Small steps on my Qi Gong and golf journey – not a particularly good score but slightly better and going down!
Oh well, the first opportunity on my Qi Gong and golf journey to record a score was a club competition and it wasn’t brilliant. But it was slightly better than the one dropping off the eight best scores, so it changed the average. The result is that I am now 33.6 handicap index (was 33.7). So I have to work on this a bit more (just a bit!). My excuse is that the competition was a par or “bogey” format which doesn’t suit my high handicapper up and down play – grrr!
The bogey format is described as playing a match against the course. In this you have to be very steady because you just get one plus point for playing each hole better than your handicap and a minus for playing a hole above your handicap. If you just play to your handicap you get zero. This is not very satisfying. On the other hand, In my normal game I can get a better score sometimes by playing a hole well below my handicap so that if I do a bad hole it doesn’t matter so much.
Qi Gong and golf – what is Qi Gong?
Qi Gong is a Chinese practice a bit like Yoga that has been going for thousands of years. The words translate as “energy work”. It is all about getting your energy to flow which produces healing in the body and encourages longevity. It is based on the same system of channels and pressure points that acupuncture and shiatsu use, and I love it.
Practising Qi Gong regularly strengthens your muscle, tones your body, expands your mind and connects you to the universe. You learn to control your breath and relax. How could this not help with golf? Here is Qi Gong practitioner and teacher Lee Holden to tell you more about it.
When you do a back swing in golf it should be relaxed and effortless. Then you swing down and focus directly on the target.
So next chance to reduce my handicap using my my new Qi Gong techniques – next week’s medal!