This lesson is, for me, the most important mental skill a golfer can develop.
It’s about how to marry visualization and feel for golf shots while you practice, so you can ingrain them in your muscle memory and recreate them on the golf course, without conscious thinking. I call this sensory golf.
Sensory golf
Once you have strong swing fundamentals and a basic knowledge of the swing, you need to play with your senses and learn how to trust your swing. This is the skill you need to perfect to play the golf of your potential.
In the following video I’m going to show you how to play 9 shots. This is how I’d like you to practice.
Instead of getting the video camera out and working on building the perfect swing, I want you to trust the swing you have and try to hit different golf shots. Move the ball around in your stance, alter your alignment, feel your hands and body through the swing and make the connection between what the ball is doing and HOW IT FEELS. What happens if you leave the club-face open through impact? What happens if you play the ball back in your stance and release the hands early?
If you pay attention to the feel that creates the shape, you can start to get these shots into your muscle memory (the stuff that’s stored in a part of your brain called “the cerebellum” like riding a bike, tying your shoes, driving a car, all the things you don’t have to think about doing), you should be able to recall them at on demand, IF (and yes, that’s a big “IF”) there is no interference from your conscious mind. Once you have a full repertoire of shots in your muscle memory, the quality of your golf becomes a factor of how well you can access it without interference.
The beauty of sensory golf
The kind of swing you get when you’re motion is working purely from your muscle memory is completely fluid and free of mechanical thought. It’s the same motion you get when you’re playing your best. And you can hit great golf shots, even when your swing mechanics aren’t “perfect”.
How to Visualize Golf Shots
The next step in our “process” is to ask yourself this question: “How is this shot going to look?”
“I never hit a shot, not 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: its 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 this short, private, Hollywood spectacular do I select a club and step up to the ball.” – Jack Nicklaus, Golf My Way
Learning how to visualize is something we can all do. Once you can see the whole shot in your head, you’re more committed to it and therefore your swing is more likely to be fluid – a key factor in good shots. See the shape, trajectory and even how it will behave on landing. Try it! If you’ve hit a good shot previously on that particular hole, see that same shot in your mind’s eye. Johnny Miller said that he used to see everything about the shot, even down to the number of bounces the ball would take on the green before it checked up.
The next time you’re practicing, instead of getting the video camera out and working on building the perfect swing, I want you to trust the swing you have and try to hit different golf shots. Become aware of the feeling of each of them. Once you can start to get these shots into your muscle memory (the stuff that’s stored in a part of your brain called “the cerebellum” like riding a bike, tying your shoes, driving a car, all the things you don’t have to think about doing), you should be able to recall them at on demand, IF (and yes, that’s a big “IF”) there is no interference from your conscious mind. Once you have a full repertoire of shots in your muscle memory, the quality of your golf becomes a factor of how well you can access it without interference.
The kind of swing you get when you’re motion is working purely from your muscle memory is completely fluid and free of mechanical thought. It’s the same motion you get when you’re playing your best. And you can hit great golf shots, even when your swing mechanics aren’t “perfect”.
Make it your goal to practice purposefully and maintain good fundamentals. Ingrain the feeling of a complete variety of golf shots in your muscle memory and gain access to it during every shot.
Enjoy the video!
Stayed tuned for the next step in the process: “How To Visualize and Feel golf shots and trust your subconscious”.