Flag Hunters Golf Podcast
Hello and welcome to Flaghunters ! It is a privilege to bring to you this powerful insight into playing better Golf. In all my years of being in the game of Golf from competing at a high amateur level, to caddying, teaching, and being a overall Golf geek, I have an insatiable, curiosity driven desire to get down to the bottom of what it takes to truly get better playing the game of Golf that we all unconditionally love. This has been one of the greatest journeys of my life and I am deeply grateful for all that Golf has given me. Thank you for joining me in this incredible journey. This is my ever evolving love letter to Golf. Jesse Perryman P.S. Please Rate, Review and Subscribe !
Flag Hunters Golf Podcast
Fitness Foresight: Colin Triplett Drive for Golfing Greatness and Healthy Living
Feel free to text me at (831)275-8804
When life throws a curveball, it's our passion and discipline that keep us swinging. That's the essence of my chat with Colin Triplett, a fitness sage with a dream to conquer the United States Mid-Amateur Golf Tournament. Colin's tale isn't just about hitting the gym; it's a clarion call for those over 50 to embrace vitality and extend their innings in sports and life. Our exchange unpacks his fitness philosophy for golfers and the transformative power of setting audacious goals. For those seeking a playbook on personal growth and the tools to help others shine in their autumn years, this episode is your caddy.
Have you ever considered how self-discipline could be the secret ingredient to your happiness? We tear down the walls to reveal how mindset intertwined with self-discipline can carve the path to true freedom and satisfaction. This isn't just about staying the course; it's about reveling in the journey and discovering the process itself is the prize. I share anecdotes and insights on how aligning one's goals with their growth journey can result in an unbeatable game – both on the fairways and in the grand game of life.
Picture a golfer, poised and at peace amidst the pressure of the game. In this heart-to-heart, you'll find out how presence and meditation can fine-tune your focus, both on the green and off it. We don't just stop at the mind; we leap into the realm of physical performance, discussing brain mapping, nutrition, and the art of recovery. It's about fine-tuning your swing and crafting a life teeming with fulfillment. If you're someone who finds solace in the swing, this episode is a tribute to your passion and the community you're a part of. Join me and Colin for a round that goes beyond the back nine, where every shot is about sculpting the life you've always envisioned.
Thank you Colin for sharing your expertise and vulnerability ! You can find Colin on the web at. www.mintfit.com and on Instagram @birdies.n.bogeys
A shout out as always to Adidas and TaylorMade for their incredible support.
Justin is easily reached via the web, www.elitegolfswing.com. He’s also accessible on Instagram @elitegolfswing.
Jesse is easily reached via Instagram @flaghuntersgolfpod
Hello, this is Jesse Perryman from the Flag Hunters Golf Podcast, welcoming you to another edition. We're going without Justin this week. Justin has got the week off. He's busy in Singapore and, pardon my voice, it's got a little bit of allergies here in with the pollen in Northern California entering into spring. So this year's been a pretty nasty one with the pollen. We've got some pretty good rain for the people that live here know.
Speaker 1:And this week on the pod, without further ado, is a man by the name of Colin Treplett. Colin is a trainer, a husband, a father and someone who is very ingratiated in the process of getting better. In fact, he's come out publicly with a goal to become good enough to play, compete and win the United States mid-ameter and I've played in a couple of those tournaments and I've had a couple of mid-am champs on the podcast and I gotta tell you it's a great goal. It's high cotton as they say in the South and I think it's. If you don't have a goal, that scares you just a little bit. I think the goal isn't big enough and Colin's got a big one. So during the pod we talk about all things the process, about how to get better, about how you're to really dial in your physical body what that looks like, how to work on your mental game and your mentality and what that looks like and just getting better as a person. So really step back and enjoy this episode. I'll make sure that I've got all of Colin's contact information in the show notes. He's also available to train and I believe he's training in Northern and Southern California, and we also talk about his affiliation with UGP Urban Golf Performance, which is something that I will definitely be investigating here this year and talking to some of the guys that are affiliated with that. I believe that Colin Morricala is an investor in it and that it's a pretty dynamic place to go and get yourself in good shape to play good golf, and Colin's a part of that. So I really enjoyed this episode and Colin is a really good guy and he's got a great hand on the shoulders and he just might do what he's intending to do. He's got a good plan and a good mission and a very good attitude and outlook on it.
Speaker 1:Enjoy everybody. I'll make sure that all of Colin's pertinent information is in the show notes and how to get a hold of him, as well as mine and Justin's and also, too, I do want to. I haven't mentioned in the previous weeks about my one-on-one coaching program. That's still intact. If you want to work with me and I can help you get out of any negative rabbit hole that you may have found yourself into that all of us will find ourselves or do or have are in a negative rabbit hole. I'm pretty good at helping people get out of that. Feel free to hit me up and I'm happy to help you out. Have a great week everybody. Colin, thanks to you for coming on and enjoy Colin's story. Everybody and cheers.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to another edition of the Flag Hunters Golf Podcast.
Speaker 1:My name is Jesse Perriman, if you don't already know it, and today our guest is a man by the name of Colin Triplett. Colin, notably, is the owner of Mint Condition Fitness, and those of you who are over 50, you may want to really pay attention to what this man has to say, because his target participants are over 50, and the majority of them do play golf and some are just athletes over 50 that are looking to extend their sport to the best of their ability and to keep mobile and to keep loose and to be strong. And also to Colin, he's also a part of urban golf performance and I've always wanted to go into that gym. I do know that Colin Morricala has something to do with it and their founder. I think he may teach some other athletes as well. I do know a few collegiate athletes that are a part of that gym that play at SC and UCLA and I know that's where they started down there, right, colin, down in Southern California. So welcome, I appreciate you coming on Well.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much for having me, Jesse, and happy to be here, Happy to share the good word.
Speaker 1:So, going back in time a little bit, colin reached out to me and he's got some pretty impressive credentials. He is the owner of Mint Condition Fitness and it is in Los Gatos, california, about an hour away from the Monterey Peninsula, and he's also a mindset coach and he has a very high goal of and I'm going to go ahead and let you get into that. I don't want to steal your thunder, so let's get into it. My man, how did you get started in the fitness business?
