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
From Tour Pro to Teacher: Christoph Bausek's Journey
Austrian golf coach Christoph Bausek joins us to share his journey from elite amateur to European tour coach who revolutionized his teaching through technology, science, and engaging social media content.
• Started golf at age 3 near his family's weekend home in Austria
• Competed with top juniors like Sergio Garcia and Henrik Stenson before trying professional golf
• Failed as a tour player due to technical swing issues that weren't properly diagnosed
• Discovered TPI and 3D motion analysis around 2008, becoming obsessed with measuring what elite players do differently
• Transformed from nearly 400 pounds to losing 150 pounds after gastric sleeve surgery
• Created highly successful German YouTube channel focusing on golf instruction
• Gained international fame with POV videos showing swing concepts from player's perspective
• Emphasizes "universal truths" in the golf swing while making complex concepts digestible
• Developed a coaching system called "cubic five" - five exercises done five times a week for five minutes
• Currently offers online coaching through the Sneed app while building English-language content
Find Christoph on Instagram @christoph_bausek and subscribe to his YouTube channel "Bausek Golf" for innovative swing tips and instruction.
Also to reach Justin, justin@elitegolfswing.com
Hello, this is Jesse Perryman of the Fly Hunters Golf Podcast. Welcome back after a little bit of a break. My wife and I went to Europe for about three weeks and took a little time off, so welcome back. Welcome to summer. Golf season is here, y'all. Hopefully, you did your due diligence in the offseason and got ahead of it. You're coming out ready to roll and you listen to plenty of my podcasts and with me and Justin and whoever else to help you get to where you want to go in this game.
Speaker 1:Well, this week we have Christoph Bausack. Christopher Chris is a European tour coach, helps the guys over there on the DP World Tour and over on the other side of the pond from us in the US. He is located in Austria. It's a great conversation. We talk about his methodology, we talk about what he's overcome in his personal life and just some of the things in the game. It's just cool, real casual conversation, super fun, but I'm sure you're going to get something out of it. You can find Christoph Christopher easily on Instagram. I'm going to make sure to put his links on the show notes, but since we're here, it's Christoph. It's C-R-I-S-T-O-P-H. Underscore Bausek B-A-U-S-E-K. For those who are on Instagram.
Speaker 1:And we got the US Open coming up this week. I'm sure Scotty's pretty much everyone's favorite and we'll probably do a little bit of a US Open discussion afterwards. So once again, please remember to rate, review and subscribe. And a shout out once again to Mizuno Golf and out once again to Mizuno Golf and Jumbo Max Grips for their strong support of the show, and I hope everyone is having a great week and we will talk soon. Cheers, folks. Hello and welcome to another edition of the Flag Hunters Golf Podcast. My name is Jesse Perryman. I am your host, along with my co-host, justin Tang, teacher extraordinaire, my brother from another mother in Singapore. I am currently in California right now, where it's sunny, perfect, and our guest today is Christophe Bausik. Christophe, welcome, pal Appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Thanks, Justin.
Speaker 3:Hey, thanks, christophe. So Jesse and I are on a mission to interview really smart coaches who also who, besides being technically brilliant, also understand the softer side of coaching the game. You obviously have a deep technical background expertise, but that doesn't really come across as overbearing on your YouTube and Instagram videos. Before we get into your coaching philosophy, could you share with our listeners? How did you get started in golf?
Speaker 2:Well, I started golf at a very young age. I was like probably three years old. My dad was really into golf and we had a little house next to the golf course. We lived about 40 minutes away from the golf course and we had like a little holiday house there. And when I was a kid, my parents went there in the weekends and played golf there, and actually my brother and I we just played in the forest next to the golf course and we're looking for golf balls. You know, just like what you do as a kid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like when I was like 11, 12, 13-ish, I started to have more intense training, children's training, and yeah, and one day at this my dad asked hey, do you want to play the Austrian under-14 championships? I was like 13 years old back then. I said, yeah, of course I want to play. I was like a handicap 13 back then, with 13 years, and I thought it was pretty good. I mean, nowadays it was not good, but I thought it was pretty good and I thought it would do really well. And actually in that tournament I was second to last and I was so angry that I was so angry that I told my dad listen. When we went home I said listen, dad, next year I'm going to win this tournament. And I really really started practicing then from that moment on. That was late 1990, early 1991. I'm 47 years now as we are recording this and um.
Speaker 2:So I got really motivated and actually the year after that I I finished second, I finished second yeah, I was angry again yeah, I was angry again but um, but I really developed as a player back then when I was like 14, 15 years old and I got pretty good really fast. And when I was like 17 years old, I was the number one in Austria in the amateur rankings and I had the also in Europe. I was one of the best players. I was like, you know, I was playing with the boys like Sergio Garcia and other guys like Henrik Stenson and all these boys you know, they were my generation and I played in the European Juniors Continent team back then, which was like the Ryder Cup for Europe, where the continent of Europe plays against Great Britain and Ireland.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and I was like, probably when I turned pro, when I was like 20, I was one of the best amateurs in Europe and I actually thought, okay, I might have a nice chance to make a tour card and play on the European tour back then and I have a career, you know, flying with private jets and that kind of stuff. Didn't happen, unfortunately Didn't happen. I'm spoiling this, but um, yeah, but it was really interesting. I had a nice journey there as an amateur and I played for six years in europe, like like the third level tour was like the alps tour. I don't know if you guys are familiar with that, but that's like the third level tour. It's like the the alps tour. I don't know if you guys are familiar with that, but that's like the third level tour in europe yeah, like the corn fairy of the us not even the corn fairy, it's the, it's the, it's the hooters tour of the whatever that still exists, I don't know.
