The Single Pivot Swing -- Ben Hogan's Secret Revealed with Tony Manzoni (RIP)

GS#251 Oct 10, 2010. This is our introduction to the late Tony Manzoni from episode 251 published in October, 2010. Each Friday for the next 12 weeks, we're going to feature all the conversations we had with Tony before he passed away in 2018. Tony, a co-founder of Callaway, developed the Single Pivot Swing after extensively studying Ben Hogan's swing. Tony was chosen by inventor Ted Caldwell as a knowledgable instructor who could explain the value of a new product at the time called “Shot Watch” which was valuable swing aide that monitors rhythm, grip pressure and swing speed. Ted also joins in to provide more details.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hi, this is Fred Green, host of the Golf Smarter podcast.
Over the next couple of months, on our Friday episodes
that retrieve the greatest hits from our archives, we're going
to feature some of our many conversations with Tony Manzoni.
Tony was an amazing golf instructor who passed away in
twenty eighteen, and we first met him in twenty ten,

(00:22):
and every time he was featured on the podcast with us,
emails flooded in from golfers around the world, with more
positive feedback than any other teacher we've featured. So unless
you're new to Golf Smarter or didn't play at College
of the Desert anytime between the nineteen eighties and the
two thousands, you've probably never heard of Tony because we

(00:44):
were the only media outlet to really pay attention to him.
We've been replaying these episodes the last few years, and
I still get emails today reporting on how well you've
connected and improved using Tony's teaching methods. Tony's book The
Lost Fundamental, One Simple Move Better Golf Forever, which was

(01:05):
out of print when he passed away, is once again
available on Amazon, including the Kindle format Tony's video of
the same name was also out of circulation when he passed,
but can now be seen online. If you'd like to
gain access, please write directly to me golf Smarter podcast
at gmail dot com or click on the Hayfred button

(01:26):
at golfsmarter dot com. Lastly, after he passed, we created
a Tony Manzoni Memorial golf Smarter Fund to benefit the
first t of Coachella Valley, which is where Tony lived
for decades. Your tax deductible contributions are greatly appreciated. You
can find out more at golfsmarter dot com. We hope

(01:48):
you enjoyed the journey and know that even if you've
heard these episodes before, you're going to learn something new.
We're going to start with the first time we met
Tony back in October of twenty ten and golf Smarter
episode two hundred and fifty one. Thanks so much for
your support.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
And enjoy the single pivot swing Ben Hogan's secret reveal.

Speaker 3 (02:10):
This is golf Smarter sharing tips and insights from golfers
and golf professionals to help lower your score.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
It's worked for your host, Fred.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Green, Welcome and thanks for downloading the Golf Smarter Podcast.
Our guest today is Tony Manzoni, a very interesting man
with a fascinating career that includes tour player, instructor, college coach,
contributing author and co founder of Callaway Impressive. He'll provide

(02:42):
us with all the details on that, but most interestingly
of all, based on years of research and modifications, he's
unleashed the single pivot swing, which may be the secret
to Ben Hogan's amazing ball striking ability. Let's found out more.
Shall we welcome to the Golf Smarter Podcast.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Tony, Hi, Fred, how you doing today.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
I'm doing well. Thank you so much for joining us.
You've got an illustrious history in the golf world, and
I'm really intrigued about talking to you about where you
started and where you are today. You really have done
a lot of different things in golf, haven't you.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Well? I have. You know. I started my career in
the Chicago area, well near Chicago and Wisconsin, about fifty
miles from Chicago and Ni Person Country Club, and I
you know, kind of made my bones there and went
into the service, came back and worked for worked at
Almaden Country Club in San Jose, where I lived and

(03:40):
from that point Ken Van Turrey, who I knew very well.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Wait, you're talking about Almaden, Almaden Country Club in northern California. Yes,
and to say, okay that Almaden all right, becuse all
of a sudden we were in Wisconsin and now you're
in San joseh.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah, well I'm you know, I move. We moved to California,
moved to San Jose because I was Chicago born and
got a work. I got a job at al Maden
and played pretty good golf and turned professional. Obviously made
some you know, made some good scores. I think I
still have the record there at sixty one. At Almaden,

