2011-02 – February 2011 Coaching Hour – Recognizing and Overcoming Fear

And he said: After my surgery, after I had gotten up to where I could get around okay, I was disoriented and my balance was horrible and I was having to lean against the wall to put my socks on and put my pants on, etcetera. And he said: When I got those balance pads from you, within 30 days I was standing up on one foot, putting my sock on the other foot.

I was shocked at how quickly it happened, not that it happened. But I was shocked at how quickly it happened. Unbeknownst to me, Brian did a little test on the balance pads. And if any of you are on here who weren’t here when we started talking about balance two years ago, we’ll catch up with that maybe in a few minutes.

Brian was on the balance pads. Brian is older than me so he needs them more than I do. And he sat on the balance pads, and he was on them for quite some time. Then he decided to do a little test, and he got off of them, and then he got back on them. And Brian, would you mind kind of summarizing the email you sent to me a few days ago? Just kind of carry us through what you have learned in being on the pads, off the pads, and back on the pads.

 Brian: Sure. First of all, when I go shoot occasionally I get to shoot with some of my peers.

 Gil: That’s the old guys?

 Brian: Yep. That’s those Super Vets. And anyway, they’re always complaining about not being able to do things that they used to do, and they don’t crawl up ladders and they got to watch where they walk and what-have-you. And they feel like they get out of balance sometimes in the stand or what-have-you.

And so I don’t have that problem because when we got introduced to the balance pads, I immediately got a lot of benefit because I think one of the things that was the selling point was use it or lose it. If you don’t use it, then things start falling apart, especially as we get older. At my age we tend to be more sedentary, in other words, sitting on our ass a little bit more.

 Gil: I’m glad you defined that because I didn’t know what that meant.

 Brian: So you start losing those balance functions because you don’t need to be balanced when you’re sitting in the damn chair. When you get up and have to get mobile, then that’s when you have to be balanced. But I noticed the benefit right off the bat when I first started because I had already started, been leaning against the wall, putting on socks or putting on my underwear or having to sit in a chair and such stuff as that.

And after using the pads, then I started seeing an immediate effect. I was able to get up and stand up and put my socks on while standing up. And all of the things that you said were going to happen did happen. It’s like when you first got on the pads, my ankles started burning like hell, just trying to keep myself up.

But after a week or so of that, it started fading away and what- have-you, and I was able to get up and stay upright more. The other thing is, too, I noticed my posture was much better. I was upright much better. So the other thing is, too, is when I go to shoot FITASC, a lot of places where you shoot the hoops are not in a very good spot. And so you have an unbalanced place or shooting from an angle  footing.

 Gil: They’re not on flat ground, are they?

 Brian: Not on flat ground. So consequently I was able to stay upright, and I never lose balance. But I wanted to check and see how if I did stop there would be any effect. So I did about a 90-day trial to see how it was. Well, within my 60 days my wife is already telling me, she said: You’re dragging your foot. And then I’ve also noticed that I was starting to have to grab the wall to put on my underwear. So I said, I better get back on these pads. And about 30 days later I did get back on the pads and I immediately saw the effect again.

 Gil: I got a question. I got to ask this right here, and then I’m going to let you continue.

 Brian: Go ahead.

 Gil: You were off of them for about three months, did you say?

 Brian: Yep.

 Gil: Okay. And you didn’t notice anything right off; but your wife began to notice some physiological changes, and then you began to notice that your balance was to a point to where you had to go back to lean against the wall to put on your socks or your underwear, that you really could tell a difference, and then you decided to get back on the pads.

How long after you had gotten on the pads did it take you to get back to where you felt solid on your feet?

 Brian: It didn’t take long at all. I would say within a week and a half or something like that.

 Gil: How many minutes a day are you doing  it?

 Brian: Oh, about 15 minutes a day.

 Gil: Interesting. Tell me something about duck hunting.

 Brian: Well, when I was going out to set the decoys early in the morning with my boys they didn’t want me to go out there because they were afraid I would fall down. And so I said: Hell, guys, I can handle this. You know? And so after a couple of days of doing that, they just finally backed off and let me go out and set the decoys there every morning and such stuff as that.

