The Golf Swing Mind/Body Connection

Before any part of the body moves to make the golf swing, there are instructions sent from the mind. The mind controls the body during your golf swing.

Does it make sense to train the two parts of golf swing body movement separately?

The mind and the body must work together so for the best results with your golf swing, they must also be trained together… But because there are two minds, the conscious and subconscious, the process can get complicated.

The third component required to accurately execute golf shots with lasting consistency is uninterrupted communication between the mind and the body during movement. (key word: uninterrupted)

Why? Because, during movement or your golf swing the subconscious mind is not only sending messages to the body to create your swing, it is also constantly analyzing the data that is sent back, comparing it to the instruction so that needed adjustments can be made to improve the accuracy of your golf swing. It happens 24/7 “behind the scenes” any time you are in movement.

Meanwhile, the conscious mind is trying to direct the subconscious… Unfortunately the two minds don’t always see eye to eye, and that’s where the difficulty training the mind starts.

Most mental gurus tell their students to calm the mind, quiet the mind, distract or even shut the mind down. They’re talking about the conscious mind because it is always the culprit when an advanced golfer isn’t performing well…

But there is a major problem with this line of thought:

The conscious mind will not allow itself to be turned off unless you’re sleeping.

If the line of communication between the subconscious and the body is interrupted or blocked (by distractions noticed by the conscious mind), the resulting golf swing is not going to get complete instructions and suffers in accuracy of movement… In this case, a bad shot that may cost you strokes.

Rather than trying to stop the conscious mind, wouldn’t it make more sense to improve the communication between the subconscious and the body so the conscious couldn’t distract it?

Is it even possible?

Science has proven that you CAN improve these lines of communication in your brain through the process of Myelination. When neurons are fired, myelin gets wrapped around the neuron to protect it. The myelin also serves to increase the neuron’s firing capability. the more that neuron gets fired, the more myelin gets wrapped, the better the neuron fires.

The trick is to consistently fire the same neurons to build up the myelin, which isn’t as easy as it might sound. Myelination requires deep practice, which means practice with focus. In this case, you have to focus on the communication between your mind and body. Contrary to popular belief, you can tap into the communication going on between the subconscious and the body.

The following exercise will demonstrate how to start the process of Myelination.

If I ask you to take a walk and pinpoint just where the majority of the weight is felt at different times during each step, what do you think will happen? Try it. When your foot lands, is the weight in the middle of the heel or to one side? As your foot rolls across the floor, does the weight move along the outside edge, or does it shift to the ball of the foot behind the big toe?

Try it… It’s OK, I’ll wait: Take a walk and try to pinpoint the weight in each foot as you walk WITHOUT LOOKING AT YOUR FEET. Each foot will be different.

When you get back, you will have seen a picture of the bottoms of your feet as you were trying to perform this exercise. What you have done is to tap into the communication so that you can “see” the feedback the body is sending the brain.

Next take another walk and correct your movement. Make sure you land in the center of each heel, move to the ball of the foot and then push of from the center of the forefoot… WITHOUT LOOKING AT YOUR FEET.

So ahead and do it… The only way to believe this unless is to experience it first hand…

What you accomplish during this exercise is to correct your body’s movement using the same communication network the body uses to stay in balance. More importantly, you will have corrected your movement using a mere intention, which created a picture of what you wanted to happen… The clear picture, connected to real bio-feedback, was all that you needed to correct your physical movement.

You have now tapped into the communication network between the body and mind and corrected your movement using your conscious in conjunction with your subconscious WITHOUT distracting your movement.

If you’ve tried using visualization on the golf course with less than stellar results, it’s simply because your body wasn’t part of the process. The difference between visualization that a golf psychologist will ask you to create, and Bio-Visual Focus is that this way you are seeing and CORRECTING live feedback from YOUR OWN BODY.

Visualization combined with bio-feedback has one more very important advantage. It keeps your mind in the present.

Without feedback that focuses on your movement, it’s too easy for your visualization to create worries about whether the shot you see will work, and then what will happen to your score, and then shift your focus to your finishing place in a tournament. Without biofeedback, your visualization will often create the very distractions you are trying to prevent.

This is a simple exercise to prove that Bio-Visual Focus works effectively, easily, and quickly. The same can be done with your golf swing to improve the accuracy and consistency of each shot on the golf course.

It is the mastery of this communications system that is the secret of Control during a golf swing and improved focus on the golf course.

Bio-Visual Focus is a multi-step process that gives advanced golfers total control over every aspect of their movement, including making instant corrections if something is a little off.

Copyright © 2008 Golf Swing Control