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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781982220006 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Balboa Press |
| Publication date: | 01/26/2019 |
| Pages: | 130 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.44(d) |
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Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Healthy Swing
Fueling the Body Correctly
"Emotion, mind, and muscle" Wither you are a golfer or football player, your body becomes your diet and you have become your body. Meaning you are what you eat. For example, having a piece of chocolate before exercising will help release the endogenous morphine like proteins; which are located in the brain helping you power yourself to exercise by decreasing your heart action and increasing coronary blood flow. This is Beta. Alcohol on the other hand is a carcinogenic that destroys every living organism for building protein cells. The amino acid nitrogen containing acids that are used by these cells will build protein for your body.
Your diet is the most important thing you can do for your body. Eating correctly and consuming the proper protein drinks throughout your life will greatly enhance your ability to exercise, as well as boost your mental and emotional state of mind. Allowing not just your body to remain healthy, but also increase the brains ability to absorb commands through the proper channels. Like the Somatosensory cortex and the Motor cortex more relative to motion and movement. Keeping these parts of the brain as well as others fueled with the correct body nutrients will greatly enhance a person's state of mind, as well as desires physically and mentally. Thus, allowing less muscle restriction during a workout or sport activity.
Exercising the Body and the Mind
There are hundreds of different exercises you can do to keep the body in a healthy condition. But, it is important to exercise the proper muscles that are used in a golf swing the proper way. The best form of exercising the body in my opinion is swimming. Swimming works just about every positive muscle in your body from the neck to the legs and everything in between.
Focus on a few selective muscles which are very important in a golf swing needed for power, distance, balance and strength. Low impact exercises are what you mainly want to do. You don't want to bulk up and muscle bound, as you would lose your flexibility and range of motion.
Your back and shoulder muscles are very important in your golf swing. Muscles such as the Trapezius, Deltoid, Scapulae and a few more, working though your golf swing, to help increase your impact as well as delivery speed. You will see the illustration below, a model of what I believe shows a few of the muscles that are associated with a golfer's well being, as well as their increase on performance if exercised properly.
Remember your main concern is to stretch and work the muscles that will impact your swing. You do not want to bulk the body or muscle bound it. The object is to produce low impact, to strengthen the proper impact position at delivery.
How does the brain work during a golf swing? Can the brain get in the way of a golf swing? When you stand at address to hit the ball, it is important that you think of nothing else, other than a smooth swing plane to impact. This allows the brain to send neural commands from the motor cortex. This is the part of the brain that drives the movement of your body to the sensory cortex part of the brain that affects the body interrupting touch, motion and signals, thus powering the correct muscles to expedite impact and accuracy.
It is not good to think about more than one thing at address. This will confuse the Motor cortex sending mixed signals to the body's Somatosensory cortex. This is why it is said not to think about missing a shot, or saying to yourself "I am going to put the ball in the water; I can't make it over this water hole!" They say you are talking yourself out of a shot. But what you are really doing is sending a command from the Frontal cortex where your thoughts begin to the Sensory cortex, making you miss the shot. I call this, "stinking thinking", which starts at the back of the brain in the Parietal cortex.
I will talk briefly about what is needed physically and mentally to accomplish a proper swing path. The most important is rhythm and timing. Exercising the mind is as important as going to the practice range to work on your swing. What we have a tendency to do, forget the brain needs to be exercised like a leg or back muscle. If the brain does not get challenged, it goes into a standby mode. Allowing the memorization of the muscles to keep the body active and moving.
You don't need the brain too much to walk, the body knows to place one foot in front of the other. That is a natural instinct. What happens when you run or jog? Your brain comes off standby because you need to pay more attention to what is in front of you, to avoid tripping or maybe avoid running out in front of a car at an intersection.
When the body is moving at a fast pace, the brain is working harder by making the body move at a faster pace. The brain now has to make sure the lungs are taking in enough air, your balance is on target; and when the body says to slow down, the brain acts accordingly slowing down the proper muscles to avoid flying over your own feet. This is done through the Cerebellum.
As you can see, it is very important to keep your mind exercised as well as your body. What helps to exercise the brain is aerobic exercising, light workouts and controlled breathing. By practicing mindfulness, you can choose how to react. You can learn how to breathing deeply improves oxygen flow and signals your brain to cut the stress and feel good.
By exercising the brain you will increase your emotional as well as your physical being, allowing the muscles to react with little restriction. This is what I call P.M.A (positive mental action). P.M.A is when the brain tells the body to lift that barbell, even if it is more weight than you are used to lifting. The brain is in positive mode. The Frontal cortex allows the cerebellum (a part of the brain that projects over the Medulla and is concerned with coordination of muscle action and body balance) to react.
