The WeekEnd Golfer

Feb 10, 2007 - Linknet Golf GiveAways >>>

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In the current issue of Golf Digest David Leadbetter talks about something he calls "swing chi." My first reaction was to sneer and say to myself -- "another useless gimmick from Leadbetter." But possibly I was being too hasty. Maybe this idea isn't as dumb as it first sounds. I think the idea he is trying to get at is that there is a natural sequence to a golf swing that results in the maximum explosive transfer of energy when striking the ball. Sounds simple enough.

He calls this "swing chi" because "chi" (or "qi", or "ch'i") is a concept used in many traditional Chinese traditions to mean something akin to "life force" or "energy flow", usually involving the idea of proper balance and integration.

The idea is that things are in their optimal state when they are in balance and the parts are properly connected -- when the energy flow, the "chi" is not obstructed. According to most of these traditions, this applies at both the spiritual level as well as the physical level, and has obvious applications in the areas of medicine, mental health, spirituality, physical therapy and martial arts.

So if one believes in this sort of thing, what follows is that there might be different kinds of therapeutic techniques that could be used to put things in their proper balance when they are out of whack -- adjustments for your spirit, therapies for your body, and, yes, fixes for your golf swing.

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Now of course it would be easy to take this idea too seriously and go off on mystical tangents and down philosophical blind alleys. But the idea that a properly sequenced swing is a pretty important goal for a golfer seems fairly obvious.

And if it is helpful to visualize one's swing as a smooth, balanced, properly synchronized and unobstructed flow of energy through the body and into the ball, then I say go for it.