Ryan Gregnol is the 2x Canadian Long Drive Champion & currently ranked 10th in the world in Long Drive.
He is available for coaching on Skillest
https://skillest.com/app/profile/ryan-gregnol
Follow him on instagram
https://www.instagram.com/ryangregnol/
Welcome to the Gabe guchi golf show what’s going on everybody welcome back to another episode of the Gabe guchi Golf Show today I’m super pumped get to bring you the two-time Canadian long drive champ one of the first three people in the world to hit 230 mph ball
Speed currently 10th in the world in long drive my boy Ryan gregal what up Sir thanks for having me man this is a you know a pretty cool full Slicker moment for us in you know where we kind of met and where things have gone in both directions and yeah now you
Got your own podcast running it’s pretty cool yeah it was wild I I I remember when I was doing my full golf cocaine mode in 2020 playing my 36 holes a day and just absolutely trying to shoot under par um got to meet you at Gold Country Club which is a really cool
Course out in St Catherine Stanley Thompson design absolutely unreal and uh I remember seeing you in that warm-up area just crushing balls and I was like oh cool this guy’s like this guy hits at a mile and then we ended up playing the same group and I was like oh this is
Great I got the you know it’s the first time I’d seen somebody you know do the the vertical jump in a in a swing right and I was like man that that’s different yeah I mean that summer was it was tough right like for for all of us
Obviously I believe it was like the 2020 Summer I had come off you know a great finish to my my first real good finish in the world long drive tour and I was super excited and I’m like Hey we’re going to take this s we’re going to get
This rolling we’re going to take it seriously for the first time in our life and you know we got up to I think it was like 220 ball speed at the time which was a big number back then uh oddly enough it wasn’t that long ago but um
You know it was prepping to the 2020 season and you know flights were booked to the first event and you know we kind of got something came along and shut down the whole world and I mean it likely intrigued you to play more golf but at the same time it left me with
Nothing to do but really play golf right right so it was it was one of those yeah it was it was fun like it was a fun summer I kind of felt like I was a little left in the behind things not being able to leave the country and you
Know the world long drive tour kind of folding and US starting from scratch and all that um but yeah like we were both chasing our kind of own own things at time right chasing dream and and four years later we’re still crazy enough to
Keep doing it exactly I was GNA say I I noticed though you know from when we played so you started in Long Drive in 2008 yeah and and you’re kind of saying that you know it was that 2019 season that then kind of turned a light switch
On for you and and there was been drastic growth since yeah and and I and you you know you could see it I even remember playing with you like you’re you’re a specimen as is you’re 64 225 and so you know you’re already a unit but it also you know from playing with
You to seeing your Evolution the past four years there’s been a a significant difference in just your physicality watching that progression what was the light switch that turned on for you you know having been in the sport for 11 years up to 2019 what was that light
Switch and then how did you kind of keep making these compounding gains the past couple years you know what I think the biggest factor and and this is completely not related to the sport whatsoever but during that period of 2008 to 19 I had taken years away um
Financial where I was living at the time I mean I was living up in Thunder Bay Ontario and oh wow a bit of a hike it’s kind of where I grew up right and I kind of I ran out of access to specific things whether it be the ability to
Travel costs I picked up you know personal training as a full-time job so any time away I was essentially losing money uh online wasn’t really a huge thing back then so you couldn’t just kind of travel as you went um but during that endeavor I discovered I really
Enjoyed lifting heavy things and I needed to keep my competitive nature kind of flowing into my 30s at the time um and so I took a powerlifting and you know you and I are similar when we kind of head into something it’s we don’t go
In at like 4050 we go in at like okay we’re going to do this at 100% And um you know I took it on and it really showed me discipline that was that was the biggest part of interesting you know I during all during all this I moved to
Southern Ontario met my now fiance and you know she was in the powerlifting so we had that in common at the time and you know just the the rigorous training that I was putting myself through whether it be the workouts during the week the amount of sleep the amount of
Food um just all of that all of the things that kind of came together that forced me to be very regimented in everything I was doing um which I found once I stepped away from that um which basically I hurt myself at a competition
Right and I you know I’m 64 225 I ain’t built to be a powerlifter I you’re just I I needed to be around 300 pounds and there’s there was no possible way um and for health reasons it just would have been astronomically dumb um so I then found a long drive competition
On the world long drive qualifier an hour from where we now live and I was like oh let’s just go see everybody like we’ll we’ll go in it but let’s more just go hang out touch base and hang out with old friends and so I showed up with some
Borrowed clubs I hit a ball 408 yards and the bug the bug literally was like and Gabe like I posted that swing a few times back year or two ago and it’s it’s literally like arm parallel at best and just grunting it from there force and I
Can say by the afternoon because you go through a qualifying process in the morning you get through to go to the afternoon and then the afternoon you go through a five round round and I was not conditioned for this at all like I was like powerlifting just came off of like
Okay I need to do three reps today and I’m good to the conditioning of having a swinging Golf Club upwards of 150 times in a single day all out two completely different conditioning mechanisms um so that was that was kind of where it all got kind of began and
Then I carried it forward from there into uh getting my first TPI screening uh by a suggestion of Jason zubac he’s like dude you can’t move you need to be able to move and so like I did with powerlifting I just started subjectively studying myself more and more and more
Um you know in powerlifting I squatted 620 lb for a guy that weighed 240 and yeah was long skinny legs like I don’t got big legs it’s a running joke we all get it haha good enough whatever but at the same time I was able to produce certain specific things
Because of my movement pattern and studying the mechanics and the way the body needs to move and how myself specifically needs to move and so it just turned into this continual learning continual kind of strive for you know what’s the next piece what’s the next lowest hanging fruit what and it just it
Doesn’t stop like I’m I’m nonstop with it now all the time well that and that’s been the coolest thing I think to watch is that there’s been you know like significant Improvement year over-ear you know having having kind of seen when you even weren’t really posting when I
First met you and then you slowly started even just kind of documenting the journey and you’re going to the simulator and kind of showing that it’s been really cool cuz you can see that there’s been gains year-over-year even despite you having that injury and I remember I was watching that live and
I’m like oh man cuz you were and because you were s like that you were doing well that season too like it was like yeah you know it was a manifestation of a lot of that work and so that you know that was brutal to see but what’s incredible
Is that you’ve been able to then parlay that still you had you still had a great Following Season like you it’s almost like it didn’t it didn’t hinder that growth and that’s that’s Testament to that commitment that learning and then you make great Point too of uh and I
Think this is where long drivers you guys have uh maybe a better Insight than people that are just kind of playing normal golf you know um you guys take so much inputs on how your body actually works because you understand that is the true engine of the Swing yeah and I and
I I took that you know once I started getting into Ground Forces I started to realize how much we do as and and fitness is a big priority for me yeah I’m amazed at the what the body is as the engine of the swing and I feel like
Long drive you guys are way ahead of the general golfing population in terms of the knowing the value of TPI screens and then taking that information and parlaying it into gains for yourself that are measurable and actually translate yeah well and that’s you know I’m at the I’m at the point now where
You know there’s never going to be a 5 10% gain in a very short amount of time right like when I’m at my Peak I’m looking for 1% 0.5% something in the realm of okay can we get one M hour faster or can we get
You know one you know one more swing in the path that we want to actually create can we create the pressures on a more consistent basis that create the best output um and I mean you’re very informed on you know swing Catalyst pressures and things like that working
With your coach I Ryan Holly Ryan Holly yeah yeah and I mean that’s where I don’t just look at mine I watch everybody’s like you know I I’m trying to be a sponge to this and I’m trying to take in as much data as I can from everybody like okay well Gabe’s doing
This this X Y and Z you know this torque’s high this torque’s mid this tor’s High well what’s he doing to create that what are the movement patterns and then you know we take even and this is where I don’t know if it’s me or every long driver or whatever it
May be but we kind of get a little psycho with like okay well I go into coming from a training background and personal training and you know squatting and deadlifting and stuff like that you know well what’s gab’s body type you know what is his background what is his
Um you know ancestry what could his hip joints look like to be able for him to do something that someone else can’t or vice versa you know if we have a hip socket here and you come from from a specific descent while your hip socket
Might look like this and so for you to rotate here is going to be a lot more difficult now for you to keep your right foot right toe down on the back swing with as much internal rotation you know it just I I can go right oh dude I love
I love man this minutia like the these kind of rabbit holes is like my favorite [ __ ] yeah I love this cuz cuz you know what it so much is of what the golf industry is is you’re being sold something right right but I I I think so much untapped potential is understanding
