Part 1 Visualization

Visualization

Chapter six visualization pictures, equal performance images. The targets of the nervous system in 1974, Jack Nicholas described the importance of visualization in his game. I never hit a shot even in practice without having a very sharp in focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a color movie. 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. It’s path trajectory and shape even its behavior on landing. Then there’s sort of a fade out. And the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality. Only at the end of the short private Hollywood spectacular. Do I select a club and step up to the ball? Senior tour player, Dave hill has won 10 regular tour events, three senior tour events of Varden trophy and played on three Ryder cup teams.

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00:01:11

He says a visualization. Imagination is very important in shot-making. If you can’t picture it, you can’t do it. During the 1993 interview, Paul Azinger noted that he was reviewing the computer statistics of his record. He said he began to play well in 1987. The same time he began to use visualization during play. He won one tournament a year through 1994. His record was interrupted in 1994 due to about with cancer. We do what we see. We think in pictures, describing the putt or shot, you are about to make paint a mental picture of the outcome. As we approach difficult situations, we picture the events in our mind’s eye. We visualize in detail, the sequence of events that we anticipate this visualization of the expected events is often negative. We tend to visualize the consequences of a poor shot, and we focus on the hazards or unfavorable judgment by others.

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00:02:18

We also play out the dialogue of these visualized situations that are thinking most players have a hole or two on a course, which they play often where they know they’re going to hit a great drive, no matter how poorly they may have hit on other holes. Most players also have a hole or two where they were going to hit poor tee shots, no matter how well they’re hitting the ball. Now, when these players walk on the teas, they’re images are of their past performance. They expect to hit a good shot or a Porsche. If you have a habit of emoting over and analyzing bad shots, you’re going to have clear images of poor past performance. If you poor performance and recall only your success. After each round, you’ll start to have images and expectancy of good performance. Remember this story about Jack Nicholas, when he was giving a clinic at a tournament site and he was asked how to cure a shank.

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00:03:12

He said he didn’t know because he had never hit one. And then a clinic participants spoke up indicating the tournament the day and the hole in which Nicholas had shanked a shot. Nicholas responded something to the effect of maybe I did, but I don’t remember it. Peak performers both on and off the course focus on the shot they hit. Well, they focus on this shot out of the past or the positive way they handled the situation. The positive focus prepares you to perform in a confident, relaxed manner. A negative focus prepares you to perform in a negative 10 state negative visual anticipation prepares the nervous system to perform an error and produces an undesired arousal state then increases the chance of poor performance. Remember what Greg Norman says? I talked to myself, not allowed, but inside my head, the tougher, the shot I’m facing, the more I talk, if I’m on the last hole of a tournament facing a long iron shot to the green, needing a birdie to win, I’ll say to myself, you know, this shot cold.

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00:04:18

You’ve knocked it stiff a thousand times, and now you’re going to do it again. PGA tour player, Fred couples never hits a shot without calling up a similar shot. He hit well in the past. We think in pictures, when you approach a difficult shot, do you think of a shot? You hit well in that situation before or the shot you had poorly. If you were like most golfers, you will likely recall the shots you hit poorly. If you have a difficult situation in your day-to-day life, do you think of the time you handled that situation? Well, or do you focus on all the possible negative outcomes? Most people focus on all the possible negative outcomes research in the areas of internal dialogue and visualization suggest that the brain cannot tell the difference between real and imagined experience. Learning takes place in the nervous system and is stored in its neurochemical network.

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00:05:12

This learning results from both real and imagined experience. This concept is presented pictorially later in this chapter, Sam Snead recalled an experience with imagery in his 1960 book. It was at the masters tournament long ago that I discovered how mental images can be planted in the brain, particularly by the golfer himself, which is self needling playing with Jim Tunisia. One day I was intently studying his actions on the team. Tunisia pushed his drive into the timber to the right. The image of everything turned as you had done was so strong in my mind that I stepped up and my muscles follow the image. And I did the same thing landing almost exactly in the same spot in the jungle. As Jim, after that, I watched my opponents only casual like hell PGA tour player, Marta Figueras Dodi and PGA tour player. Brad Bryant won the JC penny classic team play championship.

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00:06:08

December 4th, 1994, Marta said she stood on the 17th, tee a par three, the last day of the event with a five iron. She said, I felt so good in my routine. I knew I was going to hit a good shot. I had it right over the flag stick and landed it 10 feet away from the hole. Then on the third playoff hole, we were back on 17. I said to myself, you were just here an hour ago, just set up and hit the same shot, had the same feeling of my setup. And this time I knocked at four feet, Marta and Brad won the tournament on the fourth playoff hole, changing predictions and images. The following situation. I want you to consider carefully. You’ve just taken a seven on a hole as you step to the next tee. You see water right now out of bounds left.

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00:07:00

You begin to recall times in the past, when you’ve hit both shots. As you recall, these events, your mind begins to paint vivid pictures of these past Aaron shots. You’re on the team. What do you think the outcome of your shot will be negative predictions and associated thoughts are of no assistance. These negative predictions work against you when a single negative prediction is repeated frequently. In thoughts and images, it becomes established as a belief. Remember these images create neuroanatomical changes with repeated practice, like other thought themes. These habit patterns can be changed with repeated daily practice of alternative thoughts. If you don’t implement a strategy to change this negative style, the patterns become more deeply ingrained with repeated use and the environment is in control. Not you. It’s your choice. The mental pre swing chain presented the chapter. Title routine includes a link of describing the shots you want to hit.

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00:08:02

This is the same process, predict a positive outcome. The more positive information your brain has to work with, the more likely positive performance will result and the more confident, relaxed and effortless you will feel. You can start by looking at your good performance and reinforcing and replaying that positive information in your mind for future reference. This will give you both confidence and a positive motor program when you need it. Recall how Greg Norman talks to himself so he can remember and repeat good shots. I also talk after I hit shots after a particularly long straight drive, I’ll often say, damn, Greg, I’m pretty impressed with that one. These inner words can be more encouraging than the cheers of the gallery. You don’t want to linger too long on your shots, good or bad, but you do want to stamp the good ones on your mind for future reference in pressure situations.