Speaker 2:But, um, but it was like a third level tour and and played it and also like the challenge tour, which is probably the equivalent to the Coen Ferry tour. Yeah, but I just wasn't good enough, to be honest. To be honest, my long game was really sucking. To be honest, I mean I wasn't that long. I mean I was at okay length, but not like crazy long, and I was hooking the ball and like hitting two to three snap hooks every round and it was really tough to, you know, compete in professional golf with that driving, driving the way I was doing back then.
Speaker 2:And the short game was really good. My putting was awesome. I was really known for being a a king with that. But, uh, my long day was just sucking and actually back then in the yeah, probably with like eight late 90s, there was nobody really there who understood anything about the golf swing, especially at the elite level. So, yeah, long story short, I failed and I was so pissed off about failing that I did everything to find out what went wrong. Yeah, that's how I basically started my journey. Yeah and yeah.
Speaker 3:So you didn't make it on tour as a player, but you certainly have made it as a tour coach.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. It was funny because, like last year, I was here at the Classic coaching my protege, lucas Nemetz, and he was playing there and I was there in the players' lounge looking down at the driving range where Michael Roy was running next to me, adam Scott was running there and I looked at the nice sushi they had there in the bar and I said in the players' lounge and I said, okay, now you're there where you always wanted to be, but just as a coach, not as a player.
Speaker 3:I really enjoyed that. So so maybe no, no private jets, but certainly private cards, yeah.
Speaker 2:But the thing is, the thing is, um, just in back back then when I failed um, I did my pga training, the pga of austria training, and um, and I recognized very fast this is not the whole story. I mean this this was basic stuff. You know what you learn as a golf teacher, like how to do um, beginners courses and, uh, juniors programs and that kind of stuff, but um, basic technical stuff. But there was. I knew there was much more and I wanted to find out what went wrong with my goal. Why did I suck so much?
Speaker 2:And, to be honest, I was like 26 years old back then and I thought, okay, if you do your pga training, you know, earn some money. If you're in your late 20s, early 30s, you still can play competitive golf and maybe go back to two again. So I thought, okay, I could try to become a better version maybe of myself, and which I obviously never did. But um, but the cool thing was I got in touch. That must have been like in the late, I don't know 2007, 2008 or something. I got in touch first time with tpi. Greg rose was playing something like that. Yeah, late, late 2007.
Speaker 3:8 yeah, that that's when they really kick-started the program and it coincided with the time where TrackMan first came out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I remember I was there at the seminar in Holland and met Greg Rose the first time and it was like a level one TPI and I heard the first time in my life about the body swing connection. And I heard the first time in my life about the body swing connection and there was a guy from Holland there who had an AMM 3D or 6D system with the 12 sensor system.
Speaker 3:Michael Voss. Pardon, was it a PGA professional by the name of Michael Vail vos?
Speaker 2:no, it was not because, no, no, no, I forgot the name. To be honest, maybe I I can recall it, but I forgot it. But the thing was they offered us back in the seminar hey guys, you can have a 3d analysis of your, of the golf swing. And that was the first time I really saw something about what is a kinematic sequence, what is, um, how the body parts move that you were actually able to move. That I heard first time in my life about efficiency. So I I said please, guys, can you um, take a, um a caption of my golf swing?
Speaker 3:thinking back then um, you still had a chance how good this is, how efficient.
Speaker 2:I was just pure. I was so unlucky not to make it like that kind of stuff. And basically, uh, they told me stuff like listen, your hip speed, if you were on the tour you would have the by far the slowest hip speed on tour. You have the flattest hip turn on tour. If you were on the tour, your sequence is not good. And uh, yeah, and basically it was not as good as I thought it was, to be honest, and that really that really made me angry back then. So, if you can imagine so, and I thought, oh, but it was cool in one way because I thought, hey, finally I found something where somebody said you're not good, because I always heard you're good, you're good when you were just, you're just at a bad mental state of mind or you were just lazy or whatever, which I said I wasn't, but I, but I just, to be honest, my swing wasn't good enough back then and I had the wrong idea about ball flight loss. I had the wrong idea about about the body should be moving in the golf swing and I had the wrong idea about power production and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:So I went on and actually started trying to find everything I could find about 3D, which was really, really tough back then in 2008, 2009, 2010. And then I got my first track man. I remember in Austria, all the other pros were looking at me like I'm an alien. You know what's going on. Why are you buying this stupid stuff here? You know, this is a sports field, not about science. You know, and I was getting very science-y, yeah and yeah, I hooked up with a synolink with chris welsh in the synonyms. There must have been I don't know 2010 it's a long time ago.
Speaker 2:I can't believe this. Yes, indeed yeah, and chris helped me get some basic knowledge about this stuff. But the the problem I had with SinoLink back then was they basically you could send in your swing and there was like a 3D cube and you could. You had to film it from two angles and you send it to the company and they would do a 3D analysis of it. And it took a couple of days until you had it and I thought, hey, I need, I need a 3D analysis in my golf lessons because I was teaching. Of course I I need a 3D analysis in my golf lessons because I was teaching. Of course I need the 3D analysis in a minute, not after one week. The client is gone after one week. So I bought myself an EMM 60 walkabout system, which is like a three sensor system, and I basically started everything I could about 3D graphs, about not only the ones I was using but every graph. I mean, I talked to everybody who was like a little bit involved in that. Back then I met also John Graham.
