourselves movement wise. We don't have to stop and freeze. We continue moving and going about our daily lives. And we're able to process multiple bits of information while still functioning. And in golf, we've almost trained ourselves out of this. The genius of the body that's a product of billions of years of evolution moving objects to targets. Yeah, yeah. The SWOT analysis is already there in the system. It knows the peripherals are the, but it knows how to shift into a place where that is of, is of absolute necessity. Where do I need to focus? And so it's, we're all, we already possess what we need. We already possess what we need movement wise too. So I mean, it's all relative to our physical ability, of course, and things like this, but we all possess more than we get than we feel we, we often utilize or we feel we're capable of. And then that's the beauty of coaching. That's why I love doing what I do and it's so fulfilling, allowing people to actually realise that this potential. And so movement is key. And first of all, taking yourself through a journey of self-realisation of, yeah, what do I possess movement wise? Most people don't realise the capability of the risk in a goal swing to move the club. I mean, that is your connection. That is your clubface. The golf club is extension of your anatomy. It's like a prosthetic limb. And your body already has a GPS system for this. And you can, you can refine your attunement to this through training. And then you learn to move, learning to use your body to make a goal swing. So allowing the body to make a goal swing. So going through that process of self-realisation of what movement do I possess? So profiling into a self-actualisation. How do I apply this? And then once you can start to apply it, once you start to, if you watch me, my channel on the, with the exercises, you start to appreciate how you can move to accelerate the club, you can, or release the club feel, feel the face, the path. These things, these things are natural. This is not kind of positioning the club and having to be in a certain place and meet these certain requirements conditions. It's nice. We can move at speed and we can trust our body. Once we start to let go, once you take that leap of faith, you can start to trust your body's capability. And then once you start to actualize that, there's a level of proficiency starts to emerge. And then you can move into self-optimization. And then you can start to get really task-focused. And like you said, lighty did with me, shifting my attention out there into that field of view where, yeah, where is all the information for the golf shot? The golf shot draws the golf swing. But then we're consving emerges as a result of your intention to that image. Coming up on the mind-cirty. They've become self-aware, first of all, of what you're doing in terms of, yeah, is the outcome recognizable before you actually go ahead and swing. Do you have a feel for what you're actually going to what you're about to do? And in some form of recognition for the outcome that's attached to that. And often people are just setting up in terms of error avoidance, trying to negate error by checking the grit, checking the stance, tightening up one piece takeaway, trying to avoid any errors. But in doing so, they don't realize they're introducing so much noise that is, that creates so much incoherence that it just creates complete confusion in the system. Mind-cirty. Mind-cirty. An exclusive app created by Carl Morris, which focuses on enhancing your mental game to achieve lower scores on the course. Join thousands of golfers, including six major champions, and download Mind-cirty from the App Store today. Mind-cirty. Because then I think this is what, you know, I really enjoyed watching you coach and then, you know, my kind of philosophy on the golf course, then you can move towards the shot creating the swing. 100%. So you're working, you're working back, you're reverse engineering from the golf shot with movement and responding in there. The golf swing is a reaction, it's a reaction to intention. Intention creates motion and motion is a reaction. So just on that point, there, Max, I think this is a really important. You've just said intention creates motion. Playing devil's advocate, and there's enough fork out there, with good intention, strongly believing certain positions and methods and things like that. What would your sort of response to some of this saying, you've got to put the club here and you've got to do this and you've got to do that. What is that essentially shutting down in the system? So it all depends on how you are organising your movement. So if you're manipulated into a certain place, then where you're shifting your attention is essentially, that becomes the driver. So if you put somebody in a pressure plate, and I literally just move the arms into say a P1 to a P2 to a P3, right? Which I'd say rarely. But you will see very little probably interaction with the ground. Okay, it's upper body driven, very passive. But once we, but what we want to be focusing on, personally as a golf coach, is we go way further back, way way way back before you even perceive that movement of the golf club. The forces that are creating the move, how do you move to create the forces to move the golf club? And so now the golf club is becoming a reactive motion to swing the club. There is no such thing as takeaway. We're not taking the club away from something. There's no one piece takeaway or anything like this. It's kind of the system is, your body is just, it's a system of so many components, so many all the joints, all the variables that are there at play. We're not trying to reduce them. We're trying to actually allow them to all comply and transfer energy. And we're doing it. We want to be using our environment in the most, in the most book to efficient way possible. So moving from the ground, without without using ground reaction forces, we're going to struggle to move well in life. A lot of people are playing golf as if they're kind of walking around with a zimmer frame. They're not, they're not actually using the ground. And therefore they become rigid and the body becomes, the body becomes scared of movement because it's not experiencing. As you were alluding to that into the positions, you're