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00:08:56

Silent self congratulations is one way to do that. This strategy works in day-to-day life events as well. Bank your successes and call upon that positive history when faced with difficult life situations, bank success, yours in theirs, Byron Nelson reflected on his caddying days as a way of developing a good swing. The great thing about caddying was that you watched people and saw good players and bad players and so forth. So you got a feeling in your subconscious and in your mind of how a good swing looked. It was an accumulation of what you saw over a period of time that made you become a good player. I know Ben Hogan has said that a man, he caddied for ed steward had some influence on him and his early days. And I’m sure he did. Ed was a long hitter. He had a long high hook, and that’s what Ben had.

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00:09:50

You know, I was influenced by my caddy because there weren’t many books about golf and there was no photography of golfers playing Johnny Miller advocates, finding a pro model. You like and imitating his swing. I refer to this as banking or storing the memory of a swing in your nervous system. Johnny Miller says he used images of different pros depending on whether he wanted to fade, draw or hit a straight shot. Miller said he modeled Carrie middle cough, swinging and developing his swing and his youth. Similarly PGA tour player, VJ Singh watched Tom Weiskopf swing on television as a child and modeled what he saw. His father taught him the basics. He had no formal instruction other than watching Weiskopf swing. Interestingly, Tom Weiskopf says, he learned by watching Sam Snead and Tommy bolt. He also noted that he learned by watching and competing with Jack Nicklaus.

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00:10:45

Johnny Miller says he always enjoyed playing with guys who are leading and tournament because he was able to learn from those situations by watching how others performed under pressure. He further noted that when you pass your prime and you’re under pressure, you have to dial back to a time when you were a younger player, dealing with pressure and then reproduce those feelings and behavior. I suggest you can dial back at any time and think of past success. When you want to improve your performance PGA tour player. Andrew McGee says that the best time to practice is when you’re striking the ball. Well, he says that at these times, he doesn’t try to analyze this swing. Instead. He says, he uses this practice time to commit to memory. What is best swing feels like he also practices after around if he has played exceptionally well, this practice time, he uses to bank the feeling of this good swing.

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00:11:42

Remember Fred couples never hits a shot without recalling a similar shot. He is hit well before he states when I’m over the ball. I, the shot I’m trying to hit. And I think of a shot that I hit might be seven years ago. Might be the day before that was successful. But one thing you don’t do is think of bad things. When you’re over the ball, people might think about bad shots, but I don’t even on shots. I might be scared to hit or whatever. Now I visualize things like the six iron I hit at Riviera under pressure against Davis. Love the third on the 14th hole in the playoff, the 1992 Nissan Los Angeles open it won the tournament for me. I didn’t hit it one foot away. It was 10 to 12 feet away when I’m on the 18th tee at Augusta, I think of Riviera.

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00:12:33

I say, here I am 18 at Riviera. And I picture the ball fading. Every shot I do that. Joe and that’s couples caddy gives me the yardage and I get the club. I immediately think of a shot like now with the nine iron I’ll think third hole at Augusta, where I hit at eight inches, European and PGA tour players, heavy bias. Taro says he paints positive pictures of smooth swings and successful results. In my mind’s eye, he uses this particular strategy, not only to visualize a positive outcome, but also to calm his nerves. Most amateurs will recall the miss shot into the hazard off the tee or fairway or difficulty recovering from a troubleshot. The next time they have that shot, especially on the same hole. Jack Nicholas described a similar recollection on his way to winning the 1993 senior open on the 12th hole of the final round.

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00:13:27

As I was lining up the PUD, I realized that this was the exact same pot I had in the final round of the 1960 open. I was five under then two, but I missed it. Nicholas also missed that putt on the 12th hole, but he went on to win by one stroke over time. Weiskopf this example amplifies the point that we tend to remember content that is triggered by similar conditions for Nicholas, both where U S opens in both putts we’re on the 12th hole. We also remember situations to which we attach the most emotion. Interestingly, these conditions not only triggered the memory of the missed puddle. Number 12 in 1960, they also triggered the memory of playing the last six holes three over par in response to this recollection, Nicholas turned to a son and caddy Jack and said, we’re not playing the last six holes like I did.

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00:14:17

Then. In fact, this determination led him to one under on the last six holes leading to the 1993 senior open victory. During the 1960 U S open at cherry Hills, Arnold Palmer was seven shots behind leader. Mike check, going into the last round. Palmer stepped onto the first tee of the final round and drove the green of the 346 yard par four. He shot 65 that day. And one the opened by one shot as Palmer stepped onto the first tee of the 1993 senior open at cherry Hills. 33 years later, his thoughts were still on that memorable shot. I certainly couldn’t ignore the fact that everyone in the gallery was thinking about it. I’m no different. I was thinking about it to the next time you have a tee shot, the chip, a pot or shot to the green, recall a similar shot. You hit well, picture the shot and your swing and experienced the feeling of the swing, your tempo and balance.

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00:15:13

As you do, put that feeling into the shot. You will be pleasantly surprised at the outcome. Jack Nicholas summarizes this process. Well, he says thinking of past successes, instead of failures will help you. If your situation suggests a shot that you’ve never hit successfully before rejected and recompute, less ambitiously, choose a play that you’ve already pulled off. Brilliantly replay that success in your mind. As you step up to the ball, if you keep your mind this busy, you won’t have time to get tense and pressured. Nicholas also says, visualize first, see the brilliant previous achievement. Then the shot now facing you behaving identically, picture yourself, taking the club that will pull it off, then executing the necessary swing. As you finalize your setup, say to yourself, okay, I’m ready now. Just do it and go, right? Pictures of victory. We all have periods where a thoughts and images drift.

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00:16:13

Other times in places, these periods are called daydreams. Well, we are relaxed and comfortable. We tend to drift into places that are representations of our goals and fantasies of the future, or to a more reinforcing place. In the sixth game of the 1993 world series Toronto was leading Philadelphia three games to two. The score was six to five and the bottom of the ninth, there were two outs and two men on base and two strikes on Toronto’s. Joe Carter. Philadelphia was one strike away from winning game. Six Carter hit the next pitch over the left field wall. This one, both the game and the 1993 world series during an interview. Following the series, Carter said he had lived that fantasy behind his father’s gas station. As a boy, two outs, two strikes, one rundown and hitting a home run to win the world series. You’ll find numerous quotes from tour players describing their thoughts during putting practice and their years prior to the tour, he needs this part for a birdie to win.

