351: Alex Bennett – Inside the PGA Tour Performance Center (TPC Sawgrass)

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0:00:03 – Jeff Pelizzaro
The 18STRONG Podcast, episode Number 351, with Alex Bennett, fitness specialist at the PGA Tour Performance Center. What’s up guys? Welcome back to the 18STRONG Podcast, where we’re here to help you build up your strength. We’re here to help you build a stronger game. This week we’ve got Alex Bennett, the fitness specialist at the PGA Tour Performance Center, down at TPC Sawgrass and this week we’re talking with him about everything under the sun when it comes to golf and fitness, specifically working with his tour players, what he’s doing with them to make them as strong as possible, get them as fit and conditioned as well as possible to get out on the golf course. He’s working with Billy Horschul, sam Ryder and a lot of other tour players that play out of TPC Sawgrass, but he also works with a lot of the general public, either golfers that are coming down for the week or golfers that work in the area and play golf there. So he has a lot of experience with every level of golfer, from juniors to collegiate players to professionals. So we discuss how does he utilize an assessment? What’s his recommendations for people when they come in and they’re struggling with either their mobility or their strength or their power or their fitness or just their general endurance out on the golf course. So you’re really going to enjoy this episode with Alex Bennett. We’re going to get into our conversation right after this.

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0:02:20 – Alex Bennett
This is year seven actually.

0:02:23 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Really yeah. How did that whole thing come about?

0:02:28 – Alex Bennett
So I was actually so I played in college and then I was playing professionally and I had a bunch of injuries and I kind of fell in love with the whole physical side of it and the whole corrective exercise science behind it. I realized that I was doing a lot of stuff to look good at the beach and not play good golf. So once I got more into the physical therapy side, I fell in love with it. I realized you really need to train for your specific sport and there’s a big difference between training to just look good and training for your sport. So I ended up breaking my wrist. I was on a cast and I did the National Academy of Sports Medicine, I did Athletic and Fitness Association of America, I did TPI. I basically did all the training I could possibly do. While I was in the cast and just killing time, I was working at a place called Fitness by Frank Jeff. Frank was the head of that gym. He’s VJ Singh’s guy. He kind of hired me to do a lot of the golf training and I was there for a little while and then I just got lucky. This place was under construction, it was opening and Todd Anderson knew me a little bit from my playing days. I used to work with Jared Zach on my swing and he’s working at Sea Island. We had actually me and Todd had never met and Todd Anderson was the director of instruction here, appointed the director of instruction here. So I came here, got lucky, got an interview and me and him hit it off and then it was kind of funny, the interview process. I thought the first interview went really well and he was like I’ll be in touch.

I didn’t hear anything for a few months and I was like, well, whatever, it didn’t go my way. I was kind of new in the business. I was young, so they’re probably looking for someone with more experience. He called me on a Tuesday. I’ll never forget. He called me on a Tuesday out of nowhere and I was like, oh man, I got to take this call. Hopefully he’s calling me on purpose and it’s not a but down. But he was like hey man, can you meet me at Fresh Market? There’s a grocery store here right outside of TBC. Can you meet me at Fresh Market? We’re going to hop in my truck and we’re going to go to a client’s house. I want you to do an assessment on them and kind of tell us everything you would do differently or whatever you see, tell us. So I get in the car and we’re driving and he goes yeah, I’m taking you to Billy Horshaw’s house.

It was the week of the Masters. He didn’t qualify for the Masters. He had kind of had a tough year and I was like man, all right, billy Horshaw, it’s pretty big name, so we’re going there. He was not the most welcoming guy and I think they were kind of testing me. They were seeing if I was just going to kind of be a yes man or if I was going to tell them what I thought he could get better at. And I was like the first 10 minutes I’m like I’m not going to get this job. This is not going great. Billy’s barely even looked at me. This is tough. So I was like all right, well, if I’m going to go out, I’m just going to tell him everything I think he could fix or that’s wrong with his body. We did an assessment. I pointed out what I would change, what I would do, and they ended up liking it a lot and Todd offered me the job in Billy’s driveway as we were leaving.

So I was pretty thrilled. It was kind of funny too. I had just gotten engaged and my mom I had like six missed phone calls because I ended up being over there for almost three and a half hours and they were just like, did it, how did it go? We were hurting them, where are you? So it was pretty funny, but it was great and I’m like very thankful obviously to Todd and Billy for giving me an opportunity when I was I think I was 25, 26 when I got the job, so I was definitely definitely very thankful.

0:06:13 – Jeff Pelizzaro
And you’re still I mean, I still see you working with Billy on a regular basis, right?

0:06:17 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, I mean Billy, have worked together pretty much ever since after I got this job. I think he finished out that year and then in the off season I started working with him and I’ve worked with him ever since. Yeah, wow.

0:06:30 – Jeff Pelizzaro
So your pros are actually down right in your area. Are they members at TPC, like? Does Billy play there on a regular basis and do the other guys that I see you working with?

0:06:40 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, I mean there’s there’s a lot of guys that are members here that play out of here. I don’t work with all of them. I’ve got I think I’ve got eight guys this year on tour and they all pretty much live out of here. Yeah.

0:06:55 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Okay, Gotcha. So the performance center. Describe it to people a little bit. I had a chance to go there the week of the players championship and unfortunately our paths didn’t cross. I knew you were working like some crazy hours and just didn’t.

0:07:07 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, I was running around that week. That week’s always busy, for sure.

0:07:10 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, I mean, are you there like just sun up to sun down and then get out as quick as you can to get some shut eye?

0:07:16 – Alex Bennett
Players is tough. Yeah, I mean there’s a year I mean the year we had all the restarts when we had a ton of rain and it was cold. I think it was two years ago. I mean I don’t even remember that week. It was insane. I mean I was in here warming up guys at four in the morning and then hanging around because it was like we’d get a weather delay and then they’d want to warm up again at two o’clock for their you know, their restart. I mean that was a. That was a crazy week.

This year was a little less crazy, but it was still. I mean, it’s always nuts Guys are wanting to warm up super early in the morning and then I’m kind of just hanging around and I had, I think I had six guys in the tournament this year, so it was definitely a busy one just kind of hanging around. I’ve got a whole new appreciation for the guys that travel nonstop on tour with their guys. I’m actually going to start traveling a little more next year, nice. So I know it’s, it’s definitely exhausting, but it’s it’s. I think it’s worth it just to get your you know, show your face out there on tour and kind of get some more eyeballs on you.

0:08:15 – Jeff Pelizzaro
I think when, when the players is going on, are the other guys that you don’t work with? Are they utilizing the performance center as well? Are they going to the fitness trailer, or how does that work?

