No Laying Up - Golf Podcast - NLU Podcast, Episode 172: George Gankas

Episode Date: October 18, 2018

George Gankas joins the podcast to talk about his teaching career, his meteoric rise through the Instagram ranks, to now working with some of the top professionals in the game today. He talks about the... The post NLU Podcast, Episode 172: George Gankas appeared first on No Laying Up. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm going to be the right club today. Yeah. That's better than most. How about him? That is better than most. Better than most. Expect anything different. Alright.

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to be the right club today. Yes. Better than most! Alright, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the No-Lang-Up Podcast. I gotta say, this guy is one of our more popular requests to ever have on it, and I'm only kinda recently getting deep into Gigi, well, as formerly known as Gigi's Swing Tips, but Mr. George Gankus, George, for those that are somehow unfamiliar with what you do, how do you describe it? Well, I describe it as I just coach golf, you know what I mean?

Keep it simple. That's it, but yeah, it's George Gankus golf, no more Gigi Swing. I'm done with that. But what is the phenomenon kind phenomenon behind your teaching style? I want to hear from your background and how you got into teaching and all the things that have happened to you over the last several years and what you're best known for in the social media world. Well, that's a good question. Originally, I was known for having some good juniors for a long, long time. For the last 15 years, I've had a lot of good juniors.

And then I have a good buddy, my name is Danny Wax, who played on the time nationwide tour. He asked me to get some social media Instagram at the time. And I really didn't wanna do it, but he actually told me it would be good for me because I had some new good juniors and I just was showcasing my juniors and that's kind of the way it started out for me as far as

being on social media or anybody even known who I was because I'm not part of the PGA program so that being said nobody is gonna know who you are unless you have some type of PGA tour player or whatever. So basically I showcased my players on there and my players did their thing. And that's kind of where I got on the map if you'd say I was on the map at all is from my juniors. And so kind of, I guess you do credit Instagram with being kind of your boost into making a name

for yourself in the golf world? Absolutely. I mean, it's definitely helped actually for the social media part actually doing my membership sites helped. Quite a few things have helped. I mean, obviously my players have helped. Definitely, I give all the credit to my players, but the fact is that I had something to actually showcase them on was the cool part.

So I absolutely got to give credit to Instagram or any other type of social media, but first informed of my players for sure. Who were some of the professionals that you work with the people would recognize um originally you know I had guys like uh Darren Angel a guy way back then Danny Wax and then I had the privilege my first PGA tour player was a guy named Sun King who I'm still with, he contacted me from Instagram. I was just on a direct message and he had his agent talk to me. And next thing you know, I'm teaching him

that I started working with after that, Danny Lee. And then I got a chance to work with, a couple of other guys like Darren Clark. I got to work with. You know, a couple other guys like Darren Clark. I got to work with Adam Scott. Then I started working with Padra Carrington and you know, I still work with Padra a little bit. If he actually asked me any questions, I'm there for him. All those guys, if they ever have a question, I'm there. But lately, it's been more because I've been so busy with my I'm there, but lately it's been more because I've been so busy with my membership site that People I'm more of a consultant now people just call me say, hey, what do you think? What do you think? It's

It's a lot better than having to be on tour all the time. That's for sure for me Yeah, I kind of want to get into how the membership site how all that works and whatnot But I was actually at Bay Hill this year and if I remember right I saw you working with podrick on the range there is that right? at Bay Hill this year. And if I remember right, I saw you working with Padrick on the range there, is that right? Uh, at Bay Hill. Yeah, it's probably with Padrick, Adam, Scott, Danny Lee, Sun King at the time. It, uh, you with Padrick, Harrington seems like a pretty epic crossover of, of minds in the game of golf. I'm kind of wondering what, uh, what kind of things does, uh, Padrick pick your brain about and what do you, what do you kind of help him with the most? First off, podreg is a really really smart dude and probably one of the coolest guys ever taught to be honest and just a great human

I mean, he's just like I can't say anymore about the dude. He's the coolest So it's like he's already a smart guy already super accomplished It's just flattering that I even get to like talk to the dude. He's straight up all about, he wants speed. He wants speed and I can give him speed. So if I can give him speed, he knows how to play golf. And that's what he's looking for. He's looking for an advantage because the older we get,

he's like 46, 47 somewhere in there, pretty close to my age. He wants speed, so he wants to max out his speed, so when he just swings comfortably, he's swinging his driver to 120, 22, 23, and that's possible for him, so it's kind of cool, he'll try and max out it like 128, 130, and then when he just says he's just chilling, he's swinging it like 120, And it's kind of cool philosophy,

but that's what he picks my brain on is more of how to create speed. And I'm not even considered a speed coach, but so many people come to me for to create speed. It's kind of funny. For perspective on that, for people listening at home, 128, 130, that's kind of up there in the camera and champ range.

Is it not? Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. That guy's got mad speed, for sure. And what is it about, I guess, why would somebody come to you in particular for speed? What is it about your technique that kind of has caught the attention of so many people? Well, first off, I mean, legitimately, I've got speed. So if I can create speed at my age and I didn't always have speed, that means that I know how to do it.

