S9 Ep 4: The Plan 9.0

Previously, I'm chasing scratch. Do you guys feel like any single year, for like six months, eight months of, I really did like the same boring thing every week. I never changed. I never did a different process at all during eight months. Again, Robert, I know I'm referring to him a lot, but he's sent me like his basic process that he gives to all of his great players is just like, wait, that's it. Like that's what you have your players do. Like that's so boring and so, like I gotta come up with that. As he told me on the phone the other day, he's like, I've got 30 years of seeing really, really good golfers improve. That says, this is it. (dramatic music) - Alrighty, Laura, we're back. It is episode four of season nine. - Hmm, and a big episode today. We are gonna get right into it, but before we do that, let's say Kudas, Lenny, I want you to change the music right now. I want you to turn on some butter churning music. - Hmm, Viori, that's right, my friends. - They're back. - The official athletic wear sponsor of the Chase Scratch podcast, Viori. And we're getting on a plane tomorrow, Eli. - It's Viori gear only. - That means you butter up. - Hmm. - The plane equals butter up. I got my full outfit picked out. Strato Tech T. - Given. - A pack three of 'em. - Sunday performance joggers. - Pack three of 'em. - And Ponto performance hoodie. - I'm going with a hoodie too. That's the exact same thing I'm wearing. - So we're gonna look exactly the same. Well, we're not gonna be on the same flight, so that's okay. - No. - But I'll send you a picture and you can show it to everybody. This is a rough, it's seated around. - This is my friend, this is my friend. - It's my friend, we dress alike. - We wear the same things. - Kudos to Viori, who knows how many years this is with Viori? - Five. - Seven. - I think so. - Nine. - Twenty-eight. - Vioriclothing.com/chase-discratch. You have 20% off your first purchase. They are the best. Get, go there and get buttered up. Also, give some joy to your feet, everybody. - Tom, I'm Kudos to Foot Joy. Best shoes in the game by far. I was just gonna give you my updated, my updated shoe strategy. I have a two-pronged approach. My preferred shoe is the premieres. - Okay. - The field premieres, but if I'm walking, I might go with the new quantum. - See, I flipped the whole other way. I'm a premier guy now. I wasn't-- - You fully went premiered? - I went premier when we were down in River Bend. I just love them. I tried a couple different ones before, but I don't know why I liked the premieres. - But the new quantum, you've worn those new quantum. - I have worn the new quantum. - I do like the new quantum. - They are the most comfortable. I'm still premieres mostly. I just love the way they feel, how they look, how I can feel the ground. - Yep. - But the new quantum are really good as well. And so I'm throwing them in sometimes to change up. But Kudas' foot joy for sponsoring us for another year. We got some more cool stuff coming with them later in the years. - Yeah. - All right, with that Eli, let's start the episode. Lennie, good. If you think about it, the whole idea of this show really comes down to one core belief that there's a plan out there. That regardless of constraints, there's a way to get this done. And if we make the right plan and follow that plan the right way, we can do this. And so every year we try to make a better plan. A more informed plan, a more realistic plan, based on what we've learned each year. Now, as we've already said this season, this year is heavily about playing. We're trying to play as much as we possibly can. But as we've also already said, we know we can't play enough to just play. We've got to have an efficient and quality practice routine. So last week when we were talking to Josh Nichols, and he mentioned a simple boring practice plan with 30 years of proven results, our ears propped. So that's what the biggest part of today's episode will be. But the first part I had some rounds to talk about. So hit those first and then we'll come back and later with Josh. Here's Eli and I on the mics last week. I've got some golf talk about. - Okay. - I know you and Whitey Fisk had some schedule issues last week, but I've got some stuff. I've played twice. I've got some updates. - Hit me. - Come on. - All right. So last week I played on Wednesday, with Good Friend of the Show Trey at the Cardinal. It was not a very good day. I'm gonna tell you exactly why it wasn't a very good day with a new segment called Startlines and Low Points, which actually now has a musical intro. - No gosh. - Curticy, courtesy of our Good Friend, Eric from Shot Pattern, he made it, - What? - A.I. I'm gonna play the whole thing at the end. - Okay. - This is our musical intro for this segment, Lennie Cute. ♪ Startlines and low points ♪ ♪ Can't keep spraying so we've turned this thing ♪ ♪ Come on, Ricky ♪ (laughing) - Wow. I was not expecting that. - I don't know what he put in the A.I. But to get that like a doctery impersonation. - That's what I was gonna say. Yes, it sounded dead on that. - So anyway. ♪ You made me do myself away ♪ - That's fuel. But. - Maybe it was fuel then. - Maybe fuel doctery makes with creed and a side of shined in. - The world's largest prison. (laughing) But I'm, if you stay till the end after the credits, I'll play the whole song, it is incredible. But, "Startlines and low points," I sent you a text. - I got it right in front of me. I'm looking at it. - Okay. You see what I'm talking about here? This is serious. - Yeah, this is legit. - This is serious business. I went through every single shot that was over 50 yards that I played. You'll see kind of what we talked about. Last time is 60% started online. 