235: An Interview with Vegas's own Brad Thompson: A Golf Fitness Guru and passionate Golfer

Transcript

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Hey everybody, thank you so much for tuning into this episode of the Chasing Daylight podcast.

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It's been a while since we've had an interview, and I'm excited for this guest, mainly because I am actually trying to get myself to be a little bit more fit.

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I've gone through some struggles over the past I don't know five, six years with work and kids and my fitness has declined dramatically, and so I am excited to bring on Brad Thompson.

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Also know what's your hashtag?

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What's your Instagram handle?

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Brad Thompson Golf Fitness.

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Brad Thompson, golf Fitness.

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So you are a golf fitness guru, and I say that because more than one person has told me that You're working at.

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Elevate is where you're based, out of which I have heard just amazing things about.

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But let's, let's do the.

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Let everybody know your background, your story and what you're all about.

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Alright, so I'll start from the very beginning.

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So I've been playing golf my entire life and I'm born and raised here in Las Vegas.

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Hey, nice, there's not too many of us.

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One of a few.

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So, born and raised here in Las Vegas, golf has been a huge part of my life.

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Pretty much my entire life played competitively as a junior golfer through college and even after college as an amateur.

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Then I got into golf fitness kind of.

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It wasn't something that I was like searching for, it kind of just like kind of happened I'll end up.

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So my golf instructor I don't know if you know Gregville, he was at the Butch Harmon Academy, so anyway.

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So he was my longtime swing coach and he was starting a junior golf coach.

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He was a junior golf program called West Coast Elite.

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So basically the premise of it was they were going to have this whole like all encompassing junior golf program where it was they had a golf instructor, they had fitness and then they have a medical practitioner on stand.

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So he's like hey, I'm starting this, I'm partnered with this chiropractor and we need I know you're really into fitness, we need someone to do this.

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So I was like sweet, it sounded awesome, so got into that, went through the whole TPI certification thing, got certified to train people and then the chiropractor was like hey, I'm starting a gym, want you to come on board.

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So that's kind of how I got got involved with it and I pretty much started out with golf and that's where I've been doing the last, going on 12 years now, okay.

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So, being a born and raised, I have to ask a question what high school did you go to?

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Las Vegas high school, the new one up on the mountain.

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Yeah, okay, I'm a East side, or my side.

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I went to Chaperrill, oh yeah, so you got it.

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That's the.

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If anybody doesn't know Vegas people, if you run into somebody that's born and raised, that's the first question you ask them so did you play?

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You played golf at Las Vegas.

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Yeah, so played there, played a little bit in college and then they played some amateur stuff after that.

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But it kind of came down to like, well, I got to start, I got to find a career.

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I didn't have.

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I did want to play professionally there for a little bit, but then it kind of came to a point where I was like I got to do something with my life.

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Did you do any like a USM qualifiers or anything like that?

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Yeah, so I tried qualifying for like US Junior.

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Am.

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I made it to sectionals of the US Open qualifier, like my sophomore year of high school, which was awesome it was.

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It was out at Lexi that's when it like Lexi, for those who don't know, back in the early 2000s.

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It was so good.

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It was so good.

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It was like it was one of the.

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It was probably the best public course we've had.

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Yeah, that's why I tell everybody, like you know, back in the late 90s, early 2000s, like you said, you tell somebody you're going to legacy, it was like who, who, who, who you fancy they had the greens running like an 11.

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Well, the course just used to be great, but but yeah so made it through there.

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I mean it's a sector to the regional qualifier, sexual qualifier, nose and El Caballero country club and Tardisana, california, which is kind of like in the Hollywood Hills area, if I remember correctly.

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But so, and how to decent like junior golf career, so yeah, but golf's just been a huge, huge part of my life, pretty much my entire life.

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So on a daily basis are you?

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Are you working just strictly with golfers or do you have other clients as well?

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No, pretty much 100% strictly work with golfers.

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Nice.

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So, what?

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what would you say, is the biggest misconception that golfers have about golf fitness?

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Um, so they, they think the fitness it needs to exactly mimic the golf swing itself.

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So, like the golf like.

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If you look at the golf swing, there's a lot of moving parts.

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But there's also it's a high, you're producing a high amount of force, you're producing a lot of speed.

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So they think that okay, if I take this dumbbell and I swing it like a golf club, or I take it with me and this band doing it like a band, but you're actually doing something when reality you're not doing what you think you do.

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Um.

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So because the create.

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like the changes that you're looking to create you got to it's got to be a little bit more intense.

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So that's probably like the big misconception.

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And another misconception is like well, I mean, there's a lot of them, but lifting heavy weights is bad, but there's some benefit, but it's just like anything else, if you do it wrong it's dangerous.

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But if you learn how to do it correctly, progress it correctly, add weight at the appropriate amounts over time, then it's very safe for you, it's very helpful.

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But people tend to try to lift too much weight too soon with bad form.

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And yeah, you're just for sure.

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So what was your reaction when you saw Bryson come out, just yoked?

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I mean?

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so he understands the physics of it.

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So he's like hey, if I'm just, if I weighed more, I'm gonna be able to put more force into the ground and, all things being equal, a bigger muscle is a stronger muscle.