(04:14):
met Ken Venturi Uh played in a few events with him.
He taught me to come into the desert Uh the
Palm des area. There was a new golf course called
Mission Hills opening up, and I worked for Ken as
the head professional. He was director of golf, but primarily
he was with CBS, so we saw him once a month.
During that period of time, I got an idea because

(04:35):
I was training a lot of LPGA gals and one
of them was Sally Little, and I got an idea
about playing a mixed team Championship where we wanted to
play men against women, giving the ladies a distance margin.
As it turned out, it turned out to be the
mixed team Championship. J. C. Pennies was wash the group

(04:56):
that one am I trying to I'm trying to say
that that they sponsored and that was for about sixteen
years on ABC. And from that point in time, I
was very interested in golf club design and I got
together with a fellow by the name of Richard Parenti
and Dick Dela Cruz and we started a company called
Hickory Stick and we were selling a lot of clubs,

(05:18):
but we didn't have the capital to cover the orders.
A fellow by name of Eedie Calloway was a member
at the Vintage where I had sold the one hundred
and thirty for one of their golf expos there, and
he liked the club. I made a cold call to
him and talked to him into invested in the company,
which he did.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
And that's like the best call you ever made.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Best call, great cold calls of all time.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Oh my god.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
I talked to him in the putting his name on
the We started out as Calloway hicky Stick Golf Club
and then went from Calloway Hickory Stick to Callaway Golf
and the company ended up settling in the Carlsbad area,
which is the heartbeat of all the golf club companies.
And from then we went public. And during that period
of time, I decided I wanted to go in a

(06:12):
little different direction. So I had a hunk of money,
didn't want to retire, and I heard the College of
the Desert was thinking about a golf academy and they
had about a twenty five acre piece of land and
no funding. So through friends of mine and the help
of Greg Norman and a few people that I knew
in the industry, we built a golf driving range of

(06:32):
building and a classroom and it houses a golf management program.
And I had intended to do this for two or
three years, get it started and let it flourish, and
crazy part about it. This is my twenty fifth year.
I became the golf coach of College of the Desert,
which has been probably one of the most satisfying things
I've ever done in golf. And I mean I'm talking

(06:54):
Callaway and mixed team championship and all that, but to
work with these young kids changed the direction in their
life off the golf course has been the most rewarding
thing and it's what keeps me going just being around
these kids. And we have a great record. We won
our conference championship twenty three years in a row, and

(07:17):
we won state championship four times under my tutelage. And
so that you know it's all good, it's all real good.
And during that period of time, my passion is teaching golf.
I played at a decent level. I had my moments
in golf, but I really was too interested in going
out at night and chasing skirts and drinking a few

(07:37):
years and I passed that out to my students. I said,
I wasted a pretty good opportunity. So I use some
of the faults in my own life as examples of
what not to do. But golf has always been my
passion in instruction. There's nothing like helping somebody with the
golf game and seeing them play much better golf. That's

(07:57):
way for me. It's worth more than the money that
you get for doing it.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
I'm a little bit shocked and stunned dismayed here. You
mean the path to enlightenment and happiness is not lower
scores exactly. It's teaching. It's sharing your knowledge with the Yes,
it is.

Speaker 3 (08:15):
It really for me it is. I mean, I'm sure
that there are other people that won't agree with that,
but for me.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
It's been the I thought, if we just hit lower scores,
we're just going to be happy forever.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
Well, I'll tell you, even when I shot sixty one,
I still blurred it out and I didn't birdy a
par five. I somebody should have come along him slap
me in the head that time. That's just the mindset
of all of us when we play golf. We always
think we could have done better anyway. I started studying
Ben Hogan because in my mind, I don't think anyone's
ever controlled the ball like Ben Hogan in the past

(08:47):
or in the present. And there's no I mean these guys,
he could give strokes the most of these guys when
it comes to pure ball striking, I don't mean scoring,
I don't mean putting, but I mean hitting the ball
from tee to green. And a wave of change is
and teaching of golf. At one time, one of the
commonalities of what you saw of a really good player