26% started left and 14% started right. But all the ones that got in trouble that hurt the score went left. - Yeah. - Low points were pretty good. I didn't hit any that really affected the shot. Like I was being very, like, if it was slightly thin or slightly heavy, I marked that. - Graded it down. - Yeah. - But anyway. - So. - Basically a quarter of the shots went left. - That was a shot started left of center, yes. So anyway, then I did get, try took a video of me on 17. - Okay, can I pull it up? - You can pull it up. But I noticed the same thing that Robert had mentioned the other week about my wrists, not really hinging. So I sent this video to Jason and here's what he had to say. - So your turns and tilts on your arm structure are all good. That is not short. But yes, you're not quite finishing the last little bit of the hinge at the top. I would be interested in if you put on the ProCender, what does that feel like when you hit some shots? And almost having that sensation, nearing that top that you're trying to almost like break through the ProCender, I would be interested in what that feels like. Again, just trying to find some feels. But literally everything else is fantastic. That swing is glorious. Obviously the face is just too close to the path. - Remember the ProCender? - Yeah. - And so that's a, I sent you a picture of me. That's what we want to look like at the top. That is what we worked on that night. And then the next, very next day, I was playing again. And that sets up, that sets up plenty of dramatic music. - Ooh, baby, at the Cardinal? - Old Town Country Club. - Okay. - Old Town is in Winston Salem. It was very highly rated, Corsi North Carolina. And I played with friend of the show, Ben Shaw. - Mm. - Lawyer of the show, Everett White. - Oh, lawyer to the stars. - And a member named Rick. - Come on, Rick. - I got a few, come on, Rick's in there. (laughing) I definitely got to, and I'll just say this. Do not ever play Rick for money. (laughing) - Don't ever let that Rick drive your downtown. (laughing) - Rick, Rick is gonna, Rick is gonna hurt you. Anyway, Old Town, I've played it three or four times before, very undulating, never flat lie. And it hasn't rained in North Carolina in like three weeks. So it is crispy, it is dry, it is firm, it is fast. Okay, so, range session, terrible. Just start. - Just really bad. I'm gonna blame most of that on being right next to Everett. (laughing) - So we get to the first hole, I make a sloppy bogey. - Okay. - Second hole, seven iron to 12 feet, make it for birdie. - Come on. - Third hole. Gosh, the greens were so different in the car. They were lightning fast. And I over adjusted three pot on three, so bogey. Fourth hole, par five. According to Shot Pattern, my drive went 337. - Good night. - I have an eight iron. - You're in test. (laughing) I have an A-dion that I'm going to use. I hit perfectly 15 feet for Eagle. - Whoa. - Dead downhill though, so I just, it was, I had to be very tentative. Tap in for birdie. So, even after four, I lip out a 20 footer on five for birdie. Anyway, things are going quite well. - Gosh, I wanna call her Cassandra, but I can't do it anymore. (laughs) Have you nicknamed your putter yet? - Did we nick, oh man, we did. - I don't think you did. - Well, let Talgy nickname it, since it came to. - Ooh, I like that, there you go. - Okay, so these are going quite well. I'm hitting it well. I got a couple of bogies mixed in, but we get to eight, par four eight, and I'm melt a mini driver. But like I said, everything's running on these huge hills. It runs into a fairway bunker on the right. - Okay. - 112 yards, no lip issues. But as I'm climbing in, I notice the sand, and it feels like a green side bunker. Like there's lots of sand in this. Like most fairway bunkers I play are. - Not a lot of sand. - Very firm. This one's not like that. - Yeah. - So I swing, and as I shift my weight to my left, I feel myself sink. - Sink, yeah. - And I dig a trench. The ball goes like 12 yards and rolls into the creek, and further green. - Oh, so. - So I drop from like 60 yards, I can't get up and down. I double. - Okay. - Okay, after that, a bunch of bars. Still playing well. Shot 39 on the front, by the way. - Okay. - Then I'm on 13, hit a great drive, but it's a little right side of the fairway, runs into a fairway bunker. 