0:08:26 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, so we did a bit of both. Yeah, I mean guys were using the fitness trailer but guys were also coming over to the performance center. I mean we had a lot of players. You know, I’ve gotten to know a lot of trainers out there and now they’ll just shoot me a text like hey, can we come use the performance center, can we? You know trailers and little packed or hotel gyms, not as good as we thought. Whatever it may be, I’m always open to letting guys come over and use it.

The PGA tour has been nice enough to let me keep it the last four or five years. When I first started here, they’d move all the gym equipment out and it would actually be like a headquarters for all the rules official. So it was insane. I mean we’ve had like doors broken just from people moving equipment in and out of the gym.

The door still one of our doors to the gym still doesn’t work properly and everybody’s always like man, what’s that I’m like? Well, I was like five years ago the players and we had been bent to hinge and we haven’t fixed it still. But I mean now I’ve got so much equipment in there and it just became. It’s like you got this many guys playing in the tournament and I’ve got this many guys coming to the facility just to use the gym. I think you know the tour was like why don’t we just let them keep in? We’ll have that much extra space for players I mean, it is deep players. So let’s make it as good as possible for the players actually playing the tournament and give them as many options as possible.

0:09:39 – Jeff Pelizzaro
How big is the place and what else is in there? Do you guys have hitting bays? Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to go and really like so the performance center itself is pretty big.

0:09:46 – Alex Bennett
We’ve got four hitting bays. I’m sitting right now, we’re sitting in our like break room kind of area. We’ve got four hitting bays. We’ve got the gym upstairs, we’ve got a putting lab upstairs, we’ve got a couple of offices upstairs, we’ve got a bunch of offices on the bottom floor, and then we just re-turfed our entire tee with a special type of Bermuda that they’re using. They used it in the Super Bowl and it’s supposed to like come back in half the time as normal Bermuda, because we’re we’re having a problem where we were running out of turf on our tee just because we were so busy, but this summer, luckily, like it’s been a little lighter. So our tee looks pretty good right now, but it’s. It’s a pretty big place. We’ve got a nice chipping green, nice putting green. We’ve got putting instructors, you know. We’ve got a few swing instructors. We’ve got Todd Anderson, obviously. So it’s it’s definitely a good place to work at if you’re looking to get better at golf.

0:10:39 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, Are you the the only fitness person in there? Are you the director of fitness? And?

0:10:44 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, I’m the only fitness here, I’m the finals fitness specialist. The tours got some some interesting rules about what it takes to be a director. You kind of have to have two employees working underneath you. The problem with our space I don’t know if you got to see the gym, but I think it’s about 800 square feet, so it’s not like massive and it actually was originally two hitting bays that we’re going to be simulators, so it’s not the rooms, kind of like two rooms put together basically. So it’s not got the best like flow to it.

So it gets crowded in there quick and sometimes, like I’ll have, especially when the cornferries off and the PGA tours off, I mean I’ll have three to four guys in there at a time and it’s it’s definitely gets crowded. So if we had another trainer and they were just we, it would be we’d really have to work on our scheduling right now. Like the tour players enjoy having the freedom of you know they book a time and they go. Oh hey, I saw you know so, and so is that eight. I’m just going to join them. So it’s like we try to keep it as fluid as possible around here, cause we’re always, we feel like we always say, schedule and pencil, cause you’re going to be erasing a lot.

0:11:54 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yes, yeah, yeah. So do you have other like just general public golfers that come in to see you too?

0:12:00 – Alex Bennett
I do. I have a lot of. I actually have a lot of just normal golfers that are either retired and they’re just looking to play three days in a row without being in a lot of pain, and I also have a lot of juniors that I work with as well. I really enjoy working with a lot of the juniors. Honestly, that’s kind of why I got into it, because I had all the injuries I had and I was doing the wrong things in the gym, so I was really like, all right, how do I help people not make the same mistakes I made?

0:12:25 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, let’s, let’s dive into that a little bit, because I think that there’s there’s so much like low hanging fruit kind of stuff that people just don’t realize. Just a few simple things can can make a huge difference. But talk a little bit about you know. You said you’re kind of more working out for the pool, working out for the beach, muscles kind of thing, like most of us guys do when we’re, you know, young and you know and so what are some of the things that you know, some of these, let’s say the young aspiring golfers, and even then just general John Q, public golfer can start to implement.

they’re going to make some big differences. And what should they maybe start to kind of take away from the routine that they probably have adopted?

0:13:04 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, I mean, the thing I always preach to people is just go get assessed like get assessed by a TPI certified trainer or functional movement patterns trainer, somebody and I’m a big fan of, like I said, corrective exercise science, I think somebody with an understanding, and that’s huge when you’re playing a sport that’s as one sided as golf is, because you’re just always going to be so imbalanced and seeing someone and being really, you know, accurate with what your issues are, and then seeing them to kind of be like all right, let’s design a warm up routine or a daily routine that’s corrective based. That’s going to really help me stay healthy and play consistently and not be in pain. All my players have very specific warm ups to them. I mean, there’s basic foundational things we do and all the warm ups, but each one of them has a little bit. There’ll be like three or four moves that are different from player A to player B and I’m just I tell amateurs all the time I say you know, working all day and then just driving 30 minutes of the course and then swinging two clubs and then trying to hit balls isn’t going to do it, like you’re going to be in pain and you’re not going to get better at golf and then they take, you know, they take 50 lessons and they don’t see much improvement.

And I’m like, well, it’s great they’re telling you the right thing, but physically you just can’t do it. And then when you sit at a desk all day and you’re trying to get more external rotation on your shoulders or more thoracic rotation, and you’re sitting here at a computer all day like this, what makes you think you’re just bodies just going to naturally be like oh, I can go do this now. So seeing seeing someone getting assessed and like and then getting a, you know, in a specific routine to that individual that they can do daily, that’s not going to make them super sore, but it’s going to, it’s going to have, you know, core activation. It’s going to have glued activation and it’s going to have some thoracic rotation. It’s going to have, it’s going to address the issues that person has. I think it’s just so important for every single person, even if they’re not trying to play competitive golf, but if they want to just be healthy and play golf.

0:15:05 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Well in the consistency is so key too right? I saw on your website you have a great video and you talk about how, if you are somebody that’s that’s working at a desk, or really just anybody when you go to the tee, your body’s going to feel different every single time that you step up to swing a golf ball or to swing a golf club at the golf ball, and so having that consistency is just dialing in the body right.

So having some sort of routine that you know day in, day out you’re, you know what you need to check off the list to get yourself prepared.

