Meditation and the flow-state

How to perform your best in pressure situations

2012-03-03T05:15:00.000-08:00

The flow-state, also known as 'the zone' is a realm of awareness that enables athletes to surpass technique and achieve extraordinary results, oftentimes with seemingly little effort. In all sports from golf, to tennis, baseball, running, football - athletes have long commented on the feelings of relaxed power and an uncanny perception of time, as it slows down, allowing even the stitches on a baseball hurtling through the air at 90mph to be clearer seen almost as if in slow motion.

The flow-state is so called because Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's 25 years of research into the phenomena noted the language used by those who'd experienced this altered state as they described feelings of events moving naturally like a river in flow, which allowed for total immersion in the activity they were engaged in.

Interesting, Zen Buddhist Monks describe a similar state of mind achieved through the practice of Meditation, where thoughts become quieter, almost residing in the back of the mind, flowing like a river.

Achieving this mental state in sports is the only way to guarantee superior performance, particularly if you are a competitive athlete and need ways to help you perform your best in pressure situations. Any predominant or over-riding thought such as wanting to smash a golf ball or slam a return of serve into your opponent's body reduces the flow-state of relaxed concentration and renders motion clumsy and ineffective.

The Mysticism of Golf

2012-02-28T06:57:00.000-08:00

I've long pondered why golf is one of the world's most popular sports, played by an estimated 58 million people every year...and I believe the answer is because it gives us access to other-worldly realms and a glimpse of the endless potential inherent within the human heart, mind and spirit.

The sheer number of books on the subject - from Steven Pressfield's 'Bagger Vance' (a name the author freely admits echoes the Hindu name Bhagavan, which refers to Krsna, the Supreme Being) to Esalen Institute Founder Michael Murphy's 'Golf in the Kingdom' and M. Scott Peck's 'Golf and the Spirit' - each lay testimony to the sublime and uncanny states of awareness those that love and are passionate about the game, often experience on the golf course.

Promoting Eastern principles and disciples such as Meditation and Tai Chi, chi-power GOLF seeks to enhance the extraordinary capabilities of the ordinary golfer, by helping to reduce mental over-load (including over-analyzing swing technique) and allowing the mind and body to work more closely together to produce peak experiences and the spontaneity of a perfect golf shot.

It would great to hear about your own mystical golf experiences (also known as the zone or flow-state), which almost every player has experienced, even if just for a few moments or a couple of holes during an extraordinary round. Look forward to hearing from you.

Relax for easy power

2012-02-04T03:59:00.000-08:00

This morning I've been re-reading one of the world's first motivational books - "The Power of Positive Thinking" - written by Norman Vincent Peale back in the 1950's. In the chapter entitled "Relax for Easy Power", Peale writes about a conversation he had with a baseball buddy Branch Rickey

"One of the simplest methods for reducing tension is to practice the easy-does-it attitude. Do everything more slowly, less hectically, and without pressure. My friend Branch Rickey, famous baseball man, told me that he would not use a player, no matter how well he hits, fields or runs if he is guilty of 'over-pressing'. To be a successful big-league baseball player there must be a flow of easy power through every action and of course, through the mind. The most effective way to hit a ball is by the easy method, where all the muscles are flexible and operating in correlated power. Try to kill the ball and you will slice it or maybe miss it altogether. This is true in golf, in baseball, in every sport".

Keeping the mind quiet helps relax the body, and when your body is relaxed you will indeed produce the easy power that Peale and Rickey identify. It's all too easy to get caught-up in the golf industry's often profit-driven focus on teaching tips and tricks to hone technique - whereas if you invest a little time in yourself, learning to empty the mind, breathe deeply and relax - your body will produce easy and natural power, resulting in the kind of explosive drives you've so far maybe only dreamed of.

Practice not Theory

2012-01-19T02:00:00.000-08:00

It's amazing how popular the subject of meditation is becoming. Here in the UK in the last couple of weeks there has been coverage on the BBC Breakfast and ITV news programmes, plus a supplement in the Guardian newspaper (Sat 7th Jan) about the use of mindfulness in getting better results from exercise.