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So like, if you add X amount of, say, you had 10 pounds of muscle, will you weigh 10 pounds more now, so you're gonna be able to produce more force relative to your body.

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So he's on the right track there.

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I just I think he might have pushed it a little too far, because what tends to happen is golf is it's a rotational sport, it requires a lot of mobility and if you do push it to that extreme, you're gonna kind of romp your paper so you're gonna lose some mobility at some point.

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Like, for example, like if you look at like power lifters or bodybuilders, like they're really strong, really big, they're not known for being the best movers in the world, like they can't really move all that, so it comes down to like okay we need to get you stronger, bigger, but we're not sacrificing your ability to move and swing golf the way they want to.

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So where would you start with somebody trying to get them to understand how golf fitness can improve their golf game?

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Cause you see the ads, you see the Instagram posts add 10 yards just by golf fitness.

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Is that a reality and how do you, where would you tell somebody to start with golf fitness to improve their golf game?

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So I mean it's kind of like anything else.

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So if you were to go to say, the mechanic, you play your car and like they're gonna do some sort of like diagnostic, they're gonna do some sort of assessment, they're not just gonna look at your car and like you need this.

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So, really what you need to do is you gotta kind of you gotta go through an assessment process to really figure out what this person needs, so kind of break it up into a few buckets so you look at range of motion, you look at strength or how much force they can produce, and then how much power they have, power speed.

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So the first thing that I always start with I start with a movement assessment.

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So typically what I'm doing with that is I'm just looking at pretty much every joint in the body and I'm looking hey, how much range of motion does this joint have?

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And it doesn't have enough to do what you're trying to do in a golf swing, and it usually is they.

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If someone's struggling with something in the golf swing, they usually don't have enough range of motion to do what they're trying to do.

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So that's gonna be step number one, because ultimately yeah, so ultimately like you can get the fastest changes in club speed and ball speed by taking someone who's kind of stiff and just giving them more mobility To just think like if someone's trying to make a longer turn like longer back swing, longer back swing, you have more time to speed that club up, so you got more time to create speed.

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So giving someone more range of motion is gonna be like step number one, because that's gonna be easiest, like low attaining fruit.

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And then next we're looking at how strong are they.

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Do they, can they produce enough force?

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So we check lower body, check upper body and we're just kind of looking for, like, okay, are you strong enough to hit it, to hit it as far as you like?

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So if they're a little bit low, okay, that's gonna be the next low attaining fruit that we're going after.

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Because if you're not, if you can't just produce the force at all, like it's gonna be tougher for you to produce it faster.

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And then, third, we're gonna look at power.

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So we can do like vertical jump, med ball throws, stuff like that.

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So where we can look at okay, how's your power with the lower body, how's the power with the upper body, how is it when you're putting it all together?

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And then we kind of just take all that and just be like okay, we're the lowest attaining fruits, where can we put the most effort or most time and get the biggest, like then for our buck.

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initially, so you put together a plan based on that and, okay, that's awesome.

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So how much have you seen the industry change since you've been doing this?

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Cause it.

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You know the golf fitness wasn't really a big thing.

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Everybody started seeing Tiger Woods working out, rory started working out, and then, of course, you know Bryson of late, but has it changed a lot over the last I don't know what four or five years?

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Yeah, I mean even back to when I initially got into it.

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It's funny.

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It's kind of like I mean, if you follow golf, there's always these pendulum swings For a second.

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Like I mean, for instance, like, do you remember?

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Like stack and tilt, stack and tilt, and then it kind of got away from that.

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Now it's kind of like going back to something that resembles that.

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It happens like that in fitness too, like there's always these like huge pendulum swings.

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So when I first started, it was People weren't lifting as heavy, they weren't trying to push the strength or anything like that they were actually.

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It was more like okay, let's do lower weight, higher reps, stuff like that.

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Then it's kind of swung all the way to the other direction where it's like okay, let's get these guys as strong as possible.

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We're gonna change them like based on football players, where we're trying to get them the deadlifts as strong as possible, bench press, squat, get that as strong as possible.

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Now it's kind of like swinging back to the middle where it's like they all have a purpose.

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It just kind of depends on who you have in front of you.

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So it's definitely like it's just it swings back and forth.

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But right now it's kind of like it's still golfers are still like lifting heavy and still trying to get strong, but it's not, as they're probably not pushing that as hard as they were about like three, four years ago.

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Yeah, Do you think any of what Tiger Woods was doing when he was hitting the gym hard has anything to do with his medical issues now?

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Yeah, I mean I would say it definitely contributed, because I remember like I'm sure you've seen the meme of like what his, like his day schedule was back in, like oh yeah, it was ridiculous.

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And then him running that many miles with a weighted vest on like every day and then, along with the practice schedule that he had and how many balls he was hitting, all that he, it was just too much work in general and he did that for a long time and yeah, I mean, I honestly think anybody's body would break down.

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Like it was I definitely think it contributed for sure.

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Yeah, yeah, I think some guys can take it a little bit too far to the extreme For sure and I don't think he's one of those people that if he's gonna do something, I don't think he kind of dabbles like he's yeah it's all or nothing.