Who you are as a person and well you know one of the things I’ve been talking about specifically on the podcast and it’s really cool that you know you touched on that as like a light bulb moment for yourself is you know I think good golf translates from when you feel
Good about your life and you have built in good habits and you’ve done good things as a person and you talking about getting into fitness learning that discipline like that rewired your brain to kind of push you and not you know I’m sure your life has kind of progressed in
A better way outside of golf as a result but then what’s really cool is when you start going down that lane you realize wait a second like what’s my magic as a human you know cuz I’m I I would love to be 64 225 Sundays right I’m only 510 on
A good day you know if I Spike my hair I could probably get to uh 64 you know CU it’s long um but you know and I’m trying to get to to 180 like I’m bulking cuz I I struggle to put on weight so I’m now
You know the highest I ever got was 190 but then I got too locked up and I couldn’t turn right so I’m I’ve been working on mobility and now I’m I’m trying to just bring my weight up to like 180 183 would be my like fighting
Weight right um but I I I totally got into that world and I’m exactly like there’s so much that is untapped in our bodies that could make us play better Golf and I think the benefit of figuring that out also translates outside of the game and actually just makes life better
Because you’ll feel better you’ll exist as a human better exactly and that’s a huge you know like yes when I my life is stressfree I set a goal I plan it around that goal like last year when we were chasing the ball speed stuff right I was
Like okay nobody’s taken this from Kyle for the past two years I started putting pieces together and I’m like you know what I think I could give it a chip like I I could probably give it a little bit of a run if not I’m doing nothing but
Improving myself at along the way so we you know we we put in these habits and they were very regimented habits you know there was people are going to you did all that for that and I’m like but that’s how I am that’s my goal right well you’re yeah but you became the
Third person in the world to hit a milestone that you know a couple years prior was like a like a a voodoo number of like yeah is this even is this even possible yeah and then this you know this that was I think 21 or 22 22
Probably or 21 somewhere in there and now look I was it 237 is your highest yeah like and that was that’s where that whole like week was just insane in the long drive space and unfortunately I got left out of some things because I’m not as social media
As some of the guys uh but you know my peers knew that was to me it’s to me it’s a big thing with my peers and the people that are very in tight to the game um I don’t know why the respect of my peers means more to me than social
Media maybe it’s just who I am well I I you know what I think you know what it is and I think it’s it’s it comes from a fact of like and and I can relate to this too it’s it’s about putting in the work and knowing you’ve done the Reps
Yeah and and and you’re not cheating the work and what I I think what’s great about when you achieve a goal like that is that it’s not a subjective goal right right it’s it is very much like hard and fast no no no this is the fact yeah so
Like I think there’s comfort in being like the people that I’m competing against know you can’t really talk [ __ ] so so I’m good with that you know well and you know a lot of and this is I come from you know a little bit of an older
School of things right there’s I’m 40 these a lot of the guys I compete against I think maybe Sam is 35 now James Tate is 35 I think or turning or just turn but the majority of the guys are in the early 30s to mid 20s and then
We have you know the the super freaks coming up that are two Ines taller than me longer arm longer levers you know and they’re just starting to figure it out U which that’s I love the evolution of things I love that that’s going to be part of it and you know I self
Admittedly say I’m on my back nine I understand this but the fact that I can keep up and then you know in turn I don’t post those things to show off I post them so when there’s three other guys on the t- boox with me they know
What could be there and then they start totally they start overswinging or they start pushing too hard and you know it’s more of a mental Advantage not that I’m trying to take advantage of but I need to take certain things into perspective as I’m getting older because I am not
Always as much as I have kept getting faster as I’ve gotten older uh which I just attribute to knowledge to be absolutely honest that’s the biggest part knowledge discipline diligence like I think you know for my parents generation like you know weren’t a lot of 40-year-olds like you who are units
You know but I think I think that’s what’s cool about where we’re at right is that like people in their you know it was kind of like I remember when people did their 40th birthdays and it was like you’re almost at the end right you know like it’s almost you’re almost retired
And to think and to think you’re swinging a golf club 150 miles an hour at 40 yeah like that’s incredible I had someone in front of me like Jeff Gavin who’s we basically call him the freak and he’s originally from Sue St Marie lives in Stony Creek now um but like
He’s competed at this level you know in like he made the top 16 at Worlds I think he was 52 years old or 51 years old something like that and you know Eddie Fernandez is kind of yeah fast Eddie I I love that though Paving the
Way for you know it’s age is just what you let it be it’s not you know what you it’s just a number really if you keep yourself together and that’s that was another big you know when that injury did happen I I reflected I had time
Because I couldn’t walk for six weeks um but I just reflected back and I’m like well what are the guys doing in front of you that you aren’t doing right right and it was that rein reinvigoration of like okay well you were the only one to
Have a beer at dinner the night before top 16 guys out for dinner I’m the only one having a beer okay uh you know they’re they’re not they’re eating very specifically they’re doing things that I was doing when I was in training and where when I was in my fitness side of
It and then so that I think you know I that injury yes it was awful but it was another massive learning curve for me to be able to be like okay like these are Implements of steps we need to now take to get into those you know positions and
Treat our body a certain way and that’s where you know like I’ve always been a big guy as far as well I haven’t always been a big guy my nickname was bonem man growing up because I was so skinny um but I found the gym and I found food and
I I learned again right and I think that’s just been a constant thing now in my life where you know if I want to perform better it’s not just what I do while I’m at practice it’s really preparing to practice and preparing your mental side of things
When I’m going into a speed session that’s three days in advance of planning you know of sleep nutrition hydration you name it um and it’s just things where guys you know like meditation Wim Hoff breathing stuff like that guys are like well I’m like I’m not I’m not
Leaving anything unturned like this is we’re going to find what’s working right like I love that so much we’re gonna find we’re gonna find whatever fruit we can within the time we’re allowed and we’re going to use it and you know like I just I try not to stop every day doing
And learning something or watching something or you know having a aha moment that I can then carry with me to you know wherever it be the next step um um but that’s just Evolution as a human I feel and yeah I love that mindset it’s and it’s very inspiring and you know
What I didn’t uh you know I think it maybe is a shame that you aren’t as big as as forward on social because I think it it just just like the passion I love like I love it like I could you know what I mean I could feel and like just
Knowing how in depth like that’s so awesome cuz oh okay so anyway I’ve got it’s funny because a lot of my questions actually are so in line with what this so first thing I want to talk about is is is to jump into just kind of segueing
Off this because you’ve touched on so many things there is so you’re in your offseason right now yeah right so coming off you come off you know World Championships what does an off season for you look like well because because you you clearly have a lot of process
Right and so I’m like okay so now you’ve got to get that that one% better that you’re going to try and find right now what is that what is that for you you know for me it’s I have this this thing where I don’t have to be fast in December
January uh you know well we’ll say November December January so I can work on a different phase of training I can you know rehab certain injuries there certain things that have kind of popped up over the season take time to get those back in check um essentially me and my strength conditioning coach
Because I’m not selfish enough to think that I can do all my own work I I hire it out um to people I trust obviously so my physio happens to be my cscs and so we basically started a plan well okay when’s the season start okay potentially March we don’t have a
Schedule yet but we’re potentially March so let’s build our progress for the off season over that and you know he has to keep me in check because I want to go go go and I I bring myself back and I have to remember okay being fast in December
Doesn’t get you a paycheck being fast in Jan January right and there’s it’s very hard especially I’ll give it at my age to keep that number on the throttle for half the year right like you know you can hang out at I can hang out at 1 15
All year but if I want to get to that 160 you know Top Gear for a longer period of time I can’t spend as much time at 150 I need to take the other time to build the muscle basically it’s it’s hypertrophy periodization where we go you know hypertrophy strength power
Velocity that’s really velocity speed what how I just like the term velocity training with the baseball guys it’s easier uh acronym to use but that’s really been the you know we’re kind of sliding into the power phase now um but so far you know I’ve been able to
Maintain weight put on a little weight because that’s always the gear in the offseason is to gain a little because during the season it’s just not going to be capable you’re burning too many calories during the week hitting balls especially at the high rate of force that you’re hitting balls it’s you know
I’ll burn more calories in an hour hitting driver than I would playing 36 holes of golf right it’s just wild that is wild and and and how many times a week are you hitting balls in the offseason uh depends so that stretch basically once but it’s not even it’s
