Grade: Incomplete
Teacher’s Comments: An interesting premise.
Your friendly neighborhood GolfBlogger has a cousin who is a doctor of Oriental Medicine in Hawaii. He’s been practicing accupuncture for many years now and apparently has quite a practice.
But in spite of that family connection, I’ve always been skeptical of such things. While I am sure that they work for some, I seem to get along just fine without them.
So when a copy of Tap In Golf arrived in the mail, I wasn’t at all sure what to make of it.
What Tap In Golf seems to offer is essentially an accupuncture program to help golfers reduce tension and bad thinking during their rounds. The difference is that instead of sticking needles in critical points, Tap In Golf asks you to tap them with two fingers.
Author Stephen Ladd says that Tap In Golf is “a combination of cutting edge quantum physics and centuries old wisdom … whose most widely known therapy is acupuncture”
While this sounds like it belongs in the same league as pyramids and crystals, Ladd does his best to disabuse the notion that it’s a new age “airy fairy” (his words, not mine) thing.
There is definitely a serious method involved here. You identify the problem—say, tension on the first tee—rate its intensity, develop a reminder phrase and then tap a key area while reviewing the phrase. It’s all very systematic, and the book offers a plethora of examples.
Perhaps the most useful—or at least, the most grounded—thing in the book for me was the chapter on proper breathing techniques. I believe that I can speak somewhat authoritatively on breathing, as I play most of the brass instruments, and in high school was all-state choir (I sang bass). Music teachers preach that to get the proper wind, you need to breathe through your diaphragm. Most people, however, seem to breathe upward through the chest.
So does Tap In Golf work? I don’t know. I do not personally have tension or attitude problems with my golf game. The game is a joy for me and each shot—good or bad—is just an opportunity to make another. Sure, I’m not a great player, and I of course would like to get better, but I am always very positive on the course.
I also think that my natural resistance to such things would negate any positive effects that Tap In Golf could have.
But if you already find that this sort of thing works for you, then you should give this book a try.
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Oh, I would definately not put this in the class with Crystals and Pyramids. In addition to tapping on nerve points which could affect your system, the idea of focusing on a pattern during periods of tension—and keeping you from focusing too much on making a perfect hit, which for me, usually ends up topping the ball if I focus too much on the swing.
In one sense though it is like the Crystals and Pyramids and Magnetic bands, so much of it is a mind thing. If it makes you feel better to wear a crystal, then do it.
Congratulate yourselves if you have done something strange and extravagant and broken the monotony of a decorous age.