In the latest episode of my podcast, I’m joined by Martin Dowling, an Irish American musician and writer living in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has played the fiddle most of his life and has been teaching, performing, and writing about Irish music for many decades. He took up golf at the age of 48 in 2008 and during the season plays weekly club and interclub competitions with his current handicap of 10. Martin has been inspired to apply many aspects of the Chi Performance teaching to both golf and fiddle playing and we had a really interesting, quite profound but also pragmatic conversation which will help you develop your own practice.
Topics covered in this episode:
How movement emerges naturally the more one does the performance practices.
With regular practice, we start to embody something so that instead of calling on the breath with the mind it is already called.
Putting meditation in the mental game bracket keeps people stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Focusing on your breathing while in conversation with others.
The mind and body are both two and one; readings from Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.
Sitting with awareness of the posture and noticing the synergy with the breathing – how the breathing enhances the posture. This is directly experienced standing over a golf ball or picking up the violin and placing it under the chin before playing.
The quieter the mind, the more awareness, the better the posture, and this happens quite naturally and without trying to put the body in the perfect position.
We haven’t learned all we can about the connection between consciousness, energy and movement. These natural abilities are blocked, stunted and stifled by the thinking mind.
Taking a so-called deep breath accelerates the anxious state; instead find the centre of gravity (t’an tien / hara). Return to the type of awareness you’re practicing on your chair or cushion each morning.
The practice is helpful for all anxiety inducing endeavours like standing up and speaking in front of people.
Practicing guitar technique and playing a piece of music are entirely different activities so why in golf is there the assumption that range practice and being on the course are the same thing?
Humankind isn’t the finished article, we are in transition, in the process of being able to express the divinity behind everything – Sri Aurobindo.
The monkey mind, overly busy and critical or the condition of your body, being tired – all these things are helped with the practice and it has wider, more philosophical and practical applications.
Looking at different contexts or framings within which to perform at your best, i.e. match play easier than Saturday morning club social golf because higher expectations calls the practice to the fore.
Those doing their Performance Practice are actually playing a different game while helping to quieten down the mind of the world. A meditation practice is not nothing, it is transformative and influences those around you.
Commit to the practice; it’s the only way. Count the breath or feel the breathing, depending on what works for you.
Thanks for listening to this episode; please send in any questions from Breathe Golf, Connected Golf or The Athlete’s Ascent that you’d like me to answer on the show, or any questions that arise from your own daily practice.
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