Q&A with Tathata Golf Founder – Bryan Hepler

Growing up in Wenatchee, WA (Central Washington), I fell in love with the game of golf at a young age. After a successful junior career, I ended up getting the chance to play for a national championship-winning Wake Forest team and went on to more than 30 years of learning from the greatest golf instructors, martial art teachers and spiritual masters across the world. Now 48, and a resident of Scottsdale, AZ for the last 20 years, these teachings have culminated into the realization of a childhood dream with the introduction of Tathata Golf in 2010 and its ultimate launch in 2015.

1). What separates Tathata from others teaching golf today?

Tathata Golf differs from typical golf teachings today in almost every way. Tathata Golf offers:

1. A completely new way to learn and train through movement training at home
2. A completely new set of fundamentals based on the movements of the greatest golfers and athletes of all-time
3. The introduction of 2,500-year-old martial art mental training practices and principles as well as timeless movement and striking truths
4. All delivered through one of the most thorough and structured MIND, BODY & SWING learning and training curriculum in the game of golf.

2). You wake up in the morning – what drives you professionally?

There is a burning passion at the front of our hearts to spark and help sustain the largest period of growth the game has seen over the next 10-15 years through better golf. It is for the betterment and prosperity of all current and new golfers, professionals, courses/clubs, companies/organizations and associations that relentlessly drives us in all that we do and to become a worldwide leader in golf learning, training, and education. With contact sports losing favor and golf being introduced to the global stage in the Olympics, the sport as a whole has one of the biggest opportunities for growth it has nearly ever seen.

3). Is it fair to say the bulk of teaching done today is simply nothing more than Band-Aid remedies and therefore little real opportunity for overall improvement in one’s game?

A sound and effective golf swing is a combination of many different movements that dynamically come together in synchronicity and harmony. Typical golf lessons today do tend to be based on quick fixes and random tips with no place for student’s learning to start and eventually end while learning all that is needed. It is a lack of curriculum and structured pathway of learning that has lead to golf being taught in this way.

Tathata Golf introduces a 60-day, 6-chapter (1 | Body, 2 | Hands & Arms, 3 | Pressure & Impact, 4 | Speed & Strength, 5 | Short Game & Putting, 6 | Shape & Trajectory), structured curriculum to build every part of every golf motion that is helping to shift this pattern in instruction and support teachers and golfers across the world.

4). Define the word “progress” when student and teacher are engaged?

Progress is a word often associated with seeking something other than what currently is. As inspiring as the quest for progress can be, it can also lead to years of frustration and a never-ending lack of satisfaction that can ultimately lead even the most passionate golfer to give up the game. It is the purpose of Tathata Golf to help all who come answer every question about every part of every golfing motion so that they are “trained.” Rapid and sustained “progress” is obviously a by-product of this form of learning/training but with this, the unending pursuit of progress is softly quieted. Once someone is trained in all of the fundamentals of driving a car, they simply get to look out in front and enjoy driving.

5). What’s the biggest myth in golf instruction?

The influence of how the body moves and its effect throughout all golf motions is one of the most overlooked aspects of teaching today. If we simply train the body to move efficiently the whole motion of the golf swing reacts with it. It’s as if we forgot how to move and create pressure, which builds speed and strength to support the shape and trajectory we envision the ball to travel on. We in the industry have simply forgotten over time, to allow golfers to move and react with a golf shot like a child at play. As Brandel Chamblee likes to say “What he (Bryan/Tathata Golf) is doing is correcting golf instruction, bringing it back to its truest form.” Brandel understands these movements were always there for us to see, we just didn’t know what to look for until now.

6). People are under severe time constraints through daily life — how can Tathata and your overall program deal with this day-to-day reality?

Tathata Golf offers an In-Home 60-Day Training Program. Each day of training is roughly 45-60 minutes in duration and students can move through the program at a pace that is right for them and their schedules; the effectiveness of the training doesn’t change.  There is no need to visit a golf course and no need for expensive golf equipment for golfers and newcomers to the sport everywhere to build world-class golfing motions in the comfort of their own home in just days and weeks rather than months and years.

7). Golf is experiencing a drop in total players playing the game. What do you see being key in turning that around?

What always encourages to take note of are the 327 other courses in planning and 269 others currently being built around the world (as per the R&A‘s Golf Around the World 2015 publication). While this can be a sign of the passion and enthusiasm still shared by so many for this great game, golf is in real danger of missing out on entire generations of future golfers as the current golfing demographic continues to age and many leave the game as they struggle to improve.

A potential catalyst for turning this pattern around and sparking the sustained growth of the entire industry over the next several years would be offering golfers and newcomers a way to play the game at a dramatically higher level than what we currently see today.  Current golfers would play and enjoy the game more while newcomers could learn to excel at the game in days and weeks rather than years. This is what led us to the creation of Tathata Golf and the world’s first 60-Day Program we offer today.

8). Best advice you ever got was what and from whom?

From an early age, my parents taught me to seek the advice of the best teachers in the world and work with them personally whenever possible. I applied this thinking to several different authors I liked and different golfers and instructors I revered. This turned into a passion and led me to work with several of the top golf instructors, martial art senseis and spiritual leaders across the world over the last 30 years. It is this high level of expertise and teachings from several different disciplines that combine together and is delivered through Tathata Golf’s practices and principle and the world’s first 60-Day In-Home Golf Training Program.

9). If you could change one thing in golf what would it be?

The level that golf is played at around the world. With contact sports beginning to lose favor and golf being introduced back to the global stage for the first time in more than 100 years, the game has a window of opportunity to capture the attention of individuals around the world or fear missing out on entire generations of future players. At Tathata Golf, we are driving by a passion at the front of our hearts to make this game radically easier to learn, play and excel at for all who come. With this, the entire sport is poised for an unprecedented period of dramatic and sustainable growth far beyond what we even saw during the “Tiger-boom.”