Flag Hunters Golf Podcast

The Missing Piece: Why Your Golf Swing Isn't the Problem

• Jesse Perryman

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We dive deep into the subconscious barriers keeping you from reaching your golf potential. Paul Salter, performance coach and hypnotherapist, reveals how childhood programming creates an "upper limit" to success and provides practical strategies to break through mental blocks.

• Our subconscious controls 95% of daily actions including performance under pressure
• First seven years of life program our belief systems while we're in a "theta" brainwave state
• Self-imposed mental limits are rooted in fear of standing out or changing identity
• Technical proficiency (swing mechanics) matters less as you approach scratch level
• The key difference between elite players and the rest is emotional regulation
• Pattern interrupts like Tiger's "10-foot rule" help reset after mistakes
• Visualization should include both perfect shots AND recovering from mistakes
• Scratch golfers demonstrate greater acceptance and detachment from outcomes
• Hypnotherapy provides access to rewrite limiting subconscious beliefs
• Top performers find safety in risk-taking and competitive edges

For more from Paul, visit https://thegolfhypnotherapist.com/ and follow @thegolfhypnotherapist on Instagram. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe to the Flag Hunters Golf Podcast.


Speaker 1:

Hello, this is Jesse Perryman from the Flag Hunters podcast golf podcast. Hope you're having a healthy and happy week and that your golf game is in ascension mode. Ascending that's what we're here for. Enjoy the game, try to get better and just share our experiences with our fellow people that we play with, and to go out and test the boundaries of ourselves and accept what is so without further ado. This week's valued guest is a man by the name of Paul Salter. Paul has been on the podcast a couple times before. He is a performance coach, a high performance coach, a licensed hypnotherapist, and has 15 years of coaching experience and he's got over 2500 clients. The guy has been around.

Speaker 1:

I have grown to know Paul and love and respect him for his message and what he's trying to do. And basically, for those who didn't listen to the first couple of times that Paul's come on, for those who didn't listen to the first couple of times that Paul's come on, he has unique ways, via hypnotherapy, to get into the psyche, to get to the root cause of whatever ails you and what manifests, just as importantly, on and off the golf course, for example, getting into subconscious belief patterns that can really inhibit your best performance where you're trying to get in this game whether it's a high-level amateur or a professional or a touring professional or one of the best in the world there's things that are embedded within our psyche that eventually are going to come out, and they usually come out under duress, whether it's you're going to win a golf tournament or you're in position to win a golf tournament. You're trying to make a cut, you're trying to break 90, 80, 70 for the first time. Whatever is going on underneath the veil of consciousness will come out, and a lot of times it will come out beyond our control. So what Paul does is he gets in there and rewires that sub-root programming, whatever that is to help heal, fix any unconscious narratives that are underlying underneath what's going on inside of your mind.

Speaker 1:

Bringing this stuff, bringing the ailments into conscious awareness, is really the first step, and then getting in there and reprogramming those into positive beliefs, beliefs that are life-enhancing, encouraging. That's what Paul does, and he talks about it eloquently here on the podcast. So I encourage you to check him out. I'm going to make sure that all of his pertinent information is in the show notes and in the meantime, go to unstuckyourselfmindsetcom All one word, just like it sounds wwwunstuckyourselfmindsetcom.

Speaker 1:

And anybody who is serious about this game really needs to listen to his words with an open mind and with an open heart, because you could be doing everything that you can in your physical power. You could have the best coaches in the world, you could be working diligently on your game, you could be working on your mental game, you could be working on your physical fitness, which all are an important piece of the pie, don't get me wrong. But you can do all of these tangible things and still come up short due to these erroneous beliefs that manifest when we least want them to, but they do. But it really is a call to action to bring ourself back into wholeness on and off the golf course and to get out there and realize who we really are, those of us who put in the work. This is vital information because this really is the missing piece of the beautiful puzzle that we call ascension in this game. So again, unstuckyourselfmindsetcom, his name is Paul Salter. Listen to his words very carefully. They're very powerful, they're life-enhancing, they're golf-enhancing, and just get to it. They're life enhancing, they're golf enhancing, and just get to it. This could be sort of the missing piece of what ails you out there and why you may not be able to get over the hump if that is your crossroads in this journey.

Speaker 1:

So thank you for listening in advance. I really appreciate your support and again, please remember to rate, review and subscribe. And a big thanks to Paul for sharing his time with a young family and a thriving business. Cheers everyone. Hello, this is Jesse Perryman. Welcome to another edition of the Flag Hunters Golf Podcast. Today we have somebody that, if you're a long-time listener, you're familiar with. His name is Paul Salter. He is a hypnotherapist that specializes in helping schmucks like myself get better playing this game and also has a real niche with professional card players poker players which is kind of cool. But without further ado, thanks Paul again for coming on. It's a real treat, always a treat to talk to you always.

Speaker 2:

Likewise, I'm so grateful you're having me back on. I thoroughly enjoy these conversations. I leave more amped up ready to go and I always leave with a ton more knowledge and nuggets to consider.

Speaker 1:

So, for those that are listening for the first time, paul, just give us a quick background of where you were and here we are now, and here we are now.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely so. My name again, paul Salter. I'm a high performance hypnotherapist and mindset coach and, in a nutshell, I help high performers get unstuck out of their own way and unlock or play to their potential. As Jesse alluded to, I work primarily with golfers, a lot with professional poker players and entrepreneurs and business owners. My journey goes back 16 plus years ago when I first got into coaching. As a high performance dietitian, I worked very closely with elite college, professional and Olympic athletes, helping them to maximize their performance and body composition.

