There is a unique sensory based code that exists between you and your brain.

How you visualise determines the effectiveness of the message from your brain to your body. Get it right and a perfect stroke shines forth.

Get it badly wrong and hello hook or slice or yips or whatever your demons are.

However the worst is usually this: get it ordinary or less than good. Your usual not up to par version and mediocrity lumbers forth.

There are some important distinctions with visualising that you should know. I have known and worked with many elite athletes. None of them knew these refinements.

They can very quickly amp your game up to mega voltage levels.

The nice thing is that this can be immediate as you will be using your current version of your best shots.

Imaging operating at or near your very best, everytime.

For example: balance - essential for any golfer. But where do you find the best examples of this. For me it is with the Snowboarders at the Winter Olympics and surfers. I know there are many other examples but I like these as they are dynamically on the move. The same can be said for those magnificent Parkour Practitioners or Freerunners.

These people have one thing in particular in common that is of great interest for me for a golfer - they are all remarkably flexible through the torso - and have a subtle capacity for movement here also. Very nice for a balanced golf swing.

How does this idea help with your golf stance?

Try this. Place a larger ball on the ground - something like a baseball and grab a baseball bat or hockey stick.

Choose a rough direction to hit it in (not toward the windows).

Actually take a run at the ball and hit it there. Do this a few times until it is easy and comfortable. Most people find that they hit ‘across the line’. This means there is rotation in the body and it is probably pointing about 10 degrees away from the actual target.

At the point of contact take particular note of the position of your feet. Where is the front foot placed. Exactly where is it pointing. Is it close to the ball or not. Is the back foot in a direct line with the front foot or offline - perhaps behind that line. Are your knees bent.

I am not saying that you should then abandon your current swing and stance to this but you might find it interesting to introduce certain aspects you have discovered just to try them on.

Here is one thing I do know though. After over 20 years of studying movement and working with world class athletes across many disciplines. In most sports, the techniques taught and practiced have very little to do with natural fluid balanced movement and more to do with tradition and flawed principles - such as a tight tense toned body.

What if this was true of golf?

How often have you seen someone blow their chances at the death knell. Further to that, how often do the real champions tend to win these situations - it is almost a definition of a champion.

It is not always that they have superior fire power - if that was the case it wouldn’t be close. There is usually something else involved.

This is often termed ’self belief’. This is really a bit vague. Nice idea, but how do you do it with intent and precision when it is most needed.

Fortunately there are some very real practical tangible skills that you can learn and practise so YOU form part of this consistent elite. Mental strength quickly becomes ‘character’ and has a resounding influence in all parts of your life. It gives you an inner strength - literally - that sets you up for all your life’s challenges.

I have seen these ‘powers’ become life transforming skills for all sorts of people facing all sorts of challenges - extreme illness, addictions, finals pressure, fears and much more.

Perhaps though, of more interest to you is that they can profoundly raise your golf game to dazzling new heights.

There are some key components to develop if you wish this for yourself. One of the essential requirements is to train your body to move with subtle micro adjustments.

That is, learn to move one vertebrae at a time - literally. To do this well takes a different form of training. One aspect of this is to find a way to ’cause’ the body to move each vertebrae in isolation and then with integration - in movement such as a golf swing.

A person could train for years with gross motor actions - the standard golf swing - and never develop this or even know it as a possibility. The only way I have found is to utilise modalities that specialise in this ‘micro movement’ training. These modalities tend to have a couple of things in common - very slow movements and constraints built in to require different parts of the body to move at different times.

This is then built into the golf swing. The modality I am most familiar with that facilitates this is the Feldenkrais Method. You really might want to explore it. The pay off will be many fold.

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I hope you enjoy this blog and find it useful.

All the best.

Peter