Just going and staying and moving like I’ll play just to feel just to feel the move yeah and then work on a few mechanical things that you think that could be worked upon certain pressures certain paths stuff like that um you know angles I’m a big thing with certain
Angles needing to be in certain spots um to allow the pressure to be pushed into certain areas to then deliver in specific way um more effortlessly essentially if the pressures are wound in the right spots they can be released you know simpler without as much resistance um and then yeah so once a
Week roughly maybe in I think in well I had to do an event down in West Palm in December uh a charity outing so I took a few swings the week before that and I think I went out there I hit it three second longest drive at
383 um and the longest was 385 so I was like you know we’re still we’re still there um you know I got beat by who a person I think is going to likely be one of the top people for the years to come uh I’ll leave his name out if he listens
He’ll know who he is um but you know we’re just kind of we’re trying to keep it you know I like to hover the ball speed in like that 215 to 220 maybe touch 220 once during a session um which is when I look back kind of funny
Because it used to be like the top end goal now it’s just like the bottom just my maintenance yeah just chipping it yeah so you know now actually today after we’re done later this afternoon I’m going to head into Burlington um I’m going to give myself probably 70 balls
Give or take and I’m going to start building my speed endurance starting today um so by speed endurance it’s basically you know you try and keep it above 95% this is my training and how I do things and how I essentially am training clients you try and keep it roughly
Above 95% for about 70% of your 70 70 drivers essentially and then work up from there I never really go beyond 100 uh until this we’re getting ready for the season but then it’s more of a periodized 100 multiple times a week um because we have to hit back-to-back days
So you have to it’s very difficult um it’s not something that we quite have figured out no one’s really figured out the CNS on this absolute yet um but it’s we have to hit 100 Balls day one we have to hit 100 well 30 balls in comp but you
Might as well call it 100 CU you’re warming up staying loose everything else in between day two you’re going to be doing the same thing and then sometimes depending on the schedule day three you might have to hit even more uh which is which is wild to me and this is where
You know one of the things I I noticed is like you guys are almost like picturers but you don’t get your five days off yeah and and I was going to ask you you know because it sounds like you know you guys are on ball counts you got
To basically get to your top vlo in order to be your best yep but then they get to kind of do an arm care day they get to chill in The Dugout and then 5 days later and then they get to pick up their check for 20 million yeah and and
And it and it it’s it’s wild to me that it’s like you know having having worked on speed myself like you know I can when I was kind of pushing it I could feel like doing back-to-back speed days was like it’s it’s not it’s not it like like
You can feel it on your body especially you know being 32 now it’s like you you feel it a little more than when you do when you’re younger how do you guys how do you manage that like that that because am I off base saying like
You guys are like pitchers or is that basically it’s kind of like it’s I’d say we’re we’re high pitch count closers that’s that’s kind of the you know yeah true you know that’s where you know we go out we Blitz it and for us you know
When I say Blitz it our round Robins are generally an hour and a half you get five sets of six balls bracketed into that hour and a half right um so you kind of look at it as like maybe a mid- relever a little bit more but you’re believer that throws
Nothing but fast balls just just heat just gas um no change UPS in our set no no but I mean I will say because I did throw baseballs for quite a while the baseball arm throwing especially someone with myself who didn’t have great mechanics throwing a baseball was much
More body arm SW Ness than hitting a golf ball um the Implement of the golf club is I mean our drivers basically weigh under 300 grams at this point total weight depending on your grip and your head configuration but most shafts that guys are using are running like
Under 55 grams um some guys as low as 39 grams so that’s where you know our total weight of appli like you know Club moved isn’t overly crazy but when you take 100 295 grams and start moving it at 55 miles an hour you know it’s kind of it
Adds up over time to you know needing to be strong in in range of motion is kind of where you know Tom house TPI pitu Tom house is one of the best follows on Twitter right so you get Tom house and a lot of his pitching you know
Stuff that he’s done is about after you let go of the ball right like the pitching release and his over weight ball holds and stuff like that where I find there to be great value in that for certain things when it comes to golf because you have to be able to control
You know you got to be able to put on The Brak and then control everything right so the shaft a isn’t bouncing off your back but also B when your ligaments are fully stretched out at the end of the swing and you’re rotating through the ball you’re not going to be putting
Yourself in a harmful position we’ll say um but yeah that’s the mid reliever that’s probably as close CL as it gets but a mid- reliever that throws nothing but gas and you have to train for it there’s no way to train for it in the gym there’s no there’s from what I found
There is no possible way to do it but to do it but you have to do it in a way that is no different than a periodization program so you kind of slowly build through you know a marathon runner doesn’t go run a marathon six
Days a week right right and a 100 meter Sprinter doesn’t run the 100 meters six days a week all out so it’s building that capacity is essentially what you need to be able to do some guys just are freaks of nature like Kyle berkshire’s ball count and my ball count drastically
Different uh Martin I hung out with Martin for well we’re really good friends but we spent pretty much a week together we went to the Green Brier did an event there we stayed in Virginia did a video with Carter um the dod King then we went down to Tennessee like it was a
Busy week and for me that’s not my I’m usually like we practice we go home we eat we rest we hot tub we XYZ to recovery and Martin was just go go go and I’m like well man you’re the World Champ so I’m not going to like argue and
You’re built a lot mentally different than I am like I think that’s why we get along very well is because we’re not the same in a lot of things but we also can understand that you don’t have to be to be friends um but he was just you know
Okay we got to go to the range we got to find a range we got to do and it was every day and you know his what he was doing and I knew what he was doing because he’s talked to me about it but he was prepping himself for the 4 day
Gauntlet of the World Championships right starting in August right and that tournament was in October so he was prepping his body to be able to go four days in a row like 16 weeks out and for me personally I could it’s too far away it’s just you know it was too too too
Long for someone like you’ll end up kind of on the diminishing returns by the time yeah you know where his Peak is there I would probably personally 10 weeks at most is when I started um but I also understood like you know day one you don’t need to be you know when
You’re at you know a high level generally day one you swing at 90 92 93% which for me is going to be at that point probably in the 147 to 150 range hit solid balls into the grid you’ll get through to the next day and you don’t
Ever need to finish first in a bracket it doesn’t get you any advantage because they’re all reset the next day on world ranking right um so it’s just really survive and evance survive and events survive and events till you get to that you know I’ll say 32 to 16 that starts
To put pressure on and then when you’re in the 16 it’s just a slaughter house like every guy there hits it over 220 every guy dumps it down the middle 400 like it’s who gets a bounce who hits it when it needs to be hit and the right
Gust the wind yeah like you know we touched we touched I got eliminated by 25 points okay but I also tied my first set with James Tate at 388 and a half or 389 yards and the balls were three inches apart at 388 89 yards right we
Split those points we both get 150 instead of me getting 200 it’s me getting in versus me being eliminated and you know it’s just how the story unfolds like it was you know I need needed to win my last set I did Shawn Johnson needed to not win his last set
He ended up winning then that put Justin James just needing to put a ball in play JJ’s not gonna not put a ball in play like I know I’ve known him long enough it’s it’s when as soon as that came down to it I’m like yeah I’m done now it’s just
Acceptance that’s wild and you know what and I think this is this is what’s so cool you know and I think maybe the Casual fan doesn’t understand just what you what what you guys are doing you know to get to this level because I think I think some guys think you guys
Just are you know you you go kind of how you approached your first event you just you just rock up and you just bro it right and and I think it’s just so cool to see just how much finesse is happening and such because it is a lot
Of that brood Force like you guys are just trying to to pound it but that’s so cool so now taking all the stuff you’re doing physically right yeah what is the side of long drive you know cuz I understand like on on the golf course I understand what the mental side is like
But when you have six balls and you you know there and you’re playing some of these games of like I got just survive the set right right and then the other piece to to all this is that you know you can’t do long drive and just bunt it
Out there and get through when your body’s not feeling it right you got to like that’s the difference with golf it’s like if I don’t have my a stuff that day like I can just bunt it around I don’t have to I don’t have to crush it
So how do you mentally now how does how does that all factor in well that’s to me I think for a lot of young guys who are you know just great athletes right they’re just they come out of the woodwork they show up they have great mechanics they they hired a great co-
Rade out to get-go they have no Scar Tissue they have so they don’t the mental side for them they just get up there they hit their six balls they’re fine right they don’t have years of bad bounces OB sets shitty things happening per se um and so they kind of Freewheel
It which you know I honestly think is the best way to go about it you just you got to go up there not caring what what happens you kind of just have to stay within yourself and by stay within yourself is just don’t worry about what
