A Walk Through Nature
When golf season ends here in New York, my research season begins. I just got back from a fascinating and immersive training module with Tom Myers and Anatomy Trains outside Denver, Colorado where a group of “movement professionals”—were fortunate enough to be able to learn about human anatomy in a dissection class.
It might sound like something over the top when it comes to learning about the golf motion, but the insights I’ve gained from several sessions of dissection have been crucial for both the research that goes into Jacobs 3D and the way I communicate with students.
One example? By seeing what is really happening below the surface of the skin, it becomes clear how much more easily things move when they can '“glide” on each other and aren’t constrained. The more stuck and adhered the layers of your body are, the harder it is for you to move with efficiency. There’s a multitude of reasons older golfers tend to lose movement potential—but there are also ways to get some of it back.
One thing your body can’t do? Work as independent muscular units. I know it’s tempting to go to the gym and tell yourself you’re going to work on your calves or your biceps, but that’s a misunderstanding of how the body works. For example, I spent a lot of time with the cadaver’s torso, arms and shoulders. Your lats, pecs, biceps etc. are NOT doing one discrete thing. Their actions create related and responding movement with many structures and other muscle groups. Yes, it can be intense to work with human bodies this way. But I know that the lessons I learn in the lab are helping my students play better golf and myself live a better life.
It’s a shame our society divorces itself from how our bodies function and change throughout a lifetime. Our culture has become one of sitting and receiving mental stimulation through school curriculum and modern electronics. As the years roll on, we get less and less familiar with our sense of “self” and more familiar with virtual reality. I must offer a heartfelt thanks to all that donate their body to science and allow professionals like myself to take a “walk through nature.”