And I never felt like I ever got out of balance, and then I would upright myself. Sometimes we would step in a little hole or something like that, and I was able to maintain balance. It really served its purpose and it did what you sold it for. I can’t say that it gained me another damn target; but as far as my health that I’ve derived from it is I’ll say it’s worth every nickel.

 Gil: It’s worth every minute you put in on it doing it?

 Brian: Right.

 Gil: Yeah.

 Brian: But that’s another thing. There’s so much information you’ve given us, but what we all have to do is find that item and work it until it becomes a part of us because we get so much new information and everybody wants another little piece of an edge on something.

But this balance pad is really a lifesaver. I’ve watched a lot of my friends around here, they can’t do what I do and that’s because I’m active. I’m out in the field every day and doing the things a lot of them can’t do but I don’t want to get old, but that’s another thing.

Gil: Well just remember don’t hurry through your life. Nobody gets out alive and you might get to the end before you’re ready.

 Brian: Well, that’s right. Amen.

 Gil: Yeah. Well, I will tell you this. The balance thing is important. For those of you who are younger, it’s not as important; but any of us that are getting a little older, it’s really important to get on those pads. As Brian said, it’s either use it or lose it. And it’s an amazing thing what will happen to your sense of balance and your sense of being centered once you get on those pads. I think Rick was on them for a certain time. And, hell, you got to where you could close your eyes on them, didn’t you, Rick?

 Rick: Yeah. I close my eyes for eight minutes.

 Gil: That right there is one of those things that most people will tell you it can’t be done, but I’m telling you balance is something that we take for granted because we use it every day. But I’m going to tell you if any of you have ever had an inner ear infection or some kind of problem that affected your balance to where you couldn’t overcome it, you don’t realize how valuable balance is. I’ve worked with different athletes in different athletic venues. I was shocked to find out that almost all of the college football athletes and basketball athletes have a balance regiment that they go through it at least three times a week. If you go to the Butch Harmon golf school, you’re going to be on balance pads for 20 minutes at a time two or three times a day while you’re there. Every professional athlete goes through balance training, and you might want to look at it as a fad, but it is a reality. The better your balance is, the more centered you become, the easier your body can react and do what you’re asking it to do. I’m not telling you  that you all have to be on balance pads every day.

I will tell you this, and I think Brian would agree with me and I know Nick Sislay would agree with me. Based on what we’ve seen, it will give you a better foundation. And we have actually seen people that can’t hit longer targets, and put them on these balance pads for about three minutes and tell them to get off and go out and shoot the bird you would be shocked at what happens to older shooters just from being on those balance pads for three minutes, and you go and take them out there and tell them to shoot the same shot that they’re two out of five on, and they’re all of sudden five out of five on.

I’m convinced that there’s more to it than we realize, and I remember when we first brought this up, Steve told Vicki and I to come up there. He had a doctor who wanted to see us, and we sat down and we talked with that doctor, and the doctor said: You’re ahead of most people in the athletic world because you can enhance your balance through balance training like you’re talking about.

Like Brian said, you can’t tell that it got you three extra targets today, but it’s part of that positive visualization. It’s part of being physically fit, going to the gym, walking, eating good, getting plenty of sleep. It’s all part of that total athlete, if you will, getting you to the point so you can compete well when you shoot.

So the balance pads are a happening thing. In fact, I don’t think we have any in the office right now. They’re all gone. So if anybody out there would like to have some, let me know. We’ll help you find them on the Internet. You can buy them at just about any physical therapy shop. They just look like two, big, fat pancakes that are 14-inches wide with air in them; and you just stand on them, and the first time Willy put them under my feet I couldn’t stand on them, but it didn’t take me long to where I could stand on them. You can do it front of the TV. You can do in your office on the telephone. What do you think, Rick?

 Rick: Oh, I’m doing it now. I actually got the dust off of them and put them down and started standing on them when Brian started talking about it.

 Gil: Well, I will tell you it’s a small thing; but, as Brian said — and he’s been on the coaching hour since we started it years ago — we have put out a lot of information on this coaching hour. It’s all relevant. Each one of you are going to find certain things that trip your trigger that get you excited to do things and gets you motivated to go beyond  just what you’re doing to perform better. The balance pad things are important, especially as you age. They are very very important. So stick with it. Brian, thank you for going through that impromptu talk. I didn’t let you know you were going to do that. But we are in a process; I’m going to get Nick Sislay to write me a little bit about his journey, too, and we’re going to put that out there for all of the older shooters because the last time I checked there’s more older shooters out there than there are younger shooters.

