Author: Jerry

Have you ever heard that one magical word that makes everything make sense? That once it’s been heard, you’re forever different? It’s as if the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student is finally completed. All it took is that one elusive word. No? Me neither.

I might hear that word, and for a moment I get it. But until I feel the power of the word flow through my body and I experience the word as part of my being, I cannot claim the knowledge as mine. And even then, I might need to experience it over and over again until not only is the knowledge mine, but now I’m capable of sharing that knowledge with others.

This is how I learn. This is how I teach. This is achievement through consciousness.

A little over a year ago, Ben and I embarked on the TTW experiment. We were going to try to develop a training program that would help people reach their highest potential.

Our tools were to be our willingness to be conscious, the determination to practice, and the ability to challenge ourselves physically, mentally, and spiritually.

If you have followed us on this journey you know that we chose golf as our medium to test our theories.
Today, on Tuesday October 4th, 2016 I am declaring the experiment to be officially over. I am also declaring it a success. I have no doubt that Ben and I are better golfers, teachers, and students from the work we have done over the last year. So the time has come to quit experimenting and start teaching.

I am proud to announce that Ben and I are formally creating a company to begin offering our teaching techniques and services to the community at large. Very soon our company:

                              TTW Coaching
                    Achievement Through Consciousness

Will be open for business. Over the next few weeks, we will begin to post some thoughts and ideas on expanding what we learned with the golf experiment and how we plan to apply them to other aspects of coaching.

Note: On Wednesday October 5th the day after I drafted this post, I went to play 9 holes at Coal Creek Golf Course in Louisville. It was a cool afternoon and I was able to walk the course alone. After 5 holes, I was 1 shot under par. That’s right. Minus 1 after 5 holes. I think we’ve got this!

Over the 12months of the TTW project, Ben and I have tried to stress the role practicing plays in this process. Now that we’re working with students, I find that practice will play an even greater role than we anticipated.

When I have a few days between practice sessions, I notice that it takes a little longer to feel the balance in my stance, the flow within my swing, and a sense of confidence that I can hit my shot. The more I practice, the easier it all comes together.

When working with clients in the gym, especially in the beginning, I give them short, low intensity workouts and request that they practice daily. Over the years, this has produced consistent and measurable results. Those who are more consistent simply progress faster.

Using this successful model from my training business, I’ve put together a basic practice guide for beginning TTW students.

Day 1:
10 full practice swings from center.

Day 2:
5 full practice swings. Hit 5 foam balls

Day 3:
10 full practice swings. Hit 10 foam balls.

Day 4:
Hit 10 foam balls with full pre-shot ritual.

Day 5:
5 full practice swings with full pre-shot ritual. Hit 5 foam balls with full pre-shot ritual.

Obviously, you can substitute hitting real balls at the driving range in place of hitting foam balls. Using foam balls allows you to practice closer to home and limit the amount of time necessary for each practice session.

What I am trying to do here is to make sure that every day we’re practicing being centered while holding a golf club. These practice sessions shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes to complete. This is the bare minimum amount of practice necessary to make progress.

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.

Last week, I gave my first official lesson on the TTW principles at the driving range. (Ben was still in New York watching the early rounds of the U.S. Open, so I was on my own.)

The clients were a couple of friends, both women in their mid-to-late 50’s who had quit golfing a couple of years ago because “the game quit being fun.” They couldn’t play well enough to be comfortable and lessons didn’t help. They approached me last week after going to the driving range and having an awful time. Apparently, the layoff did nothing to help their swings - neither of them could hit the ball at all and simply swinging the club “felt bad.”

One of them has been a client of mine for the last couple of years and understands centering in the context of the gym, while the other was completely new to the idea of centering and conscious movement.

As we started, I asked each about their long-term goals, as well as what they hoped to accomplish today. The long-term goals were to have more fun playing, while connecting to themselves, the course, and the game. The short-term goal was to be able to swing without feeling discomfort or pain.

As with everything that I do, I started by teaching them to center and find an open flowing breath. Even though one of the ladies had been a client for a couple years, the idea of centering in this environment was new and helped her expand her concept of centering.