110 left. Same thing, lots of sand, but I'm not really thinking about that. I'm kind of like, oh, it's just a fluke. - Yeah. - Same thing. - Sink. - Shift into left side, sink, and it's trench warfare, World War One. All quiet on the western front. I mean, the thing goes like 20 yards maybe. After that, I have 72 left, tucked right pin, Everett's in the cart, and I'm like, Everett, I'm gonna take my 56, freshy groove, Voki, I'm gonna fly to a flagstick left and it's gonna spin right. - Come on. - And I proceed to hit the greatest, low spinning wedge. - Is it his time? - In the history of Forsyth County, it does exactly what I said. The County Commissioner came out and shook her hand. - And he said it. - Exactly what I said. It hits the front. - He found her stuff. - He pushed your PVA immediately. He was like, look, your property value. Everybody's property value is your up right now. - I'm the high five in Everett, put the club back in the bag, get in the cart, and it's coming all the way back. - No. So the logical visit tent, the Hootie tent was torn down. (laughing) - I was constructing the Hootie tent. I mean, I can't tell you how great the shot was, but I just didn't know. Like once I got up there, I saw that the false front goes all the way up to the pin and I was just barely too short. So it rolls 30 yards off the green, don't get up and down from there, double. - Oh. - I lip out a birdie on the next hole, few holes later, get to 17, par five. I had a great layup, I think, but it rolls down the right side of the fairway into guess where? - A fairway bunker? - A fairway bunker. - Good. - It's a nut. - Again, I have 100 yards, no lip. This is no trouble, but again, it's a lot of sand. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna dig all the way in, like dig all the way in and choke up. - Your gun is digging into my fairway, Bob. - It's the lowest ironhorn bunker shot. I still sink, I still dig a trench. It goes 20 yards just before the creek, save bogey, but that's all I can do. And then 18, probably one of my worst drives, but it was still a good drive. Went a little bit left into a fairway bunker. - Good night. - And on this one, I'm like, okay, fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice. - No, fool me once, shame on you. - I was fooling me four times, shame on me. - And I'm like, all right, clear your head. Clear your head. - Stay puff? - Yeah, gozer, if you think of, jagger hoover, jagger hoover's gonna come to destroy us. Like clear your head in the bunker. Don't think about anything, just play it like you'd know to play it. - Gozer? - I mean, it's like 120 yards, it's a wet. - Okay. - Same freaking thing. I did a trench, I hit it 15 yards. Can't get up and down from like 80 yards. Hit a good shot, but don't make the putt. Bogey. Anyway, I shoot 79. - Wow. - Course is ready pretty tough. It's a four, it ends up being a 4.6 differential, which is-- - Okay. - We'll take it. But it's a little bit of what might have been, because-- - Yeah. - Shot pattern stats, I lost four shots. Out of four way, four fairway bunkers. One was a full shot and a half, 'cause I went, put it in the creek. - With the creek, yeah. - Again, all wedges with no lips, about 100 yards, like normal shots that were looking at a really, really good differential. I just don't know how to play that shot. I've never played fairway bunkers with a bunch of sand, but I mean, I was, it was like I was in quick sand. - Yeah. - Anyway, we'll take a 4.6 though. I'm not sure that qualifies a dramatic ream, but as if we had to do it. - Oh, it's dramatic. - It's additive, baby. - And it moves the handicap out of the sixes. - Come on now. - So 5.9. - Oh. - 5.9. - Hey, we're trending. - We're trending. - We're trending. - Come on. - And then also, if you look at start lines and low points, I did the same spreadsheet, 68% online, only 23% left. - Okay. - But honestly, making the adjustment with that hinge, all the ones, even if they started left to right, everything came in. So I think I might have to adjust the, my tick marks because I want to know if they start left to right, but I also want to know if like, it's bad left or bad right. 'Cause I mean, there's a couple of those that started left that still hit the green. - Right. - That kind of thing. But it was encouraging, it was a good day out there. For sure. - I like it. - All right. What did you do last week? - So last week, weather wise was not great. - Okay. - It made playing outside hard. Now, I did have a couple of sessions in the simulator, but it was very slow. It was block practice, honestly. - Okay. - It was a lot of block practice, just trying to work on no swing. And when I did get outside, I did get outside one day. I went over to the range. And I was proud of myself in the vein of start lines and low points. I did the old Adam Young drill where I had the line. I had marks on the line and I had my ball on the line and I just had to have divots in front. I just wanted to see divots in front of the line. And so I did that for probably 20 minutes. - Love that. - How did you do it? - I did some slow stuff and then I just did divot in front of the ball stuff. And then I had a little bit of random practice after that. - How did you do on doing in front of the line? - Really good. Yeah, I was actually in probably 25 shots. I think I had one that was behind, that was it. So now I was exaggerating it pretty good, but the strike was awesome when I did it. That was good, but outside of that, it was not real good to get outside. So everything else was inside on the simulator, but block practice oriented. So. - All right. We'll be playing together this week. - We're together tomorrow. - That's right. - Tomorrow my friend. - I love it. All right, now let's move into what we teased last week. We got Josh Nichols back on the phone to explain what it is. Lenny Cue. Just as one more reminder, this is how we ended the