Speaker 3:Aimpoint.
Speaker 2:Yeah, john got me into Aimpoint and John had a fantastic blog back then and it was a very critical thinker and I really enjoyed his um yeah, it was maybe a little bit of mentoring even there, because he was like he was like, uh, asking me critical questions and and stuff that I start thinking, you know, and and I also had John over in Austria a couple times, yeah, so I started with Aimpoint, so everything built up.
Speaker 2:You know, I had the 3d system, I had the aimpoint, I had trackman, I was really, I would say, ahead of everybody in my area, in austria at least, and um, and I was measuring everybody, I was measuring professionals, I was measuring elite players, junior golfers, beginners, basically everybody was on 3D. So I learned very quickly what the best players do and what the worst players do. Let's put it this way, from a kinematic standpoint, you know, from how the body moves, about how the positions of the joints, the angles and how everything moves in 3d space. So I mean I'm actually like for probably for 10 years, in every lesson I measured 3d. I mean I, I see a golf swing and I knew, you know, I mean you guys probably were working with trackman. You know, when you got the trackmen you were guessing maybe, okay, what's the path or what's the attacking, or something like that. I think we all did that, didn't we?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the funny thing is this right, I think you can be a human trackman, but you cannot be a human AMM, human sports box, or, for that matter, human GR, a human swing catalyst.
Speaker 2:No, but if you work a lot with those things, you see patterns, or you see movement patterns where you think, okay, this could be happening or this could be the way it would be representing as a graph, and I did like little games with myself. Okay, what do I think? What do I think is the kinematic sequence on this guy? What do I think is the, the pbs band on this guy? Does he, how much, does he side bend? You know this.
Speaker 2:I did all this, like like you do with the track man. You say, oh, I think he's six down two degrees from the outside. I was doing the same with 3d. Of course you, of course you don't get it 100, but I was pretty good after a while. So, so, yes, but the biggest problem, justin, was I. Now you've got all this data, you can know everything that's happening, but how do you change it? How do you apply it in your teaching? And there has been a time in my teaching career where I was maybe what should I say? Maybe too complicated, maybe, or maybe too nerdy, maybe. So I had to learn how to get simpler, how to get the message across much, much simpler.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's, and that's the the my next question you've got all this technical background, technical knowledge and a lot of coaches are the same, but they can't seem to apply. But you realize very early on that you needed to address the person in front of you.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 3:So who were your coaching influences from the point of communicating this technical information in easy to understand lessons?
Speaker 2:Well, so the question is how I started to to basically um, applying it in an easy way. Yep, the thing is, um, there were, there were the two things. Um, of course, I I kept on doing educations, um, with like with young ho kwon and uh, with mike adams and, and obviously with Smart2Move and all the guys. I've got my 3D place. And one thing was like when I started to visit Mike Adams, I have to say I like the way how he put people into categories, basically, or is he a front Soon?
Speaker 3:launch Glenn.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whatever you know, and you can think about it what you want. But I think it's a brilliant way to communicate with people. You say, okay, listen, you're this and you're not. That you know. So you can give a very clear path on what you want to achieve with the student, because sometimes, because the thing I was struggling with in the, let's say, in the 2011, 12, I had all this knowledge but I said, okay, I want to try this and I want to do this and, as we see what fits better for you, blah, blah, blah. But it got so complicated for the students, sometimes also for the good players I was working with that. At the end of the day, I thought, okay, I don't have a clear system, a clear picture of what I'm actually doing. I'm just like fixing things, you know, and I liked it a lot, that approach from Mike Adams a lot. That helped me really a lot to get the idea of getting everything clear in my mind, of what I want to achieve.
Speaker 2:And I still enjoy actually screening people. You know and I'm not saying that this is something I say it's, it has to be the way, but I would I like to do screening just to see what, what you know, what it says and what is what you would expect and stuff like that. It's a. It's a very good screening and a very good method. I would say and I spent time with Scott Cox I have to say Scott, I have to give really credit to Scott. Scott has a very similar way of thinking about the golf swing that I always did. What I really enjoyed about Scott was that he said you have this different pattern instead. Of. What I really enjoyed about Scott was Kaukse was that he said you know you have this different patterns the elephant trunk pattern, you have the, you have the Planar mechanics and non-planar mechanics.
Speaker 3:Exactly, that was very interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very interesting, and the way he was thinking about the golf swing, you know, and also there was like a structure to the whole thing and that's what I, that's what I, that's how I started to think about my own structure, about how I want to be as a coach. And it's maybe a blend of a couple of people, also young, who, um and and young, who was also very technical in the beginning, uh, with his seminars, and he got more and more into application recently, I would say. And so it's a couple of guys, I would say, who have inspired me to become a teacher. That's more easier, or maybe trying to look about what's happening. And I was a tour player myself and I know, hey, listen, in the end of the day, on the driving range, you can think about a thousand things if you want, you know, but the problem is you're standing on the golf course on the second day before the cut. It's a 50 miles per hour gale blowing in your face. You are just holding to the club that you don't lose it because it's raining. You don't think about where you put the pressure on your trail foot in the whatever you know, and what you do with your wrist. You don't do that. You just don't do that, okay. So so there's, so it has to be. In the end of the day, you need cues or very simple ideas you can do under a stress situation, and that's what I really try to do with my elite players. That I find are like a way that they, um, maybe one swing idea and maybe, but work on multiple things the same time.
