Flow is a more feeling state than a mental one, it’s full of calm, quiet, joy, peace and a sense that something higher than the mind has moved the body in the most perfect way.
My work isn’t for everyone, but as you’re reading this, I know you’re interested in topics outside of the mainstream and may even have a daily performance practice based on my Chi Performance methods. That’s great and it sounds like you’re a golfer or other athlete who wants your performance to reflect the highest aspiration you have for your sport and you’re prepared to put in the necessary work.
This work might not be what the majority of technical or mental game coaches advocate, because this is the only methodology that provides a bridge or link between the two. In other words, the training on offer here, helps to bring mind and body, mental game and mechanics together through a daily practice of quietening the mind and developing a physical state of relaxed readiness.
The efficacy of this approach (which is based on a lifetime of Tai Chi and meditation practice) is continually being verified by the ongoing work I’m doing with people just like you who love golf and sport and want to play to their potential.
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve given coaching sessions to members of this growing community in Florida, Las Vegas, Texas, Belfast, Ontario, and New Zealand as well as right here at home in the Hampshire (UK) countryside.
What’s remarkable is the similarity of experience all these clients share as a result of having a daily practice based on my bestselling books, Breathe Golf, Connected Golf and The Athlete’s Ascent.
The biggest takeaway for me recently, which promoted me to write this missive, is the shift clients make from thinking to awareness, which gets them out of their heads and into their bodies. This is coupled with a detachment from mentally rehearsing the minutiae of technique (which hinders freedom of movement) to instead holding a steady attention in the body and working on balance, centering or overall movement patterns.
Stepping back and away from the mind, and instead making a connection to the body, the breathing, the centre of gravity, and the ground – is an ability that clients come to after several weeks or months of putting in the work.
They begin to see themselves as part of the wider environment, whether that’s enjoying nature on the golf course, taking in the spectators on the tennis court or enjoying the atmosphere on the hockey pitch, and this stops the pre-frontal cortex trying to take over and run the show, allowing the brain to switch to those alpha waves we all know are conducive to the flow-state.
It’s also been noted that the more you try to achieve flow, the further away from it you get. Thinking too much, grinding it out, muscling through the ball and the frustration that comes from trying to “get it right” can all be put to one side while you play calmly, enjoying the process of continually coming back to yourself (body, breath, balance and centre) and opening to the world around you.
This is the daily practice, which we do at home in the morning, in the car on the way to work, any time we remember throughout the day, on the driving range, in the gym, warming up before a match and right in the midst of competition.
Many psychologists who have written about flow believe it is a form of mental toughness or a highly focused mental state to the exclusion of everything around, as if the athlete is in a bubble or cocoon. I’ve never really bought into this (and in fact my approach sets out to disprove it) and it certainly isn’t my experience whether in meditation, martial arts, or swimming, as I always feel more alive, more aware and more awake when I’m in flow and there is a knowing that surpasses what my mind can grasp and which it is difficult to find words to articulate.
While the mental game gurus believe they have found the definitive answer to flow, it seems to me and also to my clients from the feedback I’m getting, that we need to keep this exploration and conversation going, rather than putting a full stop on it.
Flow is an altogether more feeling state than a mental one, it’s full of calm, quiet, joy, peace and a sense that something higher has moved the body in the most perfect way from a clear and simple intent to the purity of movement needed to execute this with ease. It also has a power behind it which I mentioned previously I had felt in the pool as a combination of energy and intention which propelled me through the water.
We glimpse flow mostly by chance or if we do work to create the qualities that allow it to occur (inner quietude and relaxed readiness) we always want more of it and this can so easily turn to grasping after it or buying into Top 10 Tips to achieve it rather than staying open and receptive to receiving it.
What I’m advocating is not a quick fix but it is a permanent solution to the mainstream alternative, which wants you to “think about how you’re thinking” and layer this with more thinking about how you’re going to move. Chi Performance is a unique and purist form of body-based and breath-work coaching that is undiluted from its original purpose in the Eastern martial and meditative arts although applied to modern day sports.
If you’re anything like me and the clients I’m working with, then you’re someone who leads rather than follows, is on a journey to achieve your full potential, thrives on routine and discipline and has the strength of character to persevere; and I therefore encourage you to make a start or double-down on your training this coming week as a pioneer of this new genre.
To help you, I’ve put together a brand new Performance Practice Guide for Golf and Sport which is useful whether you’re just starting out or if you want to deepen your practice.
I’m always happy to hear from you so feel free to get in touch with any questions.
Jayne
JAYNE STOREY
+44 7986 447 250
Performance Practice for Golf and Sport