not experiencing anything outside of those parameters. And so the affordances there for this, for this in terms of attuning yourself to this variability for performance, how do you regulate something like this when your shots start to go offline? Do you just revert back to I've got to hit this position and just because you hit two or three shots out of five, that validates your reason for doing it. But why happens in a game of golf, you get one go. And how do you recognise the winds off the left? It's a bit stronger. You've got as where is the adaptability that enables you to develop an enhanced repertoire that you can trust and is, is, is become second nature. And the golf club, how many times does someone swing a club and go, oh, save my hands, save my hands, save that one? It's like your hands haven't saved anything. It's just that, okay, your sequence might have been out. The swing felt a bit uncomfortable, but it's hand-eye coordination. That is the golf swing. And it's like, it's kind of, yeah, something maybe was not quite how it normally feels, but the body is so able to adapt in the moment. And it's unrecognizable consciously. And then we're almost trying to recollect what we did. We call it for the future. How did I do that? How did I, and it's kind of we're chasing something that was organised through a completely different process than we're trying, than we're trying to replicate in the future. It's like, so the reduction is to approach. I'm not, look, I'm not, I'm not, I've got my own kind of beliefs in it, of course, but I accept any kind of methodology. I think there's enough room in the world for everyone. And it's, it's some, some, if it breeds results and success and people are happy playing and they, that's great. As golfers, we all love to explore. We love to try different techniques, models, look at Tiger Woods, went through a life of remodeling. And maybe that was just his purpose to have he had to have a project. And, and maybe that's what excited him. I don't know, but, but for the average guy who's playing golf once a week, maybe going to the range once a week, as well. How do you, how do you, how do you get better? What am I doing with this golf ball that's going to enable me to, that's helping me to get better? So I ask in yourself some, some, some hard questions really. And what's the purpose of this, this golf shot I'm about to hear? What do I, what am I, how do I, if someone asked you, why are you doing what you're about to do? Would you, would you, would you, ran some make sense in terms of if I do this, I'm going to be doing it here doing the same thing next week. I'm going to be doing the same thing in six months. I'm going to be chasing my tail, looking for some kind of quick fix and here today gone tomorrow. I'm actually learning about myself. I'm actually, I'm actually creating an understanding. Do I know myself? I mean, people use the word blueprint and it is that can be misinterpreted. But do I know what ultimately is my, where does my swing DNA lie and deal with it being kind of winter type? Because if there was, and this is an impossible question, and I'm going to ask it anyway, if there was one, obviously, come and see you as an, as an ideal, or you, you coaches, but what would be, what would be your suggestion of an entry point, guys at the reins through the winter? What would be an entry point to some of this? What would be the first thing you would suggest somebody could explore? So today, I've just had a beginner. And he's, look, he's a beginner, but he's been playing golf for a couple of two, three months, and he can hit the ball 350 yards. He's like happy Gilmore, right? So we'd all love to have, yeah, we'd all love to have that ability, won't we? It's a bit, it is sickening to watch because he just possesses this unbelievable innate ability to just smash it outside, right? But it's outside in all directions. So he hasn't got, he's not a tube, he's got the level of the affinity he has for the motion of his movement, to the motion of his movement, in terms of movement, a curative with the club ed, just he doesn't know where he's got no idea of how to operate with the golf club. So he's, but as soon as we, and this is trans, this is kind of how other sports lend themselves, donor sports and transfer of learning. So applying other kind of actions in sport and shots, obviously tennis, it's a ball sport at the end of the day. So how do you spin a ball? How do you spin a ball with this golf club? Now, all the brackets and bats have got a flat face. That's the difference golf got loft and the loft's changing. So that adds a very, very complex variable to it that changes the dynamics, but nevertheless, the body can very quickly attune itself to this. And this is where the last section of what I was talking about earlier, self-realisation, self-actualisation, self-optimisation, and then self-regulation. So first of all, he's got to recognise self-realisation. What can you do with the golf club? So we worked on release, just we literally cocked his wrists up and down, okay, and then side to side and then rotated and then we started swinging the club and he could start to appreciate the face opening and closing. It could appreciate the cocking of his wrist lifted the club head raised it, uncocking if you like dropped it so just keep it simple and then he started to swing the club and then I got into close the face earlier, close the face later and he could appreciate what that might be doing through the gop through at the moment of impact so he could appreciate timing and then we started to add in a directional so this is where the concept comes in of face and path so I'd laid some stuff out on the floor I said look if you face if you face as well first of all the first pre-requisite for a right hand there who wants to draw the ball as your path got to go right otherwise there's no affordance to close the face so the face is always closing inside the path so how much you close that face relative to the path is going to start the ball further left and draw it so basic some basic face face and path stuff but with movement attached to it so he's making some very very quick attachments to the what he's seeing on the ground and visual of what this might create with the shot so it's purely hypothetical at the minute