Mental Mondays: Visualize Your Shots

I don’t have a lot of use for the eastern mysticism that has pervaded the game since “Golf In the Kingdom.” But I do think that the habit of visualizing a shot before taking a swing has improved my game immensely. Fixing a picture of the shot in the mind helps to reduce any possible miscommunication between eyes, brain and muscles.

It’s a technique that all of the great ones use. Jack Nicklaus wrote:

“I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. 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; its path, trajectory, and shape, even its behavior on landing. Then there is a sort of fade-out, and the next scene shows me making the kind of swing that will turn the previous images into reality.”

Sam Snead—in his country way—said that he would paint a picture in the sky. Tiger Woods clearly uses the technique. Watch him sometime as he stands behind the ball. He’s imagining where it will go, and how it will get there.

Before every shot, I stand behind the ball and do three things. I pick a target, pick an point for alignment a few inches in front of the ball, and visualize the shot.

In visualizing the shot, I try to picture just how the ball will fly through the air (or scoot along the ground). I actually try to picture the ball as it moves in flight, capturing in my imagination the height, shot shape, landing spot and roll. I occasionally will even run through a couple of quick scenarios, as I realize that my first imaginary shot might hit an overhanging branch, or roll into a bunker.

It’s important to be realistic about the results. I’m not a long hitter, so no amount of visualization is going to produce a 300 yard drive. Imagining things that can’t be done will just screw up the results. And visualization is not going to fix a fundamentally bad swing.

Only once I have the shot fixed do I step up and take a swing.

Of course, it doesn’t always work out as planned. But having a clear goal in mind, and eliminating doubt as to what you want to do will go a long way toward maximizing the swing you have.

This tip is an excerpt from The Five Inch Course: Thinking Your Way To Better Golf. The complete book is available in Kindle format at Amazon.com.