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Volume 1 Number 9

Dr. Gio Valiante

Grow Your Business

Hot Tech News
The Modern Business Plan.

By: Shawn Humphries

The Pelvic Pistol.

Samsung High Speed TL350

By: Dave Phillips

By: TJ Tomasi

It's not clear to me why business plans are the way they are, but they are often misused , made difficult , boring and show an ability to comply with expectations. If I want the real truth about a business and where it's going, I'd rather see something else. I'd divide the modern business plan into five sections: Truth, Assertions, Alternatives, People and Money. The truth section describes the world as it is. Footnote if you want to, but tell me about the market you are entering, the needs that already exist, the competitors in your space, technology standards, the way others have succeeded and failed in the past. The more specific the better. The more ground knowledge the better. The more detailed workings of stories, the better. The point of this section is to be sure that you're clear about the way you see the world, and that you and I agree on your assumptions. This section is not partisan, it takes no positions, it just states how things are. Truth can take as long as you need to tell it. It can include spreadsheets, market share analysis and anything I need to know about how the world works. The assertions section is your chance to describe how you're going to change things. We will do X, and then Y will happen. We will build Z with this much money in this much time. We will present Q to the market and the market will respond by taking this action. This is the heart of the modern business plan. The only reason to launch a project is to change something, and I want to know what you are going to do and what impact it's going to have. Of course, this section will be incorrect. You will make assertions that will not always pan out. You will miss budgets and deadlines and sales. So the alternatives section tells me what you'll do if that happens. How much flexibility does your product or team have? If your assertions don't pan out, is it over? The people section rightly highlights the key element. who is on your team, who is going to join your team. 'Who' doesn't mean their resume, who means their attitudes and abilities and track record in shipping. And the last section is all about money. How much do you need, how will you spend it, what does cash flow look like, P&Ls, balance sheets, margins and exit strategies. Your local VC might not like this format, but I'm betting it will help your team think through the hard issues more clearly.
You heard it said many times that in golf feel and real are often different but when it comes to proper hip action so is see and real -- what you think you see the experts doing and what their hips are actually doing, is different. Most golfers know they must make a hip turn but they arent sure exactly what that means. Ive found that focusing on the core area just behind the navel is better than trying to keep track of the hips themselves.
They have a point and shoot camera available now that is similar to the Casio Exilim FH100, called the Samsung TL350. It can shoot up to 1000 frames per second and has a 240 frames per second mode that is perfect for the golf swing.
There are three types of core movement through the ball. [1] The core can thrust out toward the golf ball (not good) [2] The core can swivel directly around so if your core kept turning, it would end up pointing behind you in the opposite direction it pointed at address (better but not correct) and [3] The core can fire at the target such that if it were somehow possible to continue along its force path, your pelvis would fly off and hit the target. (best) Thus your core should not be meandering behind you as you try to pick the ball off the swing arc, a move that would lead to many pulls and pushes because the clubface is on line for only a moment. Tests using 3D kinematic tracking technology show that tour players de-loft a 30 degree six iron to 26 +/- degrees at impact by using correct core action. Since the core is thrusting at the target, the shaft lean toward the target is increased. Cocking Your Pelvic Pistol In the correct setup the pelvis is cocked in the loaded position as you tilt the spine by bending from your hip joints. This gives you a neutral spine that preserves its natural curve in the lower back region thereby unlocking the pelvis in preparation for the thrust. Hyper curves in this region make it difficult to cock and then fire the pelvis through impact. With their new tablet type Ipad devices coming with Cameras built in you may see a slick tablet in the not too distant future that will enable you to film and analyze a golf swing on one device. We know how hot golf in Korea is and Samsung is perfectly positioned to develop some cool products in 2011 that may be worth watching.

