I’ve been fascinated by the link between golf and the Eastern arts since I heard the great Jack Nicklaus say that golf is played with the feet. This immediately struck a chord with me as my background spans over thirty years of Tai Chi training and I have understood from this art that all movement comes from the ground upwards. The early training of Nicklaus in fact echoes that of the ancient warriors who understood the link between intention and action, which is a very different approach to the modern way of over-thinking technique. The simplicity of flow cancels out the need to separate the golf swing into individual positions.
I wrote...
Connected Golf: Bridging the Gap between Practice and Performance
This is one of my favourite books and I believe it is essential reading for any golfer looking for the secret to performing under pressure. The lessons from Zen archery are a must for any player who has experienced the thrill of the perfect shot and wondered why it was so effortless. Using the detailed example of the archer’s training regime, this book explains how the breathing, the body’s physical centre, and true balance all unite in the moment the arrow is released towards the target. In the same way, I have tried to teach golfers about the fundamentals of the martial arts for creating a state of relaxed readiness, this book shares the author’s insights gained over many years of practice, to achieve the pure simplicity of action within non-action.
This book is very close to my heart as it is written by a fellow Tai Chi practitioner who has used his insights gained from personal experience of this ancient art to help golfers develop a natural and flowing swing. The wisdom in this book also draws upon many other so-called alternative practices such as Pilates, the Alexander Technique, the Feldenkrais Method, Eastern philosophy, and Yoga to help demystify and simplify all the technical jargon that hinders a player’s ability to swing the club smoothly. It is the antidote to ‘checklist golf’ which has become the norm for so many players who have seen their game deteriorate as a result.
Peter Lightbown is a golf instructor with a difference - a professional who, out of complete frustration with his own game, has developed a revolutionary approach to golf. The endless quest for technical perfection is familiar to both professional and amateur golfers; an obsession which threatens to kill the simple pleasure of the game. As a professional, Peter realised that technical instruction only served to make his style tense and awkward. He no longer enjoyed playing and the quality of his game deteriorated - until it occurred to him that he had to look at things in a different light,…
I have always been interested in Vedic philosophy and have greatly enjoyed the film The Legend of Bagger Vance. While there has been much watering down of ancient truths to fit with our 21st Century lifestyle (the plethora of mindfulness apps being one example) the author of this book has a depth of literary and spiritual knowledge that helps unlock the mysteries of golf and allies them with the epic tale, The Bhagavad Gita. Rosen explains that Rannulph Junuh, (played by Matt Damon in the film) is really Arjuna, the charioteer who is instructed by the Supreme Being, Bhagavan (Bagger Vance, the caddie played by Will Smith). It is an approach to the game that brings us face to face with the eternal battles within and how to overcome them.
In 1995, Steven Pressfield decided to introduce the Bhagavad-Gita to a contemporary audience, so he restructured the Gita in terms of a golf novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Now a major motion picture directed by Robert Redford and starring Matt Damon and Will Smith, The Legend of Bagger Vance is loosely based on the ancient Hindu epic, The Bhagavad-gita. Steven Rosen, in Gita on the Green: The Mystical Tradition Behind Bagger Vance, draws the story out further using some thirty years of Gita scholarship and a writing style that is both eloquent and thorough.
This book is an absolute classic and should be in the library of every golfer who has ever touched those extraordinary moments we call the zone or flow. Murphy’s encounter with the enigmatic teacher Shivas Irons, has him questioning reality as he understands it with his logical mind. As their encounter unfolds, Murphy begins experiencing an opening of his perception to a deeper and more profound awareness of the forces and energies that can align to help create the perfect shot. This book shows how important it is to ‘get out of your own way’ and find your inner swing.
"...for golf's soul surfers, Golf in the Kingdom is holy scripture." -- Golf
A spiritual journey, a lush travelogue, a parable of sports and philosophy-John Updike called this unique novel "a golf classic if any exists in our day."
Paired with a mysterious teacher named Shivas Irons, Michael Murphy is led through a round of phenomenal golf, swept into a world where extraordinary powers are unleashed in a backswing governed by "true gravity." A night of adventure and revelation follows, and leads to a glimpse of Seamus MacDuff, the holy man who haunts a ravine off Burningbush's thirteenth fairway-the one…
This is a breakthrough book that allows golfers the opportunity to step away from all the mental and technical thinking and into something simpler that can help release a golfer’s inner talents and abilities. The now-famous ‘club-throwing exercise’ is Shoemaker’s answer to Tim Gallwey’s ‘bounce-hit’ exercise in tennis which helps take the emphasis off trying to get technique right and instead allows the body to move in a way that is natural and therefore repeatable, even under pressure. So many of my students have benefited from the drills and exercises and the whole mindset of this book which details the possibilities inherent every time you set up to the ball.
Most golfers approach the tee with a complex mental package: worries and judgments about their swing, the other person's swing, the course, the weather, looking good, looking bad. They think about what's wrong instead of what's possible, and this is what Extraordinary Golf teaches: the art of the possible. Drawing on his experience teaching both amateurs and professionals for more than fifteen years, in his clinics around the country, in his Golf in the Kingdom seminars at the Esalen Institute, and at his own School for Extraordinary Golf in California, Shoemaker shows how extraordinary golf can be coached, learned, and…
“Golf is a game that’s deceptively simple and endlessly complicated.” These words, by Arnold Palmer, are as true today as they have always been. In fact, golf has become even more complicated in the modern era with so many variations on technique and differences of opinion among teaching professionals.
Jayne Storey’s Connected Golf offers a new approach; one that is simple, proven, and trusted by hundreds of players who’ve been frustrated at their inability to improve, despite all the latest innovations and technology. This book takes you back to the Eastern practises which have long been known to bring mind and body into a seamless whole and applies them specifically to the game, helping you develop movement skills to raise enjoyment and performance levels.
I wasn’t always a joyful person. But today I’m freaking sunshine, and full-out committed to being an effective member of the team that’s elevating the level of love and joy in the world! My positions on that team have included writing dozens of mega-selling books (my own, and as a ghostwriter), founding my online Joy School at LisaMcCourt.com, hosting my Do Joy! podcast, and collaborating on projects with many other popular teachers of consciousness and joyful living. My books have sold over 9 million copies, earned 7 publishing industry awards, and garnered over 9,000 glowing Amazon reviews. Joy is my jam. I know a joyful book when I read one!
We all want peace. We all want a life of joy and meaning. We want to feel blissfully comfortable in our own skin, moving through the world with grace and ease. But how many of us are actively taking the steps to create such a life?
In Free Your Joy, millions-selling author and podcaster Lisa McCourt takes readers through the life-altering principles of vibration elevation that she has taught for 20 years through her online Joy School, sharing her unique formula for raising your “joy setpoint” to cultivate authentic, lasting peace and fulfillment in your daily life. Joy is…
Free Your Joy: The Twelve Keys to Sustainable Happiness
Bestselling author and creator of Joy School Lisa McCourt outlines her unique formula for sustainable happiness, offering a year's worth of activities, prompts, and techniques that raise your "joy setpoint" so you can cultivate authentic, lasting peace and fulfillment in your daily life.
Unprecedented global events have left many of us feeling depleted, depressed, isolated, and disconnected from many of the things that made us happy. Lisa McCourt, host of the Do Joy! podcast and founder of Joy School, helps people raise their joy setpoints regardless of what is happening around them.
