The Keys To Solid Contact with Jim Venetos | Mulligans

0:00 Hey everybody, it's Josh Cart and it's Friday, so that means Mulligans. Today's Mulligans episode is fine tuning your swing off season with Jim Venitos. Here's the episode. Golf Smarter Premium number five hundred and five, published on September eighth, twenty fifteen. Calm slash Golf Smarter from a listeners suggestion, We're going to meet Jim Venettas and here about his keys to solid contact. This is Golf Smarter Premium. Here's your host, Fred Green. Welcome to the Golf Smarter podcast. Jim, Hi, Fred, thanks for having me on the show. Thank you for agreeing to participate here because I received an email from a longtime listener, a guy named Stuart Margolis, who said, drop everything. This is a no brainer for Golf Smarter. Jim is You're going to absolutely love Jim.

0:57 Yes, Stuart's an excellent student and I had the pleasure of meeting up with them on my cross country trip this year, which was which is really fun. Tell me about your cross country trip. Well, I traveled from Los Angeles to New England and I taught students along the way that are members of my online golf school, and you know how we interact is just through video or through Skype lessons or through phone conversations. But I've never met a lot of these guys. So I traveled in zigzag the Northern Route all across the country until I got to New England. Took me twenty three days. Wow. I saw twenty students and it was really really cool.

1:41 Do you drive this by yourself? Yeah, just solo, me and my loft and line machine. I adjusted people's lofts and lies that they had forged clubs and just gave these full day lessons with these guys. It was super super fun. Deep into your head on this trip. Yeah, yeah, I definitely. It's interesting, especially going across Nebraska. Why Nebraska. It's tough. It's tough, it's very flat, it's very similar. It's a long drive through Nebraska. You can't help but think of it. So I shot a lot of content along the way too, called him road blogs and posted them, posted them on my blog, just sort of reporting where I was at and how the students were doing. And I got to play some really cool courses. Got to play Oakmont wow, Yeah, which was amazing.

2:32 How did you get on that? One of my students is His brother is a member there, and he had said a year ago when he first started working with me, gosh, I want to get you out here somedays so that we could play Oakmont. And then once I announced the cross country trip, he said, I want you to stay here for a few days, and one of the days we're going to play Oakmont. And it was super supermut hardest course I've ever played. Really, yeah, I've played US Open courses. I've played a lot of them, and the typical US Open course only has about maybe six to eight tough holes, really tough holds. There was not one easy shot on Oakmont.

3:13 Not an easy hole, not an easy shot, an easy shot. It was outrageous. I hit the ball really good. We had caddies, We walked the course and the caddies telling me, hit it here, and it's you're hitting pinpoint spots on the biggest greens you've ever seen and relying upon the green to funnel the ball forty fifty yards sometimes to the target. So it was super cool. I can't wait to watch it next year. Dude, there's just wait a minute here. So now you're hitting pinpoint shots. You were following the lead from your caddy and you were probably doing pretty well and still leaving yourself with difficult shots. Oh yeah, if you didn't hit that pinpoint spot. So you know, I was smoking driver. I'm smoking three with which is a lot of what was required off the tea.

3:58 So I'm really well set up for the approach shots hitting lots of wedges, you know, just between eighty and one hundred and forty yards, but you just can't miss, and the spots are super precise, and if you miss that spot, you know, if you hit the right shot, you got an eight footer. That's one of the easier looking putts that you've had all day. If you missed that spot, you might have a sixty footer. That's just the hardest sixty footer you could ever imagine to have. So it's just it's super demanding, but it was super beautiful. The member that had me out super gracious, you know, show me around, tell me about when the open was there before, and the history, and it was just really a special, special day.

4:39 That sounds amazing. Yeah, So it was like the ball would hit the green and just release, take off, fall off the green if it didn't hold her. It was about a three club Winka, so the win was definitely influencing. The club is significant, and the greens. Are fast and obviously going to be much faster for the Open. But it's just, you know, even the caddy said, you know, of course is playing really tough today between positions and just between the way the direction that the wind was blowing. They had removed every tree on the course except for one, so it's really it's barren as can be. So the wind really influences shots. Wow, yeah, you'll see it next year. It's super super cool.

