Chi Gong Comes to Indian Hill Club
I’m happy to report that on April 29, 2015, Winnetka’s Indian Hill Club hosted me for a Chi Gong workshop:
The workshop was part of the Balance Golf program – a special program for women golfers in which Wes Warren, the Indian Hill PGA golf pro, and Megan Lehn, who is in charge of the club’s women’s golf program, bring in resource people (such as physical therapists and yoga teachers) to help female golfers improve their game and avoid injury.
Chi Gong, as mentioned elsewhere on this website, is a form of moving mediation, stress reduction, and health enhancement invented in China thousands of years ago. As it turns out, Chi Gong can be enormously beneficial for athletes. In addition to being an excellent stress-reduction tool (applicable to such situations as “I can’t believe I missed that shot! Arrrrghhhh!”), Chi Gong can aid in: mental focus; overall flexibility; joint flexibility; core strength; lower body strength; efficient breathing; circulatory problems; fatigue; and debilitation. Because it exercises both sides of the body equally, it also offers a superior way to offset the one-sided body mechanics of many sports, from golf to tennis to baseball.
Ten avid golfers, including the two pros, attended the 45-minute workshop, in which we focused on a Chi Gong form called Eight Pieces of Brocade, or Ba Duan Jin. Ba Duan Jin is the oldest known form of Chinese martial arts; other forms of Chi Gong developed out of it, Taiji developed out of Chi Gong, and Kung Fu developed out of Taiji. Ba Duan Jin is a very powerful form of Chi Gong, and truly represents the wisdom of the ancients.
I offer both group and individual instruction in Chi Gong at reSource Wellness. In addition to individual instruction by appointment, I offer a Chi Gong class on Wednesday evenings at 6:30. In the class, we are currently studying Ba Duan Jin. Interested? Please feel free to contact me.