(09:08):
was his head didn't move. And then pretty soon people
start saying it's okay for your head to move, and
he can go anywhere it wants to go. Well, your head,
there's a center point in the golf, so when you
set to the ball, you center yourself to it, and
if you move off the ball, you've got to move
back on it. So there's a lot of compensations occurring.
And also I was brought up in the era where
you fan the club open and close it, so you

(09:28):
square the club head with the rotation in the arms.
But in watching Hogan, especially in his later years, and
he didn't really make a lot of film available for
people to see. I read all his books, but nothing
in his books said what he did in my estimation,
maybe grip and so forth. But he played off the
left side. He played off with one axis. There's two

(09:49):
access points in the swing left leg, right leg. In
moving to the right leg, you have to make some
kind of a lateral moving back to the left leg
and then rotate around the left leg. And that transitional
move is where all the problems happened in the golf swing.
And also if you're rolling your arms or crossing your
arms over, the club is going to be open a
long time closed a long time and square for just

(10:09):
a moment. And the more you practice, the closer you
can get the square more often that there's still a
lot of air involved in that swing. And you can
look at all the arms swingers. I can name you,
Phil Michelson, I can name you Tiger Woods, and I
can name you and Dustin Johnson. These are known names,
and they hit the heck out of the ball. But
they can hit it anywhere in the world. And I

(10:31):
mean they can hit it two fairways. Right. You never
saw that in Hogan zero. Okay. Part of that's moving
off the ball. The second part is that Hogan learned
the square of the golf club with his body rotation.
So he connected the arm as he took it back
across the chest and then rotated the body to square it.
Now the club has stayed square for a real long time.
And there is that's to me is the secret of

(10:54):
hitting the ball properly. You put very little side spin
on the ball, so your shot is you're always going
to push it. You're always gonna pull it. That's just golf.
But you won't pull it with a hook or side spin.
You won't push it with slice, so your dispersion gets
very narrow and by rotating your body instead of tilting

(11:15):
down and under where that's where all the spine problems
and back problems happen. When you rotate your body, you
can rotate to where your right shoulder points at the
target and your chest has left the target. Now I
have an eighty six year old man that I teach.
I've got a lot of people from the Vintage and Eldorado,
which are really fine clothes, probably the best in the desert,

(11:36):
and they come to me for golf instruction because they
like what I'm teaching and they can hit the ball
more solid, more often because again, we don't have any
compensations in the motion. We brace up against the left side,
rotate the body and rotate back the other way. Don't
have to make a lateral move, don't have to turn
the hands over in time anything. We just rotate the body.

(11:56):
We trap the club on the left arm, on the chest.
So it's a real easy way to play well. During
this period, al Barco, a noted writer, interviewed me, and
you know, you know I'm nobody. I'm a guy at
a driving range. Well, he liked what I had to say,

(12:16):
and he put about an eight pager in Golf Illustrated
magazine and the response was overwhelming. I got calls from
all over about people wanting telling me, well, I was
trying stack until I couldn't do that and this really
helped me and my back doesn't hurt, and blah blah blah.
I talked with an editor of Golf Illustrated and he said,

(12:36):
would you like to have a Golf Illustrated single pivot
golf school? And that's what's going to happen in December,
College of the Desert. I've got al Geiberger, who has
followed this process, likes that it teaches now and plays
this way. I got his son Brian, who's a very
very fine player, a good instructor from Canada by the

(12:56):
name of Mike Lyons, and myself and we're going to
put together a hell of a golf school. And when
people walk out of that school, they're going to know
why they hit it right, hit it left, and when
the ball spins, will know exactly what. They'll know a
simple move to stop it from spinning, and they're going
to be able to hit the ball farther than they've
done in their life. And I don't care if they're
a young player thinking about the tour, or an old

(13:18):
guy that's played and he can't get off his right
side anymore. He spins out and slices everything will fix
all that, and it's not complicated. I've never believed that
the golf swing was rocket science. But I did know
that Benhogan knew something that other people didn't, and he
divulged this and other subsequent books where he made phrases
he said, well, I'm going to play off my left