Other guys are doing on the T boox um I know there are mind games played on the tbox guys will yell at balls that aren’t that good and you know they try try and throw and then you have certain you know crowd people screaming for a certain
Individual and you know but my best sets and I mean we have music playing in the background the whole thing right my best sets ever I haven’t heard a thing like and it’s not that it’s not happening it’s just you so locked in that you know you’re just literally just in the zone
To a point where it doesn’t matter what’s happening around you or who’s making what screaming whatever it is you’re just so zeroed in the the prep for that is I think the most difficult part cuz we’re especially like the more events you’re at right like when I was
Younger I would only go to a couple events a year wouldn’t be a big deal whatever nobody really cared I wasn’t that good no big deal but as you become you know in this top tier you’re at every event you build your friendships you have your buddies and you have
Everyone else that you talk to and hang out with and you know all of that along along the way and it’s not letting yourself be distracted during that time you know like staying in the zone for as long as you can you know while you’re there and that’s it’s hard to always do
I mean it happened to me at Worlds this year where you know I think it was around a 32 I had to go into a playoff to make the top 16 and it was a three-man playoff and I was you know like okay like yeah I I can be one of
The top two guys here like this shouldn’t be a problem and I went OB but so did one of the other guys and so basically our one buddy Bryce for plank gets through by hitting at like 362 like he hit a spatula out there and got
Through and he was kind of like laughing and I’m like yeah I’m laughing but I’m also pissed off because a I got lucky that the other guy went OB as well but now you have they’re deciding okay well how’s the playoff going to go is it
Going to be six balls head whatever ever they’re deating whether it’s going to be three ball or six ball and in that time I just sat there and I’m like I don’t care it’s over on the first ball like I totally like just flipped a switch and I
Didn’t just tell myself I looked up at Sarah I told Sarah I looked at the ball caller I told my ball caller and I’m like I it doesn’t matter what happens I’m ending it on the first ball he’s gonna have to do his absolute best ever
All time to catch it and oddly enough I did do it on the first Ball but he also hit a very very I beat him by a yard let’s just I beat him by one yard and he went I went 396 to his 395 and you know
I give him all the Kudos in the world he stepped up just like I did and we went to battle and it was probably my favorite set of the entire Championship even though it was mono aano and you know obviously I felt for him after
Because I know he left it all on the line and he went out there and I just went up to him on the driveing after him like that’s long drive dude like you’re right here you’re right with us you’re right with one of the with the best with
The best there is and you just didn’t get the bounce like it’s just part of the game but that that’s where the mentality you know you catch a shitty bounce in golf or like you go flag hunting and you hit the flag and it bounces Into the Bunker I mean that can
Happen in long drive any day of the week like it’s right and it does yeah yeah that’s and that’s because it’s you know at one point you know you kind of Wonder is is it freeing to have six balls but at the same time every ball you hit that doesn’t land is almost
Like a it’s like well I only got only got five you know only got one it’s like there’s no Freer feeling than hitting your first ball well in play right like you know and I say well because I don’t you can’t bunt it out there 340 like if
If you’re trying to like get through to the next round hitting a ball like dumpster Fireball in play at like 320 330 it’s useless you might as well just hit it OB cuz it’s only going to be good for 25 points so now right if you only
Need 25 points okay sure but more often than not you need more and I mean so so to build on that is there a long drive version of the the Fairway finder that is like you know when you know like like do you guys have th those
Like how many different shots are you are you really playing there used to be so used to be in a different format before this round robin format which I do believe is still the most Fair um there used to be double elimination format so you’d be depending on how many
Guys were in the event how big the t- boox was whatever well to say there was four guys in in your your set um generally only two would hit out of time back then and so the two longest would move on the other two would be eliminated well if you’re in the third
Slot and the first two guys go up and they go OB well now you just have to put one in play and you’re going to move on right right so there was a lot more and I think that’s what’s kind of led to this this massive amount of speed being um
Adapted into the new long drive was there’s a lot more freewheeling allowed even though you know it’s a different format but before like let’s just say you go OB twice in an entire tournament you’re eliminated you could go OB twice now in the same set win three times and
You’re on the next day so it’s it’s a much different game being played now interesting um than it was when I first started there was much more of that type of you know grid finder put one in play Then build on it you know there were
Certain guys that they ate up long drive because they could do that you know I think Jason zubac has the best stat ever in long drive I believe he went OB once at a world championship in his care career wow like it’s something ridiculous like that where I’m like I’ve
Been OB twice like back to back and then had to had to win three sets in a row and Sarah’s behind me just stressing out and I’m just sitting I got it meanwhile in my head I’m like you better hit it good but that’s you know it’s a
Different game now and I’m one of the very few that is still around in the open division that has played it both ways right um and yeah I think that’s been the big but you know that technology us moving and learning to be able to move lighter shafts better uh
That’s the other harder part with now just putting one in play our equipment is geared to like 100% go at all times right we don’t we don’t really bring um well some guys do I guess but we don’t really bring like that play driver to
The T boox to just hit play very certain situations maybe but not on a regular basis interesting and then with now with the new format because you know I remember watching like the Jamie sidlowski because you know what he was one of the guys that first got me into
Long drive because he’s not a big dude right abolutely so so as someone who’s not a big dude I was like cool you know um but now you know they got you guys lined up four in four in a row is there is there a cuz I know just moving in a
Normal t- box moving certain positions changes your angle drastically oh yeah is there you know like like how much does that affect you on the T box going like I’m in the I’m in this slot and it’s a weird angle or it feels weird because you know you know just getting
Your start lines right and especially downrange like that like how much is that affecting you yeah I’m a big fan of slot two and three right in the middle I those are always my preference um I’m not a big at the ends like on one and
Four guy but it it absolutely does like you you think you’re moving across a t- boox what is it 40 feet roughly yeah like that’s that’s tangible like yeah especially like if you’re having some balls like say you move the ball left to right we’re on a left to right wind
You’re on the very first slot okay well now you got to start your ball outside the grid for it to come back right now say you’re that same guy in slot four but now you have to cut across the grid and essentially if we do physics shortest distance is a straight line
You’re eating up yardage moving your ball left to right uh which is why I’ve always been a big believer in trying to hit it as straight as I can because this shorter the distance unless I have to hit a very specific spot on the grid but the straighter less least amount of
Access you can put on the ball the faster it’s going to get to point B um so that’s kind of there is a big factor in that and it’s not really talked about cuz guys a lot of times are just kind of like so zoned in where it’s like right
You know you’re picking you essentially got to start depending on where you basically start where your ranking is for the world tour so depending on where you are in your group you might start in slot two and then if you start in two you move three four one two essentially
And then you know if you’re and that could even change like you might go from back to two to one depending if you’re like the highest ranked guy in the group kind of thing um but that’s where you know you really have to find your comfort zone very quickly especially in
Those first few rounds once you get through each slot and kind of have your targets picked out and have a certain sight line and it I mean that has happened to me like many times where I’m very uncomfortable the first day and then by the time the second day rolls
Around I’ve kind of settled in and walked through you know won my group straight to top 16 kind of thing where the first day I was like OB OB win win third get in by a couple points and then show up the next day and just be like
Hey that’s my line I know it now boom boom boom boom boom win every set and way you go so that’s it does play a big factor and it’s just a matter of you know having like you said right it’s finding those exact lines and not
Wanting to move the ball or not trying to move the ball too much in either direction if you can obviously Mak hits happen especially yeah because I I feel like if I was in the the four slot Which is far that’s far left right like or sorry which one so which one’s
Far right so yeah so so then if I’m in the so which which one is the most to the left like I would feel like if I’m a fade guy I’d be trying to hit like Slinger hooks all day just to just to get the get to the grid versus being I
Guess in the four slot now I’m trying to hit big cuts to try and just put one in play like this well and you can hear like there is certain advantages for certain people depending on the slot they’re in depending on what the wind’s doing right and what time of day it is
And and how nerdy are you getting on conditions like how how into the weeds are we in on conditions like are we using as far as we can go so like give me give me a this is my favorite [ __ ] like like what are we like like are we
Using different apps are we bringing our own weather gear to the I me I don’t I don’t get into like barometric pressure or anything like that um but there really is like and Sarah laughs at me the time when when we get the event schedule and we’re about a week out I’m