Speaker 2:

Now, what was unique about my approach? Despite being a dietitian at the time, I very rarely talked about food and nutrition. I operated with the bold assumption you know what to do, you know what you should be eating and, if I give you the framework, really where we're going to find the obstacles and the challenges are in your mind or in your heart. So the foundation of my coaching from day one has always been from the mindset and the emotional aspect of what's holding you back from doing what you need to do. And, as you alluded to, fast forward 10 years into that journey, I have a passion for the game of poker and I just couldn't repress it any longer. So I went all in.

Speaker 2:

I played poker professionally for a couple of years and this is where I ran into myself repeatedly, over and over, knocking myself down, getting in my own way. So I finally asked for help. I hired a mindset coach, who happened to be a hypnotherapist. In a very short amount of time, the amount of money I was playing for and winning on the poker table exponentially increased. But she had a far greater impact on my personal life, so much so I said see you. Later, nutrition coaching went all in on. Mindset coaching became a credentialed hypnotherapist, been mentoring under her, as well as a gentleman named Elliot Rowe for a few years, just to continue sharpening the tools in my toolkit.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what a great journey. Fun, yeah, absolutely. And with our audience, is directed primarily at the good player, although anybody can benefit. Once you get to a certain level playing the game of golf, it becomes less about the physical and more about the mental, and more about the mental, and hypnotherapy primarily deals with the subconscious, getting underneath the veil of what you're consciously aware of and what our original operating systems are. What is it about hypnotherapy that allows the person being treated to transcend the conscious ego and really get down into the depths of what's truly operating our lives, our belief systems and all of that?

Speaker 2:

Well, I think you nailed it with such a good segue. For me is you know, the subconscious is responsible for 95% of what you do on a daily basis. Your subconscious is home to your memories, emotions, your beliefs, your behaviors, your fears. And that's incredibly important because the first seven years of life we're basically in a walking hypnotic state. Hypnosis is nothing more than a deep state of relaxation. It's characterized by primarily producing theta brainwaves. From ages zero to seven, we're pretty much locked into this theta state, which means we absorb everything. Each person listening you've heard the cliche we're like a walking sponge. Those first few years we're picking up all of the verbal and nonverbal cues that are being said or shared in our environment, with our parents, guardians, the entertainment we're consuming as well. So that goes on to shape, and research even backs this up.

Speaker 2:

About 95% of our belief system is formed roughly by the age of seven. Well, guess what? You had virtually no say in the development of your belief system, and we all have these core beliefs about ourself, about others, about life. And I also had a fourth one in there, about money, because I work a lot with a lot of individuals, business owners, who have terrible, negative relationships with money. But what I'm getting at is beliefs are nothing more than the filter through which you see the world, which ultimately serves a filter in determining the decisions you make and the actions you take. And, if we oversimplify, what is your identity and who you are but a composition of your beliefs and your behaviors? So when we talk about finding ourselves stuck in these patterns of behaviors and beliefs that hold us back, that constantly lead us to getting in our way, it's all within the subconscious. Hypnosis offers a safe, fast, effective way to go to the origin of when you learn to think, feel and believe a certain way. So then you can create an opportunity to begin unlearning those outdated programs.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's so well said, Paul, incredible that the thing that people bump up against a lot, especially trying to realize their potential on the golf course whatever that is they hire a good swing coach, they work diligently on their golf swing, they make progress, maybe they get into the gym, maybe they're more mindful of what they're doing off the golf course, and yet it's still not translating into lower scores. And I really do believe that this modality in which we're talking about can really help somebody like myself, who's always ascending to get better, identify what hasn't been identifiable. You know, you bring the intangible into the tangible. And what, what? What are some of the things that you find?

Speaker 1:

Uh, maybe some maladaptive operating systems or part of the operating system that we have that you uncover. Is there anything that's, uh, pretty regular, uh, in someone's belief system that would help block them and not realize their full potential? Is it something that us, as a society, we've been indoctrinated in the United States? I mean, is it just a simple I'm not good enough belief? You know, what are some of the things in there that really clog up the pathway to our full?

Speaker 2:

potential. Yeah, it's a multi-layered question. I love that, and the first point I'll address is we all have this internal thermostat that influences how much success, love, money or attention we believe we are worthy of achieving and experiencing, and that, of course, is shaped partly by society we think about it. It's and I'm using air quotes for those of you watching it's not safe to stand out because we are all biologically wired to belong. Centuries ago, if you didn't belong to a tribe, you were either eaten by a saber tooth tiger or you starved to death because you relied on your tribe for food and shelter. As funny and as irrational as that sounds, in present day, when the vast majority of us don't have to worry about food and shelter related challenges, that fear is as fucking real and prominent as ever. And when we think next level success, you have to stand out, you have to move past your current pack or tribe, and that's really scary. So we have this internal thermostat in which is, again, it's just the belief of what we believe we're worthy, deserving and capable of achieving. With respect to success, love, money, whatever it is, that's also a fancy word of way of saying what's known as the upper limit problem or fear of success and it's an unconscious, self-imposed limit on how much success you can have.