You know what I mean? So if I can't do it myself, I feel fraudulent. I feel like I can't relay info. And that's not the right way to actually portray it because there's guys who can't do it, that can teach it. But I just feel personally myself, if I can't do it, then I have no right teaching it in my opinion. For personally myself if I can't do it, then I have no right teaching it in my opinion. For me, for me, myself, but I have met guys like I said that are brilliant

coaches that they can't do it. So all I'm saying is that for that speed wise alone, there's some really like really important parts of speed that people really don't understand in some do obviously but a lot of people don't they have a misconception of where speed comes from and I feel like I understand exactly where speed comes from so it's it's it's one of those things where some people who who need speed and they've never been able to get it and they come to me and they get it and they're like this guy has you know he knows how to get speed so then the word travels and the next thing you know people are coming to me for speed and that's not what I'd say I am I wouldn't say I'm a speed coach I wouldn't say that I'm

a mechanical coach I'd say first off and foremost I was originally a coach that got people to play better golf and then it became all this guys good at It like technique. Oh, he's good at you know, it's creating speed But really in general, that's not what my aim was for in the first place It was just to help people get better at golf. Well, I don't know how much you'll give us here with that's not behind the paywall here So what those tips are for speed? But is there is there anything that you've kind of modeled what you teach after any particular swings or any techniques in particular? I've watched some of the videos.

I know it's a lot harder to probably describe this on a podcast, but it is to show a video. I'll give you a few things that I would say that would be very, very important. I'd say number one is finishing your shoulder turn. That's an easy concept. I mean, I can get into super detail, but I don't want to waste your time I'd say the first thing and if the first thing for sure Finish your turn and don't squat in the back swing get more up in the back swing as you go back Big full turn finish your turn now I'm not gonna get into as you turn take your your left bend out

I'm not gonna get into details, but just keep your shoulder and client it. You have a huge turn. That'd be number one. Get your hands above your head. It would be another one. Number three, if we even have numbers here, I would say I'd get my right arm more into like a throwing position, like a quarterback position, where the right arms like high. Okay, not like tucked or pinched. It's like if you're going to throw a ball, would you ever throw a ball with a pinched arm? Absolutely not. Okay, so why would you try and create speed that? Because the argument would be like, okay, this guy's going to hit it all over the planet if his arms up. Well, that's funny

because Nicholas didn't and you can't name one number one player in the world in the last 30 years that had a tuck right arm. Can you? No, you can't absolutely not you can name players, but you can't name a number one player that has had a tuck arm in the last 30 years So that being said that's a big big big, you know, understanding of why players are number one all All the number one players in the world have speed now. So having the arm up fly is not a problem to me. It's actually a cool thing. It's create speed. Then the next thing is, is if you go up in the ground, up in the back swing, the first move is straight down.

It's like the sweet spot of the ground. And most people want to push off their trail leg, almost like they're actually feeling like they're a pitcher, like they're pushing up trail leg. You don't need to do that. What you need to do is get up to the top with your full turn and just sit straight down the ground as you turn and then push off the ground. That's where you create speed. And another thing would be is if you threw a ball, when do you activate your arm in the throw? Do you throw your arm right away or do you activate your arm last? I mean, if I knew the answer to that, I think I'd be in the playoffs right now. I never could figure out the fastball, but you're activating your arm. I would think last if you're

pushing off with your lower body. That's kind of an obvious answer, but nobody does it and golfer, but he tries to pull her arms down first. So if it is you actually leave your arm behind, you're actually creating more stretch. So that's another speed factor right there. So if you put all those together, you got a full turn, high hands,

you get back into the ground, and then you push out of the ground without your arms pulling down, and you've got speed. It's pretty simple stuff. It's a pretty simple stuff. It's a lot like other sports. It's not like, I think when we tried to teach golf, we saw things that we thought we saw from good players and we started to try and recreate the wheel.

And a lot of times we messed up as coaches. The way you describe this motion, I keep picturing Sergio. Is that somebody you kind of put into this mold of kind of fitting the practice, kind of what you're preaching here? I know he's not a student of yours, but I love Sergio. Sergio, people don't know it, but Sergio has one of my favorite swings. He'd be my top five golf swings that I like. I love that he shallows it out. I love his rotation through the ball. I love a lot of things he does in his golf swing and I actually a long time ago I was a

caddy and he actually played in a group and he's one of the best ball strikers I've ever seen to be honest. So I love his motion but I would say if I looked at it it'd be like right arm would be a little bit more high like I don't know like a Sam Sneeter, a Jack Nickless, and the back swing with the full turn with kind of a Rory squat, with kind of like a Hogan post impact extension, like a DJ in transition, which we call P5, when the left arm gets parallel with a downswing, the start of the downswing, there's a lot of like the left arm looks like it's stretched and touching across this chest. There's a lot of speed in that and those are the things that I see, but if you said Sergio, it wouldn't be too far off. Sergio is about us. Building off something you

said there, I'm trying to try to picture this. You mentioned kind of there hasn't been a tucked arm player at a breach number one. Who would you consider like a tucked arm player? I'm trying to visually picture the a golf swing that I can. Ben Hogan, Ben Hogan. Yeah, he really had the arm, the humerus, or the bicep tricep tricep tucked to like his rib cage. It was just real tight. And that was more for control. And he had control.

