Feb. 17, 2026

Mastering the Finesse Game from 120 Yards & In with James Sieckmann

Mastering the Finesse Game from 120 Yards & In with James Sieckmann

GS#486 April 28, 2015 “http://jsegolfacademy.com/ is the number one short-game teacher in the world, and everyone who is serious about improving their short game needs to own his book "Your Short Game Solution”. The information is brilliant, and the...

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GS#486 April 28, 2015 “James Sieckmann is the number one short-game teacher in the world, and everyone who is serious about improving their short game needs to own his book "Your Short Game Solution”. The information is brilliant, and the antidotes for every short-game problem are presented in a way that every level of player can understand. The information is revolutionary and will elevate the short game of anyone who follows it” –– Mike Adams, Golf Magazine Top 100 teacher, Golf digest Top 50 teacher, and World Golf Teachers Hall of Fame member. That kind of says it all, and in this week’s podcast we get into detail of the book and also talk about:
• James' work with Dave Pelz 
• Bad decisions vs Bad Shots
• Choosing the correct wedges for your game
• Tiger's wedge play at Augusta & Phoenix 2015 vs 2001  

If you have a question about whether or not Fred is using any of the methods, equipment or apps we’ve discussed, or if you’d like to share a comment about what you’ve heard in this or any other episode, please write because Fred will get back to you. Either write to golfsmarterpodcast@gmail.com or click on the Hey Fred button, at golfsmarter.com

WEBVTT

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Hi, This is Dwayne Dusky from Portland, Oregon, and I

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play at Glenn Deevere East and West Courses in Portland.

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This is Golf Smarter number.

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Four hundred and eighty six, published on April twenty eight,

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twenty fifteen.

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Welcome to golf Smarter Mulligans, your second chance to gain

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insight and advice from the best instructors featured on the

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Golf Smarter podcast. Great Golf Instruction Never gets old. Our

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interview library features hundreds of hours of game improvement conversations

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like this that are no longer available in any podcast app.

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If we're talking a distance wedge, which will I define

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us between forty yards and maybe your full swing of

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your pitching wage. So let's say one twenty five or whatever.

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You don't want a bigger gap than about twenty yards

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in there. So if I hit my pitching wedge to

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one twenty five, the next club I need to hit

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at least ninety five yards And if I can get

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those nice even spread like that, you can really learn

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to cover any yardage with appropriate spin in trajectory. The

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second would be the bounce options and the soul grind.

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The shape of the wedge you want to have a

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sand wedge with a lot of bounce on it. Bounce

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is the difference between the bottom back of the club

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and the soul to the leading edge, and degrees good

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sand wedge might have between ten and fourteen or fifteen

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degrees of bounce on it. If you have a more

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lofted club, like a fifty eight to fifty nine or sixty,

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you want that one to be low and bounced, so

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probably between four and seven, depending once again on your

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standard technique. With the techniques that I try to get

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people to use, you don't need much bounce because the

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swing's very shallow and you use it as you swing.

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If that's the case, and you have a high bounced

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sand wedge and a low bounce lob wedge, then you're

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really prepared for any turf condition because when the sand

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or grass is soft, the ball comes out slow and

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more bounce is better than less, so you can always

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use your sandwich. If, on the other hand, you're playing

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kind of tight, firm turf, you need more loft and

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less bounce, so you always have a choice. If you

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had that set.

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Makeup your short game solution. Mastering the Short Game from

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one hundred and twenty yards and in with James Siekman.

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This is Golf Smarter Premium. Here's your host, Fred Green.

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Welcome to the Golf Smarter Podcast.

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James. Hey, Fred, thanks for having me on. Appreciate it.

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It's my pleasure because you've got a brand new book

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out just came out last Month's available on Amazon called

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Your Short Game Solution, Mastering the finesse game from one

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hundred and twenty yards and in a favorite topic of

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the Golf Smarter Podcast.

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Oh, I think hopefully a favorite topic of anybody that

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wants to shoot a good score.

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And isn't that the case though? I mean, it really is.

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And I discovered I'm not a PGA professional. I just

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have the right equipment to do these recordings. And I

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love playing golf, but I'm a weekend player and don't

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have a ton of time to practice. But I recently

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discovered in the last year or so, how important the

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short game is. You discovered this a long time.

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Ago, Well, I did, because I mean I played professionally

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and I hit the ball beautifully, and you know, it

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just was a huge competitive disadvantage when I couldn't get

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the ball up and end couldn't kind of keep my

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momentum going in the round. And if you look at

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the short game is so important for a lot of reasons.

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But if you look at just look at statistically, the

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best players make the most birdies and so you think about, well,

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that means all of the best ball strikers then would

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be the best players. But you got to think about

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where you make your birdies percentage wise, and typically you're

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not making them on a two hundred and fifteen yard

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part three. You're not making on a four hundred and

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eighty five yard part four. You know you do that

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one in a while, but it's a bit of an outlier.

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The reality is you make your birdies on the par

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fives that you can't reach. You make them on the

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par fives that you can reach. You make them on

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the short part fours where you can happen to get

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the ball up there seventy yards from the green, And

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so that type of shot called a distance wedge is

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critical for making birdies, and making birdies is critical to

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being a good player. And of course if you make birdies.

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Another way to make birdies is to feel like you

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can shoot at pins. And if you have no confidence

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in your finesse, game around the greens, and you find

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yourself playing in the middle of the green and you know,

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having good shots that end up thirty feet or so.