5:23 What about the rough did you find yourself and having to deal with it? Rough? But the big thing there is the bunkers, right, they got the church pews and I avoided all church pews, but one set there's they have many pews, they have megapews. They got there's a few different holes where you come across these church pew strips of grass in the middle of bunkers is what they are. Oh okay, I was like, what are you talking about? No idea? What you meant? Yeah, And if you hit it in there, you really don't have much of a shot. You're just trying to play back onto the fairway. Amazing all right, So should I drive through Nebraska at night? I mean, if there's nothing in it, it's really it's worse than driving Highway five from LA to San Francisco.

6:07 Huh much worse. It feels like it's a hundred times longer. Oh yeah, it's interested. Yeah, I've never done across country tripe. I don't know if I could without going on out of my mind. It is beautiful, and especially the golf courses. You know. I also played a lot of little, small, you know, a couple executive courses that just happen to be where some of my members are are regularly playing at. So it was fun to just play all levels of. Yes, so cool, that's so cool. I'm going to play Bethpage Black on the way home. And now do you have to do you have someone who can get you on or you just got to get there at four in the morning to try to get a tea time. You know, That's that's the folklore, right But inside Scoop says, maybe you don't have to get there and necessarily at four, but I'll probably do it just to see what the culture is like. I'm I'm documenting my whole trip back and forth so you know, I'll have some cameras going just see what it's like and then you know, be able to share that with everybody.

7:03 Really, and where are you sharing it? Tell us? Tell us about your website or where you can find it. I have a Jim Venettes Golf Academy dot com is my school, and then on the school there's a blog and it's in the blog that is free access for anybody, and it's that's where all that content is, or it's on YouTube. I have a YouTube channel with the same same handle, Jim Venettes Golf Academy. Okay, and Vanettas is V E N E T O S correct vs in Victor. Very cool. How is it that you come across in your videos, which I've watched a number of them and have really learned a lot from you. You don't come across like the average everyday PGA certified instructor. You were a bit of a heretic, aren't you. Oh?

7:56 I'm not trying to be, but I just have a very clear point of view on how I think the golf swing should be and I've seen it. I've taught. I've taught the same methodology for twenty two years and thousands of students, and I've seen so many just benefit from this different ideology, which is you know, it's really it's really, it's really quite simple when it comes down to it. I just teach non movements as opposed to movements. I teach the position that you could set your body in that will force the correct movements of the club.

8:36 So it's really about what I teach is just about getting to the source of the matter. And because I've seen it help so many players from all levels too, you know, from beginners all the way up to I got a one student who's a phenomenal player. He's a Mini tour pro. He holds the course record at my home course of sixty one. And this kid is you know, there was seven months last year where I played with him and he did not shoot over sixty seven. It was, Oh, it was the most fun thing to watch ever. And he's super devoted to the technique. And so I've seen it operate on all different levels, from students that are handicapped in some way, or have a bad back, or not very strong or are very strong, and so consequently, I think it gives me a lot of emotion as I'm making my videos because I'm really trying to get a point across that I think can help a lot of people play a lot better golf.

9:31 Right, Actually, I was more referring to your physical appearance versus I mean, you're the only golf instructor I've ever seen who wears Converse high tops, or not even high tops. Right, just low tops. I figure they're good enough for Jerry West and the NBA, they're good enough for me and golf. I wear them when I play golf because I don't have a weight shift in my swing, so the requirement of spikes is really not necessary. You know, I'll wear spikes on a day where it's it's good, it's going to be raining, or I'm playing a course like Riviera or like Oakmont where I know I'm going to have some lies that are going to be, you know, of the most demanding in nature. So then I'll I have put you ay classics, you know, from a few years ago. They stopped making them, but I bought a bunch of hair and I like wearing old wingtips if I'm going to wear a golf shoe. But other than that, you know, I feel, like I said, I figure, if they're good enough for the NBA in the sixties. They're good enough for me just to go.