Speaker 2:first and foremost. So I got started back when I was just right out of college. But really and the reason, the main reason we focus on fitness over 50 is because I saw my grandfather go through a really tough end of life experience and at that time I wasn't, I didn't really understand it very well, but I just saw just how much suffering he was going through and it just really had a big impact on me personally, just about how important health is and how much quality of life matters as you age. And so then I got into fitness to really start helping people to avoid that, and as it's developed I've realized that that's what I care most about is helping people to kind of live this whatever life they envision for themselves. Right, when you spend your whole life building and growing and setting yourself up for kind of the second 50 is what I would say. But if you don't have your health, then it's not going to happen.
Speaker 2:And so we do get a lot of people coming in that want to play golf, for tennis or, you know, want to keep that going.
Speaker 2:And then we also have some people that just want to, you know, keep up with their grandkids, and I mean getting old can be hard if you are not doing the right things, and I'm a big believer that age is just a number and that, if you are doing the right things, the trajectory of two people one person who takes care of themselves and the person that doesn't is light years away every year that you go forward. So that's that's what I've been doing for the last 15 years is helping people with. You know fitness, and when you're in that space, you start to realize that one of the biggest challenges is mindset. You don't get to a critically unhealthy state without some sort of mindset issue. It's not because you didn't know that you should be, you know, maybe eating better or that you should exercise or things like that. It's. There's usually a mindset component. So we want to give them the right exercises, the right nutrition, but we also want to support them on the mindset side 100%.
Speaker 1:I've got a couple of friends of mine that I play golf with at my club every now and again. They're both over 70. They both started practicing yoga when they were 50. Oh, cool, and one one gentleman I'm going to. I'm going to keep these guys's names. Probably bet me, I would hate to shout them out, they would give me a lot of grief. But one one gentleman had a necessity. He broke us back in a car accident and when he was going through PT he they recommended yoga. And then the another guy who's his friend was inspired by that and his back was starting to get pretty wrecked at 50 and he started yoga. These two guys are yoga practitioners 172 and 73 respectively, and they don't move like it. They move like they're literally in their 30s Very loose, very full backswings, great use of the ground. They're both single digit handicaps and they go out. And it's not uncommon or unusual for them to walk 36 holes a couple of times a week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then they're 70s, you know that's what's so amazing is that that is totally possible, and I think a lot of times people don't think it is because either they're you know social circle, that's not what's happening, or whatever. But fitness is an amazing thing, and and so what? Well, I'll share my how this ties into golf. Ultimately, what what I ended up deciding was I I'm an avid golfer, love golf, I think it's a wonderful sport and it teaches you so much about life, and so I decided that I wanted to use golf as a way to share these philosophies that I've developed through Minkinition, fitness and and share it on a bigger stage. And so, right now, what I'm working on is training to win the US mid-am, and as I'm doing that, I'm essentially documenting my journey and and documenting it in a way that highlights my four pillars of success, which we'll talk about, but highlighting it in a way that I'm trying to just kind of give a blueprint, like hey, when you follow these principles, here's what you can do. And it's yes, it's about you can take it and do this with golf, but you can do it with anything, whatever you're passionate about, or whatever kind of dream you want to chase, or whatever you're pulled to do in life. I just feel like these are foundational components and that they work and I and how big of a piece that mindset is, that's, that's always going to be a big piece.
Speaker 2:I do talk about health and fitness type stuff. I talk about skill development. That's one of the pillars is how? How do you develop skills quickly? That's something I've always been fascinated with and I I really enjoy the process of getting better at things. I think it's fun to get better at things. I think it's fun to do things that are hard. And then the fourth is community how important community is, and we were just talking before this how golf can be a very lonely game. But for me, I'm trying to do it in a way where I bring in community and you know, even doing stuff like this is super fun and just being part of the golf community but also bringing in others on this journey that maybe they aren't golfers but they can appreciate, you know, trying to go for something and and ultimately just trying to inspire people to chase what they want to do in life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well said, colin, and I think it's important that you identify these pillars, because you've got a lofty goal, and this goes with anybody. I talked to a lot of people. I talked to people about getting better, about the mindset of getting better, about getting really ingratiated in the process, and one of the biggest problems I see is that people don't have a very clear, crystal, identifiable knowing, balls to bones goal, and it's kind of hard to push yourself when you don't have a very clear image of a destination. And so let's talk about that a bit. So we're going to put the onus right back on you. You want to win the mid-amateur. It's a very lofty goal.
Speaker 2:It is a lofty goal yeah.
Speaker 1:It's a lofty goal. There's a lot of perks that go with winning the mid-amateur. I've got two very good friends of mine that are both past mid-amateur champions oh cool. Yeah, I'll find two close friends of mine and shout out to those guys yeah, they okay. You know there's a. There's a lot of benefits that that come along with it. But as well as is just achieving a level of mastery that not a lot of people get to. So, without being set, let's get right into the mindset, the pillars of the mindset. I mean, I've got these you were gracious enough to send me these and let's let's just get right into the belief system, your place in the universe. Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2:Okay, let's all right, let's talk about that I also, just real quick. It's a mindset piece that I think needs kind of sets the tone, and I think this is so critical when you're setting goals is that a Jim Rohn said it and I I'm probably going to misquote it exactly, but he says the reason that you set a goal is for the person that you need to become to accomplish that goal. So it in some ways, you know, you talked about these perks that come with winning the mid-am and those would be super cool and lots of fun, but I don't think that I would be able to pursue it in the in the way that I'd want to pursue it if I was worried about the outcome, of course, if I was worried about essentially I mean, it's interesting, it's like well, should you know, shouldn't you be worried about winning? Or like isn't that what you want to do? That's the goal. But what's excite? What excites me about it? And and the reason that I do actually feel confident that I'm going to be able to do this, is because I'm fascinated and interested and in love with the process of becoming that person and and to do it in my own way and the way that feels right to me and it's not a at all costs I'm going to sacrifice. You know, my family and my business and you know it's not like I'm I'm crazed about it. It's I love golf and I'm fascinated by it, that it's ability to make me a better person, so that I think you have to start there. When you set your goals, they have to align with the person you want to become.
