Hiatus...

..well, a brief one for me from all things golf. This was due to a combination of working a weekend, and then heading off to the Tartan Heart music festival (better known as Belladrum, the name of the estate). A hectic work week in the intervening time meant I didn't even get out to practice. This was the biggest break I've had from golf since starting this blog, but to be honest it feels good as I'm really hungry to get back playing. It was also a lot of fun. Although we felt Master Geek was a bit young at 11 months, the festival focuses on being family orientated so we took a very excited Miss Geek along with us, camping in the designated "family" camping area and had an awful lot of fun. I'd highly recommend it to anyone looking for a festival suitable for kids who was able to get up to Inverness.

Although I hadn't been able to get out to practice, I have still been able to get quite a bit of practice in, some of it really quite relevant to what I feel my current focus should be (playing shots absorbed in the process, thus managing to stay in the present). I've hit an awful lot of putts on my downstairs hall. This might elicit a bit of a "so what?" reaction, but my goal was to complete my full pre-shot routine for each putt. This has two effects. Firstly it cements my routine into place, making it more likely that I'll use it in competition and secondly it allows me to perform it more and more slickly as I become more practiced at it, and streamline it by dropping out any extraneous steps. I've also worked on a couple of skills tests - playing between two poles, ensuring that the ball touches neither of them (starting with a 4, then 3 then 2 ball width separation between poles) and also using my putt pucks as a "rebound" tool, to ensure I'm not pushing/pulling the ball; with a bit of practice I can get the ball rebounding straight back form 4-5 feet with regularity- hopefully something that should help hole more 3 footers. I have of course continued with my stretching program (although not when camping!) and my Golfer Within hypnosis and NLP. I can't overstate how much both of these things have helped my game.

What might be less predictable is how much an hour spent at the Belladrum festival is going to help my game. This may well seem an unlikely claim, perhaps the fevered ramblings of one in the throws of delirium tremens following a weekend of bacchanalian overindulgence. All I can say in my defence is that I consumed no alcohol at the festival. There was an area of the festival known as the "Hielan Fields"- a play on words, as Hielan' is the local dialect for Highlands (where the festival is situated) as well as being phonetically close to "healing"- and in this area was a large dome tent from a Buddhist monastery. I happened to notice that they were offering an introduction to meditation, with a session on mindfulness of breathing. This is something mentioned by Dr Parent in both Zen Golf and Zen Putting,and it's something that intrigued me. The session was quite an experience, and it's a practice I think I'll be looking to develop as the sensation of relaxed concentration I found as a result would I think be very exciting to use on the golf course- and in the rest of life. I think y they call it a "practice" as it's looking to develop skills that we can use to stay awake to the present moment more often than we currently do. In short, it's a practice for life.
(I make no claims to be a student of these matters, and certainly don't have a lot of knowledge or experience of them. Should any reader wish to correct or amend anything I've said, please use the comments section to set me straight!)

I've got a few more blog posts up my sleeve, and will be back on the course this week. I'm going to shift my goals. My "playing focus" for the next while will be to stay "awake" in the present moment whilst swinging the club, keeping track of how often I'm absorbed in the process rather than the more complex stat log I've been gathering. (I may still look at the number of putts, and the number of up & downs as I'm hoping to decrease the former and increase the latter, and I'm hoping awareness & measurement will aid this).

I hadn't planned to read too many more golf books, but had to make an exception for Extraordinary Golf and it's attempts to drastically alter the world view of golfers. Mastery by George Leonard is next on this Geek's reading list, followed by Yoga for Golfers. My plan is to have quite a good hard look at flexibility and core strength over the winter months, as my job this year is going to be pretty hectic, which along with the demands of family life and the weather in the North East of Scotland may well limit my opportunities to play 18 holes. I shall of course post a detailed list of my goals and practice plan for the close season as well as the 2011 season when the time comes.

If anything posted above makes you want to comment whether it be to agree or disagree with the above or any other content on the blog, I'd love to hear from you, and to open up a debate. Leave your thoughts in the comment box below!