Tag Archives: visualization
A frequent question wrestled with on-the-course has been what impact the use of creative visualization has on pace-of-play. A recent personal experience has been that concern with maintaining pace-of-play can be a major distraction when attempting to use imagery during the pre-shot routine. When pace-of-play is of concern, my choice has been not to take the time to either be the ball or be the golfer. My experience has been that it is much easier to forgo the visualization process; go through my normal pre-shot motions; and just hit, pitch, chip or putt the ball.
As discussed in Golfer’s Palette, slow play is the most perplexing problem in golf today. A slow player can ruin the day for all players. In the interest of all, players have an obligation to play at a reasonable pace. An added variable in the pace-of-play equation is the number one revenue producing item on the golf course: green fees. Course management has an obligation to its board to fill as many available tee times with foursomes as possible. From this perspective, pace-of-play becomes a team effort between golfers and course management.
As members of the culture of golfers, each of us can contribute to pace-of-play efforts on the courses we choose to play:
•Be our own best pace-of-play coach by identifying the ways we can pick up the pace-of-play.
•As a general guideline, before proceeding to the green to putt, it helps to place golf cars, golf carts or golf bags between the green on which you plan to putt and the next teeing ground.
•Give “Tee It Forward” a try: play from a set of tees most suited to your driving distance.
•Play “Ready Golf” during stroke play: when you are ready to shoot, shoot!
•Set an example for those with whom you are playing.
•Give alternate formats a try: match-play, Stableford, four-ball, alternate shot, Speed Golf, best ball and two-ball Chapman.
•Play more quickly, play better and have more fun.
•Become familiar with your course’s pace-of-play guidelines; and become familiar with the pace-of-play guidelines for other courses you may choose to play.
•Go to www.usga.com to learn about USGA publications, programs and suggestions concerning pace-of-play.
What does the forgoing have to offer about developing the skill of creative visualization?
The number one lesson for this golfer is to practice this skill until the imaging process is effective and efficient. Even though distracted by concerns about pace-of-play, it feels like it will be better to go through an expedited visualization process and not abandon the process. Will keep you posted on progress: have just recently discovered that ball spin characteristics are a fundamental issue with my chip shots all being short.
As discussed in Golfer’s Palette: Preparing for Peak Performance, there are five ball flight laws that golfers dance with on every shot. These laws have been proven to be invariable under given conditions; and they are absolute in influencing the flight of a golf ball. Three of these laws influence distance: clubhead speed; centeredness of contact of club with the ball; and angle of approach. Two of these laws influence direction: path of swing and clubface position. The purpose of this blog is to share how the practice of creative visualization has enabled this golfer to move knowledge of these fundamental ball flight laws into the bank of useful experience on the golf course.
To review, the practice of visualization your author is using has evolved to be three-fold: during pre-shot routine, make an estimate of the situation; creatively visualize being the ball; and visualize being the golfer. The learning experience surrounding the five ball flight laws has occurred during practice of being the ball. This part of the pre-shot routine has involved sensually “being the ball” from where the ball is to its final resting point at the end of the shot. The six-point, mental menu, amended in this blog with some of the recently experienced ball flight laws, is as follows:
•Take a moment: breathe deep, quiet the mind, embrace the beauty of nature and be grateful for playing friends
•Impact of ball and club [centeredness of contact of club with the ball; and clubhead speed]
•Initial launch action: right of target, left of target, on-target [path of swing; clubface position (open, closed or square); and angle of approach]
•Flight pattern and trajectory [path of swing; clubface position; clubhead speed; and angle of approach]
•Landing bounce and roll characteristics [clubface position; angle of approach; clubhead speed; and centeredness of impact]
•Final resting point of ball
Let’s now be the ball for an experiential ride to its final resting point.
Impact: Am being smashed with the sweet spot of the five-iron clubface; feeling the ball compress and begin to make a right to left spin, coupled with perhaps some top spin; and am conscious of a bullet-like sound as the club smacks the ball.
Initial launch: Am moving right of the target and spinning right to left; and am feeling a bit scuffed because of the inside-out swing path and closed clubface.
Flight pattern and trajectory: Am liking this flight because my favorite ride is a draw that glides through the air with the greatest of ease; and as the ground below passes and I start to make a final, gradual climb to elevation, I get really excited. It is now time to buckle-up because landing and bounce are not far away.
Landing bounce and roll characteristics: Wow, that was a jolt, an unexpected bounce straight up, a bit of left to right to roll, another jostle from a clump of grass and a nice gentle roll to my destination. This trek has really helped me begin to experience my behavior at landing and during my roll to the target. The 15 pages of discussion about “Shot Behavior” that Dave Pelz offers in his Shot Game Bible have started to come to life.
Final resting point: This has been a fun journey because I ended up in a “huge” garbage can with a blue-flagged pin in the middle. Great shot! Wow!
To date, the most significant outcome of this evolving, creative visualization process has been moving technical, theoretical, golf knowledge about ball flight laws to useful, on-the-course skills that can facilitate creative shot making on every golf shot. After 68 years of golf, this has truly been an “ah-ha” moment!
Could there possibly be a golf-piano connection? In Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven, John Eliot Gardiner remarks, “…the more clearly you scrutinize the music from the outside as listener, and the more deeply you get to know it from the inside as a performer, the better are your chances of uncovering the wonders it has to offer…”
As a novice golfer and pianist, an evolving experience has been that the learned skill of visualization, when chocked full of vivid sensations, has the potential to inspire this “performer” to unleash the artist within to create impact that is to be celebrated; and sound that inspires lingering impressions and sensations. The visualization literature suggests bringing the desired image to life as either an outside observer or as the object; and to be effective the visualization process is best if outer and inner perspectives are available. Experience during pre-shot routine has been that “being the ball” and “being the golfer” really works for this golfer. It feels like the process suggested by Gardiner for uncovering the inspiring sounds of Johann Bach is similar: be the listener and be the performer. Both processes are sensual-hearing and feeling; and both processes are inner and outer. Need to get to work, practice and experiment with visualization as a learned piano skill. If it will work for golf, it feels like it will work for creating inspired sounds with the multitude of formulas offered by black and white piano keys and shiny, brass pedals.
Yes! There is a golf-piano connection; and it sounds like thunderous, inspiring impact! Will keep you informed about progress on-the-course and at the keyboard.