10:31 Yeah, nothing's changed since then. It's still and exactly in. Golf or basketball gear. Yeah, it's all this exactly the same since the sixties. So let's let's break your method down here. You know, if if you're not moving at all and you don't need spikes to hold you down, what makes your method unique? What where did you How did you get there? Well? Yeah, so you know, I learned from top one hundred golf instructors when I was younger. I played junior golf with Tiger and had a very strong high school career, and then walked onto a Division one college team and was learning from top one hundred instructors. Other guys on the team were taking lessons from other top one hundred instructors, and we'd all share that information. You know, we're just we're just you know, poor college kids, but we're super desperate to improve and get better. And we actually had a really solid team and you know, got nationally ranked, which was really a big feat for us because we were a low budget Division one school. But you know, in the process of learning the game, I just reached a point where I operated more off of my own ballflight than trying to move or manipulate the swing as was conventionally taught, instead of thinking about the movements for the swing. Like when I got to college, one of my teammates, who a really great player, Gerald Wong, said

12:02 to me, you know, you seem to be able to hit a draw on a fade anytime you want. You know, how do you do that? I said, I feel draw, hit draw, I feel fade hit fade. So I had a good innate sense for how to manipulate the ball and hit the shots that I wanted to hit and take control over my ball flight. Well, it was through that that I found myself not needing to shift my weight because as I was trying to control ball flight, I was keeping my weight very planted. And I thought what I would do is maybe sacrifice some power but gain control over my trajectory and the shape of my shots. But the cool thing was I actually gained power, and it comes from this simple reality. Power in a golf swing comes from the shaft. When you flex the shaft properly, and this is from a beginner to an expert, you get that sense that the club moves with such effortlessness, and it has so much power in it. You can almost feel the shaft melt in your hands as you overwhelm the club and you get the shaft to work and you get the club to work. Well, it's when the club works, is that That's when you get that big, powerful, ease d effortless shot that you say to yourself, what did I do? You know? Why is that shot so precious?

13:14 It felt like I did nothing? And in reality, that's really what's happening. Is when you don't do the work, the club does the work, and when you can get the club to work for you, you actually gain power. So once you learn how to make the club work, how the club works is simply flexing the shaft, and how the shaft flexes is by swinging it in a circle. So if you swing the club in a circle, you create some tripetal force. It's like iron Byron, the robot that hits balls. All he's doing is making a circular swing. So consequently he's making this very effortless, efficient, powerful swing. Of course, it's a machine, but the dynamics for it still fall in line with this idea of working the club in a circle. So we have the same opportunity.

14:00 We have an iron Byron right in our forward shoulder. It's a three quarter rotating shoulder joint that works in a circular manner. So that means that if you hold your weight still on your forward foot, you're creating the left shoulder becomes the axis point for the swing, just like iron Byron has a single access point. And then if you hold your weight still, you create this circular swing which flexes the shaft and gives you this big, abundant power. So in the process, how I started with this is just you know, I thought I might lose some power, but I actually gain power. I gained control over ballflay. But then I also gained simplicity in the ease of performance because all I had to do was stay still.

14:44 And other instructors that you've talked to worked with discussed this. How do they react to that? Don't tell people the secret because we're going to be out of work. Is that kind of thing? No, No, I think. I mean, it's been so accepted that there's so many different ways to swing a golf club that if you're different. I don't think it really uh scares anybody. I think everybody is well intended in trying to figure out the best way to swing the club. They're trying to produce give their students the great experience that they understand with their within their within their own methodologies.

15:25 I've just found that it's far too difficult to teach a student how to move properly simply because it's unnecessary. You know, we have this beautiful body that has these pre equipped joints that work very specifically. So how you set up your golf swing, your address position, your setup position already dictates how the movements in the in the swing are going to go. For your swing, for my swing, for anybody's swing, the setup position is a preset for all the movements in the swing. Now I teach a very different setup position. I teach to pre set clothes, which presets the path for the swing. It presets the contact for the swing because it anchors weight forward, and it presets this inside out path the traditional viewpoints on the swing while also are creating a preset. Then have the students start to move, have the students start to negotiate the club, shift, weight, whatever it might be that is that movement that triggers a good shot. I just get down to the non movement of it. I'm just coming from a place of look, if you stay still in this position, you're going to hit really solid, sweet tight draws. And so other Dolph instructors, you know, I definitely get a lot of paths on the back. They appreciate the depth to the thought on this. But also, you know, I get a lot of guys that say, well, it'll never work, and I say, well that's you know,

16:56 that's fine. I got the proof and the thousands of students that all get to experience this really high quality shot that comes from simply holding your weight still. Wow. Wow. So you're saying a closed stance, meaning your lead shoulder right if you're a right handed right handed golfer, or your left shoulder is closed. Yes, So expand on that place. Because this is an audio, it's hard to you know. The purpose behind it is this. There's simply two fundamentals to the swing that I teach, and they all are executed.

