Tag Archives: GOLFER’S PALETTE
Inspired by a search for the connection between the body and the mind, Dr. John Edwin DeVore enables readers to become aware of the conditions needed for peak performance by offering a unique perspective of body-mind mastery skills, integrating contemplative skills with technical skills in a sport with a rich technical culture of club and body mechanics. [Jennifer Uebelhack, Bohlsen Group]
All I can say is “Wow.” I have been told since I started playing golf that there was always a mental side of the game that should be learned…I never heard anyone mention things like emotions, mind and ego…pages 51-60 were of special interest to me because a lot of it sounded very familiar to me. I have been told by family and friends, for many years, that I had an inflated ego. It has cost me loss of family and many good friends. Having read this wonderful book will make the years I have left even more fulfilling. I can read it over and over and each time understand a little better…meditation, yoga, and the inner roommate are things that I would never relate to golf. Thank you. [Ray Isaacs]
John, in my up-teen years of trying to play golf, including several golf schools, multiple well-meaning PGA pros, and more books, videos, and tipsters, I found your book to be my Holy Grail. [Larry Waters]
It does not matter whether we are talking about golf or life, we each have an inner artist waiting to be uncovered and unleashed to create either a desired golf shot, a minuet, a painting or a facet of life we dream to experience. A golfer’s palette is symbolic of the mental and technical skills and talents we golfers choose to practice and make available for use when putting the inner artist to work to create a golf shot or a putt. As a painter needs an easel, a canvas, brushes and dabs of paint on his-her palette, a golfer needs equipment, club and body mechanics and body-mind mastery “tools” to create as master at golf. It is no secret that playing winning golf implies focusing on saving putts, hitting fairways, hitting greens in regulation and consistently making ups and downs. As outlined in Golfer’s Palette: Preparing for Peak Performance, the palette of skills and talents can include:
1)Self-awareness and understanding.
2)Preventive healthcare: body and mind.
3)The game: history, etiquette, Rules of Golf and pace-of-play.
4)Technical skills: logistical factors, ball flight laws, swing principles, equipment, games within the game and club and body mechanics.
5)Exploring how we learn and how we need to practice to best program our human system to perform.
6)On-the-course play, strategy, coaching, exploration and experimentation.
7)Meditation that facilitates body-mind mastery for golf and life: as Goldstein & Kornfield offer, “Skill in concentrating and steadying the mind and body is the basis for all types of meditation and is in truth a basic skill for any endeavor, for art or athletics, computer programming or self- knowledge.”
In golf and life, it takes preparation today to have success tomorrow. Coupled with modeling the way as a person, in relationships and when enabling others, the journey of equipping the golf “toolbox” can be challenging, exciting and fun. And this process demands discipline and patience, too!
Welcome to my world; and to the life of a work-in-process “experience junkie” making a trek from “trained killer” to “spiritual warrior,” where peace of mind, creativity and joy have been tasted and celebrated.
Born and raised in Northwestern Ohio farm country, my hometown was Sherwood, population 500. Life as a kid found me sweeping the floor and waiting on customers in the family owned hardware store.
As a student of life, the perfectionist tendencies have been obsessed with the process of education: Defiance High School accolades; humbled by joining the Long Gray Line as a graduate of West Point; and followed by 10 years of graduate academics, the study of meditation, the wisdom traditions, golf management and golf teaching.
As a soldier my assignments included two years of combat during the Vietnam War as an advisor, rifle company commander and infantry battalion operations officer. In 1970, I was honorably discharged and will always be proud of my decorations and service to our country.
Following military service I spent a 27-year tour of duty with corporate America in a variety of leadership positions and as a consultant. Working twenty-one years for the Coors Brewing Company was the highlight of my civilian career. Following retirement in 1993, the search for a new beginning found me as ranch hand, human resources executive for a ski and golf company and carpenter for my son’s construction company. Retirement continues to unfold: fine tuning the golf game, learning to play the piano and publishing two books, Sitting in the Flames: Uncovering the Fearlessness to Help Others and Golfer’s Palette: Preparing for Peak Performance.
My family has always offered light posts for my journey. As a spouse, “popps” for three delightful kids and grandpa for six grandkids, who offer a constant supply of seeds for spiritual vitality, the challenge is to have my soil ready to receive them. Today, an “ah ha” is that connection is the key to uncovering the artist that rests within. We each have personal challenges and my learning is that going to breath, quieting the mind and connecting with moment-to-moment choices unleashes the creative spirit to carve the life visualized and dreamed. Our scars tell us where we have been, they do not dictate where we intend to go.