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So it really is feeds on itself in so many

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different ways as far as just keeping momentum, being able

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to attack, take any advantage of the easy holes. And

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if you're not tidy with your wedge game from one

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hundred and twenty yards at end, you really do not

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have a chance to compete.

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Right book, I loved the story on how you started

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figuring this out with your brother and being on tour

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and started videotaping on your own. Why did you give

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us a little history of your own game and how

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you got to understanding and becoming the guru that you

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are to seventy players.

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Yeah, it's kind of an interesting tale, you know. I

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played in college, I played nicely, turned pro afterwards and

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played those days. There was no such thing as a

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web dot com tour or a hoving tour. It was

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get all the way through tour school or play overseas

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or many tour events. So I went overseas and I

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played in Asian South America and did that for about

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five years, traveling around the world playing great experience, but

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it became very clear to me that everything that I

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was working hard on to improve was actually making me

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much worse. And I had a great touch around the

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green when I was a kid, but I had no

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thoughts either. I just kind of did it. And then

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as I started to get formal coaching, you know, I

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got much much worse. I quit, got married, and took

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a job working for Dave Hills, who's kind of a

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famous short game coach. After two or three years there,

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having an opportunity to kind of learn from him and

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dabbling a little bit more specifically in short game coaching,

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and an opportunity to start my own business. And one

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thing was very clear at that point, even after working

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teaching short game schools for three years, I had no

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clue what good technique was. I didn't know what worked

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and why. I just knew that the things that I

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was teaching in those schools and the things that I

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was taught when I was going through college and as

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a pro were not working. And they were not only

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not working for me, but they weren't helping for the

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people I was seeing. So I decided I need to

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go on a little bit of a journey or quest

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to try and figure this out, since I was just

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getting ready to open my own academy and my oldest brother,

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Tom's a PGA tour player before I was on tour

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for eleven years and was close friends with Seve among

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a lot of great players, and asked me to come

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caddy for him at the Players Championship. So I had

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a a kind of a unique opportunity to be around

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the best wedge player in the on the planet, as

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well as many others like Raymond Floyd and Corey Pavin,

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and I had a huge need to try and figure

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out what the heck, you know, what worked and why,

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because at this point I only knew what didn't work,

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And uh, you know, I went and took video and

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I studied it just like a football coach would study

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a film of a of a of a game, and

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you know, kind of wiped the slate clean and just

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started my own my own theory. Since I didn't know

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what to teach, I thought the most logical thing would

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would be to study what they'd do and atually just

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teach what they do. And I found it to be

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amazingly opposite and completely different than anything I'd ever heard.

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That's what I found so fascinating is the epiphany that

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you had when you were doing this What was it

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that you discovered? Well before I asked ask that question,

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I just want to announce to the audience that we're

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live on periscope right now, and if the people watching

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on periscope have any questions that they want to submit

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to James while we're having this conversation, please tim up

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type them up on the screen and I'll try to

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get to them as I can. I already have one

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question that came in earlier today from Twitter when I

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announced that I was going to do this interview with you.

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But tell me about you know, when you went through

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the footage, James, what was it that you found? How

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were you able to get to the place where you're saying,

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you know, this is very different than anything we're teaching.

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Yes, I mean so so. I mean it's different in

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every single facet. I mean I could run through and

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list seventy things that are completely opposite of what you

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should be doing in your full swing to generate power,

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and it just kind of just kind of came to

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the realization as the goals change and the goal becomes

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to be weak, to have a soft touch to control

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the speed instead of generated to use loft and bounce

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to the club. That the technique should change right along

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with the intent. And you know, I wasn't thinking this

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far ahead, but after a while I kind of I say, well,

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this makes sense to me. Now, why wouldn't it be different?

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But you know the first thing I noticed was that

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these great players Sebe Bellisteros, Raymond Floyd, what not, Corey

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Payment had a little reverse pivot in their backswing, which

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you know that they might start with their weight fairly even,

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which is another difference. I was taught to left and

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you put your hands ahead that they had to weight even,

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and they reversed weight shifted to add pressure in their

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left or lead leg a little bit, and the backswing,

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their head literally moved two or three inches towards the target,

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and then as they delivered the club, their head would

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stay forward. And if you think of a full swing

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or even a seventy yard shot, as you turn back

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behind the ball and swing your arms and turn your shoulders,

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you actually load pressure into your trail leg and your

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head typically moves three or four inches behind the ball

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as you deliver a lot of times to add especially

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with a driver, to hit up on it or at

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least hit a level. As you shift your weight your body,

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your upper body tilts back. So the entire motor pattern

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was different, not only with balance, but with the sequence

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of events, with the setup, with how they released the club,

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or the role of the of not the role the

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rotation of the arm movement. Everything about it was completely opposite.

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So I just started to just write down the common

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allies that Sevy had. He was my main guy that

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I studied because I had the most footage of him

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and he had the reputation of being the best. But

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Graymond Floyd and Corey Pave and my brother who was

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an amazing wedge player, and you know, I have Wayne

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Grady and Jody my lot of great players that I

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had this footage of, And I just thought, well, you

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know what, I don't know what the heck I'm doing,

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so I guess I'll just write down what they're doing,

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and that's what I'll teach.

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And it's worked for you.