Speaker 2:

You know, I work with a lot of golfers. They're plus handicaps, they're multi-time country club winners trying to get to the next level, trying to compete for a poor card. And the number one issue we work on is fear of success. Because that next level success and you know this as well as I do, jesse it requires an identity change. And again going back to how we kick things off, your identity is your behaviors, beliefs, the way you speak to yourself. If you start standing out more and more from your friends, your playing partners, your family, that poses a threat that might create tension, resentment, frustration or even end a relationship you care about. And the thought of being alone and isolated is a major threat to your subconscious, which is why it has a thousand and one ways it can sneakily sabotage you and keep you stuck in that zone of comfort at the level of success you feel comfortable with at this present time.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's incredibly well said. What a great answer. That's very profound, Paul. As I'm listening, I'm thinking that we create our own subconscious safety net and it results to our own prison.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, great way to say it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's deep. That's something to really ponder. Those who are achieving excellence, let's say Scotty Scheffler, for example. He's the number one player in our sport. He plays with something a little bit different. His golf swing is terrific.

Speaker 1:

I'm a big fan of it. I'm a big fan of how he plays golf. I'm a big fan of how he carries himself. But there's something within because I have been around him and there's something within him that he has this ability to to let go. He's trying his best I mean, he's he's, he's really trying to play his best golf. But there's a part of his consciousness where he's not identified to what he shoots. It seems to be that way. I'm sure he wouldn't be too happy shooting 75, but at the end of the day it's it's not really going to affect him where the majority of us, myself included, has shot 75, 76, 77, 78 in a golf tournament or whatever. And I'm driving home from that day and I'm thinking I'm the biggest piece of shit on the planet and I guess is there a way that, through hypnotherapy, through working with you, paul, that there can be proper perspectives in place?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's so timely. You shared that so we're recording. It's Thursday, march 13th, first day one of the Players Championship, and they literally just did a cutaway of Rory talking about some of the mental changes he made in the offseason to, in his words, more or less be more like Scotty. And what Rory talked about was in the past. He shoots a 75. He'd beat himself up, he'd be a bear of an individual to be around when he goes home and he's got a wife, a young daughter. He has so many things to be grateful for in his life. But he was so attached to that outcome. And one thing he remarked in admiration towards Scotty Scotty will shoot a 62 or an 82. You won't know the difference.

Speaker 2:

He shows up, he's grateful, he's so present. The moment he steps on the at the clubhouse property, he's locked into golf. The moment he leaves, he's locked into, you know, family mode, personal mode, whatever you say. And I attribute that to many aspects and of course I can't speak on Scotty's behalf directly. But number one, there is a relentless belief in himself, in a trust in himself that he's done everything he can to prepare, which means when he shows up on the course he can do what is absolutely necessary to play to his potential, and that's play freely. There's no anxious or worried thoughts about did I prepare well enough, am I ready, Am I worthy? He goes in with an expectation to win because, yes, he's put in the time and effort, physically but also mentally, to cultivate this resilience, this deep, unwavering belief in himself which allows him to be free, stoic and emotionally detached, focused on one shot at a time and see you, and is this a real possibility for people to have all of their faculties available and have the ability, just this letting go?

Speaker 1:

Can hypnotherapy really get in there and change those wired core beliefs, whether they're good or maladaptive? I mean, ben Hogan did it. He had a pretty tough start. Those first seven years of his life were no joke. First nine years he was able to transcend that. First nine years he was able to transcend that. Can a practitioner or a patient of hypnotherapy be able to have that transcendence? Is that a distinct possibility?

Speaker 2:

Absolutely and think about it through this lens. The collection of limiting beliefs, the collection of limiting beliefs, fear, sabotaging behaviors that one experiences during a round of golf, in an everyday life that holds them back from achieving their potential All of those are learned. The anxiety you feel on the first tee, the anger reaction you experience after shanking a tee shot, those are all learned. I have a two-shot lead on 16 with two and a half holes to go, and I blow up because I hit two balls in the water. That tension, that tightness, that stress, that fear all of that's collectively learned.

Speaker 2:

So hypnosis creates an opportunity to go back in time, to uncover the origin of when you learned that. And more often than not it occurs during a time in adolescence where you were simply emotionally ill-equipped to handle a certain situation because you were six or 13 years old and you didn't have the emotional intelligence or maturity. So what did your subconscious do? It formed a coping mechanism through either the creation of a belief or a behavior to either keep you safe or ensure one of your childhood needs were met, such as a need for acceptance, belonging or connection. So we see all of that carry with you, become further ingrained through more and more experience as you get older, and it's not until you're willing to look inward and say oh shit, I'm the one getting in my way. And then, through curiosity or I say nonjudgmental curiosity open mindedness and coachability, if you're willing to look inward and work on yourself, you can absolutely begin to let go of those sabotaging beliefs and behaviors.

Speaker 1:

What's interesting about what you said, too, is the instant manifestation on the golf course. It's wild. I don't know of anything in life at least in my soon to be 55 years of being on this planet where those who play, whether it's competitive or not, it doesn't surprise me that your average weekend handicapper God bless he or her, I mean everybody has their intention of playing the game of golf. But it doesn't surprise me that a lot of people that I've seen just get wasted on the golf course because they don't want to deal with it. They don't want to deal with that. They don't want to deal with those repressed feelings or anything, because, for whatever reason on the golf course, that if any limiting beliefs that we have is going to show up at some point or another, and a lot of times they show up right when we don't need them to. It's the example of having a two-shot lead with two and a half holes to play and you cook yourself. Having a two shot lead with two and a half holes to play in your and you and you cook yourself. So I think that this is so relevant because I still in in the you know I'm in year four of this podcast. I still seem to think that the, the undercurrent of getting better, is still trying to figure out your golf swing. And your golf swing is important. It's, it's really important. I'm not taking away its place, but the importance has been placed too much on it, in my opinion, and not enough on the very phenomenon that we're talking about right now.