by Erick Arbe

Annikas Pelvis is cocked.
Curl your middle finger by pressing your thumb as if you were going to flick a bug. Thats your pelvis cocked and ready to fire. Now flick the finger straight--pow--thats the pelvic thrust through the ball.
Is Social Media the Right Strategy for You?
Socialmediaisallthebuzzthesedays.Youve probablyheardfromonesourceoranotherthat youneedtobeonFacebook,orthatyouneed tobeonTwitter.Sowhatisactuallyworthyour timeandwhatisnt?Issocialmediaactually helpinggolfprofessionals? BeingbothPGAGolfProfessionalsandweb developers,NickOndrako,mybusinesspartner, andIhaveseenourshareofwhatworksand whatdoesnt.Theresalotoftalkoutthereabout allkindsofbusinesseswhoarereachingamazing salesrecordswiththeuseofsocialmedia.Most ofthisishype!Iwouldliketosharewithyou somerealinformationonmakingsocialmedia (andtheInternet)workforyou. Rule#1:Socialmediashouldbeusedasan additiontoyourcurrentmarketingplanit shouldnotreplaceit!FacebookandTwittercan innowaycompetewithtraditionaladvertising yet.Yes,socialmediacosts$0,howeveritdoes costtime.Anditcostsplentyoftime.Sounless youhavealotoftimetodedicatetoasocial mediastrategy,thenproceedwithcaution. Whatisasocialmediastrategyandwhytalk aboutit?Mostpeopledontthinkaboutanactual strategybeforetheyjumpin.Thistechnologyis stillrelativelynew,sonooneknowshowto properlygoaboutit.Makesureyoudoyour researchbeforeadvertisingyourbusiness throughanymedium,especiallytheInternet. Rule#2:Knowthatyourcustomersareonline. Thereisnodoubtaboutthat.Googleand Facebookarevyingforthemostvisitedwebsite ontheInternet.EveryoneusestheInternetfor somethingwhetheritssearchingfor informationorforkeepingupwithhisorher friends.Yourcustomersareonlinemoreand moreeachday. Rule#3:Youshouldstilldobusinesstheold fashionedwayfacetoface.TheInternetwont replaceanactualgolflesson,norwillitreplacea facetofacemeeting.Ijustwantyoutorealize thatsocialmediaisntthenewendallbeallof advertising,itwillonlysupplementyour business. Soafterhearingallthatletsdiveintoa smartersocialmediastrategy. Socialmediaisallaboutbeingsocial.Areyouan introvertoranextrovert?Ifyoulovetointeract withyourstudents,learnabouttheirlife,and genuinelyengagewiththemthensocialmedia couldbeagreatmediumforyou.Listedbelow arefouritemstothinkaboutbeforeusing Facebooktohelpbuildyourbusiness. 1. Studentsdontwanttotalkgolfallthe timeonFacebooktheywillYinditmore interestingtohearwhatyoujustdidon Saturdaythanifyoupostsomethinglike, justhadagreatlessonwithMr.Smith 2. Yourstudentswillrespecthonestpoststo youraccount,asopposedtostaged posts.Theydontwanttohavea conversationwithyoursecretarywhois updatingyourFacebookpagetheywant totalktoyou. 3. Makesureyourereadytoshareyour worldwithyourstudents.Inhisbook, SixPixelsofSeparation,MitchJoeltalks aboutthelongtailoftheInternetand howanythingyouwriteontheInternet willsomehowstickaroundforalong,long time.Makesureyoudontwriteanything thatwillcomebacktohauntyou. 4. Decidewhethertogetyourselfafanpage orsimplyuseyourpersonalpage.Either way,youhavetohaveapersonalpage Yirst.ThatstherulesofFacebookright nowyoucantonlyhaveafan(business) page.Mosttimesjustusingyourpersonal pagewillworkjustYine.Youcanconnect withyourstudentsandtheywillvalue thatmuchmorethansimplyhavingto becomeyourfan. Hopefullythosepointerswillhelpyoudetermine asocialmediastrategythatwilllast.Theworst thingyoucandoissetupanaccountwith FacebookorTwitterthenneverupdateit! Whatkindofbusinesswouldyoubedoingifyou neverupdateyourgolfshop? Ifyouhaveanyquestionsonbuildingyoursocial mediastrategyjustsendmyselforNickanemail atinfo@golfwebdesign.com

Firing Your Pelvis.

Look at the weight on her left shoe--her pelvic pistol has fired toward the target not around behind her.
Tiger is the best known for dropping down during the downswing a move that increases his pelvic angle giving him an even greater spring at impact.
Here is Tiger having fired his pelvis directly at us (see arrow) - he is no longer in his pelvic crouch. Tigers hips have rotated but only to accomplish the release of his core to the target.

Raising the Bar

Finding Your Clients Sweet-Spot

Mental Golf Profile

In a powerful swing the pelvic curve releases to the target while keeping the spine angle. This "forward force" raises the front hip. To the naked eye it looks as if experts are doing nothing but rotating their hips because the eye doesn't work fast enough to see the pelvis release to the target. Once it has fired at the target, the arm and shoulder rotation carry the core around with them giving the appearance that the core was simply rotating around or clearing. The core isnt clearing [a passive move to the left to get out of the way] its leading in the same way a six footer dunks the basketball he squats cocking his pelvis then explodes out of the squat with his pelvis adding snap power something that the concept of clearing doesnt include. The jumper converts pelvic thrust into elevation while the golfer converts PT into clubhead speed. To me the firing of the pelvis is the key element in the Kinematic sequence where linear and rotational motion combine for the big bang at impact. I have seen instructors demonstrate the correct hip motion by placing a shaft over their hips and
simply rotating them around in a circle this I believe is incorrect and plants the wrong concept in the students mind.