(13:40):
side from now on. Lee Trevino said to me, I've
never seen anybody play good off their right side, but
I said a lot of great players play off their
left side. But when he made that statement to me,
I had no idea what he was talking about. I
never realized, because I know you never stop learning in
this game. This is a school you never graduate from
because there's always tweaking. There's always things that you can

(14:01):
glean from other players, other teachers, and so forth. So
I do know one thing Tiger Woods is all being
taught to play off the left side. Watney just said
on television in the last tournament, I had a great tip.
I set up with seventy percent on my left side.
They're all getting back to stay in the center to
the golf ball. It's just too hard when you're moving

(14:23):
that club as fast as these young people are moving it.
It's too hard to time it with your hands and arms.
You've got to trap it so that you can turn
through it and eliminate the left side. And that's what
this does. I can tell you that I don't care
who it is that's wild with a driver. Fifteen minutes
with them, if they're especially if they're a good player,
a tour player, let's say, fifteen minutes to learn this process.

(14:43):
They can hit as hard as they want to not
hit the left. So it's very exciting and it's going
to be really worthwhile.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
Well, that was an all encompassing answer. You answered every
single question that I didn't even get to ask. In
your first answer.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
I got in detail.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
More than that's what I want to do. I'm going
to want to go into details, but I do need
to break for just a moment because Tony, thanks so
much for waiting, and let's get back to I don't
even know where to go here. I do wanted to
ask you about working at the College of the Desert

(15:24):
before we go back into your your golf school because
and then of course the single pivot swing. But is
the College of the Desert. Do you cover more than
just golf instruction? I mean, there's so many kids today
who who may not be good enough to get up
to the tour, but they love golf so much that

(15:45):
they would like to be involved in the golf industry.
Does your program facilitate that?

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Absolutely. We have a golf management program and we take
those kids through turf grass management, golf shop operations of
teaching golf fundamentals and rules of golf, public speaking, marketing classes.
It has a business aspect to it, It has a
general education aspect to it, and then it has core
training aspect to it, which is the core courses like

(16:15):
golf shop operations or methods of teaching golf. So when
the student comes out of this two year program with
an AA degree, they can get into the industry and
they get into middle management very quickly. For instance, in
this valley, I've got nine head professionals that have come
out of this program. One of my students has been

(16:37):
in China for fifteen years, and in fact, I'm leaving
the eighteenth of next month to go to China. Because
we're going to create a linkage of Chinese students coming
to College of the Desert and taking accelerated programs, and
at the same time they're interested in maybe me setting
up some golf schools in China. So I'm very excited
about that. But the college program is really a terrific program.

(17:00):
You know, the PGA of America has these IgM programs
and there are it's a five year commitment. I kind
of like what we do and what the San Diego
career colleges do. You get in and get out two
years and you certainly have you're not going to be
an expert, and no one is coming out of these
programs because you have to have the hands on But

(17:22):
that two year commitment, you can get right out into
industry and get going.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
You a golf team as well.

Speaker 3 (17:30):
Oh we have a great golf team. We have a
great golf team. I've been coached for I believe it's
now going on nineteen years and we won our conference
every year. The previous coach, who was a terrific coach,
we had had one in a few more years. So
we're at the twenty third year in a row right now,
and under my coaching I've won four state championships and

(17:52):
a number of what they call regional tournaments. It's been
just great working with young people. First of all, they
all hit it over three hundred yards. It's crazy. I mean,
I feel like putting on a calf and address when
I play with the boys. So I finally said, okay,
I from now on, I'm up in the uptees. I
swallowed my pride because at one time I could pop

(18:13):
it pretty far. But it's just crazy how far they
hit it now. But the problem is that they can
hit it anywhere far, and so we try to get
them to understand how they have to manage themselves on
the golf course. And of course, anger is one of
the things that comes along with the game, and you
have to have a little fire in your belly to
be a competitor, obviously, but you can't let it affects