From there, we worked from centered stance, to centered grip, into a centered swing, and even covered a centered pre-shot ritual. Essentially, we worked on most of the things Ben and I have been exploring and writing about for the last 18 months.

By the end of the lesson, both were hitting the ball better, and with more confidence. Most importantly, they were smiling. My client raved about her ability to turn her shoulders and use her core in order to create pain-free swings. When I asked her friend how she was doing, she smiled and replied with, “I cannot believe how good I feel!” With that I gave them some homework and ended the lesson.

Over the last year I have watched many people receive lessons. The response ranged from blatant frustration to grimly focused determination to get better. Until today, I have never seen a lesson end with smiles and a declaration like the one I heard today.

Two women who had all but given up on playing golf, due to the frustration of one-size-fits-all instruction and less-than-fun playing experiences, found hope and inspiration that they once again could enjoy a game they both love. I would call that a complete and totally successful debut for the program that Ben and I have created.

Last week I reported the results of my first round since starting this experiment. After reflecting on the results, I thought I would share some observations.

First, I feel that we should have been playing actual golf the entire time. Practice is one thing, but as Ben pointed out, playing has a different energy and feel to it. Without playing it’s hard to understand how effective the practice truly was. For example, when practicing Ben and I have become very efficient with chipping onto the green from 50+ feet. When playing, we were both hesitant and left chip after chip short. I know that all the practice will eventually show up within the game, but that lack of confidence was a direct result of not playing.

Ball striking and clubs selection: When hitting practice balls on the range, the distance of each shot and the action of the ball is very different from playing with real balls on the course. When playing last week, several times I used the wrong club for a particular shot. These shots resulted in either being short of the green or hitting into obstacles. As the round went on I became less and less confident with my choices. This showed up time and again as I would hit a second shot with the right club and would hit a much better shot. Again, I feel this will auto correct with playing more frequently, but could have been prepared for much more efficiently.

Putting: I was efficient with my putter. Not amazing, but better than average. My lag putts were very good, but I did have 3 putts either lip out or stop one roll short of going in. We haven’t practiced putting anywhere near the amount we have chipping and I thought it showed for me. Moving forward, I plan to do more chipping drills where I finish the shot with my putter in order to simulate playing more effectively. On a side note, Ben nailed several long putts and except for the last hole putted much better than I did. He usually wins our putting competitions, but I plan on getting extra practice while he’s away this week to close that gap.

Overall, as I stated before, I feel that we have been highly successful. I think moving forward we can be more efficient with our practice and create effect strategies to improve on our weaknesses as they show themselves while playing.

Friday, Ben and I actually made it to Haystack for our first round of golf since starting this project.

If you haven’t played there, Haystack is a duffer’s dream. No tee times, very laid back, with a pretty funky (in a good way) vibe. If you’re in a hurry, or get frustrated with slow players in front of you, haystack is NOT for you. But if you want to play a casual round, try some second or even third shots, Haystack can be a fun afternoon. It’s a par-32 nine-hole course that is deceptively hard. What makes it hard is the unpredictable course conditions.

I was pretty excited to play and arrived early. So I walked around and hit some balls to get warm. Ben showed up right on time, we hit a second bucket of balls and queued up to begin play (that’s right, just wait your turn and go when ready.)

I’ll spare you the shot-by-shot details and summarize my day. I shot a 43. Yep, 11 over par. I had 4 balls find trees: 2 that were caused by course conditions, 1 that I hit offline, and the other I simply hit it too far by choosing the wrong club. I had 3 putts that lipped out requiring tap-ins to finish the hole. Twice I had chips that should have rolled right up onto the green, but the course was wet and soggy and ate the balls' momentum requiring another shot. A great example of these soggy conditions was on the 7th hole, a par three with an elevated tee hitting over a large pond. I hit a beautiful tee shot that landed firmly onto the green and sank. That’s right, no bounce or roll, it just stuck there about 25 feet from the pin. But that’s golf, right? You play the course in the condition that you find it.

To summarize my day, I had a blast. I really didn’t realize how much I missed actually playing a round of golf (it had been two years). I could have played better and next time I will! I was pleasantly surprised by my confidence hitting any club, up to and including my driver. As I begin to know how far certain clubs will go, I should have an easier time with club selection.