episode last week. - Again, Robert, I know I'm referring to him a lot, but he sent me his basic process that he gives to all of his great players is just like, wait, that's it. That's what you have your players do. That's so boring. And so, I gotta come up with that. As he told me on the phone the other day, he's like, I've got 30 years of seeing really, really good golfers and prove that says this is it. - All right, well, that's quite a statement that this is it from Robert. What is it? What is it a Huey Lewis song? Is it an album by Huey Lewis? - This is it. This is truly it. - Is that Huey Lewis? - Please let me know. - I think it is. ♪ If this is love, you better come see the show ♪ - Is that too old? Is that too past? - Oh, I know this song. - I know this song. I just would not ever be able to sing it with you guys. - We can't sing either of those. - This is it, yes, right? This is it. - Okay, this is it. Huey Lewis right now, Lenny, give us something. Give us something for what this is. - So what we're trying to do here is effectively break up a practice session and the times that I've got here, that are allotted for each part of the practice are kind of proportionate to how long your practice session is. So you could look at it more as a percentage. And Mike, you and I have kind of talked about the 20% sort of practice. And that's a really general attack at it, but this one is more specific. This is more, here's an actual breakdown of how you can be spending your time. 'Cause this is it. Yes, that was it-ish. Yeah. This is it. So it-ish. That was it-ish. This one is it. So it adjacent. Now this is it. Okay. So the first five to 10 minutes is a warm up or a calibration as what he says. He says the goal is not performance. The goal is preparing your body, right? So that would be doing the stretches, the fit for golf, then hitting short wedges, short puts, easy chips, half swings. We all know that, right? You gotta prepare your body to do that. And then you go into- We have one question right out of the cake. We got early questions. Does it matter? Yeah. Can we interrupt? You there. For just a second. It's the quickest I ever thought a question would come on that one. Go ahead. Does that warm up change based on what is after it? Or is that every time? Yeah, because- So if you're the way that we're trying to think about this here is if you are doing a chipping session, then you're gonna hit some easy chips as the warm up for the chipping session. If you're gonna be doing a range session, you're gonna make, you can hit some short wedges or half swings. And for putting, you're gonna hit some short puts. Okay. But if I was gonna do a range session, I wouldn't go warm up on the putting green too. Right. Do the whole progression. I mean, in theory, you could do this whole progression at the start of every day. But, nah, for just time's sake, you would do short puts before you're putting practice, not before a range session, and then a putting practice, right? Right, okay. If you run out of your car, just straight to the range and start swinging full speed, we cut maybe nine minutes off of warm up. You would cut nine months off of your season. Probably also. Doing that. I'm not advocating that. I'm just saying. Okay. Just asking for a friend. Yeah. So that's the warm up, right? We have to, of course, do that. You move right from there into block practice. And this applies to all the types of practice, or all the parts of the golf bag, driving approach, short game putting. There's block practice, random practice, and performance practice. We'll call it. So you would move into block practice first. And this is a, this is gonna have a technical focus. So this is gonna be you working on the technical movement or the concept that you and Larry are working on, or you and Jason are working on. And the focus here is kind of awareness of the movement. Right, you're bringing lots of that internal focus. You're not focusing as much on the shot. Really, it's like a more hyper-aware of what am I doing consciously to make a motion, right? So this awareness mechanics movement. Step two, you open the box, or you cut a hole in the box. And you put in, you put in technique. And this is Eli's favorite part because he can be as technical as he wants in his block. Technical technical technical. You get right to it. Power power. Yes. So this is the first chunk of block practice. So we've got a warm up and then block practice as a whole part of your bigger practice session is about 50%. Right, so which is awesome, right? The kind of technical stuff is fully half of your practice. So Eli with your kind of 40 range ball session, 20 of them can be, if you wanna do it by time or by ball count, that's up to you. I think that would be up to you. But half of it is, okay, I'm working on technique and also this other part of block practice which would be the contacting control. This was kind of the atom strike drills and stuff working on center face contact, start lines, low points, that whole thing. Seeing the ball flight, getting consistent speed on putting. So those two things, the technical focus and the skills stuff, atom drills, that's all block practice. That's 50% of your practice, right? Does that make sense? Any questions about those? - That makes sense. So I'm warming up, I'm doing 15 minutes, let's say 15 minutes of block practice of technique and then I'm doing 15 minutes of block practice of some sort of skill drill. I would say also probably whatever Jason's telling me I need to do, right? - Yes, yes. Eli, you've talked about the kind of alignment rod and that's sticking in the ground, working around that. That would be this, the second block practice one. Or if we're gonna spray, we're gonna strike, we spray the face, that would be right here. So your 40 balls, 10 of them is, I'm working on emotion that Larry has got me doing and then 10, the next 10 balls, I'm working it around the alignment rod. And we are just talking about the range right now, this applies to all the parts of the game, short game and putting as well. And we can go through that too. 