Constantly checking the weather I’m constantly seeing what the wind’s doing I’m constantly seeing when the gusts like when the wind’s supposed to pick up what what time of day the wind’s supposed to pick up because this is the funny part about events is you know generally midafternoon the winds are
Always going to be a little higher the air is going to be drier the ground’s going to you know be harder from being dried out throughout the day kind of just like getting an afternoon tea time right you’re always going to hit a little further but in that case we get
Some places like Memphis Tennessee where it’s stagnant all morning do awful and you go out there and you hit a ball like 380 in the morning and that ball is murdered like you can’t hit that ball better and then guys come out in the afternoon who are 15 miles an hour
Slower than you the wind picks up the ground has dried out the air density has gotten a lot thinner and they’re hitting at 400 yard no problem and you’re just like yeah you know the general Public’s like well he hit at 400 I’m like yeah I mean it’s no different than the guys
Playing on the tour who you know or let’s just say during the the Open Championship who get the morning time without any win and then the afternoon guys get totally shafted because A storm blew in off the ocean and they’re getting hammered with rain and the winds
Changed 180 degrees and you know the nice the nice part is in the way our system works now you’re only against those guys for that hour and a half for the day yeah that’s cool right so that’s that’s another reason why we’ve kept it that way um some things you have no
Control over right like if a gusta wind comes up halfway through your set and you hit a ball on your first ball and this guy hit a good ball on his fourth ball well he just picked the per perfect time to hit a good ball like you and you
Didn’t but and yeah we know as players like we can feel it like that’s there’s one thing I’ve become very sensitive to even playing regular rounds of golf is the wind um because it being a naturally having like a high ball flight because of ball speed and you know let’s just
Say compression relations that have to come along with that it’s very hard to trap a ball at70 miles an hour uh with an iron and keep it on the planet um you know with long drive it’s like a 2 mph gust and you know 300 less RPM backspin you know you’re might
Looking at 15 yards and are you are you manipulating your delivery on different wins are you saying you know you’re feeling mostly tea height mostly t height okay te height is is that’s that’s what’s but the tea Height’s obviously going to dictate my delivery right so so down
Like you know downwind you’ll Tee It Up super high and you can just be like let’s like let’s go and into the wind you’ll kind of Tee It Up a little lower yeah that’s where I think the one the one thing that you know I can’t say I have but
A few of us have is we’ve played golf in our life and so some long drivers come in and they’ve never played golf and they don’t understand ball Dynamics and hitting down and you know not that we ever are actually hitting down but we’re talking like a 10 AOA versus like a 4
AOA type of thing um so I think that’s that’s a big you know differentiator in who and then being able to control your spin with that delivery because some guys you know myself particular I’ve never never been a very high spin guy because my delivery’s always been very I
Almost have too little Dynamic Loft to be absolutely honest even if I deliver it at like 10 like I got a two degree driver two and a half degree driver I deliver it at 10 my Dynamic loft is like 13.1 like I’m adding nothing extra
Besides my AOA but on the other side of it my ball speed is so fast because of that blunt delivery of Club sledgehammering it yeah that’s what’s been able to have my ball speed be so so high without having you know I might have swung over 160 on trackman like
Once or twice and I’m always like ah it’s a misread like it probably doesn’t happen but other guys will swing over 160 consistently I believe it’s a path thing and the way it’s reading um but the ball speeds are within a few miles per hour or less in some cases depending
On how the ball is struck but that’s a whole another I mean we get into that stuff for another three hours like oh dude I love it so much um so now taking everything you’re doing physically and mentally and packaging all together now you’re in your offseason you know where does where does
Your equipment now play a role like I I remember when I first met you I don’t think you were with Callaway and and you’ve since moved to Callaway y um for the long drive heads where where is your you know I know you you play Acra quite a bit
Um how does how does your equipment situ now match up with everything you’re doing cuz clearly clearly you definitely thought about this part think about everything else and this is where being a club junkie at heart like growing up I was part of all the forums like I was
Part of Toronto golf nuts before it was Toronto golf nuts like when it was called 4 GAA I would Club swap when I was like 17 18 years old with guys I’d run down to the post office in my hometown mail out this driver get
Another one in the mail oh I love it like me and my brother were just ridiculous like my brother had and you might remember this but it might have been before you got really into golf remember Taylor Made had the 300 series drivers my brother ended up finding the
Taylor Made 300 tour which is always referenced to as the Holy Grail yep and we literally just started like building a collection we had like 510 TPS very common my brother ended up with a 5 580 TP tour only and then we just you know I
Had uh Titus 975 lff which was a tour only and we just we turned into these Club junky you know this shaft and that shaft and this God so this is this is in the blood this is just and even to this day we’ll like just message each other
Random golf stuff like so okay so then this also makes a lot of sense because I saw the most recent iron build you did yes and that is a club junky iron build that is a when I saw that I went that is a textbook Club junkie iron
Build so we we can get it what is just quickly take us through this iron build then so so Acra because of the relationship I built with Acra uh I’m basically solely hitting Aura through the bag um we we they did a custom set
For me so we just did it as my hockey team colors growing up as a kid in my hometown which are essentially like early 90s Buffalo Sabers colors because we were in Elks Lodge with like the gold blue purpley blue whatever it was colors same thing as the Buffalo Sabers so the
Guy at Aur designed these iron shafts and put my hockey team logo on it and I had a designer friend from back home send the logo down and all this stuff so then I’m like okay I I can’t just put anything on these like I’m probably not
Going to play them regularly but I got a so a good friend of mine kind of who’s been a golf friend forever Nathan he had this set of mauno tp9s that he found he’s just as bad as I am he he’s got the sickness yeah he’s I think he’s got a
Set of national custom build Customs like he’s gone all out um but he’s got the sickness absolutely and so at when I came home from Worlds in 219 he thought it was so awesome and then sent me just like a full bag like a Mira Cary bag
With all these things just like hidden in the pockets and all this stuff and part of it was those Muno tp19 heads that were completely refurbished like brand new completely redone and if people don’t know like those Munos were designed by Faldo to win the British O
Blah Blah blah in the early 90s um so they’ve been sitting in my basement four just waiting four years five years finally this opportunity came up I’m like let’s do it obviously put on the white superst stroke cord grips because I’ve always liked harder cord grips yeah
And then just went up to Aca up in Kingston for the day and my buddy Ken who’s there built them up and you know that just you know started to add to everything else and of course while I’m there I’m testing this trying that we’re going through different builds we’re
Going through different grip weights and you know it’s it it’s fits right into the mold and it’s funny because I walked into the warehouse because Acra now is owned by True Temper so all the True Temper everything Project X everything uh steel fiber all the Acra stuff uh is
All in the warehouse at Acra um so we’re walking through the warehouse let alone like all the true sports hockey equipment so me being a kid that grew up aario he’s walking me through and I’m just like sitting like a kid in a candy store thinking this is the if I was 16
Years old again this would been I’m like it’s awesome but younger me would have been like that’s that NHL player stick that’s that all the Pro Stock stuff right and yeah like it the build and the relationship with ACA kind of came by fluke um it was I seen a hitter who
Helped Acra do some stuff or helped someone who was with Acra using this shaft in mosquite at the beginning of the season last year and he performed well and I was kind of on my way out of the relationship I had currently with a certain shaft company um and I just sent
A message made a con ction and they’re like yeah do you want to try something I’m like yeah sure so they sent it and I built it cuz I build all my own stuff in the basement and basically all my own drivers I’m not I’m not willing to touch
Graphite iron shafts and stuff that’s why I went up to the build that’s that’s really cool though so you’re you’re in control of your driver build yeah and I’m like you know very sensitive to head weight and stuff like that so it’s okay very it has to be a very specific feel
Um so when I built up this driver with the acur FX 140 m0 which is essentially like a junior Flex um like the whippi one they make relative to an autoflex essentially just with a much different profile um I set my highest ball speed
The first day I tried it and I was like and I was progressing at the time so it was it wasn’t a huge shock but the fact that I could take a brand new club that I had never hit before and within like the first 45 minutes set my alltime best
Ball speed I was like okay there’s something here yeah um and then two weeks after that I broke Kyle’s ball speed record for 48 hours and then our relationship just kind of bloomed from there and we tried this tested this tried the whole TZ series try you know
And it it keeps falling back to the one shaft um there’s a few things in the works I can I’ll say that uh but yeah it’s you know it’s been great to have that kind of support and that kind of backing from a Canadian company um and just you know like the certain
Things that happened along the way even with you know txg did a video about that shaft because I had used it and they carried it and they did a comparison with the autoflex to it and then they had a bunch of sales that Accura because