0:15:35 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, the site. It’s a work in progress. Right now I just had this, uh, Sal Sincatus, his name. He’s like an expert in videography and photography and everything. He just like reshot everything for me and we’re reshooting all the like workout videos, because all the workout videos were just me shooting myself like doing moves and and we’ve broken down a bunch of programs and everything. But like I can’t I can’t thank Sal enough. The websites become, you know, really good quality compared to when I did it myself. He was like, dude, we got to make this. This looks real mom and pop shop. We got to, we got to fix this and I’m like, well, I, yeah, I did it myself on the computer on weekends, like with my daughter crawling all over me.

0:16:14 – Jeff Pelizzaro
So that’s pretty funny. You’ve got some great B roll with all the guys you work with and everything.

0:16:20 – Alex Bennett
Is he the one?

0:16:21 – Jeff Pelizzaro
shooting your YouTube videos too.

0:16:24 – Alex Bennett
So he shot all the B roll and he shot all the footage for the site. His team, like, did everything on the site but I’m I’m still, I’m shooting all my own YouTube stuff. Uh, he’s, he’s doing enough for me. I don’t want to ask him to do too much, you know no, it looks good.

0:16:39 – Jeff Pelizzaro
It looks good. I just kind of started. How long have you been doing the YouTube channel?

0:16:43 – Alex Bennett
Not long at all. I just started that. I mean I just started doing it seriously the last like month or so.

0:16:49 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, I, just I, because I just started to watch them and started seeing them pop up. Really good, though it’s cool to get an insight on some of the other stuff that you do, like you know, out on the soccer field doing some conditioning stuff, and that’s that’s something I was going to actually ask you about the conditioning that you do with your golfers, cause you know we see a lot of the, the stretch. You kind of moves in the, the stuff that everybody sees on Instagram. But you know you were talking about different conditioning. Especially you’re down in Florida the heat, um, you’ve got guys that are playing four days in a row but also practice rounds. So what are some of your go-tos when it is when you’re working on conditioning for your pros and then maybe also for just kind of the regular Joe?

0:17:27 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, it’s uh, I mean, yeah, I started doing those. Those work I like because I think I did a video with like Ben Coles, who’s he was number one right now on the cornfairy money list. I did with Chandler Blanchet, who won PGA to rely on American money list. I just liked doing that cause I like giving the people kind of the behind the scenes. Look at these guys so they realized they’re just, they’re just normal every day, guys like everybody else. And we were doing like the little soccer challenge and stuff like that.

But I I’m a big believer, especially like Chandler we were talking about he was playing in Tulum, mexico, for the tour championship which he won. But we were talking about like look, it’s going to be, you know, over a hundred degrees down there. Like let’s, let’s either do some sauna this week or let’s do some outdoor workouts, because you need to have some acclimation to that heat. And I mean credit to him, he did it. And then he goes down there and wins in extra holes and it’s like that. You know that stuff pays off. But that’s the stuff. I think people don’t really see like that level of oh, wow, okay, when these guys are going to play in a hot climate. They’re doing some acclimation to that hot climate before. I mean those guys are, they’re walking a minimum 72 holes. That’s just their. You know, tournament that’s not the practice rounds and everything like you said it’s. It’s definitely like a grueling sport that people don’t realize. But I mean I’m a big fan of more. So just in the gym, keeping the pace up when we’re doing our strength training Like I’m not, we’re not doing a ton of, especially in season, we’re not doing like a ton of power lifting where we’re going to have to take three to four minutes off in between reps. Most of the time I like to superset things. So guys are going for more exercise, right to the other exercise, back to the other exercise, and they’re not. You know, I mean when I have three to four guys in there, they definitely take a little more break and they’re they’re talking some crap to each other and talking about whatever game was on the night before, whatever that is. I’m all for that because that’s just camaraderie and guys enjoy it. But I’m more of a fan of just keeping the pace up in the gym, you know, having your specific movements.

I’m not a big fan of running. I’ve just found that it just beats guys. I mean they just get beat up and no one’s in perfect, you know alignment and hardly any of these golfers have proper running motions or gates. So they go for like a long distance run and they’re like man my hips, killing me my knees, killing me my backs, you know so it’s. I just don’t do a lot of that stuff. I am a fan we have like a skier here, we’ve got the Techno Gym Curve Treadmill. I like getting guys doing some like sled pushes, even even lighter, quicker sled pushes. Where they’re, they’re maybe not moving a ton of weight, but they’re having to move it fast. I’m a big fan of that type of stuff.

0:20:09 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, I’m a. I’m in total agreement. As far as the running’s concerned, I think so many people lean on running it for conditioning or treadmill or whatever, just because it’s it’s easy to do. Right, it’s easy to just run. But to your point, especially for high level golfers that are earning a paycheck to send them out to condition and do that when their gate patterns might be off there they might do something that, just, you know, puts them out for the next week and they don’t necessarily need running capacity for for their golf, right.

0:20:41 – Alex Bennett
No, I mean, I tell guys all the time the first, my first job is just not to injure you and and allow you not to get injured. So if there’s something like I have, guys show me like a you know Instagram clip, they’re like, oh man, look at this move, and I’m like, yeah, that’s great, but that guy’s a full-time crossfit athlete, like he’s not a golfer, he’s not going to play, you know, six weeks in a row and you know, and he doesn’t have he’s better shoulder mechanics than you or whatever it may be. So it’s like it’s it’s sometimes having to dial those guys back. They’re so competitive. It’s not all about pushing them. It’s sometimes being like, hey, let’s, let’s calm down a little bit, let’s not do that. That’s. That’s going to lead to some issues. So it’s definitely a different take relationship with those guys, though, too.

0:21:24 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Speak, if you would, to the to the point of how important it is to have a specific goal in mind. So, like you’ve got Billy Horschel, you’ve got Sam Ryder. These guys obviously their, their goal is specifically for the PGA tour. Now you might have John Smith that comes in and he’s looking to you know, lose some weight. He wants his golf game to get better. But how might it be different that when you’re working with somebody like that, where you know they’re looking a little bit more for general health and a little bit of weight loss, that also helps their game?

0:21:54 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, I mean it’s huge. I mean you got to have I don’t want to say an end goal in mind, because I feel like there’s never an end. You’re always just trying to get better but you got to have something. You got to have those those steps along the way where you go. Oh, I am getting better. My, my swing speed is up three miles an hour. I just played three days in a row and I just noticed my back doesn’t hurt.

