Ep. 136 - Jacob Modleski - Mental Toughness: From Alternate To Champion

[00:00:00] Welcome to Mental Toughness with Dr. Rob Bell.

[00:00:13] Each week, Dr. Rob sits down with athletes, executives, and expert coaches to talk about

[00:00:18] mental toughness and their hinge moment.

[00:00:21] Here's your hostentus.com. Leading the way in human performance is Live Momentus. For listening today, you get a discount at checkout and other code DRB20. That's DRB the number 20 for 20% off your order. Live Momentus. Optim not all solely golfers. So you weren't quite in the tournament yet. Talk to us about that mentality, man. Head down there. Yeah, it's definitely interesting because you normally prep for tournaments, but fully expecting you're there. And it was kind of tough because I was going down and I figured out worst case, I'd just

[00:03:02] be able to get some reps off grass, Indiana's tournament in January. It's tough to play golf any kind of consistency outside at that time. Like, what was some of your preparation?

[00:04:20] How did you prepare to play your best?

[00:04:24] That's a good question.

[00:04:26] I definitely try to simulate as much a couple days before the tournament. I like to focus mostly on just what the ball is doing. I've had tournaments in

[00:05:41] the past where I focus too much on what this swing looks like and how my body's

[00:05:45] moving and all that kind of stuff, but complete it. And the second thing is you just want to see the ball go in the hole. I had a putting coach who worked with us off season. His name is Biv Wadd and he's out of Chicago. And he helped me kind of set up this putting process a little bit. And a lot of what we talked about has paid off.

[00:07:03] You want to build a lot of confidence. So good deal. Hey, good looking. If you like this podcast and are already a badass, but it's all way too complicated, then visit our website, DrRobBell.com, and schedule a call with us to help capture your

[00:08:24] very own hinge moment. I putted pretty well. I really drove the ball well and through the whole week practiced rounds and turn them around And that was kind of what I got a feel for the course needed You get your irons great But a lot of times you're gonna hit a great iron shot and in that much to win with firm greens I'm always just gonna take a big bounce and end up in the same collection area They would have been and if you hit it, you know twenty or twenty five yards right of the green

[00:09:41] So obviously I was happy with where my game was but at the same time

[00:09:45] I didn't put any pressure on and you're hitting the tight draw or the tight cut or you're able to work at high, low, left, right. And then you can get in a tournament and feels change a little. You might tempo might be a little different. Mine might be going a little fast, getting ahead of yourself mentally. And all of a sudden you just feel completely different. You don't feel like you have control over the ball,

[00:11:00] you're rushed, your mental process isn't the same.

[00:11:03] You're not picking up your targets.

[00:12:05] Doesn't matter what everyone's ranked everyone's an even par I did a really good job of having that mentality all week

[00:12:08] It was pretty cool to play with some some big

[00:12:16] Guys in the world of amateur golf and you know you step on the first tee and shake their hand and that's it everyone's an even part

[00:12:17] Yeah No awesome, man. Yeah, totally. I mean there were 45 top

[00:12:22] 100 players in that event so

[00:13:24] kind of short in a hazard long because they changed the T. It was about 60 yards for the right.

[00:13:31] And so I didn't play. I didn't hit a shot from either of the practice rounds over there.

[00:13:37] Looking back, probably should have at least to get a better idea how the green worked.

[00:13:43] And I only hit it probably 25 feet left of the hole, maybe 10 feet long and it took one big to land the ball We I don't even think we discussed the hazard on the left even though it was it was pretty in play the last round It was 2 35 But it was only playing closer to like 199 to 202 and the greens were real firm And if you happen to hit the right side of the the ridge in the early green

[00:15:01] It would kick left towards the flag otherwise you'd be on the kind of the fat side of the green and

[00:15:05] You know hit a really good shot and got a good you know, from there was just how do I make four? Obviously I knew I was in contention but I wasn't following the leaderboard. It was not a pin you could be very aggressive too and we just played the right

[00:16:20] shot. Whether or not I executed it was kind of Caleb. And I actually went to the, I went to the range with Palmer and David Ford. Palmer's obviously my teammate and David, I got to play with in the last day, both winners

[00:17:42] in the past two years.