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It has it's you know, it not only worked for me,

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because now all of a sudden, it's like I started

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to rediscover some of the touch and feel I had

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when I was young, and I had no thoughts, but

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the students that I began to teach once again, you know,

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when I was working for Dave pel Squad, honestly, people

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were not getting leaving those schools improved in my opinion.

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Now on my own, I really started to see some

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major growth, you know, some excited phone calls and emails

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of people telling me how much better they were doing.

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And you know, at some point you need that confirmation

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as a coach that things are working.

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I'm fascinating you said they weren't improving at schools. Is

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that the nature of the schools themselves or it was

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what was being taught, because I've talked to so many

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people who've gone to golf schools and they feel so

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great after doing a long weekend or even up to

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five days in a school, and they go home and

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without somebody there to you know, keep correcting them and stuff,

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they don't remember much and very frustrated and feel like

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they spent money that didn't really turn their game around

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at all.

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Yeah, it's a little bit of both, but I would

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say more than anything, it's just really bad information. And

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you get bad information on technique. That's bad enough, but

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Unfortunately those schools don't say this appropriately. I would say this.

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I am a coach. I'm not a teacher. So if

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you came to me and needed help and I said, hey,

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I'm going to teach you to do this technique that technique,

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and we're going to perfect this movement, you could walk

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away with perfect movement. But Fred, but you won't be

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a better player because as a coach, I'm interested only

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in performance, and so you can improve technically to improve,

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but you can also make your training time more effective

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so that you develop skill, which is really what performance is,

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and that those skills have nothing to do with technique.

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They could be picking the right club, picking the right

251
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landing spot, adapting for upslopes and down slopes. What do

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I do? You know when the balls into the grain?

253
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You know?

254
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So that type of stuff was just not being taught.

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And what's worse is that the technical information was poor.

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What's worse yet, is that when you're thinking about technique,

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the thoughts are internal. And so, Fred, if I could

258
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ask you, as a recreational player, what's the worst thing

259
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you could do on a golf course.

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The worst thing that I can do on the golf

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course is keep doing I keep repeating the mistakes over

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and over again.

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Well I would, I would argue that it's thinking too much. Absolutely,

264
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you overthinking golf and you, you know, especially with internal thoughts,

265
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it's so harmful for your game. Great golf is not

266
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internal thoughts. It's external. You're you're you're picturing your you're

267
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feeling energy to the target, your you know, the thoughts

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live outside your body, not in Well, you go to

269
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this golf school, you learn this great technique. One hundred

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percent of the time is is focus. Uh, have internal thought.

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There's no mention of skill development, there's no mention of

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how to improvementally. And yeah, it's long and tiring, and

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you do this for three days, you get sent home

274
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and it's no wonder people weren't getting better because they're

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doing going about the process of improving all wrong. There

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has to be not just this technique that I discovered.

277
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I mean, that's great and it works, but more importantly,

278
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there has to be an approach to improving and an logical,

279
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simple way that you could spend a few minutes each

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day to get better, to not only improve your technique

281
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but your skill and the confidence of what great golf

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demands and that's really what coaches do that teachers do not.

283
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You know, they think about the whole picture as opposed

284
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to just some little technical tip.

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Oh that's amazing. Actually, I guess the answer to your

286
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question is that I'm actually struggling with right now with

287
00:16:02.840 --> 00:16:05.600
my putting, is I'm getting in my own way.

288
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Yeah, yeah, that's well. I got the putting book coming

289
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out next year, Fred, so we'll have to do this

290
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again in the year. Okay. But it's the same whether

291
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it's people getting their own way off the tea, they

292
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getting their own way when they chip, they get in

293
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their own way when they putt. But if I was

294
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going to share with you, that's such a multifaceted, interesting problem.

295
00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:31.519
And I do go into great detail on this next

296
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one about that very topic because that's I think a

297
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very common problem, that might be the most common problem.

298
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But if you're getting in your own way, there's two

299
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things happening. Once again, thoughts are internal. You're thinking about

300
00:16:44.679 --> 00:16:46.960
how to move the club. You're thinking about a position

301
00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:49.600
of your head or your arm, or the motor of

302
00:16:49.639 --> 00:16:52.120
your stroke, or what you want the club to do.

303
00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:59.000
And I would move your thoughts and train to try

304
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and think of external and kind of a subconscious reaction

305
00:17:05.759 --> 00:17:08.599
to what you picture. And the way I do that

306
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with my students is I separate training time by intent.

307
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So if the intent of training is to work on

308
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and improve your technique, then we eliminate the whole we

309
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put into open space and we think of only technique.

310
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Those are those internal thoughts, and we do it in

311
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a manner where there's some feedback whether we know we're

312
00:17:31.119 --> 00:17:33.759
doing it right or not. So might just create a

313
00:17:33.799 --> 00:17:37.599
simple workstation for your putting or for your wedge play

314
00:17:37.839 --> 00:17:41.599
or your bunker player or whatever, and it just might

315
00:17:41.640 --> 00:17:45.240
be some swings without the ball or certainly without a

316
00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:51.519
pin where we evaluate the technique. Then you just have

317
00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:54.839
to flush that completely and you have to think about skill.

318
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And so you do that through random practice instead of

319
00:17:58.160 --> 00:18:02.480
one ball after the other. In the same you scatterballs everywhere.

