449: 7 Easy Ways to Dominate December For an Epic 2026

December 2, 2025·19 min·1 clip

Michael Leonard explains how ChatGPT can analyze your golf stats to reveal three things you're missing.

This episode of Wicked Smart Golf features host Michael Leonard outlining seven strategies to maintain momentum through December and prepare for a successful 2026 golf season. Leonard, a mental performance coach, focuses on improving golf without swing changes. He aims to help listeners avoid common end-of-year complacency in their fitness, mindset, and game. Leonard's first tip is to conduct an end-of-year audit of golf stats using apps like Arccos, DECADE, or ShotScope to identify trends and weaknesses. He suggests establishing one new micro-habit for December, such as five minutes of stretching, journaling, or meditation. He recommends reading mental golf books, specifically citing *Your Brain Swings Every Club* by Dr. Izzy Justice, *Zen Golf* by Dr. Joseph Parent, and *Mastering Your Mental Score* by Dr. Michael Lardon. Listeners should evaluate their equipment, checking grips, lie angles, and lofts, and consider replacing any clubs that lack confidence. Creating a simple, consistent winter practice plan—even 30 minutes weekly focused on putting or using a simulator—is another key strategy. Leonard advocates for a physical and mental purge, like organizing a golf bag or deleting unused phone apps, to reduce clutter. The final tip prioritizes off-season fitness, using extra holiday calories for strength training and recommending comprehensive body composition tests. Leonard shares that he used ChatGPT to analyze his own golf stats for hidden insights. He reveals his metabolic age is 31, seven years younger than his actual age, according to tests from Dexa Fit Scottsdale. His Resting Metabolic Rate test showed he burns 1,940 calories at complete rest and needs about 2,900 to maintain weight with his activity level. The tests identified his hips and shoulders as specific mobility weaknesses impacting his golf. He mentions completing the audio recording for his upcoming program, the Wicked Smart Golf Fitness Formula, which uses a five-pillar approach. Leonard personally dislikes traditional Thanksgiving foods and celebrated with sliders, including a sloppy joe version. The host emphasizes that most people "coast" in December, making it a prime opportunity to "triple down" and gain an advantage. He believes a clean environment leads to a clutter-free mind, which is crucial for good golf. Leonard states that equipment lie angles are often incorrect even on new clubs from major manufacturers, recommending a professional check. He frames the holiday period as "game time in the gym" for building strength that benefits golf and life as one ages. The tone is highly motivational, direct, and instructional, blending personal anecdote with actionable advice. Golfers seeking practical, non-technical tips to structure their off-season training and planning will find this episode valuable. Listeners who prefer in-depth swing analysis or narrative storytelling might want to skip this solo, strategy-focused installment.

As heard by us

A year-end golf tune-up that treats the bag as the real off-season workshop.

Michael Leonard treats December like a quiet workshop, a time to audit the bag, clear out the dull edges, and make the game easier than it needs to be.

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Make the holiday break do quiet work on your bag.

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