Speaker 2:In training I I have a a little like a, a training system. I like to call it cubic five, like it's a, five exercises. I like to work out with the players five exercises they do five times a week for five minutes, so it's 25 minutes, maybe the pause, it's maybe close to half an hour, five times a week and it's like, and I it's like I keep one space for grip and set that, one for the early backswing, one for the second part of the backswing, one for the follow-through or the downswing thoughts, and one for ground reaction. And then I play around, I give them the drills, this drill for this, this drill for this, this drill for this, and they just do it five times a week for five minutes, you know, and and they get the reps in, but one of them, one of those feelings will work really nicely in the golf course. As a simple thought maybe you know, and this is the one I want them to play with, but when they go back practicing, they do these exercises again, so it becomes second nature after a while, it becomes very normal for them and I've been very successful, um, working with players and changing the golf swings, and also for, like, players who are playing golf for many, many, many, many years, because you know we are, we are stubborn, we have, we, we played, we played for so many years where you know you, look at you, look at your swing 10 years ago, it looks the same like, uh, like 20 years ago.
Speaker 2:You know it always looks like today. It just maybe you got older and stiff, but that's, that's all but but, um, but, um, I can actually see my own swing. I had a huge change the last years just because I understood what I was doing and I was also doing my exercises. I was doing training with, with, with cogs, you know and also online and and, and he inspired me a lot of doing online training myself. I'm offering also online training now via the Sneed app and it's also a lot of fun doing online stuff, especially in the winter in Austria when it's really really really cold. Yeah, but basically with the influence of those people and with about my playing background, I would say I developed quite a nice coaching style and a way how to help players improve.
Speaker 3:Your coaching style is very well received on social media, so how do you get your ideas for your social media videos and maybe from there could you talk a little bit about your greatest hits?
Speaker 2:Okay, so maybe I'll start with social media like this way In 2018, 17, I was at um, who had a big, big online business with um online courses, setting his film, pre-filling his early courses and selling them online. And he and he I talked to him for about two or three hours and he told me how he did it, and um, how he was doing free content and getting people knowing him, and then suddenly putting a paywall in front of the people and say, okay, now buy my products, basically. So I thought that was a fantastic idea. I love the idea because I thought, you know, when you are teaching golf, you only can serve one client at a time, or maybe, if you have a course, maybe four or five, six people, you know.
Speaker 2:But I always had the goal I wanted to put my knowledge into so many people's heads that I can really have an impact on the whole world with my teaching. Basically, maybe, uh, maybe. It was like I was obsessed with this idea. I wanted to get my knowledge out there. I was so angry, but people didn't know about the d-plane, that people didn't know about how the body works in the golf swing. I heard all this stupid advice, you know, and I wanted to get it out, the message out, so I decided, okay, that's what I want to do. I want to create content for free and I want to get online courses out and I want to have a digital solution that people all over the world can work with me. Somebody who's in Australia can work with me in Austria. I think that's the way it should be and the modern approach of teaching golf. You're not stuck to your professional at home. You can't get taught by anybody in the whole world. That's the nice thing about those iPhones we have here and about all the technology coming out. So I decided to do a YouTube channel in 2017.
Speaker 2:I had no idea how to switch on a camera. I didn't know how to film. I didn't know how to edit. I didn't know how to talk in front of a camera. Plus, there was another problem. Um, maybe people who know me for a while on social media they are maybe aware of this, but I had a massive, massive obesity problem. I was really really, really heavy, and I'm talking about. I was close to four over 400 pounds. I mean, I was like 400 pounds of body weight.
Speaker 3:How tall, are you christoph?
Speaker 2:um, uh, what would that be like? Six foot three or something, so 187, I think, centimeters, um, so, so I was really really massively heavy and I didn't look good in front of a camera and I couldn't hardly breathe anymore because I was so fat, you know, and um, it was a consequence, consequence of a couple of things that got me in this situation. You know, in the beginning, when you get really, really obese, you think, okay, you're an idiot, you just don't have discipline, but actually it's a disease, like you know, like it's an eating disorder basically, and it's an eating disorder basically, yeah, and um, it's a, it's a problem. And I got, uh, I got in a situation where I I was probably not far away of dying and I was in a situation of not being received well, in front of people, in front of a camera, but I was standing in front of the camera anyway and did this stuff, you know, and I got the jokes or look at this fatty pool, you know, and whatever, whatever, and he's giving all his golf tips and he can't even breathe, you know, um, which I didn't bother that much because I know they're right, but, um, I did a, but then I did a major, major um um thing in my life.
Speaker 2:I I had a operation. I got with doctors together, I got help and they suggested that I should get my stomach basically removed. It's called a gastric sleeve, so they cut out 90 of your stomach and you just can eat less and you have to have a strict diet and you, and with that I, lost about 150 pounds. I would say yeah, and that's the way I am now. Today I'm still not slim, but I feel actually pretty fit compared to back then.
