Golf – Inhibition in the Alexander Technique (Pain)(Strain)(Injuries)(Posture)(Psychology)(Albuquerque)

My ebook, The Alexander Technique Applied to the Golf Technique of Tiger Woods, is published on this website in a PDF format. It is very detailed and practical, and it will give you the physical tools you need to take the limits off of your ability to play golf with ease, power, pain-free, and with accuracy.
This ebook is also for sale on all AMAZON websites in a KINDLE format.
Located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S.A. (MOVEMENT THERAPY)

INHIBITION is one of the most powerful tools in the Alexander Technique. It gives the golfer a tool to change any aspect of her golf technique and posture that doesn’t work with what works. Inhibition helps the golfer identify what is interfering with the golfer playing with the most user friendly golf technique and posture possible, and then to be able to change what isn’t working.

INHIBITION ALLOWS THE GOLFER TO LET GO OF WHAT ISN’T WORKING, AND TO REPLACE IT WITH WHAT DOES WORK IN HIS OR HER GOLF TECHNIQUE.

Inhibition is what you do after you’ve identified what is not working in your golf technique. Let me explain. By the time a golfer has discovered, after years of playing golf, that there are aspects of the golfer’s technique and posture that are interfering with the golfer’s ability to play without wear and tear and with accuracy, these destructive habits are as central to the golfer’s playing habits as the productive ones are.

So, how do you throw out the bath water, without throwing out the baby? You identify and list what is compromising your golf game, and you also make a second list of what it is that works as you play, and you only keep the good list.
There are the typical big postural problems – slumped or over-arched posture, obvious tension throughout the body, from hands to legs. Then there are the much more subtle problems, which may be a matter of degree. What I mean, is there may be postural and technique things that you do that are not obvious to anyone but an Alexander Technique teacher.

Ex: If right before the golfer drives, she locks her neck, then this can be pretty invisible to most people. If right before the golfer drives, she locks her hips, this can be almost undetectable. If the golfer locks and narrows her shoulders as she drives, this can be pretty invisible. If she shortens her spine as she drives, this can put pressure on the nerves that originate at the spinal cord, and this can be hard to see.

So, what is the act of inhibition or inhibiting? If right before you do what you have always done when you drive the ball, just before you start, you stop and choose to do something new, then you have just inhibited what isn’t serving you.

Ex: Just as the golfer is about to drive the ball, she notices she is locking a collapsed neck. The golfer stops – doesn’t move the club. She now chooses not to collapse and lock her neck, and right after that new choice, she then drives the ball.

What I have just described is inhibition or inhibiting a habit. It very subtle and very powerful, because for the first time, the golfer has chosen not to drive the ball with an unconscious bad habit.

She has chosen to drive the ball without unconscious tension and compression of the neck/spine. Bringing this into the golfer’s awareness is moving playing golf away from being something you fix, to being something where you are truly experiencing all of your subtle habits, good and bad, you have played with. Now you have the tool, INHIBITION, that will allow you to perceive and choose which habits you want to keep or release.

THE ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE DOES TWO EXTRAORDINARY THINGS. IT TRULY RAISES YOUR AWARENESS OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING WHEN YOU PLAY GOLF TO A LEVEL THAT SHOWS YOU HOW YOU COMPROMISE YOUR GAME, AND IT GIVES YOU THE TOOLS TO STOP DOING THIS.

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The Alexander Technique Applied to the Golf Technique of Tiger Woods

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Ethan Kind

AUTHOR, TRAINER "When you change old habitual movement patterns with the Alexander Technique, whether in playing a musical instrument, running, weightlifting, walking, or typing at a computer, you create an ease of body use that moves you consistently into the zone." - Ethan Kind Ethan Kind writes and is published extensively on all of the above activities. He teaches musicians, athletes, and computer operators how to stop hurting themselves, by showing them how to use their bodies with ease and coordination. He brings a unique perspective to his work, having been a musician and athlete all of his life. After training for three years at the American Center for the Alexander Technique (New York, NY), Ethan received Professional Certification credentials.