{"id":720,"date":"2011-04-27T23:03:54","date_gmt":"2011-04-27T23:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterandraes.com\/?p=720"},"modified":"2011-05-07T05:32:03","modified_gmt":"2011-05-07T05:32:03","slug":"total-golf-fitness-fusing-golf-and-martial-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/golf\/instruction\/720\/total-golf-fitness-fusing-golf-and-martial-arts","title":{"rendered":"Total Golf Fitness – Fusing Golf and Martial Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Total Golf Fitness<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>– F<\/strong>using Golf & Martial Arts –<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Paul Bertholy’s use of kata training was the first example of a Western golf teacher fusing golf and martial arts. But\u00a0Jackie Burke Jr. — one of America\u2019s greatest and most remarkable golf teachers — also has, for decades. At age 82, this Hall of Fame player with two major championships among his 17 PGA Tour victories still does daily martial arts exercises. Burke, who taught Judo<\/em> while serving in the Marines and became a black belt in Tae Kwon Do<\/em> at age 67, credits his extraordinary strength, flexibility, and striking skills — at an advanced age — to daily practice fusing golf and martial arts.<\/p>\n

Phil Mickelson, a student of Burke, improved his strength, flexibility, distance, performance, and elevated his career after a dismal 2003 season, and went on to win 4 majors. His new fitness regimen in 2004, which included Tae Kwon Do<\/em>, paid dividends with a 2005 P.G.A. Championship and three Master\u2019s victories.\u00a0Annika Sorenstam\u2019s emphasis on fitness and focus is also widely known. According to L.P.G.A. teacher and Aikido<\/em> master Jamie Zimron: \u201cOne of Annika\u2019s coaches has worked to instill in her martial arts principles. She is “all about center, focus, balance, and relaxed core power\u201d.\u00a0Se Ri Pak of Korea credits martial arts training as the key to her resurgence and thrilling victory in the L.P.G.A. Championship in 2006. This latest win was her fifth major title and 23rd overall. She revived her career by training more than 12 hours a day and studying two martial arts — Muay Thai<\/em> kickboxing and Tae Kwon Do<\/em>. Pak credits daily training — punching, kicking and blocking blows from her martial arts instructor — in helping to build mental and physical strength.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While many of the world\u2019s top golfers use martial arts to improve fitness and performance (found in books and articles by Gary Player and Johnny Miller), Tiger had a master warrior as his first model and teacher.\u00a0Earl Woods Green Beret martial arts training formed the matrix of capabilities he\u00a0fused into his swing. In his prime a 1 handicap, Earl hit the ball a long way; had a great short game; and was a wizard with trouble shots. His hand-to-hand combat training instilled balance, flexibility, agility, economy of movement, and an ability to move-spring-and-strike rapidly, explosively, and powerfully ‘- to “move like a cat and attack like a tiger”<\/em>. Weapon training taught “Qi extension”<\/em>, “speed is power”<\/em>, and “kinetic linkage of rhythm, timing and leverage to magnify striking power”<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Earl conveyed all these skills and abilities to Tiger.\u00a0Early exposure to Earl\u2019s dynamism, swing, and training activated in Tiger internal powers almost incomprehensible to Western golfers. \u201cHe has strength and club-head speed we\u2019ve never seen before\u201d, said David Feherty. \u201cHe hits shots we\u2019ve never seen before; majestic, soaring, long iron shots nobody else even attempts\u201d, said Jim Nance. And John Cook said: \u201cTiger\u2019s on the next level, whatever that is, and maybe the next level beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that was then, this is now, as a new generation of golfers — raised to emulate Tiger \u2013 now integrate various martial arts training methods, techniques, and skills into their games to elevate their performance and awaken extraordinary abilities. And you can too. There are many martial arts systems and traditions to choose from. In the next few posts we will explore various martial arts and how they can benefit every aspiring golfer.<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Total Golf Fitness – Fusing Golf & Martial Arts – Paul Bertholy’s use of kata training was the first example… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":722,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9,2903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instruction","category-golf","category-peak-performance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2011\/04\/1015916.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":842,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions\/842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/peterandraes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}