Taking a Break

     Even with all of the things that are going on I have been trying to take a little bit of time each week to do something that I enjoy doing. Sometimes alone, sometimes joined by a family member or two. I think that it is very important to do this in order to help refocus and prioritise all of the other stuff that is going on. For the past few weeks this has been golf. I have not had enough time to go an play, but living beside the golf course has given me the opportunity to be able to walk to the driving range.
     This weekend I started thinking more about the lessons learned at Kung Fu while walking to the driving range. I started thinking about how many balls I hit in the hour that I would go. Then how many different clubs that would be used in order to hit those balls. And finally how many walks to the range it would take to swing each one of those clubs 1000 times. It appears that if I am able to stay at this every weekend for an hour I may be able to make the Seniors Tour. 
     One thing that I have learned through an astronomic amount of bad golf shots, is that much like everything else in life routine is everything. When at the driving range I am there to do something that I enjoy and also to learn and get better at it. The way I have gone about doing this is to ensure that I do everything the same and then make small controlled changes. Much like in practising Kung Fu. Everything from lining up the shot to setting the distance from the ball to the angle of the club to inhaling on the back stroke and exhaling on the follow through. These are all things that are easy to control and repeat every time. Doing this causes me to focus on that one shot every time. It grounds me to the act of what is happening and betters the chances that the outcome after impact is more favourable. As soon as the routine is broken everything falls apart. It does take me like an hour to hit a small bucket of balls though.
      Last week we were also learning about the impact that muscles have on speed training. The more muscle you use the slower you are and the less force is applied to the target. So this weekend I also gave this theory a test at the range. The first few shots were not very good. The timing has to be almost perfect. Tighten up to early or late and you are either hooking or slicing the ball like crazy. After about a half dozen shots though things started to look much better. I managed to hit the ball straight, which is always good, and I was also hitting the ball 10 to 20 yards further depending on the club. 
     Unfortunately I won't be deriving an income from golf anytime soon. Being able to use the theories learned in Kung Fu to better yourself at something else that you enjoy gives the affirmation sometimes required that you are heading in the right direction.