Speaker 3:Congratulations.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, but that was a long journey and a really tough thing and I knew I had to get my body shape to be perceived as a professional teacher. But that was my biggest problem because I mean, 400 pounds, you cannot, um, you don't, just don't look um, um, very, um, credible, you know, in front of camera. So that's the one thing I did. And then I did the next thing. I started to do in German. Because I'm from Austria, we speak German in Austria. I started my German speaking YouTube channel after I learned how to film. I did courses on photography, I did photos on filming, I did photos on editing. So I learned all the things myself and I put them on YouTube and I saw they received. Well, back then, still with that weight I had. So there, if you look back at my YouTube channel, my old, my German YouTube channel, and the older videos from like six, six, seven years ago, you would see how I was, how it looked like, yeah, so, but they were popular. They were popular in the German, the German golfing community. So I kept going, I kept going, I kept going and, yeah, and After all the surgery and losing all the weight and after COVID and all that kind of stuff. I probably became one of the most, probably one of the most what do you say, maybe influential YouTube channels in the German speaking countries? And what do you say, maybe influential YouTube channel in the German speaking countries? So I'm really well known in Germany, austria and Switzerland.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, back then my videos were really, really technical. I was like I was talking about what, everything, what happened and whatever. And when you look at YouTube, you see the retention graphs, you see when people actually, when they stay on the video and when they drop. And I saw, every time I put in a graph, like a graph in the video, the retention dropped. Every time I talked about how the pros do it, um, the retention dropped. Every time I I said, uh, something about, um, a body part moving uh in a direction which was like with, uh, where I said a vector or something, the graph dropped.
Speaker 2:So I knew, okay, um, either you are known as the guy who's super smart, you know, and nobody's watching, or you have to learn a language that people understand and actually help golfers, because actually I wanted to help golfers, I don't want to scare them. You know. I'd have to give really a huge credit to my team because back then it was like around COVID when COVID started. I you know as terrible as it was, but people who didn't have time back then suddenly had time to help me, oh yeah, so I have two great guys helping me since many, many years. One guy is a specialist for Microsoft. He's very expert in artificial intelligence, and the other guy is a, is a, is a manager of a huge company who, um, who do um, like um, consulting about how to, yeah, how to build up companies, e-commerce and that kind of stuff. So that's it. So it is. These two guys are really experts and. And one guy is a daniel is a amateur golfer with a basically no handicap, just loves the game but plays really, really bad. And the other guy actually um, is um, peter, he's um, he was uh with me to get in the national team. Actually, when we were young, we were playing together european championships and that kind of stuff, and he never became pro, but we met after all these years again. Both these guys basically started helping me when COVID started to build up my YouTube channel. We were discussing things about how to build my brand, how to create content that's digestible for the people and people actually enjoy.
Speaker 2:So I was always criticized by my team and too complicated, nobody really understands this, nobody cares, and they really challenged me on every video, every video I made, they challenged me no, say it easier, do it again. And actually a typical thing we used to do is we said, okay, we'll be having um, we're having a day where we film a couple of um YouTube videos, like we did some batch filming one day, like six, three days one day. But you have to come completely prepared, so because we only have one hour for every video. So what I did is I had to write a script, I had to film it on my iPhone, then I had to edit it on my iPhone so we get the feeling how the video is. Then I uploaded it to my team. Then I said it's bad, do it again. So I did it again. Then, after a while, I said I said okay, guys, what's so bad about it? Do this, do this, this, this differently, you know. And then um, and use this um, use this idea to show the people and this and that. And then we basically, after like seven takes in the iphone, we had a finished version and that we filmed now with a 4k camera for proper, properly for the youtube channel. So, and that, um, there was. So I had videos and videos where I spent about more than 50 hours creating it, if you put everything together, just because of the amount of time we were preparing the shoot and editing process after that also.
Speaker 2:So I had really success in the German market with my videos and got really really well known. And we saw after a while. We saw, okay, people start, especially since I started the shorts and Instagram. My Instagram suddenly blew up because I was doing the videos in English and I saw that people were going over to my German speaking YouTube channel and they were looking, watching my videos with English subtitles and stuff like that yeah, actually ruining my retention because they don't stay as hooked on a video in your language. And then I decided, okay, there's so much, there's so much request of me doing international English speaking videos that I we we starting now to do my. I started to do an English YouTube channel where I at the moment, just upload shots, but I have a lot of growth at the moment there and we are planning to start with English-speaking YouTube videos this year in my English-speaking channel and yeah, that's really the goal.
Speaker 3:One of your most popular videos three things PGA pros do to create effortless power. That's amazing. It says POV right Point of view. What gave you that idea for POV? And when I look at your videos, you strike me as a modern day John Jacobs. I look at the videos I like. Okay, I can see why this guy is so popular, because you can almost scroll through and say, hey, I've got a very long back swing, very short back swing I think Christophe would have an answer and boom, there, it is Three minutes, something bite-sized for the audience. And then they go back. Works, doesn't work. Look for another one. That's really, really amazing. And I find, from an instructor's point of view, that there is not enough of such videos which have technical depth but easy to understand, like secret source for power, like who wouldn't want the secret source for power? And and what really captures my my attention when I see your videos, I see a big guy like yourself playing with the driver swinging in like a lasso and then boom, 300 yards. Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:Well, the thing is, you know, when I started with the, with the, at some stage I said, okay, I want to, I want to get more.