'Cause it's a really easy thing to say, "Oh yeah, this is just for the driving range." And then yeah, you go hit some chips and you go hit some butts and, "Hey, I'm done." Right, that's a really easy mistake to make. So this stuff applies. Yeah. - That's not even it adjacent, that's like. - Yeah. Yeah, that's not block chain, that's not block chain technology. - So with, let's say with chipping, let's kinda hang out here with block practice. - Block chain. - What? Block chain. What do you guys think would be, what would you do during a block practice for short game? Do you think? Based on this kind of mechanics, contact stuff. - The first thing I would do is, I don't go to the chipping green. I actually go over just to the basic range area. I always try to chip out to the edge of that box just to get some feel going. And I usually do that for 10 or 12 balls. And then I do about 10 balls where I'm really trying to focus on whatever technique I'm working on, which for me is usually trying to get the ball or get the club feeling like it's moving away, using the bounce. And then I go over and I hit balls at the chipping green. That's what I usually do. And I try to hit, for me, I usually try to play like two or three chip shots for maybe five or six balls each. So I'll have one where I'm trying to carry it. There's three flags that are set up front, center back. So I'll try to play high shots that carry to the second flag in a landing spot. Then I'll move and play bump and runs. And then I'll usually try to play a skipper. That's usually how I, that's cool. You know, I'll hit probably 15, 20 balls like that. - I like that. So yeah, that's a very exhaustive practice session with just short game. So the first thing you described was we could call it a warm up according to our plan here. Then the second one was technical motion, mechanics, high awareness. And then you said you would go up to the chipping green, proper and kind of hit randomized. We could call it random, which we'll get into next. And then that leaves us open to a performance scoring sort of situation, but we can get into that. - And I don't do that. I don't do that. Yeah. - Okay. Mike, how about you for short game? When you miss green on the golf board? - I just make up stuff. (laughing) I've got nothing. Like I go, I go, I mean, it's really fun. I love, that's my favorite thing, but I just go, there's no technique, there's nothing. I just pick holes and I try to hit them close to the holes. - Sometimes he sees an equation, maybe two equations. - We have half an equation on the wall, I just solve it. And then I'll hit, I'll hit cut chips, I'll hit draw chips, I'll hit high shots, I'll hit low shots, but I mean, there's no tripping is like at the very end or I'll use that as my warm up, but I'm never like, - Sure. - The corn is also a little tough to play a full game. There's not a whole lot of room. So that's maybe another reason, but I just never even thought about it like that. And maybe that's just 'cause it's a traditional strength and I don't spend a whole lot of time, but. - Yes. - And there's something to be said for, I'm really good at this, so this doesn't need to be a massive, you know, it doesn't need to be 25% of the four parts of my game driving approach, short game putting. It can be smaller and that's okay. And it probably should be relatives at different things, but yeah, you're describing your practices basically just random practice. And it kind of sounds like it could be a pre-round warmup, right, like you would do that kind of before a round. - Yes, right. - But no, I'm okay. - Yeah, okay, so I've never done a going through this on short game or putting to be honest with you. Yeah. Right you do and you've talked about stack putting I do stack putting but I but I don't I was never do Maybe the first couple of putts I warm up. I'll do some like Techniques or just check check my alignment that kind of stuff But I don't have like I don't bring the putting arc out there or like a putting mirror and like do 10 minutes of that I don't like that have you ever if you ever seen the UNCG players out there? Yeah, they and or wherever you go if you seen like tees and stuff and they got a lot of teeth And they're like doing chalk lines and all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah, so they're doing block practice there, right? They're they're working on start line stroke Maybe green reading too Eli putting for How's your practice go with putting I mean when I when I was putting my best I had a I did an 18 I read where you I