Kellie Stenzel

by E.J.Pfister with Jennifer Munro
I tug on the elastic tether to
trigger the tiny lateral bump that is key to releasing the pelvic pistol. The student is instructed to move against the tension while keeping his pelvis cocked in the direction of my tension.

How I fix it:

The more dedicated a teaching professional is to improving a clients golf skills, the more frustrating it is to miss the mark, or fail to produce anticipated results and improvement. We are a proud bunch, and work hard at our craft, and we are committed to helping. Many of us have wondered how we can deliver tried and proven skill instruction, and get such varied and sometimes frustrating results and responses.

Reading evaluations of a golf clinic makes us wonder if we were on a different planet during the event. The same instructor will receive kudos and slap-downs on the same day, with some yawning indifference in between. Of course some of that is due to a misalignment between a clients actual capability and expectations, but some of it is just incomprehensible. How can one instructor teach different people essentially the same principles and hear feedback that is so wildly different? The same instructor can be criticized as teaching too much information, too little; or too structured, or too vague, too friendly, or too formal. What keeps us going amidst all of that are those wonderful clients who really get us and say I love that guy (or gal) and improve in noticeable increments. I have been using a mental golf prole (www.GolfMindRx.com) and have gained two primary benets. A.). My clients enjoy the awareness it gives them in better mastering their responses on the golf course when I am not around, and 2). I have certainty and clarity about how best to reach and help each one of them no matter how different they may be. These benets have been liberating and also have empowered me to be a more successful instructor, dened by my clients successes. The immediate information I am able to access within minutes includes ve things: 1). Their primary reasons for playing golf, what they get from the game and what success means to them even before they have discovered their own motivations. 2). What is most disruptive and distracting to them on the course, how it affects them differently and what is the best and quickest mental recovery strategy that will work for them. 3). Whether they will excel at their short game, or their long game, why that is so and how to transfer that skill and condence to all aspects of their game. 4). How (and how much) they expect me to communicate, what kinds of information they want and their specic, most successful practice formats. 5. How much of a competitive edge they will have in competitive play. These ve are just a tip of the iceberg, but offer immediate comfort to my clients on two levels: a). They have found an instructor that knows their game and needs b). Their instructional program is a perfect t for them.
The Takeaway: Proprioceptive and tactile motor learning is activated and accelerated by exposure to the proper staging of force vectors.
He fires his core at the target against the tension. After a few reps his feel system becomes sensitized making it much easier to fire the core in the correct direction with the correct magnitude. In this case talking and showing are inferior to feeling the force vector and I have found that exerting force against the vector is highly tutorial -- surpassing both talking and demonstrating.

Game On

An interview with Dr. Gio Valiante.
Dr. Valiante is currently a professor at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He serves as the mental game consultant to the Golf Channel, Golf Digest, and the University of Florida. He has worked with many of the games top players including Justin Leonard, Chris Dimarco, Chad Campbell, Camilo Villegas, Jack and Gary Nicklaus, Heath Slocum, Franklin Langham, Notah Begay III, Charles Howell III, Billy Andrade, Fred Funk, Tommy Armour III, Matt Kuchar, David Duval, Chris Parra, Lori Rinker, Davis Love III and many, many more. His groundbreaking research - sponsored by a grant by Rollins College and the Critchfield Foundation - resulted in the 2005 publication of Fearless Golf: Conquering the Mental Game. Fearless Golf was co published with Golf Digest and Doubleday and has quickly become the new standard in golf psychology. Endorsed by the games top players, Dr. Valiante provides a vision for competitive golf that allows golfers to remain fearless, focused, and committed to each and every shot they hit.

