#46 [Journey to Scratch] Unlocking the Next Level, Slower Swings, and Taking the Next Step in My Game

The Golf Hypnotherapist (00:02.252)

Hey fellow golfer, welcome back to another episode of the Scratch Golfers Mindset podcast. I’m your biggest Redskins fan as well as your host, Paul Salter, the golf hypnotherapist and I can’t help it, seven and two. I don’t think the Redskins have started this strongly since the mid 90s. So this is literally nearly a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to celebrate and you bet I am making the most of it.

Today I am recapping my experience unlocking the next level of play, opportunity and potential. This past week, I developed a breadth of knowledge, further understanding how to execute aspects of my swing and most importantly, understanding why certain repetitions are successful.

versus those that are not being able to strengthen my skillset of self diagnosis, troubleshooting on the fly to course correct and play better golf. It was an incredible week. I’m really excited to dive in. Before I do, just a quick reminder. Hey, if you’re finding value in this podcast, it goes a long way in taking 30 seconds to leave a genuine rating and review.

on Apple podcasts or Spotify, wherever you are listening. It means the world to me. You can hit pause right now. Again, it takes less than 30 seconds there within the listening platform app you are using. It helps me to grow the show, get my message coaching education out in front of more people. And it is sincerely appreciated. So with that said, let’s dive in. Let me set the scene. It’s Friday morning. It’s 5 a.m.

I’m up beginning my normal morning routine and I’ve got a lesson at 8 a.m. Now where I live it’s one of those situations where if I want to be downtown at the golf course by 8 o’clock it’s a 30 minute commute without traffic but it’s one of those things if I don’t leave before like 630 it’s gonna take me an hour an hour and 15 minutes so the plan is just get there early so I get to the golf course about

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10 of seven, it’s still dark outside. This is still before daylight savings time. And I just hop right to the chipping and putting area. I spend a solid 25 minutes chipping, rotating between my 52 and my 60 degree wedges. I spend another solid about 20 minutes putting. I am specifically working on distance and speed control. Not even putting to a hole for the majority of this practice session, putting to a T or putting to the.

where the fringe meets the green, just working on pace, working on distance control. And then eight o’clock, we dive in. And remember, my lessons with Coach Melvin, who by the way, is Thursday’s guest, buckle up for that informative episode. But these lessons are two hours. And I made it very clear to him that by the end of the session, I needed to accomplish two goals. Number one, I needed an understanding of the mechanics of how to utilize and swing my driver.

We had not touched on that during any prior lessons. We had done some text communications. Most of our work had been done on either putting or the core swing working with irons. And then number two, I needed tangible drills to not only practice with him supervising to give me feedback, but that I could take home and begin implementing on a more regular basis rather than just to be frank.

aimlessly swinging in my backyard thinking everything is perfect and then it doesn’t quite translate on the course. So the way that we began was usual. Let me see you hit a couple balls. I think I grabbed my pitching wedge or my nine or maybe I hit both of them and to be frank things were pretty good. Things looked pretty good and you know those 10 to 15 shots he observed me hitting but of course there are always things to work on. So

He broke me down and where we noticed the biggest opportunity for growth, I’m not finishing swings, period. I’m still a little, know, handsy and armed, armsy, is that a word? We’ll make it happen. I’m not utilizing my entire body, I’m not engaging my core and lower body to the ability I could be. And I’m not finishing swings. I’m not fully rotating through, I’m not.

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fully getting my wrist over and through the ball. And first and foremost, I’m leaving distance on the table. Secondly, my misses are right because the club head’s not getting completely square at impact. And a lot of that he’s been helping me really try to drill like knuckles down, knuckles down and through for me. He gave me a couple other pointers and insights that were really helpful. But what we worked on first and foremost was a really unique drill.

to help make sure that my hands are coming down and through the ball. So we spent a lot of time on drilling without hitting a golf ball. Very powerful, very redundant. Very boring is actually what I meant to say, but it also was redundant. And then second, we started implementing a pause at the top of my backswing and then making sure, so if you can imagine beginning your takeaway, your backswing before executing the downswing, I’m

He calls it cowboying or opening your hips. I’m opening that left hip. I’m a right handed golfer to begin a lot, not only creating space for my arms to come down and through, but for my hips to rotate, for me to really engage the lower half of my body and rotate all the way through my swing. a lot of slowed down off the ball, methodical drill work for about the first hour.

And the translation, the transference, once we put a ball into the training area was magical. Instantly a better flight path, a straighter, more consistent trajectory and a further shot. So that was really good. But where my mind was blown was during the second half of my lesson. My approach off the tee is…

with the driver or a three or three wood or a five wood. Those are the three clubs I use lately. I’ve really been hitting my five wood well. It goes, you know, 215 to 220. And when I hit it well straight as an arrow when I don’t I pulled it left. And we worked on a lot of takeaways here. But what I want to get to is my approach is just try to hit the ball straight. That’s it. Driver three wood five wood try to hit the ball straight and then play I miss right all the time.

