The GOLF MOVEMENT GROOVE

THE LANGUAGE OF MOVEMENT
Kinesthetic Awareness

The language of movement is kinesthetic awareness. 

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Whether you have competed on the highest level or are new to “training” for fitness or sport, Most of us have been “told” or “shown” how to move and then expected to move precisely in the way that movement or movement pattern was described and or demonstrated. Unfortunately, for many reasons, many of us lack the ability to listen to directions and then follow them precisely, and many claim to be strictly “visual” learners. And while a certain amount of movement understanding is gleaned through our eyesight, until we make that 1st attempt AND FEEL what is going on in our own body, our muscles, joints, tendons, pressure and tension, instability or rigidity, we are not really “learning to move”.  

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For years, the golf industry has relied on visual assessment and correction.

Remember the early days of video swing analysis:

”Here is a video of Tiger. Here is a video of you… side by side. You do not look like Tiger and neither does your swing. You need to do this, “get your arm, leg, and hips in this position” to be able to look and swing like Tiger.” 

I think you and I both know, none of us(including Tiger) can swing like he did at that moment in time and in that particular video, because we lack the same physical abilities–the range of motion, the stability, the balance, the coordination, the Kinematic and Kinesthetic Sequencing to create the “repeatable movement patterns” that created the Accuracy and POWER of his swing. If you are still teaching or training this way…I am sorry… it is time to learn a little something about movement pattern training because the golf swing is one of the most complex biomechanical movement patterns and if you have students/clients seeking your assistance to improve their movement, you might be unintentionally hindering their performance or worse yet causing injury to their bodies. 

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I remember when the BELL went off in my career. I was taught to follow the “Tell them how to do it”, “Show them how to do it”, “Have them do it”, and then “pick the one thing that was “most wrong” or apt to cause injury and try to get them to correct it” method of training. Do no harm 1st, as we were taught, is the most important consideration.  So if the student expressed “pain”, we modified the movement. There are several problems with this approach as often the sight of the pain is not the source of the problem. As a very simplified example, knee pain is often the result of tight inner thigh muscles misaligning the kneecap. If we did not address the rigidity of those “adductors” first, the training we did may not cause obvious physical pain, but could potentially be perpetuating muscular and structural imbalances.  It is essential to understand the complex systems which are working together in our bodies for our survival first and excelling at sports somewhere after that. As Stop Chasing Pain’s Dr, Perry Nickleston(@stopchasongpain) says, “No System ‘(in the body) works alone”. Are you aware that the inability to move lymph properly through your body is one of the leading causes of pain? Do you have strategies to address this? Dr. Nickleston does.

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Another challenge in this approach became glaringly clear to me, as I was exposed to somatic practice and traumatic healing practices in my own journey to better health was that many of my students really did have a hard time “feeling” their body as if they were DISCONNECTED from their parts. They would look at the mirror while performing an exercise and ask, 
“Am I doing this right?”  I eventually realized the answer SHOULD ALWAYS be “YES, You are! You are doing it as “Right” as you can with the abilities and awareness you have at this moment.” Because they were, and my telling them NO and then attempting to address what I thought was a physical limitation often was not effective in accomplishing their goals. in my experience, we can always learn more effective and efficient strategies to accomplish what we perceive as “that movement” or ”the Golf Swing” no matter your age or physical conditioning.  With experience and research, I started to understand that there is a multitude of reasons why we may lack Kinesthetic Awareness and/or Proprioception. 

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“Kinesthetic Awareness or Kinesthesia is the awareness of the position and movement of the parts of the body using sensory organs, which are known as proprioceptors, in joints and muscles. Kinesthesia is a key component in muscle memory and hand-eye coordination.

Proprioception is the sense of the relative positioning of neighboring parts of the body, and the sense of the strength of effort needed for movement.

Another difference between proprioception and kinesthesia is that kinesthesia focuses on the body’s motion or movements, while proprioception focuses more on the body’s awareness of its movements and behaviors. This has led to the notion that kinesthesia is more behavioral, and proprioception is more cognitive.” 
(Lumen Learning, Boundless Psychology,  Sensory Processes
Provided by: Boundless.com.
URL: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-psychology/chapter/sensory-processes/)

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I learned that it was not only physical “traumas” or injuries to the muscles and joints directly responsible for a movement, that impaired the quality of the movement. The pain I felt in my big toe might not be the result of a “structurally deformity” which could be “surgically removed” but also could literally be a function of the inability of my kidneys to filter toxins properly from my body and the uric salts caused inflammation at that joint, and addressed through examining nutritional deficiencies. It is easy to see how more than one thing could be going on at the same time and “cutting it off” or drug intervention will not fix the root cause of the problem. (https://draxe.com/health/gout-symptoms/)

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As I began incorporating different movement practices AND nutritional habits into my life, I also learned that the root cause of much DIS-ease in our bodies could be related to psychologically traumatic events in our past.  THE BELIEF THAT WE HAVE THE POWER TO HEAL OURSELVES has been the biggest gift I have ever received. This revelation forever changed my life and my skillset as a movement educator.  If you are interested in diving deeper into this topic I would recommend “The Body Keeps the Score” by Besser Van Der Kolk and “You Can Heal Yourself” by Louise Hay.  They have changed the lives of many who have suffered from unresolved emotional and physical trauma. 

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I am not a certified trauma therapist, I am a human who has lived my share of wonderful and horrible experiences and am continuing to learn and share while on this journey.  I do not believe it takes someone else to recognize that ALL of us have suffered trauma on different levels and occasions, whether physical or psychological(particularly the last several years). Whether it is a sports injury or a memory in the past, many traumas can seem to resolve without issue, often that which is pushed under the rug returns without warning, and BOOM, you are knocked off your feet- psychologically and/or physically. 

These challenges inspired me to look for other ways to use the tools I had been using to assist people to Improve their MOVEMENT.

Understanding how learning to move with awareness–moving with attention to your intention” can be essential to creating balance in your life, and optimizing your health and sports performance. 3D Motion Capture and Biofeedback training is a way for us to FEEL where we really are in space. KMotion’s KCoach and KPlayer systems precisely measure your movement during your Golf Swing. Using your KMOTION 3D, Foresight Launch Monitor data and the results of the movement screens developed by Dr. Greg Rose, Dave Phillips, and Gray Cook and utilized by the Titleist Performance Institute for over 25 years in developing training programs for the best golfers in the world, we can develop a path to improvement, integrating a SOLID foundation of movement and 3D biofeedback training to groove your movement and your best golf swing.