As part of an ongoing series featuring equipment and training, we introduce you to CTRL Golf (Control Golf) and their Swing Master. It is a new training aid designed to help golfers improve their swing using some innovative and proprietary technology. In this Episode, we are joined by Nick Bockenfeld, a PGA member, and Ryan Johnson a professional player, as they discuss the Swing Master, how it improves a golf swing, and how to incorporate it into a regular practice session.
As part of an ongoing series featuring equipment and training, we introduce you to CTRL Golf (Control Golf) and their Swing Master. It is a new training aid designed to help golfers improve their swing using some innovative and proprietary technology. In this Episode, we are joined by Nick Bockenfeld, a PGA member, and Ryan Johnson a professional player, as they discuss the Swing Master, how it improves a golf swing, and how to incorporate it into a regular practice session.
Hello, and good afternoon. Welcome to our show. We're talking golf. My name is Douglas Maida, and I'm your host. Today's episode is going to be something a little bit different. We're going to be looking at equipment from time to time throughout the year on their show, and today we're going to be looking at some new training equipment. In this episode, our guest will include Nick Bockenfeld, a product specialist with control golf, and Ryan Johnson, who is a professional player currently playing on the APT Golf Tour. Now Control Golf has developed a new piece of equipment that is actually very exciting and could easily be training equipment to help golfers of all skills play better and score better. Now I know that is a popular claim that many pieces of training equipment make. But in the case of Control Golf, it is an ingenious design. That's going to help a lot of us golfers get a better handle on our swing. Now, before we get to that, and start looking at the product itself and how it can help golfers we're going to take a very short break. And when we return, we'll get right into meeting our guests. So please stay with us. All right, welcome back to the show. Now, let's get started by introducing our guests. Our guest today is Nick Bockenfeld from CTRL Golf. And we also have Ryan Johnson, who is a professional player joining us today. Welcome to the show, gentlemen.
Ryan Johnson:Thanks for having us. Great.
Nick Bockenfeld:Thanks, man. Appreciate you having us on.
Douglas Maida:No, no, it's fantastic. Nick, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role with CTRL golf? Am I pronouncing that right? Calling it control?
Nick Bockenfeld:Yes, yes. So it is CONTROL golf. So I am Nick Bockenfelt I'm a PGA member. So club pro trained. I went to Sam Houston State University and studied Professional Golf Management to get my membership with the PGA. After that, I was interning around a couple of different clubs and figured out that I liked weekends a lot more. And I had this buddy that introduced me to Ian cash who's another co founder of control. And he came and talked to me about an idea that he had, he was doing customer interviews through the a&m entrepreneurship school. And so he was trying to find out where his technology had a place and so he came and talked to me. We sat down and chatted for a good two hours. Those are usually about a 15 minute conversation. So we chatted for two hours just talking about all the uses that sensors on your arm could possibly have in golf and what all the use case cases for where after a while I was hitting balls for control, trying to earn some shares, stuff like that, getting involved with them. And then in December of 2018, Ian and I talked, Ian is the CEO of control, we talked about full time role for me. And so that started off as the head of business development. So the choke is on the golf and beer guy. So I play golf, I'm the golf knowledge on the team. And I go out and wine and dine people. So I have a pretty fun job. And that's kind of grown into a leadership role on our business team as we've pulled in more employees, and outreach to other companies like World of golf, here, so that we can partner with them and grow together. And now my role has evolved into chief growth officer. So I've been super blessed with this opportunity.
Douglas Maida:Okay, excellent. And how about yourself, Ryan? How did you? Or why don't you give us a little bit of background about yourself and tell our listeners a little bit about your golf career and where you're playing right now?
Ryan Johnson:Sure, yeah. name's Ryan Johnson. I'm playing golf pretty much my whole life. I play currently on the All Pro Tour. It's a mini tour here in the south of the states. And we've been playing pro golf for about four years. Now, which is, which has been fun. I met Nick a long time ago. And we were kind of kind of, you know, junior high and high school buddies playing golf. And then he happened to reach out, you know, after I turned pro, and we got reconnected and played some golf, and he said, Hey, would you like to come on? And, and, you know, have a sponsor you? And I said, Absolutely. So I got to use the product. And yeah, it's, it's fantastic.
Douglas Maida:What is the, for our listeners, maybe who aren't familiar with the APT? Can you maybe give us a little bit of background about the APT and how it fits in the professional golf hierarchy?
