Author: Jerry

When talking about the mechanics of the golf swing, what I am really trying to do is simplify the process of hitting a golf ball. With the couple of lessons that I have taken in my lifetime, the instructors talked lots about hand position, locked arms and wrists, and a couple of other biomechanical positions that did not come naturally to my body.

Having a B.A. in Kinesiology (the study of human movement), the unnaturalness of the process never made sense to me. When the body is aligned and centered the process of swinging a club and hitting the ball should come easily. However, if you have been struggling in mastering the mechanics of the swing, letting go of what you either know or assume can be very complicated. This is where breathing comes in. By making the breath the focus of movement you can short-circuit the thinking process of the swing and let the body move in the manner to which it was designed.

This is why centering is so important to the game of golf. When you’re centered, your core muscles are actively engaged and ready to create movement. In preparation for finishing the mechanics of a centered golf swing, let’s take a quick look at core alignment and activation when addressing the ball.

Establishing the “V”

When standing centered at address, if you move from the belly button outward towards each shoulder you have a “V.” The raised diaphragm squares and drops the shoulders while engaging the core muscles. If you are truly moving from center you should be able to maintain your “V” at all times. Any movement that distorts or breaks your “V” is considered to be outside of center. The goal during any activity is to monitor and protect your “V” at all times.

The Backswing

Standing at address in the centered position, take a couple centered breaths while relaxing your body. Initiate your back swing by turning your back shoulder slowly so that your “V” remains intact at all times. Ideally you’ll rotate until your front shoulder is directly under your chin.

Understanding your flexibility in rotation is essential here. Anytime you rotate too far, your “V” will collapse and your head will move off of the ball. When this happens you change your contact point, causing the club face to be less then centered when it contacts the ball, causing a misdirected shot.
If you have maintained your center throughout the back swing you should be able to pause at the top of the swing and take an open flowing breath. If at the top of your backswing your breath is limited you have either rotated too far, so you’re now out of center, or you have over tightened muscles in anticipation of hitting the ball.

If you are finding it difficult to relax your body during the backswing, return to addressing the ball and take several centered breaths. Practice rotating into your backswing and relaxing the body until you can easily hold the back swing and take open flowing breathes.

Downswing

Having completed the backswing, you should be centered with your front shoulder under your chin and your head directly over the ball. Being centered you should be able to hold this position comfortably.
To initiate the down stroke, pull the front shoulder back, rotating around the axis of your spine. (You should be able to maintain your “V” throughout contacting the ball) Keep your head over and your eyes on the ball so that you can actually see your club make contact with the ball.

The rotation that pulls your club through the hitting zone will cause your hips to rotate so that your weight shifts over your front leg with a balanced and centered stance. Your navel will be pointed at your target as you hold your follow through with your head up and eyes on the ball.

Conclusion
The way I have described the swing here makes the most sense to me not only biomechanically, but also as an organic movement. As I continue to experiment and practice, I might offer suggestions and ideas on further modifications. Until then, I suggest you play with the ideas I have shared here, making adjustments based on your individual strengths and weaknesses.

I have used the last couple of posts to begin teach you, the fine art of centering. As I wrote earlier in this project, I’m a fitness consultant who specializes in conscious movement and medical exercise. In the gym, I teach my clients to center during our very first session. When teaching a new exercise or movement the first instruction is always to ‘find center.’

To be centered is to be balanced. Balanced in mind, body, breath and heart. To be centered is to be whole. Wherever you find yourself reading this, take a moment to find center. Take a couple of breaths, feel the breath rise through your body. Now that you’re centered, let’s talk about a centered golf swing.

The Centered Golf Swing

Stance:

Center. Begin by relaxing your feet and slightly raising your diaphragm. Take a nice easy breath from the bottom up. Notice your breath as it rises through your body. Now, focus your exhale down through your body into the ground. Breathing in this manner helps to ground you physically and enhances your feeling of being balanced.

Grip:

Before we talk about gripping the golf club, grab the club you feel most comfortable using while playing.

Center. Let’s begin by taking your normal grip and taking a centered breath. Does your breath rise? If it does, you’re perfect! Don’t change anything. If you find that your breath catches and doesn’t rise freely, begin by relaxing your hands. Take another breath. Does it rise? If it does, notice where your hands are located on the club and the pressure in your grip. Practice holding the club in this manner.

If not, begin slightly repositioning your hands until you find a grip that allows you to breathe fully and easily. Once you have a grip that allows for an open flowing breath, practice gripping your clubs in this manner. This will be your new grip moving forward.