By: Keith Lyford

1. Over the years several Tour pros (Jack Nicklaus comes to mind) have commented that golf is 90% mental. Do you agree with that percentage? What is the importance of the mental game for a beginner who hasn't developed any solid fundamentals? How about for an avid golfer that has a handicap of 10-20? In all honestly I don't think of it in those terms of how much percentage of golf is mental. I will tell you this though: there isn't a golf swing that's ever been taught which is so technically sound that it is impervious to bad thinking. Furthermore, there is no right way to swing a golf club. Look at the previous #1 players in the world: Nicklaus, Couples, Singh, Duval, Woods, Westwood, Norman, Faldo and Price. They all swung the club differently (they don't teach Vijays' release, Duval's head action, or Couple's setup in any academies yet these guys made it to number one in the world, doing it very differently!). Therefore, as I always say, ball placement is far more important than ball striking. We are too occupied with ball striking nowadays, and not enough with ball placement. Finally, the higher up you get in this game, the more mental it becomes and the more important a good mental game is. 2. Over the last few years golf instructors have gotten better at assessing or at being aware of our players physical limitations and helping them address those limitations with a golf specic tness program. I'm not sure we have done a good enough job however with coaching the mental part of the game. As golf professionals, what can we do to improve our students scoring with mental training? Well, I think there are several things instructors can do. First thing is have a mental platform to work from. The Fearless Golf DVD is a great platform to bond instructor and student, and provide them a common language. That is why we created the dvd. Once they are "seeing" the game the right way, then they have a way of interpreting all the varied experiences that golf will throw at them. The results don't lie; 10 wins in 12 months: 1. Matt Kuchar 2009 Turning Stone Classic 2. Heath Slocum 2009 Barclays 3. Camilo Villegas 2010 Honda Classic 4. Justin Rose 2010 Memorial Tournament 5. Justin Rose 2010 AT&T Classic 6. DJ Brigman 2010 Nationwide Childrens Hospital Invitational 7. Stuart Appleby 2010 Greenbrier Classic 8. Arjun Atwal 2010 Wyndham Championship 9. Matt Kuchar - 2010 Barclay's 10. Heath Slocum 2010 McGladrey Classic The thing that binds these players is that they play "golf" rather than "golf swing" so I think it's important for an instructor to be a "coach" and not just a teacher of the golf swing. Being a great coach requires an understanding of a few key mental processes, like I said, which are discussed in Fearless Golf (www.fearlessgolf.com) 3. Can you give us what you think are the three most important mental game tips that golf instructors can share with our students. Tips or strategies that should be a normal part of any lesson. 1. Golf (the game itself) attacks rhythm, tension, and tempo more than just positions in the swing. Every lesson should be built off of that foundation. 2. Make fearless swings at precise targets. 3. Always play the golf course not the opponent or the score. Simply the course itself, and what it offers. 4. How can we (Top 100 Teachers) incorporate you into a golf school session at our own club? Visit www.fearlessgolf.com and make a request. I have two assistants who handle my schedule. 5. Do you have any online programs that our students can participate in--evaluation or training workshops? Yes. At fearlessgolf.com, they can request a "virtual academy" which is time with me over skype. Prior to that, however, I strongly recommend they watch the dvd (which lays the all important foundations for moving forward in the mental game). 6. Do you have a newsletter that would help our student's mental game--something they can sign up for with a monthly or annual fee? I think most of us would like to offer a mental game training but don't have the knowledge or resources to incorporate that in our lesson programs. I do a newsletter that comes free to anyone who requests it. I also provide online tips and instruction for $10 per month (3 free months with purchase of the dvd). It is our online member site through which I communicate with all the members of the Fearless Golf community!

Breaking News

Tigers Progress.
By: Ted Sheftic Now that Tiger Woods has been dethroned this year by Lee Westwood as the Number 1 ranked player in the world, what is the state of Tigers game? 2010 is the first year in his career that he did not win a PGA Tour event. His off course issues and swing changes were well documented and obviously affected his focus. So after signs of life at the Ryder Cup and a 6th place finish at the WGC Championship in China, look how Tiger assesses his year and his progress: Thats just the way it goes, Woods said. Its not like I didnt try. It just didnt happen this year. But Im pleased with the progress Ive made of late. Things are building and heading in the right direction, which is good. Tigers right direction comes from some peace of mind off the golf course but especially from the swing work that hes done with new coach Sean Foley. Tiger is definitely centering his body more on the downswing, posting up strong on his left side, and squaring the clubface more consistently at impact. When I watch Tigers swing now, I see so much of the great Mac OGradys influence on Foleys teaching methods. Mac was one of the greatest ball strikers and is one of the greatest teaching innovators of all time. Mac deserves a lot more credit than he receives for his revolutionary ideas about creating power and squaring the clubface using proper body sequencing. So what does next year promise for Tiger? Although time will tell, remember that he lost the Number 1 ranking nine other times and came back each time to regain the top spot. As Tiger continues to become more comfortable with his swing, he is heading in the right direction. Watch out, Lee!

New Training Aids

Bring Top 100 Teachers to Your Club in 2010.
Need help? Contact: The Promotion Committee

golfpros@bellsouth.net

Want to share some thoughts & ideas on the T100 Newsletter.

Contact: Gale Peterson

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