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Sometimes it’s a nasty slice. Sometimes I hooked the ball completely. I miss both directions to be frank. What Melvin helped me understand was first and foremost, how to hit a draw, a fade, a cut. And it really opens my eyes to the importance of footwork and foot placement, to the importance of the subtle different angles in my takeaway.

And in hindsight, I can say that makes sense. Like, okay, yeah, I’m aware of that. Okay. But I wasn’t really aware. It was buried in the very, very border of unconscious, conscious awareness. And he not only helped me understand the impact of how the club face would be striking the ball based on my takeaway, you know, if I was straight back a little outside, a little inside, helping me understand the impact my foot placement had.

but he helped me understand too that the way I’m naturally swinging now and where my inconsistent misses come from, I can play a natural cut with this subtle change in a, what’s the word I’m looking for? A cue, an area of focus in my takeaway. And what was really cool for me was I was able to execute that. probably had.

15, we spent, ended up spending three hours on the range together. Absolutely incredible. One hell of a coach that just gives and gives. had dozens and dozens of repetitions with his feedback, hitting cuts, hitting draws, hitting fades, making the subtle tweaks, understanding. And I really left the range more empowered than I’ve ever felt on my journey to date, particularly off the tee box, of course, because I now feel

that I know how to control the ball. Whereas previously it was like, okay, just try to hit the ball as straight as possible, slow your swing down, double check your alignment, and then kind of hope and pray I didn’t slice the ball or I didn’t hook the ball, I just miss hit the fucking ball. So I walked feeling very empowered, feeling like I had a deeper degree of control off the tee. And it was exciting, like.

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really being able to like tell him, cause part of our drills at the end was like, where are you aiming? What are you hitting? Are you hitting a cut? You draw a fade. What are you doing? And having to communicate, this is my intention. And he would witness my setup and he would give me the feedback necessary. And then we would observe the results and course correct as necessary. But that was a really, really fun part of the lesson that unlocked a new level. And I walked away from that lesson, just seeing.

more clearly than ever before glimpses of my potential. There’s so much more to work on. I still have to just drill, drill, drill, build this unconscious competence to recreate or access swinging and playing to my potential on demand. But I’m seeing the potential. I’m seeing how it’s all coming together. And as you, my friends, are going to learn in the next handful of guests,

our guest episodes on the podcast. I talk a lot with my guests and it’s because of my curiosity. I get really selfish in some of these episodes, trying to understand the reason the why the magic behind slow motion swing practice off the ball swing practice and drilling and Paul’s swings. And you’re going to hear from Jim Waldron, Ryan Moke, Henry Stettina, three

experts at their craft. And I have taken so much knowledge. I’ve recorded like four guest podcasts in a week trying to get you know, everything done ahead of time before the baby boy’s here. And walking away and having some of these conversations around slow motion swinging and pulse swings with Melvin, what I’m bringing forth with me is a lot more slow motion, nine ball drill work. And doing so in front of a mirror.

So that is what I have began implementing. You know, we had my lesson on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and today’s Monday, getting about a couple dozen high quality slow motion in the mirror swings. You know, each of my repetitions right now taking probably 20 to 25 seconds from start to finish. And you’re going to hear from the likes of Jim Waldron, who encourages both a 30 second and a 60 second super slow smoke.

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slow motion variety swing. But I’m working on really a concise, crisp takeaway, really getting my left shoulder back behind the ball, and then starting to turn my knuckles down just at the top of my backswing. So that’s almost effortless and naturally occurring on my downswing already. So the club face is in the correct position and I’m able to, you know, kind of kick out or cowboy my hip through at the beginning.

And that subtle one eighth of a second is allowing me to get my hips through my full body into the swing and ultimately get more power and consistency on the ball. And with my N equals one entirely tiny sample size in the backyard, crushing the ball, doing some of my paused swinging drills that I took away from the podcast guests and working with Melvin as well. So I’m feeling incredibly encouraged. I’m excited about the direction of my game.

I also know any moment now that little guy’s gonna be here and there’s gonna be some type of momentary pause in my practice, but the beautiful thing is I am now equipped with so many non-golf ball at home.

practice drills. have a mirror in my living room, I can pick up the club and do two swings in a minute or two, just whenever I find a moment. And that’s going to go a long way to further helping reprogram this new swing that’s going to allow me to swing with my entire body, get my hips through full rotation and make clean, consistent contact. And I’m excited. So four hours of nonstop golf practice, drilling, training, coaching on Friday.