Speaker 1:

Uh, you know, convinced too that the swings of yesteryear, some of the idiosyncrasies and people that may not swing the club aesthetically pleasing or may even not have all of their ducks in a row dynamically, but they still find a way to win. They still find a way to compete. They still find a way to win. They still find a way to compete. They still find a way to shoot 62. You know. So this what we're talking about here. I mean this should start to be taught in elementary school. I mean, day one yeah, day one mindset and really doing belief work, that's going to set you up for massive success, you know, no matter what this is.

Speaker 1:

So, as we talked about before we hit the record button, I want to bring this up because this is important. This goes along the lines of what we're talking about and this, it's a perfect precursor to setting your nervous system up to handle whatever the perceived stress is. Yeah, whatever threshold we're bumping up against uh, whether it's playing in somebody's club championship, whether it's, uh, maybe breaking 70 for the first time forget the break 80 part, breaking 70 for the first time, qualifying for a USGA event, or playing in a high level state amateur event we all have these thresholds that we need to break. Does hypnotherapy really stack the deck in our favor to be able to handle it? To be able to? Okay, let's talk about that process.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I'm going to come. I I'm gonna go backwards to come forward here. I promise I'll connect the dots. If I don't just yell at me, I'll get back on track.

Speaker 2:

However, I love what you because I I wholeheartedly agree with you with your approach in terms of there's such an overemphasis on the swing and you know I bring a unique perspective because I didn't touch golf clubs for 16 years and getting back into the game, you know, about a year ago, it's evident to me that you know I had to knock off some rust in terms of mechanics and whatnot, but I played enough during childhood that why do most golfers spend so much time on their swing?

Speaker 2:

You know, even you know we talk about early amateurs to those who are single digit and plus handicaps.

Speaker 2:

The reason swing malfunctions more often than not become so high on the priority list is because they keep happening due to a lack of focus, a lack of presence, the emotions, the limiting beliefs permeating into your conscious mind when you need most to be free and present. So the mental game work not only offers an opportunity to strengthen your ability to cultivate focus and presence, it diffuses the emotional charge of some of your reactions that are going to occur when you inevitably come up against a trigger on the course. There's tons of physical hazards on the golf course. There's also no shortage of mental and emotional hazards. So the mental work helps you hit more shots from a focused present state, which helps the changes you're working on your swing sink deeper and deeper into that subconscious and your ability then to cultivate presence and focus strengthens your ability to consistently and repeatedly execute that swing. Therefore, less needed time on the swing, more time on playing course management or working on the mental side of the game.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's, yeah that. Sorry, Paul, I mean that.

Speaker 2:

No, you're good. I wanted to pause.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that makes such great sense. I mean that you just nailed it right on the head. I talk about it with my two advisors, my teachers John Erickson and Brad Hughes, all the time Very successful coaches. But the way that they teach is to A learn how to coach yourself and B the training modality is such where you get focused concentrative areas away from hitting a golf ball, where you can go out and play and focus on more of what you just said Going out and playing course management, actually learning how to play the game and bending the golf course to your will.

Speaker 1:

Play the game and bending the golf course to your will. That level of mindfulness is very key. I find it extremely prevalent in any tour player, both man and woman, that they literally, if they don't have their A game, they have the consciousness and the presence of mind to shapeshift on a dime if they need to. And I think that goes along with an acceptance part as well. Yeah, I find that fascinating, paul, that the best players in the world can accept the fact that they have a C-day going, but yet the rest of us absolutely throw a goddamn fit if we don't have our A game.

Speaker 2:

We press, we press, we try to overcompensate, we stress, we create more emotion, more tension. We inevitably blow up and shoot an 85.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, wouldn't it be nice to walk out on the first tee and have so much freedom in your own skin that you want to play? Well, of course, but whatever happens happens and you're going to be okay with it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, what a way to play golf. Absolutely that's the way I want to play golf and let's bring it back to that now I'll get back. Get us back on track with that question of like coming up against those thresholds, wanting to win and play in bigger tournaments, the collective stress response that we all experience when we begin to step outside of our comfort zone. Stress and this is something I wouldn't say I've changed my tune on. I think I've found better verbiage. What is stress? More than just being fear, stress is fear.

Speaker 2:

Stress is another way to say I'm afraid, because we can quickly find surface level reasons to validate.

Speaker 2:

We're stressed.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I'm stressed because I didn't prepare, I'm stressed because I have an injury, I'm stressed because I didn't have enough time for X, y and Z.

Speaker 2:

But at the core of it, stress is a fear response and really those individuals who feel stressed, trying to break 70, playing in a USM, a USGA event, they're afraid and it goes back to what we discussed earlier, because when they perform well, when they win, they stand out, they ascend. So not only does it require an identity change, but suddenly more eyeballs, more attention, more responsibility, pressure, expectation begins to weigh down on them, and I joked about this, I don't know if it was on my podcast or somebody else's, but I would love to see the data of people who have only won one time on the PGA Tour, and maybe one major because they stepped so far out of their comfort zone. They won, the stars aligned, but they were never able to have anything close to repeating that success because the pressure just got to them so much. It weighed them down, held them back and they got stuck in a cycle of sabotage, never even tasting anything remotely close to that success again.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, that's well stated. That's's interesting, paul, what a great thing to contemplate. Yeah, you win once you're on the mountaintop, but you got a lot of you got a lot of hands wanting you to yank you back down like, look and correct me if I'm wrong, but in my correct tom kim hasn't won in like seven years.

