Oh – Make That Oy – Tiger! Part 3

So how seriously should we be taking Tiger’s “sins and transgressions”? I hear some people being not so bothered, saying what man hasn’t or isn’t or wouldn’t want to be out there playing around like Tiger? While Tiger is allowed to be hu-man, what kind of terrible commentary is this on the state of affairs (pun intended) in our world today?

Other people are thoroughly appalled and outraged at Tiger for betraying his wife and family, not to mention his sponsors and fans and the virtues of golf itself. I for one sincerely hope and pray that he does whatever it takes to get himself back on course. I think we were all better off having his greatness to emulate than his foibles to gossip about. I doubt he can ever fully un-tarnish himself. As terrific as it has been to watch him, now its so hard to see him fall from grace and go from the best to the worst kind of legend.

Tiger’s got more work to do than ever. For starters it's time for some very big cleansing breaths. As the founder of Aikido would say, “True victory is self-victory” and Tiger broke the harmony of the universe. This is where people either become truly great beings, or lose power and cannot ultimately be winners in life. Ai-Ki / Ki-Ai will always be the Way. Centered and clear, physically and spiritually aligned and true.

Oh – Make That Oy – Tiger! Part 2

Tiger’s in Big T, no doubt about it. In the roughest rough imaginable. Losing strokes left and right and paying enormous prices for swinging so out of control.

Questions questions questions. How could he …? Why in the world would he …? Didn’t he think …? When did he … ? Wasn’t he still a newlywed, with his beautiful bride but bad knee, then doing surgery and rehab and busy with new babies and getting back to top tour form???

Amidst all of that, that Tiger somehow managed to see multiple mistresses, keep it all covered up, and keep on winning golf tournaments seems yet another stupendous feat. Of sorts anyways. Looking back over this past year, Tiger more than once failed to pull off his famous finales or seal the deal on a Sunday or when it mattered most in the majors. He was more “only human” out there than ever before. Commentators and spectators alike all noticed, without ever suspecting the real reasons why.

Pro golfers don’t need to be monks or saints. But they are role models in a game of singular character and integrity. Perhaps Tiger’s godlike status was bound to stumble and crumble. Now that the nature and extent of his distractions are becoming known, perhaps the real wonder is how he managed to play as well as he did. He sure has compiled records…

Inner turmoil and outer turmoil just don’t add up to peak performance. Like golf, life is a constant challenge and practice to keep ourselves in the fair way, shooting straight down the center and in position to make scores we truly can be proud of.

Oh – Make That Oy – Tiger! Part 1

I’ve always been a huge Tiger Woods fan, even called him “the ultimate KiAi Golfer,” because his level of excellence and self-mastery as a player is just so staggeringly right-on and huge. He has been, to me, one of the greatest examples of realizing one’s potential on the planet that we’ve perhaps ever seen. So I, like so many people right now, am feeling badly shocked and shook up by his car crash and “transgressions.” Who ever expected we’d be so staggered by just how hugely human this almost godlike golf icon has been revealed to be?

I can’t help but be struck by his offense: of all things - cheating. He’s the world’s best golfer, perhaps ever – doesn’t he know the rules?? Cheating is instant DQ. The blackest smudge. The worst of offenses with the worst of penalties. Insta-plunge from fame to infamy. Now we have this ultimate shocker, “squeaky-clean” Tiger messing around and messing up beyond comprehension.

I’m having brain freeze every time I think or hear more about what Tiger’s been up to off the golf course. I know how I’m feeling as one of his deepest admirers. I can hardly bear to think how his wife feels, or what this will mean for his two tiny kids. It’s just so sickening and sad and maddening.

I also hate to imagine what Tiger must be feeling as he beholds his family and the mess he’s made (especially during these holiday and birthday times); when he’s made himself tabloid fodder; when he thinks of his father and his mother; when he looks at Phil, Ernie, Annika and other fellow players; and how he’ll feel when the days come to go out to golf again with all the world looking at him, in front of millions who he’s turned into former fans.

From the highest heights to the very bottom … can the once invincible Tiger restore balance to his world ... much less to the golf world, and to ours??

Help For Charles??

Thanks go out to a new KiAi Golfer in Los Angeles who found me on Facebook and immediately ordered the KiAi Golf Instructional DVD Package. How nice to find these posts on my “wall”:

“Jamie Sensei, I’m so glad I found you! I just watched your DVDs and what can I say – you’re a genius.” -- “Just watched your DVDs again. I think you’re the only one who may be able to help Charles Barkley!”

What can I say, he said it not me! In all humility, boy would I love a chance to see what the centered principles and integrated mind-body golf practices of KiAi Golf could do for Charles. Mr. LA is not the first to suggest that they believe I could honestly help the big guy.

Charles Barkley may be an extreme case, but golfers generally suffer so much and mostly so needlessly. It is a game and it’s not rocket science. Meaning it should be fun, and its just us humans, using our own brain and body parts together with a golf club and golf ball, out there in splendiferous nature. Nothing is impossible, not even better golf - and for Charles too!

Daily Practice & Indoor Improvement!

I’d like to congratulate Class A LPGA Pro Marty Mallott on the new indoor golf facility named in her honor at Defiance High School in Ohio . She’s the girls golf coach there, and Executive Director of the Ohio Women’s State Open (where I had the good fortune to win the senior title in 2008). She and her family have outfitted a wonderful center for young players, and community members, to work on their golf regardless of the weather.