And nowadays, the games change. Grant, they had different balls back then. And you know, if you look at how far he hit a seven iron, it was like nothing comparable to now, but a lot of that was balls. They've been hooking out a lot of speed. He used the ground really nicely, rotated nicely. He got the shot to work right in transition.

Of so many good things he did, that I loved what Hogan did, but what I'm talking about a speed if you let that arm fly gain into the four to seven miles per hour And and I would never give that up nowadays We'll get back to the podcast here in a second But real quick had a chance to bother Maddie Kelly in the middle of the night over in Korea They're coming fresh off though the win on Mark Leachman's bag at the 2018 CIMB classic Want to get some insight on what Mark had in the bag and what was working for him.

So here he is. Maddie, good morning. Tell us all about it. Congratulations. Thank you, mate. It was crazy week. It was fun, obviously. It's always nice to finish them off.

What did Leach have in the bag and what especially was working for him this week? He added a wedge after the two-it championship. He wasn't very happy with his wedge play. So he added a Kalloway 52 degreeour championship. He wasn't very happy with his wedge play So he added a Callaway 52 degree So he changes set up quite a lot and then moved his wedges around from what he had making it 47 51 5560 and I've never seen a wedge it like he did last four days

I would say he was an okay wedge player and this way he was great If he can keep that up big big things to come, hopefully. It seems like it worked for you guys. So I'll let you get to it over there in Korea. Thanks for checking in real quick and best of luck on the rest of the Asian swing. Awesome, mate. Thank you.

All right. And now back to our conversation with George Gankus. I've read somewhere too also that you had at least done in some capacity, some work with Adam Scott. And the way I'm looking at it as an amateur golfer, that guy's got one of the more picturesque golf swings in the world, maybe in history. What do you teach a guy like Adam Scott?

What's he come to you for? Is it, I'll go back to speed? No, he didn't come to me for speed. He came to me because I have a YouTube, actually YouTube page that he watched and he got in contact with me through another one of my buddies. And what ended up happening is he said, I want to work with George because he says my setups a little off.

And he always wanted to change from his setup. He backed off away from it two, three inches from his address position. So if you drew a line in his forehead from down the line, D, meaning like if your camera was down the line and you were looking like on TV, and you saw his, you drew a line in his forehead and his backside, his forehead would move away from his original position

anywhere from like two to four inches. And he played the ball off the hozzle. So as he backed away from it, he hit the sweet spot. So it was nothing that was mandatory, or he mandatory needed to change. He just didn't like it. So most people, when they back away from a ball, they're gonna throw their arms at it.

Well, he played it off the hosle and as he backed away from it he hit sweet spot. So the reason he did that he could never figure that out was because of his setup. And his setup, he had such nice posture is from what we all look at. His back was real straight, but he's not short. As I remember, he's like six two somewhere around there, six two, six three. So the taller you get and you keep your back straight, you're going to actually bend over a lot and your armpits are going to get exposed. They're going to be out in your toe line. And the more and more you get your armpits out in your toes, you can't stay in that posture in turn. You're always going to stand up through the ball. And that's what he did.

So he wanted to figure out how to fix that stand up through the ball. And I changed his setup. And then once I changed his setup, he was allowed to... He was able to rotate through the ball better. And those two things allowed him to actually compress the ball more and control his face better. I mean, a lot of people would go, well, he already hit the ball better than anybody. Well, guess what? He's hitting the ball as good as he's hitting a long time. So, and that doesn't mean you're playing better golf. You still got to put and chip and play golf, but absolutely my job was to actually change his setup and play golf. But absolutely my job was to actually change his setup and get him to rotate better through the ball. And

that's that's what I did. That's examples that. And I know you've got several YouTube videos and I strongly advise people to go check that out at George Gankas golf. But you introduce this concept of calling something on matchup. And I know it's something you've fleshed out over several videos and have a visual element to it But as best you can on here explain what you mean by a matchup and how that works and it's kind of some of the examples that you give related to particular golfers I'll give you a match up. So here's a match up. You got Dustin Johnson with the face that's super shut He's not gonna release the club through the ball. He's not going to let it go real early.

His matchup would be to get his right arm really external, which means like if you're losing an arm-rusting match on your right arm, he's really keeping that forward. His handle's really, really far forward because he's holding the face off. He's got to open his body up a lot. Now imagine somebody seeing that and going, I want to copy him with a normal club base. Where do you think their ball is going to go? Uh, right. Really far right. Absolutely. Okay. So, absolutely. So people try to copy what Dustin does without the actual face matching up. So in general, everything we look at is all face. I say face is pretty much the king of the golf swing.

