Golf and martial Arts.. similar form and objectives

Public Forum—Concepts in Advanced Ball Striking
1

A secret is coming to you all…

Has anyone ever studied a martial arts form that addressed the Chi center of the body?

Anyone know where this is?

I took a Ta’i Chi course from a master instructor, myself knowing nothing, I took him to the golf course and he watched me hit shots
and afterward he bowed to me and called ME his master! lol

As golfers we have the potential to master the true Chi energy center of the body.

in golf we are accelerating the center. Something must be accelerating it. What is this?

I am always amazed at how “in the dark” people are about the importance of acceleration in golf. Most people don’t know what acceleration is… they equate acceleration to speed. If I have one thing to tell a golfer of any level, it is usually a quick lesson in the law of acceleration, and then to move their perceived point of maximum speed much further ahead in the swing than they think. Most golfers believe they are trying to reach maximum speed at the ball. The problem is… that to do this…your perception must be that maximum speed is be reached after the ball… long after the ball really.

Martial arts teaches that a strike must be focused beyond the point of impact… why? sounds all too familiar.

The golf swing is not a conglomeration of static positions. It is a motion, constantly moving and flowing within the discipline of a cohesive body tension. If a golfer is striving for a particular position in their swing, or look, they must work on a position that is past their intended adjustment. All positions, once the swing starts it’s journey, are a product of motions and dynamics.

If I want better impact alignments, I will work feverishly on what is happening at the 4rth parallel, I can swing or hit into that position. Even better yet, nothing will effect my 4rth parallel alignments than what is happening at my finish. Nobody understood this better than Moe Norman. Moe held his impact alignments right to his finish on every shot, every time. It may have looked strange, but the ball never thought so!!!

Does anyone know where this “Chi” center is?

2

The Chi core

Dantian ตันเถียน) Or “elixir field”. The focal point for internal meditative techniques, specifically the physical center of gravity located in the abdomen three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel.

Now, knowing this ancient understanding, when my Ta’i Chi master, watched me rapid fire a line of golf balls alternating each one with a 5 yard draw then fade in succession, the role of student – teacher was immediately switched or polarized. He realized that, as I was hitting these shots, my club shaft was dissecting the ancient ตันเถียน through the impact area. He saw it right away and had never played golf in his life, then simply bowed to HIS new master…!

I never took another Ta’i Chi class again, and he never took up golf…
the only thing that changed was the placement of the master’s crown from his head to mine.

My point here is to share that we as golfers have an incredible opportunity to not only understand some of the greatest secrets of humanity, but to actually apply some of the highest forms of metaphysical expression known in the universe…

In other words, this can be extremely powerful stuff, that can extend far beyond the golf course.

I don’t want to sound too cosmic here, but there is a great saying by
Paramahansa Yogananda

“The seach for perfection is constant and clear”

Mehlhorn unlocked the door for Hogan, Hogan unlocked it for Knudson, Knudson for Moe, Moe, Ben Doyle, Mc Hatton unlocked it for me, given that opportunity, all any of us can do is turn the knob and enter, but only by our own free will, what we do with that knowledge and experience can only be guided by us… one subject at a time.

3

Martial Arts talk a lot about acceleration, and intentions.

The 5th accumulator became a realization while I was switching to hitting, because when I went the the angled hinge, and started keeping the shaft on plane (actually on plane) I realized quickly that the golf swing would be over at P4 …and I realized that to hold shaft flex I would need more room or range of motion… to keep driving the club and shaft… so at that point, once the shaft if around you and left, the only place left to go is UP… when I watched Peter Senior, I saw this incredible pull up of the shaft , and the ball just rocketing off the clubface, and of course Greg Norman too… and Mac also…
A lot of energy going into the golf swing post impact, just like the martial arts.

When I started experimenting with the concept, I quickly realized that there was an incredible amount of stored power there or potential power to keep driving the shaft in an attempt to hold shaft flex past the ball… just like chopping a stack of bricks with your fist. The focus and intent has to be beyond the point of impact.

Now I know the argument is that the ball is long gone so what does it matter? The secret
I learned later is in the biomechanical loading of the muscles… muscles need to be loaded before they engage something… if you are going to put your fist through a wall you will create tension in your muscles before and after impact with that wall… sending these neurological impulses to the muscles in advance through intention stiffens our torso, and the muscles in our shoulders and arms and hands so that as they travel through impact, there is much more toughness and rigidity than if they are not loaded up… this is one of the most important concepts we have to not only understand but apply. The swing does not feel like it is over at impact… it should feel like it is just starting…

Again this is nothing new… Hogan, Knudson, Mehlhorn, Snead, they all talked about this idea… even Homer… try and count how many times Homer uses the word “Through the ball” he talks about the heaviness of impact, and how you must treat it all as impact…

No amount of sheer intellect will get you striking the ball better, but learning the biomechanical feelings of proper intentions will do wonders… just like Karate.

4

With regards to learning how to chop a brick as a parallel, it is advised to practise isometrics from the impact to finish position to feel the correct resistance in the right muscles…every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
The correct acceleration will give rise to the correct reaction in the muscles…thus says the Sensei haha…

5

Bruce Lee related to golf ?