Ryan Johnson:Sure, yeah. It's a it's a great tour. Really, it's probably it is the best mini tour in the United States. Probably in the world. You know, there's a there's been a lot of guys that have gone on to play on the PGA Tour and win major championships that that played on this tour. You know, I think Zach Johnson and Chad Campbell guys like that, that, you know, kind of the, the grinders, you know, they started out here, and it's great, you know, the tour follows a lot of the corn fairy Monday qualifiers. So I think next week, there's an event in Kansas, and then the corn fairy is going to Wichita, so a lot of guys will go and play the Monday qualifier. And if they, you know, unsuccessfully, don't get through, then they can come play the All Pro Tour event. And so, you know, it's a great way to stay competitive. The competition is fantastic. You know, last year, we had Sam Stevens, you know, I think he won five times. And he's, he's on Korn Ferry Tour now. So there's a lot of guys that Zach Fisher, who went off to school he played on the All Pro Tour last year. So, you know, it's a great way for you to kind of get used to play in for four day tournament golf and have some great competition as well.
Douglas Maida:Nick, you've kind of already went into it a little bit. But why don't you elaborate a little bit more on CTRL golf? And then let's chat a little bit about your Swing Master.
Nick Bockenfeld:Yeah, so control Golf was founded on the idea that everybody has their own unique ideal swing. So the guys on tour, every single one of them, they have different swings, you're not going to be able to swing like Tiger Woods, you're just not right. It's a fact of life, you don't have the same body as him, you don't have the experiences that he has. So you cannot use his swing and be successful with it. And so what we've done is we've built a way to track what works best for you, and teach you how to do that every single time. So really, it's about building consistency. You know, you heard hear that word a lot in the golf space. Well, I need to be more consistent. I need to be more consistent. I got to be a more consistent player. Right. And so what we've decided is, well, coaches, we're not trying to mess with them, right? We're not trying to take away students from PGA coaches, right? Instead, what we're trying to do is help them more become more consistent, not change their swing, but find what swing works best for you. And so the control swing Master is a compression sleeve that you slide onto your lead arm so left arm for right handed golfers, right arm for left handed golfers and it's Got two mounts on it that you can put our sensors into. So you put a sensor here, put a sensor here, they just slot in magnetically. And then you connect them to an app on your phone, our app, and you start hitting golf balls and you tell the app good or bad. After 10 good shots, we have an idea of what your swing your ideal swing looks like. And we're going to give you feedback on your club face, your club path and your tempo in order to help you hit that shot every single time. So the biggest piece to consistency is tempo. The best ball strikers on the planet guys like RJ best ball strikers on the planet. Every single one of them what they have in common is not the timing of their tempo, but that they did the exact same every single time. Right? So I don't need a three to one tempo ratio, my ratio is 2.46 to one, right, I don't need that three to one ratio, it doesn't work for me. So instead of trying to train people to that three to one ratio, we say, well, what works best for you is this ratio, this backswing time this downswing time, and we even add a metronome to help you get that every single time to help you build that consistency. That's so important that everybody talks about.
Douglas Maida:So you had mentioned, and you gave a visual placement of where the little sensors go. Now, for our listeners, you're saying. . .you were pointing to the wrist? And to the elbow, or was it just above the elbow?
Nick Bockenfeld:So it's the back of the hand, okay, and the bicep -- kind of up closer to the shoulder.
Douglas Maida:All right. All right. And that's where the placement of the sensors are. And then they send the feedback to your app on the phone.
Nick Bockenfeld:Yes, sir. So they send us data and that data is translated into plain English like slow down your backswing or speed up your downswing, whatever it is to get you to your ideal swing, we even tell you to close or open your clubface or swing more out to end or into out based on your ideal swing. And the last swing you took.
Douglas Maida:Okay, and your whole philosophy behind the golf swing is using the tool to help you maintain a fairly steady tempo.
Nick Bockenfeld:Yes, sir, the exact same tempo every single time and you're gonna hit the exact same shot every single time when you know where the ball is going, you're going to shoot lower scores.
Douglas Maida:And now you had mentioned say that instead of a three to one, your swing tempo was going to be 2.465, whatever it was. Surely it doesn't have to be that precise to that matter. It's just a matter of like 2.4 would be good enough, correct?
