Get Rid of Bad Shots With Yoga For Golf

We have heard it before -- don't carry the past shot into the next one -- especially if it was a bad one because you'll just continue to hit bad ones when you are angry or frustrated. And don't think of the score, which was the hardest concept for players to understand in my early years teaching. Everyone was focused on their score because that was part of the game to lower your handicap, hence the goal was to get a lower score every time they played.

So the search continued and still continues. How do you become consistently good enough to lower your handicap every year?

I believe Yoga for Golf is the key. The same principles that make a successful life, make a successful golf game. There can be no double standard. The same force that solves one problem can solve others. One of the principles of yoga that transfers so easily into golf is being in the moment. In order to understand this process we actually experience it each time we come to a Yoga for Golf class and then take the discipline onto the golf course.

The beginning of every class we do what is called a centering which involves coming into the present moment. The Olympic athletes call it regrouping.

I teach a system whereby quieting your mind and emotions before starting the class helps the body move with more fluidity and ease. Golfers are taught to leave the cares and concerns at the door and not think about what they have to do when they leave, to just be in each experience as it is unfolding. I stress this is their time out, time to become aware of the mind/body connection.

Once this is understood I go on to teach that to receive the full benefits of the stretches the golfers are taught they must be fully involved in each movement. The more this idea is integrated the easier it is to see how a golfer must be totally involved in each shot they take. Every time they practice I ask them to have a beginner's mind, open and full of acceptance.

Yoga teaches it doesn't matter if you have done the stretch 30 times, you still need to look upon it with a fresh new attitude and be fully involved in the stretch. The challenge is not letting the mind wander off. Oh, and it does, but the secret is bringing it back to the moment. It is a training, but over time it gets easier and easier.

Then we take this concept onto the golf course. If you can arrive at any golf course, even if you have played it 30 times and look at it with a different mind set, with a fresh new attitude like it is your first time then instantly you drop expectations and have a more successful game which equals a happier day. One great quote to remember is: "When we learn to accept instead of expect we have fewer disappointments."

From looking at the golf course with new eyes, we break that down even smaller and look at a hole at a time then one shot at a time. Everything is unique and different each time you play, just like looking through beginner's eyes. The benefits will be noticed immediately: Each time you play, you are more relaxed and everything is smoother, from your swing to your luck.

Helping you Create Great Golf!

Margarit Brigham-Golf Goddess
Amazon Author of 'How to Become a Golf Goddess';' Embrace Sacred Play and Unlock the Hero within

website golfinggoddesses.com golfinggoddesses.com