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00:17:14

Gary player describes his thinking during practice, always when putting I’d imagine I was about to win one of the major tournaments saying to myself, this one’s for the U S open Gary, the British open and so forth and so on. I believe then, and still do that. Your wildest dreams come true. Part of Gary player’s daily preparation for the 1965, us open was to see his name next to the number one spot. Every time he passed the leaderboard, the week of the open, I was walking past the master scoreboard, which includes the names lettered in gold, all the previous winners with space alongside for that year’s winner. Then suddenly I saw my name lettered in that space. I really saw it. It was bright, gold, just like the others. All during the open, I visualize myself winning set long-term goals and immediate performance goals and begin to see yourself accomplishing them.

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00:18:12

We all have daydreams. Many of these images reflect our fantasies and goals. That’s not to say, if you have a performance, fantasy, reality will always follow. If you day, dream or night dream, you visualize why not load all of your daydreams and fantasies with success. These images promote confidence and prepare you for positive experience set goals and see yourself achieving them process and outcome visualization. There are two types of visualization, images of outcome and images during the process of performance. Outcome images are the easiest for you since they are already a part of everyone’s daydreams. Hopefully these outcome images are seeing yourself succeed. An example is Gary player’s scene his name and the number one position on the leaderboard each day prior to the 1965 us open, he won the open that year, seeing yourself succeed, no matter what the event on or off the course is outcome visualization.

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00:19:17

You set a goal and then see yourself succeeding at that goal. Many players set themselves up for mediocre performance. For example, the tour rookie will set his sights or his images on making the cut. He finds himself on the bubble week after week making or missing the cut by a stroke, or to set your goals for peak performance and see yourself attaining those goals. Positive process visualization is much more difficult to master. Since most players tend to be very mechanical, which is a negative process. They approach their swing with his negative process imagery, positive process. Visualization is just like positive outcome visualization, except you break the large goal into a shot at a time and see successful swing and ball flight or roll outcome on every shot. For example, Gary player says I’ve conditioned myself to visualize the path of my shots before I play them.

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00:20:13

I always believe in positive thinking to me, it’s all part of concentration during the shot or stroke. Your goal is to repeat the feeling of your practice swing and to hold a picture of the target ball flight or ball landing in your mind’s eye. At the very least, one of these images should be your last focus. As you start the club back, let’s look at a few strategies that will enhance both your process and outcome visualization skills. Yes, you can. I have had many players tell me no how hard I try. I can’t see the line ball flight target, the ball landing and so on. There are many reasons you can’t or at least think you can. The first is your expectancy. You would probably never have a crystal clear picture. If you try too hard, the picture is going to be fuzzy at best.

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00:21:04

Describe the number one hole at your home course. Is it a par four or par five or perhaps even a par three? Is it a dogleg or straight or they’re reachable hazards off the tee. If so, is the hazard sand water brush or trees? Is there an out of bounds left or right off the tee? What was the fairway like the last time you played? Was it lush? Brown is the fairway wider? Narrow. Can you see mower tracks in the fairway from the first tee? Is there a flat landing area, uphill, downhill or side hill? Is there rough? Are there homes along the fairway the last time you played? Did you hear sounds of traffic, voices, cart, noise, birds, maintenance crews, music from a fairway home construction noise. The voice of the starter of the public address system or other sounds on the first team.

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00:21:55

Now let’s return to the first team still. Considering the last time you played, how many players were in your group, where you relaxed, confident, and comfortable or nervous tense. Were you concerned about getting your first shot in play? What are your thoughts on the shot or what the other members of the group would think? Were they on the hazards off the tee, your target or on something unrelated to your game? What club did you hit off? The first tee? Did you have a specific target in the fairway? Did you drive go straight fade, draw, hook or slice. Was your shot higher? Low? What did the ball flight look like? How would you rate your drive on a one to 10 scale? One would be the worst drive you could hit and 10 the best. Is this a shot you would want to commit to memory so you can call it up on the first tee.

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00:22:48

The next time you play, let’s go to the fairway for your approach shot. What kind of ally did you have? Was it in the fairway or rough? Was the ball above or below your feet or was it a level lie? Were there obstacles between you and the green? How far were you from the green? What club did you hit? If it was a par five, did you lay up or go for the green? Did you have a specific target? What was your shot? Like was it high, low left, right? Or straight? What did the ball flight look like now? What’s your rating on a one to 10 scale. Is this a shot you would want to commit to memory so you can call it up the next time you have a similar shot. Okay. Let’s go to the green. How far were you from the cup?

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00:23:40

How many putts did you have on the green? You think in with the exception sometimes of calculations and road memory, as you answered the questions about the last time you played the first hole at your home course, you visualized, you had a picture in your mind, the first tee, the fairway, the hazards, the colors, and the sounds. You likely saw the flight of your tea and approach shots, and perhaps even the role of your putt or putts. And that would have been on the first screen. Simply stated you visualized. Yes, you can. In a 1994 golf magazine interview, Jack Nicholas described the golf course, a particular tournament round a hole, and the shoddy hit in 1975. Several years ago, I would sit around, listening to players, discuss their round in a particular shot. I often wondered how they could remember so well now I can remember a golf rounds and shots I hit years ago.

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00:24:35

The more focused you are during, around the better, your recall will be. You have the ability to selectively, recall your good and great shots and to use those shot images, to ready your nervous system, to perform the same swing. Again, visualization will elude you when you try too hard to picture your swing or ball flight, or when you were under stress, the more stressful the situation, the more difficult it is to visualize on the other hand, the more relaxed you are, the clearer, the images will be the chapter titled fine tuning. Your nervous system describes what happens during stressful periods. When you tried unsuccessfully to visualize a shot or see the line on the green Johnny Miller gives one of the best examples I have ever heard in his description of the effect of anxiety during play. He states that the arousal produced by pressure and I quote, heightens your awareness.

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00:25:34

Your brain gets knocked up a notch or two. It speeds up. And the way you process data is messed up. You’ve got all this information coming to you real fast, and you’re not used to it. So you get confused. You have to take deep breaths to slow your heartbeat or sing a song or walk more slowly. I’ve done all those things. I’ve likened pressure to tune in, in a radio, get too excited. Tell yourself you want it badly. And it’s static time. You can’t let the moment overwhelm you and hold you captive. If you will follow the relaxation strategies outlined in the chapter, fine tuning your nervous system off the course, they will be well-practiced habits available to you on the course in particular, when you were standing over a putt, trying to see the line, take a couple of deep diaphragmatic breaths behind the ball.

