Tag Archives: body
In a 2016 email Marshall Gavre, coach and associate of Fred Shoemaker’s Extraordinary Golf school, comments,
As Fred (Shoemaker) notes in his book (Extraordinary Golf), the four real things at play in golf are the body, ball, club and environment (including target). We have found over the years that as a golfer becomes more aware of, or present to any of those four realities, learning seems to take place easily. The other focus that gets most golfers attention is thoughts in the mind…Thoughts typically either keep us in the past or project us into the future, neither of which are present right here right now.
How does one not swim in swing thoughts and focus on body, club, ball and target? During discussion of Ritual, Golf as Guru (www.johnedwindevore.com) notes, “For every shot, the golfer needs to evolve a ritual for creating a personal teepee where mind becomes clear and quiet and the physically, emotionally and mentally programmed subconscious is given absolute trust to deliver the ball to the intended target.”
Creating the personal teepee is individually unique; and experience offers that mindfulness and awareness meditation can nurture monkey mind quietness and enable body, club, ball and target awareness. For this golfer, when ready to pull the trigger, relaxed focus offers a golf ball dimple as a single point of concentration coupled with awareness of a relaxed body, a club and a golf ball resting at the intended target. A brief story…
In 2001, sparked by a stagnant bowling average, a trek to learn to meditate was launched at Naropa University. As relevant literature had revealed, a desired result was to begin to experience the connection between the body and the mind through the breath. By early 2004, the bowling passion had expired and as a three-year, trained, novice meditation practitioner, a treasure hunt evolved to discover a connection between meditation and golf. In 2017 experience evolved gold; and although the journey to understand and experience the meditation-golf link continues to blossom, the connection is simple. Meditation can support 1) quieting the mind, at will; 2) expanding awareness; 3) visualizing and creating multi-dimensional images; 4) increasing the likelihood for in-the-zone experiences; 5) heightening of relaxed focus; 6) deepening of feeling, passion and intent to put a ball at a target; 7) facilitating harmony with surroundings; and 8) growing insight about the game. If you are up for learning to meditate, recommend that a first step be to find a meditation coach who understands your individual uniqueness and goal and with whom you have good chemistry. P.S. Enjoy Golf as Guru, silent self-alone and becoming one with the body, club, ball and target.
As our golf game evolves, literature suggests that 80-90% of on-the-course performance becomes mental because of the continuous flux of external conditions. Learning and practicing a meditation skill can enable the golfer to be in chaos and yet deliberately calm the mind and trust the club and body mechanic skills to unleash the artist within to deliver a shot to a visualized target. As Tim Gallwey offers in The Inner Game of Golf, “I am convinced that the happiest and best golfers are those who have realized that there is no single gimmick that works and that good golf is attained only by patience and humility and by continually practicing both Outer and Inner skills.”
Having experienced that awareness and simplicity are my best coach and caddie, the inner and outer seeds that bear fruit and are deserving of continued nurture are daily meditation practice and practice of set-up and one-piece take-away. As golf technical literature offers, 80-90% of a decent golf swing requires good set-up and one-piece take-away.
A checklist you can find on the steering wheel of my golf cart:
SET-UP [GASP: grip, aim, stance and posture]
-Flat back
-Stable base
-Free arm swing
-Stable right side
CONNECT body, club, ball and target
•Through the breath, quiet the mind
•One pointed focus
•Trust the subconscious
•Release sensed tension
•Pull trigger to unleash artist to create desired shot
ONE-PIECE TAKEAWAY
-Left shoulder active: push with shoulder
-Hips still at start
-Hands in front of toes
TURN AND LOAD: finish backswing, there is no hurry; length of arc is key
-Left arm straight; width of arc is key
-Right leg stable-flexed while turning lower body; full shoulder turn and shoulder tilt
-Stop: left shoulder under chin
TRANSITION: activate with right foot, knee and hip
ATTACK [Caution: stress potential]
-With the club through the ball to the target
As the mind goes, the body goes; as the body goes, the mind goes. As Joseph Goldstein & Jack Kornfield offer in Seeking the Heart of Wisdom, meditation is a journey of understanding our bodies, our minds and our lives, of seeing clearly the true nature of experience. Consequently, through meditation and by giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to deliberately direct attention where we choose. As a golfer, the experience has been that as set-up nears completion, focus on the breath allows the mind to become quiet, the body to become relaxed and a balanced body-mind is enabled to connect with the visualized target. All that remains is to pull the trigger and trust the human system to perform as it has been mentally and mechanically prepared. We essentially have created conditions for peak performance to become reality. Even though zone performance may be an infrequent occurrence, we can celebrate because we have done the best we could on every shot.