simulating in his mind what this ball might do and then I said if you close the face early what's going to happen he goes well it's going to start left go left if you leave the face open if you're path more right you leave the face open where that ball straight right so straight away is giving me information about what could potentially happen to these movements he's making without any golf ball and just a club in the air swinging so he's he's starting to he's starting to create a resonance already with the form to the performance so he's recognizing form a guy Johnny Dawes is a climber amazing guy one of the first free climbers very very fortunate to know to know Johnny and I credit that to him massively form and performance I think performance is born out of form and this does not mean it's a rigid approach by the way he's very very much non-linear but allowing you to recognise your form and recognise the performance associated with it and so he so this guy today starts better basically talking me through what is going to happen before he does it then we're bringing the ball in now there's a new level of realisation so Kenny actually Kenny Kenny Kenny this is experiential now is it he's expecting something to happen there's a level of predictability today but is this going to happen and of course it's a couple of shots and he thins one he tops one and I said look we're not I used the one two three we are attached we're detaching the one we're detaching the golf ball at the minute we just recognise him movement because you know if you hit this golf shot if you make these movements that ball's going to curve right to left we're not interested in how far but can we curve a ball right to left it may curve too much it may not curve a lot but that's the start because from unit start creating reference you're going to start to be able to relate to these feelings and it's all again feeling I mean at the heart of what I do is sensory input everything I do I'm always as a golf coach I am questioning myself as to what is this player going to experience in terms of sensory input how am I stimulating that because sensory input creates motor output and then how do we stimulate the system to make this such a memorable experience I mean if you think about most things you remember in life are because it's either extreme the pleasure of all or extremely painful and that that extreme those extreme ends of the spectrum emotionally and emotion as we know is Latin energy emotion it's very much connected to motion you remember things through through you know what a slice feels like and you know how the result of it feels like right so you that movement of a slice is imprinted in your mind and it's probably something that you fight in all your life and anyway I'm going off pieces and all we do but the going back to going back to to this guy he was we put a ball down and he draws it and he hooks it and he's like he's never ready to draw in his life and he's like wow he says no one's ever explained it to me a white does it and now I've just felt it and I've said well that's what is that inviting you now what that's asking that that this shot is inviting you into an opportunity to do something what do you think we could do it goes well I could go more right I said yeah so now you can start the ball right so are you going to do that when I'm going aim more to the right and I said where do you need to swing to when to an out to enable this to happen oh well I'm going to swing further right so the guy now is guiding himself he's all in the process isn't he is empowered in his own learning so he's navigated himself through this and he's moving the golf club and now we talk about risk cock so I use things like boxing pads and things like that to just in the air just to give him a feel of leverage through his wrists I'm purely working on sensory input at the moment through through his wrist action and recognizing the result and that motion of the club and so he's starting to now here and he's starting to recognize how he can create leverage so he wrote he rotates the shaft is able to rotate his forearms and cock his wrists so he's able to then deliver the golf club down to the golf balls rotate the club and square the face and close the face to impact yeah and he's recognizing when he's doing it relative to the ball he's also recognizing now the orientation of his movement because the only is the ball giving him feedback he's feeling what he's doing and there's connectivity taking place so he's seeing what's going out now out there he's starting to draw a relationship and there's a movement mapping virgin and a record while I develop it and he starts if he was flipped by I mean in 10-15 minutes is it he draws out to the right is it such a powerful idea smashing his like eight time one sixty one set I mean it was like and he either is it even said I don't know I'm doing this he says but he says I don't know I do feel it yeah yeah and I said that's movement that's golf I said how'd you walk I said how'd you throw a ball how'd you kick I said these are these are primitive movements these primitive instincts but you are you are recognizing now and you're creating you're you're recognizing movement you're recognizing intention but you're creating your own conceptual map of what's going on and I said that's all that matters to you it only has to be in your language it's own doesn't movement doesn't need language to be fair but it's only in your interpretation does this matter all I'm doing is giving you an opportunity to for you to understand what you do and you will create your own version of events and then we started delving to his movement vocabulary so how he starts to recognize so I use balance pads and lots of disruptive I try out if we place the body into a state of flocks and disruptive state then the body has to start to organize itself and then you really start to see how the body reacts in terms of danaly balance in terms of movement affordance and orders starts to emerge and when the when you start to shift it towards a particular task and then this guy's now got a real coherent sense of what he's trying to do with the task the movement can start to adapt and so he started to then recognize how he's feet are moving for a draw his hips is torso his shoulders he