 Brian: Well, let me add one little thing to that. Our local football team has put it in one of their training regimens. So it’s done in the high schools now.

Gil: I was shocked, and it’s something that you will not see talked about or written about. But when you really boil it all down to it, you can have the moves and you can have the circuitry; but if you’re not in balance, you can’t perform what you’re capable of performing.

 Brian: Uh-huh.

 Gil: I mean, that’s just all there is to it. And I’ve been very fortunate in my life. I’ve always had real good balance, but I find myself on the balance pads in the morning more often than I do not. And again, I was shocked when I was talking to Tim Mercer (phonetic) about the balance pads, and he was saying: Yeah, I just got back from a Butch Harmon golf school. He goes and sees Butch twice a year for a week, and he said: You can’t pick up a golf club in the morning until you stand on the balance pads for 20 minutes.

And I said: You’re kidding me.

And he said: Hell, no. Nobody is going tell you, but all those pro golfers have a balance regimen. It’s even happening in the college golf now. It’s going out there and, once again, we were lucky enough to be on the forefront on some of this technology. If you can’t maintain balance, you can’t do what you know you can do.

So there you have it. Anybody have any comments about that?

 Rick: I have a question for Vicki. Does Vicki do the balance pads? How does that work from a female point of view?

 Vicki: Well, I’m on them right now, Rick.

 Rick: So are you leaning?

 Vicki: Well, I’m always leaning. No. I’m having to work on them because I’ve also lost a lot of my balance. And I found out when we were wade fishing, it’s very hard for me to keep my balance in that mush. And so I started being a little more serious about getting on these things. We’ve been talking about this since 2008.

 Gil: We talked about it in 2008?

 Vicki: Yep.

 Gil: And I’ll echo what Vicki is saying, and it doesn’t take but getting into ankle-deep mud with some oyster shell in it to where, you know, you’re really not sure of your footing, and it shows you how well your balance gyros are working.

 Brian: Uh-huh.

 Gil: And what Brian was talking about as far as putting decoys out in the mud, you just don’t realize it until you’re out there trying to do it. You can fall down real easy. And I think Vicki recognized that last year we were in some situations where I came and got her, and we’ve got some little devices that we put our fish in and put our rods in and then got floatation devices on them so that you can put your hand on top of them and press them down into the water.

It’s kind of like having a stair banister right there by you to help you keep your balance, and there was a couple of times where we got into a situation where we were surrounded by oyster shell and mud where you couldn’t see it, where you couldn’t take more than an eighth inch step at a time and you were balanced on one foot, trying to find another place for your other foot to go so you could work your way out of those oyster shells and you couldn’t fall down. I mean, if you fall down you’re going to be cut to shreds. It’s just one of those things. And I think it only took one time getting into a situation like that where I had to come get Vicki, to get her out, and the only reason I could get in there is because I had something I could lean on. I had to bring my device over there for her to lean on, and we finally got out of there with the help of a guy, and he came in and helped us out. I just didn’t realize it and I know Vicki didn’t realize it, but because she knows we’re going back, she’s on them balance pads.

And like I said and like Brian said, I can’t guarantee it’s going to get you another target, but the overall effect, making you more stable in the stand, I’ve got to believe will allow you to push your potential. And when it’s your day to have that good performance, I’ve got to believe that it will allow you to achieve an even better performance.

Ignition is the Coach’s Job

 Gil: Moving right along, I want to talk about fear. I’ve been trying to get this segment in for three or four months, and it’s the segment that I stole from Extraordinary Golf, by Fred Shoemaker. I read it about four months ago, and I took notes on it; and I used it in a coach’s clinic that Vicki and I did in Grand Isle, Nebraska. We had about 30 coaches in the room who came and worked with us for a day on how to coach kids, and one of the things that you have to get kids to overcome, to learn something, is fear because they’re all afraid to screw up because they’re intimidated by their peers.

