Zen Golf Newsletter - November 2005
Upcoming Events: Ojai Valley
Inn Golf
Academy
Holiday Season Gift Certificates
The Long Awaited Second Book
Mastering
the Mental Game:
Video Series
Thank you to Lee Woodard
Zen
Golf Lesson: The Swing is Not
a Thing
Upcoming
Event: Ojai Valley
Inn Golf
Academy
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Parent and Zen Golf
International are now based in Ojai,
California. Dr. Parent offers individual and small group
playing lessons at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa Resort, on its classic
championship layout designed in the 1920’s by George Thomas, the architect of
Los Angeles Country Club and Riviera Country Club.
A special program to introduce Dr. Parent’s coaching at the
Inn is being offered by the Ojai Valley Inn Golf Academy and its Director of
Instruction, PGA professional Jeff
Johnson, once coached by Eddie Merrins on the UCLA golf team.
The program is a unique combination of mental game
instruction with video analysis and swing technique lessons: Dr. Joe’s seminar
will begin each morning, followed by video and practice area lessons before and
after lunch. Afternoon will be on the course for a nine-hole playing lesson.
December 9-11, 2005, Friday
evening through Sunday afternoon
$840 per person (single
occupancy) or $1300 per couple (or double occupancy)
(Please note: to
introduce Dr. Parent’s coaching, the Inn has
offered a
Special Promotional
Room Rate that allows us to offer the program at this discount price.
Future programs
will likely be $1300 single occupancy, $2000 double).
Program includes instructional materials,
a Zen Golf Audiobook,
video swing analysis, green fees and
cart, lunches, and
two nights lodging at this world
class facility,
basking in the glow of a $70 million
renovation.
Please call the Ojai Valley Inn at
805-646-1111 to register for the program,
Or call the Zen Golf office at
805-640-1046 for more information.
The Inn and Spa Resort is
listed by Conde Nast Traveler as one
of the top golf resorts in the world. Ojai is a small but strikingly beautiful
valley a few miles inland from Ventura and Santa Barbara, and a little more than
an hour north of Los Angeles. It was the setting for the 1930’s movie classic, Lost Horizons, portraying the mythical kingdom of Shangri-la.
Dr. Parent’s individual and small group lessons are made by
appointment, only through the Zen Golf office, 805-640-1046 or toll free at
888-874-9928. Telephone consultations can be arranged as well. Programs are
also available at your home club as presentation, clinic, and playing lessons;
availability depends on Dr. Parent's travel schedule.
*********
Holiday Season Gifts
The Zen Golf Book – for that
special friend who borrowed yours and hasn’t returned it yet. Available at all bookstores. You
can get a 32% discount purchasing online through www.ZenGolf.com . Just click on the book cover.
The Zen Golf Audiobook – great
even for those who have the book.
It’s a 4-CD set that many golfers find even more valuable than the printed
version. It’s the full book, unabridged, and you hear Dr. Parent’s voice
teaching the material as if you’re getting your own private lesson. They can
listen to their favorite sections on the way to the course to get ready for
their round. The Audiobook is available online at a 34% discount through www.ZenGolf.com . Just click on the book cover.
Zen Golf Gift Certificates –
for individual lessons, small group lessons, or phone consultations. Call the Zen Golf Office at 805-640-1046 or toll free at
888-874-9928 for information and ordering. Gift certificates can be issued in
any amount, to go toward the recipient’s choice of programs.
*********
The Long
Awaited Second Book
Dr. Parent’s
literary agent has secured a contract for a second book. The ultimate title is
yet to be determined, but there will be a significant amount of material on
that most mental part golf: putting. Therefore, it may be called “Zen Putting.”
The book will also address other facets of the game and look further into
clearing away unhelpful mind-sets and habits. As always the point is to help
people in the game of golf and the game of life in “Getting Out of Your Own Way” (another
potential title). The book is to be completed by the spring, to be on the
bookshelves by next holiday season. (There will likely be Q&A sections in
some of the chapters, so please email questions you’d like included to: info@ZenGolf.com )
*********
Mastering the Mental Game: Video Instructional Series
Many
of you have asked for Dr. Joe to do an instructional video, and two projects
are in the works. First will be a monthly series, Mastering the Mental Game, produced in partnership with the company
that offers the Q-Link (www.qlinkgolf.com),
a bio-physical stress reduction aid. Each month we’ll explore a common mental game
issue that golfers face and present techniques to overcome it. The first
episode – “Taking Your Range Game to the Course” – should be available in
December. Look for it on both the Q-Link and Zen Golf websites.
The
second instructional program will be a video adaptation of the entire Zen Golf
book. It is still in the planning stages; hopefully filming will begin in the
spring.
*********
Thank you to
Lee Woodard
Lee Woodard has moved on from his role as President of Zen
Golf International, to teach on his own in the Murietta/Temecula area of
Southern California, and play more golf himself. He continues as a certified
Zen Golf instructor, and also offers juniors a more comprehensive program by
coordinating their mental game coaching with the other factors influencing
their games: techniques instruction, equipment, and physical conditioning.
Lee was a great help in managing the business aspects of
Zen Golf, and had the primary role in producing the first Coaches Training
program, for golf instructors and other professionals in the coaching and
counseling professions interested in becoming a certified Zen Golf coach.
Lee, thanks for all your help,
Doc
*********
Zen Golf
Lesson: Your Swing
is Not a Thing
Calling
the action of swinging a golf club by the word ‘swing’ treats it as a noun, a
thing. That makes it something you can break and possibly fix, something you
can lose and possibly find, something that has parts, something
that has a distinct shape that is either right or wrong. That’s how the ‘swing’
is usually explained to us by instructors, magazines, and TV commentators, so
that’s how most golfers think of it.
However,
‘swinging’ is a verb, not a thing. Therefore
none of those descriptions are accurate, and acting on the basis of those
descriptions creates interference with the action of swinging a club freely.
Golf
is often taught describing the ‘swing’ like a watch, which is a thing with
moving parts. The only way for a watch to run properly is if 1) all the right
pieces are there 2) there are no missing pieces, 2) there are no wrong pieces
inserted, 3) all the pieces are in the right order, 4) all the pieces are
connected to each other in the right sequence of timing. Any variation from
these conditions and the watch won’t run properly. When golf is taught using
this type of language in describing the swinging of a club, we get the message
that every time we have to a) remember to do all the right things, b) remember
not to do any of the wrong things, and c) do all the right things in the right order
with the right timing. What are the odds of accomplishing that more than a
couple of times a round? And isn’t it rather exhausting trying to do so much
each time we play a shot? Sounds more like work than play.
Instead,
recognize that the way we swing a club is a fluid motion, that it will happen
time after time without trying so hard as
long as we stay out of our own way and let our bodies swing the club the
way we’ve trained ourselves to, like the way we sign our names. If you’d like
to do it more efficiently, then see your patterns when you swing freely and
work with your instructor on ways to do it better. It takes time to change your pattern, so be
prepared to put in some time and effort. Otherwise, accept your pattern and
trust that it will appear again and again without much trying.
Work on the range, play on the course.
© 2005 Dr.
Joseph Parent
********
Feel free to forward this
newsletter, or links to archived newsletters, from the Zen Golf website www.ZenGolf.com
. Please don’t hesitate to let us know if there are other topics you’d like to
see addressed in our Zen Golf Newsletters, or any other feedback that will help
us serve you better.
Yours in
Clarity, Commitment, and Composure,
Dr. Joseph Parent
and the Zen Golf Staff