Nick Bockenfeld:Yes. So we take it out two decimal places. Other devices might take it out more or less, we feel that once you get to that second decimal place, you know, by the . . . I guess it's not decimal place so much as it is to the second. So we don't take it out. You know, while your backswing was point, 985657 seconds, right? We say, well, your backswing is point nine, eight seconds and your downswing is point, three seconds, that gets you pretty close to a three to one ratio, but mine's closer to point six 7.68 on the back and point two, eight on the downs, something like that.
Douglas Maida:Right. So the whole idea is not to get overly worked up about those numbers until you've actually got a baseline.
Nick Bockenfeld:Absolutely, yeah. So the numbers don't matter. The only thing that matters is that it's the same every single time, right? So we're not going to tell you, Oh, hey, you need to be three seconds fast or you know, point 03 seconds faster, you can look at that and deduce that for yourself. Instead, we're going to say, hey, speed up your backswing. You know, whatever it is to get to that ideal,
Douglas Maida:Right? And the idea of tempo being maintained is that you're looking to groove your swing through enough repetition so that you've got that consistent feel with regards to your swing so that for example, and I hate to pick on him because you know, he was a fabulous weekend and you probably by the grin on your face probably know where I'm going with this is poor fella Mito Pereira on number 18, the 72nd hole there in the PGA. You know, as he said afterward, he was just chock full of adrenaline all of a sudden he lost his rhythm and his tempo and he just basically hacked that cut drive. I mean, it was still a pretty good shot. But, you know, it wasn't quite the swing that he wanted to put on the ball. And his tempo compared to everything we had been watching up into that point was much much quicker than it had been the previous 17 holes.
Nick Bockenfeld:Yeah, absolutely, you know, so if your tempo starts getting off, everything's going to be off, your body is not going to be in sync, you're not going to hit the ball the way that you want it to get, right. And so that's one of the things that our metronome feature does, right, you can turn on a metronome, and it'll give you beats for your, you know, to start your backswing to start your downswing and impact. So when you go out to the course, you can have that metronome thought in your head where you're just following that rhythm. And then you have something to fall back on on those pressures shot moment.
Douglas Maida:So your training app actually has a metronome built in so that I can hear it?
Nick Bockenfeld:Absolutely. So it's a metronome built to your ideal tempo? Nobody else's.
Douglas Maida:I see. Do I have to wear headphones or earbuds?
Nick Bockenfeld:Nope, it's out loud. You can if you want, it's probably recommended. If other people are on the range, they probably don't want to hear the audio feedback we have. But we include the metronome. And then you can also turn on our training audio, where instead of having to look at your phone to hear you know, just find out what you need to do better. We just say it out loud. So the the audio feedback from the phone just says Hey, slow down your backswing or close your clubface.
Douglas Maida:Interesting. Now this is something that quite easily can fit into a coach's routine, or program with their students?
Nick Bockenfeld:So that's a great question. We haven't gotten a really Beta Test all that much with coaches, but the answer would be yes, I use it personally with students when I give lessons. And if it's pretty easy, all I have them do is when they hit a good shot, that's when I click good, I get to decide not them, because I know what I'm looking for in their swing. And then they can take it out after the lesson and groove that tempo that swing on the range on their own without their coach being right next to them, which was the original idea with control is we want to help coaches give better lessons and help students retain that so that they can play better golf and enjoy the game more.
Douglas Maida:Now that makes sense. Because your coach can't be with you for every single practice shot you're gonna hit throughout the week.
Nick Bockenfeld:Absolutely.
Douglas Maida:Now, I want to come back to this tempo thing for a little bit. Because the thought strikes me that tempo would probably be the same and fairly consistent on full swing shots. What about different shots, say around the green when I'm trying to hit a, a cut shot, and it's going to be like a three quarter swing or just a low cut spinner that I want to be able to one hop onto the green and stop as close to the pin as possible. I mean, obviously, the tempos are going to be a little bit different in that kind of situation. Am I correct?
Nick Bockenfeld:Absolutely. And so we actually, we do work for pitch shots right now. But a little sneak peek into what we're getting on right now what we're developing is a short game and a putting mode. So chipping and putting so that you can build different models for each chip shot that you might hit around the green. And then you can keep that ratio the same, even if it has to be kind of a longer swing, or you know, you got to hit it further, you can keep the ratio the same. And just taking it back further means that you're going to hit it a little further, instead of taking it back far, nice and slow coming down and hitting that high, soft shot, you can take it back further and keep the same rhythm for your low spinning shot. And you're just going to hit a further was spinning shot instead of it. And that has soft shot with a real slow tempo.