Speaker 2:So, step one, the question you asked about this is the piece about, like your place in the universe. This kind of comes back to this idea of chasing dreams or following your path, or what do you pull to do? And I was kind of. You know I've been thinking about this for a little while. I really wanted to showcase these philosophies in a way. I think it's great to talk to people about it and you know I've been a coach for a long time, so I've coached people through these pillars. But being able to real time show people how they work, the nuance of them and that they do work, and over time like when you do these things over time, what you can accomplish, there's something about that that was just pulled to do. I just I can't not do it, and so for me, that was kind of this feeling of this. This is, I don't know the idea of a calling is. I don't know if I buy with that totally, but it's just I have this inner pull.
Speaker 2:And when I heard Ted Scott that's a Shelfler's caddy, he does a every Sunday, does a Sunday sermon, and he said this quote of you know, the person who likes walking will walk further than the person who likes the destination. And as soon as he said it I was like, literally that's when I made the decision, because I was like I do and like I like I just love the enjoyment of getting better at golf. And I was listening to one of your podcasts who said it. But they're like you can't be a guy out there who will only be happy if you score well, that's not the way to play golf. The way to play golf is that you're happy that you're playing golf, and that's how I feel. And that just kind of these various things clicked for me where I was like this is just what I'm meant to do.
Speaker 1:That is extremely well said. You know, we do talk about the process a lot and I think with today it's getting, with all of the distractions we've got. I mean, I've got, you know, three different devices in front of me right now and my command. I got my iPad, I got my phone, I've got my computer right in front of me and it's hard, it really is hard to be singularly focused, and that's a really big part of the process. So, you know, learning how to really ingratiate yourself in that and enjoy it for what it is really just kind of makes a destination for the goal, almost an afterthought, because when you do reach it and we've all reached certain milestones in our lives you look back and you go that was cool.
Speaker 1:But man, the journey was that much sweeter, even the tough times, even the times where I doubted myself, even the times where I questioned my sanity why am I doing this? Am I good enough? I'm not good enough, I don't know who the hell do I think I am. And then you get into this imposter syndrome, bs, and then in the next thing, you know you're talking yourself out of the very thing that you want to do. So I mean, you know, staying the course is a joy in and of itself, and it's an active discipline of self-discipline. You know, I think I would love to pick your brain about that. I mean, when I'm disciplined in my life, I'm the happiest period.
Speaker 2:Yes, 100% Period. I just I posted a quote the other day. It was something about the mind can only be free by a life of discipline and just this idea that when you don't have and again, I don't know for other people, but for me I'm the same way and I just know when I'm wake up, do this, do this, do this, I just have my day scheduled and I have my rules. Right, I just don't do that. Like, I mean, I'll share it, like one of my rules is that I just don't drink during the week and I don't.
Speaker 2:It could be almost anything, yeah, okay, maybe there's once a year or something that something comes up, but there's so many things that I go to that people are drinking during the week and I just don't. I just don't do it. I don't do it on Sundays either, because to me that's a weekday. So you know, I'm, I'm, I'm prepping for the next day, like I'm not going to throw myself off and I just I feel better and by. But because it's a rule, I don't have to have that every day. Every time I go somewhere, internal battle of oh well, maybe I'll just have one, or what are they going to say? It's just, I just don't drink during the week, okay, I don't have to think about it, I don't know. Mental energy, right, and that's what. That's what discipline does, that's what rules do. Is you save so much energy? It makes it so much easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a hundred percent. I mean, you know, a disciplined, being disciplined about whatever process one is ingratiating him or herself in, really provides a lot of freedom. There's a ton of freedom. You know you've got, as you said, more mental energy, more physical energy, you know, hence more freedom. And that's really what I see with young people today that want to pursue a game, you know, especially golf, and it's hard for them to wrap their minds around what it truly takes, and it really doesn't take much other than making a few key decisions, and those decisions are to adhere to that, the discipline that is needed to reach whatever you want to reach. It's I mean, it sucks sometimes in the moment. It really does.
Speaker 1:I didn't want to get up this morning and do some yoga poses, work on my breathing, I really did. I just want to stay in bed. But when I asked myself, is it better for me to feel guilty about not doing something I promised myself to do or is it better to get an extra hour of sleep, because the extra hour of sleep isn't worth the hell that I'm going to give myself? I mean, we're going to be pretty hard on ourselves, right, Especially when we want to get something done. And there's one other thing that I want to touch on too, while we're in this space is you know really what we're talking about, and this is part of your mindset, the pillars of your mindset is that that really is a form of self love when you're disciplined, a big form of self love.
Speaker 2:I was in for sure. Yeah, yeah, the self love piece. I think I mean gosh when I talk about golf and just how brutal I mean. I guess people give brutal to themselves in any area of life, but you definitely see, it showed up in golf. You know just one bad swing and you're just cursing yourself out, and I think that also ties in there.
Speaker 2:I put in there this idea of you know you don't have nothing to prove and you are enough, and like there's a few different concepts that kind of play into this. But you have to go, and I did. You know it's an ongoing process. Let me pause for a second and just say that I don't have this figured out and it's a daily discipline, right, Mindset stuff is a daily practice and that's what they say. When you meditate, right, it's a practice, it's a practice. And so it's taken me going through a lot of not so good mental spaces and you know and things that still pop up, but I found a few things that I can anchor in that bring me back and, for the most part, keep me in a good place.
Speaker 2:Where you stop one, you recognize the negative thinking. That's a big part of. Awareness is key, right, Just seeing that it's happening, but also kind of lowering the expectations. I just feel like we put that I know, I do, you know huge expectations on ourselves for what we should, should be able to accomplish or do and it just ends up biting us. It really hurts your ability and when you can put that to the side and strategies for that, one meditation is big.
Speaker 2:Two for me is reading. If I'm reading books that are putting good thoughts in my head, that is always a really key thing, and oftentimes I do that through audiobook. So I'm driving somewhere and I'm just getting good positive information in my head about different ways to think that set me up for success, where I can have a little bit more space away from maybe, some of this negative chatter. I can be more of a space of, hey, everything's going to be okay and like, what am I doing? Like what was that thought that just came up? Like where did that come from? And you almost you have this space right. That's. I think that's huge, Having space between the thought that just came up and who, like where you are, and so you know, if we take it to golf, right, you hit a bad shot, Boom.
