Tour pros rely on visualization — you should too

One of the least understood and least utilized mental golf skills is visualization, one of my 14 fundamentals of mental toughness. In its simplest form, visualization is essentially pre-swing mental imagery, where you picture your swing, the movement of the golf ball and the end of result of the shot.

All professional golfers today have a sport psychologist as part of their team, and all professional golfers are trained to use visualization. It is not so with recreational golfers, which means they are ignoring and unfamiliar with a “secret” factor that could improve their performance dramatically.

Research studies at universities the world over were instrumental in uncovering the complexities and benefits of visualization and subsequently perfecting how they could be refined. Olympic training centers have also been in the forefront of applications to every single sport they support.

Initial studies found that the brain, especially the subconscious mind which controls athletic movement, doesn’t register the difference between real and imagined action. When you visualize physical action, like a swing with a driver, you’re actually stimulating the same muscles that you would use to perform the real action. Sport scientists call this a “functional equivalent.”

Pro golfers describe their visualization experience in different ways. Curtis Strange (back-to-back U.S. Open winner in 1988 and 1989) explains that he always considered his ability to plan and imagine his shot before hitting it as one of the strongest aspects of his game.

Fred Couples prefers imagining the best shot he’s ever hit with the club he’s about to play the shot with.  Tiger Woods has said he could still see the target in his “mind’s eye” while he is looking at the ball.

Nick Price felt like he had a camera looking out of his left ear enabling him to see the target in his mind.  Jack Nicklaus used to call his visualization technique “going to the movies in my head.”
It doesn’t matter how you go about creating an image in your mind as long as you’re able to plant a picture in your mind of the action of the shot you desire to produce, from start to finish. When you become accomplished and comfortable with your ability to picture the shot before you swing, then you can enhance the value of that picture by pre-playing the body movements of the swing you plan to execute.

As you do that you begin to create neural pathways that eventually lead to muscle memory. Neural pathways are what connect your brain to your muscles.

When they begin considering incorporating visualization into their routine preceding an actual golf shot, a lot of golfers are confused about how to start as well as the “mechanics” of creating the proper mental picture. Here, your memory is the key.

You certainly remember what the house you grew up in looks like, and you can remember well riding your bicycle as a child. Likewise, you can remember one of the best long, high, straight off the tee shots you ever hit.

However, there is a difference between visualizing and imaging. You need to create an image, but you already have many pictures from memory you can summon to your mind when needed.

Let’s say, as you begin to picture a well-struck 70-yard pitch shot that you know how to hit, you receive the added value and reward when your body activates the memory of what it feels like to play that proper shot. That technique is called process visualization.

Mentally seeing the flight and path of your golf ball and how it lands and rolls is termed “outcome visualization.” Once you’re comfortable with your mental “movies,” it then requires significant practice for it to become automatic on the golf course. It means that you visualize every shot on the practice range. It’s worth making it a habit.