For some of us and myself included, it’s like, wow, that’s a dream, four nonstop hours. And it was great. It really was. I had a little suspicion I would be quite sore and beat up on Saturday morning when I had scheduled a round of 18. So I took the time to do a little extra stretching and foam rolling Friday evening. And fortunately,

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woke up feeling fresh, feeling limber and took that game, took those new lessons to the range and to the course on Saturday morning. I got paired, because my playing buddy had to bail last second, I got paired with a couple, not in their 60s, not in their 70s, just crossing the 80s and they’re out there both lacking the ball. mean, the ball is not going very far, but you can imagine their short game is fucking impeccable. Really cool to see. mean, the gentlemen,

I felt like he was automatic one putting. He was just an incredible putter. have an imagination. 24 to 27 putts this guy had really, really cool to witness. Yeah. So, so cool. But as far as applying and already experiencing some immediate transference from what I learned Friday into Saturday’s lesson, I can tell you.

I felt a lot better off the tee. I still had my fair share of OBs and inconsistencies, not gonna lie. But really what stands out, two par fives, where I set up for a draw on one of them, set up for a cut one of them strategically, intentionally, and executed flawlessly. And it was a fun feeling for me because there wasn’t just hope and pray it goes straight. There was intention and an understanding of how to execute a shot.

And then countless times there was an understanding as to why my shot execution wasn’t what I hoped it to be. There was a par four that was playing about 265. I took the three one and hit that sucker just a slight cut right onto the green. Just missed my eagle putt by about maybe 12 inches, tapped that in for birdie. Definitely a highlight of the day. And then another one on 18. The whole play is about three 10.

but there’s water so you need to carry it about two, four, I think it was 255 based on where the T-box was. And same thing, I set up for a draw because it is a dog leg right and I hit that sucker and it bounced, know, I’m 15 yards in front of the green, really fun feeling to have more control and not pray to hit it straight and end up slicing it or just pulling it way left 150 yards. So a lot of progress, I putted.

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incredibly average. I still had one too many OBs and I shot a 93. And to be frank, I had a terrible start. I had three OBs on the first, think four five holes. I was like plus six after three. I had a triple bogey or two because I had two OBs in one hole. just one hole where I don’t even remember why other than I hit my drive right down the middle as a five what it was on a par five.

It was actually a double excuse me, I misread but it was just par five piped it down the middle with the five wood 215 220 shanked it left pushed it right. So I had one really bad hole. Other than that, a few miss hits here and there where it was just not clean contact, but it wasn’t the tops that I was suffering from the past couple of weeks. So the short game

The putting was average and ordinary. My chipping, still continue to feel very confident and proud of because I put a lot of work in the backyard and around the green into that really doing a better job, getting the ball much closer to the pin, feeling more confident with solid contact off the tee. And we’re just moving in the right direction. The second hole that stands out that I really want to share is I drove out of bounds on this big dogleg left par five. And so I took my drop.

and I’ve got a seven iron. And I’m trying to lay up because it starts to dogleg left or I’d have to be a little too aggressive over the trees. So I’m trying to put the ball between about 180 and 195 yards, which should leave me about a 30 yard chip shot onto the green. What happens though is I got a hold of that sucker. On the green in two, of course the penalty. So I scored a birdie plus a penalty. So really took a par on that hole, but that was really fun to see.

just what the potential is when I really get my entire body involved in swinging to through down on and through committed with the entire aspect of the shot. And I’m excited. I’ve got another round of nine tomorrow morning or when you’re listening to this, it’s Tuesday morning, another round of 18 on Friday at a new course for me, which they say is an incredibly tight and difficult course. So I will get

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adequate practice off the tee box here continue to do my slow motion and off the ball drills as well. But I also want to talk about what else I will be doing. I mentioned I’m going to start incorporating a lot of mirror work a lot of slow motion repetitions. And I’ve also purchased and subscribed to the future golf app to better improve my golf specific mobility, flexibility and core strength and the goal will to be complete.

to complete those prescribed exercises a minimum of three times per week as well. And I’m excited. mean, 2025 is the year of tournament play and I will raise my game on and off the course, my approach, my preparation to another level. And that starts today. So the takeaway of this episode is lots of progress, so much to work on feeling encouraged, feeling confident, gonna get back at it this week. And then of course,

pause and joy being a dad, the family and really prioritizing taking care of the little one and my baby mama to make sure she is wonderful, healthy, happy. He is cared for and the golf will slowly creep back up in due time. But for now, as long as I’m podcasting, he’s not here yet. If you see me drop off and miss an episode, it’s probably because he has came, but I sincerely.

Thank you and appreciate you for listening. I continue to find your support indescribably wonderful. I continue to strive to provide you as much value, vulnerability, and just raw real talk on my journey to scratch here. And I thank you for tuning in. Have a fantastic week of practice, of play, hit them straight, and we’ll catch you in the next episode.