How the teachings of a Samurai can help you play better golf
Perhaps you’ve noticed how most training regimes leave you feeling tired and/or suffering from overwhelm? That’s most likely because you’re trying to add more to the mix in terms of things to learn and remember about how to improve your swing or perform better on the golf course!
For instance, working out at the gym can leave you depleted as you literally shred your muscles and then need to stretch, rest and allow your muscles to repair and grow stronger.
Or perhaps you like to swim, walk or run or partake in another sport such as tennis or skiing to improve your fitness? These pursuits can also leave you tired, with the need to rest and recuperate afterwards and get the right balance of carbs and protein to ensure a speedy recovery!
Chi Performance training is different; it will leave you feeling replenished as you learn to quieten your mind, deepen your breathing, neutralize your emotions and develop a relaxed and balanced ‘ready stance’ from which to produce a great golf shot.
Here’s why.
Miyamoto Musashi, the famous Samurai swordsman and author of ‘The Book of Five Rings’ (published 1644) claimed that ‘The Way is in Training’ and moreover that by engaging in daily practice, a student would be able to “freely control (his) own body”.
There is nothing more challenging than sticking to a practice on a daily basis, as we are all subject to moods and various kinds of distraction, but if you can commit, then they way is open for you to really achieve your potential and overcome any self-defeating and limiting beliefs about your golf…and indeed your life.
Time and again my research and the feedback I receive from students shows that no matter how much you know about the technical aspects of the golf swing, the only thing that will make a significant difference to your game is self-knowledge…and this is something that can only be forged in the fire of daily repetition (similar to the way a samurai sword is made by being forged in a fire and then hammered into shape, a process that is repeated over and over again).
And while we’re on the subject of processes…by staying true to your practice, whatever this may be, from daily meditation, standing practice, breathing awareness, body sensing, self-observation and so forth…you will be successful in taking this newfound awareness onto the first tee, down the fairways and around the greens to enhance your pre-shot routine with a fool-proof strategy that will allow the right shot to manifest, unhindered by anxiety, nerves and over-thinking.
Whether you’re new to my method or have been practising a while, or even if you’ve let your training slide for months, by recommitting and staying with the training day after day, week after week, you’ll find that something inside you gets stronger and more resilient, enabling you to control not just your body as Musashi claims, but your mind and your emotions too.
The result? You will maintain a state of relaxed concentration a.k.a. “the zone” and play this game of games one breath at a time, one shot at a time and one hole at a time, fully in the joyous present and hitting it pure time after time.