Of it so it was I felt like I was I was adding to the company um let alone helping me making progressing me be better it was kind of like helping everybody um so yeah that’s you know we’re always looking for that next little bit better a little bit faster a
Little bit more you know accurate like we always want the perfect package um so yeah hopefully we’re we’re going to be working on some next steps here shortly and I was supposed to go up on the weekend but the weather down here was pretty awful so we just it’s been it’s
Been awful across the board up here too but yeah you know when it comes to tinkering I’m probably over tinkering to be absolutely honest aren’t we all aren’t we all just a little bit over you know that’s where it’s it’s it’s so difficult for me to like if I was still
Playing golf more so like in just golf I would be I’d be awful like that year that 2020 year with Co I had a basement bag full of this and that and none of it was long drive related like I still no I remember you were using you had the
Slider you had the SDR driver when I played with you I finally flattened it but that thing was a unit man it I love that thing you nutted it it was low spin High launch I mean I had a tour model that I could turn down to six degrees but like
That thing I could launch it at 12 spin it at 1,600 on the golf course and it just floated forever and I didn’t have to hit it that hard like it was just it took off and it was gone um but yeah that’s you know I I do I I try this I
Try it’s cool that that you’re in charge of your own builds so you’re so you’re using the the Paradigm long drive head yeah and and stock Loft on that is what uh we get them between four to four and a half on the stick and then you’re
Turning them down you have the uh the long drive sleeve and you turn down to yeah I’ll go to two and a half and then we play with the head weights too right like they have the five five gram plug in the back when I was doing the ball
Speed stuff I took the five gram plug out put a two gam plug in and then put like four grams of lead i I asked them to send me a lighter head because I like to play a head around 190 191 grams uh with the sleeve so it comes out to about
200 total um yeah I’ve seen some guys not even have the the plug in yeah and and that’s what’s so crazy like we’re all so different like I cannot hit Martin’s driver the way he was the one I saw like he’s got is his just stupid
Light it’s I I don’t want to speak absolutes but I think it’s hovers in the 183 to 184 Grand and okay that’s light yeah you know his driver shaft I believe is between 39 and 40 grams and then he plays in Ultra Light extra spall jumbo Max grip so his
Total build I it can’t be over 275 20 you know maybe 80 grams 90 not not even 90 so I think that grips like 35 or 36 it’s like a f water yeah but that’s you know when I was in Germany last year we went twice we flew to mun to see Martin
The one time and shot a YouTube video and whatever yeah I checked that video but like we were we were literally he’s like I didn’t bring my clubs like it wasn’t a golf trip but we just flew down to it’s flying within Europe’s amazing because you can get anywhere in like an
Hour and it’s so cheap and it’s not a big hassle like it is going to Pearson um no but it was you know he’s like oh just use one of mine and he had just got the Paradigm heads in at the time and he had all the weights out and whatever and I’m
Like I dude I need weight I can’t swing this I don’t feel it I don’t know where it is in space I I can’t feel the head and we’re still talking like these things are probably swing waiting out into the ease but it’s just I need to
It’s like having the lure at the end of the fishing rod like yeah you you to locate it somehow so that’s where yeah like there is so many guys with so many different setups and that’s that’s kind of the part I love about the game is you know it it’s there’s no one
Perfect shaft for everybody and you know even between a couple grams of head weight let alone how we all deliver the club how our hands go through impact you know all of that stuff like it’s so different and we see it in golf all the time like yeah it’s going to be pretty
Hard to fit a guy that’s four across and six down but you know they’ll be able to take some spin-off somehow but I mean if you can get that guy you know zeroed out in any way shape or form or closer to zero those are automatic yards just by
Correcting path and pressure really yeah um but that’s yeah I mean there’s not really any long draft guys that are that across and down I mean there’ll be some guys that are a little across coming from baseball and stuff uh especially the hitters they’ll be across but
They’ll still be up but they’re still right you know and that’s there everyone’s figuring it out right the pitchers the pitchers always have the best background like that’s just they know how to sequence the body the the kinematics in the swing they know how to kind of deliver it properly and those
Guys are just lethal right out the gate like Sean Johnson who finished second at Worlds like just you know he picked up a golf club I mean he was a hockey player at heart like he like he lived in Colorado he was a baseball player and then baseball and hockey and golf he
Always hit it far probably because he was a pitcher and he’s a bigger unit than I am I mean he’s six7 and just long arms long legs greatest guy in the world um but just yeah he figured out how to deliver the club over the past two years
That I mean finished second at the World Championships lost by a yard to Kyle like it’s you know that’s really interesting one of those things it’s it’s crazy like that how different sports can also translate into golf oh yeah like like I you know one of the things I’ve been
Trying to figure out for myself is like I have a i’ I’m I’m faster versus how strong I am y like actually you know you’re more velocity based versus power based yeah and I didn’t realize like why like you know because I basically spent my whole 20 sitting in a studio not
Lifting a thing right but I spent all my teen years and everything like playing tons of volleyball playing tons of hockey all of these things and it’s just wild that you know all that all those years of jumping especially playing volleyball you know how much like my
Verticals yep still yeah it just kind of bakes it into you as a human so you know you’re saying these guys who are pitchers and they have all these different sports in their background it’s like it’s almost like man if I was I was ever to have a kid like I’d want
To I’d want to bake in all these Sports early to to be athletic just to give the versatility because it’s wild how much that stays with you oh absolutely and I mean the one of the things that I took away from when I took the TPI stuff and
Took the courses became certified and all that was very much understanding you know they use it as kind of like your diesel fuel your regular gas and then your aviation fuel kind of thing and you’re kind of set to be one of those from a young age and the more active and
You know Sports oriented you are from a younger age until puberty type of thing kind of presets those things um and I was the same way like I was I started playing hockey I think my dad had me out there when I was like three um and we
Played Road hockey every day like it was snow Banks up to our eyeballs by the time it would be like the middle of November so we could literally play Road hockey then you put regular hockey and then yeah golf just happened for me by chance it wasn’t you know oh I wanted to
Play golf it was like well same the the dad’s all their their baseball like my dad used to pitch fast pitch windmill baseball and that League folded and all the guys are like oh well let’s just start golfing and so I got instead of being dragged to the dgo I got dragged
To the golf course and right then my friend was like oh he would take me to like the arena Park essentially Where We Gather and whatever in town and I just hit a pitching W didn’t I’m like how do you hit this he’s like well I just hit
Down on it and I’m like oh okay so I just started smashing down on the back of a pitching wedge and I think from that you know certain muscles got developed because your a pitching wedge is generally a bit heavier than a well maybe not back then but today um heavier
Than a driver and I would the winter I became really obsessed I got the Golf Digest subscriptions for Christmas the golf magazines I got my first Edwin Watts book um I would just go out in the the yard with kind of my winter boots on and just try and take like small little
Divots off the ice in the because everything was just hard at ice yeah yeah so I had like this old set of tailor made tour model before the burner stuff the like pillow or what was it like foam filled irons and I would just take like small little chips out of the
Ice with like my five and six iron so my club but just yeah you you build up the hand speed the the coordination I mean I came out next year and had the terrible reverse pivot cuz I’m literally just leaning on my front and trying to take little chips and then right from
Standing on ice but that was part of the learning process right and then that was the year I was like I can hit a 300 yards whenever I want I was like 14 years old I don’t know where it’s going but I can do it yeah and that’s and that’s that’s
Wild like it’s just it’s so it’s weird how the convergence it’s almost like I saw a thing with Claude Harmon talking about this with Junior saying like just get them to swing hard swing fast and they said one of the hardest um people for them to teach is a kid that
Specializes in golf too early yeah and isn’t athletic in other disciplines yeah it’s like yeah it’s that’s a big part is like you know with Junior Golf the way where I grew up you weren’t given an option there was no like specialization at the time in golf winter was a real
Thing and you couldn’t go to Florida I mean my dad we couldn’t afford it uh even if I was super good but you know what even Even Me growing up in renman hill we didn’t think about golf it was hockey time yeah exactly like you know
It was it wasn’t it was we we embraced the fact that it was going to be cold and we had stuff to do outside in the cold exactly and I was like okay we play on the tennis court until they put the net up and then we’ll go play golf or
Whatever um but yeah now you know I see the specialization stuff and I’m like but there there’s going to be I don’t want to say there’s going to be because a lot of these kids who do specialize also are having fitness trainers and stuff at a very young age now you know
They’re becoming fully immersed in golf which if you can’t play this other sports okay great next best thing um but yeah that’s it’s one of those you have to ride that fine line for a certain time and especially with Juniors because you you know I coach a few and the this
I don’t even call it strength conditioning I just really call it like the ability to stay athletic um because you’re you’re doing so much Golf and you want to get stronger for other things it’s just going to compound to help in golf and a lot of it is it’s not even
