Sometimes the Brain isn’t Communicating with the Body

I follow the teachings of Don Trahan and his Peak Performance Golf Swing. Don teaches a more vertical plane swing that is both effective and kind to the body.

One of the great things Don does is send out a daily email lesson. I was struck by today’s lesson (read it here) and wanted to share a few thoughts.

Working with golfers who come to my chiropractic clinic to get help with their golf injuries I’ve come to realize that there is no such thing as muscle memory. I smile every time Don mentions this as it seems he and I are among the few that realize this is really true.

I love Don’s Surgeisms and had a “Know Your Place in Space” meltdown on the course Thursday. For some reason my brain and body were not communicating. Probable had to do with the cold medicine I took. It had a profound effect on my vision, my ability to square up. And when I took the club back I thought I was on plane but the results of my shots showed me otherwise.

My analysis was that this occurred because my proprioceptive system was off kilter. Proprioceptive it part of our senses. It’s the way the body monitors where every joint IS and what each of them are DOING. When it doesn’t work properly we feel uncoordinated and what we intend to do is not what we actually do.

If my case I was telling my body to bring the club to the catcher’s mitt and up the tree keeping the club light yet I wasn’t able to do this. I know because my arms were sore, sore, sore the next day and I the club felt heavy during my swing. The other interesting factor was the club felt like it was going all over the place on my backswing. The cold product I took messed with my visual perception skewing my ability to perceive parallel. Nothing “looked” right when I addressed the ball.

It was one of those rounds that you turn into a practice round. At one point, as my arms got heavier and heavier due to having the club laid off, even though I thought it was in the right place the only club I could hit was a 6 iron. It was a humbling experience considering how well I’d played and how far and straight I’d hit the ball just 3 days before.

I’m sure some of you have experienced something similar. I hope this helps you understand that there are certain things that can interfere with your visual perception and when that happens the messages the go from your brain to your muscles and joints are just plain wrong. That’s the real reason you cannot execute the task you have in mind.

Regards Ted Edwards DC

Play Golf Better: Tally + Tour Tempo + Peak Performance Golf Swing + Swing Setter

To play golf to your personal standards might require a significant investment of your time. It sure does for me. I’ve gone through some of golfs ups and downs. Getting good enough to feel comfortable playing in tournaments to loosing my swing for a year. Shank. Shank.

Along the way I’ve subscribed to Golf Digest, purchased all kinds of golf books, and checked out numerous books from the library. Lessons – lots of them. Did Natural golf, one plane, two plane, this tilt, that tilt yatta, yatta.

At this moment in time I’m playing the best golf and most enjoyable golf of my life. Here’s what i attribute this to.

In my search for “my swing” I found a teacher I could understand and related to. Don Trahan and his Peak Performance Golf Swing. Don performs a great service to the game of golf and if you want receive great instruction of the vertical swing, which is both simply and healthy for your body please check him out.

I also learned that I don’t want to listen, read or otherwise entertain other instruction. Don is my coach, mentor and instructor – not Hank Haney, that mouthy guy in the foursome, or any other source.

Many of you may know and appreciate David Leadbetter’s contributions to the game of golf. Awhile back he introduced his Swing Setter – which I acquired. I’ve found this to be a valuable tool which I use regularly.

During one of my golf book forays at the library I came across John Novosel’s “Tour Tempo Golf.” This is a must have and must understand concept that makes undeniable sense. I was so delighted when they released the Tour Tempo App for my iPhone. How convenient.

It’s great to warm up by integrating Don’s Peak Performance Golf Swing, using David’s Swing Setter while listening to and swing with John’s Tour Tempo.

Recently I came across a device called the Tally Mind Set. I really delved into the web site. Watched all the videos. Searched You Tube and watched everything I could find there too. I decided to try it One of the challenges Tally gives us is 5 birdies in a row. As a bogey golfer I translated that to 5 pars in a row. I’m happy with 1 or 2 a round. Three days into using the Tally Tool I pared 5 in a row. I was amazed. I recently did 4 in a row and it’s clear that this tool is helping me improve.

My formula for a successful, repeatable golf swing that goes long and straight is: Trahan’s Peak Performance Golf Swing + Leadbetter’s Swing Setter + Tally Mind Set + Novesel’s Tour Tempo Golf.

While I’m at it let’s not forget The Putt Doctor and Stan Utley for the short game.

Go Low – Ted Edwards DC – The Golf Doctor

In Golf – It’s the Little Things that Often Count the Most

Over the past few months I’ve been enjoying a rebirth of my golf swing and thus my game under the mentorship and tutelage of Don Trahan and his wonderful Peak Performance Golf Swing.