[00:17:44] So it was just cool to be on the range with them.

[00:17:46] You know, I got played a lot of team sports football, basketball, baseball, soccer. Winning is always fun, but it's a little different when it's a team because, you know, you just win more in golf. You might have a lot of top 10s, I mean, a lot of top 5s, but winning is just really hard, especially at the amateur level.

[00:19:01] And Palmer told me he was kind of on his way out of the property there at Ocean Forest, it's just cool to see how many people are really behind you in those types of events. Yeah. No, that's awesome, man. No, congrats on that. I mean, it was really cool. It's cool to hear about because I'm always fascinated by these mountaintop moments, you know, I mean, you have all these years of preparation and you reach the mountaintop and

[00:20:24] then you have to come back down.

[00:20:26] Right. other sports man, how did if you can think of like a specific way, because people always talk about multi sport athletes, especially when it comes to go now. What were some other sports though that like, you know, I mean, obviously basketball here in Indiana is different than every other state. Yeah. But like what were some of those things that you've learned from other sports that you

[00:21:44] think really applied to golf? you can do. I mean, one guy can shoot 63 and the team can still shoot 295. And it's more just, you know, doing your job and then whatever happens happens and you're all a team. It's hard. It's a really hard thing to be a really close knit team and to be really team oriented

[00:23:00] and golf because it's such an individual sport. Um, and it's, it's just in the player's hands at that point.

[00:24:21] Um, you didn't really ever expected to be your student handed to you and. being there being a student athlete there at Notre Dame and what that's been like? It's been incredible. I obviously grown up in Indiana and I was aware of Notre Dame. I wasn't necessarily a huge Notre Dame fan but as I got older and as I started to learn more about the school especially through the recruiting process there's no other place I think that combines

[00:25:41] athletics and academics like Notre Dame does. It's just different.

[00:26:46] Well, I went to a Catholic high school and it was never somewhere where being an athlete, even though it wasn't at quite such a high level, got you anything.

[00:26:51] I took a lot of higher level classes in high school and I think it prepared me well.

[00:26:55] There's a lot of resources for us another day.

[00:26:58] Whether you find the first semester really easy or find it really difficult, we've got

[00:27:01] multiple counselors.

[00:27:03] Like I mentioned before, we've got study sessions. see all those planes coming in while playing a round at Warren Golf Course on that on Game Day was pretty cool, man. Yeah, the 930 shotgun starts are pretty fun on Game Day, for sure. Jacob, let me ask one mentality question.

[00:28:20] Like, if it comes like your mentality, then what do you think is your best strength when

[00:28:25] it comes to mental game? kind of took me away from the game a little bit in between shots, kind of reset. And we always got to the right number, you know, with the right club, whether or not, you know, I executed the shot is beside the point. But I would say that's been my biggest strength. And honestly, that's probably what allowed me to be so successful to Jones Cup was just

[00:29:40] as that's developed, it got to a point be asking, Jacob, that I'm not asking? I think the question you just asked is about the mental process? You want to talk about the mental game? Your journey with it? Yeah, for sure. Like I said, it started pretty late. I was pretty late to competitive junior golf, to be completely honest with you. But I got to watch my brother play.

[00:32:20] My brother was a good player.

[00:32:23] I got to see, you know, watching high school thinking about my next shot or something else, you know, I'm kind of looking around and just kind of having a song stuck in my head on repeat. And it's something that, you know, I'm sorry. You said it's always Taylor Swift. Well, this week it was a little or last week, it was a little big town. So not mean, it's similar. But yeah, I've had anything from,

[00:34:42] It hasn't happened overnight. It's just been, I've kind of picked and chosen which pieces to plug in.

[00:34:48] I feel like it's at a spot now where it's pretty solid.

[00:34:51] Awesome.

[00:34:52] Jacob, man, thanks so much for taking the time, bud.

[00:34:56] I appreciate you and all the best.

[00:34:58] Obviously coming up and I'm sure our past will cross again soon, man.

[00:35:01] Thank you, man.

[00:35:02] Thanks so much for having me on.

[00:35:04] I really appreciate it.

[00:35:05] Thanks for listening to Mental Health.