And the coach actually has to be an igniter. He has to be an ignition source for them to drop down their fears and inhibitions and try something they’ve never tried. And you get those kids to keep trying it, and all of a sudden when it happens all you do is just shut up, feed them bullets and encourage them and be excited and be a cheerleader. And all of a sudden after about 13 or 14 shots the kid has a new technique or a new way to do things, and then their brain submits that circuit so quickly.

But I wanted to share some of the things in this section. Fear is not a set of physical sensations. It’s the interpretation we make of those sensations. And because we make the interpretation of the sensation, we can change it.

We live in a culture of comfort. We don’t throw away old tennis shoes. We don’t recover our favorite chair in front of the TV. We don’t want to try a new salad dressing, but we want to keep things comfortable. We want to avoid discomfort, whether it’s physiological or emotional. That affects us all.

I know I was watching a new TV show last night, and there was an embarrassing moment between the male and female leads; and I was like, holy cow, I don’t even want to watch this. Emotional discomfort can create fear. We want to be comfortable. This brings about compla- cency, and the real paradox about all of this is the only constant in the universe that we live in is change. Learning requires a willingness to explore and take risk, and any time you’re in a learning situation there will be an initial feeling of discomfort and confusion.

Now, for some of you, the first time we asked you to be in the breakpoint early there was not just an initial feeling; but there was an extremely uncomfortable feeling about being in the breakpoint early. Some of you had a very uncomfortable feeling about choosing and committing to a breakpoint.

So often we look at discomfort or confusion as an undesirable thing, but if you’ll step back from that a little bit and actually look at it, I think you’ll find that the best things in life always make us feel a little uncomfortable at first: New relationship, a new job, shotgunning in general, not having enough money in the checkbook, realizing    that some other son of a bitch has got your credit card number. I know that from personal experience about three months ago. A new shooting technique. I mean, we all want to be comfortable, and we’ll spend great amounts of money for insurance to keep us from being uncomfortable. Okay? Some of the best things in life always make us feel uncomfortable at first.

A new job. Yeah. Fear limits our possibilities when we label these sensations as fearful and undesirable. When we look at discomfort   as undesirable, that’s a product of fear, and that fear limits our possibilities; but fear is a reaction. We have, and I think that you would all agree with this, always tried to help our shooters recognize fear and not to be stopped by it; and if you can help somebody understand how debilitating fear is and how that it absolutely robs you of your ability to push your potential, if you can help them learn something like that through a game called sporting clays or through learning to be a public speaker, whatever it is, you can give a personal life lesson that will create many successes for them.

This year I gave my first keynote speech. If you could imagine Gil Ash being somewhat concerned about what he was going to say. It’s one thing for me to get on the phone to talk to you-guys tonight. It’s another one to talk to 150 or 200 people at a Safari convention or a North American Gamebird Convention or come out to shoot a seminar out here at American Shooting Center where we’ve had almost 250 sometimes. It’s one thing for me to get up and talk to people about shotgunning, something I know inside out, upside down, wrong side first and whatever. But to get up in front of a thousand people and you’ve got about 20 minutes and you’ve got to give them something that makes them feel good and it challenges them a little bit, to give them a motivational speech for the first time.

I’ll tell you this. When I was asked to do it, I said: I’m not sure we’ll be able to be there. That’s how scared I was, and I was literally that scared of it. I knew I needed to do it because I knew if I could ever do it once, then it would be easier for me to do the next time; and I feel that it’s a gift that I’ve got that I need to develop and talent that I need to develop because I believe I can help some people doing it.

And I called the guy back and I said: I’ll accept that. And the minute I hung up the phone, this little voice in the back said: Are you crazy? You’ve never done this before. And I immediately said to that voice: It doesn’t matter. I don’t care if I fail. I’m going to fail big. I’m going to put myself in that situation because I know if I put myself in that situation, based on what I’ve done in the past, I’ll do the rehearsal necessary. I’ll come together with what I have to speak about. I’ve got enough life experiences with you-guys on the phone here that I could talk about that will motivate people to go beyond what they’re already doing to reach their potential.