did 18 balls three to time three feet out three to four feet out and I would drop them No alignment you just stepped up you had to hit them and the you know I think the goal was I got two misses and Anything beyond that I had to run it back through which was really frustrating. Yeah, but I also was canning Everything around three to five feet then and I felt super comfortable, but I hate it Like if you want to torture me put me on a putting green and make me practice. Yeah, I did do a game for a while I would do nine holes on the putting green at green briar where I Would tee out Within you know basically within about three feet The holes and I would play a Two-putt game, you know basically you had to you had to two put the holes Try to see because I'm not I'm not a good lag putter But I won't even pretend like I stayed disciplined on the putting you know on the putting side. I do Very little work there shocking. I got it. Yeah, right so Yeah, what you what you described was a performance Practice that three to five footer thing that's you're it's a scoring thing that you have to it's a challenge for yourself So that's that's good, but yeah both you guys talking about Need to incorporate some block practice and some randomized practice, but Let's let's define random practice. So random is for target and decision training so you're You're practicing in a way that's more closely resembling the actual golf course where you're every shot you're changing targets clubs distances lies those sort of things So for putting it would be I've got one golf ball and I'm literally just putting to random places around the green different distances and different lot slopes and whatnot and the range random clubs driver seven iron gap wedge hybrid whatever and then you're so you work your way Just randomized practice going through your full pre-shower team So this that's where it starts to get really I mean all of this is really disciplined and like tough on the Attention span, but that's a good thing. Yeah, yeah, I'm actually better at that because what I what I can do is pretend I'm on a course and I can say okay. I'm gonna want them and hit this shot and then depending on how I hit that shot Well, okay, I got a eight iron in and I've got a I've missed it right so I gotta okay I've got a tree you know I can That part I can do I struggle more with the What Eli doesn't struggle with is what I struggle with like the the block and stain Like my thing is like oh I did I did the swing I did the technical swing right one time. Okay now let's go yeah hit targets like this so And that's I think we'll I think we'll struggle with Yeah, different parts of these things. Yeah, that's that is gonna be different. So you're you both cannot Assume we've both got us have the same plan and we're both gonna stick to the same plan. It'll be similar but the percentages of stuff would would be different and What you guys struggle with will be different so That's that that will be the challenge and you so the last of the four is performance practice and we've talked about this a little bit But it's a scoring challenge. You're giving yourself a scoring games streak challenges up and down games Pudding ladders approach approach proximity challenges You're you're focusing on Execution and scoring not your mechanics like you're actively not focusing on mechanics same for randomized practice, right? So So block practice that big chunk of your you know half of your practice being block That's where you hide the technique. That's where you're focusing on technique But then once you're out of that you're saying now is not the time to focus on my technique Now's the time to use what I have Been working on right there's skill acquisition Which is block practice then there's skill access which is random and performance So let's talk about that for a minute because we've talked about that part often on You know like when it's time to play you gotta go play I struggle with this mentally big time. It's a massive hurdle for me so Okay, let's say that you're working on something in your golf swing, right? And you're like hey, I need to work through this over the next two three weeks. Yep. That's gonna be where my technical area is while I'm working on that the technical part Looks crack it looks ugly, but I know that it's the right thing to work on so Okay, I work through a practice session now it comes to the skill-based part or the part now where I'm placed the next day and I got to go play It's like well I can go play the best with the old thing So there's a I think a maybe a false image of There's the new thing and the old thing and that's it's like I'm working on the new thing But the old thing stays bad until this magic Threshold and now all of a sudden I swing the new thing always right? It's not how you know that's not how improvement works, right? It would be in my technical practice. I'm I am working on the new thing solely and I'm slowly moving the needle on what my default is, right? But but I guess the point is though when he goes to play that's the question. Yes, because I think for years Everybody was like no, no, no, you have to play to score and I'm like well, where's the middle ground? Like where's the balance between the two? So the the golf course is definitely not the place to work on your swing But it's that's