17:38 Those two fundamentals are codependent upon each other, so they work well with each other. The two fundamentals are this, we need to secure a solid contact so that happens by anchoring weight to your forward foot When you anchor weight to your forward foot, you force a descending strike upon the ball and that creates solid contact. That's the difference between a pro and a high handicapper. The pro hits the ball first. As soon as you hit the ball first, the ball reacts completely differently than if you hit the ground first or if your club bottom's out prior to the ball. So by getting your weight to your forward foot, you immediately secure that solid contact. That's also a huge fundamental for any PGA to our player, they're all getting through to their forward foot because this is how solid contact is created. Now, the second fundamental to what I teach is simply to have your body in a close position, which would mean that your left side of your body if you're a right handed golf or, the left side of your body is closer to the ball than your right side of your body. Traditionally, this would be called the closed position in golf, as opposed to what golf would call square, which is where the body is level, where the left and the right shoulders are both equal. I call that position neutral because neither the left nor the right is in control. Both the left and the right are in a codependent state. Of balance upon each other. The setup position I teach puts the left side of the body. For a right handed golfer, puts the left side of the body forward. What this does is not only secures the inside out swing path

19:10 for the swing, but it also empowers the left side of the body. Essentially, it's strengthening the left side of the body. Think about it if you shake hands. When you shake hands with somebody, if you're shaking hands with your right hand, your right shoulder comes forward. You wouldn't shake hand with your right shoulder back, and if you did, it would feel awkward. Right, Well, this is a natural empowerment of the right side of the body. Think about Kobe Bryant. When he shoots a free throw, his right shoulder is forward of his left. It's because it's his right shoulder is the one that's being empowered, so it could support the stroke that he's about to shoot the ball with. Whichever shoulder is forward is the shoulder that's in control. Think about Muhammad Ali throwing a punch. He throws that punch with his lead shoulder forward. If he's throwing it with his lead arm, if he's throwing with his back arm, the back shoulder has got to bypass the front shoulder before it becomes strong, and once it does that, it becomes strong. So whichever shoulder is forward is the shoulder that's in control. So the two fundamentals for this swing are simply to have your weight forward and to have your body closed. When you have your weight forward, you secure contact. When you have your body closed, you secure your swing path. And it's these two components that all add up to a left dominant position for a right handed golfer. That's why they're codependent upon each other.

20:31 It's really just empowering the forward side of your body is what that setup position does. So where does the bottom half of your body line up when the top half of your body, your shoulder is closed on the ball. Are you rotating your entire body there? Correct? And in fact, the pivot comes from pivoting the hips. The hips are the center of the body, so as your hips move, so shall everything else. So if you pivot your hips, your shoulders will travel, your chest will travel, your legs will travel, Your hands and arms will also travel and conform to where your hips have pivoted to.

21:11 So when you pivot your hips closed, you immediately are empowering the forward side of your body, because when you pivot your hips closed, your grip gets stronger. When your grip gets stronger, that means your lead hand is more in control of the club. So this setup position forces a stronger grip. And it also takes care of how to attach your hands to the club because once you pivot, then you grip the club. Wherever your hands are at once you pivot is correct because it's consistent with the rest of your body. You definitely have a different approach. I mean, this is so interesting to me. Now what does that do to the alignment towards your target?

21:53 Sure, alignment is definitely different. And you know, in the traditional swing, the idea of alignment is this, you square the club face your toes, your knees, your hips, and your shoulders to your target right. And because we're standing perpendicular to the ball, the ball is supposed to immediately fly directly to our left at the target. But what about that set up position? What about the traditional square setup position really influences a direction. You know, if that were the case, where if I could stand in that position where my toes, knees, hips and shoulders were pointed at the target. Why wouldn't I shoot a basketball that way?