320
00:18:03.279 --> 00:18:04.880
You have all your clubs, and you go through an

321
00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:07.720
organized process to get yourself ready. And in the book,

322
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I talk about this process starting with assessment of the lie,

323
00:18:14.119 --> 00:18:16.799
the wind, the grain, all the factors that would influence it,

324
00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:21.720
choosing a club, choosing a trajectory, choosing a landing spot,

325
00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:24.079
visualizing the ball go in. So now all of a sudden,

326
00:18:24.119 --> 00:18:28.240
as I visualize, the thoughts are external, Right, have my

327
00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:32.319
thought walking in clear and committed, taking a rehearsal swing,

328
00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:37.160
thinking of nothing more, that kind of energy to your picture,

329
00:18:38.279 --> 00:18:42.319
and then then reacting like you tied your shoe this morning, Fred,

330
00:18:42.359 --> 00:18:44.440
which is you don't know how you did that, you just.

331
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Did it, you think about it.

332
00:18:48.480 --> 00:18:51.039
You can take that approach to putting as well. When

333
00:18:51.079 --> 00:18:53.680
you're taking a rehearsal swing or you're over the ball,

334
00:18:54.440 --> 00:18:59.480
are you reacting to a vision or are you consciously

335
00:18:59.519 --> 00:19:03.799
trying to move the club a certain way? And that

336
00:19:04.039 --> 00:19:06.799
that's the definition of to some extent of getting in

337
00:19:06.839 --> 00:19:10.559
your own way, you know. So that's the pre shot

338
00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:14.759
kind of portion of that equation. There's also a post shot,

339
00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:19.160
a portion where the most important time in golf is

340
00:19:19.240 --> 00:19:21.000
what you do after a bad shot. What's the what

341
00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:23.279
do you what's the first five seconds you after a

342
00:19:23.319 --> 00:19:25.920
bad shot? How do you react? How do you respond? Well,

343
00:19:27.720 --> 00:19:30.440
the typical person, let's say you miss a short pot,

344
00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:36.599
you miss a two footers. If they get angry, they

345
00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:40.160
get frustrated, they get despondent, they go, oh, I can't pot,

346
00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:45.160
I'm horrible at this, you know, all the negative self talk, right, So, uh,

347
00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:48.079
that's certainly not making the next one easier, right that

348
00:19:48.079 --> 00:19:51.400
that your your self image is taking a big blow

349
00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:53.240
every time you say I can't do this, I'm no

350
00:19:53.319 --> 00:19:56.240
good at it, this is frustrating or just feeling that

351
00:19:56.279 --> 00:20:02.519
negative emotion. So that's not what champions do. Champ think

352
00:20:02.920 --> 00:20:07.960
about the results unemotionally and allow them to direct direct

353
00:20:07.960 --> 00:20:09.599
them in a positive way so they can do the

354
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next one better. So that's literally why I titled my

355
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book Your Short Game Solution, because as a coach, I

356
00:20:19.119 --> 00:20:23.359
ask the same question probably five hundred times a day,

357
00:20:23.400 --> 00:20:27.279
and I always asks, Okay, what's the solution of that? So, Fred,

358
00:20:27.319 --> 00:20:32.039
you missed this two footer? What's the solution? Well, it

359
00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:34.920
could be more break could be less energy, could be

360
00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:39.160
more commitment, could be I didn't quiet my eye and

361
00:20:39.640 --> 00:20:43.039
do my breathing or whatever it is that we're working on, right,

362
00:20:44.200 --> 00:20:46.559
and you say, well, next time, I'll just recommit and

363
00:20:46.599 --> 00:20:50.599
I'll do that foundational thing better. And so therefore you

364
00:20:50.680 --> 00:20:53.640
missed your two footer, but you've recommitted in a positive

365
00:20:53.680 --> 00:20:56.319
way to your plan, as opposed to missing your two

366
00:20:56.319 --> 00:21:00.079
footer and going wow, I suck. I can't put. So

367
00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:04.200
there's a lot of little pitfalls mental pitfalls to to

368
00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:08.279
putting or performance in golf that people just don't quite

369
00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:10.440
get right. They just don't quite have the mental discipline

370
00:21:10.480 --> 00:21:14.240
or the knowledge to to kind of self coach in

371
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a positive way.

372
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You know, your your book. It's actually it's very hard

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to do in an audio podcast go over the book

374
00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:33.599
in detail because it's such a technical book and there

375
00:21:33.640 --> 00:21:37.240
are great drills in it. There's there's so much great

376
00:21:37.279 --> 00:21:39.319
information that it's the type of thing that you need

377
00:21:39.400 --> 00:21:41.960
to go over multiple times. But there are a couple

378
00:21:42.039 --> 00:21:44.240
of things in the book that I'd like to talk

379
00:21:44.279 --> 00:21:48.960
about and just get your you know, rough explanation on

380
00:21:49.000 --> 00:21:52.359
this and tease tease the audience to obviously go out

381
00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:55.559
and buy the book. And that Let's talk about the

382
00:21:55.799 --> 00:22:00.759
the choosing the correct wedges for for your your game.

383
00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:11.000
Right, so in your set makeup, you know, you're looking

384
00:22:11.119 --> 00:22:17.640
for some versatility and the bounce options, okay, and also

385
00:22:19.319 --> 00:22:22.720
kind of an even gaps total distance between your wedges.

