I read the chapter "Laws of Polarity" in the book The Cosmic Laws of Golf, by Printer Bowler. In the chapter Bowler starts at the beginning, the beginning of everything. He starts with a being of pure undefined energy, who he calls the Primal One, who was everywhere but was lonesome. The being then created two fundamental was of being; masculine and feminine. These are also know by a plethora of other names such as; yin and yang, Alpha and Omega, good and bad or ball and cup, that when joined would create a miniature Primal One. The masculine and feminine polarities also play a key role in cause and effect, how a change in one polarity causes changes in the other. After Bowler basically defines polarity he connects to golf with a quote from Bobby Jones; "The impulse to steer, born anxiety (cause) is the accountable for almost every really bad shot (effect)." Bowler goes on to say that until we can find the root cause of anxiety, which is fear. The fear of failing, of succeeding, of looking weak, of losing control and the greatest of all, of self-discovery. The only way to defeat anxiety is trust. Trust that everything that is rightfully yours is here or is on its way to you now, there is no need to push, shove or force anything, including golf shots. Bowler then goes on to tell the reader that to achieve trust is that we have to 'let go'. He provided steps to follow; clearly identify the conditions you no longer want in your life, be willing to let yourself go, imagine the ideal you, lastly, accept and commit to your new vision. If we can do this, we can finally relax and swing smoothly.

All I can say is "WOW." Reading that chapter was amazing. I felt like I connected with everything Bowler had to say, especially the part about the impulse to steer and about the fear. In my golf game I have in the past and occasionally now steer my shots instead of letting them naturally happen, doing this cause immense strain on my body resulting in fatigue by hole eleven. The reason that happens is because instead of letting my motions be fluent, I try to 'make' my club head square at contact which makes me start to think in my back swing, and more often than not I hit an atrocious shot. Also, the fear. Normally I don't let people see me in fear, mainly because I have always associated fear with weakness. But in all truthfulness I am probably one of the most fearful people you'll ever meet. But I'll keep the fear talk related to golf for now. When I play I strive for greatness. But even when I'm playing good my sub-conscience doesn't want me to succeed. I don't know why it just does, it never fails either. I also have the fear that when playing in a tournament that when its my turn to hit, I fear that the other guys are silently critiquing my swing. This leads me to think about what they could possibly see and then I will correct the phantom mistake resulting more than likely a bad shot. But all in all Printer Bowler wrote a fantastic book and I agree with his theories, also he has opened my mind to new thoughts that should prove beneficial to me in later years.

Bowler, Printer. The Cosmic Laws of GOLF. New York, NY: The Berkley Publishing Group, 2001. 25-36. Print.