SupHer Power Golf

Having played or been involved in the game of golf for seventy years one might think that I find the game easy. The reality is that confidence at any age is a major hurdle. In the last ten years my back and hips have totally thrown my balance and game off, causing my handicap to go up and my confidence to go down.

Not to many years ago my posted scores ranged 78 up to 88. Now that range is from 84-99, and it is all based on whether my hamstrings are loose, my hips can rotate and I can swing through the ball. I find it embarrassing to shoot a 94 one day and an amazing 86 the next day.  My pity pot lures me into distress when I don't play up to my younger standards. 

There is hope.  Recently I discovered a new golf program for women called SupHer Power Golf. Their approach is succinct and universal to the mental and physical side of golf for women, and all players. 

On April 17, 2020 I joined a virtual golf lesson through Zoom. It is called SupHer Power Golf Virtual Play Day. The three women who developed this program are Dr. Beth Brown, from Oklahoma, April Kenyon, and Nancy McDaniel. This program turned out to be the medicine I needed to play a better game consistently.   

This live interaction program is divided into three main parts: the Warm up, the Front nine and the Back nine. 

WARM UP

My attention immediately peeked when Nancy McDaniel, Hall of Fame women's golf coach for Cal Berkeley, not only showed us stretches we can do on the tee box minutes before we play, but also asked us to move away from our computers and follow along.  Now that is my idea of learning online...step away from the computer and move. 

THE FRONT NINE

Once we are warmed up and ready to play the game of golf we often find obstacles preventing us from playing our best. This section of the video is my favorite and it became my "show stopper."  Sometimes I actually think I know a lot about golf, and that is when I find out how much there is learn. 

THE GREATEST CHALLENGE TO IMPROVEMENT is OVERCOMING THE OBSTACLES THAT WE PUT IN OUR WAY.  HOW?

Obstacles at Prairie Dunes 

April Kenyon, Executive/Leadership Coach & USGTF Certified Golf Instructor, explains how we need to understand ourselves and our beliefs about the game. By inviting us to explore our beliefs about our golf skills, our ability to improve, why we play golf, and perhaps who we are, we can take steps to overcome the obstacles we believe exist. 

April continues this session by sharing the thought, "Do we bring limitation to each shot or bring empowerment?" How do we change our internal focus to Empowering. Online we were able to chat and share our concerns. Once I wrote out my limiting thoughts I stepped away from the computer and thought about what I had just written. Holy Cow, could that be me? 

Palmer Private Course PGA West
Mountains to the right, water to the left and boulders in between. 

Yes, there may be out of bounds to the right and to the left of the first tee (The Trails Golf Club), but that is not in my head.  I immediately begin to LIMIT myself when I place the obstacle "but at my age" on the tee box with me. "At my age" I struggle with distance of my club selection. I can see how I limit myself immediately.  The irony, is that my swing is actually strong and repeatable, giving me commanding EMPOWERING belief. Which thought process will I bring to the tee box, and each shot thereafter?

THE SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT.

YOUR BELIEF SYSTEM IS.

Later that evening I took my 8 iron to the back yard to swing and listen to my positive belief which truly is "I have a solid repeating swing that is strong enough to mentally and physically help me improve." Since the golf course is not available to me right now, due to the COVID19 pandemic, the backyard will have to work. 

This is called positive communication and the best example I have ever seen in my life is from the Waste Management Phoenix Open when Special Olympics representative, Amy Bockerstette stepped up on the 17th tee box with Gary Woodland, PGA player. As you watch this video please pay attention to her self-talk: I got this. I can do this. This is awesome. They love me.  Amy and Gary

THE BACK NINE

Hall of Fame Coach, Nancy McDaniel, demonstrating the wrist hinge. 

Moving back to Nancy McDaniel, we are given a chance to study a technique to improve our swing. Through the video she uses a broom to show how to use the broom as training tool. We examine and practice our swing in four steps: wrist hinge with face pointing toward the ball, transition motion with the broom lagging behind, impact, finish. How simple and yet so dramatic for a physical lesson. 

THE SCORE

Before using my 8 iron that evening in the back yard I decided to use the open space to really let loose with the broom. It helped to reinforce my positive communication with myself as I rotated and swung through with the broom with focus. However, I did get to laugh at myself when I failed to focus, thereby letting the broom fly away from my body with the painful result is that it stung my ribs on the follow through. There is a lesson here. 

My takeaway from this live virtual golf lesson is most certainly my own positive self-communication and belief that my repeating swing will work. I must add that my strong swing will only continue because I believe in working out five days a week, and three of those days must be using the core effectively. The power of communicating positively is perhaps the most important accomplishment in life.  

Visit  SupHer Power Golf on:

SupHer Power Golf for Women This is the landing page that will take you to future courses and events. 

Instagram: @SupHerpowergolf

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/supherpowergolf/

LinkedIn: @SupHerpowergolf

Quiet Places

                        ROSEATE              

The finch's head never seemed redder than today at the feeder.
His chirp like a whisper in the wind.

He faces me through the screened window nodding his head.
I smile in return.








       SASHAY

The acrobat returns
  flushing the birds as she climbs the feeder.