22:37 Why wouldn't I throw a dart that way? Why wouldn't I shoot pool that way? But we don't we get into these different positions. When we're shooting pool, we're throwing a dart, or we're shooting a basketball. But when you're swinging a baseball bat. Yeah, when you swing a baseball bat, the majority of batters start in a closed position. Okay, they draw the bat is drawn back and their their back shoulder is usually behind their front shoulder. Some baseball players start in an open position and then coil back to a closed position. So sure, there's a lot of different ways the guys start to play baseball. I look at swings in baseball, like Ted Williams, the most phenomenal hitter we've ever had, hit four hundred against the shift. You know, I mean this guy was phenomenal. He was closed. If you look at his batting position, it's very similar to what I teach in the golf swing. It's a closed position. He doesn't spin his shoulders out, He hits with his lead arm.

23:36 You know, Raphael palmerow, Mark McGuire, those guys that are power hitters have always hit with their front side, so they set up differently. Rod Carew was more of a weaker hitter. He hit for bass hits, so he set up more on his back foot, not as engaged forward, had his hands in a weaker position. So he said he was a slap hitter. He was a slap hitter, right, he's hitting. You know, which is great or baseball, But it doesn't work for golf because you need power a slap hitter and golf all of a sudden becomes a lot weaker against the demands of the course. So now we're trying to get you know, we want a natural draw out of the ball. Is what you're explaining that hitting a fade is not to your advantage, although some great players played the fade.

24:23 Sure well, it all comes down to ball spin. You know. Controlling the ball is all about reducing spin on the ball. And that's what a lot of companies are doing right now with their gear and with their ideas of how to swing driver. They say, hit up on the driver to reduce spin. Use these different clubs in this waiting system in order to reduce spin. Well, I say, what if there was a way to swing so that you could reduce spin. Now, you wouldn't rely upon these additional adjustments that, although maybe useful, may not be the most best use of these adjustments. You know, because if you can reduce spin on your own, because you're making a swing that has low spin. You know, my driver clubhead speed is one hundred and eighteen miles an hour. My revolutions on the ball are at eighteen hundred to two thousand, which is really low on the spectrum of spin. So this swing naturally reduces spin. So when you talk about a fade and a draw, the draw operates with less spin.

25:29 If it has less spin, that means it goes farther because it's spending less time spinning backwards. If it has less spin, it goes less offline because spin not only affects the ball backwards but also from side to side. So if your ball is spinning less, you're going to have better misses and create more power. Well, this swing creates that low spin shot. I was invited down to the Titles Performance Institute because one of my students who is fifty eight years old, and when I started working in with him, he was a a ten handicap who was working with Butch Harmon at the time, and he was struggling to play to his handicap in tournaments. So he came to me. He says, Jimmy Bee, can you make sure I never come over the top again? And I said, sure, Market's easy. If you set up clothes, you'll stay closed. Well, he was a one handicap within seven months. He could play to it in tournaments. He qualified for the club Championship at Wilster Country Club, shooting seventy three seventy one. I mean this guy could flat play under pressure. Once he learned this ideology, well, he went down to the Titles Performance Institute to make himself a custom fit set of clubs. He actually went down with Claude Harmon. He was friends with the Harmon family, so Butch's son Claud and the founders of the institute, Dave Dave Rose. Greg Rose was so impressed with his ballflight characteristic so that he actually invited me down to come and explain to him what was going on with this guy's draw because his draw was high ball speed,

27:02 mid launch angle and low spin and they're not seeing that normally. They're seeing different characteristics in the ball flay than what this swing produces. So I went down, I met with the guys. I talked with them for four hours, and that's what we talked about. We talked about ball flight. I got to believe that it's more than just closing your shoulders to achieve your method of contacts. That's the setup position. So once you get your shoulders closed and your weights forward, that's the setup position. And that's it. That's as simple as it is. Then shoulders closed, weight forward. Weight forward, seventy percent of your weight on your forward. Foot at all times during the swing. At all times, and you leave it there the entire time during the swing. And what that does is it presets the movements for the swing, so that during the swing all you have to focus on is stillness of weight.