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Well, that's why he is who he is.

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Yeah, it's true, that's why he is who he is.

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So, in your opinion, then, is it flexibility over strength, or is it a combination of flexibility and strength?

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It's definitely a combination.

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So I what I look for is okay, can we get the range of motion first before we start adding a ton of strength?

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And again like it, there's a lot of variables, that kind of determine this but we and everybody, everybody is different.

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Everybody kind of moves differently, his shape differently, so certain people are gonna be more like predisposed to have more range of motion than others.

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But really it's like can I get you the range of motion that you need to get into the positions that you're looking for in a golf swing, as well as get you into the positions that we need to get you into in a gym?

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So we're not and I'm not trying to make like the most like flexible mole people, like I'm not trying to make it necessary like that.

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But if someone has like, no like, let's just say like hip interrotation, and you give them 10, 15 degrees of hip interrotation, that could be game changing for someone from a swing perspective, or even from just like a pain, like reducing pain and standpoint.

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So it's, we want to try to get them as much as they can within a certain limit, but then from there we gotta get them.

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Definitely wanna get them stronger, so resistance training and all that, but we wanna kind of do it in a way to where it's like we're not, like I said before, robin Peter, to pay Paul for not losing that mobility, like you can do certain things to kind of help, like maintain the mobility while you're, while you're lifting.

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It really just comes down to like using, like lifting with the technique and all that.

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Okay, so we've been talking about the new golfers that have come on since COVID the 100 million new golfers and we're anxiously awaiting we're called a great reset to where all these people go back to what they were doing before they picked up golf.

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Yeah, how has that been for you being in the fitness industry?

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As far as golf, Are you seeing a lot of new golfers coming in?

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Yes and no.

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I mean it's more like a steady stream, like definitely during COVID.

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Like COVID, that was a weird time for the gym space.

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Yeah, we were able to still train people and kind of keep our doors open, but it was.

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It was definitely a weird time.

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But as far as the people taking their fitness seriously, there was a lot of people, a lot more people back then that were more like like I want to.

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I got more time on my hands.

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I'm ready to come in and start training.

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Now it's kind of like you said, it's kind of coming back towards like okay, like I'm less, a little busier, like I got more stuff going on.

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So, like people, I don't think people are, as they're a little more reluctant to come in and start like putting a full effort into the fitness.

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Are you seeing, like, how long typically does someone stay with you as a client?

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Or are you seeing it?

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Has it changed over time?

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Or people like Dave this is actually really helping me.

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I want to continue doing this or do you find a lot of people that come in looking for a quick fix and then they're out?

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Yeah, so it depends on the client, on the level of golfer, so with the more competitive golfer, especially like professional golfers, because there's especially if they're like on a mini tour or like that they have to try like there's.

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Their tournament schedules are crazy.

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So especially like over the summertime, from like spring to like early fall, like they're on the road all the time and they're turning golf is consuming their life.

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So for them it's like.

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For them it's a little harder because they're always traveling and whenever they go to a different hotel, like you're kind of at the mercy of what they have.

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Like you might go in there like they might have a full dumbbell set, like a few machines and like some cardio equipment, and then you might go in there and it might be a bench at a 10 pound level, so it's the kind of at the mercy of that, and then plus two just with all the work that goes into traveling and tournament prep and all that.

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It's a little harder for them, but what I always preach is like your main goal.

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If you're a competitive golfer, the main thing is like once your turn to season starts, if you can just maintain basically everything that you built in the off season, you're going to start your next off season in a much better spot.

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And so you can do that as little as like lifting, like one, maybe two times a week, and it doesn't need to be this like super like you don't need to go in there for like 90 minutes or like two hours, and like crush it and be smoked, like you can go in there and just like, do a handful of things pretty intensely and then just be done with it and you're going to be able to maintain a lot of like a lot of the qualities that you're looking for.

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So it's like strength or skeet or whatever.

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So when you're during the off season or during the in season, like it's just mainly not many minutes, so you're doing just enough to maintain everything.

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So that when you start your off season you're going to be a really good spot.

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Then you just kind of start continued trend upwards instead of this like okay, it gets stronger or faster and then a dip, and then you just have to do this.

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Where?

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You're not really trending upwards.

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But for my other golfers they're just kind of recreational golfers where they're here for fitness but then they also are looking to kind of shape a few strokes off the golfing.

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Those are the ones that they they're a lot more long term, what I see them kind of week in, week out, throughout the course of the year, plus for traveling or anything like that.

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So it just it just had a depends on the golfer and what they're, what they're made.

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So what would you say is more enjoyable working with somebody that is new to fitness or somebody that is, like, obsessed with it?

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Um.

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Are you talking about like fitness or like golf?

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Like fitness, using fitness to get better golf.

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Yeah yeah, um, I honestly enjoy.

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I enjoy both, but I really do enjoy the people who are coming in and like, hey, like I'm trying to do this very specific thing in my golf swing and I can't.

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Like.

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I I thoroughly enjoy that because I like so.

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One of the downsides of fitness is it's not instant, that's a very bright.