Meaning if I started with the face dead shot, I'm definitely going to have my handle forward. I'm going to have a lot of rotation to try and hold the face off. I'm going to my swing direction. It's start is most likely going to be out to the right if I'm a righty. And if I had my face open at address and I just didn't know any better, the first thing that I do is I'd probably come over the top. I'd start releasing all my angles, meaning throwing everything at it that I could do to square it up. And most likely, my pivot, I'm going to start sitting on my back foot, just anything to get the ball not to go right.

So a matchup would basically be to me is matching something up that would be optimal. For instance, if you look at someone like Rory, for instance, most kids try to copy the stall out of his legs. If you stall out like Rory does with his legs, guess what most kids are going to do? They're going to stall out their chest. But what's cool about Rory is Rory's chest continues to open through the ball. So most kids, when they stall out, their swing direction goes way out to the right

and they hit big blocks and hooks, depending on where the face is at. So Rory matches up his drop in and being behind the ball and really like his arms get really deep in transition, meaning deep means behind him, but then he really opens up with his chest. So most players who drop their arms behind them and stall their hips out are most likely going to be having a swing direction that's way out to the right, but Roy does not because

he matches up by opening up his chest. So there's matchups all over the place. Players have so many different types of matchups. It's all the tour players do. You know, you got guys, you got guys who are doing things to create the most optimal ball flight that they can. You look at a Brooks Keppka. Brooks Keppka doesn't really have a huge term in the backswing. Okay,

but the problem is, is that most people that don't have a huge turn in the back swing are going to start to slide. But he doesn't slide a whole bunch, but what happens is his hand path moves out and over. Meaning when I say hand path moves out and over like you're almost going to come over the top with your hands. But his club lays down like Sergio, but his wrist angles are so shut, meaning he has a lot of flexion in his lead hand, which means it's kind of bowed for those you don't know, which means his pattern is he's going to go left to offset that he really boasts his wrist,

and he turns through the shot and he hits cuts. But most people who do what he does would hit big slices because they don't match it up by having the wrist angles the same what he does, kind of like Dustin. So imagine you having everything match up like Dustin, but you don't have Dustin's speed.

Like let's say, for instance, I had a little girl, Carly Stevens, really good golf swing. Look like Dustin's golf swing. But she only swung at 70 miles an hour with an A-dare. And how high do you think that A-dare went? Oh, I couldn't, I couldn't begin to guess it. We're gonna get into ball flight laws and all that I couldn't guess that apex.

No, what is this, it went pretty much dick high. Okay, yeah. The ball didn't get off the air. Didn't get off, didn't get up the air. Didn't get out. Didn't get it. Didn't get up in the air. So that being said, is that optimal? Absolutely not. I mean, it looked cool.

She hit it solid, but she doesn't have enough speed to get that ball airborne. So is that a good matchup? No, not until she has speed like Dustin. So those are that's that's basically in a nutshell, what matchups are. I mean, there's so many ways you can talk about matchups and incredible. Yeah. I mean, I think I figured out your business model.

You hand out some of this stuff like a drug deal, like the free stuff of the crack and then make everyone come see you to really steer at home. I just, because I was watching some stuff and trying to kind of trying to copy the backswing moves a little bit now. Now I think you got me between a couple of patterns now here.

But. Well, I mean, those backswings are funny. It's like everybody thinks that I like crost up and you know, in and across up, it just so happens to be the three of my best ball strikers are all crossed up like Matt Wolf, you know, the best college player in the country right now. Johnny Reeves, web.comer and Sun King, they're all crossed up and it just looks different, but they all pivot differently in the downswing But it's not a bad thing. I was just getting ready to ask you about Matt Wolf and I kind of wanted to know What what you thought the first time you saw that golf swing and kind of what you've done with it once you started working with him

Well, I started working that He was eighth grade just come in ninth ninth grade. And I saw it and it was it was a very interesting move. He started out by taking out a driver and hitting sling hooks. And at the time I had my track man, I think he was 14 degrees and out from where we were trying to go and so he was hitting sling hooks and he was already pretty darn good at it in eighth grade like he I mean he was he was he was in the ball pretty good he just couldn't control his curve was too too much hook block over hook so what I ended up doing is legit saying okay okay, what do I want to do with this? I just thought to myself real quick. I already dealt with it. I had a kidney in Aaron Smith, who was a very very good junior. Could have been

very very good got on the wrong path, but that's a whole nother story and and the kid was Aaron Smith was one of the best ball strikers that I ever seen. And he had almost the same pattern. He was in, club was across the line, he rotated so many similar patterns so I was like you know what? I'm not going to mess with his back swing. I'm going to let him do what he does and I'm going to get him open up in the downswing and see where the scows. And so that's what I did. So I let him do a lot of the stuff that he did naturally So that's what I did. So I let him do a lot of the stuff that he did naturally. And I just started to get him to open up, open up, open up, and open up. And before you know it, I got him from like 14 degrees and out, 12 degrees and out to about

two degrees, four degrees, and he liked it right there. So we stopped it like four to three degrees and out. And then we started getting a more left. He liked starting to hit the straight to cut ball. And then it's gone back and forth. And from now it's just maintenance, the kid's so good. Now he knows it'll play golf. So for me, it's very easy.