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00:26:23

Think of a similar punch you made in this or a previous round. Recall the role, the tempo and the feeling of the stroke. Describe to yourself the path the ball will follow into the hole, and you will begin to notice the image of the path and the ball will take to the hole, developing and improving visualization skills. You can develop and improve your visualization skills by setting practice goals, scheduling and doing a few imagery exercises daily and keeping a diary of your progress. Number one, breathing the importance of breathing for relaxation and increased concentration has been described in the preceding chapters for review of this content, turn to the chapter, titled fine tuning your nervous system. In summary, deep diaphragmatic breathing, quiets the nervous system and stems the flow of input to the brain. Permitting a more focused concentration. You will achieve the best results by combining breathing and focusing your thinking on the shot or activity in which you were involved.

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00:27:31

Diaphragmatic breathing will increase your success with this. With the following visualization practice exercises. Number two, burning in images, hold a small bright colored object at eye level and focus your attention on the detail and color for 15 seconds. Close your eyes and note that you have an after image of the object. Take a deep breath and continue to hold this image. Review the details of the object as you hold the image. Number three, recall your past success. When you arrive at your ball and determine the shots you’re going to hit. Think of the last time you hit that shot. Well, picture the ball flight and see, and feel the swing that produced that shot after your round, sit down and review your good shots. You hit on the course. The mine under par series scorecard provides a format for this summary that you use and in can record during play.

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00:28:31

After your round is easy to sit down and review only your good shots. It is much easier to call up one of these shots. Once they’re reviewed and committed to memory. Number four, describe the flight of the ball or call your shot. Have you ever noticed that when you were playing and tell someone the shots you’re going to hit, you often hit the exact shot. You described, start describing the ball flight and landing of the ball to yourself. You think in pictures describing the shot, you’re going to hit prepares the brain for successful performance. Get in a habit of describing yourself. Every shot you hit during practice in play from putting to driving. If you’ve played much golf, you’ve likely hit the very shot you were playing well at some time in the past, the best image to have is a replay of the shots you hit.

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00:29:22

Well, it’s much easier to call up a past experience than to create a new one. Stay focused on your target in off mechanics during this practice. If your thoughts are on swing mechanics, when you describe your shots, you’ll meet certain failure. Thoughts of mechanics during your swing is a sure formula for describing each shot to yourself and staying focused on your targets during swings is a sure formula for success. Number five, define Clare specific targets. Be certain that the targets you were picking during play are precise. For example, if you putting your target may be a spot over which you want to roll the ball or a spot in the back of the cup, a precise area on the green, where you want to land your irons. A rake in a distant bunker. You can reach the corner of a chimney on a house on the horizon or a specific small area in the fairway as a landing area off the tee, always hold a clear picture of your goal.

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00:30:25

If you have a destination to drive in your car, you have a clear picture of your objective in your mind, you aren’t just driving somewhere down the street. Your goals in life are the same. The more specific your targets in life or on the course, the more successful you will be at reaching your goals. Number six, hold the image. Practice looking at objects in the distance with your eyes open. Then turn your head with your eyes. Open to a neutral area like a wall. See how long you can hold the image of that distant object. Your best images will come when you were, when you have the sensation that you were staring through the wall, not looking at the wall, see the image, not the wall. Once you’re able to see the image consistently through the wall, place a golf ball at your feet. As though you were setting up to hit a shot, assume your stance and posture again.

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00:31:22

Find an object. This time, a bright object, like a Cola can stare at the object for five to 10 seconds. Then turn your eyes back to the golf ball, stare through the golf ball. As you did the wall and hold an image of the object for as long as you can, once you’re able to hold the image for five to 10 seconds, begin to practice with objects from five to 150 yards away. When you were able to look through the golf ball and hold these distant images for five to 10 seconds, you were ready to take your visualization skills to the practice range and the golf course. Number seven, start with putting and chipping. If you’re going to work on visualization, the best place to begin is with putting and chipping practice. Finding the line. The ball is going to take to the hole for your putts.

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00:32:14

Look at the whole. As you make your practice strokes, feeling the distance to the hole. As you do, find a spot over which the ball will roll and hold an image of that spot. As you repeat the feeling of your practice strokes, Sam Snead said the best punting round he ever had was when he found a spot three and one half inches in front of his ball. Be sure you feel the distance to the hole. You will find that your putts are short. When you hold an image of a short of the hole, you’re feeling for distance comes through your visual sense. Find a spot, the size of a spike mark on your line and the same distance as or in the hole. Look at that spot. As you feel the distance, then hold an image of the spot through your stroke. The best players I work with hold one of three images through the swing or stroke ball landing ball, flight, or target.

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00:33:03

And for putting it would be line ball rolling in the hole or spot over what you want the ball to roll or spot in or around the cup for chipping estimate the distance you want the ball to fly under the green, find a spot or discoloration in this landing area and read the rest of the distance to the hole just as you would for a putt. Find the line. The ball will take to the hole. When you set up over the ball, look at the spot on the green, where you want the ball to land, make three or four practice strokes. As you look at the spot, feeling the distance as you do, and then hold an image of that spot. As you make the stroke, many players hold an image of the ball, rolling the last few inches into the hole. And even here, the ball hitting the flag stick as they stroke the chip, that’s a variation of spot chipping.

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00:33:49

And we refer to it as hole chipping Harvey, Penick instructor of many PGA and LPGA tour players over the years said the following regarding thoughts and images during putting, I believe your mind should be on the cup and your touch. Once you are proficient at holding images of your targets and chipping and putting extend your practice to wedges, then mid and long irons. And finally the driver work on holding these images. As you look through the ball from the time you start your stroke or swing to the completion of your follow-through after you described the shot feel and see the swing you want to make from behind the ball, glue your eyes to the target. As you deliberately move back to the ball, keep looking back and forth from the ball to the target, burn the image of your target into your mind. As you look back and through the ball, if an image of the target is difficult, you might have more success seeing the ball or ball landing during your swing.

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00:34:50

Number eight, have a picture and a feeling of your swing. The best swing advice I can give you is to have one instructor in one swing. It is important to have a picture of that swing in your mind. When you set up to a shot, make a practice, swing, and feel the whole swing. Your goal is to see the swing, feel the tempo and your balance as you’d make your practice swing. And then repeat that feeling. When you sat up to the ball. The first paragraph of this chapter is a quote from Jack Nicholas regarding his visualization in his pre swing routine. As part of his visualization, he describes seeing himself make the swing that would produce the shot. He visualized later in this chapter, you’ll read about how important these images are in building a positive motor program in the nervous system.