The mobility because they’re generally all super mobile like hyper mobile to points we were almost trying to like tighten things up a little bit right you’re trying to like create a little bit tighter of an elastic band there yeah you want some resistance here yeah I and the other part I’ve always you
Know with working with a handful is how easily things like coordination drills and stuff like that with General athletic movement are easily forgotten like something I call them like bound jumps like bound jumping but it’s like Champion strides essentially two foot one foot two foot
One foot bounding as far as you can yeah essentially Hopscotch for kids yeah right and at some points I’ll get teenagers that haven’t really tried to do that and they try to do it and they’re falling over they can’t land on one foot and you know it takes them a
Couple weeks to figure it out and it’s almost like but that was something you used to do as a five-year-old like boom you didn’t even think about it yeah right well I started I started sprinting for that exact reason yeah because I I I saw a stat like it was like 90 something
Percent of all people will never run full out again after the age of 30 yeah and as a kid like you sprint how many times a day yeah everywhere you know like especially you having a brother like you guys are it’s like me and my brother oh my gosh just wild right and
So like I start I Sprint actually today’s my sprinting day um and I look like a maniac in my neighborhood but I specifically do that to just get back to Full Tilt and get that exactly yeah like don’t lose that coordination well and that this is I mean this again I could
Go into this topic consistently but on various different levels right I’m not going to Sprint I’m 40 I’ve had an airduct adductor tear I’ve had a tfl tear I’ve had some hip injuries through powerlifting other things so that’s just not Smart in my behalf uh jumping bounding skipping High elastic activity
Stuff like that yes um but I always for me and this is I I’ve asked this question to others but I mean I don’t expect an answer so I you’ve seen my swing Catalyst vertical Force production thing right so by rights I should have like a 35 inch
Vertical being able to create that much vertical Force um I think what 749 lb 36 whatever 342 or something of body weight but my vertical sucks my vertical is absolutely awful and self admitted it is God awful but if you did all the parameter testing and without
The swing Catalyst without the the data you would think like oh this guy’s not going to be able to produce anything into the ground right so it’s like I think there’s a factor of the I’m just losing the word but it’s more of how quick that energy can be
Produced more so than how much energy can be produced like there’s a factor there of instantaneous pressure creation up the proper joint segment now I’m getting a little deep but you’re understanding obviously but you know if you create pressure at the wrong spot then that pressure is pointless anyway
Anyways right yeah if you create pressure up the chain like we’ll say inside ball left foot up to you know uh VMO up to hip joint up to glute rotation in the hip type of movement where it kind of flows up the chain well now that power as much as it could fully
Be produced but at that certain instant is very being produced very quickly type of thing yeah right it’s like that reaction force or like reaction strength index even on that I did those tests and I have terrible RSI as well but somehow in a gulf swing with everything built up and the pressures
Built as high as I can get them I can create a massive amount of vertical Force right and that’s that’s just always a conundrum like this is the [ __ ] that I get into that I’m like how do I answer this question and that well that’s and that’s interesting so
Building on that um I I I heard an interview that you saying you you’re saying your vertical and your torque are Elite but rotationally you lack as a result do you do you just kind of accept and that’s what it is or are you are you trying to build rotation in have you
Tried to build that in or or you’re just kind of like this is who I am this is my blueprint and I you’re just supercharging that yeah I think you know and the more people I talk to about Ground Force pressures and stuff like
That you know it’s it might not be in my best interest to just create more and more and more vertical you know it’s almost I heard a saying you know pressure throughout the swing is kind of like baking right a little too much of something might screw up the whole
Recipe or not enough right not it’s not that everything has to be like through the roof um you know and absolutely honest when I was doing that testing that day with Carson up at uh the golf lab my hardest balls hit weren’t when I created the most amount of pressure but
When I tried to create the most amount of pressure obviously it was a different feeling and so the timing was slightly off and it you know I would dump the club a little like we’re talking millisecond sooner uh but then it would cost a high it would cause a high face
Strike because I was kind of under the ball instead of into the ball because I created more pressure so everything happened faster and the big reason I was actually trying to figure this out was with us being on um like platforms uh for competition because these platforms
Aren’t like you know a a metal swing Catalyst where it’s you’re not going to bend it it’s going to bend in flux with you right these stages made out of wood well that wood flexes so right and that’s true right like you’re getting different reactions from your feet yeah
And so I’ve always found that the highest um or let’s just say the most repetitive guys when it comes to when we are on platforms are the higher rotational guys because they don’t flex as much and so the club doesn’t move up and down in millimeters as you know as
Much we’ll say um it’s more of that was my biggest reason we’re trying to figure it out the byproduct was yeah we saw I had a really really high vertical we pushed it a little but it’s more of okay so I I don’t have a massive amount of
Internal hip rotation in my right hip because of the adductor tear because of a tfl tear in that hip so am I going to down the road of trying to create more internal rotation knowing it’s probably not capable with scar tissue and everything like that or am I going to
Try and work in on the timing of all those pressures to try and then make myself you know the best hitter I can be you know within those parameters whether that’s getting the vertical higher and just learning my timing better or adding a little more rotation in or Torque work
Force um you know my horizontal is pretty strong as it as is um because I’m a big like I’m a big lateral push guy that’s why I load up so hard on my right side because I can’t turn so I have to add the pressure which is why I said
Earlier about keeping that right toe down because like no one on planet Earth has ever jumped as high as they could off their heels uh and that’s actually funny that that’s how I used to swing was very much like that it’s only been in the past year and a half that I’ve I
Can turn I’ve turned now and I actually have built that in so I cuz I had a lot of long drive elements in my swing like I push I think my my highest is like 308 vertical Force percentage my body high for for a normal for trying to play
Golf I had a ton of that yeah so um I’m actually going in for a ground force assessment soon so I’m curious to see where I’m at but it’s very interesting my swing is more from kind of where you were to a more rotational thing and it’s interesting I didn’t factor in what
You’re saying about the flexing of the environment cuz I have found that being more rotational was just better on grass yeah and just for consistent strikes and I’m seeing that finally now manifest in my game because I could hit it a mile but my scoring wasn’t working with that
Swing right no and that’s I mean this is kind of where you know when I say I try not to leave any stone unturned you know who’s thinking of flexing wood when you’re standing on it during a comp that’s so true your platform so so then
Okay so now flexing wood so this is my this is my new obsession have you gone into Footwear yet I know there’s a factor I I I’ve gone I’m In The Weeds on Footwear but I will Almost Say the harder the base you can stand on the more pressure you’re
Going to create and I’m not a fan of squishy shoes in any way shape or form I just find there’s pointless loss of energy um and I mean I I’ve hit 228 miles hour wearing like Adidas Street shoes just because the hard Rubber Soul I can’t get anything
Into it so it’s only thing to do is react out right and I think that you know we’re talking like carbon foot plates and stuff like that and um I seen you made a post with like painters uh yeah I’ve I Ed their Cricket shoes Cricket shoes right cuz they’re a big
Cricket company in Europe yeah well it because of their their um it doesn’t Flex so like if you take like a FootJoy Premiere right you can bend a footo Premiere which is probably the firmest shoe in the on the golf Market whereas if you take their Cricket shoe with the
Their specifically their bowler shoe right and these guys are coming in and hucking you know fast balls yeah they’re developing a ton of force you can’t really bend it and the other thing that I found too with the platform and and I like this on the course is that when you
Go to push and kind of keeping on the balls of your feet and pushing from the inside I see a lot of amateurs at the driving range getting mad at themselves cuz they leak Power by going to the outside of their foot yeah right and they’re wearing like they’re wearing
Crappy trainers and the first thing I’ll tell them I don’t even give them a swing tip I said hey man go get yourself some real golf shoes because you’re just leaking power you’re going outside of your body well now you have to reenter and then and you’re not athletically set
Up to do that right so i’ I’m obsessed with the shoes now cuz I’m going my connection to the ground is so vital and and I was Finding I was slipping like now that I’ve built in good vert plus the rotation like I was looking like
Bambi out there if I don’t grip right oh yeah absolutely and out in the Pacific Northwest like it’s soft I I’m playing on the softest you know in Ontario it’s a little better I could probably play almost in spikeless potentially in Ontario um you know especially in the
Middle of July right oh yeah but but I was just hating that sliping so anyway I wasn’t curious if you touched shoes yet it’s true because I went um I was playing with these the echo h4s forever and it was more because I dragg my right foot like through and I just
Kept ripping toe plates off constantly so these Cricket shoes have a have a protector I’m not I’m not I’m not making a pitch but I think you I I’ll message Dave and see what he says um but it’s more of that shoe was being worn for that