I’ve had guys, I mean, that are just like I just want to be able to bend over and tie my shoe, you know, and it’s like I’ve got. They come into the gym after a month or so and they’re like hey, alex, look at this, and they’re like pumped, as if, you know, somebody just came back and won, won a PGA tour event. It’s like that’s a big deal of them just to be able to bend over and tie their shoe with no pain. So I mean everyone’s got different goals and everyone’s starting with, you know, on a different scale. And it’s important to like realize that when you’re training them that hey, billy horse was here, but I’m not going to be able to push this guy to that level or I’m not going to be able to push them as hard. And I mean that’s something I’ve noticed, like Sam Ryder. Sam Ryder worked together for I mean I want to say it’s it’s probably been five years, maybe, maybe over five years.

And and like this season going into this season, I noticed a huge difference with him, just knowing. He was just very focused and he was like look, I want to make top 70. That’s my, that’s my goal, I’m going to work hard. And he came out of the gates. I mean he didn’t miss a single workout, he didn’t show up late, like. And then he came out of the gates. He played great and it was. It was nice to see because he’s always been so talented Everyone around here that plays with him knows how talented that guy is and to see it finally like coming to fruition and him putting in the right work and and really just zeroed in.

And we’ve been saying we just shot this thing for the PGA tour. It’s been on the golf channel the past couple of days and he makes a joke about it. But we’ve been saying all off season. We’ve been saying all the season you got to keep checking the boxes. And he’s like, yeah, when I wake up, I got to, I got to hydrate and then I got to do my warmup. That’s checking boxes, like he’s got to take the steps to be great and it’s, it’s. He’s finally, you know he’s over 30.

0:23:56 – Jeff Pelizzaro
And I think he’s like all right, it’s time for me to win, like it’s time for me to realize my full talent, and it’s fun to watch how much do you see that that little mental shift of even just the checking the boxes you know the process of, okay, I did this, I did this, I did this how has that seemed to impact his confidence level and just the way he carries himself? Because I know that, you know, you probably see with the juniors and anybody you work with, just when they start to to really see themselves doing the things that other people aren’t necessarily doing and they’re like, yeah, I’m, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, I’m doing this, it seems, in my experience, seems to make them carry themselves a little differently. Have you seen that in him and some of the other guys?

0:24:36 – Alex Bennett
100%.

Yeah, 100%. I’ve seen it. Just in the way he carries himself, You’re right, I mean he’s just much more confident. He knows, he’s putting in the work. So, like he knows his skill, can, can, just show, he’s not relying purely on talent. So I mean you definitely see a difference in the way he carries himself and he’s I mean he might be mad at me for for saying this, but in the years past he was always a guy who texts me on like, say a Thursday, and be like hey, I’m going to be back next week, Can you put me in Monday through Friday.

So I’d put him in the schedule, you know I’d be fine. And then Monday morning would roll around and he was supposed to come in at 10 AM, at be like 10, 10, and I’d text him and be like, hey, you know where are you at. And he’d be like, oh dude, sorry, Like I’m in, I’m in Las Vegas right now, Like I’ll be back in a couple of days, you know. So this year he hasn’t done that at all and he’s just been, you know, super focused and I think he’s just finally like all right, it’s time for me to realize my full potential and it’s it’s, it’s fun to see. It’s been enjoyable to watch.

0:25:37 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Do you get out and play with any of these guys at all?

0:25:40 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, actually I just played a couple of months ago with Sam and Vince Kivello. I don’t know if you know Vince, he’s got his future tour card.

He’s been on a medical. I don’t actually work with Vince, but he’s a. He’s a great guy and he’s around here, he’s a member at a Lanny Beach country club down here and we got out. We got out there and played and I was actually 400 through seven and Vince was like man, what, what made you you know what made you stop playing? Like, the game looks pretty solid. And I was like, oh, just just hang around, man, we still got some holes to go. Next thing, you know, you know, I ship a few drivers out of bounds into some houses. And he’s like, oh, okay, all right.

0:26:16 – Jeff Pelizzaro
I would imagine, though, that going out with those guys and them seeing that you, you can actually play, you know you’re not just a just a fitness guy, you’re. You’re a fitness guy that knows the game, you know the body, you know that’s got to give them a lot of confidence in you, which, again, they they know like hey, I’m working with a guy, that that he’s got my back, and I know that what we’re doing is the right thing to do, to put my to, to put me at my highest level.

0:26:40 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, I mean, I think it definitely helps. And I think it goes back to kind of what I said about sometimes you got to dial these guys back and it’s like, look, I’ve played, I’ve played a schedule where I’ve been on the road a lot and I’m trying to play my my best golf and I’m just not capable because my body’s not agreeing with the travel or the routine of playing that many days in a row. And I tell those guys, like, look, I felt those feelings before, I’ve had injuries, I’ve had back injuries, I’ve had shoulder injuries, I’ve had the wrist injury. And it’s like I’m going to set them up to where they’re, they’re healthy and they’re feeling good. We might not push it into the gym to the max, where they’re lifting as heavy weight, as you know, so-and-so, but I’m going to make sure that I’m setting them up for success.

When it comes down to them being on the road for four to five to six weeks, I don’t want them I mean, they always come back a little beat up after being on the road that long but I want them to be able to play good golf deep into the season and feel like they can play consistent golf all season.

So I think it helps being able to be a decent player and I mean I don’t get out to play as much as I used to and I mean we’ve got, we’ve got a kid now and she’s she’s almost three, so like weekends are definitely just kind of hanging out with the family, so I definitely don’t get to play as much. But I think I think those guys appreciate that I can actually, you know, swing the club and I know what I’m talking about a little bit when it comes to swinging the club and and I work, I work with a lot of different tour players that work with a lot of different coaches and I think it helps the swing coaches be able to call me and go hey, you know, we’re really working on him using the ground a little bit better, getting a little more internal rotation into his left hip. He’s kind of bailing out. You know me just knowing immediately, like what they’re talking about.

0:28:16 – Jeff Pelizzaro
When you’re working with the coaches and obviously you work very closely with Todd and the staff there, which I want to hear a little bit more about that dynamic too but when you’re working with a player and you do know like, hey, this guy needs, are the coaches saying like this is the move we’re working on, these are the things that we’re seeing, how do you implement you know what you’re doing in the fitness world, in the fitness side of things, into the skills or the mechanics of it? You know there’s there’s a lot of people and again my own personal experience people come in what’s a good exercise for this? You know what’s a good golf exercise? And it’s not quite that simple, right? It doesn’t translate directly from the cable machine over to to the 100% to the golf course.

Yeah.