He'll send me a swing here and there, and it's probably the easiest coaching job on the planet. But he trusts me more than anybody. So it's really, really cool that for working with him for six years now. It's probably the easiest coaching job on the planet, but he trusts me more than anybody. So it's really, really cool that for working with him for six years now, that he's such a great kid, such a great talent. And everybody looks at that swing and goes, wow, are you gonna fix that? And I'm like, now everybody's like, that's a cool swing ever. But for the first three years, it was straight. That's that swings garbage. That's this

But I said if you watch him hit it You'll think absolutely different because he's probably one of the most consistent ball strikers ever seen He'll throw a pattern. He'll throw ten balls and roll that looked the same exact He'll hit it as flush as anyone is ever seen And I'll just repeat he's got the knack to repeat. So as far as wolf and his patterns, I couldn't ask for a cooler looking golf swing and a better, better kid. And more talent, I can't wait till he turns, bro. And you know, we're in this era where technology has changed so

much in the last 20 years or so. And so many kids come up learning. And you know, idolizing old golf swings and whatnot but the game has changed so much that I feel like there's so much space to be explored with new golf swings. Bryson being an example and something like Wolf. It's kind of like do you see a trend where maybe guys coming up into the future that golf swings are just not going to look like traditionally what what they've looked like in the past. Um yeah yeah, I hope so to be honest, because I think what people think is a perfect swing is nonsense. It has nothing to do with what it looks like all the time.

It's like you're picking pieces out that are relevant. You're like, oh, this looks so pretty. Um, it means nothing. Um, if you're, if your bottom is not what it needs to be and you're not matching up, your path to face ratios. Who cares? You know, you don't have a good ball pattern. I've seen so many guys that look beautiful backswing, beautiful finishes and everybody's

all that's a perfect swing and they hit it everywhere. They've seen people that what people think have a garbage backswing and a garbage finish hit it straight or anybody. So there's a lot to be said that we're missing from the bottom part. And that's what all that really matters to me. I mean, there's a lot of other stuff that with pressure and the backswing and transition and stuff like that that really mattered to me, or setups of the backswing that matters. So I used to say that backswing doesn't matter to me. It does.

It matters big time. But there's a lot of things and a lot of looks that I'm okay with, that a lot of other coaches most likely are not okay with, just because it doesn't look pretty to the normal eye. And I see beauty in a lot of like, I just, you know, I watch Sam's snake, Bobby Jones, a lot of the old timers. And what I saw is, I didn't mind the left foot coming off the ground. I didn't mind club getting across the line. I didn't mind the left foot coming off the ground. I didn't mind club getting across the line. I didn't mind the right arm flying. I just watched their body work and it was it was amazing. And so we went off on in my

opinion, the two things that messed up golf, this this this is probably the biggest two things is one setup. People started trying to get a perfect, you know, back straightening their back and getting their butt back and that ruined balance points and it ruined rotation to the ball. Made people stand up and hump. So I think that was one of the biggest things that ruined golf. Next thing I would say is stopping the rotation the backswing trying to restrict the hips and tuck the arm. Those are some things that really set golf back and the old-timers never did any of that. They really turned everything back, they got their arm flying, and they really used their

body through the ball properly. They didn't slide. For a while, we got on this tip that you had to really push all your pressure forward and everything else. And you can get pressure forward without pushing your pressure forward. You get the leads out of the pelvis low. And what I mean by that, if you flex your left knee and you get the leads out of your pelvis low, there's pressure forward. You don't have to move your pressure forward in order to create pressure forward in turn. You just don't. So simple as that.

And I've heard you talk a bit about ball flight laws. And that's probably you could probably spend a whole hour talking about about the physics behind that. But kind of what do you see from from Ammoners, juniors or anything, people that don't understand ball flight laws? So the common misconceptions around ball flight laws. What do you see there? I just think that that players who understand ball flight laws. What do you see there? I just think that players who understand ball flight laws

understand the ball starts not 100% on face, but you just, as a coach and you're trying to teach your players listen, the ball starts more on the face and the ball curves away from the path. As soon as you can understand that, it becomes simple. And I put a stick on the ground and I say, listen, this is where we want to start the ball. This is where your face is going to be at the point of impact. But these are your intentions, doesn't mean it's going to happen. And if your face is hearing your path is anywhere right of it. Guess what? The ball is going to start on that and move more left. Now does

it start 100% on face? No. Is it a perfect equation? No. There's going to start on that and move more left. Now does it start a hundred percent on face? No. Is it a perfect equation? No. There's a lot of things that go along with it, whether it's the ball, the friction, the grass. There's so many things that go along with ball flight laws. And we don't need to get into that. But once a player understands that, wow, my face has a lot to do with where the ball starts. Wow, my face has a lot to do with where the ball starts. And if I swing my path right of that, the ball is going to go in the opposite direction. If my face stays at that same position, if I swing left of that and my ball starts on that same face, guess what? It's going to curve right. They start to be able to control their start line and they control having a one way miss.