Speaker 2:I mean, thoughts are habits. Yeah, you can improve on, but you're going to have these, you know, triggered right, Hit a bad shot. You immediately are going to say something. If you have that habit and it's just trying to create a little space where you can see it and recognize, oh well, that thought's not serving me and just moving forward, as soon as you make that separation, you're able to make a different choice. If you don't have the separation, there is no choice, it's just reaction and you're going down into the down the rabbit hole, into, oh yeah, negative talent.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you suck, you're never going to be. All that BS. It's all BS. It's all mental garbage. We've all been there. We've all been there, and you know what? We ripped ourselves apart? We're going to be there again.
Speaker 1:And that's where the discipline of meditation really comes in, because it does help to create that degree of separation between, whatever it is, a thought or a stimulus that's going to spawn a thought. Yes, you know you hit a bad shot. The practice, the discipline of meditation is going to allow you to observe that from a spirit of neutrality. So you're not going to get attached to that thought, you're not going to identify with that thought. You know, I mean Tiger Woods saying that he sucks. I mean, everybody knows that. That's just that's not true, you know. So you know there's a good chance that it's not true. If you had a bad shot, I mean if you say you suck or whatever, you just hit a bad shot. It happens.
Speaker 1:The best players in the world hit bad shots. It's a part of the game. It's actually, you know, justin, justin Tang, my partner in this podcast. He says hey, look, hitting bad shots and making bogeys is a business expense. It happens, get over it and just move on. Yeah, easier said than done, but it really goes into. What I want to talk about with you next is being present, and I think the two go hand in hand. You know being in the now. Yes, you know what is that? How can we cultivate that that be present? We hear that a lot.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:You know, you hear armchair psychologist saying oh, you got to be in the moment, you got to be in the now you got to be present. Well, how yeah?
Speaker 2:How do we get to that For me? So I've pulled a lot from like a cartouille, for example, the Power of Now Great book, if you haven't read it. If you haven't read it, if we want to talk mindset real quick in terms of like, how to get into this stuff, I would recommend, if you're someone like me who, if I had read that book, when I was just starting out into like how do I change my mindset, I would be like, what is this guy talking about? It was way out there for me. I was very fortunate. The first kind of mindset book I ever read was called Solve for Happy and it was written by a I don't think he was an executive at the time, but he was a Google executive and he was very analytical. But so I connected with how he kind of saw things and how he broke things down and it started me on this. Oh, this is a very different way to just see the world, really just your worldview change and then you can get down the road.
Speaker 2:But if we get to the Power of Now and how to stay in the presence, I mean again coming back to what you said meditation is the practice. Right, you have to have a practice. But there's actually I have this other company that I've never I haven't done much with because I've gotten pulled back into some other things, but it's called Modern Happiness and I did a whole like program about this exact topic and one of the things I talk about is you start meditation. You have to have that first. But the second layer is active practice. So you meditation is I'm, you know, in the most calm state possible so that I can just watch thoughts and then move away. But you can't just do that and then go about your life. And how do I bring this practice? It's like you're practicing for the game, right? Yeah, game is life, yeah, so if you aren't trying to do the things in life, then you're not, it's not going to work.
Speaker 2:So you take that idea and then in life, you're trying to stay aware of when you get pulled into those thoughts. So you're out in the golf course and you get pulled into the thought, Even if you don't build awareness at that moment. At the end of the round, try to build awareness. Was there a point in the round that I got pulled in that I wasn't able to separate? Boom, you. That is the, the challenge and the goal and that is going to allow you to next time be more aware. Awareness is key. If you're not aware, you're never going to get out of it.
Speaker 2:So, just having that end of round and then then hopefully, you start doing it in round, we were like, oh, after that hole, every hole you're kind of recognizing, okay, hey, I did good on that hole, I, I hit a bad shot, I recognized, didn't get pulled in, I just went to the next shot and again, the more you do it, the better you get. And I am not here, but I am so much better than I used to be. I know there's a difference where I can go through a round of golf and there's going to be a couple of shots maybe that where I I'm like, uh, okay, I got pulled a little bit too much, but there's so many shots where I recognize at the end of the round that, wow, I actually handled that really well. And usually those are the holes that I probably ended up saving par on when I could have gotten down. You know the double bogey route real easy, yeah, that's.
Speaker 1:I couldn't agree more, colin, you know, in fact, I would challenge anybody listening to this. I'm going to challenge myself and challenge you Anybody who's listening to this is that if you really come from a spirit of neutrality and you look at things objectively, my question is how how many bad shots have you hit? That your internal, your internal environment prior to pulling the trigger, was something that got you out of the moment. You thought about the last time you, the last time you hit a five iron, you hit it long left, so maybe you might throw a little bit of more of a controlling swing at it. You don't want to repeat that. That's out of the moment. That's something to be aware of.
Speaker 1:My, my process now going out of the golf course is versus a kind of a, you know, a literal score and score card. At the end of the day, it's the score. The score is how was my internal environment prior to pulling the trigger on every golf shot? Nice, and that? That? That's a part of that active discipline, in my translation, of the active discipline that I'm taking away from meditation. Those questions alone are giving me that degree of separation between stimulus and response. Whether, whether I'm aware of it or not. You're always going to have a stimulus and a response, and when you start to become aware of your triggers, that's when, that's when the magic starts to happen. It's it's, it's the awareness it's pulling your, it's. It's like the, the discipline of meditation. It's it's not to ignore thoughts, it's to pull yourself back into. You know, it's just like directing a baby, it's like directing a child. The child's going to want to go in 10 different directions and you're wanting to keep directing here, or to the bathroom, or learning how to watch, or anything like that. It's the same thing. And that's where I think people, they misunderstand this practice. They especially when they go into meditation, when they they go.
Speaker 1:Okay, jesse, you know I want to, I want to do what you do. What do you do? And I tell them and then two, three days later they're like it's literally impossible. I can't get my thoughts to shut up. The hamster wheel upstairs, it's not going to stop, yeah, but that's not what it's designed to do, right? I mean, it's designed to keep you safe, it's designed to keep you aware of the Siberian tiger around the corner that may or may not eat you. You know, it's the, the primal instincts of the mammalian brain that we have. But you know, our world isn't like that now it has. It has its different pitfalls, of course, but our nervous system is translating it as Danger Well Robinson, where we get into the sympathetic and we get into that fight or flight. But what? What this?