(18:36):
you to the point where it affects your next group
of shots. And I, being Italian, struggled with that up
until the last week.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
But anyway, a sixty that day.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
But I do try to talk to the boys. You know,
in all honesty, these are the things you can't do
and can do it you don't understand that you also
disrupt other people when you're angry at yourself. It makes
people uncomfortable around you, and it's not what the game
is supposed to be. But it's gotten to the point
where there's so much, so much money now and all

(19:14):
of that, all that same that's attached to it that
I think we've lost a little bit in the transition
from the days when guys jumped in until OPPI and
drove from tournament to tournament and didn't make enough money
to stay on tour they had to go and take
club jobs. But there was something really, something really pure
about that period.

Speaker 2 (19:32):
Now also in that period, the amateur status was very
was looked upon much differently than it is today. Even
if even if you have an amateur status today, I mean,
does that even exist, Well, I guess it would for
college players.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
But you know, right, you're right, yeah, I mean there is,
but I think that a lot of people, just like
in other sports, to kind of get around it a bit.
But anyway, the college program is it really is the
reason I'm here more than anything else.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
So we've heard about stack until we've heard about single
plane and dual plane swings. Now you want to talk
about the single pivot swing.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Well, there's just you know, sack until I don't. I'm
not going to say that they're wrong. It's just a
different way of looking at it. I'm basing everything I'm
talking about on what I believe who was the best golfer,
and that was Ben Hogan. And Ben Hogan his later
years played off his left side, and that just really

(20:33):
means that he eliminated the lateral move in the golf swing.
He means it.

Speaker 4 (20:37):
I need it.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
I need it. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I do
need a better understanding, better explanation of what you mean
by playing off the left side.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
And I'm standing up right, okay, when you set up
for the golf ball, instead of setting up fifty to
fifty or even fifty forty being the left side and
sixty being the right like a lot of people really
tilt to the right when they're going to hit the
driver because because they've been told if they hang back
like that, they can work under and catch the ball
on the f swing. And that's true if you're going

(21:06):
to rotate your hands and arms. But Hogan's raced up
a little left now. He did a little differently than
I teach. When he took the club back, it looked
like he was going to move to the right, but
as the club went back in his rotation, he set
up against the left side. And I've got zillion pictures
showing that. And he set up against the left side
because now he's against impact and all he has to

(21:28):
do is rotate his body. You don't lose any power,
trust me. In fact, you gain power, and more importantly,
because you can catch the ball dead square again. You're
not moving away from the golf ball in the backswing.
So it's nothing new. It was done for years by
a lot of players. It just wasn't talked about, and

(21:48):
I think a lot of people misinterpret doing it. They said, well,
aren't you reversing your weight shift, aren't you? And that's
the farthest thing from the truth. The reverse of the
weight shift is when you stand up down the ball
and your hip slide underneath you and your hips go
go to the right and your head is to the left.
And then on the downs when your head goes back
and your and your hips go forward and you're on

(22:10):
the right foot. That's how the reversing the weight shift,
but staying off of staying on one axis and then
working around that axis is a far cry from that.
And it's I can tell you there's a lot of
naysayers until I have ten minutes with them and then
they that I owe them.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Yeah. Yeah, Once you can show them and put the
club in their hand and work with them directly, I'm
sure you have much different result than just trying to
explain it without the visual.

Speaker 3 (22:35):
Yeah. And it's not an old and this is not
an old man's thing. I've got a couple of fifteen
year olds that are shooting in the sixties and they
beat that ball over three hundred yards at fifteen years old,
and they and they look at me. And I got
one Korean boy and every time he looks at me
as his coach, no side spin. And I just get
a big kick out of that. You know, It's it's

(22:59):
my passion. As you can tell, I talk too much
about it and too fast about it.

