Do you play golf? Do you want to improve your swing and bring your focus to the next level? Then think about practicing Tai Chi.
How can Tai Chi help golfers? Tai Chi can improve your golf swing and mental focus out on the green.
Tai chi teaches you to be aware of your fine motor movements and to focus on the present – two key components of being a great golfer.
Tai Chi For Golfers – How It Helps
There are two ways that tai chi helps golfers:
- Improved motor control (better golf swing)
- Enhanced mental concentration
Improved Motor Control
Motor control is your neurological ability to send the signals which operate your muscle movements. If you want your arm to swing the golf club, then your brain has to issue a command down through the neurons into your muscles controlling your arms.
Motor control can be fine-tuned. You can improve your movements with practice. People who regularly practice tai chi have incredible motor control over their bodies. They have practiced motor control skills enough times to create muscle memory.
Muscle memory is when the conscious thought of a movement becomes a subconscious thought. A habit or pattern. From difficult to easy.
So how do we develop these motor control patterns? We practice of course. But as a golfer who is trying to up your game to the next level, I’m sure you already practice. Probably a lot.
This is why tai chi can be a great asset to your golf game.
Tai Chi is a slow-movement practice. Doing a movement slowly will more effectively create the neurological pattern for motor control.
We can compare tai chi to learning a musical instrument.
I learned to play guitar when I was in high school and it took patience.
When I learned a certain cord progression, I had to sit and practice it over and over again for hours to fine-tune my motor control skills with my hands and fingers.
Sometimes I would play it too fast and the music sounded sloppy. If my dad, a skilled musician, walked by and heard me play he would remind me to “slow down.”
When I slowed down my playing, I would quickly learn the cords and it went much faster to practice slowly.
Going slower is a faster method of learning motor control. Slow equals fast for motor control learning.
It’s complicated stuff, but hopefully, I’m getting through. If you’re still confused about how motor control and slow movements work. Then just go learn a new skill and do it fast. Then try learning a skill slowly. Your body will learn the slow skills more efficiently than the skills which you practiced fast.
Golf is a precise sport. Mainly driving and putting. Your body movements have to be incredibly accurate in order to hit the ball and make it go where you want it to.
This requires you to have total control of your own body. The more you can control your movements, the more you will be able to control the ball.
You have to control your arms, the angle of swing, the force, your grip, your torso and rotation, your hips, legs and even feet. That’s just a simplified list of your muscles during a drive. We could break it down even more, but that’s for another post.
Tai Chi is practicing full body control during slow movements. This will help you build those fine-tuned, skilled movements needed during each swing.
Slow it down and control your body. Do this and you will have a better golf game.
Enhanced Mental Focus
The second reason for golfers to practice Tai Chi is for enhanced mental focus.
Golfers need to focus. You need to block out distractions and be aware only of what you are doing in the present moment.
Tai Chi helps you do this. Practicing Tai Chi is not only moving your body in slow flowing motions, but breathwork and meditation as well.
By calming your monkey mind and learning to control your own thoughts, you improve your mental game of golf.
Mental focus is hard to quantify and define. For the purposes of research and studies I compare your mental control to ADHD. Which is literally a lack of mental focus, usually in academic settings amongst children.
A study was done back in 2017 at the Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, Loyola University Health System. In which they studied the effect of mind-body therapy on children with ADHD.
Here is what they had to say about Tai Chi.
” During the five weeks, participants completed two 30-minute sessions (of Tai Chi) per week. It was found that the adolescents exhibited significantly decreased anxiety, decreased daydreaming, decreased inappropriate emotions, decreased hyperactivity, and increased conduct (mental engagement) after the Tai Chi intervention. Researchers hypothesized that these effects may be due to lower levels of stress and cortisol release, which has been shown as an effect of Tai Chi in previous research studies.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5447989/
Woah! Tai Chi is a powerhouse for mental control. Doing it only twice a week for 30 minutes produced a ton of mental benefits.
So now we know why tai chi translates well to golf, let’s talk about how to incorporate tai chi into your regime.
How To Do Tai Chi At Home For Golfers
Let me be the first to admit. I am not a Tai Chi master. I have practiced it and seen the benefit in others, but I have not lived on top of a mountain in China learning the ancient art of Tai Chi.
No worries though. Because those masters are on the internet now and it’s crazy easy to learn Tai Chi.
But if I were to give some humble advice it would be this.
- Breath slow, around 6 seconds in and out
- Watch your hands with your eyes
- Observe and feel your body shake, millimeters of movement
- Finding an outdoor group is best
I hope this has been helpful in your journey to a better golf game. Thanks for reading.