Speaker 1:What we're talking about here is getting a moment in time to separate the knee jerk reactions. Yes, you know, and and that's where I think the superpowers of the great players of yesteryear and today have it in spades I want to share something before we get get into the get into it more, and I've mentioned this before, but it's it's it bears repeating and it's something that really got me. So when camsman what was camsmith one? The British open in 2022, I remember a reporter him asking something about being stressed during the course of the room and he shot 64 and annihilated everybody.
Speaker 1:I mean, he played a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant final ring. He said the biggest difference of me today versus when I first came out on tour is I am very comfortable being uncomfortable and if I was the reporter I would have asked him, but it went right over. The reporters hat Right, they're not trained to identify something as profound as that, but I thought it was very profound, meaning that and as I took it, I thought well, he's created that space where he feels the stress, he feels the uncomfortableness, but he's not identifying. Yeah, he's not allowing those that that hook to get into a psyche, because if he dead, I don't think he would have won, you know, or at least shot 64 and played a, you know, a brilliant final round of golf that was just, you know, etched with mastery. I think these, these are important points.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm glad you said it twice now. So I want to just kind of highlight this idea of identity and how critical that is and how, when you're in that state and you do start to identify with this stress and that can come in many forms but, for example, if you, if you think that you shouldn't right, if you think that you shouldn't be stressed, well, that's now going to send you down Exactly the same rabbit hole you were trying to avoid in the first place. So you're, you're, it's like you're saying, oh, there's something wrong with me, yeah, and as soon as you say that or think that, now you're trying, like you're trying to fight it, that resistance, or or yeah, if we talk about resistance, I think that's another kind of big piece here but sure, as soon as you start resisting, what is we're talking about? Being in the now. Being in the now is being okay with what's going on. Being okay Like yeah, I'm stressed out, but like this is, this is a big moment. Yeah, this is normal for me to feel this way. Yeah, I'm going to just move forward. I'm not going to worry that, that I'm, you know, a little more shaky or whatever. I'm just going to do what I need to do so.
Speaker 2:I think that's that's a great point for the identity piece and the other piece to identity, which I think it's anybody golfers included in trouble is when you identify with a handicap, when you identify as a golfer. This is something I went through, where when you identify as a certain part of the game or what that means, any deviation from that is what's wrong, what's going on, why'd I score high today? I'm losing my game. All of these things as opposed to what you said oh, I had a bad day, okay, I had a bad shot. You're not identified with any way that it's supposed to be. It's just what is, is it? You know that's the way it is and you move on and you're not getting emotionally attached to those things. So I think all of these pieces play in huge in life and in golf. That's why, again, when I said golf is such a teacher for life, when you can master these things for your golf game, you will. Then it helps you be better in life too. So better parents, better business owner, things like that.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. You know what you do for the self. It's an umbrella effect where it affects every aspect of your life. Yeah, which is one of the great reasons, I think, that all of us that love this game continuously come back and with a spirit of curiosity and it's just fantastic. So it's all kind of tied together with acceptance, with accepting what is? I asked Lydia. So I know Lydia, come right. I mean I've had her on the podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm not name dropping any of my friends that give me grief about name dropping, but you know, I asked Lydia and I've asked her several times offline, where, you know, lydia, what do you do if you know it's not your day? You know, you wake up, maybe your back sore, you're not as loose. I mean, we're human, we're. We can try to be as consistent as we can be, but that's just not the way life works. And she said something that I thought was very powerful. She said, jesse, if I'm on the range with my catty and I'm not hitting it very well or I don't feel very good physically, I'll just look up at him. And she told me her catty was Derek at the time she goes. You know, derek, I don't feel very good today. Let's just have some fun. Let's just go out there and have fun.
Speaker 1:And then I asked her. I said how how many times have you salvaged the day with that mindset? She goes, I salvage it most of the time, but I've let go and surrendered to the fact that I'm not going to be hitting shots on the screws all the time. I'm going to have fun with my short game. I'm going to have fun with my wedge play. I'm going to have fun with playing the game with my mind this particular day, if I don't have the physical attributes that I normally have. I thought that that was coming from a Jedi master. She is a Jedi master, she is a modern Jedi. Yeah, it was really powerful for her to say that. So you know, by profession, you're a gym owner and you're also a part of urban golf performance, and that's a big piece in the golf improvement genre, as we were talking about before. When we hit record, I mean I said, look, you know you're going to swing the club better if you're in better shape.
Speaker 1:Yes, so yeah we can dive into pillar number two.
Speaker 2:Pillar one mindset. Pillar two is the health and fitness side. That's right. And yeah, urban golf performance is really cool because they take the golf swing side and match it up with the fitness, physical ability to move the right way, to get in the right positions, to have the right mobility, to have the right motor control and awareness. Something that we work on a lot at Mint and they do to it.
Speaker 2:Urban golf performance is what I would call brain mapping, and what can happen over time is your brain can get blurry to certain movement patterns. So even something as simple as you know, we would call this a figure eight. Right, doing this, you have somebody do that slow and you start to realize that there's certain parts of that figure eight that they don't hit Like that. Their brain doesn't even know how to go into that position or it's a little clunky, right, it's not totally smooth going through the whole thing. So just that little bit of brain fuzziness, and this is happening all over the body. Your brain starts to kind of get into a threat state, and when your brain is in the threat state, it makes you weaker and it makes you less flexible because it doesn't want you to injure yourself. And so we're talking about a golf swing where you know at the highest level you're really swinging out of your shoes and for. But for any golfer, your body's not going to let you swing either into the position you need or swing fast enough because it's scared that you're going to hurt yourself. So working through brain mapping is kind of the first place Like you have to have. Your brain has to connect with every joint, every muscle of the body. So that's kind of base level. Once you have that good kind of brain body connection, then you start training. You know your mobility I mean your mobility will improve automatically just by doing brain mapping stuff. But if you, then you know you do your stretches, you do your strength drills, you do your power drills. You're now you're just stacking on a really good base. But that's again.