27:54 If you eliminate having to worry where the club's going because we preset that in the set up position, you eliminate having to deliver the strike upon the ball because we've preset that in the set up position, your weight's not moving. If your weight doesn't move, the club's going to return right back to the same spot every time. So it creates an ease of performance while also producing this super high quality shot. It's tight draw really powerful. And I've always heard that you know, with a tight draw, you're going to get more roll out of it, and you're saying you're going to get more distance in the air. Well, yes, And so that's that idea of a draw. Before was that draws are good because they spin less and they roll more. But sometimes draws turn into hooks or draws are hard to stop, right. That comes from trying to hit a draw off of your back foot.

28:45 You try and hit a draw off your back foot, you lose the spin characteristics. If you hit the same draw off of your front foot, you get this beautiful flush shot that takes one hop and stops and has all kinds of check on it. I could spin balls back if I want to, but they never do because the spin rate is so low and efficient that everything's one hot stop, one hot stop, and that's from one iron all the way down to sandwich. Wow. Yeah. Really, it's really a special ball play. And you know it when you see it because it's penetrating and it's driven, and you know it when you hear it because the sound is flush. And one of the cool things about the way this setup position works is it allows a beginner golfer to immediately start hitting these super high quality, professional quality shots, because this draw is not just like a weak faith It's not just like a bunted shot that is playable, predictable, but doesn't create power.

29:42 This draw is flush. This ball moves, and the ball when it lands has action, it grabs, and it stops. Unbelievable. It just sounds so dare I say simple? It is simple. It's the hardest part that I have because as I teach this, you know, I my greatest students are the fifty to seventy five year old guy who's already tried every different methodology and has said, you know what, as I'm getting older here, I'm losing some strength and power. I really I need something simple, and they end up finding me one way or another. You know, the swing I teach doesn't create back pain, so I get linked with a pain free golf swing. But I also get linked with, you know, just this idea of something new and different. You've tried everything else, now try to stay still, try to trust because you know what, every golfer's hit that amazing shot, they've hit that pro quality shot, they just don't know how to do it again, right, well, this is a way to allow you to do it again, because it's just about the setup position and then it's just about maintaining stillness during the swing.

30:49 Are you an advocate of now getting beyond just the swing, like target golf or visualization? Oh? Sure, Yeah. I was lucky enough, you know. So I went to college and played D one college in ninety to ninety four, and right about that same time, a friend of mine who ended up playing on the Nationwide Tour, who was also on my team, was my best golf and buddy. He and I would play endless rounds, either during competition or away from competition. Great player Tony Bordwell, a guy found us who had been on the PGA Tour and he said, you guys look like you got some talent. I want to tell you what I didn't have. And I feel that was the difference between the reason why he made it or didn't make it on tour, and it was about visualization and imagery. And so he worked with us for three years all through college on visualization and imagery. And yes, I believe that everything is done properly with the balance of mind, body and soul.

31:48 So the body in golf is your technique, your swing, your physical ability to control the ball. Your mind in golf is your strategy and the rules that's in your mind is responsible for saying, Hey, you know the pin's tucked back right, I want to come up the left side of the fairway so I have the best angle into the pin. Then your body executes the shot through stillness. But then it's your soul that makes that shot beautiful. Your soul is your heart of a champion, your ability towards creativity, your your depth, your dedication, your drive. And it's this that I think when you combine all three puts you into the zone of peak performance. Like think about Michael Jordan. You know, had the perfect physique for playing the game in his position, had a great understanding for the game, and had a massive drive to win.

32:41 It's a combination of those three things that I think put him in the zone. Often, Jack Nicholas the same way, Tiger at his best, the same way. When you have all things in balance, I think you create the zone of peak performance. So visualization and imagery is a huge part of soul. You know, I see the shot and I feel the shot, and that allows me to then have more precision in executing the shot. It's like throwing darts. You know, you look at the smallest spot on the dartboard and you're gonna have a better chance of hitting that area than if you look at a general area. You know, small targets create tight results, right. No, Like someone once said to me on the show that if you just aim for the fairway and you miss by ten yards, that's a terrible shot. But if you pick a very specific spot in the fairway and miss it by ten yards, that's a great shot for sure. Yeah.

