[Mike O]

CHAPTER 7

FEEL: WHAT IS IT? HOW DO WE USE IT?


FEEL: WHAT IS IT?
Feel is contextual. It is not an absolute to be taken as a given, never changing. Many people approach the different feels that they experience in sport as something that is absolute and never changing. They believe that if they move in the exact manner as a professional that the feel would be the same, or if they move in the exact way that they did last week that the feel would be the same. They believe that if the feel is the same as last week that the movement will be the same and therefore they should be able to get the same great result that they got last week from that certain feel.

What one must realize is that while what one perceives visually can appear the same over and over with repeatable results, what one perceives by feel is constantly changing by it's very nature and this is crucial using feel properly to integrate your movement.


Feel is a perception of the brain- nervous system - of a change in the current or standard movement.

This is why when one is making a large change that the feel of the change is also large and distinct until that change becomes a part of the movement and then one no longer feels the change. The feel has changed over time from a strong awareness of sensation to no awareness of sensation.

Many people see feel as an absolute and try to copy the feel of a certain change in order to repeat it. Unfortunately, given the nature of feel, this does not work since the feel is constantly changing. Maybe this explains why a certain change on one's movement can be so clear one day and then the next day does not produce the same results. Also, if one were to try to repeat the feel of a certain movement change over time they would be continually exaggerating the movement since again normally the same movement over time produces a more subtle and minor feel until it is no longer noticeable.

Think of all the changes in your movement you have made over the last 5, 10 or 20 years. Each change bringing with it a feel that was very distinct. And now with your current movement you cannot feel any of those changes even though many of those movements that initially caused those feels are still part of your current movement.



Therefore since we know that a change in movement will initially cause a feel to be perceived - as if the brain is saying "warning there is a change to the current movement" make sure this is OK. And then overtime this warning system slowly evaporates as it is determined that the new movement is a healthy change for the organism.

Since one is not going to use the same feel over time to make a change in their movement then how should one use feel or should we use feel at all in our process of integration?


FEEL: HOW TO USE IT.

Given that feel changes overtime from strongly perceptible to hardly perceptible, i.e. is constantly changing. What one typical does to utilize feel is at the beginning of the new feel, translate the feel into a non-feel equivalent mode such as a direction or visual equivalent A non-feel equivalent The feel is still used on a secondary level to help guide the new movement but the primary focus is the non-feel equivalent (visual) since the player understands that the feel is going to be constantly changing. The player also learns subconsciously that the feel will gradually diminish over time and therefore also expects for that to happen.


For example, if you were changing your existing movement by feeling as if your left hip was moving towards the target laterally from the top of the backswing as the downswing started. And this was a very strong sensation that not only gave you a more proper weight shift that you didn't have before but happened to produce immediate ball flight improvement it would be easy just to focus on the feel of this new movement. Assuming that the same feel would produce the same movement. However, since the degree and nature of that feel is going to be constantly changing what one needs to do is to look at other visual aspects of that new movement by visually and mentally measuring that new movement in relation to an external standard such as the ground or the lead foot on the ground and also using internal standards to more clearly define the new movement. Now you have a measurement that will not change over time that you can use as a reference point for the long term. Certainly on a day to day basis one would continue to use feel as a method for measuring and understanding the new movement. But the primary reference would be the visual one since that will remain the same. Then when using the visual reference one can translate and understand the corresponding feel to use for the short term i.e. that day or week. This process continues until the new movement is automatic and the dependency on the feel of the change is no longer required.

The good player also realizes that the new feel may be very strong and strange and if the player were to mentally correlate the feel to a visual equivalent it would seem that the visual would be exaggerated and incorrect, but the good player will understand that this is not the case, and continue to work on the new movement. As opposed to the poor player who may not continue with the new change in the movement, because if translated to a visual equivalent, that picture would seem a gross exaggeration and incorrect movement, and not understanding the nature of feel, gives up on the integration.

Another way to understand that feel is contextual is to look at two different golfers. One who has a flat swing plane and another who has an upright swing plane. If both golfers adjust their swings to the same plane one will feel as if he has a flatter swing and the other will feel their swing to be more upright.

Again, feel of a change diminishes over time. Therefore , ultimately neither golfer will have a feel of their swingplane it will just "be their swing". Only if changing their swingplane, or experimenting with swingplane etc. would they be able to obtain a feel of there swingplane in the future, since most of the time the golfer does not change their movement when it is working and correct but they just try to repeat the same movement over and over.