386
00:22:22.759 --> 00:22:25.960
So let's just look at those two criteria. You know,

387
00:22:26.000 --> 00:22:30.599
if we're talking a distance wedge, which I define as

388
00:22:30.640 --> 00:22:33.519
like between forty yards and maybe your full swing and

389
00:22:33.519 --> 00:22:36.000
your pitching wage. So let's say one twenty five or whatever.

390
00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:40.240
You don't want a bigger gap than about twenty yards

391
00:22:40.279 --> 00:22:43.119
in there. So if I hit my pitching wedge one

392
00:22:43.200 --> 00:22:45.640
twenty five, the next club I need to hit at

393
00:22:45.720 --> 00:22:48.519
least ninety five yards, The next club I need to

394
00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:51.400
hit at least seventy five full. And if I can

395
00:22:51.400 --> 00:22:54.359
get those nice even spread like that, then through this

396
00:22:54.480 --> 00:22:57.640
distance wage system that I expound upon in the book,

397
00:22:58.000 --> 00:23:00.319
you can really learn to cover any yard which with

398
00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:05.920
appropriate spin and trajectory. Okay, so that's one criteria. The

399
00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:11.599
second would be the bounce options and the soul grind,

400
00:23:11.759 --> 00:23:15.079
the shape of the wedge. And I mean that's a

401
00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:17.480
book in itself, just kind of going to all the

402
00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:21.160
different detail there. But if I could just generalize it

403
00:23:21.720 --> 00:23:23.599
to this one point, I think it would be helpful

404
00:23:23.640 --> 00:23:28.680
for anybody listening. You want to have a sand wedge,

405
00:23:28.920 --> 00:23:31.279
your middle wedge, whether it's fifty four or fifty five,

406
00:23:31.400 --> 00:23:36.319
fifty six doesn't matter with a lot of bounce on it.

407
00:23:36.359 --> 00:23:39.759
Bounce is the difference between the bottom back of the

408
00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:43.119
club on the soul to the leading edge and degrees,

409
00:23:43.880 --> 00:23:48.759
So good sand wedge you might have between ten and

410
00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:52.559
fourteen or fifteen degrees of bounce on it. If you

411
00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:54.759
have a more lofted club like a fifty eight to

412
00:23:54.799 --> 00:23:57.400
fifty nine or sixty, you want that one to be

413
00:23:58.480 --> 00:24:03.960
low and bounce between four and seven, depending once again

414
00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:08.599
on your standard technique. So with the techniques that I

415
00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:11.680
try and get people to use, you don't need much

416
00:24:11.720 --> 00:24:14.359
bounce because the swing is very shallow and you use

417
00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:17.759
it as you swing. So if that's the case and

418
00:24:17.799 --> 00:24:20.759
you have a high bounced sand wedge and a low

419
00:24:20.799 --> 00:24:24.559
bounce lob wedge, then you're really prepared for any turf

420
00:24:24.599 --> 00:24:31.480
condition because when the sand, the sand or grass is soft,

421
00:24:32.400 --> 00:24:34.759
kind of like it usually is in the Northeast or

422
00:24:35.519 --> 00:24:40.559
maybe up there in the northern California or whatever, you

423
00:24:40.839 --> 00:24:46.279
kind of soft conditions, the ball comes out slow and

424
00:24:46.400 --> 00:24:48.759
more bounce is better than less, So you can always

425
00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:52.279
use your sandwich perfect you need you need a little

426
00:24:52.279 --> 00:24:54.519
bit more energy, you need more bounce. If, on the

427
00:24:54.519 --> 00:24:58.480
other hand, you're playing kind of tight, firm turf you

428
00:24:58.519 --> 00:25:00.599
get in a lot of places, whether it's exis or

429
00:25:01.119 --> 00:25:03.799
maybe it's just have a little bit of a drought

430
00:25:03.799 --> 00:25:07.119
going on the course or whatever, or firm sand sand

431
00:25:07.160 --> 00:25:11.559
that's been where it's rained and it's kind of packed

432
00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:14.839
in and baked. Then you need less bounce is more

433
00:25:14.839 --> 00:25:18.480
effective and the ball comes up fast or flies off,

434
00:25:18.640 --> 00:25:21.000
so you need more loft and less bounce. So you

435
00:25:21.039 --> 00:25:27.119
always have a choice if you had that set makeup awesome,

436
00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:29.599
that makes sense, I hope. I mean, no, it does.

437
00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:30.119
It does.

438
00:25:30.400 --> 00:25:33.559
Topic, Yeah, it is, but there was there was a

439
00:25:33.599 --> 00:25:35.880
line It's almost not a throwaway, but it was kind

440
00:25:35.880 --> 00:25:39.160
of buried in there that I also thought is actually

441
00:25:39.200 --> 00:25:41.480
perfect for what Golf Smarter is all about for this

442
00:25:41.559 --> 00:25:43.440
podcast and how we approach.

443
00:25:43.119 --> 00:25:46.440
Golf here, well, how I approach golf, and that is

444
00:25:46.799 --> 00:25:49.359
bad decisions versus bad shots.

445
00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:55.079
Yeah, there are certain conditions or trajectories that you might

446
00:25:55.200 --> 00:25:59.400
play based on the lie, and of course this is skill.