Speaker 2:

He he won at like 21,. 22 years old, hasn't won since. And he's a great golfer he's. You know, he was just joking on Twitter, he's. He's ranked higher than John Rahm and whatnot. He's a hell of a golfer, but like one win something. What happened there and I'm not single in time, I don't even. I don't know him or anything, but it's just the top of mind example that shows up for me. It's like how many of these individual cases are there? Somebody wins, they get the spotlight, the attention Now the pressure's on, the expectation to repeat, to win more than once, and suddenly they can't handle it because there's an identity challenge at play. There's a fear that is destructive underneath the surface that is destructive underneath the surface.

Speaker 1:

You can almost make the argument that if you want to realize your full potential, you have to have the courage. You have to have the balls to stand out. Because you are going to stand out, you know you are.

Speaker 2:

You're going to get people applauding you and you're going to get people jealous of you. But most people are afraid to stand out because you're we're wired that way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a tough one, it is yeah.

Speaker 2:

That's a tough one. There's typically an experience that amplified the fear or stress response we, we, we the fear or stress response we, we, we endured during a childhood or young adolescent moment.

Speaker 1:

That offers an opportunity for healing and diffusing some of the emotional charge around standing out yeah, that's, that's something that the listeners right now should be contemplating, you know, really, really, really contemplated that's. That's a layer that's not well discussed. Yeah, and that should be, you know, because I'm sure you get a lot of questions, paul. You know, how do I get out of my own way, how can I step out of my comfort zone? And just that identification alone, I think it breeds a lot of clarity and it brings some hope. Yeah, that's a great word, you know, it really does.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of frustrated golfers out there that spend a lot of money on the game. It's not a cheap game. They have memberships at country clubs, you know. I mean, these days country club memberships are very expensive. They invest in lessons, they invest in TPI training and and and. There's a lot of frustration out there.

Speaker 1:

And maybe people haven't heard this yet. You know I've gotten a lot of feedback from some of the concepts in the previous discussions that you and I have had. I've gotten feedback of. This is the first time I've ever heard this. So I think you're doing God's work, my friend, and it's something that the question I get is what do I have to do to get from a five to a scratch?

Speaker 1:

You know that's a very common question that I get from the people that listen to my podcast and I feel blessed to have them entrust me in answering that question. And this is a very big part of it is exactly what we're talking about. I mean, in fact, justin, you had Justin on your podcast, my podcast partner, justin Tang, and we talk about once you. We have this kind of generalized theory between he and I and you know, once you get to about a four to a two handicap, you've myelinated those neural pathways for your golf swing pretty well, like your golf swing's pretty good. You know maybe some tweaks here and there, but you know, by and large, if you are a consistent two handicap, you're a pretty good player. You're better than most.

Speaker 2:

But for those who really want to take it up a notch from that level, this is the very phenomenon that you need to look at, because it's not your golf swing work with are the single digit handicappers who who feel like they've been chasing scratch endlessly for years and they've done nothing but regress, even if not remain stagnant in their in their quest. And you're right. You get to a five handicap. You know how to fucking swing a golf club. There's always room for tweaks and upgrades, improvements, yada, yada, but at the end of the day, you know how to play the game very well.

Speaker 2:

There's something between your ears that's holding you back and I always come back to like scratch is a label those of us who have not achieved it are all desperately trying to seek, because of the pride, the recognition, the achievement, the validation it brings. That can be heavy to wear, emotionally, mentally. Again, it's an identity change. You know If you're a nine handicap right now, listening, who are you as a scratch golfer? I always come back to getting really clear on who is the version of you. Who's a scratch golfer?

Speaker 2:

How does he speak to and about himself? What does he think about himself? Believe he's worthy, deserving and capable of? It's a whole different identity and again, the identity change we all seek and need to ascend to the next level of success. It's a massive fucking threat to our subconscious, so it deploys every sabotaging behavior it can think of to hold us back. But it's this work I mean. You do such a phenomenal job infusing the mind game into every one of your episodes. It is this work that accelerates the progress and I'm a big believer in saying the mindset work you do has a positive ripple effect into every area of your life Better husband, better wife, better father, better mother, employer, employee, friend, family member, best fucking version of you on and off the course, when you prioritize your mindset.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I'm going to. I'm going to quote one of my coaches and really good friends, tanya Oliver, and she's a high performance mindset coach and a life coach and she always says you think, think from where you are, or think from where you want to be, and who do you have to become? So you just nailed it, paul. It's like the question is okay, if you're a nine handicap and you want to become a scratch I mean a true scratch, not a country club scratch where you're playing from 6,200 yards and you're scraping three and four footers I'm talking a legitimate tournament player, scratch, who do you have to become? But I could tell you one thing that most scratch golfers that I know they already have an inborn level of acceptance. They already have it.

Speaker 1:

No, not all of them, but they already have it like yeah, whatever, I'm a scratch handicap, who cares? I'm going gonna go out and play the best I can, but if I play like shit, it's part of the game. There's detachment. There is a level of thank you, a level of detachment there which, uh, kind of breathe for me. When I think of detachment, uh, I I get a little bit more air in my lungs, I've got more room to breathe.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, oh, wow, okay. It's a tricky concept, though, right, because if we think about it, we pour so much time, energy and effort, we make sacrifices to achieve this goal that, technically, we're so attached to. If you look at how we spend our time, money and energy, and then the real secret is to detach, it's like, wait a second, that sounds backwards, it sounds counterintuitive, but it's the same thing, similar to you know, you gain more control when you let go of control. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So you know, through, through getting in there and really getting underneath the hood of our operating system, what can the practitioner expect? Say, you know, I'm going to go. I'm flying to Florida, I'm going to spend a week with Paul Salter. We're going to do these hypnotherapy sessions where we go deep into theta Very powerful therapy sessions where we go deep into theta Very powerful.