Speaker 2:Well, more, I want to get my narrow child in the international market, in the English speaking community, maybe also in the Asian community, and I thought I had to go English. Okay, and suddenly you know, like reels were a big thing, youtube shorts were a big thing, suddenly, I was used to producing long-form content and I knew from the YouTube channel that if you don't give something which is compelling or like cooks you to the screen, the people will not watch. You know, and if you spend I always said, if I spend all the time filming, planning, filming, editing, I want at least I want people to see it at least like the first few seconds are bad, or you come with an um a few. That is very common. Yeah, then people just say, oh, it's just one of one of the one, more of the same. You know, it's just another one, you know.
Speaker 2:And and I always said, okay, I have any quick dynamic changes, I need, uh, other views and maybe a little bit, um little, sometimes a little bit.
Speaker 2:Oh, he's 300 yards or more, but then again, this is what the PGA pros do, uh, whatever you know, and and for effortless power. So I put some hooks with us, um, uh, maybe some very crazy um um shots, like own shots or like now with the POV, just to get the people's attention, and then really thinking about, okay, how can I put this in a? I got basically one minute, basically for a short. You know over a thing, but the thing is, if you do a short for one minute, it doesn't, it never gets viral, it never gets. So it has to be about 30 to 35, 40 seconds maybe the maximum. So how are you going to put a cool message across in 40 seconds? And so I really challenged myself day and night, finding cool ideas, finding visuals, finding crazy drills. I think I like this idea, this one with the wrist, like this movement where I basically went from steep to shallow, unlike showing just a basic wrist movement.
Speaker 3:Speaking of steep to shallow, I thought another great video of yours was when you went through the whole spectrum of this is steep, this is shallow. I thought that was very educational.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah, thank you. I thought this was not out there. But just going back to the other thing, I thought, okay, I have to find a way to be educating but also entertaining at the same time. And so I challenged myself the whole time how can I be, how can I do it differently than the other people and in a fun way that people like to watch it? And it's not the same the whole time. And it was one day I was, I was actually going to, I was wanting to buy some sunglasses and I saw the, the mate, the, the, the, the. I don't know I want to doa. I don't know, I want to do some. I don't want to do any other advertisement there, but there's a company that sells actually glasses where you have a built-in camera and a built-in video, and I saw it and I talked to my team and they also said, yeah, I get it, it's a cool idea. And then I bought it and then I started filming myself actually playing golf with it, and it has a beautiful microphone system as well. So I don't need any crazy hookup, it's just I put it on the glasses and I just talk and I do it. And then, if I wanted to have a second perspective. I did a second shot with this or with the drone and then I combined the things.
Speaker 2:But in the beginning I just did a lot of videos, just only with the glasses, and it was amazing. I got, like every video, a million views, 2 million views, and the one you were talking about with the two release, which is basically a very simple, not spectacular thing actually, if you, if you, if you, if you're in the golf instruction, you know there's an unhinging, a subpoena, you know, and there's threatening of the right arm, you know that it's not like it's not rocket science, but it was such an upset for many people that I was teaching that and this is crazy and this is BS and whatever. So you've got so much positive, also negative, comments and I had over 3 million views only on Instagram with that and I thought, wow, I mean, you know, when you, when you see something's working nicely and I'm the first guy, obviously, who did it with the POV, with the glasses, and yeah, then you keep on doing and I did a couple of those and but I didn't want to continue doing the whole time because it's not. I think at some stage it gets boring. So I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd like to choose topics which are very controversial, maybe, which are misunderstood. I think the topic about wrist, wrist mechanics is really a misunderstood among among hobby golfers, but also good golfers they, they, they. They talk about feelings sometimes, but not what really is happening. And also the topic with turning your hips and how the hips work in the golf swing or how you move your pelvis. It's massively misunderstood and I think it can only be understood if you have actually worked with ground reaction or with force plates and you have experience with that as a coach. I think only then you have a clear understanding of what's happening. I mean, I'm not saying that you cannot teach golf without that, but it definitely helps to get a very clear picture.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think the better the golfer you teach, the more detailed the information needs to be. If you're a beginner golfer, it doesn't really matter what kind of grip you have, as long as it looks okay. Your backswing has to be okay to just play a 24 handicap. But if you're talking about plus two going to a plus four, that's a different ball game altogether.
Speaker 2:That's true. But I also say, also for the beginner, also for the normal golfer, knowing this stuff, at least knowing this stuff, doesn't mean that you Because I always hear, oh, this guy is not physically possible to do it yeah, maybe, but I rather have to write the information as a handicap 25 than having the wrong information. But what's the option? You know, if I say, oh, this is so tough to do, this release, I'm teaching there or showing there, okay, what's the option? The other option is doing a chicken wing and putting in your arms and hurting yourself. Is that an option? Or would I try to do it the right way, maybe fail a little bit, you know, and you know, like you want to go to the Mars, but you just make it to the moon is better than staying on earth, you know. So, basically, like that, going backwards, so. So I'd rather have people, I'd rather have people with the correct information, maybe presented in a, in a fun way or in an educational way, which is like engaging for a couple of seconds, then not having information. Because that's exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted people learn about the golf game. I wanted to be the one who actually tells the whole world how golf should be or how it could be.