And that's important to be able to play some good golf. I think that's probably one of the best ways to get good at golf is to create a pattern meaning be able to start it it's something and turn it one way and once you can do that you take one side of the course and and and I'm not the first to say that that's been my my first coaches that's all they ever said they just didn't they didn't know the first to say that. That's been my first coaches. That's all they ever said. They just didn't know the formula to ball flight laws. They didn't realize that the ball started closer to the face.

They thought it started on the path. So that being said, now that we have track man flight scope, all these are the cool things. We know where the ball is starting and we can relay that to our players and our kids and it just makes them not guess what's going on and looking at positions and going, oh, my face is open up top or my left arm's not here or, or, oh, I'm under. Now they have a better understanding what's really going on, which is cool and it saves you a lot of time.

That's what ball flight laws are for in my opinion. Got it. Yeah, that's, that, I was afraid of that answer. And now I'm thinking about all kinds of things that I'm probably doing wrong. But I'm, I'm curious to kind of hear and I know there's, there's probably some confusion out there between, I want to kind of understand your business and I know that I don't know how much you can say about, you know, what used to be GGG Swing Tips which is now George Gankus golf but kind of can you give an overview of kind of the history behind that and what you're building out with your current platform. Yeah absolutely.

I just had a guide like three four years I don't even know the time we started but the guy came along and said hey listen I want to start. I want to start actually a membership site with you and I said, you know, I'm not the guy. Nobody really cares. Everybody said, no, no, no, you're killing an Instagram. You're just starting up. I only had like 10,000 guys. He's like, let's get your info out there. I'm like, nah, nah, nah, nah, and he kept convincing me to do it. So finally we did it. And it wasn't like it was great. It just, you know, it started out and it was okay.

I had a lot of people talking a lot trash. I had a lot of people say this is cool. A lot of mixed emotions. And then, you know, I just did what I did. And, you know, people started just knowing who I was. I started actually getting better well-known amongst some other players on tour. So it helped my business, but the fact is is that I got into a deal with a guy that actually, in my opinion, is not a guy

that I want to go into business with. But I could get into because we're going to be going into litigation here soon. I just don't want to say anything that would be slandering his name. So, but the thing was, is there's some disagreements on some things and he basically stopped paying everything period. So, I haven't been paid since December so basically he owes me a lot of money. So the thing was is he started charging people's credit cards without my authorization saying he was absolutely certifying instructors. He basically stole my domain, Gigi Swing Tips. So that being said once he stole my domain name, he started saying that he owns all content and he basically took the whole site So that being said

People said why don't you sue him and I just didn't want to go through it I'd rather concentrate on a different project Until I get this project done. So I started a new project Got my focus in the right place and now it's almost done got my focus in the right place and now it's almost done. As soon as it's done, then his ass is going down. Yeah, I can't imagine the frustration that comes with just like something you built as a brand and as your name on a Gigi swing tips be and well you got but guys in Japan they just put they came down to do something on the golf digest and they're like oh I said whatever you do if you you're gonna put my face on golf digest in Japan,

just don't use Gigi Swing Tips, of course, the first thing it was was Gigi Swing Tips on the cover. And so guess who makes the money for that? Yeah. Not me. So, and it's not even about the money, it's just the fact that Gigi Swing Tips, Gigi Swing Tips, and for me, as George Gankus golf,, Gigi Swing Tips, and for me as George

Gank is golf, I've got, I mean, that's the direction I got, and it is, yeah, it's frustrating that the fact that all the energy I put into the other thing, and now it's back to, I basically, George Gank is golf, which is going to be way cooler anyway, so. Well, yeah, it sounds, I mean, I know that your die hard fans are definitely on your side and just a little bit of internet research I did. It looks like that, at least on Gigi's Swink tips, that they're almost carrying it off

as if you're still the one producing content there and that is not the case. Oh, Gigi's went, yeah, I know a lot of people. Well, he, for a while, he was talking to me and stuff too. There's just a lot of stuff, he's certifying instructors as me acting like I was there and just up until recently. The last, I don't know, three, four months, he said, no, I'm no longer in ball. So, at least he cleared that up. So we can get him a little credit for that.

So it's kind of talked to me about what your business model is, is from what I understand, like you teach professionals, you teach juniors, but is it true? You also kind of teach, so people submit videos to you online through the membership portal and you help people online with their swings? No, that was before. That was before. That was before. That's what we're doing now.