Addressing the ball:

Center over the ball with your new centered grip. Take a couple of nice open breaths. Are you relaxed standing there? Do you feel balanced and centered? If so, you’re ready to start your swing. If not, re-adjustment until you’re comfortably centered.

When addressing the ball you should be fully relaxed with an open flowing breath. If you have tension in your body or your breath doesn’t rise, take a step back and re-center. The quickest way to a consistent, reproducible swing is to start it from center.

Between now and my next post, practice the components of the swing that I have addressed this week. Before we begin talking about the rest of the swing, we need to be comfortable at address with a consistent grip.

Last week I went into detail about centering while seated. I hope that you spent the week practicing and experiencing the feeling associated with an open flowing breath. Moving forward, that sensation of flow and balance that comes with centering will be critical in improving our golf games.

During practice sessions, Ben and I have been working on various breathing techniques to help create an open flowing golf swing. That process starts with centering.

Standing Center:

Stand with feet hip to shoulder width apart.

Relax your feet by wiggling your toes and softening your arches. When you relax your feet your knees will automatically relax. It is physically impossible to have soft feet and tight knees.

Now gently raise your diaphragm – notice how your shoulders drop when your do this. (Your diaphragm is the tissue that separates your heart and lungs from your internal organs. It sits directly under your rib cage. To raise it gently lift your rib cage and you will feel it rise.)

Now, take a nice easy breath up through your hips and into your upper chest and shoulders. – Did your breath rise? Try it again.

Notice your breath as it moves up through your pelvis, past your belly button, through the diaphragm and into your upper chest. Now, take another easy breath. Allow yourself the luxury of feeling what an open flowing breath feels like.

When your breath flows freely from your pelvis into your upper chest and shoulders you are CENTERED.
When CENTERED you are in a state of perfect posture, with your body aligned from the soles of your feet through the top of your head.

Over the next week practice standing centered. After taking several centered breathes, close your eyes and visualize hitting a golf ball. Feel the sense of balance and flow created by centering while visualizing your swing.

Over that last few weeks I have shared some basic tips on centering and breathing. AS Ben and I begin moving into the nuts and bolts of this program, I thought it essential to explore the idea of centering in greater depth. The following excerpt is taken from my upcoming book on health and fitness. As you read, practice the techniques that are being described.

Wherever you find yourself reading this – take a minute, notice where your feet are. Notice your posture. Where are your shoulders in relation to your hips? Is your breath deep or shallow? Are you breathing consciously or unconsciously? How aware are you of your surroundings?

Now take a minute, put your feet firmly on the ground hip to shoulder width apart.

Have your knees bent 90 degrees.

Sit-up so your shoulders are directly over your hips.

Now gently raise your diaphragm – notice how your shoulders drop when your do this. (Your diaphragm is the tissue that separates your heart and lungs from your internal organs. It sits directly under your rib cage. To raise it gently lift your rib cage and you will feel it raise.)

Relax your feet by wiggling your toes and letting your arches soften. As your feet relax your legs will relax.

Now, take a nice easy breath up through your hips and into your upper chest and shoulders. – Did your breath raise? Try it again.

Notice your breath as it moves up through your pelvis, past your belly button, through the diaphragm and into your upper chest. Now, take another easy breath. Allow yourself the luxury of feeling what an open flowing breath feels like.

When your breath flows freely from your pelvis into your upper chest and shoulders you are CENTERED.

When CENTERED you are in a state of perfect posture. Aligned from the soles of your feet through the top of your head.

Practicing centering while sitting is perfect for our purposes. Over the next few weeks I’ll shift things to standing centered and applying it to the golf swing.

I was meeting with Ben prior to my last post and we were planning, talking and just hanging out a bit. He reminded me of a story that I had shared with him over a year ago. It seems relevant to what we are trying to do here, so I thought I would share it with you.

Quite a few years ago, I had received a gift of some very beautiful pottery dishes. I really liked them but they were really big, almost twice the size of a standard dinner plate. So without too much thought, the old dishes were donated to charity and the new dishes were put into use. About a month later, I realized that I had gained some weight. Now, I don’t weigh myself often and my weight has been pretty consistent for the last 20 years, so I got on the scale and sure enough I had gained about 10 pounds.

Luckily, I know a really good fitness consultant, and started keeping a food journal like I always have my clients do under these circumstances. The problem became quite obvious after a couple days of journaling – I was eating too much. Interestingly enough, my habits had not changed during the last month. I was eating what I typically ate, and my exercise habits were the same. The only real change that had occurred in my life were the new dishes. After thinking about it for a while, I went out and bought new, normal sized, dishes and donated the pottery to charity.