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00:35:41

Number nine hole, every shot, many players play to get the ball close. I want you to hold every shot, whether it is a putt, a chip, or a seven iron from 150 yards, see every shot all the way into the hole. You should have these images of making the shot from behind the ball. Once over the ball, hold the image of your primary target, the ball flight or ball landing. If you were playing to get the ball close, that’s exactly what you will do. If you played a hole out, every shot, you will start to chip in more often.

Number 10, right? The clarity of your image, you will find that the clarity of your images during visualization will vary from one shot to the next. As noted, you will have your best visualization success. If you work with the strategies to quiet your nervous system and describe to yourself the shots you’re going to hit. The other thing you will find is that the clearer, the image, the better your performance, the better your concentration, the better your image will be recall that Nick price says he holds an image of the target during his swing. He says the clear his image of the target, the better his shot will be number 11, plan your targets in advance. In his prime. Ben Hogan would start at the 18th, green walking each hole from green to tee identifying his landing area. He chose his targets based upon the best landing areas and what club he would want it to hit each green or from each tee.

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00:01:06

This is a good time and place to practice your visualization on the course, there is no substitute for good course management and what better place to begin than walking the course, developing a game plan and visualizing success with each shot. As you do number 12, play the course before you play. Once you know what clubs you’re going to use from the T’s and where your ideal landing areas are, visualize your round the night or morning before you play. See every hole in order of play and see every swing and shot hit perfectly. Take a short break, every three or four holes until you finish playing the course in your mind, give yourself airless performance. Before you play, establish a game plan and stick with it. Harvard psychologist, William jeans made the observation that we learned to skate in summer and play tennis in winter, one author and brain researcher, Dr.

speaker 1

00:02:06

Richard Restek interpreted James’ comments as meaning that we rehearse motor skills through mental imagery. He suggests that when periods of relaxation are used to mentally practice this mental rehearsal, it probably encodes a program in the higher brain. If you have never practiced visualization before you will meet certain failure. If you try to visualize ball flight, a swing and target during your swing, the first several times on the course, it is a reasonable expectancy and good practice to get comfortable picking out specific targets and eliminating the internal dialogue or the chatter of swing mechanics. If you try to force images of targets, ball, flight, and so on, you will become tense and discard visualization as something that isn’t for you. It will take you between three and 12 months, depending on the intensity of practice on and off the range and practice screen. Before you’re ready to put a full routine together on the course that comfortably and automatically includes visualization of ball flight swing and target during play is probably sounds like a lot of work.

speaker 1

00:03:17

It is is no more work I’ll ever than mindlessly beating balls on the range. You will find these exercises fun, especially as you become more and more proficient. A comment I frequently hear from players is how much they enjoy practicing and mastering the visualization exercises. Each player is amazed at the improved accuracy experiences with this strategy. Remember the mental mechanics take as much practice as the swing mechanics images from the inside out. I have presented you with the practical side of visualization, with comments from tour players about their use of this important mental strategy. The scientific part of me can’t resist taking you one step further inside the brain to explain why visualization works. I have purposely included this section at the end of this chapter. For those of you not so inclined to ask why or those of you who don’t need to understand before you follow the exercises listed.

speaker 1

00:04:20

Now, I don’t fit either of these categories. If someone tells me I should do something, I need to understand why once I understand I give 100%, I won’t follow directions until I know I’m on relatively firm ground. For those of you who share this trade, I have included the following summary of the nature of visualization in the brain. As you can imagine, this is a complex subject. I have made every effort to simplify this content inclusive of pictures as they appear in the text. Unfortunately, in this audio tape, I’m going to have to paint the pictures for you verbally or visually. If you will, now let’s move on and see all the brain processes and uses these visual images. We use the same part of the brain to visualize, as we do to see this area of the brain is called the visual cortex. Recent research on visualization shows that when we picture ourselves doing some kind of physical movement, the part of the brain responsible for initiating movement or the motor cortex also shows activity.

speaker 1

00:05:25

And interestingly as you’ll hear that activity shows up to be about 80%. When we visualize is when we actually do the behavior for initiate the behavior neuroscientist, Dr. Peter Fox of the brain imaging research center in San Antonio, Texas had a group of volunteers perform a simple physical movement while he monitored brain activity. Then he had these same people visualize the physical movement. They had performed his research, showed brain activity in the same areas for visualization, as it did for physical movement. With the exception of that part of the brain responsible for initiating movement, the motor cortex, the motor cortex showed activity only when the actual movement was performed. Dr. Fox’s study was replicated in 1995 at the Institute of neurology in London, by Dr. Kam Stefan and Dr. Stefan’s associates. And they had volunteers move a joystick. And then they had the same volunteers visualize themselves moving the joystick while he monitored brain activity.

speaker 1

00:06:31

Under both conditions, the brain scan showed that the volunteers turned on as I just noted about 80% of brain circuitry. When they visualized as compared to the scans of actually physically moving the joystick. These research studies show that visualization activates a significant percentage of the same parts of the brain. As physical movement, two things are happening. Number one, the nervous system is being primed to perform the behavior, being visualized. The neurocircuitry is firing or warming up in the same patterns that will, when the behavior occurs, regardless of whether the image is a successful shot or a shot to a hazard visualization prepares the nervous system to perform. Assuming the circuitry is not broken by competing images. Number two, when the neurocircuitry is firing structural changes or learning is occurring in the nervous system, this warming up phase of brain activity prior to some voluntary movement is a phenomenon that was discovered in the 1970s and referred to as the readiness potential subject or asked to move their index finger.

speaker 1

00:07:46

There was brain activity for 1.5 seconds. Prior to the finger movement, the initiation of movement took 0.1 seconds. The brain takes 15 times longer to prepare for novel voluntary movement than it does to initiate that movement. The part of the brain where this readiness potential appears is the same location where Dr. Fox found activity during visualization of motor behavior, that’s called the supplementary motor area or SMA. This area builds a motor program, a nervous system program that prepares the brain to initiate a behavior, a research with a device called a positron emission tomography or pet scan has enabled neuroscientists to see how the brain works under a variety of different conditions. In this case, visualize movement. First, let me briefly explain what a pet scan is. And then we’ll look at pet scan of brain activity. During a visualization experiment, a pet scan is similar to an MRI magnetic resonance imagery and cat scan computerized, axial tomography, the MRI and cat scan show x-ray pictures that are very thin sections of the body part means scan.