447
00:25:59.480 --> 00:26:02.960
Once again, this is not technique. It's a judgment. And

448
00:26:03.039 --> 00:26:06.160
so the most common one that I see is a

449
00:26:06.400 --> 00:26:11.319
ball laying into the grain on a tight lie. And

450
00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:14.039
in that case, a lot of people they may have

451
00:26:14.240 --> 00:26:16.920
their favorite club out, which is a lob wedge, and

452
00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:19.640
they might see a little lower shot with it because

453
00:26:19.640 --> 00:26:22.480
they have some green to work with, So they lean

454
00:26:22.559 --> 00:26:25.480
the shaft a little forward and they take this club.

455
00:26:25.799 --> 00:26:29.039
When you lean the shaft forward, you reduce the effective bounce,

456
00:26:29.079 --> 00:26:32.160
and he's sharpened the leading edge, which is just an

457
00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:34.960
awful thing to do into the grain, where if you

458
00:26:35.039 --> 00:26:37.240
hit just a little behind it with a sharp leading edge,

459
00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:39.720
it's just going to dig a trench. I mean, we

460
00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:43.359
all saw that. I think the listeners think back at

461
00:26:43.400 --> 00:26:46.400
Tiger the Hero World Challenge where he's into the grain

462
00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:49.119
on that sticky Bermuda and he's digging the leading edge

463
00:26:49.119 --> 00:26:52.799
in the ground, just duff and shot after shot. That

464
00:26:52.920 --> 00:26:55.680
is much about that certainly was technique in his case,

465
00:26:55.720 --> 00:27:00.759
but it's more about shot selection. So if you take

466
00:27:00.799 --> 00:27:03.480
your sand wedge and just just roll back the clock

467
00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:08.359
to nineteen seventy pre lobledge and take your sand wedge,

468
00:27:08.559 --> 00:27:11.960
and we can hit the same trajectory shot as we

469
00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:14.200
did with the sixty by hitting a little higher than

470
00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:18.400
normal shot with that sandwich, and effectively you add bounce

471
00:27:19.000 --> 00:27:22.720
and soften the leading edge and it just works so

472
00:27:22.920 --> 00:27:27.079
much better. Now the problem is that skill development, that

473
00:27:27.200 --> 00:27:33.519
judgment element requires decision making and training. How are you

474
00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:36.559
supposed to learn that? How did I learn that? You know, Well,

475
00:27:36.640 --> 00:27:38.880
the way I learned it is that I trained properly

476
00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:45.400
by throwing balls everywhere, and you know, learning through experience

477
00:27:45.480 --> 00:27:49.039
of a bunch of different trials. But that's not what

478
00:27:49.319 --> 00:27:52.319
average golfer does they. I mean you, even at my

479
00:27:52.359 --> 00:27:54.839
own club. You think these people would have read the

480
00:27:54.839 --> 00:27:57.640
book and known better or whatever. But they go out

481
00:27:57.680 --> 00:28:01.000
to the sharcame area. They stand in the same spot

482
00:28:01.240 --> 00:28:04.559
for twenty minutes, and they'll hit ten shots to one pin,

483
00:28:04.680 --> 00:28:06.880
and they'll hit ten shots to the next pin, and they're

484
00:28:06.920 --> 00:28:09.279
all from the same lie, and they tee them up

485
00:28:10.119 --> 00:28:14.799
and it's just horrible practice for trying to develop skill

486
00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:18.599
and learn the little nuances of being a great player.

487
00:28:19.559 --> 00:28:21.480
And what would you walk up to them and have

488
00:28:21.640 --> 00:28:22.599
them do If.

489
00:28:23.960 --> 00:28:26.279
I would not, I would just say, you know what,

490
00:28:26.359 --> 00:28:29.079
the reality is, if they're not going to practice properly,

491
00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:31.839
they're better off just going to have a beer because

492
00:28:32.599 --> 00:28:36.319
they're probably doing more harm than good at that point. Interesting,

493
00:28:36.480 --> 00:28:38.200
think about it. When you're in a pile, you hit

494
00:28:38.200 --> 00:28:40.519
a bad shot, what do you do? Well? You think

495
00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:42.880
internally about what you did wrong, and then you fiddle

496
00:28:42.880 --> 00:28:45.519
and you try something new, and then you at some

497
00:28:45.640 --> 00:28:48.119
point you stay there long enough, you're going to hit

498
00:28:48.200 --> 00:28:52.440
a shot you don't like, you know, it's just there's

499
00:28:52.519 --> 00:28:55.279
no resiliency in it, there's no toughness in it, there's

500
00:28:55.319 --> 00:28:57.640
no skill development in it, and so they're just better

501
00:28:57.680 --> 00:29:00.599
off just like skipping all together.

502
00:29:06.799 --> 00:29:09.720
You mentioned Tiger and I'm That kind of leads into

503
00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:12.640
the question that did come across on Twitter today from

504
00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:17.119
Nick at Golf Progress. What did you see in Tiger's

505
00:29:17.160 --> 00:29:22.440
wedge play that was so radically different between Augusta and Phoenix.