Speaker 2:This is what was so impressed me so much about urban golf performances, because we do stuff at Mint that a lot of people honestly don't do. It's just I've been fascinated by the world of neurology and how that plays into human performance and and just daily performance too. This plays into pain, this plays into getting sick, all types of stuff. But but then when I went to urban golf performance and they started doing this stuff. I was like, okay, I'm glad to see that they're on that level, because they could have just as well been all about oh, we got to get you strong. No, the first part is you go in and you do a recovery program that's what they call it and it's all like.
Speaker 2:Right now I'm working on my left ankle, and left big toe is the main thing I'm working on, because of some past injuries that I even know were a problem. I didn't know those were still, you know, issues for me, but they are especially in my golf swing. So so that's, I was very impressed with that, and when you build that right now, you, now you have the positions. It makes the swing coaching side so much easier. Right, like, yeah, just here's your setup, here's where you're at the top swing through you can get into all the positions. Great, now you can make solid contact Such a big piece.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and I really like what you were talking about brain mapping, do you so? Do you? Do you assess people and then, and then get into like what, what does that look like?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I mean, yes, assessment is, assessments are pretty simple. I mean, you just need to see them moving in different ranges of motion, so it could be a squat, a lunge, a push up. You know basic stuff like that. But as you're seeing it, you're seeing, can they move it with the right angles, with the right posture? What's their breathing pattern like? You're looking at all these things and you can tell that they're either compensating or they're not right. There's either or they can't do it at all. Right, if they can't do it all, then then you back it off a little bit and you find what they can do. But very quickly you'll realize, okay, you're getting stuck here, right, this ankle, this knee, this hip, this is, this is the critical point. From there, then you need to test a little bit. Right, this is a really great thing for that, not? I don't know if everybody knows at this point.
Speaker 2:When you have an issue, it's you. That's usually not the issue. So say, you have a low back issue. This would come up in golf Nine times out of 10, the low back is not the problem, right, problem is your pelvis, or your hip, or your t spine, your upper back, it's the places above and below most of the time that they aren't moving well, and so your low back is taking the hit. That's where the the force is going. So those types of things we're looking at of okay, again you have low back. Which way is it? Do we need to go above or below, or both? And then are we going to work through that? So, yeah, so we start seeing that. And then again, let's, let's take t spine upper back as an example.
Speaker 2:If we're looking at brain mapping, you're just looking again, what's a movement that the t spine needs to be able to do? Well, it needs to. I'll show you guys. So, yeah, so I need to be able to fully round and then fully extend. And it's hard to see, but, like, you need to be perfectly straight with your t spine, sure, as you look at that, you can see are they fully rounded or is there a vertebrae that is a little stuck?
Speaker 2:Okay, I need you to create motion into that vertebrae and I'd be like tapping them. I'm like, right here, I need movement, right here. And now they're working it and they're doing reps and as they're doing it, their brain is trying to figure out how do I connect with this particular area, and what's so cool about neurology is neuroplasticity. That is now pretty well known that your brain can change and you can create new neural pathways and new maps and new connections. So that's all. We're just building new connections, that when you sit at a desk all day for 20 years, you're losing some connections. There's there's certain positions that you aren't getting into anymore, yep, and you need to build those again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so well said and it really just kind of reminds me of something I've heard and it's literally the truth is use it or lose it. Use it or lose it because you will lose it, especially those of us over 50. You know you're gonna, since the brain is plastic and it does evolve. It's going to throw away those old motor patterns if they're not being in use. Yeah, it's efficient.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to waste its power on something you aren't doing. That's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's well said and this is great. Colin, I'm really loving this conversation, me too. We talk about, absolutely, and we talk about, you know, getting our bodies well, healthy, able to move, mobile, strong. I mean, how much of working on your physical body, how much do you think that correlates with mental health?
Speaker 2:Well, there's a few layers to that. Yeah, 100% would be the short answer. Sure, the longer answer is that there are hormones and chemicals that are produced when exercising, and this is if you're doing intense strength training or cardio training. If you're doing lighter stuff, there's other benefits to that, but when you really push yourself, that's when you get some really cool hormones that are getting released that do help with kind of mental health that layer.
Speaker 2:But there's another piece of exercise that's really interesting, which is that it's called a keystone habit, and it's gosh one of the. I'm trying to figure out what other ones would be as powerful. I don't know if there are any. There are as much of a keystone habit, and a keystone habit means that when you do this thing, you just automatically start doing other things. So when you're exercising regularly, you are more likely to make good eating choices. And whether it's because there's this feeling of well, I don't want to waste my workout, or whether it's actually a thought in your head or not, people just naturally drink less, they eat better, they go to sleep earlier and they do other things that are good for them, and that all ties into your mental health too. So it's so, yes, from just a base level exercise. It's great. Hormonally it's great. So, yeah, it's all good.
Speaker 2:And another thing that we really again, when you talk about fitness over 50, this is good for anybody, but also golfers Is that exercise actually helps to allow your brain to change faster. If that I think that might be the easiest way to put it Like your brain is more able to make changes when you're exercising, so that it's like a boost in plasticity. So learning, for example, goes up because of exercise. If you like in school, if you have kids, it's exercise in the morning, they retain more information. So you want to talk about golf. If you are exercising regularly, your ability to learn from your golf session, for example, if you're going in and hitting balls, you're going to be able to retain that information. Your brain's going to be able to adapt to that swing pattern and what you're trying to accomplish better just because you're exercising.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, you know you're getting a lot of O2 up there, you're pumping blood and it's also a discipline and yeah, it makes total sense. And another thing too I know for me, colin, when I'm hitting it pretty hard and I'm in the gym and I'm regular and I'm committed, I got an edge on the golf course. I definitely know it's. You know, there's a inherent thing within all of us. I know that with me, we get what we deserve. And when you put the effort in, it's like you might step up over a shot or approaching a shot and you may feel nervous. You're like, hey, I put in the work, I deserve this.
Speaker 1:It gives you an edge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like a confidence piece, Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I could definitely see that and I hadn't thought about that for golf specifically. But yeah, there's definitely a confidence boost in when you whether it's exercise or something else when you do something hard. This is why cold plunges very popular right now. But this is one of the benefits of cold plunges is that when you do something that hard first thing in the morning, it's easy. You just feel like you're able to tackle other challenges the rest of the day. Sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes sense. I got, admit, cold plunges. Oh my goodness gracious, I can handle 180 degree sauna Saunas. I can handle cold plunges. You know those, those, those who jump in the ocean off the California coast. You get a pretty good cold plunge there. Yeah, I've done that a couple of times and I didn't last very well, but I felt I felt sneaky good after. So, yeah, that absolutely I mean that.