speaker 1

00:09:02

Now, these pictures are as thin as 1.5 to 2.0 millimeter sections. And when input into a computer, they can be viewed a number of different ways. The pet scan shows an image of the brain following the injection of a radioactive substance. Now this substance is taken up in the brain and when a part of the brain is used, the radioactive material lights up that part of the brain, where there is activity. Now using a similar technique to the cat and the MRI scans, the section of the brain being studied can be isolated, can be sectioned, and it can be viewed as a picture of activity. Now this next section of the text has color pictures, three color pictures. In particular, these color pictures are of the positron emission tomography scan, or the pet scan and volunteers were injected with radioactive glucose, which is the food of the brain.

speaker 1

00:09:55

And that is some movement that is prompted by the experimenters. For example, in this case tongue movement right-hand movement, when tongue movement is prompted, the researchers can look at basically the way that the brain metabolizes this glucose as the tongue movement occurs, it can observe changes in blood flow to the various areas of the cortex that represent this movement. It’s fascinating to see because in this picture, as it appears in the text shows the left and right side of the brain, and you can just see as the tongue moves, that lights up these various centers, the next picture shows right-hand movement. Now in right-hand movement, this particular picture, I want you to visualize a fried egg, cause that’s the best way I can describe this picture. There are two segments on the right sides of fried egg. On the left side, it looks like a burst of bright light.

speaker 1

00:10:47

That’s a very white area within the pet scan and that represents right-hand movement. I’ll come back to that in just a moment now in the next sequence or the next picture, the researchers asked the individual to visualize right hand movement. And the interesting thing was that the section of the fried egg looks almost identical in the visualize movement as it does in the actual movement. The area that’s missing is this white area that represents the behavior itself in the actual movement. And as noted earlier, the area that looks like the fried egg is it can, is part of two things. First of all, it is the building of the motor program or that readiness potential as the information is integrated visualization being part of that information. And that’s one thing that represents in the other thing that represents is that the visualize movement represents 80% of the actual right hand movement.

speaker 1

00:11:45

If you’ll recall the other research that was done in England, where they had volunteers move a joystick and then had them visualize moving the joystick, the visualization phase show that they recruited 80% of the information in the cortex in visualization, as they did with the actual movement of the joystick, this process, or this Friday that represents the integration of information within the center, the supplementary motor area, this part of the brain that, that organizes the information in preparation to initiate the act can be considered very much like a loading, a gun. Now in golf, it’s going to be, you walk up to your ball, you take you out. The yardage is one bullet. You check, the wind is another. You look at your lie, you think about a target. You identify a target on the horizon or on the green or in the fairway. And then you began to think in preparation to finish loading the bullets in this gun in preparation to hit the shot.

speaker 1

00:12:50

Now everybody loads a gun as part of this routine sequence. And many of us as once the gun is loaded, either pointed her foot or at her head. And don’t point it down the fairway because we begin to think about all the things we don’t want to do or begin to look into and see the hazards. And as you load this gun, make sure that you’re in preparation as part of your routine and preparation to hit the shot, make sure that that gun is pointed in the right direction. The activity in the brain with visualization exemplifies the importance of a consistent repeating routine, this loading the gun, as I just described, and the more consistent and repeating the pre-performance behavior routine is the faster and more consistent the program will be. And in the other examples, we’re talking about novel programs and in routine, we’re talking about the program being ingrained and learned, and one that it doesn’t take as long to call up a routine or, or habit as it does to call up a novel program.

speaker 1

00:13:54

Now, when a player approaches a shot and says, just don’t hit it right into those trees, and he has images of the trees and water, the sand out of bounds, a zone, what kind of a motor program is the brain preparing? Well, what kind of a shot will likely follow is probably a better question. The likely shot is into the hazard or an overcompensation, for example, a sweeping hook. Now, when a player approaches a hole or lie, hasn’t been playing well and he begins to think of all those bad shots he has hit in that situation. What kind of a motor program is the building? That is the neurophysiological reason why images of poor shots produce poor shots. The brain does what you tell it to do. This is also why it’s so important to focus on where you want the ball to go your targets, or to recall good and great shots.

speaker 1

00:14:43

These shots would be shot. You’ve hit on a whole or in a given situation in the past. When you approach a shot or a hole, you haven’t been playing well, think back to a time when you hit that shot. Well, focus on your target. See the ball flying to and landing on your target and then rolling into the whole picture and feel the swing that will produce that shot. Remember when Johnny Miller wanted to work, the ball left to right or right to left, he pictured the swing of a player who naturally hit the shot. He needed Miller said he modeled, carry metal, cough, swing in developing his swing and his youth. He described it as a big high backswing with lots of knee action and lateral movement. In his later years, he copied the swings of Tony Lema and Lee Trevino. He used images of Tony Lima’s swing when he wanted to hit a draw and Lee Trevino swing.

speaker 1

00:15:36

When he wanted to hit a fade, the information you provide your brain is what you will use to build a motor program. The more positive the information is that you process, the more probable your performance will be as desired. Many players are focused on swing mechanics or broad focus information. They don’t see ball flight nor do they have a narrow focus on a target. This sets the table for mixed performance outcomes, the best players in the world process information about what they want to do and their targets. Again, provide your nervous system with details of information regarding desired performance and related outcomes. And you’ll see a marked improvement in performance.

speaker 1

00:16:20

The physiology associated with imagery. Now, psychologists to use biofeedback and therapy, no distressing thoughts produce increases in heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate or breath, holding muscle tension, and a decreased skin temperature and decreased digestive activity. What happens to your physiology with neutral thoughts and images? Now let’s take a moment and picture a yellow ripe lemon cut in half and laying face up on a plate. Now the limit is soft and juicy. Now I want you to pick up the lemon, place it in your open mouth and bite down and begin to suck the hold, that image and continue to suck. As you taste the flavor and feel the juice trickle over your lip. Take another big bite and feel the sour juice scored into your mouth. The hold, that image and sensation. I want you to continue biting and sucking for 10 seconds before you proceed.

speaker 1

00:17:29

Okay. Continue to bite and suck. What’d you to feel the juice just squirt in your mouth as you do. Are you salivating yet? Well, most of you are. If a neutral image like sucking on a lemon can produce the physiological response of salivation. Imagine what potent images of failure or conflict are doing to your nervous system. Now, whatever you do, whatever you do now, don’t think about that. Lemon. Don’t take another bite and suck on the lemon and taste that sour juice, whatever you do, don’t squeeze the juice into your mouth and pucker your lips. Don’t let that don’t experience that very sour taste. Your physiological response to the thought is the same. The target thought is still the lemon. When you tell yourself, don’t think about the water or don’t recall the last time you hit it out of bounds here, or don’t think about how much you’ve been struggling in Greenside bunkers.