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They're like, for instance like okay, I come in and worked out like I reached my goal as a one session, like that's unfortunate, it takes a lot of work over time for um, but with a lot of like.

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So if I'm working with a golf room, like, hey, like I want to like get into my trail, hit with my back swing, like I can make that a little bit more immediate.

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Where they can like I can assess, do my thing, reassess, like oh, look at all that rain devotion.

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Then we go back and have them swing club and like, oh, my gosh, like I can actually like get into this, hit now.

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And then like that's like I enjoy those sessions more because I can see it like instantly.

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And then I know I'm making this like instant um change their swing and instead improve it in the golf game or all of a sudden improve it in golf game.

00:21:01.252 --> 00:21:02.174
I love that.

00:21:02.174 --> 00:21:17.973
But I do enjoy like when you lay out like a training, like stay, like a three month training cycle and kind of everything just goes how it should have, and then like you reassess and you see these like nice improvements and like the vertical jump or the strength number or range of motion.

00:21:17.973 --> 00:21:20.304
Like I like them both, to be honest.

00:21:20.304 --> 00:21:25.212
But I do enjoy kind of like the the more like specific things.

00:21:26.060 --> 00:21:26.785
I, just because I.

00:21:26.825 --> 00:21:30.988
I mean, I love golf, I love the golf swing and I just love like those are.

00:21:30.988 --> 00:21:31.449
Those are fun.

00:21:32.819 --> 00:21:39.549
One of the craziest things that I've ever experienced as far as exercise equipment or whatever.

00:21:39.549 --> 00:21:42.775
It was this vibrating plate that you stood on.

00:21:43.019 --> 00:21:45.221
Maybe you don't right so.

00:21:45.923 --> 00:21:48.431
I had a friend who was one of the teaching pros.

00:21:50.766 --> 00:21:51.970
It's a power Power.

00:21:51.970 --> 00:21:57.154
He was a teaching pro at Dragon Ridge at when the Nicholas Academy was there and I was.

00:21:57.154 --> 00:22:26.048
He was helping me with my swing for a little bit and he's like here, come over here and stand on this, and I'm I'm not a flexible person whatsoever and he goes just bend down and you know, reach down as far as you can to touch your toes and, and so I could barely touch my toes right, and so he turns this machine on and and I was on it for like 20 seconds, 30 seconds by the time, my palms were like under my feet and I was like, oh my God, he goes now go swing, go swing.

00:22:26.048 --> 00:22:35.661
And I was like I need that, like on a cart, it's, it's incredible, it was unbelievable.

00:22:35.661 --> 00:22:46.934
Just that I would freed you up, you know, and of course it doesn't last, but the, the ability to you know to work and get to that is.

00:22:46.934 --> 00:22:51.490
It's amazing To see how it can change like that.

00:22:51.490 --> 00:22:55.829
So how many, how many golf professionals are you working with right now?

00:22:56.859 --> 00:23:09.765
I've got five, and then I've got a handful of high level amateurs junior golfers that are, that are going to be really good yeah.

00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:11.260
Are you?

00:23:11.260 --> 00:23:14.507
Are you seeing the junior golf game in Vegas?

00:23:14.507 --> 00:23:16.872
Get better.

00:23:16.872 --> 00:23:19.025
Yeah, absolutely yeah.

00:23:19.839 --> 00:23:32.734
I mean especially this, this these last four years, especially on the women's side or the girls side, there's some really good junior golfers that are coming out of Vegas and it's it's awesome to see.

00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:34.925
Yeah, we've had you on the show before.

00:23:35.660 --> 00:23:38.249
Yeah, she's unbelievable player.

00:23:38.249 --> 00:23:39.162
There's.

00:23:39.162 --> 00:23:54.172
There's going to be some really great talent coming out of here and I think in the next couple years which, well, I think ongoing for a long time but it's it's kind of surprising that we haven't had more like stars come out of here.

00:23:54.172 --> 00:24:10.150
I mean we've got a handful, but I mean, when you look at Vegas, we kind of have, we have all the tools to make like really good golfers, and we got the weather, we got the facilities, we got really good instructors here in town.

00:24:11.500 --> 00:24:11.901
So, it's.

00:24:12.422 --> 00:24:13.523
It's good to see that it's.

00:24:13.523 --> 00:24:22.401
It's finally it's starting to come to fruition and I'm really excited to see like the future, and especially the current ones now where they take the game, because there.

00:24:22.401 --> 00:24:26.509
I think there there's a handful of girls that can really be some like world leaders.

00:24:27.071 --> 00:24:28.583
Yeah, I'm excited to.

00:24:28.643 --> 00:24:29.445
I'm excited to see.

00:24:30.059 --> 00:24:30.823
So one of them is.

00:24:30.823 --> 00:24:33.549
So one girl that I'm working with is she's Brent Cork.

00:24:33.549 --> 00:24:39.369
Oh yeah, she's going to be, if we can get her to hit the ball a little bit farther.

00:24:39.369 --> 00:24:41.273
She's got kind of all the tools.

00:24:41.273 --> 00:24:56.433
Mentally, I mean, she's like there's something that I've worked with a lot of like really good golfers, and then I've worked with some golfers that were good but never quite like reach their potential or never kind of like broke through.

