As I began to research mental golf visualization I realised that despite an general agreement of a definition of a mental rehearsal of a desired future outcome the term also meant slightly different things to different people and as a result I’ve put them together as immediate, short, medium & long term visualization.
Immediate Term Visualization
Most golfers who have played for a while will have experienced the phenomenon of “seeing” the ball doing something in their minds eye. I have most often experienced this on the green where I have actually seen the curve on the line that a putt will need to take in order to enter the hole. Of course it doesn’t always go in! But it is significant that the “clearer” the picture or visualization the more successful I have been in holing the putt. I have experienced this on other shots too but it is less frequent.
Obviously visualisation can apply to “bad” images too golf psychologists all flag up the dangers of negative imagery for instance concentrating too much on avoiding the OOB or water hazard on a hole. They say this can give a negative mental image of your ball entering the hazard and actually increase the likelihood of that happening. The gurus, therefore, advocate positive imagery, to be aware of the danger points on holes but to conjure up positive images in your minds eye of your ball soaring down the fairway or hitting the green close to the flagstick and rolling out close. Again they emphasis that the clearer you can visualise a particular outcome the greater the chance of it happening.
The way to do this is to have a very specific target in mind before visualizing the shot not a general “middle of the fairway” target but a much tighter “dark patch of grass 280yds from the tee 6 yards to left of centre” target.
Top golfers certainly buy into this theory Jack Nicklaus is widely credited with having incredible visualisation skills and is quoted as saying “I never hit a shot not even in practice without having a very sharp in-focus picture of it in my head.” and that he thought golf was 10% technique, 40% position and 50% Creative Visualization.
This immediate term visualization on the golf course is specifically target orientated in that the only images to be conjured up are of the ball heading towards the target.
Short Term Visualization
This can involve a course management strategy for playing a particular round of golf, a plan of how to tackle individual holes and shots. For the pros it will involve practice rounds, rehearsing shots from different parts of the fairways and greens. They also pay particular attention around the greens eg where it is best to miss the green and leave an easier recovery. For instance Ben Hogan believed that every pin placement required a specific approach, that back pins should be attacked with a low shot and front pins with a high shot. A right-side flag back needed a fade and left pin a draw. Obviously the drawing up of the course management strategy involves physically playing the course but the visualization part comes in imagining how the holes should be played and the constant “replaying” of the visualization prior to the tournament.
Amateurs and club golfers do not usually have the luxury of playing numerous balls in a dedicated preparatory practice round but they have an advantage in that they often play particular courses time and again and are therefore able to put together a course management strategy to suit the strengths and weaknesses of their own game.
The best way to plan such a strategy is to “play” the course backwards in your mind working out the ideal spot to have played your previous shot from and formulating a plan to work your golf ball into those positions from the tee and fairway.
Medium & Long Term Visualization
Now we’re in realms of goal setting, one of the classic questions asked at job interviews is “Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?” asking the applicant to project forward and express their ambitions. Self Help books and gurus advocate visualization as a way of keeping ambitions in the forefront of the mind, to imagine that you have already achieved it, to see it feel it etc, to act as if it has already happened and then it will become a self professed reality.
In terms of golf, longer term goals can be to reach a certain handicap, turn pro, win tournaments etc etc.
Gary Player was a great positive thinking golfer always reinforcing his ability in his mind saying “We create success or failure on the course primarily by our thoughts.” It must have worked for him, he won nine Majors!
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