506
00:29:23.720 --> 00:29:27.200
Yeah, well, let's just backtrack a little. Let's say what

507
00:29:27.319 --> 00:29:33.359
was so radically different between Phoenix and what he did

508
00:29:33.400 --> 00:29:37.480
in two thousand? Technique in two thousand, when he was

509
00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:43.079
at the top of his powers, there was spotless, very

510
00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:48.119
fundamentally sound that this technique in Phoenix and before was

511
00:29:48.319 --> 00:29:53.839
just absolutely awful. Everything awful. Know, the setup was bad,

512
00:29:53.960 --> 00:29:56.480
He's backing up in the middle of his motion. The

513
00:29:56.559 --> 00:29:59.880
backstriing was wrong, and he think, how could a person

514
00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:06.920
of that talent regressed that far? Uh? And the reality

515
00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:09.440
is only when you the only way to get that

516
00:30:09.440 --> 00:30:12.839
far is to work hard on the wrong things. So

517
00:30:12.920 --> 00:30:17.319
he got some bad information at some point, practiced it diligently,

518
00:30:18.599 --> 00:30:21.079
you know, wasn't quite getting what he wanted out of

519
00:30:21.119 --> 00:30:23.799
it and the whole thing regresses. And in this case,

520
00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:29.240
I know for a fact that the changes he was

521
00:30:29.319 --> 00:30:31.960
making in his backswing, with the way he moved his arms,

522
00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:35.200
and you know he's working on his full swing first

523
00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:38.960
with Haney and then with Sean Foley, that the arm movements,

524
00:30:39.039 --> 00:30:42.519
the motor patterns that he was working on hard or

525
00:30:42.960 --> 00:30:46.519
change that dramatically. He was. He just kind of crept

526
00:30:46.519 --> 00:30:49.000
into his finesca and he was literally moving his arms

527
00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:54.240
exactly the same way, and that ultimately ended up making

528
00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:56.960
him change his set up and the whole motor pattern.

529
00:30:57.039 --> 00:31:02.720
So that's very common mistake. The major premise of my

530
00:31:02.759 --> 00:31:06.039
book is that the full swing and short game are opposites.

531
00:31:06.079 --> 00:31:09.319
They're not the same, and if you use the same

532
00:31:09.359 --> 00:31:12.279
motor pattern for both, you'll only be good at one.

533
00:31:13.720 --> 00:31:15.480
You know, you just got to pick your one you

534
00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:16.119
want to be good at.

535
00:31:16.160 --> 00:31:19.240
I guess I was very I was very surprised when

536
00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:22.160
I came across that part in the book. Is like, wa, wait,

537
00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:24.920
completely different swings on your short game.

538
00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:31.039
Now, I should say I finished that comment. I guess sure.

539
00:31:32.200 --> 00:31:37.200
Tiger's new coach, Chris Como, a smart guy friend of mine,

540
00:31:38.200 --> 00:31:42.319
has a ton of knowledge and he inherited this issue

541
00:31:42.319 --> 00:31:45.680
with Tiger, he didn't create it. So I think the

542
00:31:45.759 --> 00:31:49.200
reality is I think that was a shocker as a

543
00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:51.119
coach when he shows up and he's working on full

544
00:31:51.160 --> 00:31:53.240
swing and to find out that his player can't ship.

545
00:31:54.279 --> 00:31:56.240
Kind of found that out after the fact, and then

546
00:31:56.519 --> 00:31:59.359
I think, given, you know, then Tiger takes a break

547
00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:01.599
and they sit there and they focused on that part

548
00:32:01.640 --> 00:32:04.160
of the game and worked it through. And I think

549
00:32:04.200 --> 00:32:07.759
now the difference that Augusta is just operating with good

550
00:32:07.759 --> 00:32:13.119
information and everything has changed. Like setup is completely different, backswing,

551
00:32:13.200 --> 00:32:17.160
arm movement patterns different, is balance, and the way he

552
00:32:17.200 --> 00:32:22.480
releases the club was completely different. So one technique interesting.

553
00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:26.720
Yeah, I've asked a number of different coaches that we've

554
00:32:26.759 --> 00:32:32.160
had on the show, if you had the chance to

555
00:32:32.200 --> 00:32:34.720
talk to Tiger for fifteen minutes or you know, if

556
00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:37.200
he called you and said would you help me? What

557
00:32:37.200 --> 00:32:41.039
would you do? And so many have said, just go

558
00:32:41.119 --> 00:32:43.039
back to what got you here in the first place,

559
00:32:43.440 --> 00:32:44.640
stop playing with it.

560
00:32:45.359 --> 00:32:47.279
Yeah, but how do you do that? I mean, it's

561
00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:50.799
like putting the toothpaste back into the tube once you

562
00:32:50.839 --> 00:32:54.720
sweeze it out. It's just like it's impossible motor patterns

563
00:32:54.720 --> 00:32:58.599
have changed, your body, motor memories have changed. You know,

564
00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:02.319
everything's different. So you like the reality is that's why

565
00:33:02.759 --> 00:33:05.160
you got to have foundational beliefs. They need to be

566
00:33:05.240 --> 00:33:08.960
well defined. You got to have ways to train so

567
00:33:09.000 --> 00:33:12.839
that you never really degenerate or get lost and move

568
00:33:13.200 --> 00:33:16.119
away from them. And I think that's that's really what

569
00:33:16.200 --> 00:33:19.960
happened when he switched kind of coaches. He switched complete

570
00:33:20.039 --> 00:33:22.759
concepts of how to do it, and then at some

571
00:33:22.839 --> 00:33:25.319
point he didn't know. It was kind of like me

572
00:33:25.400 --> 00:33:27.680
when I was teacher. It's like, well, I don't know

573
00:33:27.720 --> 00:33:36.559
what's right, but I know that's wrong, you know, So.