A video I found- thought it related to this part of the forum seeing it was martial art related

youtube.com/watch?v=txM0Zpz4WR4

6

I like when he gets up to show how the entire body must be engaged to get the snapping punch.

“Be water, my friend.”

Love that quote. Insert Be the Ball, Danny clip here…

7

i like the link between martial arts and golf, but where do we take it??

Is it enough to be aware of it or should we all be thinking of studying or taking a Tai Chi or other form of martial art as a weekly practice?

8

In golf we are swinging a stick around our body at a high speed, dealing with all kinds of internal forces of body rotation, and muscular involvement.

In my opinion… we as golfers should be setting the standard for them to learn from us.

In the marital arts, a strike to a stack of bricks needs only break the bricks…

In golf, our strike needs to propel the object flying through the cosmos to a specific point often hundreds of yards away with exquisite precision. Very difficult stuff.

Unfortunately golf is very late in getting a proper understanding of what needs to be applied to properly execute such a motion with reliable and predictable results.

I recently did an extensive interview with a Grand Master 17 time World Champion Martial artist that lives here in the SF Bay area. He we a contemporary of Bruce Lee and was kind enough to share his thoughts on many subjects with me regarding how the body must utilize forces to properly execute a number of very demanding actions.

I’ll have it up soon.

9

I use martial arts but in a different way and it helps me if I suspect acceleration is dropping througout the golf motion.

I studied a form of Karate years ago and the instructor told me that how one senses whether or not a front kick, for example, is happening in the proper accelerated sequence is to listen to the sound the “gi” makes. If the kick is done properly one will hear a high-pitched crisp “pop” from the material. That tells you the kinetic sequence accelerated properly. If done improperly there will still be a “pop” but more of a muffled pitch to it.

I took that discipline one step further which some may want to try "cuz it does indicate acceleration loss.

On my concrete basement floor I take an old tee shirt and simply place it down on the floor. I do not roll it, form it in any specific manner. To me it looks like a random drop of mashed potatoes. Go ahead, grab an old club and hit that tee shirt. If you hit concrete first you will know it. However, if your motion is good and accelerates through the tee shirt the trailing edges of the material will make a distinct pop, almost like the “gi”, or cracking the whip if you like. If acceleration is lost, the pop will still occur but you can tell the difference. The trailing edges play catch-up and really snap if done correctly. Have fun. RR

10

Not really related but I am waiting to see if I’ve got a place on a Pilates course.

very hard to get into with this particular instructor.

11

This may be getting a bit too deep, but where do different opposite movements start? I mean, if the club is dead still at address, and we decide to start the backswing now, what muscles start the chain reaction that gets the club moving back? Is is the stomach muscles from the chi centre, or just the arms and I’m reading too much into it?

Also I’ve started thinking about module 2 about being focused on an area between the knees. So rather than trying to hit a bag/ball, I’m trying to think that everything revolves around this area, and the important part is to put all energy into this area. It’s really just a birds eye shot of the swing anyway, so perhaps in reality it’s all about the chi centre?

12

Even though power comes from the core in some sense it’s is still drive by a kinetic link to fully harness power…
It’s conservtion of momentum which for example is how someone can break 3 bricks… They learn to utilise the kinetic and get the arms to react peak acceleration and deceleartion is where you fully utilise conservation of momentum which the energy is passed therough each brick cause them to break…
It’s like in shot put is the acutaly shot point begins to accelerate and leave your hand when you reach peak accleration and deceleration occurs… as soon as deceleration of the amrs occurs conservation of momentum is paas through the to shot putt and leaves your hand accelerating…

This applies with any punching as well… Again the kinetic link is how the body creates speed to even create a puching motion…
We have done a bunch or research on kicking, punching and throwing… the differnce between Black belt and white belt is black belt can utilise the kinetic link better… they creat a better power prodcution process
At the point of impact the arm has declerate and passed speed and energy into the object…
Even though it appears the arms is accelerating we are really decelerating into impact… May not feel this way although when you measure this tells a different story…
Golf what ever sport really the human body use the kinetic link to create power and speed…
Golf is nothing new to creating power although what people need to lean is to learn the power generation process is neuromechanics… this is our thumb print to how our body creates speed… To train a kinetic link … has nothing to do with training golf swing mechanics… You have to train your neuromechanics of how your body naturally creates speed… This is serious business when you start messing with peoples neuromechanics beacuse your changing how the body moves in general to create speed and motion… IF you go down this road get tested and ensure the training is measured… If you train the neuromechanics wrong can lead to injuries and even effect normal motion…

Neuromechanics is a field of it’s own and I have never met anyone who is even game to go this road without testing athletes and testing their training…
You have montior and measure to be 100% sure your are re training there body to create the right movement patterns…

Golf needs a huge wake up call in a big way the golfswing is more complex beyond our imagination… the reason i say this is the human body is involved and neuromechanics… very complex field and you need to know what the hell you are doing…

13

RR - I’m glad you mentioned this. I used to put a tremendous amount of starch while washing my gi. I became a 5th degree black belt before anyone at my dojo really realized that I had no idea what I was doing…all because of the sound of my actions! :wink:

Captain Chaos

14

Do I detect starch in your cape? :laughing:

15

that’s modules 12 to 15!

“Sand de floor”

“Paint de fence”

“Wax de car”

youtube.com/watch?v=fUJ9_gffP1U