Douglas Maida:That's quite interesting about the developing of that additional feature. Is that something that you're getting close to?
Nick Bockenfeld:Ah, so not quite close to it. We have not started beta testing it yet. We haven't even started alpha testing it yet. We have done initial tests, and we know that it'll work but we just haven't had the time to code it into the app yet. So probably closer if I had to guess probably closer to the end of the summer or maybe even the end of the
Douglas Maida:Excellent excellent. That sounds fantastic. Like it'll be a wonderful training tool, Nick.
Nick Bockenfeld:Oh, I can't wait for the Pedic man that's the only thing I care about is putting so once I can get it for potty Oh,
Douglas Maida:is that your . .. Ryan, Is that his Achilles heel?
Ryan Johnson:Definitely. Just kidding I'm just kidding all around Nick's games is quite quite solid. So Oh, yeah,
Douglas Maida:I know. Just because he was so excited about the putting and I thought gee, he must feel that that's kind of your a nick is that kind of the area where you like to practice the most?
Nick Bockenfeld:I spend the most time practicing on the putting green Absolutely. Once you get to a certain point, my philosophy on golf is once you get to a certain point in your game, where you're a pretty decent ball striker, pretty good ball striking, the strokes are going to come at putting. So you're either going to make 12 and 15 footers a couple times and around, or you're not. And that's what's going to be the difference between shooting 68 and 75.
Douglas Maida:Or for some of the more mid handicaps breaking into the breaking the 90 ceiling and getting into the 80s.
Nick Bockenfeld:Absolutely, you know, actually, Tiger at some point said I'd have to pull up the exact quote, but he said something around the lines of, well, I'm such a good ball striker because I just hit it at the middle of every green and I'm the best lag putter out there. So I know once I hit it on the middle of the green doesn't matter where the pin is, I'm going to be able to one or two pot it and you know I'm going to get around and be patient. Well,
Douglas Maida:Yeah, it'd be nice to be able to have that kind of confidence knowing you can do that every single green. And in some of those greens that are like lightning fast as well. All right, we're going to take advantage and just sorry.
Nick Bockenfeld:I say imagine just thinking that when you go to Augusta National, yeah, these greens are nothing I can to buck from anywhere.
Douglas Maida:Yes, no kidding. All right, I'm gonna take we're gonna take a short break. And when we come back, we're going to chat and visit with you Ryan and learn about how you incorporate the control golf swing master into your routine and your practice sessions. So we'll be right back in a couple of moments. We're back. Thank you for staying with us. We're going to join Ryan Johnson right now who is a professional player and a practitioner with the swing master golf training aid. So Ryan, why don't you share with our listeners a little bit about how you incorporate the Swing Master in your training?
Unknown:Sure, yeah, it's I'd say it's it is such a unique tool. As Nick alluded to earlier, tempo is a very, very big deal. I mean, you can take a bad swing bad mechanics and have good tempo. And it can, it can save you and you can actually hit great shots, you know. So, like Nick said, once you get out of whack, it causes all kinds of problems. And so typically for me, and I think a lot of guys as well. You, you start your practice sessions off, really kind of focusing on your fundamentals and tempo is the most important fundamental. And so to be able to have a training aid that you can just slip on, and it takes two seconds to put on and give you accurate feedback. To really dial in that tempo. It definitely it definitely helps with how you start your practice sessions and then also too, if you have things you're struggling with, you're not hitting the ball well. You can certainly put that on and and I can identify the problem or help you get back on track. So I'd say those are probably the two, the two biggest ways to use the device in terms of practicing.
Douglas Maida:How would you say that it's been helpful to you? I mean, have you? Is there a particular area of your game in your practice that you find that the Swing Master has been most beneficial to you.
