Visualize Your Way To Great Performances

The great Jack Nicklaus said: “I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. First I see the ball where I want it to finish, nice and white and sitting up high on the bright green grass. Then the scene quickly changes, and I see the ball going there; its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there is a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality.”

According to TIME magazine on the night before the (1984) finals in women's gymnastics Mary Lou Retton, then 16, lay in bed at the Olympic Village mentally rehearsing. A believer in the process of mental conditioning and affirmation, she had done the same hundreds of times. Night after night, she visualized herself performing her routines perfectly.  In her mind, she saw every move - she rehearsed every move mentally, again and again. The result? A performance of perfection, charm and confidence - culminating in the 16 year old winning an Olympic gold medal.

Golfers and athletes in all sports are taught to visualize perfect performances in advance of the competition. This is because the mind and nervous system can’t tell the difference between a real event and a vividly imagined event.  Proof of this is in your dreaming. How many times have you had a dream when it seemed just as real to you as your awake state?  I can remember watching my dog kick and even bark while totally asleep so it must not be limited to just us humans. At the U.S. Olympic training center, athletes were hooked up to monitors and told to visualize and then to actually perform. It turns out that the same neural networks get fired.

There is a problem however. This is much easier said than done for some athletes. In working with athletes, I rarely use the word “visualize” by itself.  Some athletes say they “can’t visualize.”

When Tiger Woods was a junior golfer, he was also told that he had to visualize his golf shots before his swing.  Nicklaus was Tiger’s hero and Jay Brunza, Tiger’s mental coach, said that he had a tremendous creative mind to do it.
Tiger: “I could never control it. I couldn’t fathom someone saying: visualize the golf shot. When I visualize I would see the ball going every which way.”

The biggest hindrance to being able to mentally rehearse golf shots is the word “visualize” itself.  Everyone can visualize to some degree, yes. For those of you that think you can’t, close your eyes for a moment and see if you can visualize your car and where it might be parked right now. Can you notice it’s color? It’s surroundings?  How about the room you are in right now…can you see the furniture?

In order to improve your ability to “visualize,” you want to give yourself permission to do it your way. For instance, I will say something like this: “Imagine, sense, think or visualize your perfect shot…”

This wording allows you to come up with your creative way of mentally rehearsing a perfect golf swing for you. It could include a feeling about the hands, a sense of happiness in your body, a fluidity of motion, the sound of the ball dropping in the cup or the crack off the driver, etc. 

The more you practice visualizing your golf game or your sport, the better you will get at it.  This is sometimes called: mental rehearsal. Start with easy things and work your way up to a full golf swing or putting stroke. The best time to “visualize” is right after you have had a perfect shot. Most golfers feel good for a second and then instantly go right to thinking about their next shot.  What you want to do is emblazon that perfect shot on your mind’s eye as “the way you golf.” Replay your best shots over and over in your mind for the next few days.

It’s winter here now and most golfers have put their clubs away until it gets warmer. You can improve your game just as much if you practice mental rehearsal, especially for making putts. 

Capt. George Hall was a U.S. Navy fighter pilot shot down in the Vietnam war.  He went into POW camp as a 4 handicap golfer. For 7 years, he played golf in his mind.  When he got out, he was 80 lbs lighter. He was invited to play in a pro-am tournament.  He shot 4 over. Enough said.