Speaker 2 (23:04):
But I can't help you're talking so fast.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Yeah, I can't help myself. It's because I'm excited about this. Necessarily,
it is a breakthrough and there's no question about it.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Fabulous. Uh And now for for the school. How many
days is this school that you're going to be putting
on for your UH.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
There will only be There'll only be. It will be
a one or two day school each day six hours
of instruction. UH. So it'll be a one day Saturday
school and a one day UH Sunday school. So a
person can come to both day both schools if they
if they need me. But to be honest with you,
if we have you for six hours, UH, you're going

(23:41):
to be able to do it, and you're going to
be understand why you do it. We're going to teach
you cause and effect UH. And that's very important for someone.
And I can promise you that I will not have
anyone that won't be swinging, and we'll prove it. We're
going to film you in the beginning and film you
in the end, and you're going to see a tremendous

(24:02):
change in your setup position and the way you finish.
Most people never get to their left side because it's
too far on the right side to ever get there.
And we'll get you through the golf ball. And we're
not going to say to you shift your weight. We're
going to show you how to rotate your body and
that's going to make your weight shift and you're going
to be in really good balance, and you're going to
hit the ball hard for the first time in a while.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
The thing about a golf school that I've had difficulty
with is that, say you get it one day of
instruction or two days at best of instruction, or three
or four, and you go through it and you're like, Okay,
I got it. Yeah, I understand what I'm doing now,
and then you go home and you don't get a chance.
Now that you've played three days in a row, You've
got to catch up back with your life and your work,

(24:50):
and you don't get a chance to play for three weeks,
and you don't get a chance to practice for two
weeks whatever, and you go out there and all of
a sudden, it's all gone. It's like, now, what do
they teach me again? And I find that to be
a difficult part about golf schools that you know, if
I'm coming across the country go to your school, I'm
going to lose all this stuff. How do I retain it?
What kind of follow up do you have to help

(25:11):
somebody if they're like, Okay, so I went to your
school and I got it and it was great, but
now I need some help.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
Everyone's going to get a book is going to get
a book called The Loss Fundamental, which I've written, and
it will be out before the school starts, and it's
a complete explanation. Also, they will be able to talk
to us via via email and we can actually if
they tell us what the ball is doing, we can

(25:38):
tell them what they're doing. But we're not basing our
instruction on timing, and that's the key. That's a key issue.
We're not basing that instruction on you going out and
hitting four hundred balls a day. We're basing it on
body position. If we can show you where your body
should be on the backswing and on the through swing.
The rest of it is pretty easy. Once you connect
your arms or keep your arms connected the body, and

(26:00):
of course they're connected. I mean it sounds almost insane
to say that, but connection in the golf thing is
different than the body being attached to the arm being
attached to the body. Once we show them how connection occurs,
and it's a very very simple explanation with an exercise,
they can do it almost instantly and you will be
able to tell by what the ball does if you're

(26:21):
connected or disconnected. There is no question about that. In fact,
a good instructor can turn us back to the student
and watch the ball flight and he can tell you
physically what you did. It is so simple. So what
the golf our school will be is that this explanation
over and over and over for six hours and when

(26:42):
you're when you walk away from here, you're going to
be able to do this. It isn't going to be
a matter if you're going to lose it, because we're
not basing it on you having good timing that particular day.

Speaker 2 (26:53):
So the name of your book the loss fundamental. What
is there something specific that it is a basic fundation
mental that is missing for most people who take construction.

Speaker 3 (27:03):
Well, it's playing center to the ball and that's been
and that's the fundamental that really is lost because there's
so many people teaching to move the weight all onto
the right leg and then move it back all the
way onto the left leg.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
I noticed that when I've taken a lesson, or I've
been given instruction, or even going through a change is
swing change, that the first thing that happens to me
is that all of a sudden, my rhythm is all
screwed up. My timing, I start speeding things up.

Speaker 3 (27:34):
Well, you know, rhythm is a very important aspect, and
you know, with the technology that's happening nowadays. I met
a gentleman by the name of Ted Calwell that has
invented a thing called shot Watch and it's an amazing
piece of equipment because it monitors your rhythm and I
think most importantly, it monitors your grip pressure on the

(27:54):
golf handle through impact, which really has a lot to
do with the law. And it also monitors the time
of the swing. So you can you can take this watch,
put it on. It tells the time, and you spin
it around and turn it backwards on your left hand
if you're right handed golfer, and go ahead and pop
the ball, and it's going to give you these readouts.