Ryan Johnson:So two things, I think, definitely, for me, I tend was my swing flaws, I tend to stick in the club and transition. And so when that happens, a big reason that happens is because of the timing and getting quick, and it's with my lead arm, too. So if I'm able to have this device on my lead arm, to train with and to try to limit that, that's a big deal. Also, too, I think a big way it helped me is warming up for tournaments, you know, when you're when you first get to the range and practice. Sure, you know, that's one thing. But when you come to tournaments, there's a little more adrenaline, a little more nerves. And so it's really good to be able to slow things down, you know, as the as the round goes on. And the best way to do that is to start your day off, when you get to that range. You know, doing things nice and slow being synced up and the swing Master is a great help for that.
Douglas Maida:Yeah, I could see that that would be a great way to you come to the come to the range in the practice area to warm up and you're all jacked up on adrenaline and and you use that to kind of get your groove back. Yeah, that makes sense.
Ryan Johnson:Right? dial it back and just take it nice and easy.
Douglas Maida:So let me ask you this, as a user of the device, how easy was it for you to set up and use?
Ryan Johnson:It's very easy. I mean, it's, they have videos too, that can show the, the customer how to how to use it, it's very well explained, I think, you know, you just you get on there, you establish your baseline, you want to calibrate it, this is all after you put the sleeve on. And once you calibrate it, you're ready to go. So you can get on there. And as you were talking about earlier, you can choose all kinds of different shots that you want to work on. And then it'll take you to the place where you're ready to hit shots. And there's an easy mode and advanced mode. So if you want to just focus on where the balls going, you know, left, right or straight, you can do that. But if you want the Advanced mode, you can focus on the contact, you know, toe heel, fat, thin shot, shape, push draw pool cut, you know, it doesn't matter. So there's just a wide variety of different things you can do. And they've really simplified it. And I think that that is a big piece on why it's such a great product.
Douglas Maida:Right? How are you enjoying the actual . . . using your phone in the screen? I mean, the data is at all fairly well laid out and very intuitive, s like you look at it, and you know exactly what you're getting for feedback and everything?
Ryan Johnson:Yeah, the feedback is the best part, in my opinion, like Nick talked about, they have the audio feature, which is so cool to me, along with the metronome that he was saying, you know, is is specific to your, your swing and what you do that's most consistent. And it's real simple. You know, they have the downswing, speed, the backswing speed, the overall tempo ratio, club, fat, club, path, face angle, stuff like that. So it's real right there in front of you laid out they kept it real simple. And, you know, once you get going, you're not going to want to stop.
Douglas Maida:Now you're a professional player. How useful Do you think this practice aid would be for more of a recreational player or maybe an aspiring junior player who's you know, got some ideas about wanting to play collegiate and become an elite player or professional player?
Ryan Johnson:I think, to be honest, all three, I think it it is as equal as important for all three types of players. I think if you're, if you're pro, you know, your tempo can still get out of whack. And if you're a recreational golfer, trying to, you know, just start playing the game or, or you shoot, you know, the 90s and you want to get down in the 80s I think it makes a huge impact. I mean, people don't really understand, I suppose everything, you know, if even if you have good mechanics, if you speed something up that can put it in a bad spot. So you now have a device that like makes it it's not, it's not giving you Tiger Woods, tempo, it's giving you your most consistent tempo and, you know, if you're a kid that's trying to go play college golf somewhere and wants to be a pro one day, I think it's definitely beneficial as well. It's all around. It's very simple. And like I said, I just I think people forget how critical tempo is and this is a device that really helps you out with that, right?
Douglas Maida:Let me ask this-- Say for example, you're practicing with it Ryan a little bit quicker. But you're in a situation where you like it because for whatever reason and your body movement a lot nicer and you're able to really flush the ball, or Nick perhaps as best as asked have you are you able to adjust the slightly faster tempo is the temple that you want to use for from now on?
Nick Bockenfeld:Yeah, so RJ, if you don't mind me stepping in, there's two ways you could go about doing that. The first is you could start building a new model. So we have a swing catalog where you can name and build as many swing models as you want swing baselines models. Or if you're in a feedback session, you're really striping it. And the feedback might tell you, hey, you need to be doing this, but really liked that swing felt. At the very bottom of the screen, there's an add the model. So you can just add that swing right away. And then over time, if you keep swinging like that, you're hitting better shots, the more shots you add like that, your model will begin to move closer to that
Douglas Maida:When you're hitting more and more shots, and you're practicing with the device say for like, take that feedback and build a larger database for your swing. Tempo.
