When You Can’t Play – Visualize!

Many circumstances keep us from physically playing golf…like the call to ‘stay home.’ Remember that you still have the power of choice and opportunities exist for you!
 
You’ve heard of visualization as a tool to improve your game. Roger mentioned it in last week’s newsletter. Science says your brain doesn’t know the difference between a perceived experience and a real one. That means you can experience something in your mind via imagery or thought and the brain-body connection will produce chemistry and emotion as if it were actually occurring, which will process it as a real experience. WOW!
 
This mind power occurs all the time. Consider when you’re playing a round and you hit into a tall bush. As soon as your mind perceives the possibility of failure as a real potential, your body follows and you can’t seem to play as well afterwards. Relatable?
 
How do you get skilled at visualization?

1. Release need to judge. You’ll consciously know that you’re creating this vision and that it’s not ‘real.’ Allow it to be real to you!
2. Feel Something! You want to make that impression from mind into body. This requires having a felt experience and literally feeling emotions and sensations while you are visualizing. Don’t try to create emotions and feeling. Allow feelings to arise on their own.
3. Start off small and build. Visualize a ball rolling into the cup or hitting one shot repeatedly. Use the same image with slight variation until you get to a place where you’re having a felt experience.
4. Explore. Imagine any and all sorts of obstacles and/or challenging situations that come up when you play, particularly in your short game. Visualize yourself being creative and playing at your best.
5. Practice until you recognize it’s affecting your real-life experience.