speaker 1

00:18:32

You only amplify the clarity of the negative focus. When you say to yourself, don’t hit it right into the trees. The trees become your target, your muscles tense, and your nervous system. Arousal increases. Your tempo will likely increase, and you will have a tendency to steer your shot. You have built a motor program to hit the shot. You either hit it and into the trees or overcompensate and pull the ball left. So what should you do? Well, think only of your targets and what you want to do it hazards and out of bounds. Aren’t going anywhere. Hit your shot with a focus on your target and the swing. It is going to take to get it to that target call up your past success. Think about the last time you hit that shot. Well, see the ball flight and feel the swing you made to hit that great shot.

speaker 1

00:19:19

Now, step up and make that same swing. These images of past success provide increased confidence, a narrow focus and arousal levels conducive to good performance. Additionally, these images of past success are lighting up that part of the brain. Remember the supplementary motor area, lighting up that part of the brain that prepares the nervous system to perform. It’s getting, preparing it to perform a positive motor program. Ideally, if your thoughts and images are only on successful past performance and current desired targets, you’re preparing yourself for successful performance. On the other hand, if your images are of past problems and failures and the hazards of the present, you’re building a negative motor program and you’re preparing yourself for poor performance. Interestingly, this same process translates to off-course behavior as well. In summary, most recent brain research suggests that visual images, which pre-seed the golf swing serve as a readiness potential.

speaker 1

00:20:23

And again, this is also known as a motor program. Recall this readiness potential for voluntary movement takes 15 times longer to prepare for the behavior than it does to initiate the movement. Psychologist have discussed the importance of a pre-suit routine and visualization of the shot and swing you want to make. For years, research strongly supports the need for a consistent repeating routine, with positive visual predictions of performance and outcome to maximize peak performance. Ken Venturi sums up the use of visualization quite nicely. He said, take the time to visualize the perfect shot before you swing. When the mind can see the shot required, the body is more likely to make the necessary swing. Now, these guys like Ken Venturi and, and Ben Hogan and Sam Snead and Jack Nicholas, they intuitively knew, and they learned with repeated practice, what good visualization skills do for you?

speaker 1

00:21:18

And you can learn the, and if you will practice the same strategies, there’s no question that positive visualization is an important link in the pre swing and in the post swing metal chains. It’s a length that requires as much active practice as the golf swing itself, measure your success. If you’re going to practice visualization skills, consider measuring your success as you do, it would be important for you to rate each shot. You hit on a one to 10 scale rating of one equals the worst shot you can hit. And a rating of 10 is the best shot you can hit. Now next as you head each shot, hold an image of your target through the swing. And you want to rate the clarity of your target image on each shot. And again, a rating of one equals little or no image. And a 10 rating is a clear image of your target through the shot.

speaker 1

00:22:01

When you began this practice start with short shots, like a chip or a pitch, as you become proficient, extend your practice to longer shots. If you struggle with an image of target through your swing, try and image a ball flight, or an image of ball landing. Now I took a, I’m going to describe some charts that appear in the, in the text, mine under par. And the first one was with Sandra Palmer. Sandra is one 20 plus LPGA tour events. She’s still an active tour player. Imagine a chart that shows two rows of 10 squares. Each, each row represents one shot. So we have two squares first as a rating on the shot. And the second is a rating on the clarity of the image. And in this case, Sandra was hitting a five iron at a very precise target, and she varied her target on every shot and had an image of the target through the swing.

speaker 1

00:22:58

And if you can see this, if you’d note that you have Sandra gave her rating a six on the shot, her clarity of image would have been a five or six. In this case, it was a five. And she had out of 10 shots. She had four tens, meaning that those, she rated those shots as good as she could possibly hit them out of those four tens. The clarity of the image was a 10 on three occasions and a nine on the other. She also had a rating of an eight and had an image of an age. She had a rating of a seven on one shot, and the clarity of the image was a six on that shot. I actually, she had two eights and both had clarity of image of eight and two sevens, and both had a clarity of image of six.

speaker 1

00:23:42

And the one I’ve already mentioned was rating of six and an image of five. You want to note the relationship when you do this, between the shot rating and the clarity of the image high shot rating show up with a clearer target images. Low shot ratings are paired with poor target images. As simple as that, Nick price told us that a long time ago, recall that Nick price says he holds an image of the target during his swing. And he says the clearer, his image target the better his shot will be next charges that of Patrick Burke and Patrick PGA tour player. And Patrick’s shows exactly the same thing. And again, he’s hitting driver different target image of a target through the swing. And what you’d find is that his high ratings of tens, which he had three tens and two nines in this particular case, all of his tens had 10 clarity of image.

speaker 1

00:24:32

One of his nines had a nine clarity of image on, again, we’re looking at the same scaling, one to 10 scale, and the other nine rating had an eight clarity of image. And you’d find that his lower ratings, he had a rating of a three and he had a clarity of image of, for the same thing. Nick price described shows up when these students are set up on the range and hit shots, sequentially like this, and the next one shows another strategy and chipping you with Laurie Rinker Graham. Laurie is an LPGA tour player and Laurie, in this case, we had three ratings. Now this is going to be tough to follow on audio tape. So please follow me carefully. Again, we have 10 rows and three columns within each of those rows. The first row shows rating of the shot, clarity of the image and the distance.

speaker 1

00:25:24

And again, this shot is a chip shot where Laurie is chipping to 10 different targets. And in this case, I stepped off the distance to each of her targets. After each shot, she was feeling the stroke. This was not an image. This was a feeling. So this would be the clarity of the feeling. So she set up to a chip shot. She felt it in a rehearsal stroke. Then as she hit the shot, her goal was to repeat the field. And after 10 shots, her average distance from the hole on each of these chip shots was 2.8 feet, 2.8 feet. So out of 10 shots, she had 28 feet. If you totaled the distance from the hole, divide that by 10, we got an average distance on each shot of 2.8 feet. So it’s pretty simple calculation. Now the next sequence of 10, Laura had 10 chip shots again to 10 different targets each time.

