After a lot of inconsistent play during my last 2 rounds and feeling like I was swinging a foreign object, I decided to check out a biorhythm chart for the dates I recently played. I figure if Tiger Woods referenced biorhythms in an article for Golf Digest, it can't hurt to check them out.

Tiger shared, "I don't know whether our biorhythms get out of sync, some muscle memory is depleted or that computer between our ears suddenly crashes, but every player has days when consistent ball-striking is a foreign concept. I know I've had my share."

Biorhythm charts illustrate the principle that we are influenced by physical, emotional, and intellectual cycles. Many people report that they can improve the quality of their lives by monitoring the highs and lows of these cycles and acting accordingly. For example, you might try to schedule important exams during your intellectual highs, avoid talking to your significant other during your emotional lows, or arranging the lineup of your baseball team around their physical highs.

The Emotional cycle tracks the stability and positive energy of your psyche and outlook on life, as well as your capacity to empathize with and build rapport with other people. The Intellectual cycle tracks your verbal, mathematical, symbolic, and creative abilities, as well as your capacity to apply reason and analysis to the world around you. The Physical cycle tracks your strength, health, and raw physical vitality.

Combined, these attributes help determine your ability to succeed at tasks and to obtain what you desire, your motivation to act, and the drive that allows you to continue a difficult pursuit, and your presence of mind that you need to make crucial decisions.

In golf, these 3 attributes come into play on every shot. Your intellect helps in choosing the right club and target and taking wind and terrain into account. Your emotions influence your ability to react constructively to bad shots or bad luck. Your physical ability affects your strength and proper swing technique. In theory, if all your cycles are peaking, you're "in the zone."



Well, maybe there something to this theory. My chart for yesterday shows all three cycles at or near the bottom. Most importantly, it shows a negative and descending emotional cycle, an unfavorable condition for golf according to a biorhythm study of tournament winners by Biosoft Sports.

Maybe it explains my 4-putt on 2, followed by my chip and 3-putt on 3 from 1 foot off the green, followed by another 3-putt on 5 and a triple bogie on 6 after landing in a lake and then a grove of eucalyptus trees. All this on the day after shooting my first double-digit score on a hole in nearly 2 years.

I've checked my biorhythm charts only a couple other times in the past, after extraordinary rounds when everything seemed effortless. In both of those circumstances, I learned that my physical, emotional and mental states were near or at the top of their cycles.

True or not, it at least helps me accept the ups and downs in my score, ability, and enjoyment when playing golf to think that my body undergoes natural cycles much like nature itself.

Labels: Biorhythms, Rounds