not to say it's not the place to not have a swing thought right there's there's having a swing thought and there's working on your swing Right, it's it's two very different things a swing thought is This is the thought that I like to have that is gonna help me shoot better scores Whether that is the dramatic crazy thought or the field-based Alchem oriented ball flight thought whatever that is This is the thought that I need to have what we're we're making a really good argument for the importance of random and challenge practice is That's kind of your Testing ground for what feel yeah works you take to the course. Oh, yeah, you will take to the course, right? It's it's practicing how you're gonna play right block practice is how most people think practice is supposed to go completely and then you go play and try something and Hope it works and hope it stuck from the range, right? And I think that's where I've I've been too much on that side where it's like I Don't I know what this looks like to drill the fill and drill the feel and drill the feel but Then to actually go okay now. Let me let me do some randomized or performance-based testing year and it's like I Don't know I've just been stuck in block practice. Yes. I don't know what a feel I don't know what it does when I actually I know it's off When I speed it up. I just don't know where it's off because I've been going through block practice so much right and that it takes training to be able to flip the technical switch off Like that's a skill in and of itself to kind of go into game mode is you need to forget you need to not be thinking about your technique right now that is a skill if all you do and I think this is why it's hard to go from off season to on season Endor's the outdoors is because most people just been spending a ton of time on their technique and then Endors and it's a weird. It's a different environment. Yeah idea of I need to train my ability to flip off the technical mechanical Consciously moving the club thought That's a trained skill. So that's that's why half of the practice is Randomized in challenge. So in a sense same goes for putting and chipping right Yeah, and I I know the way I just said that same goes for putting and chipping That's that's a whole thing of Cannot be neglected because they are massively massively important right yeah, yeah, they In a in a kind of an ideal scenario they are half of your practice 40% of your practice is Shorke and putting right and depending on how lacking you are it might might need to be higher So the the general idea is these are the four types of practice that you apply to each of the four types of Shots you're gonna hit So yes, so for us for the list time that we have. Like I think what you said last time was really good about. If your time is limited then the quality, the importance of the quality goes way up. Maximum. Yep. Yes. But if like if so Eli's got say he's got two hours a week that he can spend practicing. And then he's got two rounds of playing but he's got two hours. Does he split that up 30 30 30 30 30 our essay to probably just depends on what he really needs to work on but it's like I'm doing 30 minutes of this Of all of the all these things with driving 30 minutes with all these things with Irons 30 minutes of all these things with Chippin and 30 minutes of all these things with putt Yeah, I mean more or less and I I would put the percentages more like 20 30 20 30 driving approach short game putting and So they're not as far as percentages. Sorry. So across two hours out of You know 20 minutes 40 minutes 20 minutes 40 minutes. That's not exactly right but yeah, you know it could be It shouldn't be like 15 45 15 45 it there they would need to be a little closer but Generally speaking across the four different types of practice for Eli would probably be maybe 35% putting and 25% short game and 25% approach and 15% driving or something and Mike short game and putting would be lower 15 and 25 and driving an approach might be higher 25 and 35 or something and the idea is You are giving good weight to all the parts of your game, right? You're not saying you're not going a month where yeah I pretty much only stayed on the range and five percent of my time was spent putting and chip Right yep. Yeah, all right We took up way more of your time than we I took up the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, very helpful sure Yeah, we should build it. We'll we'll get something. I mean, do you guys like a I know Mike you and I built something do you guys like a Here's a thing I can look at and just follow Yes Yeah, yeah like a checklist like cross it off like a thing Yeah, and I think the other thing too just from a time perspective. It's the going there that time is it a premium But you know if you said hey, you need 15 minutes of block practice where you're just slow-mo through your swing I'm like man, I can do that at home. Yeah, I can do that in the simulator Like and it's actually easier because my camera's here and that's the part that I really want to I Want to look at myself and be really slow about and go okay? Am I doing what I need to and? But I was like you know some of this I could tackle so that I'm trying to eliminate As many hurdles as possible And also to just saying no I Was committed to this as possible. I'm trying