Visualisations: The Right & Wrong Way in Golf
A lot of golfers get really hung up about visualising their shots. They have heard mental coaches talk about the importance of seeing the shot ‘clearly’. They see vivid images on TV of shot tracers and often the feeling is one of deficiency.
Over the past 25 years or so of working in this field I have come to know that creating a clear INTENTION of the shot you are about to play is important but worrying about the quality of your visualisation isn’t.
Some players certainly see vivid images, some are super creative yet others respond more to a verbal description of the shot or a ‘sense’ of the shot in their hands.
Often trying to create vivid images can end up just being another thing to DO. Another thing to think about on the endless lists of do’s and don’ts. So what is the alternative?
Well many years ago I was fortunate to attend a three day seminar with the legendary motivational guru Anthony Robbins entitled ‘Awaken the Giant Within’. As part of the three days we had to do all sorts of different exercises the most famous of which is the ‘Fire Walk’ where you have to walk barefoot over a strip of hot coals whilst inside of your head chanting ‘cool moss’! I had very little enthusiasm for this particular endeavour and if I am honest even though I completed it, the impact on me wasn’t as profound as it was billed. I survived without burning my feet! What I did get from that weekend though was something I now believe to be one of the most important things I have ever learned. Yet at the time I had no idea just how powerful it was.
Tony said during one of the days ‘the quality of your life will be determined by the quality of your questions’. Just read that again to yourself for dramatic effect!
‘The quality of your life will be determined by the quality of your questions’
Why is that so VERY important?
Well if I ask you now. What can you hear in the background ?
I can bet a substantial amount of money your attention left the article you are reading and went off in search of the sounds in the background. The crucial point being is questions FOCUS our ATTENTION.
Quality questions are the nuclear weapon in your arsenal to better have attention on the task at hand. The shot at hand.
Perhaps even more importantly when you ask good questions with the shot at hand it actually takes care of the need to ‘visualise’.
Just by asking the simple question ‘What does a GOOD shot look like here?’
That single question will bring your full attention to THIS shot in THIS moment. Now as a result of the question some of you will find it allows you to create a really vivid image of what the ball is going to do.
You will see colours and tracers whilst others may consciously see very little but they find a verbalisation of the shot emerges. Rest assured though when you ask that simple question you are engaging some powerful forces.
You are creating a clear INTENTION. Many years ago I heard the great Nick Faldo say he never felt a more powerful force on the golf course than the force of clear intention. By asking a simple question you can gain some profound answers.
As former Mind Caddie client and US Open winner Graeme McDowell once said to me ‘Questions are the answer’