(28:15):
And you can store these readouts, so a person practicing
can really really when they hit it really well, they
can look at those numbers and say, Okay, that's the
numbers I want to get close to. Yeah, I have
I have Ted right here. I'd like to have.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
That would be great. And and you know it's interesting
because when Ted first introduced the shot Watch, he came
on we talked about it on the Golf Smarter podcast,
and there were so many people that, so many listeners
who purchased the shot Watch, and I got great feedback.

Speaker 4 (28:48):
Teddy there, Yeah, I'm here, Fred, Nice to talk to
you again.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
Yeah, it's great talking to you. Thanks so much for
coming on and sharing this time with Tony.

Speaker 4 (28:57):
Yeah, it's a pleasure. I was listening very carefully to
what Tony was having to say because one of the
things that we've adopted at the urging of Tony and
consistent with his single pivot idea, is our grip pressure
now has an added feature, just to refresh your memory

(29:19):
or for your first time listeners that aren't familiar with
shot Watch. We have a pressure plate on the back
of the watch that's very very sensitive and it makes
contact with the pulse point on the active arm, the
left arm for a right handed golfer. Now, when the
arms rotate or the wrist moves, those tendons exert pressure

(29:39):
against that plate and that's what we get our grip
pressure readings on. Now. In addition to giving a reading
on the grip pressure throughout the swing plane, which is
the average from takeaway to contact with the ball, we
do a statistical operation on that on those grip pressure readings.

(30:01):
There's fifty or so of them through the swing, and
then we give the variation in the grip pressure. So
what that tells the user is that if there's a
large number for the variation, there's a lot of variation
in your grip pressure through your swing, which is just
the opposite of what Tony is talking about, because that
means the arms are rolling over, the wrists are cocking,

(30:25):
the golfer is bearing down at the time he's either
breaking his wrists or cocking or making contact with the
ball that will cause a variation in the grip pressure
instead of as Tony was talking about, keeping it constant
throughout the swing. So we've added that feature and we
think that's going to be very very helpful in terms

(30:48):
of getting people to hit longer and straighter shots. We
still have the other swing parameters. We have the swing speed,
where we encourage the use of the instrument to to
as a swing speed workout device. Start off hitting slow,
swinging slowly, keep maintaining balance, working on the single pivot,

(31:10):
and gradually increasing your speed while maintaining your balance and
while and and so we you know, we give a
digital readout of that speed with one being slow as
ten being fastest, so that like Tony's guys here, they're
off the charts, they exceed what we can capture with

(31:32):
the shot Watch, because as he's saying, they'll whip that
club around at a phenomenal rate in excess of one
hundred and thirty miles an hour. But for just us
mere mortals, you know, we're going to start out, We're
going to start out. We're going to work toward getting
that single pivot swing, keeping everything compact and making good

(31:54):
contact with the ball to drive it, to drive it longer.

Speaker 2 (31:58):
So the shot. But you've you've done a lot of
work on the shot Watch since it initially came out,
and you've made a bunch of changes. Let let's talk
for a moment. Uh, Clearly, shotwatch has a lot of
value to someone at the range to help them get
a steady, a steading pace, a good rhythm, willing. But
also and this this new concept of grip pressure I

(32:21):
think is really interesting because I know there are times
where I find myself, you know, white knuckling. I'm just
squeezing the club in a pressure situation, and you've really
got to learn to control that.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
Yes, you do and it really does help rad to
have a to have a digital display and represented as
a real number which you can then record, you know,
in your active memory, and then on subsequent swings, say,
I got to get that number, whether it's the variation
in the grip pressure number or the absolute number. I've
got to you know, I've got to get that to

(32:54):
where uh there there aren't these spikes you know in
the in the grip pressure or large number in the
variation read out.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
I would think that it would be really valuable to
have this on the range and and try different swings,
but gripping it at different pressures intentionally so that you
can see what it feels like, and then you have
a gauge to go, oh, okay, so that's what it
feels like if I'm really squeezing too hard, and that's

(33:24):
if I'm not enough, So you can really get a
comparison and then take that with you out on the
course to say, all right, this is the difference between
what it feels like, you know, I got to relax,
I can feel that.