00:24:56.433 --> 00:25:00.791
And it's interesting, the ones that are like world leaders are really good.

00:25:00.791 --> 00:25:02.586
Their mindset is very different.

00:25:02.586 --> 00:25:06.289
Like, if I say, hey, we're doing this, they're just like okay, and they do it.

00:25:06.289 --> 00:25:08.864
Wow, they never complain about it.

00:25:08.864 --> 00:25:13.335
They never like or even to like when they're, when they're talking about tournaments, like they never.

00:25:13.335 --> 00:25:17.507
They always say, yeah, I made this mistake, I made this mistake, but they never like.

00:25:18.190 --> 00:25:33.980
It's where they they get mad, but they don't get emotional about it and they just like they learn from it and they move on, Whereas the some of the people that I've worked with in the past that never quite like broke through but said, hey, we're doing this, so like, do we have to do this?

00:25:33.980 --> 00:25:47.519
Oh yeah, you can just tell right away, so you, can just put it in the mind, that you can just see something like there's just something different with those girls, that those players that are like really good and then the ones that are good but like never quite made it through.

00:25:47.661 --> 00:25:52.446
It's just it's they, they, the mindset is just different, Like they're always up to the challenge.

00:25:52.446 --> 00:25:56.226
Whereas they just even if I can just say the most ridiculous thing.

00:25:56.226 --> 00:26:03.625
They're gonna be like okay, anyway, they do it, like it's.

00:26:03.625 --> 00:26:05.191
So it's just like little things like that.

00:26:05.191 --> 00:26:09.566
You can see with golfers that like it makes perfect sense, like when you look golf.

00:26:09.605 --> 00:26:14.371
It's very mental and it's it's if you can go out there like you're gonna get bad shots.

00:26:14.371 --> 00:26:24.429
You're gonna like nobody doesn't get bad shots, but if you can go out there and like, okay, I got this situation, I got to find a way out, and they're just like all right, that's what I'm gonna do.

00:26:25.721 --> 00:26:30.160
Are you seeing a lot more junior golfers getting into golf fitness than in the past?

00:26:30.220 --> 00:26:44.922
Yeah, for sure it's, it's, it's starting to be so, especially like for those golfers that are trying to play Division I, especially on the not so much on the female side but along the male side, like what they're looking for now like they're.

00:26:44.942 --> 00:26:49.201
they're looking more for guys who just bomb it, like they're.

00:26:49.201 --> 00:26:55.784
Because if you look at like so if you look at I can't remember what the other ball speeds were at it's like past NCAA.

00:26:55.784 --> 00:27:07.792
But like, if you look at like what the average ball speed of the NCAA championship is, and then when you look at like what the cornfair average ball speeds are, and then you look at PGA tour, like collegiate ball speeds are faster than the cornfair.

00:27:07.792 --> 00:27:09.420
Cornfair is slower than PGA tour.

00:27:09.420 --> 00:27:12.269
So those are all the guys that are kind of funneling up to the PGA tour.

00:27:12.269 --> 00:27:38.933
So they're like being club at speed is a is a huge asset and really like, if you are not, unless you're just like this, like naturally gifted golfer, like just naturally gifted at free gaffling, like you need to hit the gym, just it's some capacity to even compete because if you because what happens is you get these guys that have very simple skill levels, but they're like hitting 20 by you.

00:27:39.226 --> 00:27:42.583
It's like, yeah, it's gonna be really tough to compete with that.

00:27:42.583 --> 00:27:48.116
Yeah, I encourage anybody to go out and watch the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters.

00:27:48.116 --> 00:27:53.476
Yeah, because you will be stunned at how far these kids hit the ball.

00:27:53.476 --> 00:27:53.856
It is.

00:27:54.704 --> 00:27:57.115
They're just like cruising at like one eight.

00:27:57.115 --> 00:28:01.491
It's insane, like it's silly, it really is silly.

00:28:01.491 --> 00:28:04.471
But if you look at, that's kind of the future of golf.

00:28:04.471 --> 00:28:17.009
But I do think I don't think golf is just gonna continue to get longer and longer and longer and longer, like it's kind of happening now, like, yes, rory does it all far, like all these guys are hanging far.

00:28:17.028 --> 00:28:27.656
But it's like there's some guys that were on tour this year that just absolutely crushed the ball I kid you, a lot farther than Rory does, but they're pretty far down the line.

00:28:27.656 --> 00:28:38.532
So it's like I don't think it's gonna be this thing where I think it's more kind of like this, like inverted curve kind of deal, where it's like, yes, like ball speeds and clubbed speeds, all that distance is gonna get a little bit faster.

00:28:38.532 --> 00:28:46.015
But I think like it's not just gonna be this kind of ongoing thing, like they still got to keep it on the course.

00:28:46.015 --> 00:28:49.054
You still got to like position in a good way.

00:28:49.054 --> 00:28:52.494
Like Rory is like watching him drive the golf ball.

00:28:52.494 --> 00:28:54.890
He may be the best driver to golf ball, maybe ever.

00:28:55.170 --> 00:28:56.011
It's insane.