574
00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:36.039
So tell us where where you're teaching now, and if

575
00:33:36.039 --> 00:33:39.480
people wanted to reach out and work with you, where

576
00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:41.200
they would go and how they would get in touch

577
00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:41.400
with you.

578
00:33:42.200 --> 00:33:45.079
Yeah. Well, I have a golf academy in Omaha, Nebraska,

579
00:33:45.279 --> 00:33:49.440
Shadow Ridge Country Club. The easiest way to get a

580
00:33:49.440 --> 00:33:51.079
hold of me would pre to send me an email.

581
00:33:51.200 --> 00:33:56.480
Just go to my website JS golf Academy dot com,

582
00:33:57.279 --> 00:34:01.119
and there's a place where they can kind of see

583
00:34:01.119 --> 00:34:03.240
some tips and do all those sort of things, but

584
00:34:03.279 --> 00:34:08.559
also a place where they can contact me. I honestly,

585
00:34:08.719 --> 00:34:11.599
not here very often. I work in one on an

586
00:34:11.599 --> 00:34:16.559
airplane pretty much every week, working with tour players and

587
00:34:16.599 --> 00:34:21.559
doing different things. But I'm usually here, you know, two

588
00:34:21.679 --> 00:34:25.239
or three days a week, and you know, if they

589
00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:26.760
want too bad enough, we can certainly find a way

590
00:34:26.800 --> 00:34:27.320
to get together.

591
00:34:28.039 --> 00:34:30.800
How about giving us a quick tip right from the

592
00:34:30.840 --> 00:34:34.199
book again, it's your short game solution mastering the finesse

593
00:34:34.280 --> 00:34:36.639
game from one hundred and twenty yards and in how

594
00:34:36.639 --> 00:34:38.159
did you give us a quick tip from the book.

595
00:34:39.239 --> 00:34:42.400
Yeah, one of the key issues around the green, especially

596
00:34:42.400 --> 00:34:47.559
inside thirty yards, is to sequence your swing properly. And

597
00:34:48.639 --> 00:34:51.800
there is a power sequence where you start your downswing

598
00:34:51.840 --> 00:34:56.639
with your body some shift and some wire on your hands,

599
00:34:56.679 --> 00:34:58.320
move faster in the club and you get this little

600
00:34:58.320 --> 00:35:00.679
down cock so you get this little whip there. Well,

601
00:35:01.199 --> 00:35:03.480
the short game is opposite, so I call it a

602
00:35:03.480 --> 00:35:06.239
finesse sequence. And the easiest way to learn what the

603
00:35:06.239 --> 00:35:09.239
finest sequence is, which is essentially at the start of

604
00:35:09.239 --> 00:35:12.960
your down swinging the club moving faster than your arms

605
00:35:13.400 --> 00:35:15.360
at the start of the downsing so these angles are

606
00:35:15.440 --> 00:35:18.920
starting to be let out, is to chip with your

607
00:35:18.920 --> 00:35:24.800
trailarm only just in training. So I just pretend like essentially,

608
00:35:24.800 --> 00:35:26.320
like I have a ball in my hand which I'm

609
00:35:26.320 --> 00:35:28.039
gonna grab here, and if I was going to do

610
00:35:28.079 --> 00:35:32.880
a little underhanded toss, I wouldn't do it by starting

611
00:35:32.880 --> 00:35:36.559
my hips. I'd start my arm, the club would come out,

612
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:40.880
and then I just release the club past my body

613
00:35:42.760 --> 00:35:45.039
to get this nice, gentle little toss there. And it's

614
00:35:45.039 --> 00:35:47.280
the same motion. And only think I'm gonna do differently

615
00:35:47.280 --> 00:35:48.599
is I'm gonna do it with the club in my hand,

616
00:35:48.679 --> 00:35:51.719
So just grip the club and the trail arm only

617
00:35:52.239 --> 00:35:54.599
set up to this normal I really like to level out,

618
00:35:54.639 --> 00:35:56.079
so I'd like to put my left hand kind of

619
00:35:56.079 --> 00:35:58.320
down on my thigh. Now I'm just gonna make a

620
00:35:58.400 --> 00:36:00.519
one handed swing. Just pretend I can do it a

621
00:36:00.559 --> 00:36:05.719
little five yard toss with my trail hand, and that

622
00:36:05.760 --> 00:36:09.320
gives you the perfect perfect sequences. You release the club

623
00:36:09.800 --> 00:36:12.960
past your body, and I get a lot of calls

624
00:36:13.000 --> 00:36:15.840
and or texts saying, well, I chip so beautifully one

625
00:36:15.840 --> 00:36:18.199
hand only doing your drill, but when I put my

626
00:36:18.280 --> 00:36:20.280
left hand on there, it's not quite as good. It's

627
00:36:20.360 --> 00:36:24.480
just the perfect drill that allows you the sequence your

628
00:36:24.519 --> 00:36:28.719
swing properly, release the club pastor body and nice soft

629
00:36:28.760 --> 00:36:29.679
touch around the greens.

630
00:36:31.760 --> 00:36:35.440
Fabulous tip. Thank you, and I'm just so impressed that

631
00:36:35.480 --> 00:36:37.159
you can hit balls around the house and not get

632
00:36:37.159 --> 00:36:37.639
in trouble.

633
00:36:38.239 --> 00:36:40.639
Oh yeah, I watch out found that's the only reason