Speaker 4 (33:36):
And where the rubber hits the road is whether the
ball goes straight and if there's a lot of variation
in the grip pressure, as Tony was saying, you know
you're going to slice it. And and because that, you
know that bearing down is going to alter the flight
of the ball as much as anything. And to go

(33:56):
on to the range with that nice relaxed grip, you know,
again to quote Hog and you know, just tighten up
to keep that club in your hands, you know. And uh,
and there's a digital number that you know, depending on
the hand strength of the individual user, that's a custom fit.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
You know.

Speaker 4 (34:13):
If it's uh, you know, the number that works for
you is the one you'll commit to memory and the
and and the device is really uh, it's strong. Its strength,
it's strongest selling point is that it's a muscle memory device.

Speaker 2 (34:28):
So important. Well, it's great to have you back on
the show.

Speaker 4 (34:32):
Thanks very much, Fred.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Oh yeah. And and because you had so much success
with shot Watch the first time that we presented it
on the Golf Smarter podcast, you contacted me again wanting
to do it. And so we've talked about this previously
and we've made arrangements for Golf Smarter members to be
able to purchase the shot Watch at your website at

(34:56):
a discounted price. Right and so normally the price for
the shot watches one ninety nine to ninety five and
for Golf Smarter listeners, if you use the checkout code
golf Smarter, you'll be able to pick it up for
one hundred and eighty dollars. And for Golf Smarter members,
go to the Golf Smarter member blog and I will

(35:18):
give you the coupone code there because you'll be able
to get that shot watch discounted from one hundred and
ninety nine to ninety five to one hundred and sixty dollars,
which is a very generous discount for you to give
to our listeners. We appreciate it very much.

Speaker 4 (35:34):
Well, we're certainly pleased to do so.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Fred So again, if you're not a Golf Smarter member,
this could be a great opportunity to take advantage of
signing up for that just so you can get the discount,
the significant discount here again one hundred and eighty dollars
for normal Golf Smarter listeners with the coupone code golf
Smarter and for Golf Smarter members one hundred and sixty dollars,
and we'll give you that coupon code on the blog.

(35:59):
And if you if you didn't find it, email me
and I will send you the coupon code for that.
But even more so, we're going to give one away,
actually we're going to give two away again. Ted and
I talked about this previously and arranged that we are
going to give one away to a golf Smarter member
and we are going to have a drawing if you

(36:20):
register to enter at golfsmarter dot com. Deadline for entry
is November fifth, and we will announce the winner on
November ninth. We will give one away randomly to a
golf Smarter member on the episode of October nineteenth. But
please go to golfsmarter dot com, click on contests and

(36:41):
register to win a shot watch again, value to two
hundred dollars discounted for you only you, and again, Ted,
thank you so much for coming back on the show
and bringing Tony along. He's absolutely yes.

Speaker 4 (36:55):
Well I want to I want to thank you Fred,
and I also want to thank Tony because his advice,
you know, he's all his experience and teaching golf and
all the rest of that has has helped us in
the development of the product enormously. And and you know,
so this is a this is genuinely a team effort
and we're delighted to work together with with Tony and

(37:18):
his and his boys out here.

Speaker 2 (37:20):
Great And can I say goodbye to Tony myself?

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yes, yes, here he is.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Hey friend, Hey.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
Tony, thank you so much for coming onto the podcast.
And uh I best of luck with the with the school.
And I'm hoping when I come back down to the
Desert sometime in twenty eleven that we'll get a chance
to meet one another face to face.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
I hope so too, And I hope I didn't give
you any kind of a bad ear here with it
all that time.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Oh I loved it. I loved it. At some point
I'm going to want to be wearing a cap from
your team from College of the Desert Golf team.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
That's a given. Awesome all right, Pelby.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Thank you Tony very much. We'll talk to you a
bye bye. No