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She Talks Birdie is the podcast for amateur golfers who want more confidence, consistency, and freedom on the course — without changing their swing. Hosted by Dr. Shannon Reece, sports psychologist and founder of Training for Optimal Performance, this show gives you simple, practical ways to train your mind for golf so you can stop overthinking, trust your swing, and play the game you know you’re capable of. Shannon has coached thousands of golfers — from junior players to pros — using her proven mental game formula to lower scores, eliminate blow-up holes, and bring more joy back to every round. She believes golf success is a mind-first game, swing-second, and every episode shows you how to make that shift. This isn’t about mechanics or grinding on the range. It’s about mastering the most important club in your bag: your mind. Subscribe now to start thinking better, swinging freer, and playing great golf — no swing changes required.
21 Episodes
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Send us a text Welcome to Season 2 of the She Talks Birdie Podcast! I am excited to share a special episode I created in partnership with PXG to launch the new season. Have you ever thought of golf as more than just a game? Perhaps it's hard to consider the far-reaching benefits of golf when you feel as though the course just kicked your butt. Through my conversation with two members of our military and PXG's Heroes Squad, Corporal Chris Nowak and Corporal Chad Pfeifer, I discovered how PXG i...
Send us a text What's the point of playing golf if you don't love your game. If "love" isn't the word you'd use to describe your current feelings about your game then I can help. In this episode, I share the 3 tools you need to pave the road to a golf game you love. Are you in? In golf, your brain is your personal navigation system. Your brain directs your decisions, actions, reactions, and more moment by moment on the course. And just like every type of navigation system, your brain op...
Send us a text There is one incredible quality the best players possess that you can too. It's not a technically better swing, the ability to hole more putts, or even a longer drive. The one thing that separates you from the greatest golfers starts in your mind and works its way into your performance. I'm talking about your belief. The wonderful Arnold Palmer once said, “I've always made a total effort, even when the odds seemed entirely against me. I never quit trying; I never felt tha...
Send us a text When you aren’t playing as well as you’d like it is easy to focus on the things that are causing you frustration. You don’t have to be a club-thrower to have challenges with negative thinking. But a little bit of negativity can take a toll on a big portion of your game. Honestly, there’s no place for negativity on the course if you want to play well. Operating with the wrong kind of mindset will simply prevent you from getting the results you want. Good rounds require a ...
Send us a text One of the biggest complaints golfers I hear golfers express about the game is how long it can take to play. But the last thing you want to do in response to slow play is to rush because that strategy can actually add time to your round. The strategies in this episode are practical and centered around the parts of the game you can control because other people's pace of play is not. I am constantly hearing the frustrating and disappointing stories of rounds when someone t...
Send us a text As I talked about in part one of this episode, there is a time to train your swing and a time to maintain your swing. And there are different rules for each approach. You cannot be in both phases at the same time. You are either working on your swing or working to trust and play with the swing in the state it’s in without constantly working on it. When you are training your swing on the range you want to follow rules that help you maintain the right environment to learn and gro...
Send us a text When you are working on a swing change the inconsistency of being able to hit the ball the way you’d like or create the shot shape you’re working toward can be frustrating. Did you know that your mental game can help you assimilate a swing change faster and easier? The best learning takes place in an environment devoted to learning off the course -- an environment where it’s okay to make mistakes, hit loopy shots, and micro-manage your mechanics without negative repercussions t...
Send us a text Many of my clients have asked me why they feel like they lose ground (or actually play better) in one location over another. If you’re a snowbird, you are familiar with the challenges that can come when transitioning from north to south, and back again. That’s why in this episode I share the step-by-step guide to take the pain out of your snowbird migration. It includes 3 easy to complete steps that will help you keep making progress season over season. Take a moment to downloa...
Send us a text Experiencing pressure to play well is a sign of poor focus. Playing with pressure takes the fun out of the game, causes tension, and negatively impacts your shotmaking ability. What kind of situations cause you to feel pressure to perform? A team event, a golf trip with friends, playing with better golfers, or playing with people you don’t know? In order to play great, you need to have all your attention focused on yourself. Yes, you need to be more self-centered, but in a prod...
