© 2003 Jerry V. Teplitz

After you’ve bogeyed your last hole, you are about to hit your next drive. As you take your practice swings, you find your mind still on the last putt that you blew. You take your swing and it’s a slice. In your mind you say to yourself “Oh no, I’m going to bogey again”!

Or, you’re in a tournament and you keep missing putts in the 10 to 15 foot range. If you make this next 12 foot putt, you will place well in the tournament. The pressure is on. You take your time to set up the putt. You stroke the ball, and once again you’re six inches short! You say to yourself, “It’s the same thing I’ve been doing all day long”.

Sound familiar? You know the techniques and mechanics, but you just can’t get either your mind or your body aligned with each other so that they do what you want them to do. For some golfers the difficulty may be concentration; for others it can be the negative thoughts that reinforce themselves; for others it can be a psychological tightening up. In a word, you are stuck? your body and your brain are “switched off”, and your golf game is not going well at all.

If I haven’t specifically mentioned what your difficulties are with your golf game, then just fill in the blank with your own issue or issues:_____________________________________________. Whatever your situation is, it's actually your brain and your body that have switched off and you’re experiencing struggle playing the game.

Golf requires you to think clearly, to be analytical, and to be attentive to details, which are all functions of your brain’s left hemisphere. Golf also requires you to be creative, intuitive and able to see the broader picture, which are all functions of your brain’s right hemisphere. To be a truly successful golfer you need to use both sides of your brain together at the same time. If you are using only one side of your brain while you are on the course, you will experience stress and stress switches you off. You need an integrated whole brain approach.

There is a way to switch on your brain for golf and to insure that both sides of your brain are active and empowering you. This integration process uses a concept called Brain Gym®*.

Brain Gym was developed by Paul Dennison, Ph. D., a specialist in learning disabilities and a pioneer in brain dominance patterns. Dr. Dennison discovered that by using very simple body movements called Brain Gyms, you can use specific muscles groups in certain ways that will facilitate the integration of both sides of the brain. Dennison’s work was originally developed for children and adults with learning disabilities. It is now used in school systems around the world.

He originally synthesized these simple body movements and exercises from work done in the fields of developmental optometry, neurolinguistics, left and right brain research, acupressure, and kinesiology (muscle testing).

These brain integration concepts are now being applied to golf. When your brain is integrated, your golf game immediately becomes easier and less stressful. This brain integration method is now available to you in a video called Par and Beyond: Secrets to Better Golf. The PGA and the LPGA recognize the validity of these Brain Gym movement exercises in course work for golf pros who are being re-certified as golf instructors.

Other applications for the Brain Gym concept are being applied to the sales process in a course called Switched-On Selling. One client, the South Carolina Farm Bureau, did a research study and discovered that those agents who took this one-day seminar had production increases of 71% higher than those who did not attend the seminar.

Read through these instructions for muscle checking first, and then follow them with your partner.

1. Face a partner. Have your partner raise one arm straight out from the side of his or her body with thumb pointing down. Imagine a bird with a wing outstretched and you’ll have the correct arm position.

2. Place one of your hands on your partner's extended arm, above the wrist. Place the other hand on your partner's opposite shoulder.

3. Instruct your partner to resist as you push down, firmly and steadily, on his extended arm for several seconds. You are not attempting to force or jerk the arm all the way down, you are simply checking your partner's normal ability to resist. Your partner’s arm should not move down more than a couple of inches. If it does, it means you have pressed to hard. Simply repeat with a lighter pressure.

4. While your partner keeps the arm extended, have him close his eyes and think of a negative golf experience. When he has it in focus, ask him to resist while you press down on the arm. The arm will usually go down with very little pressure.

5. Now ask your partner to close his eyes and think of a very positive golf experience. Once your partner is visualizing the experience, ask him on to resist again while you press down on the extended arm. The arm will usually stay level and strong, even if you apply more pressure.

6. Switch roles and have your partner check you.

The muscle checking is not a trick; the results are real and repeatable. The muscle checking is indicating the response of your partner’s unconscious mind to the negative and positive experiences. This allows you to easily see and experience how everything around you and within you affects your ability to perform on the golf course.

The results have nothing to do with muscular strength, rather, you are accessing a neurological phenomenon. The muscle stays strong with the positive thought. This is indicating that the body's life energy and brain functions are switched-on. When the arm goes down easily with the negative thought, it is demonstrating how these thoughts are weakening the body's energy and brain function. As you observed and experienced for yourself, the contrast is very easy to see.