Speaker 2:Of course we know there are many ways to skin a cat, many ways to swing the golf club. There are different body types. Yes, I know this. But there are things in a golf swing which are universal and we know from measurements. There are basically only two, maybe three release styles PGA2 players use. We know that Basically it's the reflection towards extension release and the turn-down release. Basically, these are the two main. Maybe there's some combinations, but these are the two main release styles. There's no. And if somebody says, oh, you shouldn't extend your lead wrist after impact, well, there could be a feeling of for somebody for not overextending or doing too early. But but, but we know from measurements, basically everybody's doing it. You know, um, whether they're doing it consciously or not, you know it's happening. And the same is, um, with the body rotation.
Speaker 2:People talking about, oh, just straighten your left knee and you can turn, yeah, but there are many ways how you can, how you can straighten your left knee and turn, you know, and the one is efficient, one is not, one is the fake turn and one is the the efficient turn, yeah. So, um, yeah, this is, this is the message I want to uh get across in the world basically that modern golf instruction or like modern, I mean the stuff has been there. For I mean, if you look at Ben Hogan and all the guys back also in the 50s, 60s, whatever, or even earlier, they had fantastic swings back there. I mean, look at Hogan, look at Snead, look at Bobby Jones, it doesn't matter, look, they had great golf swings and they were. I'm sure they were doing the same things or using the same forces or the same principles, like modern golfers are using, you know. But back then what was the best? They had, basically, maybe a camera. A camera so they could do a still picture. Maybe they could do a series of pictures and say, okay, this is how the golf swing should work, but it didn't tell you the story. It didn't tell you what you were doing in the feet, it didn't tell you how you were loading your hip joint, it didn't tell you about how the grip pressure was.
Speaker 2:And nowadays, with the instruction we have on all the measurements and smart people and biomechanics and doctors and everybody like helping the game, nowadays we can actually give a very clear picture of what's happening in a golf swing. And some things are universal and some things are style, you know, and if you have high hands or low hands, you know these are styles, but still the wrist will work the same for most players. Most players will load the ball of the foot. Great players load the ball of the foot, of the lead foot, in the early transition. That's basically universal. You will see, every great player will have the pressure on the lead side before left arm hits parallel in the downswing. I mean, these are things maybe there's one there who doesn't but I would say we're pretty safe. These are things we see in great golf swings.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you guys agree, but that's at least what I think. And we have this knowledge nowadays. We have it, we have it. And the only thing that's stopping us is the message is not there. People say, oh, don't sway in the backswing, don't sway. If you don't sway in the early backswing you would have a problem with pressure shift in the second part. So people are trying to stay centered with their pelvis in the start, don't move the pelvis, don't sway. And then suddenly the club moves away and then they sway anyway, because it's the way how ground reaction works. So everybody looks at me when I say you have to sway in the golf swing. I mean sway sounds very negative, but basically, what is a sway? A sway is a lateral movement towards the target or away from the target.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it happens in every golf swing and it's maybe not huge but it's there, you know, and there are forces that produce doing that, or you produce forces to do that. You know, and there are consequences because of that, how your body and how everything organizes. And then you're going to be consistent. And if you want to be consistent, you have have a efficient body movement and pressure shifts and wrist movements and structure and all that kind of stuff. I'm sorry and I don't, I don't. And then every time somebody says, okay, but John Diddy swings it, swings it long, so yeah, but he gets his structure, structure, his pressures and everything organized again, you know. So they're always outliers, but they're still doing the universal stuff. So, um, yeah, this is the message I want to get. I want to get across um to the people and in a fun way, educational way, and my team and I were really, especially last week, we were thinking a lot of the formats, how, how we're going to, what we're going to do for the YouTube channel and so, um, if you guys want to subscribe at Bowsick golf it's called, um, feel free to something coming up very soon. And um, yeah, so yeah, and it's fun, it's fun.
Speaker 2:I love content creation. I mean, I've been doing it for many years. Um, I got a whole notebook in my iPhone like ideas I want to film. I had a crazy idea last night again Again, what nobody has seen before. So I'm going to fool around tomorrow with some, with some trial. We're going to try some shoots and we're not going to publish it yet, but I have some cool ideas. I want to try it If I can film it the way I want to. So it's always something happening, always something happening.
Speaker 2:I like, I love ideas. I love I read every comment. I read every comment. I don't answer every comment because it's too many, but I read every comment because I want to know what people think. I read the comments of other content creators, what people think. I want to understand how the people, the people think, what they believe. I get ideas from reading comments. I get ideas from talking to people you know, and sometimes you just see funny stuff and you think that's cool. I want to do this, or you see somebody doing something really cool and you think that's so cool, but I want to do it better than him, so I think that's that's. That's how it how it works. I mean, if you look like this name, check out the wrapping, the wrapping golf pro.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, he's got his own brand.
Speaker 3:Right yeah, he's got his own brand, he's from California.
Speaker 2:I think I think he's awesome. He's the he. He does very, very good videos, very good content, very clever, and he sings. You know who would sing? Who would rap? I think that's brilliant. Yeah, that's absolutely brilliant. This is, I think, how it should be, you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, you guys are more about educating, entertaining. It's not so much about oh look how smart I am, but it's more about if you do this, you enjoy the game better. And that's what it really is all about. How can we get more people into the game of golf? Exactly so what programs are planned for your English-speaking fans?