00:28:56.252 --> 00:28:57.034
It's insane.

00:28:57.034 --> 00:28:57.955
It's such a thing to watch.

00:28:57.955 --> 00:28:59.097
It's something you can do that far in that street.

00:28:59.759 --> 00:29:04.663
Yeah Well, it's the same thing, because Rory doesn't really hit that many fairways, like he's just like barely off the fairway.

00:29:04.663 --> 00:29:07.031
He's always in a relatively good spot.

00:29:07.613 --> 00:29:12.653
Yeah, I think the media likes to jump on.

00:29:12.653 --> 00:29:19.492
You know they're hitting the ball so far and you know you look at the eras of the past.

00:29:19.492 --> 00:29:41.395
The guys didn't have the analytics that they have now, they didn't have the computer technology they have now, they didn't have the fitness education that they have now, and I think it's just a everything is coming to a head that these guys are taking advantage of everything at their disposal to make themselves just premier golfers 100%, 100% and I love it.

00:29:41.395 --> 00:29:43.144
Yeah, I think it's amazing.

00:29:43.747 --> 00:29:45.967
It's inspiring for me, you know.

00:29:46.007 --> 00:29:47.472
I want to be physically better.

00:29:47.472 --> 00:29:50.633
I you know I want to play better and hit the ball longer.

00:29:50.633 --> 00:29:51.015
Who doesn't?

00:29:51.015 --> 00:29:53.351
So it's encouraging.

00:29:54.133 --> 00:29:58.153
Yeah, and this may be a little on topic, but I mean the whole like rollback ball.

00:29:58.153 --> 00:30:14.857
That was the whole thing for a while, but I think the the one thing that a PGA tour needs to do or should do is put more tournaments courses in the tournament schedule where distance isn't a fact, like like Hilton had, for instance.

00:30:15.226 --> 00:30:21.067
You can't put that on everywhere Hilton had, like there's just a million they have to have.

00:30:21.067 --> 00:30:32.009
I don't know how the course, how they pick the courses and how all that happens, but you have to be able to get some courses where driving distance is a premium, like it doesn't, like you have to.

00:30:32.009 --> 00:30:35.236
It forces you to play more like position golf.

00:30:35.236 --> 00:30:38.943
Yep, you can't just roll, they're just bottom driver all night long.

00:30:38.963 --> 00:30:51.497
Yeah, I think that's why, I think, with Augusta moving 13 back and you know, making it, making the approach shot what it's intended to be, I can respect.

00:30:51.497 --> 00:30:57.785
I mean, yeah, when that course was built, the guys were hitting, you know, driver three wood into their green.

00:30:57.785 --> 00:30:59.791
So the game has changed a little bit.

00:30:59.791 --> 00:31:06.667
But yeah, I would love to see more courses where the guys have to be crafty around it, you know, and I mean how?

00:31:06.688 --> 00:31:10.008
many times have you been out and played a course that's got a 90 degree dog leg?

00:31:10.008 --> 00:31:13.436
That you know, with tall trees you can't take it over.

00:31:13.436 --> 00:31:16.752
You actually have to hit an iron shot accurately to set up.

00:31:16.752 --> 00:31:17.695
You know your next shot.

00:31:17.695 --> 00:31:19.910
I would love to see more of that on tour.

00:31:20.530 --> 00:31:21.513
Exactly Like that.

00:31:21.513 --> 00:31:22.744
Like to me.

00:31:22.744 --> 00:31:27.454
I think that's the easiest way to fix that.

00:31:27.895 --> 00:31:30.230
Yeah, grow the rough to five inches.

00:31:30.230 --> 00:31:33.450
Make the greens incredibly firm and fast.

00:31:33.450 --> 00:31:38.369
They could be done without messing with the ball.

00:31:38.369 --> 00:31:40.476
So exactly, Exactly.

00:31:40.476 --> 00:31:42.130
So tell us a little bit about Elevate.

00:31:42.130 --> 00:31:43.093
What's going on there?

00:31:44.326 --> 00:31:44.586
Yeah.

00:31:44.586 --> 00:31:59.124
So Elevate is a kind of like an all-in-custom encompassing facility where so we do offer fitness but we do also have medical professionals on staff, we do have massage therapy, we have nutrition, so it's kind of and we have like recovery modalities.

00:31:59.124 --> 00:32:10.083
So it's basically like we're trying to make like a one-stop shop to where we have a lot of people who we have, the way that our some of our membership structure.

00:32:10.103 --> 00:32:14.673
you could take advantage of all of this, but a lot of our members they train with them.

00:32:14.673 --> 00:32:22.671
Sorry, edit that out so, but with our.

00:32:22.671 --> 00:32:31.731
So we have people who are taking advantage of our fitness but then also too, they are being treated by our medical staff.

00:32:32.513 --> 00:32:43.973
Because we get a lot of people who, like they're a little, they're weekend warriors or they're like they work for a living, so they're on the desk all day long.

00:32:43.973 --> 00:32:54.054
Then they're like active, and then, once you get older and you're like oh, I got a little aches and pains, but I also want to be able to train, so it's a perfect case scenario where they can come in, they can get treated.

