Posts
Imagine you had a state of the art device which could revolutionise your golf. This device would require some calibration, a brief period of trial and error but after this would be the single most important tool at your disposal. It would be easy to use, cheap to run and best of all would be absolutely free.
You'd use it constantly...wouldn't you?
After all, you'd be crazy to pass up something like this. Why on earth would anyone not want to use it?
And yet most of us completely fail to realise such a system is already in our possession.
It's even thought to be older than our sense of smell.
You can't hear what it's telling you because you've forgotten how to listen and it's hurting your golf game.
It's not the sense that tells your arse from your elbow; instead it gives scrupulously precise information on where your arse is relative to your elbow. It's vital for any pursuit that involves moving any part of the body whilst looking elsewhere.
It's the awareness of the body's posture both at rest and on the move, arising from nerve sensors inside our muscles, tendons and joints. Often known as kinaesthesia or proprioception, it doesn't matter what you call it. Just learn to listen to what it's telling you.
Cultivating our awareness of this sense accelerates acquisition of motor skills. How often have you had a swing lesson, spent some time at the range working on what you thought you should be doing only to find at the next lesson you've got it wrong? Would it not be easier to remember the positions our body should be in when we're aware of how those positions feel? Are we not more likely to be able to repeat the great shot we just hit if we train our position sense to analyse and record the movement? Positional awareness is crucial should we wish to influence any complex sequence of movements.
We have in our possession a complex sense more remarkable than any GPS system and yet we're happy to spend significant amounts on gadgets whilst neglecting our intrinsic hardware. Which of these do you think has more potential to improve your golf?
Once again, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading!
Dr. Geek,
ReplyDeleteYou've hit on a big pet peeve of mine. I spend a great deal of my time trying to teach people how to use this sense. Teach may not be the right word. Rather, remind might be the better word.
I simply can not understand how golfers can pass up on this already intrinsic sense.
I guess it's a hard game.
Great job and listen to your Dr.
JG
Hi John,
ReplyDeleteMany thanks for your comment. There seems to be a form of madness that takes over amateur golfers just before they swing until they come back to normality in the follow through. it's characterised by dementedly staring the ball in submission before taking a wild flail at the ball with no regard to control. I'd largely managed to eradicate this from my game but with the work and life enforced break from golf it's crept back in. Halfway through my last round I realised I was over swinging and throwing the club off plane. I made a few practice swings with attention resting on joint position and this led to my best run of shots for some time. As you know, my posts here arise from my own experience and my strong desire to improve at golf despite not being able to practice as often as I'd like.
Many thanks for your continued support.
Dr Geek