Over the past year, I have been working with half a dozen long-term students from several different countries including the UK, United States, France, Sweden and Indonesia. These are people like you who love golf and sport and share my vision of a new level of performance and enjoyment attainable by the athlete willing to put in the time to train the mind-body connection with a daily Performance Practice.
I’m overjoyed to let you know that two of my new team have successfully completed their training with me, while the others are well on their way to receiving their qualification certificate by the end of this year.
As part of their training, my new team members were asked to write an essay for me on their understanding of Chi Performance and how they would convey this to their clients. I thought perhaps it would be interesting for you to read one of these essays and introduce you to John Hibberd who is one of the first to qualify as a Chi Performance Accredited Coach. Congratulations John!
Here’s John’s essay in full; you will soon be able to read more about John on the Meet the Team page, so please bookmark it and come back soon!
DEMONSTRATE FROM YOUR OWN EXPERIENCE HOW YOU WOULD IMPART THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHI PERFORMANCE TO YOUR STUDENTS.
This paper will consist of three parts. First, a summary of the key components of Jayne Storey’s Chi Performance. Second, an explanation of the ancient principles upon which the programme is founded. Finally, an analysis of my experience as a student of Chi Performance, as a sportsman, teacher, and sports coach. Golf will be the sport of focus because I have come to this work through playing the game, but it is apparent that the methodology applies equally well to other sports i.e., I have also felt some profound effects while skiing.
Guiding the player to execute the effortless golf shot, where the mind is quiet and in harmony with the body, is the foundation of Chi Performance. To achieve stillness before movement is a state that can be trained. Clients are asked to commit to 15-20 minutes of seated meditation each day (Zazen).
They will be shown the importance of good posture, where one’s head is as if suspended by a thread with a relaxed face, emptied chest and loosened shoulders. Eyes will be open, hands resting on the thighs and awareness will be lowered to the navel area, or t’an tien. Inevitably the mind will wander, and thoughts will occur, but the client is trained to recognize their thoughts and (without making a judgement), let the thoughts evaporate away.
When practicing standing meditation (I Ch’uan), the head is once again as if suspended by a thread, with the feet shoulder width apart and knees soft. The shoulders and chest are relaxed again, while the hands are as if they are holding a large ball. As before, attention is drawn to the t’an tien and the eyes are open, but this time focusing on a distant point.
With these principles in place, the client will learn three movement practices called either ‘rag doll’ or ‘turning the centre’ drills in Jayne’s books and programmes. Here the client learns, through experiencing the movements, how to maintain a stable lower body, with force coming through their feet allowing freedom of movement in their upper body, hands, and arms. There is a progression through the three movements, from the sensation that the feet are sinking into soft sand in the first, to the weight transferring to the front foot in the third. With a golf club in hand, they learn to empty the chest; draw attention to the t’an tien; load the legs and then “find the feet” (to quote traditional Tai Chi instructions) in preparation for making the shot.
There is a strong consensus from those at the top of the game, that a quiet mind, (“getting out of your own way”) aids performance and that technical thoughts while executing a movement will be detrimental. 64 year old Hal Sutton who had 14 tour victories including the 1983 PGA and now teaches at the Hal Sutton Golf Academy recalls playing golf at college “with a quiet brain, for the most part”.
Arnold Palmer writes “over the course of time I made the most curious discovery…”(that he putted well) “if I thought of something that contributed nothing to the golf shot”. In the field of neuroscience, Dr Izzy Justice states “There is a collaboration required between the senses that is optimal in Alpha and Theta Brain waves”. He continues to say that if “the brain waves are higher than Alpha or Theta (5-13 Hz)” then the golf shot (in this case a putt) will be less accurate.
Our Chi Performance clients learn a daily Performance Practice that helps them attain a quiet mind in order to produce fluid, effortless movement. The foundations for this ideal performance state are known to be thousands of years old. The Song of Central Equilibrium stands on its own to help us understand the concepts:
We are centred,
Stable and still as a mountain
Our qi sinks to the t’an tien
We are as if suspended from above,
Our spirit is concentrated within and
Our outward manner is perfectly composed.
Receiving and issuing energy are
Both the work of an instant.
Tai Chi (often called a “meditation in motion”) is one of the three so-called internal martial arts (the others are Hsing-Yi and Bagua respectively), that address the spiritual and mental aspects of practice, rather than the external physiological disciplines such as Karate. They derived from the Indian martial arts of Kalarippayattu and Yoga that were introduced with Ch’an Buddhism to China. “Chan” later became “Zen” which is the Japanese term for a simple seated meditation that watches the breath. Jayne’s work is a synthesis of these timeless disciplines, applied to help the modern athlete achieve a higher level of performance and enjoyment in their sport by developing unity of mind and body, idea and action.
The final part of this paper will explain how my personal and professional experience has prepared me to teach the Chi Performance methodology, with the potential to help my students to execute powerful yet effortless movement in golf and sport.