And it was amazing how the things that we’ve talked about on this coaching hour just begin to come out of me, and it eliminated doubt, and I wasn’t worried about writing the speech. I just knew I was going to do it, and I knew I was going to do a good job of it. And I had Vicki and I’d be going somewhere and we’d think about something and I’d stop and I’d write something down. I had me about four or five note cards that I had written down things on and things that I might want to talk about; and about two weeks before the speech we were here, and I came in into the office and I told Ronda and Vicki: I’m going into the hole. I’m going to go write the speech.

So I went in and I closed the door and I wrote the speech, and it took a while. It took about two-and-a-half hours to get it written. I think we were getting ready to go fishing or something. I forgot why   I had to get it done by a certain time, but I got her done, got the first draft done. And I had two copies made, and I gave one to Vicki and one to Ronda; and, of course, they immediately started reading it, and I left to go do something. My back was kind of stiff.

And when I came back in, they were both crying. So I figured I done what I wanted to do. I got to their hearts, and from that I rehearsed that speech about five times. And I got up in front of I don’t know how many people in the room, but I got up in front of the room and I nailed it. There wasn’t a dry eye in that room after the first eight minutes.

And let me tell you something. When you’re doing public speaking and you’re putting a lot of emotion into it, when the whole room starts sniffling, you’ve got to find somebody to look at that’s not crying or you’re going to start crying.

And I was looking around that room, and I finally found one waitress in the back that really didn’t care what I was saying, but I kept looking at her when I was talking so I could get past that emotional part.

And as I got into the body of the speech, the sniffling stopped and people started smiling and agreeing. And as I closed the speech, it was an exhilarating feeling, but I got to tell you about two-thirds of the way through that voice came back and it said: You’re doing it. You’re here.

And I had to pause because that was the voice trying to take me to the future. I had to pause, regroup, and go back and get in the present, which I did. And I was able to nail that speech, and it was an invigorating thing for me because I was able to overcome the fear of never having done it and depend on the things that I had done in the past to enable me to put myself in a position where if I failed I was going to fail big, but I wasn’t afraid of failing. I overcame that fear.

And I got to tell you in doing this little thing on fear, this helped me tremendously. In all nonlife-threatening situations, fear has never done you any good. In a nonlife-threatening situation, fear has not given you safety or learning. Intelligence has done that. In a nonlife-threatening situation, fear has not protected you from danger. It is the danger. And in a nonlife-threatening situation, fear is a subjective interpretation of a situation. It’s a subjective interpretation of a situation.

Imagine this. Imagine what would happen if the sensations and thoughts that we unknowingly label as fear could be seen as a signal that we are getting close to a breakthrough. Keep going. Don’t stop. Let me read that again. I don’t know how many times everybody on this phone has heard it, and I know Vicki and I have said don’t be afraid, don’t worry about hitting the target, you’re almost there, keep going, keep going. I wonder what would happen if the sensations and thoughts that we unknowingly label as fear could be seen as a signal that we are getting close to a breakthrough: Keep going. Don’t stop.

I have to tell you when I accepted that speaking engagement, I did it because I wanted to put myself in a position to succeed or fail. I knew that if I could do that I could really go somewhere. I could push myself to another level. That’s why I did it. I wasn’t afraid. I overcame that fear. Fear shuts down your life and will not even allow you to attempt things. If you can see fear for what it is and keep going despite it, you can begin the learning process.

I’ve got to tell you another little story. I’ve got time to do it. I never will forget the day I came home from college, and I told my daddy what I was going to do to make a living, what I was going to major in in college because I was a very strong C -minus student, you understand. And my dad was excited that I knew what I was going to do in college, and when I came home I told him that I was going to be a photographer. I was going to study photography and get a degree in photography, and I could have told him that I was gay and got a better reception.

My father has been very traditional with everything, business administration degree from Baylor University and I mean just as straight-laced as you can be. And he looked at me and he said: Well, son, what are you going to do to support your family?

And I said: I’m going to take pictures for a living. And he just shook his head. Well, I’m going to tell you something. That was the third or fourth time in my life when I just stood up to my parents, and I said: Look, this is what I’m going to do. This is who I am and I went ahead and did it.