Speaker 1:That all makes sense and it really it brings into you know the couple of things that we didn't really touch on. But when you are disciplined about these things, they're you know you're, you're more accepting you, you're building the resilience muscle and those all, pray, play a factor in in, in ascending in this game. Let's get into something that is as ambiguous as any topic I have ever tried to wrap my head around, other than the millions of methodologies with the golf swing, and I want to stay within your pillars of excellence, calling in that's nutrition, nutrition, oh my goodness, yep. Give me, give me a short, sweet version of this multifaceted, maybe the most ambiguous topic known to me.
Speaker 2:That is tough because for a lot of people it feels like you're talking about religion. Yep, and people have their beliefs and it's hard to work through those beliefs sometimes. But a few things I will say again, having worked with a lot of people on this, that principles that I try to help people work towards and and it kind of worked through for themselves. But I do think with nutrition and maybe this is anything, but definitely nutrition is a you have to come in and choose nutrition as kind of a scientist like, from a scientific mindset of self-testing you could almost say, because I can tell you to go eat this or that. But it's what's most important is that when, whatever you're going to try out and you know there's there's lots of different theories out there is to just be very critical about. Okay, when I'm eating this way, I feel this way and and being okay that that might change over time. Our bodies change over time and what you ate, you know 10 years ago may not be the right thing to eat now and so it's not. It's not this, like this is always going to work and personally I've gone through this where I've, you know, felt better on this and felt better on that and just being okay with that journey and that it's not totally cut and dry.
Speaker 2:One thing I will say I'm not I don't like being controversial. I hope I hope this isn't that controversial, but just there's been some documentaries recently about this, so it's why you just got to say it, because all my friends are asking me and so I'm going to say that I do believe this is a belief that some amount of high quality not garbage, but high quality animal protein is a nutritionally beneficial thing for the body. If you want to talk about the morality or the environmental side of it, there's there's lots of different ways we could go with that, but purely from a nutritional perspective, there are benefits for the body and the brain to have high quality fat and protein and the highest quality is from an animal that was raised naturally right and I think we could all agree that this like garbage. The way that our country processes food and and animals the same way, you know, is not good. A sick if you eat a sick animal. You will get sick If you get a high quality source.
Speaker 2:there are just there's certain benefits because your muscles and your brain and your body and your hair and your skin need high quality protein. The rest of it there's. There's a lot of gray area, you know. Most people can agree that having some vegetables probably a good idea, you know. Having food that is really closely sourced, you know if you have your own garden, that's the best. But if you can get like a local organic farmers market, like these types of things are, are where a lot of people can agree.
Speaker 2:But I like starting it with the idea of being a scientist, because if I just go say that I don't know broccoli right, chicken and broccoli, the little classic, terrible. Nobody wants to do that. But that's how you get the approach. There's going to be people that don't do well on that and not everybody. Broccoli, for whatever reason, doesn't work with your digestive system. Okay, you tried it. Yeah, it didn't work, that's okay, move on. You don't need to like force something that is not making you feel good and healthy and energetic, and I know that people can go down these paths of caring more about, like the belief system than just how it makes them feel Right, and that's. That's really all I care about. I just want people to feel good.
Speaker 1:I just want to be there. Yeah, that's a. That's a great explanation, colin, very simple one as well. I like the, I like the. The coming in as a scientist, you know, spirit of curiosity, objective curiosity is really what it is, yeah. And just noticing, you know here's the awareness part again noticing how you feel, what your energy level is, especially especially on the golf course, especially competitively. You're burning out there. You're burning a lot of calories, yeah, and you need to. You need to supplement those in the best way that's going to work, in accordance with your body. And I love what you said, coming at it from the scientists. That's the way you're going to do it. There isn't just one uniform, you know, ironclad way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that if I've learned anything, I think that's it is that you have to give people some wiggle room on what works for them and what makes them feel the best. And you know, luckily there's a lot of great information out there, but unfortunately, I think that's where these battles come in and where people are. You know. No, this works. Hey, it works for you Great. And if that means somebody tries it out and they find that that works for them, too, awesome. But unfortunately, the downside of this explanation is it's not, it's not cut and dry, and so it means that you do have to put in a little bit of work, and I will be the first one to admit that that is not easy to do. We are so. We have so much going on in our lives, we're so overwhelmed and we just want somebody to tell us what to do. And unfortunately, at least in my experience with nutrition, there does have to be some level of just yeah, cure that level of curiosity, interest and self assessment.
Speaker 1:The. The first trainer I ever worked with was when I was in my early thirties and she had me write down food and how it made me feel, so I literally had to keep. I had to keep a food journal for 30 days and sucked and she gave me so much grief if I didn't do it. But it really was an eye opener and I found out what you know at the time what gave me the best nutrition and the best bang for my buck for a meal, and that's that's going to segue into this. This is such a great list here, colin. I just this is fantastic. Into recovery Recovery. You know a lot of people don't realize that recovery is part of the process. They think that you're just chilling, but it's literally a part of the pie chart. Yeah, a big part of it, big part.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one could argue it's actually the most important, because if you don't do it, the rest of the stuff doesn't work.
Speaker 1:Right, you know you got to feel sorry for the cat that you play golf with, that pulled an all nighter or just was out late or didn't sleep well, because they're just not going to have. There's a good chance they're not going to have it. But recovery when we talk about this being an important part of the pie chart, I mean what does recovery do in for the body?
Speaker 2:So there's a few layers to this. Maybe the easiest place to start would be if we talk about exercise and the need for recovery from exercise and what that might look like. So when you exercise, you are breaking down the body and so no results happen. During an exercise session, from a strength or power gain perspective, it is in your adaptation to the stress that you make improvements. You know a little different. If we're talking about like stretching right During a session, you're actually getting. You know you're moving and getting more flexible, but with strength and power and muscle building and things like that, it is outside of the session that everything happens. So we need to plan our when we're not training. That's when we do all of our stuff to make our training matter. Nutrition is a big part, and that's this is why I, if there's anything I try to tell people, it is having a high quality protein, because that's what's going to allow your muscles to recover the best.