I do some online lessons when I get a chance. I'm just, you know, I'm working every day right now. I'm filming right now. What I'm filming for on my days off is I've been, for the last nine months, I've been getting together a bunch of content for a new membership site, George Gankus Golf, and it's about ready to launch. And the Sambrant should launch. We're hoping for. So in the next, it will be actually done filming in two weeks. So I've been every my two, three days off Sunday Monday. I've been filming. So what's going on really is basically, I'm just online lessons or on the mat or I'm doing that project. And my online lessons is not what I would say.

I could concentrate big time on it, but it's just I haven't had much time to do it. But before when I had my other membership, I was doing online through that membership. I mean, what do your DMs look like now? I mean, you got over 100,000 followers now or on Instagram or people just in, is it just on repeat every single day

Slot people sliding in looking for tips and advice and how's that process work? Do you have a staff helping you get through these? You know what I actually have a good friend of my Jack Kim Who actually goes and looks through it. He's one of the coaches that actually is under me And what he'll do is he'll actually send him to my other assistant, I have another assistant named Frank, to sort of his my actual, my scheduling. And they relay stuff and that's the way I have to do it because I can't get to it all.

I mean, honestly, to be honest, I'm never on Instagram. I'm like, probably a lot of people think I am. I used to be last year a lot more than I am now. It's just not that I wouldn't want to be. I just don't have time. I just don't have time for it, to be honest. Well, I'm very pleasantly surprised that I was able to slide through there

and actually get this able to work. Where? I actually Jack found it for you. Where do you work out of? And where do you do all your lessons from one location or how's that work? Yeah, I'm out of West Lake California. It's like 30 minutes from LAX.

And that's where yeah, that's where usually I do most my lessons and less somebody calls me to come out to a different area or my filming, I'm doing out of Ventura, California right now for my new membership site. But most of my stuff is yet out of Westlake. Is this a driving range, a regular local driving range so I can dress cash and just do my teaching out there?

You, in terms of, you know, you mentioned dressing cash. Do you ever get any kind of blowback from anyone within the PGA? I mean, you mentioned not being a PGA member, but I don't give a shit what this is. I know you, I know you don't, but do you get, do you get what I like? I'm even up for me, I'm even up for me, I'm even up for me.

I ain't even on the PGA top 100 list. And tell them to put me on there, maybe I'll even listen to one of them. But until then, I don't give a shit what they say. This is the true. Yeah. Why do I care what they say about BGA not to be a dick by the way and I probably shouldn't say Straight up. They haven't done that for me. When they do something for me that I'm down I mean, I'll be cool them. I'm not gonna be mean to them. There's no reason to have they haven't done nothing me But I have no reason to actually conform to What what what they want me to.

No, you don't have to explain that to me or to anybody listen to this. And anybody that kind of breaks the mold in any fashion and golf, it can ruffle some feathers along the way is why I asked about it. It was kind of curious if you've had any incidents or people kind of give you shit about anything or if that just kind of slides off your back No, absolutely. People mean all the time. I mean, I've got so much more support than I've got. Yeah, so it's cool It's like if you meet me you're not gonna you're not gonna hate me. I mean, I'm not I'm not out to get nobody I'm just out to actually help somebody so it wasn't you meet me. You're not gonna you're not gonna hate me

So it's the only people that they're hitting are people that are jealous Or they've never met me. That's just simple stuff. Do you see your work being copied or imitated anywhere and uh, yeah It's flattering. That's flattering. I love it. I mean people are good. He's still in the gym like cool. Good. Hopefully he's helping somebody You know me. It's not anything where AI own any of this stuff You know, I stole it all myself. I stole it from players watching other players, you know, what they do and and hey, this guy's got something I like. This guy's got something I like. Every, every good coach has learned from watching the players. It's not like hey, I learned from this coach and I really haven't learned from a lot of other coaches. I learned more from watching players and Extending myself on myself being my own coach and and trying to figure out why certain things work is

Is for me? There are some other guys that have been you know if I ever need a club And I've been that had people to you know talk in certain questions like science stuff and stuff like that that I needed But in general yeah, I learned some things. All right, I got two more and I promised I'll let you get out of here. It took a lot of digging to actually find it, but I did find a couple YouTube clips of your swing. And one driver swing that I saw,

I don't know if this is your swing every time, but it involved you taking, that's your driver swing. So you do, I'll describe it, you could tell me if I describe swing. So you I'll you I'll describe it. You could tell me if I describe it right. You lift the driver straight up and then like move it behind you. Almost like you that what I thought you were doing a drill for second, but why is why did your driver swing just where you lift the club directly up? And then well, first off, it's because here's the here's how it started.

I just did it as a drill. I used to do it when I was actually a kid and I used to just hit it better that way. One of the main reasons is I've always been a pretty decent iron player and my swing is short and fast. And so with a driver that just never equated to being a good driver for me. And any time that I can get a full swing

or full shoulder turn, I hit my driver better. So, if I take it up in front of my face and I don't turn, I'm dead. So I know that. So now I have to have a full complete turn where I'm dead. So basically number one makes me turn more. Number two, it makes me get up in my back swinging number three, I get down and turn, which means I'm creating a lot more speed. So my my club at speed, if I said something I want to be stressful here, my normal club at speed, if I had a driver probably right now 16 to 17, 11, 17, I can get

up to one, shit I've got up to 129 last year with a driver, but my my normal if I try and get it up and you said, okay, let's see how fast you can get it. I'll get it to 24, 124, going up over the head. Am I normal 16, 17 if I'm trying to hit it? I mean, I could get it to 20 if I swing it normal, but if you said, hey, let's do a challenge and you get 10 balls. I'd say 16, 17 with normal, but I'll get to 24 and 10 balls if I go over the head.