You see, I was raised in a military family with 5 children. There was always enough food, but there was never any extra. Therefore, you ate the food that was put on your plate. Officially, that made me a member of the “clean your plate club.” Having been raised that way, I have continued that behavior into adulthood.

Cleaning my plate had never posed a problem for me until I was given those BIG plates. Because the plate was bigger, apparently so were my portions, and larger portions equals too many calories, which over a month or so, leads to weight gain. By switching to a smaller plate, I was better able to control my food intake and my weight returned to normal within a couple months.

Over the years, I have shared that story with many clients. The usual response is, “couldn’t you just take smaller portions or just leave some food on your plate?” Now, both of those are really reasonable choices except for the fact that I really like my plate to appear full and I have been cleaning my plate for the better part of 50 years now. That’s a habit that is very strongly ingrained into my brain. So, I could fight 50 years of learned behavior or I could buy smaller plates.

When I shared this with Ben, I didn’t realize the affect it would have on him. While we were talking yesterday he told me about the phrase “small plate solutions,” which he had coined after that initial discussion. I don’t want to put words into his mouth but I took it to mean that when making behavioral changes; rather than change the core of who we are, by knowing ourselves well, we can simply accept who we are and change some of our circumstances and create the positive change we were hoping to make.

Now, I bet you’re wondering what this has to do with the Training Tiger Woods program. Well during this training program we will be bumping into many behavioral patterns. Some will be completely ingrained and others can be solved by applying “small plate solutions.”

Between now and my next post, keep centering and breathing.

“So often our possessions sleep.”

This quote popped into my head soon after finishing my last post. The ability to attend, stay present, to breathe and move consciously are skills (or tools) that I have honed over many years. The fact that they stay locked in my tool box on occasion doesn’t surprise me. What surprises me is the realization that through simple habit, I could unconsciously lock that tool box and severely limit my ability to perform.

With that in mind, I planned to meet Ben at the driving range. Upon my arrival Ben was already on the chipping green. He greeted me with “What’s the plan?” Which turned out to be perfect, because I had to stop and think about how to proceed. As I reached for a club, I could feel apprehension and even tension begin to build in my body. I put the club back and took a breath. I suggested we start with some stretching. Some conscious movement that was breath-focused seemed to be practical for creating new movement and energy patterns around golfing.

So we talked about if for a while, did some stretches and headed to our position on the chipping green. Again, reaching for the club, I could feel the tension begin to rise within my body. I took a deep breath and Ben and I began talking about and breaking down the mechanics of chipping. We talked about stance, and breathing, while looking at aim point and energy dynamics. When actually chipping, we would alternate shots so we could watch the others body mechanics, breath and energy. After three shots each we would talk about the results and make suggestions for better form.

It didn’t take long for us to find the form we were looking for and to begin creating a pattern that would elicit the desired results. We were both hitting some pretty good chips and the talk changed into critiquing performance. Almost immediately, I lost my form and couldn’t control my shots. I realized that my breathing had changed and all my energy had moved up into my head. I had once again triggered my habitual response and my form had fallen apart. I could tell that Ben had noticed as well. I excused myself and went to the pro shop to get some water.

During the walk I took the time to ground myself and shift my energetic focus. Upon my return, I decided to shift my focus back to the mechanics rather than the performance. Almost immediately, I was once again hitting quality shots. So what changed in the space between working on the mechanics of chipping and analyzing the results of said chipping?

The easy answer is FLOW. The ritual of grounding my energy and focusing on my breath while preparing to chip created a sense of flow and ease in my body that allowed my body to do what I was trying to do. The more caught up in the actual results I got, the worse my breathing and grounding grew and I lost the sense of flow. Without being able to feel the flow and energy of the chipping motion, I was stuck with the less than adequate physical mechanics that I had developed over the years.

Moving forward, I see the necessity of creating grounding and breathing exercises for the typical types of shots that I can expect to hit during a round of golf, in an attempt to break the habituated response that blocks my sense of flow and limits my ability to perform.

This should make for an interesting week of practice.
Between now and my next post, try this grounding exercise.

Either sitting or standing assume the centered pose to practice your breathing.

Begin focusing your exhales through the bottom of your feet and into the ground.

Separate from your exhale and let your inhale happen automatically.

Try taking 5 breaths this way 5 times per day.

Why do I always think of Allen Iverson when talking about practice? He’s sitting in front of numerous cameras all attitude and utters “Were talking about practice.” We talk about it, because practicing anything - is a dress rehearsal for life.

By definition, practice is to perform or work at repeatedly so as to become proficient. But as I stated in my last post, quality practice leads to success. Going through the motions in practice will lead to poor mechanics and inefficient play.