However, while it's easy to understand why meditation is so useful - it's another thing altogether to actually commit yourself to practicing it on a regular basis.

I know of many people who are successful and motivated in many key areas of their lives, yet are unable to sit down and quieten the mind for even 10 minutes.

As a golfer, the practice of meditation is invaluable - the mental discipline helps to raise your baseline ability to focus and concentrate - plus of course it allows the mind to be still, reducing the internal dialogue and helping to master the negative effects of anxiety (usually caused by excess adrenaline).

If you're up for the challenge and can commit yourself to a mental game programme that WILL make a difference to your golf game, get in touch and make 2012 the year it all comes together on the course.

Ben Hogan and the slow motion swing

2011-12-21T06:13:00.000-08:00

Meditation, which comes from the Sanskrit word dhyana means to contemplate or raise awareness. There are many ways to do this and various forms of meditation from Chi Kung (standing meditation), Zazen (seated meditation) and Tai Chi (a form of moving meditation, commonly performed in slow motion).

It's the slow motion practise I'd like to comment on here, with particular reference to Ben Hogan.

Tiger Woods said Hogan understood his swing more than anyother golfer will ever understand theirs – and that’s because he made an artand science out of swinging in slowmotion.

Read the best way to adopt this method and the latestresearch that proves slow motion movement creates pathways in the brain that allow the golfer to gain more insightinto their swing and build an internalmap of the motion sequence that allows for less effort, more consistencyand the repetition of a fluid, powerfulswing.

Find out more by reading the latest chi-power GOLF article in GolfInternational magazine, Issue 107 on sale this Friday 23^rd December.

Happy Holidays Everyone.

The formula for playing "in the zone"

2011-11-29T04:30:00.001-08:00

As mentioned in a previous post, the brainwaves of someone deep in Meditation practice closely resemble the brainwaves of a golfer playing "in the zone" - that transcendent state of play where golf becomes instinctive, natural and intuitive. Many golfers have had this experience, even for just a few holes - and of course, as subtlety as the zone appears, conscious awareness of it sees it evaporate as mental interference again becomes the norm. Yet, it is possible to train your mind to such a degree that the zone is more likely to manifest when you play and moreover, you can get it back even if you've played a few duff holes or start getting anxious towards the end of a round. The formula for "the zone" is this: SKILL plus PASSION plus IMMERSION (contact me to find out who researched and developed this formula) - and what this means is so long as you have a certain level of skill (let's say you've been playing for at lest 3 years) and you are passionate about golf and just love being out there on the course, the "missing link" is for you simply to become immersed in your game and that means you cease doing the following: 1. Talking to yourself about technique and/or your performance and 2. Talking to yourself about external conditions (course, weather, opponents, other players etc) - and the easiest, most direct way to reduce this self-interference is simply to focus on your breathing (aka Meditation).

The secret to better golf is relaxation

2011-11-17T02:23:00.001-08:00

Jack Nicklaus said the biggest mistake many players make is that they try to swing like somebody else, to do what another golfer can do, rather than finding out what they can do well and sticking with it. Good point. I firmly believe that once you stop playing "search for a swing" and just play the course with the swing you've got now, the next time you play golf you will enjoy your game a whole lot more, you will make more birdies and chances are you'll probably win the round. You see, the more you think about "how to swing" the less likely you are to produce a fluid, consistent motion. What you need to do is keep your mind as quiet as possible, reducing the inner dialogue of self-interference and negate the disastrous effects of anxiety and adrenaline which wreak havoc on your brain's motor-system and lead to a rushed pre-shot routine, a shortened back-swing, and a whole host of other swing faults. Time after time I've noticed with my clients, that once a golfer is relaxed, both physically and mentally, they are more likely to produce a swing that's powerful, effortless and consistent. As one client from West Surrey GC exclaimed recently during the middle of a chi-power GOLF personal tuition session, when she hit the sweet-spot and propelled the ball a good 30 yards further than ever before over the water hazard..."holy crap"...The secret to power, the secret to greater distance, greater club-head speed, and better consistency is to relax and think as little as possible :-)

