How are the body & mind connected in golf?
Posted on May 11, 2015
As our golf game evolves, literature suggests that 80-90% of on-the-course performance becomes mental because of the continuous flux of external conditions. Learning and practicing a meditation skill can enable the golfer to be in chaos and yet deliberately calm the mind and trust the club and body mechanic skills to unleash the artist within to deliver a shot to a visualized target. As Tim Gallwey offers in The Inner Game of Golf, “I am convinced that the happiest and best golfers are those who have realized that there is no single gimmick that works and that good golf is attained only by patience and humility and by continually practicing both Outer and Inner skills.”
Having experienced that awareness and simplicity are my best coach and caddie, the inner and outer seeds that bear fruit and are deserving of continued nurture are daily meditation practice and practice of set-up and one-piece take-away. As golf technical literature offers, 80-90% of a decent golf swing requires good set-up and one-piece take-away. Read More
How can golf be a game and therapy too?
Posted on May 2, 2015
As a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point; and proud member of the Long Gray Line, the memory is etched with passing in review on The Plain for General of the Army Douglas MacArthur; watching him during football games at Michie Stadium; and hearing him deliver his farewell address to The Corps of Cadets in Thayer Hall on May 12, 1962. On this historic day, he remarked,
They teach you to be proud and unbending in honest failure, but humble and gentle in success; not to substitute words for actions, nor to seek the path of comfort, but to face the stress and spur of difficulty and challenge; to learn to stand up in the storm but to have compassion for those who fail; to master yourself before you seek to master others; to have a heart that is clean, a goal that is high; to learn to laugh yet never forget how to weep; to reach into the future yet never neglect the past; to be serious yet never to take yourself too seriously; to be modest so that you will remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. Read More
Give the inner golfer a big hug!
Posted on April 26, 2015
Give the inner golfer a big hug!
Peter Kostis, a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teacher and CBS Sports Analyst, nailed the concept of unleash the artist within in a May 2015 Golf Magazine article, “Embrace the Golfer Within.” Today, since the majority of golf instruction has become technology and technical skills driven, it feels like instructors may have left the human being behind. Perhaps it is time to re-focus on the person swinging the golf club, as Tommy Armour, Tim Gallwey, Bob Toski, Bob Rotella and Fred Shoemaker have helped this student of the game begin to understand and experience.
As a Naropa University trained meditation practitioner, coupled with learning to play the piano and having studied in India with a Tibetan Buddhist thangka painter, it has become quite clear that each of us have an inner artist that is waiting to be unleashed to use a golf club to hit a golf ball to an emotionally embraced target. We just need to have an inner experience of the shot and then trust the inner golfer to deliver the shot.
How does one uncover the artist? As with club and body mechanics skills, our mental skills need training and practice, too. As a golfer, my experience has been that during set-up, learning to go to the breath, deliberately quieting the mind and “connecting” with a target is of exceptional value to a decent golf shot. “Connecting,” at will, in the moment, with a golf target, a loved one, or Beethoven’s spirit when he composed Fur Elise, can become a priceless treasure and skill. Read More
Myth and Experience of War
Posted on April 20, 2015
Sitting in the Flames, CHAPTER TWO: Immersed in the Myth and Experience of War
In the “Gripping Hands” section of the Spring 2015 issue of the West Point magazine, a brief article about a Class of 2004 graduate reads,
Captain William N. Eberle receives Distinguished Service Cross
For his courage and gallantry while in close combat with insurgent forces during an attack at Jalalabad Airfield in the Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, Captain William N. Eberle ’04, a commander with 3rd Special Forces Group, received the Distinguished Service Cross on February 10, 2015 at a ceremony held at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Read More
Why do we need wars?
Posted on April 13, 2015
Why do we need wars?
Words taken from daily headlines certainly paint a sensual, harsh reality of war: “hostage slain,” “deadliest month,” “terror in the streets,” “stress disorders,” “war toll a horrific cost,” “airstrikes and bombs,” “deadly clashes,” “bloodshed,” and “prisons.” And a recorded history of 15,000 global wars, in 5000 plus years, and counting, seems to imply that the pain and suffering of war continues and will continue. As a fan of the NBC television show “Dancing With The Stars,” it has been quite moving to watch double amputee-left arm and left leg-Noah Galloway and his professional dancing partner Sharna Burgess perform. Noah is a storied Iraq combat hero and shining physical and mental example of the freedom, with proper support, that can rest beyond acceptance of the trauma of war. The question lingers: Why do we need such pain, trauma and scars to connect with life as it is intended to be? Read More
Why write Golfer’s Palette?
Posted on April 6, 2015
Why write Golfer’s Palette?
In the summer of 2004 Doug, my son, with his very competitive spirit, expressed his desire to learn to play golf. Having played golf since I was seven years old, it felt like it would be feasible to help Doug start to learn the game of golf. We started with a first lesson at Indian Tree Golf Course, Arvada, Colorado. Doug’s interest sparked an interest in wife, Cindy, to learn the game, too. Together, Cindy and I we took lessons from Tom Thorne at Indian Tree Golf Course. Very soon, the three of us were frequently playing together. Because Doug started to beat me, I decided to hone my skills by working with seven different GolfTEC instructors, year-round, for five years. Read More
Why write Sitting in the Flames?
Posted on March 30, 2015
Why write Sitting in the Flames?
After retirement in 1993, bowling felt like a really neat activity for a new senior citizen. Three leagues per week, coupled with 40-50 games of practice per week, moved the average to 208. When the average peaked, burn-out and boredom arrived; and bowling was no longer fun. This triggered the search to discover a key to re-spark an interest in bowling and produce a higher bowling average. Competitive bowling was soon to fade from the journey; and sports literature became the menu. Read More
DR. JOHN EDWIN DEVORE
Posted on March 24, 2015
Welcome to my world; and to the life of a work-in-process “experience junkie” making a trek from “trained killer” to “spiritual warrior,” where peace of mind, creativity and joy have been tasted and celebrated.
Born and raised in Northwestern Ohio farm country, my hometown was Sherwood, population 500. Life as a kid found me sweeping the floor and waiting on customers in the family owned hardware store. Read More
Daily Quotes
Posted on January 29, 2015
JOHN EDWIN DEVORE
We can unleash the artist within!
“Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that upon other fields, on other days, will bear the fruits of victory.”
– General Douglas MacArthur, in the context of Army Black Knights football.
“Life is the dancer, and you are the dance.”
– Eckart Tolle
“To play a wrong note is insignificant. To play without passion is inexcusable.”
-Ludwig Van Beethoven
“When we are able to deliberately quiet the mind of words and beliefs; and when we are free of words and beliefs, we transition beyond the insatiable ego, reveal the artist within, and experience joy through peace of mind and perfect oneness.”
-John Edwin DeVore
“We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.”
-Galileo Galilei
“You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.”
-Timber Hawkeye