Since starting this project I haven’t played or practiced golf. Ben separated his shoulder just before we began and hitting golf balls was out of the question. Now, that doesn’t mean I haven’t been to the driving range. Lately, I will go to the range without clubs and watch how people practiced. After spending several hours watching I have come to some basic conclusions.

The first is that everyone is very rushed. People would grab a club and take a few hurried practice swings, then start whacking balls down range. If they did stop to stretch for a minute, the stretches were rushed and appeared to be random.

The second is that the practice wasn’t very organized. As I watched, nobody seemed to take the time to think about what they were trying to accomplish. If they had a plan of action or goals for the session I couldn’t see it from where I watched. The only recognizable goal was to get through the bucket as fast as possible.

The third and maybe most important conclusion was that I had finally figured out why I was such a poor golfer. I was approaching the game exactly the same way. I would rush through my warm-ups, hit too many balls with the same club, and spend zero time getting my head right before I played. When I would go to just practice, the quality and structure of my practice would insure that I would never get better. It became very clear to me that I was practicing not only the wrong things, but the wrong way.

After thinking about it for a little while, I realized that if my earlier statement, ‘practice is a dress rehearsal for life,’ is true, then there had to be other places within my life that mirrored how I practiced. I’ll save you the self-reflection process, but I immediately came up with several areas within my life where I live like I golf.

The important thing here is that I teach conscious movement and breath every day to my clients. I spend at least 6 hours every day being conscious of how I am standing, walking and breathing. And yet, because of the bad habits I have developed over the years, all of it goes out the window when I pick up a golf club. With this in mind, I’m heading to the driving range later today with my clubs. I might even hit a ball or two and explore these ideas on practice. Between now and my next post, keep practicing your conscious breathing. Here is an exercise to practice while standing.

Stand with your feet hip to shoulder width.
Soften your feet by wiggling your toes.
Slightly raise your rib cage.
Take three deep breathes from the bottom up.

I was thinking about the idea of practice while watching football this weekend. There was an interesting commercial from Under Armour that was airing during the game. The ad shows Tom Brady going through passing drills. During the ad, they replicate him hundreds of times, moving in the exact same pattern over and over again, looking down field with perfect footwork, throwing a complete pass. These ads feature the tag line of You Are the Sum of All your Training. I thought about it for a while and I realized that they were both right and wrong. They were right because we really are the sum of ALL our training. All of it. They are wrong because they limit what we “are” to our sports training.

Every single thing we do gets incorporated into who we are, and how we walk the world. Everything we do in practice not only gets incorporated into the game, it gets incorporated into how we live our lives as well. But, it’s not just what we do that effects everything else. It’s also how we do it!

If we do it wrong, we can train or practice every day and still not improve in our craft. If we practice with flow and grace, building a sense of presence into everything we do; it will follow us onto the course as easily as it will into our living rooms or office. Conversely, if we train with intensity, chaos and a lack of presence, that too will follow us wherever we go. There is no separating the results when it comes to crunch time. We will act as we have trained.

How we live has an equal impact on how we play. If our lives are filled with drama and chaos, that will follow us into practice and onto the playing field. There is no escaping it. We really are the sum of ALL our training.

So we’re going to train better. We’re going to be more present, and train ourselves to live and practice with balance and grace. When all is said and done, not only will we be better golfers– we will be better people.

In my next post I will talk about golf specific practice. Between now and then, here is a simple exercise to prepare.

Sit-up and put your feet flat on the floor.
Have your feet under you so your knees are at 90 degrees.
Slightly raise your rib cage.
Take 3 slow breathes.
Do this 10-15 times per day.

In my last post I shared that Training Tiger Woods (TTW) is an attempt to create a training program to help people overcome their limitations and maximize their potential.  Before I move forward, I should clarify that we are not doing this on a lark.  I have spent the last 20 years developing the techniques we are going to be using during this process.  These are tried and proven techniques that I have used working one on one with clients in a gym setting. So walking in, we know that exercise can in fact be used as a modality to help people overcome their limitations. Using sports and sports performance takes it one step further.

For those of you who might not know me, my name is Jerry Siravo.  I am the founder of A Way of Life Fitness Consulting.  I have a BS in Kinesiology and I am a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS).  My work focuses on injury rehabilitation and helping people re-establish balance within their lives.  My hope is that the TTW program is going to be a stepping stone for teaching the principles that I have developed to larger and more diverse groups of people.

The obvious question seems to be, why use golf?