00:32:54.054 --> 00:32:58.375
The medical professional tells us hey, okay, this person has this going on.

00:32:58.375 --> 00:33:04.271
So these are basically the red flags to stay away from these, but they can still do this, this and this.

00:33:05.025 --> 00:33:09.936
So people can still treat their injury, but also get fit at the same time.

00:33:09.936 --> 00:33:12.378
And that's kind of like a big misconception too.

00:33:12.378 --> 00:33:18.334
It's like okay, well, if I have an injury like I just got shut down completely, well, it's like you can actually still.

00:33:18.334 --> 00:33:33.424
There's still a lot of things you can do if it's again depending on the injury, but if you, if you're able to train everything else, you're actually going to help that injury heal quicker yeah no-transcript.

00:33:33.821 --> 00:33:36.006
Yeah, I've got a knee knee injury right now, that is.

00:33:36.006 --> 00:33:39.653
I'm terrified to find out what's wrong with it.

00:33:40.582 --> 00:33:41.484
Yeah.

00:33:41.865 --> 00:33:46.039
I had ankle surgery a couple years ago and I had a rupture tendon in my ankle and so I was out.

00:33:46.039 --> 00:33:47.564
I was out, you know.

00:33:47.564 --> 00:33:52.035
I was on the couch for 12 weeks and so it's just it's.

00:33:52.035 --> 00:33:54.019
It's scary, but you know I got to get it checked out.

00:33:54.019 --> 00:33:57.000
It's driving me nuts.

00:33:58.762 --> 00:34:00.526
Yeah, that's yeah.

00:34:00.526 --> 00:34:05.314
It definitely get to check out, see what's going on, but at the same time, there's always other options.

00:34:08.003 --> 00:34:10.427
So what's membership rates or what are you?

00:34:10.427 --> 00:34:14.614
What are you looking at to get out there and get involved at the gym there?

00:34:16.041 --> 00:34:17.204
Yeah, so it really depends.

00:34:17.204 --> 00:34:19.871
We have a lot of different types of food services.

00:34:19.871 --> 00:34:23.019
So I mean we have large group training.

00:34:23.019 --> 00:34:25.922
We have small group training that we have one on one.

00:34:25.922 --> 00:34:36.735
So, it can go it can really range anywhere from $189 a month to a couple of random months, just really just depending on, like, what you want and what you're what you're trying to do.

00:34:36.735 --> 00:34:41.068
So we have a lot of different, different services that we, that we offer there.

00:34:41.248 --> 00:35:02.900
What I do with so whenever I'm working with a golfer, we all know no matter who we have, we always start with assessments, so the assessment process is kind of like one of our like four pillars that we, that we have here, because even if someone is just coming in, like her general fitness, what's like we want to make sure that, whatever exercises that we're giving you out there, you're not, you're not going to get hurt doing them.

00:35:03.260 --> 00:35:15.570
Yeah, like perfect example, like I mean, if you want to like do a chin up and your shoulder only goes this high, I was like, well, you need like 180 degrees chill reflection to do a chin up, to just hang.

00:35:15.570 --> 00:35:19.539
So it's like that's probably not going to end very well, something you're probably going to get hurt.

00:35:20.581 --> 00:35:29.875
There's something that happens, so we can make modifications around that towards, like we can get as close to that exercise as possible without actually doing that and putting yourself in a like a compromising position.

00:35:29.875 --> 00:35:36.869
So we always start with that, but then with with offers, if they're looking for like, a like a lot of program.

00:35:36.869 --> 00:35:53.032
We always start with the assessment, so it's a movement assessment along with a strength and power system, so that where you are and then we have 3D motion capture, the K best and all that, so we can really get into the degree of like, okay, what's really going on your swing?

00:35:53.072 --> 00:35:58.980
then we can look at how your mobility, your strength and power is affecting your golf swing.

00:35:58.980 --> 00:36:03.349
So you're probably looking at the the K best data and your 3D data.

00:36:03.349 --> 00:36:13.193
So, like, friend, like, for instance, I just worked with the golf or so she, her lower body power is she's got more lower body power than a right.

00:36:13.193 --> 00:36:16.525
So when we look at the K best, so the K best.

00:36:16.525 --> 00:36:17.831
I don't know if you're too familiar with it.

00:36:17.891 --> 00:36:24.403
Yeah, so, her pelvis, rib cage, lead arm, wrist, kind of like peaks speeds.

00:36:24.403 --> 00:36:39.677
So her pelvis and rib cage speeds were like at the high end, higher end of like LPGA norms, but then her arm and her wrist like peak speeds were at the lower end or even below average.

00:36:39.677 --> 00:36:45.188
So essentially what's happening is you get, she's creating a ton of power with the lower body that's getting lost.

00:36:45.188 --> 00:36:49.500
Getting to the, getting to the club, not transitioning, yeah.

00:36:49.621 --> 00:37:02.795
And then when we looked at her power output so she had a like her vertical jump was good, and then her like her chest pass and throw those are the throws that we use to measure upper body power they were lower compared to her door or her vertical jump.