0:28:59 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, I mean I just I just remembered I got a call, got back, actually a coach that called me earlier that I didn’t call back but he so like we have a player that’s on corn fray tour. He’s had a really good season. Um, john Scott Ratten is the coach’s name and he’s out of congressional. Really good guy, really good coach. And Jimmy Stanger is the player and he he started to see me this off season. He had a lot of like back pain and it was a lot of stuff where I didn’t even need to know the golf swing because I was just like listen, like we got to clean all this up. He’s got some issues Mechanically. He’s not got the right activations, he doesn’t use the right muscles at the right time. Um, so we need to clean this up before I even, like start thinking about golf swing and what he needs to do differently to help his body. But he’s a great guy. I mean he’ll, he’ll FaceTime me, he’ll show me video and like a good thing with Jimmy Stanger is kind of similar. Like he wasn’t, his left leg was extending way too early in the swing, so all his rotational force was pretty much just going straight up the chain into his back. Um, he wasn’t, you know, absorb it. He wasn’t using the ground to help him break. There was no absorption of that power. And it was left leg. His left glute was like non-existent. Um, so we did a lot of work just getting his glute medius better, getting his left glute better, getting him to use like his quad and hammy and glute when he’s coming down into the downswing. So, like, when I look at a guy like that, I’m going to go all right, we’re going to do a lot of split stance work, you know, especially focusing on that left leg forward and having him, you know, thoracically rotate into that hip while he keeps his big toe down. What I find a lot of times with those guys is they just want to. As soon as they start rotating into it, they just want to lift their big toe. It’s like a kind of a cop out of actually using their glue to rotate into it. Those fashion lines with your big toe and your glue to have a lot of late, like you know, a lot of correlation. Um, so I really get those guys like I’ll put a band under their big toe and pull it and I’m like, hey, don’t, don’t, like you know, don’t let that big toe come up cause his band is going to hit me in the wrist. So things like that I’ll tie into when I, when I hear from a golf coach, hey, we need to get him better. And I see in the assessment like, hey, this is a direct correlation to the pain he’s feeling as well. Um, so it’s always good too when the swing instructors, you know eyes, are matching up with what I’m seeing in the assessment. It makes everybody’s job a little easier, makes my job easier, and then I can make his job easier. But but that’s where I, you know, I get.

I get some crap on social media when I use, like a disc or a bozu ball, or some people are like, oh, this stuff, and it’s like not everything is about creating power.

Like when I, obviously, when I put a disc under someone’s foot, they’re not going to create a ton of ground force, like they’re using the disc, but like with him, his left leg wasn’t very active. So I want to put a disc on, I want to put some instability and make him use that left leg to stabilize as he rotates. So it’s like there’s different uses for things. Like if I had a guy and I’m like, oh, we’re going to try to create ground force. I’m not going to be having them doing cleans on a, on a bozu ball, obviously, you know. So it’s like I love social media and I hate it at the same time, cause it’s like I’m not going to explain everything I’m doing it and I’m not going to put all the steps that it took to get to this spot or why we’re doing it, but I’ll explain a little bit. But you always get those people that jump on there and they’re like oh, what are you doing? It’s like just relax, relax.

0:32:12 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, yeah, social media can be the best and the worst, for sure. Yeah, yeah.

So, then do you then have any place for them to to maybe swing and like feel that immediately in in their golf swing? I mean, obviously you have a place to do it. Do they go out to the range? Do they just do some swings in the gym? And how do you kind of take that? Okay, here’s. Here’s what we just did, we just activated this, we got this, this work in your feeling this. Now do you then have them feel that in their golf swing?

0:32:37 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, 100%, I mean we’ll have. We always take lunch here from like 12 to one, and a lot of times I’ll have guys from 1230 to one. We’ll be in the bay doing like swing catalyst, trying to get them to feel like we’ll do a lot of cues and activations and then have them swing and a lot I mean pretty much every time they go. Oh yeah, all right, I see what you’re saying now, like they connect it. I mean these guys are all good athletes too. That’s. The thing is, is you give them the proper cue? They’re going to do it in the swing, like they got to where they’re at for a reason. When it comes to the, the amateurs, or like the retired guy that’s trying to get a little bit better, it might take a little more coaching and a little more time, but it’s the same idea. Like I’ll give them some cues. Be like I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone and given a player a cue and they go oh, that’s supposed to be like this. I’m supposed to feel like my glue back here and I’m like, yeah, you’re not supposed to just feel your hip flexor when you rotate, but it’s great. I mean, I’m very lucky to be at a place like this that allows me to just go down to the bay and have guys hit balls and, like Carl you on, he’s also.

He’s a PGA Tour player I work with. He’s a guy he loves just like going to the bay. He’ll do a full workout in the bay in the heat and he’ll just be like, hey, let’s, you know, let’s bring a few bands, let’s bring a few med balls, and I’m going to bring my clubs and, like you know, we’ll do a couple sets of some exercises. Then it’ll hit 10 balls and he’s just trying to. He’s a very feel based guy and he’s just trying to feel that connection and same thing. Like that’s a good thing. Todd Anderson is his swing coach and that’s that’s. The other good thing is. So, you know, todd can just pop in and be like, oh, I like that, that’s a good feel, I like. You know, whatever it may be, he doesn’t always like the feels I try to come up with, but I like to think he’s pretty open minded about him for sure.

0:34:18 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Well, I think that’s what’s really cool is having you guys so close there that you can bounce those ideas off of each other, and I assume you guys have all kinds of technology that you use to mention this swing catalyst and what else. Do you guys have there, any biomechanics kind of stuff and any biomechanics specialists there that are helping with some of those things?

0:34:37 – Alex Bennett
So we’re currently we’re currently getting gears, which will be great, yeah, which will be great. We had KVEST and we we ended up kind of getting rid of the KVEST. I mean it’s, it’s a great product. We just had issues with it getting like calibrated. And people are paying, you know, they’re paying a lot of money to come here for an hour and it’s like we don’t want to be calibrating something for 15, 20 minutes or them hitting one ball on us. How to you know, recalibrating. So we kind of went away from that. We’ve been, I mean, we really use swing cat a lot and then obviously we use video and track man. We’ve got all that good stuff, but the, the gears, will be a great, a great addition for sure. Have you worked with?

0:35:17 – Jeff Pelizzaro
that at all before we have.

0:35:21 – Alex Bennett
I’m currently doing a lot of education just about like biomechanics and the gears and how to read all the data and everything like that and I find it. I love that stuff. I’m like a geek about that stuff, so I’m looking forward to getting it. It’s going to be exciting. It’s it’s cool to I. Right now I’m doing a bunch of stuff with a baseball guy just talking about rotation and power and it’s it’s cool. It’s cool to see the differences. I think there’s a lot of correlations in baseball and there’s also not a lot of correlations in baseball. It’s just totally different spine angles and you use your slings a little differently, but but it’s cool to see just different perspectives on how to create speed and how to create power.