We chose golf for several reasons. First, golf is hard. The fact that it’s hard to play golf well is generally accepted by most people.  Therefore, significant improvement by either of us will be a ringing endorsement for our training methods. Second, improvement is easily measured. At the end of each round you have a ‘report card’ that shows how well you played against the golf course that day.  Third, neither of us are proficient in the sport.  Ben has never broken 100 strokes over 18 holes.  In my past, a very long time ago, I broke 90 once.  These days I typically shoot between 96 and 105.  Fourth, we both enjoy practicing and playing the game. Since we are going to be spending lots of our time working on this, we might as well have fun while doing it.

Our first order of business will be to get Ben healthy. He is currently recovering from a separated shoulder that he hurt playing soccer. As soon as he has recovered we will play a round and see where exactly we are starting from. (Neither of us has played a full round of golf this season.)

Our initial goals are as follows.  By the end of next golfing season, approximately a year from now, Ben wants to be routinely breaking 100.  Myself, I hope to be shooting in the high 80’s on a regular basis.  Because we are going to teach each other without any outside help or lessons we can insure that our improvement is a byproduct of our training program.

Now that the background has been set and our goals established, it’s time to begin.  Wish us luck.

Before I explain what this is, I should explain how this idea came about. I was watching Sport Center with my good friend and writing coach, Ben. The talking heads on the screen were talking about Tiger not making the cut in the U.S. Open. So Ben, who also trains with me, asks “could you help Tiger be dominant again?” I smiled and explained why I thought I could if the circumstances were right. He gave me his whimsical smile and we moved on to the next topic.

A couple of days later we were meeting for a writing session and Ben says that he has an assignment for me. I’m to write a letter to Tiger Woods and explain how I could help him. We talk about the parameters of the assignment, he gave me six weeks to complete it because by then Tiger would have missed the cut in the British Open and missed the PGA championships (leaving him with plenty of spare time), and we moved on to the next topic.

Here’s the letter. If anyone reading this has access to Tiger or his people, please forward it on. I stand by my premise and feel strongly that I could truly help.

An open letter to Tiger Woods

It’s good to be the king! Tiger, when you were dominating the golf world you were truly the “king.” You were the most dominant player the world has ever seen. You strutted around the golf course like a young god daring those around you to defy your right to rule, while enjoying the spoils of success in a manner only those born to rule can. Now, I’m not here to judge, success has a way of enticing even the best into temptation. I’m sure all the great golfers of their day enjoyed the spoils of success. But they lived in a different time and almost a different place. Back then, there was a thing called privacy. Your private life was private. Now, not so much.

The way you walked the world and took what was yours by right, created a confluence of power, control, and grace. It was a marriage of energy, passion and complete physical dominance that changed the landscape of golf. You truly changed the game for ever. No longer is golf the play thing of the rich and privileged. We all like to play now.

Today, I watched Jason Day win his first Major with Jordan Spieth hot on his heels. After missing the cut in your third straight major, you were in Florida watching from your new business interest. That kind of sounds like another ‘has been’ moving on to the next phase of life. I can only hope it’s not so.
It’s not that I have anything against the young golfers who are dominating the scene right now. They are very talented and deserving of the praise they are receiving. It’s just they’re like golf used to be. But, if the king is dead – “long live the King.”

Somehow, I don’t think you’re quite done yet. You keep retooling your swing and putting yourself under the harsh scrutiny of society. The talent is still there. You are still one of the greatest athletes ever to play the game.

Your swing isn’t the problem. You can change it a thousand times and things still will not be right. You still won’t win.

When you look at the combination of social pressure, injury rehabilitation, and trying to redefine yourself as a man, a golfer and a father, it’s not a mystery why you haven’t succeeded.

There is an energetic balance that goes with success. When I watch you play, I don’t see a golfer struggling with his swing. I see an athlete out of balance. That state of balance and grace under pressure was once yours. It can be again.

We should talk. I can help.

Jerry Siravo CSCS

Founder of A Way of Life Fitness Consulting.

The writing process led to some interesting questions and ideas. For example, what separates us average people from the truly great athletes? Are they born gifted with more potential than the rest of us? Or do they just achieve that potential to a higher degree? Whatever it is, we agreed that most of us live lives of unfulfilled potential. We could do more and be more. We all have our reasons, excuses, and stories for why we haven’t achieved our potential. I’ll even go so far as to accept that often our reasons are legitimate. Whatever the reason, we haven’t been able to rise up and overcome our limitations and maximize our potential.

The simple idea that we could all do and be more led Ben and myself to this idea.

We are going to develop a training program that helps people achieve to their highest potential.

We will share this process with you both here and on my site at http://awayoflifefitness.com/blog/. I will be posting my views and insights on the process most Mondays and Ben will follow with his on Fridays. Our goal is to make this process as interactive as possible. We would love to hear your opinions and will gladly answer questions during this process.