I was honored to be in Defiance for the dedication and to conduct a 3-hour indoor KiAi Golf Intensive. Without the seductions of the golf course or seeing shot results, it seems much easier for people to concentrate on what they’re actually doing and feeling as they swing, chip and putt, and to take time for the energetic and fitness aspects of the game.

Having grown up in the Midwest , I’ve noticed that golfers there and in northern climes tend to be the nuttiest of all! Probably because the summers are short and winters long, they really love their golf and savor the prime time they get to play.

With the cold snowy winter months looming, it is so great to have an indoor golf place and practices to do. In Defiance I shared KiAi Golf BLISS Fitness and Swing-Patterning KATA exercises that I designed for people to:

a) practice every day, indoors or out, at home or work, with or without a driving range or golf course

b) be empowered to work on their swing and “golf mind” themselves

c) have ways to get into “the zone” and return when they start “losing it” on the golf course.

Daily practice really is the name of the game, regardless of climate, talent, size, age, gender, etc. In the martial arts we call it conscious regular training. There is no perfect in golf, but training surely is the way to feel more natural, confident and capable. They're defying the winter in Defiance, and its possible for people everywhere to do even a little practice every day. Besides, who wouldn’t want to be swinging and improving, all of the time??!?

Michelle Wie – Doing It Right!

I am happy to say that I couldn’t be happier to see Michelle Wie win her first LPGA tournament this past week. In one year, she’s gone from a painful feel-bad story to a very instructive feel-good story.

I first saw Michelle play when she was just an eighth-grader and made it to the final pairing with Annika Sorenstam and Carrie Webb at the Kraft Nabisco in Palm Springs . It was evident immediately that she has Tiger-like talent, physique, potential and appeal. What wasn’t Tiger-like has been the path she was on, failing to come up through the ranks of junior and amateur golf and then trying to skip over the LPGA straight onto the PGA tour. Where Tiger had excellent parenting and tutelage, it seemed Michelle was being terribly misguided and ultimately fell off course (literally!).

I believe where Michele Wie went very right was in going to Qualifying School last December. Having exhausted sponsor exemptions and missed every PGA cut (with scores into the 80s), she did what everyone has to do, regardless of their talent or celebrity: she raised herself through the ranks.

Michelle played well and succeeded at Q-School - a huge accomplishment that both prepares and warrants a player getting out on tour. Then she earned her way onto the Solheim Cup team, and was a shining undefeated star. It really warmed my heart not only to see her play so well, but to finally be a girl among the girls, making friends and socializing and enjoying herself as a young woman amongst her peers. Great talent, low scores and lots of money are all wonderful, but there’s no substitute or skipping over camaraderie, acceptance and earning one’s own way in life.

Michelle Wie’s win in Mexico , and the outpouring of love and support coming her way, is to me a story not just of fine golf but of things still being right in the world. Just 1-2 years ago people were shaking their heads in dismay and even disgust as they watched her flounder. Now, from Q-School to weekly LPGA tour play to the Solheim Cup to winning the much-beloved Lorena Ochoa’s event, Michelle has redeemed herself. In the process she has let us all know that people still prefer to be positive, to forgive, and to love their heroines. Integrity is the big winner here!

NO GOLFER LEFT BEHIND!

What a great time was had by all this past weekend at our GOLF SCHOOL LIKE NO OTHER, co-taught by British PGA Pro Les Bolland and myself. We had a terrific group of eight women and men, ranging from 30-to-60-something and 12-to-30-something in handicap. Plus one of my wonderful junior players, Josh, joined us for a very special day out at La Costa Country Club.

For three full days we got up to go to golf school instead of to work. It was a “total blast,” as our inner-teenagers all agreed! Not only that – and in large measure because of the great fun and focus everyone shared – no golfer was left behind.

At our closing session, as each group came in from the golf course all excited and aglow, we tried to give out a “Most Improved Player/MIP” award. But it was impossible, because every single person had made such big personal gains, and everyone got nominated by everyone else as well as by themselves for MIP!

Les and I both offer holistic approaches to better golf. In our own ways we blend concepts and practices from eastern disciplines of aikido, yoga, meditation, shiatsu, macrobiotics and energy work into our golf instruction.

Through his Swingolf, Les encourages people to open up, let go, let it flow, relax, swing, be happy, be confident, play the game.

Through my KiAi Golf teachings, I create an entire context for the golf swing and game built around form and flow, centering and balance, fitness and focus, connection and consistency, “mechanics and magic.”

It was truly amazing and very fun to watch each person developing the mind-body skills for greater self-mastery, opening up and taking themselves into the unified “zone” and discovering new harmonious capability literally waiting right there!

I wish I could bottle all the smiles and happy energy from this golf school. As Annika Sorenstam once said, “We are not golfers who happen to be people, but people who happen to play golf. We can all get better at whatever level we choose.”

So have no doubt: it’s the whole to the hole!

Golf is not “just a mental game,” or about mechanics or fitness or equipment alone. All of the above are essential – in a simply integrated joyful way. Everybody already has it and can do it. No golfer need ever be left behind!!