0:35:59 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, I heard a great quote a couple of days ago, I think it was a. Have you ever heard of Dr Kwan? Yeah, and he said something about you. Know, movement sequencing is way more important than muscle conditioning when it comes to creating speed, creating efficiency.

And and and I’m like you I want to learn so much more about the biomechanics piece of it and understanding the sequencing a little bit better and just watching some of those things which I’m sure you’re ingrained in completely with the biomechanics research you’re doing now or learning that you’re doing about, and speak to that a little bit, about how you try to develop some sequencing and what you see with your tour pros compared to some of the amateurs Because I know what I see is amateurs it seems like there’s so much effort being put forth in our swings versus the pros. They make it look so easy but yeah, they’re obviously swinging way faster, hitting a ball way further.

0:36:54 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, the actually it’s funny. You said the thing I just shot with Sam Ryder. We were talking about how Sam likes to do a lot of dynamic work before he plays to improve that sequencing and really get those like fast twitch muscles going. And I was saying, yeah, sam tends to get quick, but quick can be slow. And the lady was like the producer was like, well, wait, what are you talking about? Quick can’t be slow. I’m like, well, if his hips get too quick and his arms get left behind, it’s going to be slow because he’s going to stall at impact and try to catch up with the face. She was like shut, your mind was I don’t. I don’t know if she ever really understood what I was saying, but it’s 100% true. I mean, there’s so many players and you hear it from amateurs all the time that they’ll come down and like, watch some of our tour players just hit some balls and they’ve got the track man numbers on the board and they’ll be like he does not look like he’s swinging at 120. You know, it looks like he’s swinging at 100. And I was like, well, it’s because the sequencing is perfect, you know, and it’s, it’s so efficient. And you’re right. You see all these amateurs that are trying to create a lot of speed and you see them getting real like herky jerky at the top and it’s like, yeah, but when you’re trying to get the ball to the top, what you’re doing, an impact and especially if you get real tilted, you’re actually slowing down at impact. Your max speed is happening back here somewhere, so you’re not actually creating that much speed when you hit the ball. And it’s what I found.

My favorite thing in the gym is the Kaiser. I use the Kaiser functional trainer nonstop and what I find is when I have players do different types of chops whether it be like a split stance, choppers, you know, just a regular stance is you’re going to sequence it because you have to pull tension. So I do a lot of work with that Kaiser, where I make guys do a lot of different chops. I have a, an alignment rod with a golf grip on it and I make guys do a lot of like quick swings and I go we need to hear this whoosh, you know, at impact, or or, if it’s, if we’re working on specific stuff, I’ll have them be like all right, I need to hear this whoosh back here and I need this left foot to kind of hop. At the same time you need to time those up, sequence those up. So I mean there’s a lot of different ways and I try to.

The good thing with the Kaiser is, you know it gives you the, gives you the power output per rep. So guys can really see like, oh, that was a fast wrap and I felt more pressure into my big toe or felt more pressure in the ball in my foot when I did that. So it’s like those instinct cues. And then with the you know, the alignment rod, with the grip on it, it’s the same thing. They can hear the whoosh when it happens and it’s like an instinct cue. They go oh okay, I did this a little different that time and that was faster this time. So I like, I like things that give guys instant feedback.

0:39:26 – Jeff Pelizzaro
It’s almost like having a fitness launch monitor right, like being able to read the tension, or even just the audio cues, of being able to flip your driver over and swing, you know, with the handle and hear those same kind of whooshes and 100% and being able to do it in different spots means that you’re doing different things with your body, right?

So just building up that awareness, absolutely. Let’s take a second to thank our partners over at LivePure. Livepure is the number one hydration drink that you need on the golf course, especially when it’s getting hot out there. You’re sweating, you’re playing lots of golf. You need something more than just water in your water bottle. So Dr Troy Van Biesen and his team formulated one of the greatest hydration products out there that is no sugar added, all natural ingredients and the top quality PGA Tour Pros, champions that you know are all using this on the golf course. So go over to LivePurecom that’s L-I-V-P-U-Rcom Check out all their products. You can use code 18STRONG and let LivePure champion your day Again with kind of more the not Tour Pros that you work with. But you know the people that just come and see you on a regular basis the country club guys, the. Do you have people that just come in like for a day they’re in town, they’re like, hey, I want to go to the performance center, and you know people that drop in like that.

0:40:54 – Alex Bennett
That is. Yeah, that’s the cool thing about being here is you just never know who’s going to come in and you never know where they’re traveling from or whatever it may be. I mean we just did a big talk with 24 players from what’s called Pathway to Progressions. It’s a PGA Tour initiative to help players with diverse backgrounds to get noticed by college coaches, and I mean we do a lot of these types of clinics and stuff like that. And some of these clinics you’re like literally teaching people how to hold a club and like they come up to the gym and they’re like I didn’t know I was doing fitness, I don’t want to do fitness, and it’s like it can be brutal.

But these guys, I mean I started with them and I was talking with them and they asked some like really good questions and I’m like man, these guys, I think these guys are pretty good players. And then, yeah, well and behold, we go out there and all our coaches were like man, these guys are like really good, these are like no joke. And it was cool to see, because I mean we had a couple of guys from like Argentina, that we had kids from Mexico. I mean people were coming from California, texas. They’re from all over the place and it was just it was cool to see how many.

I mean it’s a cool thing that tour is doing, obviously, but it’s amazing they were just talking about a lot of these guys don’t get to play in like AJGA, so they don’t get noticed by coaches and they’re sending them out to Nevada to go in front of, like the coaches showcase and I mean it was cool because these guys are. I mean they’re insane. One of the guys shot 68 on stadium from the tips. Whoa, it was like and he just played in the US junior. I mean he’s, he’s, he’s a stud and it’s like he has no college offers and you’re like man it’s. But nobody, nobody’s heard of him, nobody knows him.

0:42:24 – Jeff Pelizzaro
So, but that’s a cool thing.

0:42:27 – Alex Bennett
But it’s, it’s definitely. I definitely have people, just normal people, that come in for a couple of days and they want to get an assessment done and they want like a quick you know program or two that they can do when they go back home, and I mean some of those it’s. I’ve met some really cool people that have come from all over the place to do those little like things. They follow me on Instagram or they just Google the performance center or whatever it may be. It’s always, I always enjoy it, I that’s. I’ve had people ask me like oh you know, would you ever just want to work with tour players? And I always say no, because I enjoy just meeting always different people with different backgrounds, the different experiences. It’s like it’s, it’s the fun part of my job. I know every hour is going to be a little different. You know that’s cool.

0:43:08 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Obviously, I know everybody that shows up is going to have their own individual needs. You know they’re going to walk out of there with their own individualized program.