Purpose well over the summer uh my good friend who runs one of the big events here in Canada jod he’s got a relationship with duad Del Cosa and they just came out with Spike shoes and I’m like I want to try spikes like I haven’t worn spikes in ages let’s just see like
Now that my body’s functionally movable you’re wearing no You’ have not worn spikes for long drive no I was wearing spikeless forever yeah just because with the hip injury and then I had a tear in my MCL on my left knee I didn’t want to be which I remember when we first played
Yeah I didn’t want to be overly stuck to the ground yeah you know what fair fair and then I became more more mobile over time and you know my athleticism became better and then when I started picking up my left foot fully and then planting
It and I could rotate you know it was like okay well the left knee never hurts like my left knee never sore now even though I don’t pick it up half the time these days but um that was kind of a learning pressure that just started
Following me into long drive um but yeah I found immediately when I went to the spike shoe the first event I put them on I was like holy [ __ ] I’m fast like like significantly like I’m faster than I was like three days ago and it was almost a
Detriment because I got to the T boox and now my timing’s different because now my vertical sooner and it kind of threw me off that was the one I went like OB OB and then I’m like [ __ ] you got to like just get a little more in
Control and win the next three and so basically I went OB OB win-win second get me through and then the next day I had it all figured out and I walked through and ended up losing by a yard to make top four or something in match play
Um but it was like it was just just like holy [ __ ] like this makes this makes such a difference and I don’t think a lot of guys you know maybe they’re not if if you’re more rotational it’s not going to be as big but I think a lot of
Guys would benefit from just a solid shoe like instead of these cushiony R trainers you know then we get into like you see the guys getting outside their foot you know in the back swing and I mean like a lot of I see the toe come up
And I’m like that’s just suicide like stop trying to rotate so much if it’s not there you’re better off keeping that down and rotating less and then using that to go this way and banking it and going 100% but it’s you know I attributed to a lot of stuff being
Taught out there too like being shown on social media yeah where they show like an Uber athlete in full extension in his right leg full hip rotation and his foot is like the guy showing his foot’s not on the ground but nobody’s watching the ground everyone’s looking at his hip and
His leg right it’s not okay well how do you go left from there like you know for a right handed golfer how do you go left yeah you gotta you’re just falling left at best you’re not driving left right um and that’s kind of where one of my big
Like coaching philosophies when it comes to you know teaching people it’s proper path proper pressure equals proper power and it’s pretty simple acronym to remember no but it’s it’s it’s so true man it’s it’s like and I once I started I didn’t understand the value of ground
Forces and now it’s like it drives so much of my existence yeah well and you so the crazy part is once you understand it the effort you put in to get where you were is so much less yeah right you know because now you don’t have to it’s
Just your pressures are moving at the right time and in the right spaces and now you know you’re swing at 110 feels like you’re not even trying so now to if you want to push it to 115 120 whatever plus it’s not difficult to do because
The pressure is there and I and I found accuracy wise I I found that so much of my accuracy was in my feet yeah right you know like I when I’m not synced up I can I can feel it’s like when I’m not pushing off that and exactly what you’re
Saying keeping that toe down staying on the ball of the foot on the on the the right foot so that it’s not that stack tilt and like and and go down on it and yeah that’s that took me a while to learn oh yeah to then do that and then
Also then I I needed to sh shed my verticals early right because I was too late and I had a like you look at my swing when you and I played together I would had a bent left front knee yeah and that’s how I that’s how I played
Right yeah and and now now I I I jump basically with almost almost everything it’s just very scaled down when it comes to the short irons um but learning all that the intricacy of that movement and so that’s when I that’s why I went down the rabbit hole on shoes because I
Started to realize like how am I supposed to swell up all this power on the turn and keep that foot planted right if it doesn’t feel like it’s glued oh yeah absolutely you know and then I’ve got I’ve got the insoles in it too that’s cool okay couple more things
Before I I because I know you got to go okay two more quick questions one is um if you practice you have to practice with a launch monitor because there’s just no way absolutely there there’s no chance right yeah yeah and then so because I think the tgl made a mistake
With their teams because there is literally no one else on this planet who spends more time with the launch monitor than you guys and I think if they’re G like now that they’ve got I’m officially want to petition that each team needs a long drive guy because that would just
Makes so much sense we would love it that like put one of you mutants on each team I mean I for the paycheck yeah I’m down 100% no questions asked but even for the entertainment value and well and that’s that’s the part where you know I’ve always said I’m like we’re
Entertainers first like we’re competitors but when when I go out there for charity outings or corporate events and stuff like that it’s an entertainment piece they people can’t see the ball after we hit it for more than like a hundred yards they have no clue right like it’s too it’s too fast
It’s gone too quickly if there’s not someone out there with a camera sending back video they have no idea they just hear the sound see the ball take off and they think it’s ballistically hilarious like they’re like what because it like we’ve like you know I’m decently long
And like I’ve played with guys who are decently long when you guys hit it it is so different planet yeah than what you see on a golf course and I’m and I’m kind of like if you want the fact if you want the entertainment factor of like you’re playing on Monday night on
TV and and especially since it’s like a team formats there’s alternate shot all these things like it you guys have to be out there like it and nobody knows how to optimize a launch monitor better than you guys well and that’s the crazy part we’re you know I’m I’m all for like this
Indoor golf competition obviously like I play on the next tour I have no business playing on the next tour but I just do it for maybe I’ll win the long rifle if not I get to talk to guys I get to shoot shoot the business guys interact with
People right and my last round I shot like 81 or something awful but I I literally YOLO every hole like I I could have probably hit iron off I literally driver driver driver driver driver and I actually hit like eight or nine Fairways doing this on that tight Golf Course
Wedge game was awful but there was one hole that I I backed off like very backed off to keep it short of this water because I was like well we said we hitting driver but if you go and watch that hole I can’t remember if it was
Like 14 or 13 or something like that but I hit 179 ball speed and it didn’t even look like I was like trying like I I don’t want to sound arant like you look like you were putting it probably yeah it looked like I slapped it out there
And it hit and ran and we were at elevation I think it went to like 3:30 or something stayed short of the water so that was the goal um um but then on like the last couple holes I yoed it to like 204 205 and you know it was like you could
Visually see the effort difference in the two and I’m like well yeah that’s 25 miles an hour faster than way above the PJ tour average right like 179 to 205 they’re obviously two different mechanical movements um of the Swing but that’s where you know when you see
Bryson when Bryson’s in like full full gear on the live tour he’s 195 maybe up to like 198 but this this new generation coming this new athlete coming up in from the NCAA to you know the Canadian tour or whatever they call it now Mackenzie tour um to the corn fairy tour
You know I tell my juniors the NCAA is faster than the corn fairy the corn fair is faster than the PGA and the PGA is just going to keep getting faster because that’s who’s coming into it yeah um and that’s you know when we look at
The tgl and stuff like that I’m like guys this is built for us like this 100% this is literally like our wheelhouse I think the one problem we would have um is the potential misreading of things that’s just you’re too hot yeah literally it’s too fast yeah I mean I’m
Working I’m working with trackman to you know we’re trying to figure out everything um and that the part I love about trackman is they’re willing like they’re they don’t you know when I have questions they’re answering they’re talking they’re chatting well we’ll try this firmware we’ll try that firmware
Like it’s it’s a never-ending pursuit of perfection with trackman which is something I think is just awesome for a company like that who already to me has kind of the gold standard in the industry when it comes to specific things that’s awesome well this is my official petition that you guys should
Be in the DL just figure out some contingencies so that there’s no myy yeah that’s where it’s like tgl plus I mean I think they were using full swing so I’m like yeah I don’t think that would hold us um no not yet I mean I’m sure they’re gonna put money into it
Anyway but yeah I mean I’m down good stuff well dude thank you so much for your time um guys follow Ryan on on Instagram I’ve linked him in the description of this podcast um he’s also available as a coach so if you want to
Get your speed up if you want to get you know look at all the things he’s dissected in his game and the amount of detail taking all that information and putting it into your own C can be nothing short of beneficial so hit them up on skillist uh on that app um I’ll
Also link that in the description for this and brother thank you so much for your time so glad we’re able to reconnect this was unre abut I I love how deep into the weeds you get this has been phenomenal um I know you have to go
But I appreciate all your time and thank you so much and uh guys I will catch you on the next one thanks brother thanks for having me thanks brother Down
3 Comments
Ryan was a really incitful guest. sign me up for the TGL petition. PEACE!
Nice episode Gabe. I saw your payntr shoe episode and had always wanted to try their golf shoe. Having said that I was wondering if you tried or your thoughts on the athalonz that are not spiked and a lot of the long drive guys seem to have it like Kyle.
The level of "in the weeds" and detail is insane! Very interesting.