Speaker 2:

Give us just an example of what that process might look like. Yeah, gladly so. First, I take all my calls on Zoom, meaning you are anywhere in the world, and that's important, because most people who have some level of familiarity with hypnosis aside from the stage hypnosis that they might see in Vegas or Hollywood they think going into an office space sitting in this big comfy chair. But the truth is you find far more comfortability, familiarity, literal and metaphorical safety in your own environment. And that's really important for me as the practitioner, because my goal is to diffuse your walls, get you to let your guard down and open up. So being in your own space is an edge, if you will, an advantage if you will. So I think that's important to share. But then from there, call number one is always an extended period of time. It's roughly two hours because we'll spend the first half of that time. It's like Paul me throws a thousand questions at you. I'm digging deep into childhood, early adolescence. I'm taking you places you don't want to talk about. You know I describe my coaching style as compassionately candid. I'm going to go where we need to go, not just where you want to go. And the beauty of Zoom is, you know, I have years of experience. Reading into body language, I'm seeing what makes you squirm when I talk about A, B and C, how your facial reaction comes about based on what I'm asking, and we just go where we need to go to find what makes you uncomfortable.

Speaker 2:

Because emotion, especially when we're younger, if we don't have the skill set or the safety to express it, to have an opportunity to yeah, I guess express it's the word I'm looking for it just gets stuck. The definition of emotion is energy in motion. That energy gets stuck. Some emotions, depending at the frequency they vibrate on, are more energetically costly. So what I mean by that is, if we carry unprocessed shame, guilt, anger, regret for years, for decades, that means every day that we wake up with an already limited amount of energy, a large portion of that is going to, metaphorically, just holding on to said emotion, which means we have very little energetic bandwidth to do what we know we need to do to achieve our goal.

Speaker 2:

And this is the. That's the simplest way I can summarize why so many people are stuck. People aren't stuck because they don't know what to do. Go to Google. You can find the step by step directions to learn how to do anything. It's a literal lack of energy to follow through on what you need to do to overcome the fear. Energy to let go of the belief and when we start diffusing these stuck emotions and letting go of things, the immediate payoff is more energy, more ease following through on what it is you already know you need to do. I might've gotten us a little off track, so bring us back on track if I did.

Speaker 1:

No, that's absolutely perfect. Because, once again, going back to my breakfast conversation this morning about prepping the nervous system to handle different levels of stress and the correlation that I'm getting now, is it really correlates to safety? How safe?

Speaker 2:

do you feel? But so think about this though you know big fit athletic man Talking about feeling safe, and I'm not singling you out, but I'm going to use you an example. You might laugh or chuckle at that, paul, I could handle myself. I'm a big, strong, fit guy. I am safe. But when we think about it on a subconscious level, your subconscious has one objective it is to keep you safe. That objective has kept our entire species alive for however long we've been around for. So in these situations, we might consciously or rationally feel safe. Yet subconsciously, under the surface, you might be kicking and screaming this visceral reaction. All eyes on you on the first tee, the thought of hoisting the club championship trophy. You're scared, shitless. You're not safe in that environment. You've never been there, it's foreign, it's unfamiliar.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, boy, is that well said Something to really consider. My goodness, the safety. I'm going to compare it to swimming in the ocean for the first time. It might be really scary Like, oh my goodness, I'm in this big ocean, but then, as soon as your nervous system gets acclimated to it, you actually learn to enjoy it. You actually learn to crave it.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and there's this edge that we talk about Paul playing golf competitively. Every one of my great, several of my great friends are very, very, very high level accomplished golfers, multiple amateur winners, all the way up to several friends that have won multiple USJ events. And the congruent thing that they all say is they crave that edge of the edge between success and failure, knowing that both are. You know, failure is a very strong possibility because you only got one winner, but being on that edge, so obviously their nervous systems have already accepted that. You know it's, this is, this is the ride. You know it's almost like yes, we want to play well, yes, we want to win but my goodness that ride is really what it's all about.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, is all of a sudden, all of a sudden it's safe. It's like, uh, you know there's got to be a certain level of safety. When larry hamilton, you know, hit that for that that, that one iconic wave at chopu, where he was literally on that edge of living or dying, potentially like literally physical death, his nervous system was prepared for it, so he had a belief subconscious that he can handle it, I can do this. He wasn't thinking about dying on the reef, he's thinking of the thrill of a lifetime. So, my goodness, what an incredible change of a frame of reference for all of us that are aspiring to get better.

Speaker 2:

I'm going to give you a flip example of that too, and only because it's relevant or timely for me, because I have a couple of clients experiencing it and I'm going to simplify the story a little bit to give us better context. But if you think of someone who has grown up in a broken home, hopped foster care to foster care, one can surmise that this individual has learned that their normal, their safety, is chaos. Safety to them they were embedded with it is feeling safe on a roller coaster, whereas for most of us the thought of getting on a roller coaster those first few times is unsafe. It's scary.

Speaker 2:

The reason I bring this up is because what we see on the golf course sometimes is thrill-seeking. It's the person who always has the pedal to the metal, always trying to reach the green in two. Or you look at their scorecard and it's like birdie, bogey, birdie, double eagle, bogey. It's that up and down versus. You know we see scotty scheffler six birdies, one bogey. It's pretty straightforward.