Absolutely. Well, that was my last question. It was going to be, what is your swing speed and what's your game like? You got the swing speed part, but what is your game like? My game last year was really good. I mean, I was shooting a lot of 60s rounds and right now kind of trash. I haven't, I just like legit. I'm playing once a week.

I'm probably playing honestly two times a month Which is not what I'd like to do and I mean if I'm playing two times a week I can play but one time two times a month is as hard and It's not by it's not by choice because I'm gonna start planning in but if I get if I get some raps in People who know me know I can play I can play play golf. But the fact is, is I'm not sharp at all. So if people want to bat me right now, it's the time. How's your game? Well, do I get time for your question?

Yeah, absolutely, man. I've played more golf in the last two years than I have in my whole life at any point. And I haven't really gotten better. And it's confused. I thought all I needed was more reps, more reps, more reps, but I just linger. I'm a one. I'll get down. That's great. Did you play college baller? I did not know. And you just like leisurely just hanging out at one? Yeah, I got down to point two at one point this summer and then I started like shooting the 80s again. So if I saw you right now, I'd say what are your issues right now?

Is it like a certain part of your game, like short game padding or is it more of random shots or is it you don't have a shot pattern or just random shot pattern? I don't, my irons don't start online and I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's alignment, but when the ball comes off the club face on my irons, I don't know where to expect to see it. Well, it's probably in my opinion, I'd say it's rotation. I mean, and so what I mean by that is if we don't have good start line, usually we're slowing our body down through impact, which means we don't have rotation.

So it's the easiest way to return our club face is by rotating through the shot. If you slow your body down, you're gonna get one ball that like, slow your club face, closes down, and you're gonna miss it left and human nature while it'll get us on the next ball that just hold off with our hands. But if we use our body and we turn through it, you'll get much better start lines.

That's exactly what I'm trying to work. I'm trying to work the, when I get my hips I actually through it. I feel like I can see, I could see. Make sure you get your chest, your chest is more important, your chest, because you can open your hips and have your chest closed. And think about this real quick just a quick tip. If your left shoulder is attached to your left

arm and you open that left shoulder up towards the target, you're just opening the left shoulder. Where's your hand move? It moves towards the target, following. Yeah, see that. Yeah, I'm acting it out right now. So where's your handle moving? Where's your handle moving? It's moving forward. Okay, so a few things are gonna happen. Your path and face ratios are gonna be closer each other Meaning your past not going right your face is going left, which means curve So now your path and face are staying closer each other, which means less curve And that's just from opening up that left shoulder Also your dynamic lofts gonna get lower

You're actually, as you turn, all you're doing is getting your handle more forward. Now, it doesn't have to be, but that's actually getting the club to come up and out of the ground too. So there's a lot of good things that come from that left shoulder. So when you're thinking just hips, a lot of people just open the hips and keep the chest closed, and then their path goes right, face goes left, then you got terrible start line. So make sure as you're opening up that chest, you're opening up properly and you're opening up without feeling like you're moving your upper body forward. You're feeling like your upper body is staying in the same position as you're opening up that left shoulder or that chest.

And trust me, that's why if you watch a lot of my players, their eyeballs move out first and their neck and their head move out first, because that allows that chest to open up and that left shoulder to open up, which gives you compression. That's why the sound is so good. Some of the best players I've ever heard hit the ball, I would say, I mean, I don't want to diss anybody, but I would say Rory has some of the best sound I've ever heard and his hip stall out But guess what he's got one of the most open chests on the planet. I'm picturing Duval I'm picturing Duval when you're talking about in your head Duval also Dustin Johnson his eyes and head gets out who are what about honest Sworns and he shares she's the best probably one of arguably one of the best women of all time

So things like that just get that chest open because when you get the eyes to release and Then then that to release all of a sudden your chest opens. God. This is making way too much sense right now. All right I got it. I'm playing a whole we're on a sweetens cove this video. I'll send you what I was waiting for that I'll say you you're gonna regret saying that because I'll be getting daily regret saying that because you'll be getting daily videos all day long. Awesome, appreciate it man. Hey George, thanks for the time. Best of luck. I know you got a lot going on with the new project and everything but I know you got a lot of died hard for you. I appreciate your time too. I appreciate your time. This is a thrill. So thanks a lot for coming on and best of luck to you.

All right, thank you so much. Cheers. I'm going to be the right club today. Yes! That is better than most. I'm not in. That is better than most. Better than most! Expect anything different! Oh

Expect anything different