33:34 So being precise, no doubt. I think that's a part of the sole aspect of the game. It's like, you know, how good you want to play? I play around of golf every day in my mind perfectly. We all do well. Yeah, and that's good. I think that's that's a way to train your ability towards imagery and focus, because that's kind of tricky to do. It's good to do when you're driving in traffic and you you know, you can let your mind wander a little bit. I don't know if that's safe, but you know, you take the opportunity. I do it usually in a real peaceful space where I'm just thinking and I just play a course perfectly, and I do it as many times as I can, and it teaches me how to see the shot, It teaches me how to stay focused for the duration of the round, and I tell you it often manifests itself the next day on the course where I find myself, Wow, I'm five hunder through five, just like I was last night in my brain. So I think that that's a real important aspect to just making your game complete. You know, the game's hard enough as it is. The more weapons we can bring to the course, the better chance we're going to have to at least, you know, fight or win the battle against the course.

34:42 Well, Stuart Marglus, thank you. Your recommendation is phenomenal. Jim Jimmy v huh Jim talking basketball again. Tell everyone how to get in touch with you and and how to take advantage of your offerings. Cool. Yeah, I got a website. It's a monthly subscription. It's got hundreds of videos on it that have all been organized specifically to meet your golf needs. When you sign up, you choose what golfer type you want to be, and then that's going to set a prescription. It's going to enact a prescription for you that gives you a linear path of videos that you're going to watch to learn the skills that you need to become the golfer that you want to become. And you get unlimited access to me for video analysis and email communication or Skype lessons or even talking on the phone. And you get a week free trial so you can check it out see if you like it. It's www dot Jim Vanettos golf Academy dot com and you could send me an email at Jim at jimvnettisgolf Academy dot com if you have any questions or if you find it to be an interesting concept that you might want to explore.

36:00 If anybody didn't write that down because you're driving or something, just write to me and you know the drill on that, and I will put you in touch with Jim. So tell me now that when I submit videos to you, what's the process there? Yeah, I give you a video analysis. I have a telestrator app that I use called power Chalk, and it's really great. I do these about eight minute analysis of your swing of what I like about what you're doing, what I want to see you improve upon and what I want you to do to improve upon that. I'll give you either a drill or a request of you for the week. You know, try and accomplish the setup position by the time you send me the next video, and then we'll work on stillness. Then we work on alignment, and just keep progressing from the swing all the way into playing shots, because you know, so often people play golf swing and that's such a shame that you lose the opportunity to actually play the game. When you learn this swing, you reach a point where you can take the swing for granted, you're gonna hit solid draws if you stay still. So now you get to start to play shots, and that's really the fun part of the school.

37:08 I have a lot of supplementary material. One of the things. One of the things is called the shot consult where I put myself in a situation I give you a beginner, an expert, and intermediate solution for getting out of that tight spot. And so it's a way to start to learn how to play a variety shots and see different shots on the course. Fabulous, fabulous. Listen. I'm gonna break for an announcement here and talk about audible dot Com. For a moment, but I usually will come back and have you provide us with a tip. But what's so cool is that you have already sent me a video of you providing a tip on where did it go? I had it written down here, the key to solid contact. Yeah right, and it's really good. I've already watched it. You emailed to me about a half hour before we started recording, and I've already seen it three times.

38:06 Yeah, I know the key. Now, I know the key. Well, everyone's going to learn that too, Jim and again Jim Vanettas golf Academy dot com and Vanettas's vas In Victor. E N E. T isn't tom os Vanetas correct? That's it. That's it, dude. I really hope we can get you back on the show. This was so entertaining as far as being an overload of amazing information. Uh oh, you're awesome, Fred, thanks for having me. You're welcome. Okay, this sucks. As we started to throw that one at you, as we have just completed our Labor Day holiday weekend here in the United States, I joined the ranks of sixty year old idiots everywhere who are known as weekend warriors. Well, that's what we're referred to by emergency room doctors in attendance. Yeah. So I grew up date with daily access to a swimming pool and spent most of my days either jumping off of diving boards or the neighbor's roof. Yesterday I got a pretty good swim in at a pool that had a diving board, and I was sucked over to that diving with like, oh, come on, I got to be able to do some of these things still, right, don't I kinda well? I got a couple I can do well.