Speaker 2:

But what I've identified in some of my clients is that that need to have that thrill because if you look back in their childhood, the chaos that was familiar with their lives from day one is literally where they feel safe. So same example, but flipped, because we all have what I call an emotional home. It's the same core emotions that we experienced or were exposed to most growing up. It might be stress, it might be anxiety, it might be love, it might be peace, but these are emotions that we try to get our fix of every single day. So if you grew up in a chaotic environment, there's divorce, there's moving, this, that and the other. You're going to seek that in other areas of your life because it feels familiar and safe.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, even if it's deleterious to your health, it's still going to feel safe. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

It's wild, isn't? It Because the subconscious always thinks it's helping you Right.

Speaker 1:

No matter what, yeah, yeah, that those are all your programs or everything, but thankfully, through this, through what you do, Paul, that you can get in there and help people get unstuck, help people rewire these basic core beliefs. And there's a lot of good folks out there that they have no idea that this is happening. There's a lot of good folks out there that they have no idea that this is happening and you know they're just chasing their tail with taking lessons or switching coaches or things like that, just trying to find that one thing that resonates with them that's going to help cure them. And there are really no secrets when it comes to playing good golf. However, this what we're talking about right now I mean I think this should be part of the PGA program. You know it really should, Because when you are out there and you're playing, it doesn't really matter what you are and what you're not aware of you. It's coming out, I it is coming out. My goodness, I don't know what it is about this game ball.

Speaker 2:

It's a reflection of life it really is. Just think about like this, like I use this example in poker a lot, but it's just as prevalent in golf. You know, you're playing, let's say you're in a threesome and three holes in a row, your playing partners are birdie, birdie, birdie and you've par bogey bogeyed, you're threatened. So how do you respond to threat? Well, you learned how to do that on the playground as a child If you were threatened or bullied or harassed, and that's what that might trigger a similar feeling. In that moment, even though you're not being physically attacked, there's already a pre-designed program ready to be deployed. So the moment that trigger is initiated, there is the emotional cascade of anger, a fight within you, and that permeates your talk, your filter for beliefs, decisions and behaviors. And suddenly you find yourself taking unnecessary risks, rushing, skipping your pre-shot routine and behaviors. And suddenly you find yourself taking unnecessary risks, rushing, skipping your pre-shot routine and, metaphorically or literally, blowing up.

Speaker 1:

So common and yet just completely undiagnosed all the time, primarily within the golfer. He or she has no idea that this battle is even happening because they're just reacting. You know, there's no separation between stimulus and response. Through hypnotherapy this very phenomenon can exist, where you can rewire yourself, where you can become meta aware of what these things are and how to transcend them or transmute them even better.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love what you said the distance between stimulus and response. I often say one of the greatest gifts I empower my clients with is the ability to shift from unconscious reaction to conscious response. Subtleties in my word choice, incredibly intentional. The only difference is a moment of pause, the ability to stop. Take said negative emotion out of the driver's seat of your decisions. Come back online. I tell that to my four-month-old all the time he's crying, he's crying. I'm like dude, you're offline, come back online. But the same thing applies to us. It's like come back online, put that logical brain back on. Now, how do you want to choose to respond?

Speaker 1:

Incredibly powerful. You can almost liken. You know the unconscious responses where people throw temper tantrums and then they are subjugated to making poor decisions based on everything that we've talked about. If they're able to take that pause, they can really interrupt those unconscious responses.

Speaker 2:

Bingo. That interruption is so key, mm. Hmm, you know it's funny. I have my clients. I do this too personally. So I practice what I preach. But when we're really working to drill, changing a detrimental behavior it's called a strategic pattern interrupt. But I will have them literally out loud, yell like stop it, stop it, or clap or clap or like fuck. Like you have to viscerally shake yourself, knock yourself from that chain of focus because it brings you to the present moment, which presents an opportunity to choose how to move forward rather than being hooked on that emotional reaction.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I've said it before, I'm going to say it again. There's one example I'm going to say. I mean, tiger, everybody has their ways of dealing with this that are consciously aware of this, but Tiger gave himself a 10-foot circle it's probably something his dad taught him a 10-foot circle so he could do and say whatever he wants. He can react like an absolute idiot. If he hits a bad shot, as soon as he walks 10 feet away from where the shot was played, he's rid himself of that energy. It's gone. So he actually is allowing himself to be a human being, a hyper-competitive person, and not somebody who's devoid of emotion. He's accepting that, but he's moving on. It's not that energy is not carrying over into the next shot. Yeah, I, I. I think that's probably, as it might, might, be his greatest attributes, because you know, we all hold him in great reverence. But I think what we need to do is he beat all of those guys out there mentally, 100%. It got to a point where people were out driving him. There were some people that were even hitting it better than him, but he still beat him. Why? What's going on between the ears? Yeah, what's going on between the ears. So I think that pattern. Interrupt, though, is huge. That's a that's a big one right there to allow the, the golfer.

Speaker 1:

You know, I'm going to say for myself, if I hit a poor shot, I might set an intention that day prior to of how I am going to consciously deal with poor shots. Am I going to have the space to objectively look at it and say was that a physical thing or was that an internal environment thing? Was I time traveling? That gives me enough space to take the charge of disappointment or anger away. If I can look at it like a math problem, objectively, I was going to say the same thing. You know, if I can look at it that way, it takes the charge, and then that that moment is gone. If I, if I want to give myself, uh, that intention for the day of, I'm going to reflect. You know I'm not going to put my foot on the gas today. It's going to be more of a reflection. Let's see what I can learn, might even write a note in my phone, or going into a tournament.