I now have a set of clubs (Tour Edge – Wide Soles) that I can hit well from LW to 3i. This has enabled me to improve my GIR stat.

Everything was going along smoothly when all of sudden I couldn’t make solid contact with the ball. The dreaded Sh….’s appeared. What was I doing wrong? I wondered. I went to the range. No help. I found a practice area where I could hit full 9′s – oh no, what the heck is going on?

To go from feeling powerful and in control of my swing and game to this – oh the emotional  roller coaster ride of golf.

Don Trahan has drilled into me that the problem was most likely to be found in my set up.

Today was my day off and I wanted to play badly. It was a dry, but threatening fall Seattle day. I decided I’d best go to the range and find out where the balls were going. Oh no! Not that again. I finished the bucket without figuring anything out and decided to go to another range near-by that I felt more comfortable at.

I started off poorly. Wham, I hit a good shot. I checked my set up to see if I could discern what had changed. It was my GRIP! My thumb was rolled over to the right further. A shift of only 1pm to 2pm. A shift from a weak grip to a slightly stronger one.

This tiny, simple change made all the difference in the world. All of a sudden the balls were flying staight and the distances I’d been used to albeit 5 yrds less due to the colder temperature.

I was really shocked to realize that this minor adjustment could cause shot an improvement. I found myself thinking, “How can I mark my grips so I’ll make sure to put my thumb in the right place.”

Guess Don is right when he says, if you’re not hitting it well there’s probably a problem with your grip, stance, or alignment – your set-up!

The Better your Back, The Better your Golf

As more and more of us head out to the links it behooves us to understand how a healthy flexible back can make the game of Golf much more enjoyable. Lowing your risk of injury is just as important as lowering your score and handicap. The following article orginally written by Steve Horwitz of Maryland Sports Injury Center explores how having a healthy back can impact not only your Golf game, but your life.

GOLFER’S BACK

As amateur golfers, many of us have something in common with Jack Nicklaus and Lee Travino – a bad back. If you are among those who have already experienced episodes of this affliction, then you know how debilitating it can be. Low back pain accounts for almost 25% of all athletic injuries. In the western world, 80% of the population will experience disabling low back pain during their lives.

Back pain is now second only to the common cold as a cause of employee absenteeism and, in 1992, cost the U.S. economy $60 billion. A 1989 workers’ compensation study from Liberty Mutual revealed the average cost of a low back pain case was $8,321. Low back pain clearly represents the single greatest and most inefficient expenditure of health care resources in our society today.

Golfer’s Elbow

While Golfer’s are more prone to injuries that cause low back pain, another vulnerable area is the Elbow. Come see me, I can fix this injury in a relatively short period of time.

The game of golf does not produce the number of serious injuries which are common in more vigorous sporting activities. However, golf injuries do warrant attention. It is quite common for recreational golfers to complain of lower back pain after the season’s first round. Second only to lower back pain are elbow injuries.

This condition plagues not only golfers, but tennis players, bowlers, mechanics or anyone who uses frequent rotary movements of the forearm. It is caused by excessive strain on the muscles of the forearm, which run from the wrist to the elbow. These muscles produce forward and backward movement at the wrist.

Severe Arm Pain Relieved in Minutes

CASE HISTORY: Symptom Severe Arm Pain. loss of function, decreased range of motion, cannot swing golf club.

I just had a rather surprising experience with one of my clients I wanted to share with you. My client came in with a burning pain in her upper arm. The pain was so bad that she had been unable to sleep for several nights. She was also unable to use the arm to wash the dishes, do her hair, and she certainly couldn’t play golf.

The first thing I did was an application of propriocussion as this typically provides immediate relief. And, while it did help, there were several positions that the client couldn’t move her arm into that this course of treatment didn’t relieve. I applied Laser therapy which also helped a little more, but after I returned to check her arm after treating the burning in her feet, we found that the relief provided by the laser had beena short lived.

Than I remembered having used my percussor on the head of one client so I decided to use this approach as nothing had been fully successful to that point.

I first percussed over the right parietal bone which did nothing. Than I percuissed over her left parietal bone and found a point that the patient felt in her ailing arm. As I continued to percuss this point, her pain began to dissipate. My client was able to lift her arm normally. As she lowered it, the pain returned. I did another application of propriocussion over the left parietal finding a point that again the client felt. Within a few minutes this treatment provided complete relief.

My client sat up, moved her arm through normal ranges of motion and was both thrilled and amazed that she no longer had any pain or discomfort. As she was leaving she reached for the door handle and declared I couldn’t do this just a few minutes ago. And I cannot believe how much more energy I have.