39:28 I pushed it one too many times. I felt a little twinge of something like nah, I'm good, no bad idea. I pushed it too far and ended up tearing the muscle in my right calf. So right now, as I'm sitting here producing this week's episode, my leg is elevated, good, it's being iced twenty minutes on tinmutes off, and I haven't wrapped up in a badgage. Plus I'm now walking with a cane, so obviously that means there's not going to be any golf for me for the next couple of months, which really burns me because I was supposed to play tomorrow at Silverado with a golf Smarter listener who flew in from England and he's visiting family and he wanted to play, and I was so excited about trying. Anyway, Sorry Lloyd, and later on everybody, if you're in the Bay area, let me know you're coming in. We'll play golf together. Well if I'm in one piece anyway, So what does this all mean to you? Nothing? But if you don't want to miss an episode, it might not really sure if we miss an episode over two or two over the next few weeks, I hope you'll understand that I just didn't have it together to try to get more interviews. I just couldn't do it. But another possibility is to rerun some old episodes that are particularly special.

40:47 But I'd love your suggestion on it. Would you prefer reruns or just skipping a couple of weeks, And if we do some reruns, I'm really interested to know what you would think. Do you want to hear something specific on a topic or on a guest. You want to hear about golf course architecture or fitness or nutrition or putting, or do you want to hear something from Jim Waldron, or doctor Joe Parent or any of the myriad of guests we've had over the five hundred plus shows. Send me your thoughts to Fred at Golfsmarter podcast dot com. But now I want to get back to Jim Venettas. So before this all happened to me, I watched a lot of Just this weekend, I watched a lot of Jim's videos on his site at Jimvnettas goolf Academy dot com.

41:34 Again Vanettas's v as in Victor E N E t is in tom Os jimvnettesolf Academy dot com. Well, then I went out and hit some buckets. I recorded and uploaded some of my swings on video for Jim to review, and then I played a nine hole par three course, and I gotta tell you, Jim's method of weight shift and stillness had pretty impressive results for me as I was just getting the feel of it. I was actually really impressed of how well I was hitting the ball just trying to do those things, and I think he might be onto something that can also work for you. So right now I'm going to play the audio portion of a video that he sent over to me. On the keys to making solid contact. You'll probably want to watch the video as well. I'm going to publish it on our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash golf Smarter TV. If you've not been there yet, please check it out. There's a lot of stuff you can learn from there. And if I can also get this to work, I'm going to try to upload the video to our golf Smarter TV channel. The video that I sent to him then he sent back to me with his comments and advice and they were really good and I think it would give you a better idea of how he does his thing. So here we go with a golf Smarter exclusive Jim Venettas and his keys to making solid contact.

43:00 The key to solid contact is simply this. You have to hit down on the ball. But hitting down on the ball has nothing to do with intending to strike down with your arms. Instead, hitting down on the ball happens based upon the position of your weight. You see, your weight determines the bottom of the arc for the swing, meaning wherever my weight's at at impact is where the low point of the swing is going to be. So my weight's on my back foot, the weight the contact point is going to be directly in front of my back foot. If my weight's on my front foot, the contact point is going to be directly in front of my front foot. Now, if you just take this logically, we need to hit down on the ball, which means we need the low part of our arc to be ahead of the ball. So when you place your weight on your forward foot, what you're doing is your securing contact. Now, if you leave your weight there guaranteeing solid contact, it's if your weight drifts that then you have the responsibility to put your weight back to where it started from, and that's where you're gonna deal with contact issues. But if you load seventy percent of your weight onto your forward foot by making this pivot in your body so that the weight falls to your front foot, now immediately you can just hold your weight still and have consistent solid contact every time. Now, the cool thing about this is you also create power because by holding your weight still,

44:33 you create leverage. By being pivoted clothsed, you eliminate spin from the ball. And also solid contact equates to power. So if you can get into your forward side and then stay there, not only will you be able to focus on the simplicity of just holding your weight still throughout the sway. But you're gonna guarantee solid contact, you're gonna guarantee power, you're going to guarantee control over your spin. So the key to solid contact is all about your weight. The position of your weight determines the bottom of the arc. If you want solid contact, you need to have the bottom of the arc ahead of the ball, and you do that by placing your weight on your forward foot and keeping your weight there the entire time through the sway.