00:37:02.795 --> 00:37:20.563
So when we look at like a training program now it's like OK, we, if we're going to make get her to her, her lead arm and wrist are fast and earnestly, we got to get those power numbers with the chest pass and set up and throw Closer to the range of her bird, which I.

00:37:20.563 --> 00:37:31.019
So right now what we're trying to do is we're trying to just like maintain her, which often are like lower body power, but then bring up her upper body power so that they're going to match.

00:37:31.019 --> 00:37:39.733
And then we look at her swing to like she, she always has the tendency of getting her hips out from her way too quickly because, yeah, it's perfect sense.

00:37:40.201 --> 00:37:42.949
So when you have that, you have all that data is like OK.

00:37:42.949 --> 00:37:45.458
This is why you swing the club the way you do.

00:37:45.458 --> 00:37:51.184
It's very powerful, yeah, and then yeah, it's, it's, it's really, it's really cool.

00:37:51.184 --> 00:38:06.847
So it's like now we put together a program that, ok, we're just maintain your lower body power, but now we've got to focus really heavily on getting your upper body stronger and faster to match what your lower body and we see that kind of all the time with, with, with golfers work they're like.

00:38:07.106 --> 00:38:12.193
I just I'm doing this thing, my swing, and I don't know why, but we can tell.

00:38:12.193 --> 00:38:23.943
And then, like you know any offer, if they know why they do it, they're going to be like like this is what you post on, I'm going to do that.

00:38:23.943 --> 00:38:24.344
Yeah, that's me.

00:38:24.364 --> 00:38:28.650
So someone that's listening to this is as inspired as I am.

00:38:28.650 --> 00:38:30.150
I'm, I'm geeked.

00:38:30.150 --> 00:38:33.856
I want to come down there right now and get an assessment to find out what the hell is going on.

00:38:33.856 --> 00:38:38.248
What, how do what do they go about Connecting with you?

00:38:38.248 --> 00:38:38.550
What are you?

00:38:38.550 --> 00:38:38.990
What are you?

00:38:38.990 --> 00:38:39.692
What are you right?

00:38:40.119 --> 00:38:56.719
So I think I either reach me through Instagram you just shoot me a D after that or you can call elevate sports performance at health care directly, and then you can say, hey, like I want to set up a set of assessment, brad, and then our front desk will handle that.

00:38:57.320 --> 00:38:57.581
Awesome.

00:38:57.581 --> 00:38:59.943
So I'll have all that in the show knows for everybody.

00:38:59.943 --> 00:39:08.161
I'll have links and everything to the website and phone numbers and everything and Brad's Instagram, hey.

00:39:08.161 --> 00:39:11.387
So before we go, I got, we got some Vegas.

00:39:11.387 --> 00:39:12.831
You're born and raised so I got it.

00:39:12.831 --> 00:39:14.534
I got to drill down on some Vegas stuff.

00:39:14.534 --> 00:39:16.981
What's your favorite course in town?

00:39:18.965 --> 00:39:20.547
Are we talking?

00:39:21.467 --> 00:39:25.873
private Whatever, just if someone says hey, I got a tea time here.

00:39:25.873 --> 00:39:27.215
You're like I'm in, let's go.

00:39:28.501 --> 00:39:32.585
So Southern Highlands is probably my favorite private course outside of.

00:39:32.585 --> 00:39:38.855
I haven't played shadow, I haven't played the wind, so those are the only three courses in town I haven't played.

00:39:38.855 --> 00:39:43.708
But shadow is shadow is a bit, or I'm sorry, so high, so has amazing.

00:39:43.708 --> 00:39:48.737
It's I just love that when you're out there, it's so green, there's so many trees.

00:39:50.923 --> 00:39:52.487
Yeah, that's how shadow is.

00:39:52.487 --> 00:39:54.030
Do you don't feel like you're in Vegas at all?

00:39:55.981 --> 00:39:58.146
Close second would be like Los Angeles.

00:39:59.570 --> 00:40:00.130
Love that place.

00:40:00.130 --> 00:40:04.068
Such is such a fun trek through history on there.

00:40:04.068 --> 00:40:12.132
What was your home course growing up, or do you have a formerly desert rose.

00:40:19.007 --> 00:40:20.068
I played a lot of it.

00:40:20.068 --> 00:40:24.494
Tpc Las Vegas or back to those TPC, can you.

00:40:24.494 --> 00:40:27.121
So I played a lot.

00:40:27.121 --> 00:40:32.369
Those are kind of like my two home courses, but I played majority of my time out of the ditch.

00:40:36.199 --> 00:40:41.407
I have so many fun stories about the ditch we used to talk.

00:40:41.407 --> 00:40:42.027
I didn't.

00:40:42.027 --> 00:40:44.853
I didn't play sports in high school, I wasn't.

00:40:44.853 --> 00:40:48.804
I was tiny little kid Of course, or was it?

00:40:54.106 --> 00:40:54.927
No, no, I didn't.

00:40:54.927 --> 00:40:57.150
I just was wrecked golf with my friends.

00:40:57.150 --> 00:41:02.509

235: An Interview with Vegas's own Brad Thompson: A Golf Fitness Guru and passionate Golfer

Brad Thompson

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