I graduated from East Texas State University with a photography degree, and I borrowed $400, rented a U-Haul trailer and went to Houston. I worked for another man for three years. Borrowed $8,000. Started my own business. Paid the debt back in three months. My lovely wife prepared a balance sheet and a financial statement, which I promptly sent to my father; and my father called me on the phone the minute he got it. I answered the phone and he said: Son, I got your letter. 

I said: Well, great, dad.

He said: Do you realize you charge more for taking pictures than I pay my attorneys?

And I said: Well, you never asked me how much I was going to charge for taking pictures. You just never thought I’d be able to make any money at it. Well, my dad respected me after that. And I’ve got to give you one more little caveat to my life. When Vicki and I decided to sell the photography business to travel around the world and teach people to shoot shotguns, I called my father and I said: Dad, we’re going to sell the photography business. There was a pause that felt like it lasted three minutes. It really was probably about 25 seconds. And out of the pause came a voice that said: Son, I doubted you once. Follow your dreams. And that gave me a lot of courage, and I remembered those words when I went up on that stage that night. You got to understand that you can’t be courageous if at first you did not fear. Courage can get you past fear, but trust can eliminate it. To be aware of and to feel is what creates trust. Technical expertise is always preceded by experience, and you cannot trust what you cannot feel. You cannot replicate it. You cannot fix it.

If we can get our shooters to become more aware of what it feels like than what it looks like, you all know, because you’ve been there, that success is just around the corner. Trust comes from feeling things in their entirety and believing in the reliability of what you have felt. I had a lesson with a guy today who played linebacker for University of Houston. He’s about 28 years old. He’s going to a wedding in Midland the first week of March. His new brother-in-law is going to be the third- string quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys. The guy had some timing. He was just looking down the barrel. And I got to tell you when that kid finally started looking at the front of the target as he mounted the gun, he didn’t miss, and he could replicate it over and over again.

He said in his first comment when he did it the third time in a row, he said: I can feel that. I can feel that. And he kept doing it and he said: This is easy. And then he missed one because he looked at the barrel. And rather than telling me what he did wrong, he said it didn’t feel right, and he went back right back to it feeling right and it felt   right and it felt right. It was an incredible lesson. I’m hoping that I’m able to get his new brother-in-law to talk to me. I want to talk to him about what he sees when he throws a pass. He said: I’ll arrange for him and Romo both to come see you because we’re all good friends.

I’ve already met them all. So, anyway, I’m looking forward  to  maybe doing something like that. You must learn to feel the difference when you trust your swing and when you don’t. Let me read that again. You must feel the difference when you trust your swing and when you don’t. Becoming aware of these differences, the distinctions, is what learning is all  about.

Shooting with confidence and trust is a whole new and wonderful way to play our game. It’s very typical to learn conscious sight pictures, and one day hopefully you’ll be able to trust them. We’ve talked about that. But if you learn to trust from the beginning without the fear of missing, learning comes more rapidly and you learn mechanics and performance at the same time, and you will be able to marvel at the ability of your unconscious computer.

Fear is a very debilitating thing, people. I have to tell you fear will make you do some strange things. I remember several years ago when Dean Olson – who was on this coaching hour for several years – was in the hunt to win the National Championship, and he came to me that night at the hotel, and he said: What do I do?

And I said: Just keep doing what you’re doing. It’s just another day. And he said: That’s easy for you to say.

And I said: Yeah, it is. And I said: Something strange is going to happen to you tomorrow when you get out there. I’m just telling you. It’s going to happen. If when it happens, if you can laugh at it from your gut, you’ll survive it. If you can’t, it’s going to be a tough day. The choice is yours. He got to the first station, loaded his gun, called pull and pulled the trigger twice without even mounting the gun. He was so nervous. And when he was telling me about the story, he said: Gil, everybody was watching me. And he said: I didn’t even know what I was doing. He said: When I called pull, I just pulled the trigger twice.

And he said: But I remembered what you told me. I opened the gun and put the gun on the bar in front of me. I just laughed for about 30 seconds. That was what had just happened to me. He ended up finishing runner-up at the next championship. It’s an amazing thing what fear will do to you. It’ll certainly make you talk too much.