Speaker 2:But there's other layers. You just talked about sleep and how important sleep is, and just for physical and mental recovery. The hormones that are produced during sleep are really important. Human growth hormone is one of those and, again, that is really important for muscle recovery. So sleep support one, usually water. I kind of tie in water, and something for me just recently that I've really I knew about, but I didn't stress as much personally, is the importance of electrolytes, that it's not just hydration but getting enough salt especially I think a lot of people are under salted but also potassium, magnesium, those are kind of the big three, but that you know you go play around a golf and it's hot out and you're sweat. You know all that sweat. If you're only drinking water, you're not actually replenishing and if anything you're, you couldn't be making yourself more dehydrated in a way, because you're diluting your blood, you don't getting those electrolytes. So this is where, yes, having coconut water is kind of the, I think, the mainstream one right now. But really honestly, just putting some salt in your, just putting salt in your water alone, is a good way to go. There's also some other products out there right now that are you know you can pour in, so you know you can go with which way works best for you. But that's a really important part of recovery. And then and then there's a whole like world of other stuff, right.
Speaker 2:So that's now we get to talk about our cold therapy. So are we doing things to pump blood in and out of the muscles, that you know cold, hot, exposure type thing? Sauna would be the opposite side of that. You talked about the saunas. Saunas, love saunas. We have things like compression therapy, where we are actually actively pushing blood in and out and that's that's a big part of recovery, because you are, you're bringing nutrients in and getting lactic acid and any type of toxins out of the muscles. So all of those cold, hot and compression kind of have that angle.
Speaker 2:You have red light therapy, which is a little bit more new age or maybe people don't are as into it, but luckily there's a ton of stuff coming out, I think. I think it's starting to get known, get popular. But red light just those wavelengths, they're basically the wavelengths you would get early morning or evening. So they can be really great for sleep, which we already talked about. But they're good for other stuff too in terms of your inflammation. So decreasing inflammation, increasing muscle recovery. They can also have effects on mood and they also have hair, eyes, things like that. But so there's oh and then, and then massage. Let's not forget about massage. So you have foam roller, you have tennis ball, working tight areas. You have now tools like TheraGun. These are all pieces that you're.
Speaker 2:Essentially, you just did the thing right, whether it was exercise or you went and played around a golf. How do I get my body adapted and back as quickly as possible? And so, obviously, the guys on tour are all doing this because they're playing so much. But for anybody trying to get better and I've fascinating experience for me too, because leading up to this journey, I was not hitting balls, you know, nearly every day, like now, I'm trying to hit balls pretty much every day.
Speaker 2:Before this, you know, I did balls once a week or whatever, and I'd be a little sore after, but it didn't really matter. When I had, you know, when I'm like, how am I even going to hit balls? I'm just so stiff. I had to dive back into this and be like okay, what are the things I need to be doing, be disciplined about doing so that I show up the next day and I'm capable, physically capable of doing what I need to do. I got to get the reps in. So that's where, again, for me personally, it's been a big piece of the puzzle too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's well said. Me too. It's interesting and it really doesn't take much like post-round recovery. I mean you could really dive into it, but you could really get your body right. I have a little 15 minute mobility routine that I do. That works like a charm.
Speaker 2:Really pre-round. Sorry, I just made me think recovery starts pre-round. Oh yeah, absolutely. You got to get juiced up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you got to get juiced up. You definitely got to get juiced up. But yeah, sorry, keep going. But the post-round stuff, wasn't it? Really it's not. You know, for me I could pretty much get my body right, even after playing 36 holes, with some mobility moves, some stretching, some active stretching, you know, some active mobility. I might do that with a pair of dumbbells or a kettlebell, just to reintroduce range of motion. I might go through something that's more elongated, more relaxed and things like that, and I wake up the next morning feeling great, I'm 53. So I mean, there's really, you know, no age discrimination or no limit to what you can do, but I think that it's so important, especially if you're multiple day events. You know you got to do it If you want to play at a high level you got to do it and to your point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just listed off like 50 things that you need to do, but you don't have to do all of these things, and if we come back to being a scientist, it's about finding the things that you know what's going to set you up for success. So maybe you do, you know a little, and usually there's specific areas. Right, there's certain areas that you normally get tight, like for me, left, mid back, pretty much after any session hitting golf. You know, when I go out and play, I'm just going to spend a little time on a tennis ball working that area, and then I'm good. If I don't, though, then the next day I feel it. So, again, that consistency and discipline in just knowing what is important for my body, 100%.
Speaker 1:Oh, this has been a great conversation, my friend, how can people find you?
Speaker 2:Cool. So a few different ways. I mean, if you're in the Las Gatos area, definitely check us out Minkonditionfitness, mintsfitcom would be that. But, as I said, with the birdies oh, I don't know if I even said the birdies and bogeys. So my Instagram, kind of, where I'm following this journey to win the mid-am, it's called birdies and bogeys, it's birdiesnbogies. And yeah, again, I just want to help educate people on this. You know everything we talked about today.
Speaker 2:The parts that we didn't talk about were the community aspect and the skill development aspect that I also teach on, and just helping people kind of see the path, give them some inspiration that this is possible and that when you follow these things and this is really important for me that when you do something you love, when you follow your pull, that it's good for you and it's good for other people. It doesn't have to be a selfish endeavor. It is because you're in a better state mentally and because you have this energy. That energy then goes out and it positively impacts other people. So that's kind of the whole what I'm trying to get out there, the message I'm trying to share, and just, yeah, I would love to see people.
Speaker 2:I love it when I see people doing something that they're passionate about. That's why, when we first talked and you said you know you had that little I'm not sure if I'm going to do this podcast and then you overcame that. Right, we all have that fear before we do this. That's right, so awesome. I mean. I think we connected right away because we were mindset and just that. Like, you make the intention, you set the target and you go after it and it's good for you and good for others. So, yeah, birdies and bogeys on Instagram, mint fit if you're in the Las Gatos area.
Speaker 1:And I'll make sure that all the Collins information is in the show notes so you can easily get a hold of him, colin. Thanks, my friend. I want you back on. We need to get into the other parts of the pillars and steal you away for another hour at some point soon.
Speaker 2:I would love to appreciate it. Thank you, Jesse.