Stop thinking, start playing better golf

2011-10-28T03:59:00.000-07:00

Many of the golfers I meet with are extremely talented but have difficulty executing during competition. While they may be able to swing or putt well in practice, the ability to play with fluidity and power is all but lost in contention because they are unable to experience a crucial process in the brain as effectively as those players of world-class status. Simply put, they are unable to stop thinking and this self-interference is responsible for all the heartache and frustration being experienced by millions of golfers who sabotage their own best efforts around the course as they violate the basic laws of how the brain best produces fluid motion in sport. Contrary to popular belief and the over-emphasis on golf psychology, neuro linguistic programming and other complicated mental game techniques...the mind of a golfer needs to be as quiet as possible in order for the player to produce rhythmic, powerful and consistent swings. Any golfer worth listening to will agree with this statement and many of the greats from Fred Couples, Tom Watson and Darren Clarke will tell you they produce their best shots when they think as little as possible.

2011-10-14T04:15:00.000-07:00

Most mental game coaches will typically fill your head with various psychologicaltechniques to help you 'think differently' or re-frame your thoughts so that you say things toyourself that you want to hear ("Ok, nice tidy shot straight down the middle").

But fillingyour head with more things to remember, often over the top of too many swingthoughts is really the last thing you want to be doing out there. You shouldn't be ‘thinking about playing golf’ but rather be 'immersed' in what you're doing - a core component of getting ‘in the zone’.

Anygolfer worth listening to will tell you that they play their best shots whenthe have the least mental interference. Tiger Woods has often mentioned“silence” as the thing he hears before a making a great swing. Fred Couples,when asked what he thinks about at address said “nothing” and Bobby Jones saidwhen he played great golf he thought very little and when he played exceptionalgolf he didn’t think at all.

Read the full article "Stop playing search for a swing", Issue 106 Golf International Nov/Dec 2011

2011-10-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

Ch'an Buddhist meditation (Chinese Zen) is the act of sitting quietly, paying attention to your breathing. The value of this practise for golfers is tremendous and 90% of the golfers I work with report seismic shifts in their game as a result. So why does this ancient art have so much to offer? Well, if you could analyse the brainwaves of a Buddhist monk deep in meditation and analyse the brainwaves of a golfer playing "in the zone" you would notice distinct similarities. The monk and the player "in the zone" have both ceased much of their internal dialogue (reduced mental interference) and have also ceased talking to themselves about any external distractions. This is very useful for your game as research shows the quieter and more relaxed your mind, the better chance you have of playing a shot that is fluid, natural and effortless. Counter-intuitive as it seems, the harder you try to hit the perfect shot, the further away you get from your natural swing. The more relaxed you can be, especially in the heat of competition, the better able you are to produce winning shots...and meditation, more than any other discipline teaches you how to relax and reduce anxiety.

The secret of fluid motion

2011-10-06T01:37:00.000-07:00

Maintaining your swing under pressure is crucial for winning more games. Contrary to popular belief and the plethora of inner game theories and philosophies out there...peak performance in golf is aided by a mind free from mental interference not crowded out with swing thoughts and complicated psychological techniques. Practising Zen meditation - the simple art of focusing on the breath - sees golfers reduce performance anxiety, minimize internal chatter and produce a swing that is fluid and effortless, even under the pressure of competition. Try this: pull up at the club 10 minutes early next time you're scheduled to play. Sit in the car and quietly focus on the sensation of breathing in and breathing out. This will have the effect of reducing internal chatter and activating your body's 'relaxation response' so you can walk out to the first tee feeling quietly confident in your abilities. Give it a try and let me know how you get on.