STILLNESS IS THE MASTER OF MOTION

Movement and performance coach Jayne Storey argues for the mind-body connection, then teaches how to achieve it

Stop the presses: Golf is not a mental game. Not like you might think, anyway. Many golfers buy into the premise that positive thoughts and visualizations can impact on-course performance, but the effects of these are short-lived at best. Furthermore, they do little to halt the biochemical reactions (anxiety and adrenaline) aroused when standing on the first tee or putting for the win. While I see the value of achievement psychology and positive thinking as tools to prepare you for stepping onto the course, when actually playing the game you need to leave that kind of thing in the locker room. Here’s why:

The mind likes to dissect, analyze and understand information, but the body just loves to move. This is the dichotomy facing athletes, but it’s one that can be solved if we shift our perspective slightly East. Consider the way martial arts masters move, with a relaxed combination of grace and power. Their centuries-old training techniques integrate mind and body disciplines together, which in golf would look like simultaneously training your mental game and swing technique. The mainstream approach trains them separately, of course, and I believe this is a problem.

“Thinking about thinking” (mental game) and “thinking about moving” (swing thoughts) must give way to an altogether more unified approach where the controlling influence of the mind is subdued, allowing the body to move more freely and naturally.

To allow for this, to connect the mind to the body, I teach a Chi-Performance method rooted in Eastern practices that has two central pillars: focused breathing and the stabilizing, grounding effects of Tai Chi. The world’s most popular martial art, Tai Chi enhances lower-body stability, ground pressure, connection, centrifugal force and torque—essentially it’s a centuries-old way to lock down your swing. It’s also a fantastic way to increase and to extend our range of physical motion throughout our lives. Coupled with breathing techniques, it proves a powerful way forward for golfers.

Consider practice swings versus “real” swings. Effective, effortless swings on the range often disappear on course or during clutch competition. Mainstream analysis of pros’ meltdowns invariably point to swing faults, talk up a technical error that needs adjusting or suggest the player is not mentally tough enough. An Eastern perspective would say that regardless of the player’s swing quality, it is entirely dependent on the quality of the mind-body connection in the moments before the shot is taken. The smallest change in breathing, for example, taking deeper, slower breaths when the pressure is off and then unconsciously taking short, shallow breaths into the upper-chest (or even holding the breath) when standing over a clutch putt. This has the effect of raising the center of gravity, tightening muscles, activating the stress-response and beginning a host of changes that disrupt the mind-body connection, and thus rhythm, tempo and timing.

Seen in this light, the quality of the shot is only ever an outwards manifestation of the conditions within the golfer themselves, conditions that can be trained—with the mind and body learning together.

To learn more about Jayne Storey’s Chi-Performance visit chi-performance.com or find her book, Breathe GOLF, online.