Nick Bockenfeld:Absolutely, as you add swings to the model. If you do not add the swing to the model, we won't add it. So it's all up to you on whether you liked that shot or not. Because, you know, realistically, we can tell you, Hey, your tempo was this, it was good, your face was good, your path was good, but you might have hid the hair fat. And we don't tell contact yet, as well. So we have a couple features that we might throw in later on where we look at contact. But right now, you have to tell us if you hit it fat or poorly. So we don't add any swings to your model for reasons like that.
Douglas Maida:Okay? And do you have to say use 10 or 25 shots to build up your database at the beginning? Or can you extend that.
Nick Bockenfeld:So you have to use at least 10 good shots at the beginning. Now, if you want it to be more and more accurate, more shots make it more accurate, statistically significant is 30 shots. So if you have less than 30 shots, the accuracy could be less. If you have 30 shots, the more shots you get in there, the more accurate it's going to be.
Douglas Maida:Right makes sense. Kind of like a poll -- plus or minus margin.
Nick Bockenfeld:Absolutely.
Douglas Maida:Right. Okay. Thanks, Nick. Ryan, are you noticing this device starting to catch on with some of your colleagues on tour? Or is it just something that's so brand new right now that you're the early adopter and the cutting edge player?
Ryan Johnson:I would say both. I mean, there's definitely been a couple of guys, Hayden Springer is another guy, that's an ambassador for CTRL. I mean, he's, he played the US Open last year, he's got a great, great career so far. And so, you know, it was great exposure for the company. And, you know, I've had many guys actually at tournaments come up and ask me about it, say they've seen, you know, ads, or Instagram posts or commercial stuff like that, and have wanted to know, you know, what I thought about it, and if it worked, and if it was something I would recommend, which obviously, the answer is yes. And so yeah, I think, you know, there's, there's a lot of guys very curious. And as time goes on, and we'll just continue to grow, how many guys are using it? Okay,
Douglas Maida:Excellent. Is there anything else you'd like to add about the Swing Master Ryan? And your experiences with it? Or? Or how? How much are you looking forward to these new features that Nick's shared with us?
Ryan Johnson:Oh, definitely. I mean, anytime these guys come out with anything, I get super pumped. They told me the other day about the audio feature, I didn't even know about it. And so that to me, was the coolest thing. So yeah, I think I'm just very thankful that they came up with this idea, because it's such a unique idea. If you look at every other device out there training aid or philosophy or whatnot, it's all about trying to become something that you're not. But with this, it's it's identifying what you're good at, and trying to get you to be more consistent with your you know, the practice your perfect is their slogan. And so I just think it's such a unique idea, and I'm really just excited for the future.
Douglas Maida:Oh, that's terrific. Nick, let's come back to you a little bit here. Where can I buy one? or where would our listeners if they're interested? Where would they be able to buy one?
Nick Bockenfeld:Yeah, so our website is CTRL.Golf. So CTRL.GOLF is our website. That's the only place right now that you can buy one on. So if you head to our website, we, you know, we'll do various sales throughout the week, get that price down a little lower. Obviously, we're planning on working with World of Golf and, you know, getting you guys where you guys get sales codes, but the main place to buy it, the only place to buy is on our website
Douglas Maida:and your software user interface. Good with iOS, Android, Windows?
Nick Bockenfeld:Right now. It's just iOS and Android.
Douglas Maida:Okay. All right. So it'll work with, does it have to have a very recent version of the operating system platform or go back a certain ways.
Nick Bockenfeld:So we go back to iPhone sevens will work on it. So whatever the latest version, that's on iPhone seven that works with it. As far as Android, I'm not entirely sure the last version it works for I do not believe it works for Android eight, because we've had a user bring that issue to our attention. But I think the last three, four versions of Android, if you have a Galaxy S8, it'll work on that. Really, the most important thing is a more recent Bluetooth chip. So if you have a Bluetooth 5.0, Bluetooth 5.0 chipset in your phone, you're in good shape.
Douglas Maida:Okay. Now, What if I'm that customer, or I'm an interested player out there, Nick, and I'm wondering about -- Gee, I liked the idea, but is there any way I can try it out?
Nick Bockenfeld:Absolutely. I'm glad you asked, actually, one of our biggest things that we've done to help ensure people that hey, you know, we understand we're a new company, and we want you to take a shot with us. We don't want that to bite you. If for some reason, it just doesn't gel with your game. We have a 90 day improvement guarantee. So you can buy the device, take it out, use it, practice with it. If you're not getting better in 90 days, let us know. And we will let you return it and provide a full refund.
