Dear Bob,
Holy Cow! What a question! That's a gigantic can of worms for sure, mate.
My basic take on visualization and mental imagery in putting, if not all of golf, is that it is not well understood or taught and the existing techniques don't take full advantage of what is possible to enhance performance with visualization and mental imagery. This is basically due to a rather stunted and rudimentary concept of what is involved on the part of "sports science" folks and golf teachers.
Fundamentally, the human brain allows the human to bridge time and thus react to the present and effectively plan future response by simulating action and outcomes. The most cogent exposition of these ideas is in Rodolfo llinas,
I of the Vortex: From Neurons to Self (Cambridge, MIT Press, 2001). Visualization and the use of mental imagery is just one mode of this simulation -- a practice stroke or a mental "feeling" of the action of a movement is another mode. In fact, the brain's planning of movement for actual execution in the normal course of behavior without these deliberate simulations of action-outcome very much entails many of the same neural structures and processes. It is sort of like driving the car with the motor running but the gear in neutral -- you can still pretend you're taking the high bank at Taladega at full throttle.
I especially like the first chapter title of Llinas' book: "Motor Primacy and the Organization of Neuronal Networks: Thinking as Internalized Movement." Right on! That's why the approach I take to putting thru neuroscience is so exciting and fundamental -- getting the movement process somewhat purified is in effect a way to straighten out all brain operations, from meditative clarity to efficient and effective thinking. It's not limited to golf. But, hey, that's too far out for golfers, so I won't pursue it here. I'll save that for when George Leonard and Michael Murphy invite me to lecture at the Esalen Institute.
The usual "sports science" take on mental imagery for athletic performance is perfectly represented by Feltz, DL & Landers, DM,
The Effects of Mental Practice on Motor Skill Learning and Performance: A Meta-Analysis, Journal of Sport Psychology (1983), 5, 25-57. (A "meta-analysis" is academic jargon for an overall study of the many separate studies.) Sure, mental practice helps! But let's get down to picking and choosing ways to use it and to devising new, more effective ways to use it, and let's also make useful distinctions along the way! Sports science folks are notoriously poor innovators, and are always traveling safely in the wake of less hidebound and more serious creators. There just isn't much interesting or especially helpful in sports science about actually using specific visualization and mental imagery techniques, let alone broader "simulation" techniques not limited to the visual modality.
So let's get a few basic principles set down about what is important and how to get it.
1. VISUALIZE FOR TASKS
Putting is the process of selecting a target in relation to the ball and the hole, aiming the putter and stroke at the target, and putting straight at the target with good touch and impact action so that the ball arrives at the hole with the appropriate speed and direction of travel necessary for the ball to fall into and stay inside the cup. Simulation first and foremost needs to relate to the functional aspects of this basic set of tasks.
For a task example, selecting a target presupposes an effective simulation of the rolling of the ball into the hole, so that the target is calculated to bring this specific path and energy pattern of the ball about. So simulation here means accurately "foreseeing" the roll of the ball as it nears the cup and falls in -- its speed slowing and its path appropriate for capture of the ball in the cup. This is partly experience and knowledge about balls rolling on greens, and partly stylistic choices in how the golfer putts. But the task is greatly simplified by consistency in the delivery speed of the ball to the hole on every putt. Top putters from golf history always have the same terminal delivery speed of the ball at the hole regardless of putt length or green condition, or have the ability to do so if they choose. Bobby Locke used to vary his delivery of the ball at the cup so that on slow greens he aimed to stop the ball 6 inches past and on fast greens he aimed to stop the ball 6 inches short. In my approach, instinctive touch combines targeting movements with appreciation for green speed, so the destination is always the cup with a terminal speed of around two revolutions per second at the front lip. When the delivery speed is constant, this simplifies the possible putt path to a single curve, and then challenges the golfer to "foresee" this precise path and energy of the rolling ball in the specific putt he faces over the specific surface he faces.
Hence, the simulation involved in reading a putt is not a matter of a static image, but a matter of a real-time "movie" of an imaginary ball. That's why the term "visualization" has the "-ation" suffix -- it's a process in time, and the timing is essential to an accurate visualization. This timing aspect in the roll of the imaginary ball is the most important thing to get right. From this, the shape of the path emerges in visualization, and this organizes the targeting and stroke control processes of the brain in the right way.
The way the shape of the path emerges from fidelity of the timing of the rolling of the ball into the cup is that the brain starts with the timing and then works towards and backwards out of the hole over the critical last stage or segment of the putt to 'tune" the rolling to what the surface contour at that energy level demands. That is, the brain starts with timing and then seeks a path or curve that suits what reality demands. That's where experience and knowledge come in to help the visualization get accurate, and that's why so-so golfers are not really great at reading putts.