Nature's entertainer leaps, crawls, creeps,
  turning to see if anyone is watching?

I am watching, still, behind the glass and
  wild whirling winds as spring turns to winter.

Nibbling unconcerned, she scatters safflower 

  to the doves below.
Then wipes and washes herself,
  how strange that I have never noticed. 

With the fluid motion of a tight wire walker she balances
  and prepares for her next show.
Head first she slides down the tube
  reaching for the furthest opening.

Upside down and swallowing downside up,
  or had you noticed? 
Quiet. Quiet places. Watch. Observe. Listen.
  Quiet breathing, shoulders relaxed. 

I think perhaps this moment of quiet observation near this window on the world will never happen again. 





  

All in This Together

 'At Loss for words' sums up my emotions and understanding of our new society--standing six feet apart, afraid to make eye contact with one another, dis ease in our community, our nation, our world.

There is a children's book called The Judge: an Untrue Tale by Harve Zemach with pictures by Margot Zemach. I cannot seem to get the chant out of my mind. It goes like this:

The Judge an Untrue Tale 

     A horrible thing is coming this way,

    Creeping closer day by day.

          It's eyes are scary

          It's tail is hairy

          It's paws have claws

          It snaps its jaws

     I tell you, Judge, we all better pray!

Contrast in life, like in art, commands attention by the sheer force of its differences--March 1, 2020 compared to April 1, 2020. 

Manon and Letty on the Palmer Course PGA West

Playing golf in sunny, to be truthful rainy and cool, southern California the week the pandemic broke I felt isolated from the world of a future without enough toilet tissue and sanitizer wipes to go around. On March 17 the day of our departure to home, we stopped in downtown Palm Springs for breakfast. The shock on our faces and fear in my gut told the entire story. Palm Springs, unbeknownst to us, had closed it's restaurants to the public. At last we found an empty diner with sparkling clean red vinyl seats that left us feeling like we had just been transported back to the 1950's. We were quiet as we ate, each of us sorting our thoughts.

Sonny Bono, Mayor

Outside I found a statue of Sonny Bono, former Mayor of Palm Springs, with a smile on his face and open arms to greet the visitors, but there was no bustle around him. No one sitting on his lap. No one beside him.  No one honking and singing. 

A blue face mask covered my nose and mouth that day as I boarded the airplane. For the first time, I felt frightened of something and that children's rhyme began to sing in my head. 

     A horrible thing is coming this way,

    Creeping closer day by day.

          It's eyes are scary

          It's tail is hairy

          It's paws have claws

          It snaps its jaws

         It growls, it groans

         It chews up stones

     I tell you, Judge, we all better pray!

No green beer or wine was served on the plane. One family dressed their three children in Leprechaun Green making all around them smile.  Home and a day later, Wednesday, March 18 at midnight, Norman, Oklahoma shut its doors to the public. Not a fiber in my body understood.

    

Two weeks of self-quarantine found me walking 10,000 + steps nearly every day. Passing people playing outside with their children, in homes where I had never seen movement. Tricycles and bikes left outside.

A child's version of Olaf. 

Chalk art on the sidewalks and teddy bears in the windows. All seen from a distance, and the joy and love from those passing moments heals my worried soul. 

After two weeks,  I ventured out with sanitizers in hand to pick up an order of humor from International Pantry.  

Sunny days allowed Jack and me to spread our life into yard work away from the television.  Using my 20 Minute Gardening technique I feel like I have conquered the battle of the Henbit weed. Two front flower gardens are weed free, fertilized, covered with mulch and ready for Easter. Two more spacious gardens in front will reap the benefits of our weeding over the next few weeks.  Small tasks at a time.  

Coming into our home through the garage I am greeted by a monthly calendar--Scotland: The Art of Deborah Phillips. Her artwork charms me each time I pass it. The textures, colors, roof tops, and rain are true to my memory of Scotland. Each picture takes me where I have been before and for a moment in time I am transported back to a country of my ancestors. 

Scotland calendar

March's artwork captured my attention on varying levels. The distress of seasons feels personal now, as I experience spring in Oklahoma at home without company, without family, without gatherings; summer one day winter the next. There is such beauty to be found in these times and like The Judge the dark is there. 

  

     A horrible thing is coming this way,

    Creeping closer day by day.

          It's eyes are scary

          It's tail is hairy

          It's paws have claws

          It snaps its jaws

         It growls, it groans

         It chews up stones

         It spreads its wings

         It belches flame

         It has no name

     I tell you, Judge, we all better pray!

No name, no words. no prayers.  How could prayer have left me in a time like this? I hear my mother's words "This too Shall pass."  This morning on The Today Show these few true and sincere words from an Episcopal minister touched my heart.  

"A Prayer for the World"

God help us 

Love us

Walk with us.

Help us Love each other. 

And we will find our way. 

Amen. 

Yes, the beast with no name arrived, clawing his way into our lives. We named him Covid 19, now perhaps the warriors, our medical teams, will force him to retreat. 

We are ALL IN THIS TOGETHER, and a simple prayer has helped me to move forward in my heart and head.  May this prayer help each of you.