Serious golfers will do anything to improve. They’ll practice in the rain, hit putts with their eyes closed, or workout at a health club three or four times a week. They’ll try anything offering the faintest hope of shaving strokes off their golf handicaps. Serious golfers will also try anything to inject more muscle into their games. Hitting prodigious drives is second only to lowering their golf handicaps to serious golfers—at least that’s the impression we’ve garnered from years of giving golf lessons.
When you’re older, it’s different. Your swing slows. Your legs lose their bounce. And you lose some strength. You also lose flexibility. It helps golfers make a good shoulder turn, among other things. A good shoulder turn is the linchpin of a good swing, as we’ve said in our golf tips newsletter. While stretching can help golfers retain flexibility, two exercise forms—Tai chi chuan and Qigong—can help you retain your range of motion and the pop in your swing as you age.
Tai Chi Chuan
Tai Chi Chuan is a Chinese martial art practiced for defense training, health benefits, and personal reasons. Tai Chi combines both hard and soft martial arts techniques. A multitude of training forms exist for Tai Chi, both traditional and modern. Some Tai Chi’s training forms are especially known for being practiced at what most people call slow movement. Most modern styles of Tai Chi trace their development to at least one of the five traditional schools: Chen, Yang, Wu/Hao, Wu, and Sun. Today, Tai Chi Chuan is practiced worldwide
Tai Chi can help you stay flexible and toned. It teaches you to reposition your center of gravity and to use more economic hand, arm, and shoulder movements when striking the ball. These benefits can help propel the ball down the center of the fairway as much as any golf instruction session can. Tai Chi also offers health benefits. Focusing the mind solely on the movements of the forms help to bring about a state of mental calm and clarity. Tai Chi also helps with stress management. That alone should make it popular among golfers.
Qigong
Qigong describes various Chinese systems of physical and mental training for health, martial arts, and self-enlightenment. The central idea in Qigong is to control and manipulate qi, a form of energy. This energy exists in all things including the air, water, food, and sunlight. In the body, qi represent the unseen vital force that sustains life. A person is born with original amounts of qi.
You can acquire qi from food by eating, f the air by breathing, and interacting with their environment. A person becomes ill or dies when the amount or type of qi is unbalanced within the body. Qigong involves manipulating and balancing the qi within your body and its interaction with your surroundings. The method and ultimate objective for the practice is dependent on the practitioner.
For older golfers, Qigong offers a means of retaining their vitality. The martial arts community considers Qigong training an important component in enhancing martial abilities. Most qigong training also involves some form of meditation. Qigong is considered to be effective in improving the effects of many chronic conditions, including such things as arthritis and degenerative disk disease. Qigong is said to increase your self-healing and self-recovery capabilities and enhance self-regeneration potential.
If you’ve tried everything to take your game to the next level—golf lessons, golf tips, videos, group golf instructions sessions—and nothing’s worked, consider Tai Chi and Qigong. These forms of exercise can not only improve ballstriking and flexibility, but also retain the pop in your swing and the consistency in your game—all while improving your health.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 6th, 2010 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Golf Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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