For each of the different tasks in putting, there are many, many sorts of visualizations that can be used.
2. VISUALIZE REALITY
I would say that, after the principle that the simulation must relate to functional tasks, the second main principle of visualization / simulation is that it needs to hew closely to the demands of reality. This makes the visualization accurate and effective. Reality is always specific, here and now, complete, as it is and not otherwise. Some details are crtically important to an effective visualization, and some can safely be ignored. The golfer needs to know what details to pay attention to and how they affcet his visualization / simulation. For example, wind only affects a putt at a certain strength, and some directions of wind in relation to the rolling direction of the ball have greater effect than others. A simulation in the wind has to be based on this learned expertise and factor it in. Other example are the effect of grain on a putt's speed and break, the way a putt ending slightly uphill at the cup dies dramatically and has a sharp ending break, and so forth. If you don't have this expertise from experience and observation, you need a good putting instructor to show you these things.
3. VISUALIZE INTUITIVELY
The third principle of effective visualization / simulation is that it needs to allow intuition and instinct to assess the reality-correspondence of the simulation effectively. The more complete and "lifelike" the simulation, the more the brain's powerful summarizing capabilities of intuition and instinct are effectively employed. this is one of the main features of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a certain sort of hypnosis. NLP uses the different modalities of perception (sight, sound, touch, hearing, taste, movement and position sense -- the six normal sensory modes) to enrich hypnotic imagery and suggestiveness. The notion is that the more "lifelike" the dream imagery or "vision," the less aware the person is that the imagery or "vision" is other than the single reality. The more the "vision" is real to the subject, the more readily the vision is accepted as real. That's why the innocent and children sometimes mistake adult imaginary play as real, and can take things literally that are not meant that way. The filters or "shields" (as in Star Trek) are not up. When a simulation has this hypnotic correspondence to reality, the person reacts to the reality of the vision much the same way he would react to reality itself. That is, the intuition and instincts can assess the simulation for reality-correspondence, and the closer the correspondence, the less discord in the intuition and instincts, and the more effective the simulation for accuracy in generating a successful putt. Once the simulation builds from timing to a reality-corresponding curve into the hole that "feels right in the gut," the simulation has matured.
4. VISUALIZE MULTI-MODALLY
A fourth principle is that visualization / simulation is not confined to the visual modality, but needs to include other senses, especially movement sense. While it is true humans are grossly dominated by the visual sense in relating and acting in the world, this sense is a little overblown in golf, especially in the last stages of golf action, when the kinestthetic sense of the feel of physical motion should emerge as dominant. So simulation needs to incorporate a heavy component of kinesthetic feel as well as ambient sights, sounds, and smells. Perhaps a visualization of the imaginary ball rolling across the green in a certain way is not as effective as a visualization of the stroke movement that sends the ball rolling over the green in a certain way. Ben Crenshaw has said that on occasion (e.g., Augusta National) he has had a premonition-like vision of a successful putt and simply witnessed the putt transpire and then rattle in the cup, and then he hears the full exhultation of the crowd erupt in cheers and applause. He has also said he had a premonition that Justin Leonard, despite his lackluster play, would be a key part in the Ryder Cup matches at Brookline. Ben is out there!
The basic text for NLP is Richard Badler and John Grinder,
Frog into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming (Moab UT, Real People Press, 1979). There are now many NLP texts and quite a few NLP golf psychs, especially in the UK. In golf, the main text is Marlin Mackenzie,
Golf: The Mind Game (NY, Dell, 1990). This book emphasizes trance states and multi-sensory suggestiveness. A pretty good general NLP book is Steve Andreas and Connirae Andreas,
Change Your Mind -- and Keep the Change (Moab UT, Real People Press, 1987).
5. VISUALIZE OBJECTIVELY
A fifth principle is that visualization / simulation from detached perspectives assists an objective appreciation of form and performance. This is a pretty big technique in NLP, where the golfer sees himself in action from the detached perspective of another, perhaps a playing companion or a fan. This in fact is what gives the video tape its power in golf instruction, and is also why golf teachers use mirrors to let the student observe himself in positions and in motion. This objective sense of positions and motion cooperates with the internal sense of feel, and supplements these internal feel-based simulations with something visual that has objective information about form that is hard to "see" from the perspective of what our eyes actually see when making a stroke. So visualization / simulation of a putt as seen from across yourself, or from the gallery, or from behind, allows an objective "witnessing" of the forthcoming performance. This witnessing detaches the conscious mind from the processes controlling the physical motion, and that's all to the good, as the conscious processes are most likely not helpful. The objective perspective also kicks into play the mimetic modes of imitative learning that are generally very important in all motor skills development, and this does not really happen when visualizing from a first-person perspective. This third-person perspective also admits of the golfer pretending he is someone else, such as a great putter in action. Occasionally, a golfer on tour will describe how he imagined himself as another golfer whose putting he admires. Monkey see (mentally), monkey do.