Douglas Maida:Okay, sounds great. Hey, um, now if I have more questions, you have a database or chat line on your website that people can use to get some more information?
Nick Bockenfeld:Absolutely. So we have a live chat deal on our website. Really, what we need people to do is leave us their emails, we're pretty small team, we get back to you within 24 hours. But if you leave your email, we get back to you a lot easier. So any questions anybody has? Either myself, my CEO, or my chief product officer. We're the guys that are running customer service right now. So any questions asked those come to us? And we divvy those up and answer them?
Douglas Maida:All right. So it's akin to having Steve Jobs handling your customer satisfaction, inquiries or your customer support?
Nick Bockenfeld:That's exactly right. But even better than Steve Jobs.
Douglas Maida:All right. Okay. One last question about this, Nick. Our listeners are all over. They're just not in the United States or Canada? How far do you ship? And can you ship to outside North America? Or is that something you're still in the developmental phase with?
Nick Bockenfeld:We'll we will ship it anywhere that people are willing to pay that ship and for so anybody that speaks English, that's our biggest barrier is we don't we're not in any other language right now. So if you don't speak English, it's going to be hard for you to understand all of the feedback, how to use the app, stuff like that. But we ship to Malaysia, we shipped to China, we shipped South Korea, Japan. I mean, anywhere that somebody wants to use this device, we will ship it. There is a problem with they'll have to pay customs and a little bit more for shipping. But once that's taken care of we send it
Douglas Maida:Okay.
Ryan Johnson:It's worth it's worth it to. along.
Douglas Maida:Yeah, yeah. Hey, Ryan, any last words you'd like to share? And . . . I'll leave it at that. And then I'll ask you another question.
Ryan Johnson:Yeah, I mean, I like I said, I just can't speak highly enough of this, this device. And these guys, it's it's such a unique idea and it's improved my game. It's, you know, it's improved other people's games and a lot of people are are starting to hear the buzz and so just really looking forward to the future.
Douglas Maida:Yeah, terrific. Terrific. So what's next for you, Ryan? You got a an event coming up shortly or in the near future?
Ryan Johnson:Yes, sir. Yeah, I'm actually planning a mini tour event for the off road tour. Starting Tomorrow, it's looking like it might get rained out the first round or postponed, so hopefully not but yeah, I've got a 9am tee time tomorrow. So looking forward to that.
Douglas Maida:Okay, so you're joining us on a night when you need to be getting some, some rest and ready.
Ryan Johnson:That's all right. Hey, you got to do it's got to do.
Douglas Maida:All right. All right. Well, good luck with that. Brian, we appreciate you taking the time to be with us. And you, Nick. Any last words?
Nick Bockenfeld:Yeah. If you guys, anybody has any questions, please just let us know. You can email us at community at C-T-R-L dot Golf, or you can hit out our website, find more information on our website, we've got a ton of videos ton of content on there. We're working on releasing our CTRL Academy page, which is actually videos of my man, Ryan. So just showing everybody how to use the app, what you can do with it. We have a YouTube page, control golf on YouTube, you go on there, you can check out a couple of third party reviews that are on there. One done by Golficity that we thought went really well. And we have a couple of use case videos on there, stuff like that. But realistically, I mean, if you're trying to improve your game, if you're frustrated that you just cannot get past that last barrier, right? You're trying to break at trying to break 9100, whatever it is, you're frustrated, you need help, CTRLcan give you the help, right, we're gonna help you hit your best shot, not one time out of 10, nine times 10 times out of 10. So that you can shoot lower scores and enjoy the game more.
Douglas Maida:Right. And I was gonna say, I think one of the best features of it, at least from some of the people I know is that you've got that 90 day period for trying it. And if they're not satisfied with it, they can always return it for full refund. So that's got to ease a lot of people's minds.
Nick Bockenfeld:That's a you know, that's why we put it on there. And you know, we believe in our technology. So if it's not working for you. Yeah, let us know. We'll work with you to make it work for you.
Douglas Maida:Yeah, no kidding. And, Good luck for everything with your tournament not Ryan.
Ryan Johnson:Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.
Douglas Maida:Okay. And thank you for staying with us and listening to our show again. And that's our show for today. So thank you very much for tuning in and or downloading our episode.