feelings focus vs. visual / spatial focus in training

[maverick]

A while back I can across something that I found was very useful in training but I found very difficult to explain until recently.

Basically when most people train they focus on getting the right alignments and making sure they get the physics of good technique down pat. Thats fine for what it is but I found that there is another complementary method. I picked this up intuitively by myself but it was only when I was reading the 'Inner Game of Golf' by Tim Gallway that I found myself able to clearly explain what I was doing.

Essentially when we move we have two means of judging ourselves to see if we have moved correctly. One is to use visual/spatial judgement the other is to focus on how we feel. The key is to try awareness exercises to become aware of what our own 'reference points' are on our own body. From there we can judge whether they are useful reference points and keep them or discard them.

My personal favourite awareness exercise is just to stop worrying about being accurate and just feel what is the most comfortable, relaxing position to be in whilst doing a technique slowly. From there I just feel what feels good. I used to say to myself where is the tension but I found the very act of doing so promoted tension very much like when I say don't think of a pink elephant that's exactly what you end up doing.