What do the following attributes describe?

• Weight evenly balanced
• Feet shoulder width apart
• Turn from the waist
• Head directly above the waist directly above the feet
• All movements in one smooth flow
• Turn slowly

Wrong!

This is a description of the fundamentals of T'ai Chi NOT golf

OK, so its Golf as well - but that's the whole point...

So, how can Tai Chi help my Golf?

The best way to answer this is to take up T'ai Chi and practice some of the "form"; alternatively, just remember the list of bullet points above and apply these consistently to your golf swing.

A very simple way is to do some of the T'ai Chi warm up exercises before swinging a club - these exercises are designed to relax the muscles prior to T'ai Chi but they work well for golf preparation. The difficulty is describing them!

First, stand with feet apart, arms at your side and relax for a few moments; raise your arms so they are parallel with the ground at shoulder height; now, do all of these in one movement: turn to the right, let your right arm swing down and behind your back, let your left arm swing across your front, reverse the movements; repeat the other way around. do this ten/fifteen times.

Now, the water drop exercise. Stand with your arms at your sides; bend your arms and bring your hands (palms down) up so that your palms are parallel with the ground; slowly turn your hands over and flick your hands as if shaking water off them; repeat ten/fifteen times.

Stand as before; hunch your shoulders and hold; with shoulders hunched, bring your elbows towards each other, hold and relax; repeat ten/fifteen times.

Now go and shoot par!

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