But for the people that are listening, that are just looking for a couple things, you know, getting that, that idea of the low hanging fruit, what are, what are some of the biggest things that you see on a consistent basis, not for everybody, but you know that a lot of people are going to benefit from whether that be some sort of mobility or some sort of a little bit of a, some sort of mobility drill or, you know, warm up wise or anything along those lines.

0:43:37 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing I see is people don’t realize how weak they are when it comes to lateral movement.

So I’m a big fan of just giving someone a band and putting it in their golf bag and going, hey, just put this band, you know, over your shins, over your feet, over your quads, and just walk sideways and keep your toes straight, don’t let them flare out, don’t let them flare in.

And it’s amazing to me like when people take a little band, that’s not much tension and how much their hips start burning and how we then they go Whoa, like I would have never guessed this.

And I go yeah, you know, golf is a very lateral sport and we’re very linear people and when you don’t have that lateral stability, you’re going to have a hell of a time playing consistent golf or creating any speed. So I think that’s that’s like the the most common thing I see with people that have never done like much you know in the fitness background as far as when it comes to go off or or sport specific fitness is just how weak they are laterally. And then I have a lot of my tour players that have bands on their quads and they’ll be jumping side to side and I’ll make them keep the width between their knees. And and I mean A lot of my guys are good at it now. But when we first started there like how am I, how are my hips burning this bad, I’m like, well, we need to. We need to build them up, man.

0:44:49 – Jeff Pelizzaro
It’s, it’s very surprising, and you know, back to the biomechanics, I mean People don’t realize how much of the the lateral forces impact the way that you rotate. We think everything’s rotation, rotation, but it’s like, no, there’s got to be lateral to create that right absolutely, absolutely.

0:45:06 – Alex Bennett
And I mean the other thing I see a lot of it’s just people not being able to like thoracically extend. So I mean I just I one of my favorite stretches just having someone take like a dialer or a pole and just put in their hands On top and just extending their arms straight, sinking their chest down towards the ground. And it’s like I mean, everyone I have is like, oh my god, this feels amazing and it’s like, yeah, it’s. It’s funny how such a simple stretch is something that, like, most people have just never done and you’re like, huh, I mean, but that’s like getting some lat length and like being able to get some extension out of the thoracic. Just everybody’s so rounded and they always, you know, they’re sitting there holding their phone, they’re looking down and so that’s. Those are two that I just see with everybody, that I think everybody should just do.

0:45:50 – Jeff Pelizzaro
And to your point like that’s why getting assessed can be so important. Yeah not even necessarily to get so specific on what you need, but like just to open your eyes. That holy cow I. I figured this stuff should be pretty easy and I can’t do it right like the bands around your ankles, how tight are your hamstrings?

You know, can you touch your toes? Can you? You know how rounded are your shoulders, all of those little things. It’s amazing when you get put in a position that you haven’t done in a long time. You’ve been sitting at a desk and then all of a sudden, you’re, you’re tested and put in this Scenario where you you thought you’d be able to do something easily. Balance is one of those things, too, that I see a lot Like. People just can’t, can’t believe how bad their balance is they can’t stand on one leg.

0:46:34 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, exactly to your point before.

0:46:35 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Like, balances, balances everything.

0:46:38 – Alex Bennett
Balancing you know, your, your corrections that you need, but also just balance to maintain yourself in the golf swing 100% and I think too, like I think parents One of the things I see that’s most common that parents get wrong is the hamstring test. Like they’re always like my son, he can’t even touch his shins, like what? And I’m like, well, you know, my first questions always have they grown a lot in the past? You know eight months and they’re like, oh yeah, they’ve grown, you know, three, four inches. And I’m like, well, that’s why, like the muscles so over stretched from the growth spurt that they can’t, they can’t. I’m like, just, you know, let’s do some active mobility and things like that, but let’s not just how to have them hold a hamstring stretch for a while and plus, you know, like you don’t want to take that, that speed away from them either, that quick twitch Speed.

So I think that I mean that’s one of the things like low-hanging fruits that I see a lot with parents that they get wrong with, like their junior golfers is they’re like, oh, my son’s so tight. And I’m like, well, you know, he’s grown a lot, so he’s the muscles are overstretched already. But it’s also, you know, let’s not, let’s not take if the kids got a lot of fast twitch muscle, let’s not take it away from them. Let’s not turn them into a yogi. So it’s like what’s like? Like you’re saying, let’s do an assessment, let’s know the individual and what they’re good at and let’s I’m a big fan of Whatever you’re good at, let’s make it even better. And then if there’s some issues, you know limitations let’s obviously address those, but let’s not ignore what you’re really good at and try to make these limitations a strength, because I just feel like that never ends up in making the player actually better.

0:48:09 – Jeff Pelizzaro
That’s a that’s a great point. I think it’s a natural default for people to think that everything in golf has to be about flexibility and being able to. Rotate and get in these positions and and you’re absolutely right that you know if you’ve got, especially if you have that fast twitch speed that’s the one thing you definitely don’t want to rob a kid of yeah, let’s not do that.

All right, man, before we close it up, I got some typical questions we ask everybody that comes on the show. So yeah, first and foremost, caddy shaker, happy Gilmore.

0:48:36 – Alex Bennett
So I’m definitely a happy Gilmore guy. I mean I was, I was born in 1990 and I mean I just feel like Adam Sandler was like my childhood. You know all those movies. I like caddy shack it’s a classic movie and it’s funny. But I’m definitely a happy Gilmore guy.

0:48:52 – Jeff Pelizzaro
If you could pick a walk-up song to the first tee box, what’s your walk-up song?

0:48:55 – Alex Bennett
Oh, man, this was a tough one for me. I Was. I was bouncing back and forth, I mean I always. You know, I just I Grew up listening to rap, my whole life pretty much, and I grew up in metro Detroit playing, playing all these types of sports and that’s just what we listen to, and it was. It was either between Something I mean any song on get rich or die, try and 50 cent, or I’m a big fan of the song blessings by by big shot and Drake. That’s like one of my favorite songs, so I’d say I’d say one of those two love it?

0:49:28 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Is there a book that that has meant a lot to you or that has really inspired you that you’d like to recommend to either your players or just to anyone in general?

0:49:37 – Alex Bennett
Um, that was a tough. I mean I feel like I like to read. I mean I’ve read so many good books. Chris Doris is like a really good author. That’s not, that’s not well known. He’s a good mental coach. He’s got a lot of good books like daily affirmations. Um, I mean, he’s got one. I mean it’s all about just kind of finding your purpose and chasing. I can’t. I’m blanking on the name right now it’s an older book. Um, chris Doris is a really good author. I love I just love his, his mental coach work as well. And then I’m reading a book called inner excellence right now. I think it’s jim murphy.