speaker 1

00:26:17

Now these targets are anywhere from 20 to 10. I shouldn’t say to 60 to 80 feet from where she’s chipping. So there there’s quite a range in these targets. So she’s not hitting the same target twice. So she doesn’t get a feel for the distance. The second 10 grouping, she chipped to 10 targets and she held an image of the ball, hitting the flag, stick through the chip. So again, she’d rehearse it set up again. She’d have an image of the ball hitting the flag stick. Now some players are field players. Some players are image players. And what we found was that Laurie was definitely a, an image player because her average distance from the pen, once all was said and done was 0.7 feet. So it was just under three quarters of a foot. Her total view added all that. The distance from all 10 targets was seven feet and dividing that by 10, we had 0.7, she hold out three chip shots.

speaker 1

00:27:24

The second condition, meaning that she had an image of the ball, hitting the flag, stick through the stroke. And in the first sequence where she was trying to repeat the feeling of a rehearsal strokes, she hold out one. The other thing that we found was that Laurie’s ability or the clarity of her ability to hold image of the, of the ball hitting the flag stick was never lower than an eight. She only had one eight, the rest were all, she had five tens, four nines and an eight in terms of clarity, the image. So that says an awful lot. When you look at how well she was able to hold a feeling of the stroke, she had zeros, meaning, which he had no feel whatsoever on two of the shots and one 10 and four eights and the rest were all of much lower. Okay.

speaker 1

00:28:11

So we’ve gathered all this information. What does it tell us? It tells us that Lori likely does much better visually in putting and chipping in iron play in, in would play that if she has an image of ball flight, a ball, rolling into the hole that she’s going to have, it’s going to be much easier for her to hold an image of that than it is to retain a feeling of the swing or the stroke that she wants to make. Not only does it show that, but it also shows that in one condition where she’s trying to repeat a feeling and hold a feel through the stroke, that or distance to the cup on these chips was 2.8 feet and the repeat the field condition. And then the visualization, it was a 0.7. So she improved four fold in her performance. Let’s talk about feelings, swing corrections, Australian, Asian, and PGA.

speaker 1

00:29:06

And now Nike tour player, Dennis Paulson has always been a visual player with great touch. And when he becomes immersed in mechanics or swing changes like most players, he begins to struggle. Now, Dennis, his best performances have been when he’s had a strong visual image of ball flight through his swing, he made a swing change in early 1996 in he’d been turning and lifting and doing what’s called crossing the line at the top of his backswing, Dennis was attempting to shorten the swing to eliminate this problem. As long as he held a thought of shorter, his swing would remain at the desired length and his ball striking was much improved. However, when he held an image of ball flight through the swing, which is what he had done in prior to this swing change, his swing returned to turn left and cross the line at the top and the quality of his ball striking, diminished or returned what it had been.

speaker 1

00:29:59

So Dennis set up and was able to, again, he went through the same conditions, holding image of ball flight through the swing and his performance was less than stellar for him in out of 10 shots. He was able to hold a 10 image on five of those shots and two eights and nine and two sevens and cherished in terms of the clarity of the image. However, his performance didn’t match up here in his ratings of the shots. He only had one 10, he had five eights. He had 1 9, 2 sevens and a six. So for Dennis, that was not because Dennis had done this many times for him, we had just was not working so that in the next sequence of 10, and this appears on one 70 of the text, Dennis wa well, I shouldn’t say was hitting a five iron and he was attempting to feel the swing and a practice swing, and then repeat the feel of the practice swing.

speaker 1

00:31:05

Interestingly, just the opposite of what Lori was doing, because Dennis, again now is working on this swing change when he was able to feel the shorter swing, rather than say, shorter to himself. And that’s a key here. You don’t want to be thinking in a swing. You either want to be picturing or feeling the clarity of that. Feel the ability to repeat the field. He had nine tens in one night and his records in terms of his shot ratings elevated with, with that clarity. So it was much easier for him trying to make this swing change, to have no intrusive thoughts just by focusing on a feeling and sure enough, then he hits six tens, two nines and an eight in his rating of the shot. And they lined up very specifically. So it’s difficult to say, depends on what you’re working on as you do these measurements, because if you’re working on a swing change, you better start to focus on the field.

speaker 1

00:31:56

If you’re comfortable with your swing, work on both and in time, ideally you can have two thoughts if they’re coming from two separate sensory systems. In this case, one is feeling one is visual. Visualization is important. However, if you’re making swing changes, focus on the feeling of the total swing through your shot, you should still stand behind the ball and see the ball flights you want to hit to your target. And in time you’ll be able to integrate both the feeling of the swing and an image of your target or ball flight through the shot. Remember, you’re going to have input from two sensory systems at once work with both independently before you try to blend them inside out visualization, picture the most pleasurable exciting event. You can remember, take a moment and gather a mental picture of that event. Now I want you to picture the most distressing event you can remember. Okay. Again, take a moment and gather a mental picture of that event. As you pictured yourself in these two conditions where you standing at a distance watching yourself, or were you seeing the event through your eyes now change your perspective and repeat the exercise. If you were watching from a distance change, your mental image perspective to inside and vice versa.

speaker 1

00:33:22

Okay. Did you notice any emotional or physical changes in your body? So when you visualized, standing from a distance away, as you watched yourself participating in one or both of these events, or as you saw these events through your eyes, as you were participating, did you notice any emotional or physical changes in your body? Now I’ve never done this exercise with someone who did not experience an increase in physical and emotional sensations when they were inside experience the event, good or bad. Similarly, if they were observing themselves from a distance, their physical and emotional responses were much less psychologist referred to the visualization that is experienced within, through our eyes as associative imagery. And that visualization that is experienced as a passive observer is called dissociative imagery. I’ve seen a number of variations on how people approach this exercise. Some players report, they watched the good event from outside and the bad event from inside and vice versa.

speaker 1

00:34:37

They always report a greater physical and emotional response to the inside experience. So what does this mean? Well, if you’re going to visualize yourself playing a round of golf, making a swing scene, ball flight, and so on, do it through your eyes from inside yourself, not as a passive observer, the brain scans and this chapter would look very different. If the volunteers in the study watch themselves from a distance rather than from inside. So to speak, this phenomenon suggests that learning and visualization of pending performance is most efficiently accomplished from an inside perspective, as opposed to observing yourself from a distance when you practice visualization as part of a learning process, or when you are building a motor program for optimum performance, be yourself, not a passive observer.