Last week as we finished our first lesson, I gave some practice recommendations for the week to come. The homework consisted of centering 50 times per day and either swinging or hitting golf balls for 10 minutes a day. When I give assignments like these, I always ask for more repetitions than I expect the clients to do. I know that there is a certain amount of practice necessary to promote change and by asking for more than that, I can build a cushion into the system to insure future success for the clients.
We started the second lesson by discussing how the homework went in the time between lessons. The answer was about what I expected. One of the clients practiced her centering 10-15 times per day and hit balls 4-5 times during the week. The other centered intermittently and practiced hitting once. She was apologetic for the lack of compliance and offered several reasons for not practicing.
Before I continue, let me say that this process is always about the client. It doesn’t matter if I’m in the gym or on the golf course, I never take my clients success or failures personally. My job is to bear witness to the process, while offering suggestions and guidance based on my 25 years of experience. I know this process is difficult and takes great courage to pursue.
At this point, I’m sure some of you are thinking, “Hey wait a minute, this was just a golf lesson. What’s so courageous about taking a golf lesson?”
As Ben and I have written about many times, our true goal is to find achievement through consciousness.
The centering and breathing practices that we promote in the TTW principles actually open the participants to a deeper level of awareness and help to build a greater sense of consciousness. As we practice our centering and breathing we begin to release stored energy and emotions that have created blockages within our neural networks. When this happens, things can get pretty interesting.
Ben wrote about this in his piece last Friday. How preparing to play brought up lots of feelings, images and emotions of playing golf with his father as a young man. This flood of emotion can be hard to handle. So when I ask my clients to do some kind of homework between lessons, the work is designed to begin the process of building awareness. Sometimes, that can be too much. I understand.
So we take a moment, find center and breathe.