With Par and Beyond you will learn to take the negative golf situation to the next level of change. At that level you will learn how to dissipate this negative energy so that it doesn’t affect you on the next hole. For example, you’ve double bogeyed a hole. Your mind is triggered and you keep putting yourself down as you’re going to the next tee.

To stop these negative thoughts there are two simple Brain Gym movement exercises you will need to do that will only take about 90 seconds. The movements actually change how the brain and body are reacting to the situation. The physical movement may seem unusual at first, but you will quickly become comfortable with the movements and find them to be effective, relaxing and energy changing. Here’s how to do them:

1. Have a partner muscle check you while you are thinking of a negative golf situation. Your muscle will check weak.

2. Next you will do a movement called "Hook-Ups." While you are holding the Hook-Ups position, keep the negative thought you would like to dissipate in your mind. Put as many details, as much color and intensity into the thought as you can. While most people would tell you not to think negative thoughts, in this situation it is necessary to do so to take the negativity out of the brain. After a short time, you may find yourself having difficulty focusing on the negative. If that happens, change your thoughts and start viewing the situation positively.

3. To do the Cook's Hook-Up, sit comfortably in a chair. Place your feet flat on the floor. Put your left foot onto the top of your right knee. Place your right hand on your left ankle, and place your left hand on the ball of your left foot near your toes. Close your eyes, place your tongue on the roof of your mouth one quarter of an inch behind your teeth. Breathe normally, and hold the negative thought. Hold this position for thirty seconds to a minute.

4. Keeping the eyes closed, the tongue up, and the negative thought focused, place both feet flat on the floor and bring just your fingertips together like a teepee in front of you. Hold this position for thirty seconds to a minute, breathing naturally.

5. When you are finished, open your eyes.

6. The second movement you will do is called Positive Points. On your forehead, in the middle of your eyebrow and half way up to the hairline, there is a small bony protrusion known as a frontal eminence. Place the middle three fingers of the left hand over the left frontal eminence and the three fingers of the right hand over the right frontal eminence. Apply a very light pressure.

7. Close your eyes and remain in this position for thirty seconds to a minute. If you feel the negativity dissipating, begin to focus on a positive side of the event.
When you are finished, open your eyes.

8. Have a partner muscle check you again while you keep the same situation in your mind. You will experience that your arm will stay strong. After you have completed these positions, you will find that you are able to recall the situation but that the negativity is gone from your memory.

Using these positions will demonstrate to you the power of movement over your brain and your body. You can use these two positions whenever you experience a negative golf situation.

The Par and Beyond video does not teach golfing techniques and mechanics. You will still need your golf Instructor to do that; rather, Par and Beyond: Secrets to Better Golf teaches techniques which allow you to re-energize and refocus in seconds so you can excel beyond your present level of success.

What are the benefits of this concept? Here is what some satisfied users had to say about their experience:

"A dozen trips to the driving range couldn't do for my golf game what this session did. I have found a way to take stress out of my game. I now know there is a future for my game."
David Van Sickle
Beamsville, Ontario, CN

"I went to Par and Beyond to write about Dr. Teplitz¹s technique with a certain skepticism but soon realized everything he taught made sense. When I got home, my next round of golf was my life's best and now the techniques are part of every round I play!"
Tom J. Fox
T&L Golf Magazine

“Within a week of watching the video my scores started dropping two to four strokes each round. I was finding that my drives were going longer and more in play than usual. I was a 16 handicap just a month ago. I’ve been hovering around 15-16 for the last several years. Since watching the video program, I’ve dropped to a 14 and according to the computer I’m trending to a 12. Your video program allows me to concentrate and focus like I’ve never done before. It works!”
Shep Hyken
St. Louis, MO

"As we discussed I have had a real problem with my putting from the three to eight foot range. The afternoon after your session I made five of the six putts I had in that range. Later that week I had a match play competition, which I won, on the fifteenth hole. To say the least I have been pleased with the session and the experience."
Dennis Barnes, Sr.
St. Louis, MO

This was an example of just one aspect of the Par and Beyond video. The rest of the video focuses on putting you in charge of every aspect of your golf game. Through this work, you will experience immediate and positive change to your golf game today.

*Brain Gym is a registered trademark of the Educational Kinesiology Foundation.

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