Send us a text If you’ve ever been in one, it can be pretty scary to feel like you are headed into a slump in golf. That’s a place you never want to be, and the good news is that it can be avoided. The scary part of a slump are the unknowns - not knowing exactly how you fell into onenot knowing exactly how you will get out of oneand not knowing how long you might be stuck in oneSlumps can feel like getting lost in the Bermuda Triangle with no way out in sight. You just have to know the ...
Send us a text Some rounds can leave you feeling completely spent physically. But have you ever considered how your rounds might be draining your mental and emotional reserves? It’s not uncommon that I hear golfers talk about grinding their way through a round like it’s a badge of honor. It’s actually an ineffective way to get the most out of your performance, golf or otherwise. For that reason alone, I thought this podcast was overdue. Burning the candle at both ends, wearing yourself out by...
Send us a text Like many golfers around the globe, you may be about to embark on another golf season. Perhaps your excitement is mounting because due to winter or a wet start to the spring your game has been on hiatus. As you think about what you’d like to accomplish, it’s natural to want to set some lofty goals. And you definitely should. But goals aren’t enough to get you and your game to the finish line your envisioning without a strategic game plan. That’s why in this episode I share 10 p...
Send us a text You’ve heard me say that golf is a game and it’s mean to be fun. But sometimes fun comes packaged as a test of your resilience. In case you’re wondering, the fun happens in golf when you know you endured the test without losing any ground with your confidence. In this episode, I talk about how to apply a simple golf lesson from a famous tiger that will help you improve your resilience when the game tests you, and the six ways you can apply it to your game.
Send us a text What does it take to play great golf? Do you know? You’ve had rounds where everything felt easy, but you may have walked away from a great experience at a loss for how to repeat it. After watching those contending for the win at this year’s Masters event you might think that great golf requires things like talent, patience, courage, experience, and solid strategy. And you’d be right. But what great golf really comes down to is a great approach that is centered aroun...
Send us a text Do you know what your golf personality is? There are six dominant types that I’ve encountered over the years. From an outside perspective, they all appear to have merit. But there are some serious downsides to seemingly good ones that may surprise you. That’s why in this episode, I reveal the pros and cons of the six dominant golf personalities and the reason why there is only one that I teach my clients to adopt.
Send us a text Have you ever had a great round and been really excited to get back out there because you couldn’t wait to repeat the experience? But much to your disappointment, your next round unfolds differently and not in a good way? Playing great golf doesn’t have to be a mystery. When trouble arises, most golfers think that their faulty swing mechanics are the cause of their inconsistent play. In this episode, I challenge that conclusion by sharing specific situations I const...
Send us a text Have you ever lost your focus during a round only to have it cost you a shot or more? Or maybe you’ve had your mind go completely blank in the middle of a swing. Though at times it feels like your focus goes up in smoke, you’re actually always focused on something. But to play solid golf you’ve got to know how to regain, train, and maintain a laser-like focus on the right parts of your game. That’s why in this episode, I share 3 ways you can sharpen your golf focus so you...
Send us a text What kind of memories do you retain about your golf experiences? My guess is that you can recall some really clutch moments when you rose to a challenge, some pretty frustrating ones, and a lot in-between. For most golfers, only a small percentage of the experiences they remember are advantageous to their game. The majority of their memories can actually do a lot of damage when resurrected during a round. That’s why in this episode I want to talk about one important...
Send us a text Have you been feeling lucky lately? Every golfer loves those moments when it feels like the stars have aligned in their game and shots are just working out even when they don't make perfect contact. But you can't wait around hoping for the best if you want to play great. In this episode, I share the 3 proven ways to increase your luck in golf. And the best part is that you may be surprised at how easy it is to do.
Send us a text There’s no denying that 2020 was really tough in a variety of ways for every person on the planet. And I get that you, like many, are set on drop-kicking the last year into oblivion in your mind with the hope that the New Year will bring us all back to a state of normalcy — or at least something close to it. But I want to challenge you to conduct a year in review with me that’s a bit different. Why? Because the challenges that you endured over the past twelve months had some le...
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