could almost start to simulate the movement of through his whole body for a draw because once I start to shift his body and I use a body scanning process where he's moving through the body internally and it's all sensory it's all sensory wise he's starting to recognize and appreciate what his body's doing to facilitate this swing for a draw and now he's starting to in his mind paint a picture of how he's moving and then he can start to shift his attention and it can drive this movement from anywhere to be honest there's no particular origin to this to this motion yes he's letting his body react instinctively of course it's driven through the floor and he's I'm going to be from the floor and that's where I'm going to be going with him in future lessons but this was just a start and and now there's a level of predictability to what he's doing there's a high level of probability that he's going to curve that ball right to left so now he's looking at the golf shot different he's not looking at a target and trying to stand square he's looking for opportunity to see how far do I start this ball right how much do I curve this ball and he's got a feeling for it and I said now you're you're bringing your practice to life now on a driving range now you're getting a challenge isn't it? Things getting human it's with this shot you can connect and now you're going to start to recognize the affordances the tolerance is afforded to you in terms of our far right you can go out which you can close the face the first lesson was a mind-blower for him and and yeah so I'd say first of all just take something maybe from that become self aware first of all of what you're doing in terms of yeah is the outcome recognizable before you actually go ahead and swing do you have a feel for what you're actually going to what you're about to do and in some form of recognition for the outcome that's attached to that and often people are just setting up trying in in terms of error avoidance trying to negate error by checking the grit checking the stands tightening up one piece take away trying to avoid any errors but in doing so they don't realise they're introducing so much noise that is that creates so much incoherence that it just creates complete confusion in the system yeah Marcus fascinating great exploration it was a fabulous school we did we're going to do another one we'll get an ounce to date it's for next year very soon but work and people find out more about you and the stuff that you do and the videos etc so grf golf on all social media platforms and www.grfgolf.com is the website and when the nights we always release a lesson video so you're watching somebody's like a fly on the wall of somebody's lesson, at walks and all we don't, without edit to make it look glamorous and sexy and and unrealistic it's you're gonna see the top shots you're gonna see everything so it's a it's a really stick version of events and on a Sunday I do a tutorial so in a particular aspect maybe do maybe reply to some viewers comments and things like that some things that are maybe of experience in the week and yeah it's just a good to share information really and hopefully hopefully offer a different perspective on things to give some one a bit of inspiration and motivation to go and try something different and maybe tack into something they've not experienced before. Fantastic, Marcus has ever, thanks very much. You're very welcome, Carl, it's been an absolute pleasure thanks mate. Thank you Marcus, great conversation I think a special episode there full of deep insight, knowledge and wisdom around culture and movement the importance of understanding how movement emerges through intention and just to free them to explore that. As I said at the beginning I spent a fabulous couple of days with Marcus at West Tarts last year, at a great golf school and I'm gonna do the same again this year 22nd to the 24th of March at West Tarts again getting touched with us didn't touch with Marcus if you're interested in coming an experience in life some of the things that he's talked about there it really is a very very different way of looking at the game and expansive free opportunity to just explore what you capable of in terms of the goals we just imagine making movements that genuinely resonate to the deep level just exploring those boundaries of capability. As I mentioned at the beginning if you're a coach and you're interested in this time of year in terms of performance getting touched with us if you want to do the mind factor certification the winter time absolutely perfect opportunity to take advances to some of those dark days when there's not much daylight but you merge yourself in that or indeed if you're interested in making or you're intending making swing changes don't attempt to make the swing changes until you know the how of how your brain makes those swing changes and take advantage of that new programme on the mind caddy within that the mind caddy programme there about swing changes with easy justice but also the AI within that can support you on that journey you can use the AI in effect the AI asking myself questions about the best way to structure your training and your practice so thanks ever so much for joining us on today's show thanks for Marcus his contribution keep the ideas coming if you're if I don't hear from you before or I don't see you before obviously have a wonderful, wonderful Christmas enjoy the time special time with your family think about some of the people who maybe that you've not contacted for a while make that phone call organise that game of golf organise that special trip we talked about it last week with Andrew Murray Shullo about actually taking action and not just listening to podcasts is taking action and doing something with that precious thing that will run out of resolve which is time thanks for joining us on today Shull thanks for being with us through the year if you know of anybody you might get any benefit from the mind caddy and the podcast please spread the word we do feel it's making a bit of a difference in terms of how people look at the game but for now thanks for joining me on today's show and I look forward to seeing you the very next time mind caddy carmores proud ambassador of phoenix clothing and apparel for more go to phoenix excel.com