The thing that shocked me the most was the lack of confidence both Ben and I had when chipping. We have spent the majority of our practice time on finding balance within the swing while chipping. We approach the practice green with confidence and a sense of capability that neither of us had before starting this project. On the course, both of us were hesitant and underperforming. I assume that it’s simply the nerves associated with actually playing and that it will improve as we continue to play. I hope to play once or twice more before my next scheduled post, so I should know lots more by then.

The time has come for Ben and I to actually play a round of golf.

They say that the longest distance on the golf course is the distance from the practice area to the first tee. I guess we’ll see.

Wish us luck.

As I mentioned last week, your energetic center or energy bubble can be used in many ways to better understand yourself, the world around you, and our interactions with others. Honing the skills necessary to reliably use your energetic center (energy bubble) under various circumstances requires practice. With my clients, this practice is built into their workouts. Every repetition of every set is an exploration of being centered.

Ben and I use centering to find and explore the truth within the golf swing. In his piece last Friday, Ben explored feeling the center of the golf club in an attempt to find more balance within his swing. He shared how the relationship between his energetic center and the center of gravity of the club creates a sense of flow within the swing which results in a more consistent and repeatable swing.

Finding the energetic center, where the golfer, club, and ball all exist in harmony will be the key that allows Ben and I to easily obtain the goals that we have created at the start of the TTW program.

I encourage you to experiment with different ways in which to use your energetic center. Practice creating and developing your understanding of the energy bubble.

This week, I ask that you re-read the pieces that Ben and I have posted over the last few weeks. Start with the first piece on truth and monitor your energetic center as you move forward. Spend some time sitting and feeling your response to each piece. Look for the truth within each piece. Read from center and see what speaks to you.

As Ben and I discussed this series of pieces, he reminded me that this material is hard to reconcile, because it actually challenges our preconceived notions of reality. The idea that we are energy beings and not just the physical bodies that we walk around in can be difficult for people to believe. In fact, Ben likes to remind me, that sometimes it’s difficult even for him to believe. Ben has moved so fast in his energy awareness and training that I forget that he’s only been training with me for the last 18 months. Having worked and played in this field for the last twenty years, I often take being able to see and feel energy fields for granted.

This week I hope to provide you with a little more understanding and clarity as to what I’m trying to help you do and more importantly, feel.

From the moment we enter this world we have been programmed to think and feel certain ways. For the first five years of our lives we are learning how to navigate the world from our parents, siblings, and other relatives. As we watch them live their lives, we learn through mimicry, mirroring their deeds and actions. We learn to walk, talk, and think just like them.

At the tender age of 5 or 6 we start the socialization process by going to school. We learn to think and act in a manner that's acceptable to society. We’re taught their ideas and beliefs and these teachings shape our ideas and thought patterns as we learn to interact with others within our society.

For those of you who were raised in religious families, the church, whichever one you went to, added another layer of ideas and beliefs that shape how you think, feel, and act.

All this programming has been crammed into your head your entire life. Unfortunately, not all of this information was correct. I’m sure if you tried, you could come up with many instances where what you were taught as a child was not only wrong, but goes against your belief system as an adult.

Now, I’m not saying that this programming or teaching was in any way malicious. This is how we have learned to raise and educate our young. What I am saying is that we have another level of intelligence and knowing that we were brought into this world with. The ability to access this ‘innate intelligence’ was hard wired into our systems and is accessible to all of us, if we’re willing to access it.

In fact, I’m sure that you already have. For some of us, we occasionally get a ‘gut feeling’ or a flash of understanding that we can’t explain. Others have learned to trust their “intuition.” It doesn’t matter how you want to think of “it” or explain “it”, this is your innate intelligence trying to guide you.

Centering is simply a tool that I have developed to help people become more intuitive, while making their innate intelligence more accessible.

When teaching my clients about fitness and exercise, I always begin by teaching them to center. The first instruction in any exercise to find and establish their center. I do this to help build the center position into their posture and begin the process of teaching them to access their innate intelligence. If they can feel the truth within a movement, they can begin to feel truth within their lives.

The use of energy bubbles and other little tools that I introduce are simply a means to help you feel and access your truth. They become very helpful when using centering to explore other aspects of your life.