to try to eliminate any issues that would get in the way but I Hit I hit whitey fist today old Pudge and I was like hey Two or three days a week. Let's just make a commitment. I was like it would help me if I had somebody if there was some kind of competition Built into the these practice sessions I said it would really help me like I hate going over and putting but I was like man Like I was thinking Mike like if you and I lived in the same city and it was like hey two days this two days this week We got 20 minutes over I'll see early in the morning and we've got our 18 hole whatever we're working on and then our random I'm like oh my gosh. There was like a running competition. Yeah, like that would be awesome But I was like man how much of this can I incorporate in so that there's some accountability and Competition and those things that I think keep us all engaged you know over the long haul so But I do think my last thought would be just thinking through how do you incorporate? Some stuff here at the house to maybe eliminate Not feeling like you have to go over to the range and spend two hours to get a productive session in right do not completely Out of this Josh is gonna work with both of us and her coaches to build out practice plans tailored to our individual needs Just like he does with his players and while he might have been right technically insane that it was boring I guess there wasn't anything brand new in there But the way it's laid out how detailed it is and how much time goes in each part It sure takes the guesswork out and we're really excited. It started now after Josh left Eli and I stayed on the phone just a little longer to react to what we just heard All right, we just heard the Huey Lewis what's your thoughts on that Eli? Hard it's hard. Yeah, like I don't think I'm any I don't I'm not on any there's no season one two three illusions Usual illusion one maybe two. I don't know so they may have the naming rights But I'm like me and that's hard. It is really hard. I Think it's hard There's the hard part just carving out time like when you say the phrase So we have time for two hours a week Plus playing I'm like oh my gosh two hours a week You know two hours a week that's the part for me that gets discouraging where it's like dang man Like you got can you do this? Like are you like you know that that's the hard part to me That's where belief starts to get affected. It just starts to impact the way you think and No matter how many ways you slice it you're still back to what you said a couple days ago, but it's like The end of the day. This is still a show about two guys trying to find time So as I said at the start the whole idea of this show comes down to that core belief that there's a plan out there that work And this is like the third thing Eli said in the past few weeks That seems like he's questioning whether there is a plan that will work When we were together the next day I turned the mic son and I brought it up all right. Let's let's have a let's have a honest conversation The last couple conversations You've been down You think so do you know that thing? Tell me tell me what's tell me what's going on? Let's let's get real. Let's get real here in my head There's still this part of me. It's like Are you be able to get back to playing well? Just honest. Yeah, that's yeah, there's some doubt there That's if I'm just being honest there's some doubt Luckily for us we were in the car driving to TPI and our friends at Tidalus had built a schedule to directly tackle the parts of Eli's game That we're causing those doubts we go back to Cali next time on Chase's crap Thanks so much for listening to us today where mix is always by Lenny Sterner inspired by KF Rager production support came from flat side Special thanks to our friends at Tidalus special thanks to our good friend Josh Nichols for coming on again Check out the mental golf show wherever you get your podcasts or if you want to work with Josh check him out Josh Nichols golf dot com special thanks to the Velcro and for making this podcast possible with your support If you'd like to join the community get some bonus content support the show check us out chasing scratch golf dot com slash Velcro Kudos to Craigers. Yeah, I'm Neil at board of Gary love the Carl and fight like courage music credits are in the show notes and we back for episode five on Friday We'll talk to you then Oh I'm already in on the oh yeah, yeah, that's a good one Before we die dead Oh Oh ♪ I'm just born ♪ ♪ Protect the calendar ♪ ♪ Protect the dream ♪ ♪ I wish my glapping ♪ ♪ Somewhere in Dublin ♪ ♪ Sashos got the data ♪ ♪ Lenny's got the pain ♪ Pain? ♪ There is no tomorrow ♪ ♪ Cowboys told us ♪ ♪ So we fight like courage ♪ ♪ We fight ♪ ♪ We fight ♪ ♪ Fight, fight, fight ♪ ♪ Don't keep boys with a dream ♪ ♪ And a driver ♪ ♪ Into a weaknesses ♪ ♪ Into the night ♪ ♪ I start laughing ♪ ♪ Lies ♪ ♪ And no points ♪ ♪ Everywhere you would shot a cry for help ♪ ♪ Pull the dots inside up ♪ ♪ Pull them inside up ♪ ♪ Can't keep spraying ♪ ♪ So we've turned to the same ♪ ♪ Come on, Rick ♪ ♪ Oh ♪ ♪ Come on, Rick ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Kudos to the real crow ♪ ♪ Kudos to the grind ♪ ♪ Kudos to the low point of a midlife mind ♪ ♪ Let's go, let's go ♪ - Whoa! 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