6. VISUALIZE PARTIALLY
A sixth principle is that visualization / simulation of a part can represent the whole of the action. Just as in holography, where a small aspect of the total image contains all of the information of the whole, simulation based upon a focused part of the whole allows the brain to appreciate the whole action. For example, focusing solely on the feeling of the motion of the hands in the stroke, or the motion of the shoulder, will encapsulate the whole action of a good stroke in the non-conscious brain. The tip-of-the-iceberg focus permits the non-conscious processes of the brain to operate effectively. Simply looking at a blade of grass behind the center of the ball while putting and watching for the putter's sweetspot to swing over the grass tip on its way into the back of the ball is about as "partial" as it gets and a simulation of this is a pretty effective pre-shot use of the brain. The same goes for a simple "one potato ... two" count of the tempo ahead of starting the stroke. The tip of tapping a tack into the back of the ball is an example of this sort of visualization. Once a complete, whole visualization has been accomplished, a partial visualization may be just the ticket.
7. VISUALIZE EMOTIONALLY
A seventh principle is that the emotional brain should not be keep out of the simulation. The affective brain processes of joy, fear, dread, anxiety, shame, etc., are an integral component of human action and reaction. The limbic system in the brain often plays a critical role in movement planning and execution, as in choking. The general advice to seek out positive mental states and visualizations, and to avoid negative states or unsuccessful outcomes, can be amplified in this context to the idea that visualizing not only successful performance but also the positive emotions and feelings of success should operate to help avoid or suppress the negatives and the loss of focus.
NON-TASK USES OF VISUALIZATION
Aside from visualization / simulation that relates to one or the other of the specific tasks in putting, there is the use of visualization for improving one's psychological mindset, for relaxing, and for practicing. Mental imagery and visualization is now a very important part of medical and psychological therapeutics.
NEUROSCIENCE
A few good neuroscience books for what is involved with visualization / simulation are; Stephen M. Kosslyn and Olivier Koenig,
Wet Mind: The new Cognitive Neuroscience (NY, Free Press, 1995); Mark Rollins,
Mental Imagery: On the Limits of Cognitive Science (New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1989); and Rothlun P. Zahourek,
Relaxation and Imagery: Tools for Therapeutic Communication and Intervention (Philadelphia, WB Saunders, 1988), especially chapter 3. A more general and wide-ranging work is Mike Samuels and Nancy Samuels,
Seeing with the Mind's Eye: The History, Techniques, and Uses of Visualization (NY, Random House, 1975).
SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY
The old standby work in sports psychology, Dorothy Harris and Bette Harris,
The Athlete's Guide to Sports Psychology: Mental Skills for Physical People (NY, Leisure Press, 1984), discusses visualization and mental practice throughout, but especially in chapter 5, and presents a basic and competent discussion of how to use visualization in the usual sports psychology sort of way, and is about as good as anything appearing since in the sports literature.
Online, Annie Plessinger at Vanderbilt has an interesting discussion of
"The Effects of Mental Imagery on Athletic Performance."
Some sports science folks talk about how visualizing the "outcome" ir prefereable to visualizing the "process" or the "stroke." But that is a limited approach. Make your own trials and see what you think.
OTHER RESOURCES OF INTEREST
Mental Visualization and Objective of Huc Chung
Visualization
Mental training golf instruction
Golf Psychology Training by Peak Performance Sports
Yoga For Golfers - Mental Tip of the Month
Golf Tips - The Enormous Power Of Visualization
Ron Mann:Find the Zone Golf
Hypnosis for golf success
Golf in the Zone
Sports Hypnosis -- Golf, Bowling, Tennis
Positive Mental Imagery
Sportsmind
YOGA for GOLF - Visualization CD
Images for Golf: The Fundamentals of Visualization
One Putting: Ideas & 55 Exercises
eBay item 3687213577 -- US Navy Training Manual for Visualization in Golf
Kenneth Van Kampen, Visual Golf (Fireside Books, 1993)
Mitchell Spearman, A.I.M. of Golf: Actual, Imaginary, and Mirror Imagery to Improve your Game (Rodale, 2004)
Cheers!
Geoff Mangum
Putting Theorist and Instructor
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