Speaker 2:Programs. Well, the one thing is I started doing now my online courses because I had so many. I'm really really busy in my home course and driving around giving courses Aimpoint courses and my other courses, driver courses and whatever in all Austria and Germany and all these countries, so I'm really busy during the summer, but I really enjoy also doing online training. So I found out in the winter. It's really nice to have people from different countries working on the golf game with me. So I started with Sneed app a couple of months ago, started doing some online training and I will probably try to get more and more people giving them the possibility to work with me online. So if you go to the Sneed app, download Sneed app and you can find me there. This is something I want to do more from now on. And the second thing is building up the program. We're building up the YouTube channel now to getting the knowledge, the people knowing me actually, and then we will start to film content like pay content, of course, but very structured pay content that people basically can learn golf in a very simple way. Let's put it this way we're working on programs and ways how to combine all this to gather all this information there is out there, this complicated information into a really easy way to do it. You know, this is something we're really working on now, I would say. So the main things I developed like a golf swing method. I did a video on YouTube about that in the German speaking channel. It kind of translated into English but it would be something like the foolproof golf swing. So basically, I had the idea. I had the idea one day with my team.
Speaker 2:Imagine the situation You're like a guy who hasn't played golf, maybe like a couple of years ago, but you've got family, you have a family, you've got kids, you're working a lot, haven't played golf for 10 or 15 years. Sunday, your boss says, hey, listen, I got this guy coming in on Sunday, this business partner, we have to play golf with him. You haven't played golf for 15 years, you know. So you go oh, my God, I haven't played golf, I don't know how to hold a club, I don't know how to swing.
Speaker 2:We did a seven or eight month um project for the german youtube channel where we basically I basically um tried to find a method, um that a person like that. It's more like a, it's like more like a, like this idea of the person who doesn't practice a lot, basically, or can't practice a lot. How can I get him, within a 10 minute video, to actually not suck completely when he's playing with the boss? You know, and um, there's a really smart things, uh, did. They're like uh, um over hinging the wrists and and getting a no hinge, and then for that they have a flexed wrist in the top and I get the setup in a good position already, which is closer to a impact position than, uh, maybe a classical um setup and and you know, and and and looking at two or three key elements in the golf swing which are important, and then it's one of my most popular videos in the german speaking countries.
Speaker 2:We were playing around with the idea of maybe getting that idea to the US market and the international market. There are many things, many ideas we have. Yeah, I'm really looking forward to that. It's cool.
Speaker 3:We look forward to that and our listeners can find you again at Balsat Golf.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the YouTube channel is Balsat Golf and our listeners can find you again at Balsak Golf. Yeah, the YouTube channel is Balsak Golf and my Instagram is at Christoph underscore Balsak. I think you might have show notes. Maybe we can put them in there.
Speaker 3:We will add it there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you. Thank you, I'm also on TikTok. You guys were close of losing TikTok in America, thank you. And there is also, I'm also on tiktok. You guys were close of losing tiktok in america, but I actually am also there at christoph balzic. So, yeah, but, um, I got this, I like this. Three channels and, um, yeah, so I'm trying to upload like three or four shorts every week and, and in the future, more, a couple more other things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really, it's good, it's good fun, you know it's um, it's also good exercise for the coaching, because you, because you um, try to be easy, understanding, you try to be well received, you try to be engaging and that also, when people come to me for physical lessons, they can really feel that. And what I started to do also is I started to give Every time somebody comes for a lesson. You would think this is logical, but not when you actually do this. You do a recap of the lesson with the student with the iPhone, say, come for the iPhone. I talk to you about two or three key pointers, what you should do, and that's it. What I started to do now is I also started to film it from my point of view. So I did a point of view video for the student that they see how it should look like for them when they do their golf swing, and I send it to them and they absolutely love it. So that's that's something I also do and and I think, um, also, I think all golf professionals should really have a thought process about how they deliver the message to their students and how they make sure that they keep on doing it after you, after they had your lesson, because I have the feeling sometimes, when somebody jumps in the car and leaves me, when they're 10 miles away from my place, they forgot 70% of what I said and at the moment you know, at the moment they're studying the lesson everything is so clear, everything is so yeah, finally, and then they're at home and they cannot even remember that they saw me that day, you know sometimes.
Speaker 2:So I really make sure that the information I give them um, that they, um, that they, uh, that they, that it comes across and they can, they can actually find it, find the feeling again for that on their own, and what I also offer many times is that they send me a video of their swing after 10 days or after seven days, after they have the feeling they want to show it to me, because when they want to show it to me they really try hard. You know that's a fun one, because when people try to send you a golf swing to recheck, basically after seven to 10 days, they don't send you a shit swing Because actually the first time in their life they look at this swing. How many people actually read golf swing?
Speaker 2:I don't know how that is in Singapore, in the US, but in my area nobody looks at this golf swing and they're really surprised that's what they're doing. But if they have to send me a golf swing, then they find they look looking at the golf swing and say I'm doing this again. He said I should not be doing this, you know. And then he, and then he's actually start practicing until they have a golf swing they can send to me and that's that. I think that's a good one. That's a good one, you know. So motivating people to send the golf swing because they have to watch the golf swing, that that teaches them to get more feedback from video and actually working on the golf swing, that that teaches them to get more feedback from video and actually working on the golf swing yeah thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, uh, for your time today, christoph. That was a lot to unpack for our listeners, and I'm sure they'll find a lot of benefit in listening to this podcast as well as watching your social media content. I can't thank you enough for your time today, christoph.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much, justin, thank you so much Jesse. I really appreciate it and, yeah, all the best to you guys.
Speaker 1:Thank, you, Christoph.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I definitely will be also following your, your podcast. Yeah, thanks.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thank you, thank you.