Speaker 1:

How am I going to handle poor shots? Well, if you can game plan prior to, you're going to give yourself outs, which will lessen the energetic charge. That's a big one, because I see that ruin more people's rounds by them carrying the energy of anger and disappointment. Or, you know, even I have found that through my own. You know, if I'm going to be a little bit vulnerable here through my own journey, paul, and tell me if this resonates but I found that I had carried a lot of shame and when I let go of that through therapy, through meditation, that the translation on the golf course was I'm not perfect, I'm going to hit bad shots, who cares?

Speaker 1:

That's why I got wedges, you know, and if I could, I could even stack the deck more in my favor if I give myself allowance and hit those shots right there, like, hey, dude, you're going to miss a three footer, you're going to hit a bad shot, you might hit one out of bounds, you might get a ball stuck in the tree. By the way, all of those things happened last year in every tournament I played in. I don't think I hit any out of bounds, but I missed plenty of three footers. But if I pre-program myself to accept that I'm not one of the best players in the world, I'm just trying to be the best that I can be and I allow myself a little bit of love to accept being not perfect and it's safe for you to be not perfect.

Speaker 1:

Something that I say to myself. It's safe for me not to be perfect. I never would have thought 20 years ago that that affirmation right there would be right. You're like what? That sounds a little fluff, dude. Have you been down in a jungle somewhere? Well, no, I mean it's. It's. It's the absolute truth, because I can guarantee anybody who's listening to this that's how scotty shuffler operates. My friend lydia ko, well, you know, everybody who's played this game at a tremendously high level has that acceptance like, hey, you haven't hit a bad shot, you know it's OK, but what, what? What's the real gift behind these things? I'm going to take a take a term from my coach, john Erickson, that what we're talking about are vapor trails of what the work truly does bring out, and getting in there and getting into the subconscious and really diving into shadow work yeah, and really embracing the shadow.

Speaker 2:

So well said, and this is why I love these conversations with you. I'll make a note too. I thought I loved how you brought up like just the acceptance of mistakes, the permission to be imperfect. I think one low hanging fruit opportunity for all of your listeners as well, first and foremost if they're not doing some type of visualization before a round. There here's the reminder you absolutely should be.

Speaker 2:

But the mistake many people make when doing visualization before a round is they don't visualize making mistakes. That's a superpower, that's an edge. When you visualize making mistakes and bouncing back, seeing how you're going to handle them, it translates directly to the round because guess what You're going to make mistakes. The round because guess what You're going to make mistakes. And when they inevitably happen, you've already, preemptively or proactively, rather reduce their emotional charge. So that trigger that you stumble upon doesn't have nearly the same magnitude of an emotional charge. It might just be a deep breath or two and you're focused and locked in on the next shot. So that's something you absolutely need to be doing to take your game to the next shot. So that's something you absolutely need to be doing to take your game to the next level.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to finish up with this just to punctuate that statement, paul, which was incredibly well said. There was an old school tour pro by the name of Clarence Rose. Those people that are my age, or at least over the age of 40, would know who he is. I think he won about four times out on the PGA Tour. Well, I got to know him a little bit and I remember one time playing golf with him.

Speaker 1:

He came up to me several times and he asked where my miss was and I thought what are you talking about? Whereas I'm not trying to miss the ball, he's like no, where's your miss? So he whipped out his PGA Tour yardage book, he looked, he showed me a couple of notes and he said this is where I want to miss. This gives me the optimal place to get the ball up and down, because, just remember, jesse, you're not going to birdie every hole and sometimes a bogey is a good score, depending on how you calculate your misses. And I thought and I didn't quite understand it at the time, but it did plant a seed and it absolutely parallels exactly what we're talking about.

Speaker 1:

So the two go hand in hand. He's already predisposed to the fact that, yeah, he's one of the best players in the world, but he's also human. So he's going to pre-program and even strategize potential pitfalls and where to hit it and where not to hit it on the golf course, and that has absolutely nothing to do with how he's hitting it for that particular day. He has these pre-programmed. Now, once somebody develops a little bit more awareness and they do have their A game, then you can hit the accelerator a little bit. But those are few and far between. Bit, yeah, but those are two. Those are few and far between. But, paul, I got, I got to tell you, you know, first and foremost, how can people get ahold of you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So the best place to really learn more which I think is always a great place to start is go listen to my podcast. Jesse's been kind enough to join me as a guest. It's the scratch golfers mindset podcast, and I'm very active on Instagram at thegolfhypnotherapist or thegolfhypnotherapistcom.

Speaker 1:

And you know this isn't going to be. We've had Paul on a few times. We hope to have him on somewhat regularly, because this conversation is all about evolution. It just never stops. It was all about evolution. It just never stops, you know, and we don't want it to, because I do believe that the best version of best versions of ourselves, on and off the golf course, can just keep ascending, absolutely, you know, and that's the joy. The joy is in the doing. The results are the after that, they're the vapor trails, in my opinion falling in love with the process, yeah, ben.

Speaker 1:

Hogan said it. Paul, I can't thank you enough, pal. Always a pleasure to talk to you and I'll make sure that we have a. Is there anything? Any?

Speaker 2:

other thing that you want to finish up with, just my utmost gratitude to you, my friend. Always an absolute pleasure, so grateful, grateful. We got to do this again. Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And I'm going to make sure that all Paul's contact information is in the show notes, including his links to his very, very, very good podcast. Thank you,