Breathing: The Most Basic Fundamental

Golf instructors spend a great deal of time teaching the fundamentals - like posture, grip and alignment. However, as human beings, and as golfers, breathing is quite literally the most fundamental thing we do. Most golfers (and people in general) don't realize that there are fundamentals to breathing properly for optimal performance on the golf course and in life.

Our quality of life is reflected in the way we breathe. Someone who is tense will tend to have rapid, shallow breaths. Relaxed people tend to breathe deeply and slowly. Shallow breathing causes changes in your nervous system that promote an acceleration of the signs of stress. An accelerated nervous system causes muscle tension, lapses in concentration and poor performance.

Relaxed Breathing (deep diaphragmatic breathing) calms the nervous system and promotes a state of relaxation, which is consistent with good health and performance.

There is a great exercise to determine the quality of your breathing. Simply count the number of breaths you take in a 30 second period of time. Try it now and see how many breaths you take.