0:50:17 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Yeah, I got it right on the shelf here.

0:50:19 – Alex Bennett
Really good book. It’s awesome. Really good book, yeah. So I mean, right now I’d say that’s the best book and that’s one that I’m definitely recommending to my players, for sure, is that is that book.

0:50:28 – Jeff Pelizzaro
That’s a. That’s a huge one. I know that, like Shuffler has mentioned that book, some of the top level guys have mentioned that book and and just taking themselves to the next level. So, yeah, it’s. It’s unreal, really cool. Um, all right, what’s your dream for some? If you could pick a for some to go play golf with, could be anybody celebrities, historical figures, whoever who you picking.

0:50:49 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, um, I would definitely say Michael Jordan grew up a huge Michael Jordan fan. Um, man, this was a Steve Iserman, Just I mean, you know, captain the red wings. My whole childhood I played hockey. My whole life is my favorite sport, so he was definitely like my hero growing up. Um, and the third one was was tough. I think I would just, I think I would just bring my dad, because I know you’d love to play with steve y and Michael Jordan, so I think I would just have to bring him. You know, very cool.

0:51:21 – Jeff Pelizzaro
All right if we had the 18STRONG jet fueled up. We’re like Alex, we’re going anywhere you want to go. You got a free ticket where you heading. What would?

0:51:29 – Alex Bennett
golf course, oh, man, I mean, I feel like the automatic answer is augusta, just because it’s, it’s just this hollow plate, or you just, you know, you just want to go play, you just want to walk the grounds. Um, but man, I’ll tell you what I would. I would love to go to band and dunes. I’ve never been out there. I love, like I love, the pacific northwest and I’ve never really been there, but I just love the way it looks and I love mountains and I’m more of a mountain guy than an ocean guy, which kind of sucks living in florida because there’s not, there’s not even a hill here. But but I think I’d go. If it’s not augusta, I’d go somewhere out there.

0:52:09 – Jeff Pelizzaro
That’s definitely on my list also. All right, I’m gonna throw another one in here. Um, that’s not on our normal list, but since you’re a tpc sawgrass. What’s what’s your hardest hole there and what’s your favorite hole there?

0:52:22 – Alex Bennett
Oh man, that’s a good one man, mine.

I mean, dude, my nemesis is number five. I’m just always, or you know what, actually, I take that back. My nemesis is number 14. Yeah, the par 4 with the water on the left, um oh yeah, I’ve just. I’ve made some birdies on five at least before teen. I just feel like I’ve never played well and I feel like the the wind is always just howling in your face and it’s just an absolute monster. I played a tournament here when I was a kid I was a junior in high school and my parents were standing on the car path about 30 yards right of the fairway and I almost killed them. I mean, it was like I just bailed out harder than you could ever bail out, and then the next day they were standing even further right and I almost got them again. I’ll never forget it. And it was just like my dad’s like hey, like what are you doing? There were 50 yards from the fairway and you’re always getting us and I was like man, I don’t know.

I, this tbox just doesn’t add up to me. So I would say that hole for sure, and then my favorite hole out here, I mean I love, I love 16 that par 5.

I think it’s just a cool hole and it’s it’s like you know you’re During the players. I think it’s one of my favorite holes because it’s the best view of 17, so it’s like you get, you get the, you get the stadium atmosphere as you’re walking down 16 and it’s like you’re just looking across the water at what’s to come and it’s, it’s just a cool, cool atmosphere.

0:53:52 – Jeff Pelizzaro
I totally agree. So I had a chance to play it the day after the players and I can remember, like driving up on 16, you kind of get past the grandstands in the fairway on the right hand side and then all of a sudden the water opens up. You see, 17, you got that big tree on the left hand side and it’s like man. It doesn’t get any better than this.

0:54:10 – Alex Bennett
It was no, it’s awesome, so it’s awesome, all right.

0:54:14 – Jeff Pelizzaro
And then last one. Is there a social media account that you think the 18STRONG crew should go out and follow? Obviously, you’re doing an amazing job, posting a ton of great content. Is there somebody else that you’d like to follow, that you’d recommend?

0:54:25 – Alex Bennett
This one. This one was really tough for me. I I feel like there’s just so many good golf fitness Guys out there now like I feel like if I name them, I’m gonna leave some people out.

0:54:37 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Um doesn’t that to be golf fitness could be, could be a totally unrelated account too. You want to go there, rat.

0:54:43 – Alex Bennett
Oh, that’s tough. I mean honestly it’s, it’s. It’s gonna sound like a cop out, but when I’m not like posting stuff, I really try not to scroll.

0:54:52 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Oh smart man much very smart man.

0:54:55 – Alex Bennett
I know I. I just find the more I scroll on social media the Less happy I am. So it’s like I really I really try. If I’m not on there, I’m not and I know I have there’s a lot of posts I probably should like from friends of mine that I haven’t liked and I always tell like a lot of my Close friends. No, I just don’t really go on social media. When I’m, I post and then I just kind of try to get off of it and I’ll respond to like comments on my page and stuff like that. But I just try to, I just try not to like, just start scrolling. Um, but man, there’s I. I mean I follow so many good golf. I mean you know all the golf fitness guys and I mean the ando, uh, andos of the world, um, athletic golf fitness, Jonathan Alvelos, I mean there’s just so many. Yeah, lots of good ones out there.

0:55:43 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Lots of good, yeah, well, speaking of which, tell everybody where they can follow you, where’s the best place website wise, social media wise all that.

0:55:51 – Alex Bennett
So so website and social media is just ab fitness and golf. Uh, youtube is alex Bennett fitness and golf. Um yeah, that’s, that’s where to find me excellent.

0:56:05 – Jeff Pelizzaro
Well, alex, thank you so much for coming on today. It’s finally nice to you know, connect and get a chance to chat, and I’m sure we’ll be chatting much more in the future. I love what you’re doing. I love the work that you do. Um, get some of those guys, some some wins, out on tour and we’ll be seeing much more of you.

0:56:21 – Alex Bennett
Yeah, I appreciate it, man. Anytime I had a good time.

0:56:23 – Jeff Pelizzaro
You got it brother awesome. Thanks for joining us this week on the 18STRONG podcast with alex bennett. If you want any more information that we talked about in the show, any of the links to his social media or any of the other Topps we talked about, go to 18strongcom. This is episode number 351 and you’ll find it all right there. We’ll catch up again with you next week with another great guest. Train hard, practice smart, play better golf.

Transcribed by https://podium.page