I read something earlier today. I want to read you Bob Rotella’s ten commandments. A couple of them are really golf oriented, but there’s some good things here. No. 1, play to play great. Don’t play to not play poorly. Love the challenge of the day whatever it might be. Wouldn’t it be neat if you could look at that feeling of fear and realize that’s a signal that you’re getting close to having a breakthrough? Wouldn’t that be exceptional if you could look at fear in that way? Get out of results and get into process. For y’all that are having a little struggle with your goals right now, this is a huge thing. Goals don’t need to be result oriented. They need to be process oriented, especially the more you get into master class in the first year or so. You don’t need to have score goals, result goals. You need to have process goals.

I remember when Gary first punched into master class. He said: What do I do?

And I said: I think you need to be the best master class shooter in visual transition that there is. That’s a process goal. That’s something you can get your teeth into. I was talking to Jim Scott up in Iowa. He called us. His chest is all puffed out, and he said: Man, I couldn’t wait to get you on the phone. I’ve been on the road and I’ve called a couple of times and you hadn’t been there, but I just wanted to share something with you. I said: What’s that, Jim?

He said: Well, I bought me a Krieghoff last year, and I just punched into master class.

And I said: Congratulations.

He said: The problem was, though, I punched into master class about two-thirds of the way during the year, and I didn’t have another goal. It took me about a month and a half to figure out that I needed to make another goal. Well, I’ve got one, he said.

I said: What’s your new goal?

He said: Well, I’m not going to be a national champion. I’m not going to win a national championship because I’m not a professional shooter. But that won’t keep me from trying to bruise those guys up several times when I’m shooting in the same tournament that they’re in.

And that’s from a guy that’s had a lot of personal problems in his life, physical problems with his parents and with his daughter and whatnot, and I thought that was pretty unique: Yeah, I’ll never be a national champion, but I’m going to tell you what. When I meet those guys at a tournament, I’m going to have an opportunity to bruise those guys up and make it a little harder for them to get to where they’re going.

Number four, know that nothing will bother or upset you on the golf course and that you will be in a great state of mind for every shot. That’s easier said than done, but it’s a huge thing when you can accom- plish it. You know, fear makes you just start babbling, and it makes you start talking to people around you. We’ve all had the problem, but when you step back away from it, you realize that the reason you’re talking so much is you’re trying to control what people are thinking about you, and you can’t control what people think. It’s futile.

Playing with the feeling that the outcome doesn’t matter is almost always preferable to caring too much. That’s a big one. That’s a big one. I was talking to Doug Mellen. He called me the other night and said: I learned a big lesson last weekend, coach.

I said: What’s that, Doug?

He said: I was in it until the ninth station. I said: What happened?

He said: I just couldn’t control it. I said: What do you mean?

He said: Things sped up. The voices started. I was down two, easy stations. I dropped 11 birds on the last four stations. He said: I shot good, but I just couldn’t keep it together.

And I said: Well, you have to understand something. You got to keep it together for nine stations before you can keep it together  for

13. You got to keep it together for one day before you can keep it together for two days. You got to keep it together for two days before you can keep it together for three days. It’s all just one more step in the journey. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Stay here. Remember what it felt like on the first nine. Keep your expectations low. Playing with a feeling that the outcome doesn’t matter is almost always preferable to caring too much.

Believe fully in yourself and your training. Trust yourself so that you can play freely. It says here see where you want the ball to go before every shot. I would tell you pick your breakpoints specifically on every target, be decisive, committed, and clear, be your own best friend.

Number ten is love your wedge and putter. I would say love your skeet choke and kill all the short targets.

Well, guys, in closing I’d just like to tell you to look out for fear in your life. It’s out there. It’s going to come in. And I have to tell you I’ve had some great victories in the last three months, and I want to share some more of them with you next month or next time we get together. I know that fear will take you out of the present and take you into the future, but fear is something that’s just a reaction to a certain set of circumstances.

I heard something the other day that you’ll scream just as a loud if a shark bites you or if a piece of seaweed brushes across the top   of your foot when you’re not expecting it. It’s the same fear. It’s the exact same fear, but you’ve got to overcome that fear. It is just a set of circumstances. It’s just how you react to a set of circumstances, and because it’s that, you can change that. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid. When things are starting to fall apart, it’s because you’re pushing your ability so that you can get beyond it and get to the next level.