So you can see how mental exercises can affect the body's ability while influenced by proper muscle movement, achieving certain physical challenges; the brain receives it rewards through healthy breathing and positive thoughts. One way to accomplish this task is to be firm with your thoughts. How do you do that? Simple, make sure your Intention equals your Attention. For example, if your intention is to just drop the ball on the green. Then your attention should be focused on speed, impact and distance to reach the green. If your intention is to drop the ball with in club distance of the hole, then you should be focusing your attention on your delivery and movements of your body to give accuracy. Remember, Attention must equal Intention.
A Diet of Do's and Don'ts for a Golfer
After attending a class on addiction awareness I was amazed to find out how much alcohol not only affects the mind but is the number one leader in destroying the human body. First, keep in mind that alcohol is a carcinogenic which is not only unhealthy for the body but, you are actually poisoning it with every sip you take.
Thousands of people die every year from alcohol poisoning. Another large effect alcohol is it affects the different parts of the cerebral and connective neighbors such as the Cerebellum. The cerebellum plays a large role in the coordination of muscular action and balance. Alcohol also affects your moral compass. Your moral compass is your registration of memory. For golfers this is very important to execute the correct swing path to maximize rhythm, timing and tempo at the delivery. This part of the brain is also known as the Cerebral cortex. This part of the brain functions in coordination of sensory and the motor information bank.
As much as we all like to have that cold beer when we are making the turn at the ninth green, eyes shifting up and down the fairways, trying to spot that beverage cart. Following the corner glimpse of your eyes hoping to see a glimpse of that wonderful wagon carrying the entire make me feel betters on board. Being it's most precious and valuable cargo, your mouth begins to salivate at the thought of that icy cold beer sitting beneath a tub of frozen cans, just waiting your arrival. This is what we call your emotional care. We don't realize alcohol damages every organ in the body as well as effects all muscle movement.
This along with the attacks on the brain will make any chance of muscle memorization impossible to retain. When the Frontal cortex is invaded by imposters' such as chocolate, drugs, alcohol and so many others; the endorphins that are created will affect the Cerebellum that coordinates muscles and balance. This is called the Cerebellar. This will drastically affect the body's ability to complete a stable forward motion without losing balance, as well as the coordination of the eyes and hands immensely.
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to beat up the alcohol industry. I myself enjoy a cold beer when playing. Just remember your body can handle one drink per hour. This has to a lot with body chemistry as well as your weight. However, if you stick to one drink per hour, your body liver will be able to filter out the alcohol you are consuming.
Well, by now you must think I have a boring life. I assure you, I do not. These facts I have stated here in this chapter are based on true and actual medical findings. So, let's talk about food. We all know that fatty foods are bad for the body because of the effect it has on the arterial function to carry blood away from the heart. This can place our body at risk for heart attacks, as well as strokes. A crystalline substance called cholesterol being a soapy like substance attaches itself to the walls of the arties restricting blood flow.
So, what is it we should eat? I recommend food that does not cling, it is very simple. However, do not get caught by your husband, wife or partner doing this. Go into your refrigerator and take a few food items out. For example, butter, mayonnaise, eggs, lettuce, tomatoes, sliced cheese, any cooked pasta you left in fridge from last night's dinner, maybe even some chocolate cake or putting. The next step is picking a smooth vertical service in your house such as a kitchen wall or flat surface door. Try not to use anything metal or glass if possible. Stand back about eight feet from the area or door surface. Then take one of the food items you removed from the fridge and throw it at the wall. Take a look at what sticks to the wall and how long it takes for it to drip down the wall. As you can see a handful of mayonnaise will stick longer on the wall than an egg will. Chocolate cake will stick longer than most because of the mixture of fatty compounds as well as the putting. A piece of cheese may stick forever unlike the lettuce or tomato falls immediately. Think of your arteries as the wall and the fatty food sticking to the wall. This is the same as what sticks to your arterial system causing reduce arterial flow. Remember cake takes longer to slide down the wall than the tomato. Keep in mind the foods you use to fuel your body.
On the other hand, even though some food groups don't stick to the wall, they have been found to be unhealthy as well. They are not being noticed as just arterial enemies, but having too much iron or zinc, such as seafood or shell fish. So again remember, having a hamburger or steak will not kill you. It is how many of them you have will determine how healthy you stay over your life span.
