Quiet the Golf Mind Workshop by Jack O'Leary

I admit to being somewhat of a skeptic. Okay, I might be a little bit of a cynic as well. So when I was invited for a day long seminar of how Standing Meditation can be applied to golf, my BS sensor went immediately to Code Red.

“Wonderful,” I thought. A day of smoke and mirrors with a heavy dose of brainwashing was just about the last way I wanted to spend a Sunday. It took about one and three-quarters hours to reach Sweetwater CC in Longwood, Florida and when I arrived there were nine other “students” and three teachers.

The seminar began with Roberto Suarez introducing himself and giving an overview of what would transpire. It was like he was speaking a different language. Nothing he said made any sense at all. Then he asked us to introduce ourselves to everyone in the room—without speaking. “Here we go,” I thought. The smoke and mirrors display had just begun.

Suarez then began with an explanation of standing meditation. The more he spoke, the more confusing it was. As he was trying to get through the concept of acknowledging things such as pain and then letting it go, he started to make more sense. Eventually, he had us try standing meditation. It consisted of standing with legs apart, knees slightly bent, arms extended and eyes closed.

As I closed my eyes, my initial thought was that I hoped there wasn’t anyone videotaping this. After a couple of minutes, I had to peek and was relieved that there were no cameras in sight. We practiced standing meditation for approximately five minutes. Suarez asked us to focus 50 percent of our attention on our body, acknowledging our body – any resistance, negative thoughts, aches, pains – and gently release them. Then he directed us to focus 50 percent of our attention on silence and to experience what he referred to as a space of nothingness. I noticed two things during this exercise. First, that my physical balance wasn’t very good. As for the second part, Suarez might have well said “don’t think about elephants.”

We had one more session of standing meditation and then it was off to the range. We were told to just grip it and rip it, giving no thought to distance, direction or shape of the shot. Surprisingly, there were few if any wild drives. We were relieved of tension of trying to hit a ball in a certain direction. It was all instinctive and simple. See ball. Hit ball. My innate skepticism was taking a hit.

Following lunch, we were able to ask questions and I asked about my seemingly inability to acquire nothingness Suarez’ answer brought it all in focus. “How do you feel when you write a story that you know you’ve really nailed,” he asked. “Satisfied,” I answered. “How did you feel while you were writing that story?” countered Suarez. This threw me back a bit. The truth was, there were no feelings. It was as if the story was running down the inside of my arms and pouring through my fingers to the keyboard.

I explained that to him and he smiled. “You were in the ‘zone’ and that’s what we are trying to accomplish,” he said. “Just think how you felt while you were writing that story and your mind will attain the desired state.”

Before we went back to the range, Suarez asked if there were any specific golf problems. I told how some 20-plus years ago I was playing a round of golf where I hit a good drive on a short par 4 and had just a full sand wedge to the hole. Then it happened. I got the shanks so bad that I hit my sixth shot from a lie next to my divot on the second shot. It freaked me out so much that I hadn’t hit a full sand wedge since that day.

Suarez said that now that I had acknowledged it, I could release it and start again. When we returned to the range, I had to find out. After hitting a few 7-irons, it was time for the moment of truth. I reached for my sand wedge and dragged a ball over and took my stance. It was strange, but the tension and negativity that had always accompanied that club was gone. I took an aggressive swing and when it connected with the ball, there was no sound of horror that occurs when hosel strikes ball. Instead there was a nice, solid thump. I quickly hit another and another. You could have thrown a blanket over all of them and it would have been down the line and not to the far right.

Needless to say, I was hooked. I now practice standing meditation at least 15 minutes a day. Before I started, when I awoke in the morning, I wondered which would hurt more; the arthritis in my lower spine or the arthritis in my left knee. Now it’s neither. I’m relatively pain free.

In a recent medical checkup, I found other benefits. Normally, with blood pressure medicine, the lowest reading I had was 127 over 87. That day before I’d taken my medicine it read 111 over 73. The doctor asked what I’d done differently. I told him about Standing Meditation. He agreed that it’s been known to reduce stress and tension. He wasn’t so sure about the pain relief. He thought it was a case of mind over matter. Hey, I don’t mind and it doesn’t matter when there’s no pain.

Don’t worry, I’m still a skeptic and a cynic, but certainly not about Standing Meditation.