I started daily Qi Gong (Chi Kung) meditation around twenty years ago, and this has been a cornerstone of my life. Commencing seating and standing meditation after I started working with Jayne five years ago was a straightforward transition.
I studied Physical Education, Geography, Sports Science and Education at university and have taught throughout my working life. My second degree included modules in philosophy, statistics, and group dynamics. As a PE, Geography and now Dyslexia tutor, I am very experienced in teaching, checking for understanding and then helping my students develop to the next stage that is appropriate to them.
Though PE teaching, I have coached individual sports such as athletics, swimming, tennis, and gymnastics, plus team sports including rugby, basketball, soccer and cricket.
However, I have come to realize in the course of my training to be a Chi Performance Accredited Coach, that there is a profound difference between my teaching/coaching in the past and my new work. Hitherto, I have knowledge that I teach my student. That might be through demonstration of, say a javelin throw or explanation and imparting information in the Geography classroom or to a dyslexic client. In other words, I explain principles of the tennis serve, demonstrate, and then work with the student as they learn the skill, addressing the finer points once the basic skills are mastered.
This is not the case here. My relationship with my client will be as a fellow traveler, sharing our experiences. It is most likely that I shall have a greater knowledge of Chi Performance than my client and will have had longer to commit to my daily Performance Practice; but this is something that is never fully mastered, only the depth of experience increases. My clients will understand that my role will be to introduce the various principles and practices and then support them as they work to achieve a quiet mind and a relaxed but ready physical posture. Learning to recognize when the mind is quiet, free of thoughts about technique or others around them is the ultimate goal. Alongside this, they will learn from me how to harness energy from the feet, with a stable base, to help efficient movement.
We all have a continuous challenge of quietening our mind, whether we are doing a household chore, are in conversation or at work, or initiating and completing a complex sporting movement. This has become even more difficult in my lifetime. When I was a child, we had one radio in the sitting room and no television. We didn’t have a radio in the car. Now, my smartphone provides me (and it seems everyone around me) with entertainment, information, or communication as soon as I pick it up. Achieving a quiet mind is now harder than at any time in humanity’s evolution because distractions and information are continuously available.
This is vividly demonstrated in golf. In a relatively short time, we have gone from receiving information to improve our performance from a golf professional, maybe a golf magazine, a book or two and from watching The Masters or The Open on The BBC. Today the amount of information about golf seems limitless from, for example dedicated TV golf channels, social media, slow motion analysis of technique, to name just a few sources of information.
I have studied and hold qualifications in sports psychology, adolescent psychology, exercise physiology and biomechanics. Teaching in mainstream secondary schools and latterly with individuals who have additional needs, has given me a wealth of experience in building a relationship with a student.
I used all of this to be successful with a client who I worked with on a pro bono basis as part of my training to be a Chi Performance instructor. As a former senior manager of an international company, he agreed to give me candid feedback, which of course I was seeking.
Our first session involved reviewing his Client Profile and introducing him to seated meditation, allowing me to find out about him and for him to ask me questions. I was able to answer these to his total satisfaction as a result of studying Jayne’s work in detail and by starting to read about the ancient principles. Subsequent sessions involved me teaching standing meditation and the three movement exercises. This was also successful because I have worked to learn those movements and am used to demonstrating physical skills. Our final session was on the practice area and golf course. I had stated that I wouldn’t be teaching technique and had intended not to play during the session. However, my client made it very clear that he wanted to see me play. Through my practice I was able to quieten my mind (letting go of any issues about him watching me intently) and play some good golf, demonstrating the strength of Chi Performance. On our final green (which we both made in regulation) he very nearly sank a long, difficult putt. Spontaneously he looked straight at me and said, “I’ve just used everything you’ve taught me”.
In this paper, I have shown that I am an experienced educator, but as a reflective teacher, I have indicated that I appreciate that Chi Performance requires a slightly different style from me. As an ongoing student of Jayne’s, and by working closely with other members of her team, I have a depth of knowledge about this approach, but it continues to grow and evolve. Finally, I have begun to study the ancient foundations of this practice based in part on Jayne’s recommended reading, whilst at the same time keeping abreast of the latest theories and information about sports performance, particularly from neuroscience. This enables me to pass on the knowledge I have to my students effectively.
We are all “A work in progress”, but I have the skills and knowledge to support a student to find their way to a closer mind-body connection in order to play effortless golf through Chi Performance.
References:
BE THE RIGHT CLUB PODCAST SERIES 2 EPISODE 2
Arnold Palmer’s Complete book of Putting
gyragolf.com
Warriors of Stillness Jan Diepersloot
– John Hibberd, Chi Performance Accredited Coach
To enquire about working with John please email john@chi-performance.com or call mobile 07703 357 392 – he is based in Surrey, UK