CHAPTER 2Swinging with the Brain
Head Games
We all have a tendency to place blame away from us. We make an excuse like "these grips on my clubs need to be changed", or "I need to get a new pair of shoes, because I keep swinging out of these". Remember what we just spoke of in chapter one under body and mind, when I said "exercising the brain will increase your emotional state of mind". Again, this is called P.M.A (positive mental actions).
So, instead of lifting that barbell, you need to remove all thoughts that don't involve making contact with the ball. How do you do this? First, you say to yourself I am going to check my stance before I swing. Most people address their ball; take a deep breath and then swing. One out of ten people will ask themselves, am I pointing correctly? Is my head up off my chest? Is my back straight? You need to go through your checklist no matter how good of a golfer you are. You need to ask yourself these questions. Even the Pros forget at times.
Think of it this way. Let's say you just boarded a plane leaving on vacation. Just as you sat down the pilot came on board carrying his jacket and case hurrying into the cockpit to announce the departure. How would you feel? Would you say to yourself, what no preflight checklist? What I am trying to say is no matter how many times a pilot takes off and lands in the course of the day, they always go through a checklist before takeoff. Even if they flew an hour ago, they check to ensure all systems are in a go position, prior to the next flight.
Your body is no different. There is a checklist you need to go over before you start your back swing each time. Like driving a car, you don't back up without looking behind you. The head game is easy to overcome. Use your P.M.A to keep your mind focused on what is needed to make contact while making you aware of the steps needed to be taken each and every time you swing.
Positive mental action will help you empty your Occipital lobe, a part of the brain storing false beliefs as well as your animal reactions. Animal reactions like slamming the golf club on the ground after hitting a bad shot. You don't want to carry that stinking thinking to the next shot. Keeping a positive mental action mode will allow the Frontal cortex (part of the brain that the cerebrum function chiefly in coordination with the sensory and motor information) to register, making you aware of the tasks that lay ahead.
Remember to stay focused on what I call the Four H's. You will read more about the four H's in the chapters ahead. Explaining the Head, Hands, Heels and Hips. Can your brain get in the way of your game? Only if you let It! Remember, you need to take control of your thoughts.
Stress Body and Brain
First, let's understand what stress is. We all have a different stress level in which we take a variety of different thoughts and act on them. Stress is a force that overcomes our emotional, mental and physical being, placing strain throughout the body. Therefore, causing strain on the brain, lungs, heart, kidneys, and just about every other human organ.
One of the most affected parts of the body is the heart. The reason is due to the tension that muscles are subjected to, disrupts the breathing. By doing so changes the beat of your heart and then changes the rhythmical expansion and contraction of your arteries. This will create tension, anxiety, and other uncontrollable urges to act out. This will come through emotional as well as physical, making the body restless and fidgety. Some say stress is the number one leading causes of illness and even death.
So how does stress affect our body and brain? Well, first there is a part of the brain that lies beneath the Thalamus and is like a control center for the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system is a part of the vertebrate nervous system that governs involuntary actions from the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is greatly concerned with the body's response to stress. It tends to decrease the tone and contractility of smooth muscles, and increase blood pressure as well as the activity of the heart.
As you can see, stress not only plays a big part in your life, but also has a tremendous affect on the body's ability to function correctly. Stress on the body is like pressing one foot down on the gas pedal in your car when you have the other foot on the brake allowing the car to just barely move. The brain is fighting the body. The brain controls the body, make no mistake of that. Without the brain, the body is in park; just as a car with no engine. A fine tuned brain just like a fine tuned race car, can and will excel far beyond any unhealthy body or mind, no matter if it is in golf or everyday life.
So what can we do to help release stress on the body? Visualize a bottle of champagne and a bottle of wine, side by side. When you open the bottle of champagne fast, it sprays out all over the place. Sending the cork flying into the air from the force and energy of bottled up carbonation, now free of restraint. Like, taking your foot off the brake in a car and allowing the car to take off at its pace.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Golf Guy"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Bobby Restivo.
Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements, xiii,
Disclosure, xv,
Preface, xvii,
Chapter 1 Healthy Swing, 1,
Chapter 2 Swinging with the Brain, 10,
Chapter 3 Breathing the Swing, 17,
Chapter 4 Strength, 22,
Chapter 5 What Makes the Body Run?, 27,
Chapter 6 Proper Stance, 36,
Chapter 7 High Irons, 47,
Chapter 8 Mid Irons, 55,
Chapter 9 Driving it Home, 62,
Chapter 10 On the Dance Floor, 69,