As a follow-up to my previous article on the subject of Goals and their importance, Visualisation seemed the next logical and complimentary topic. The BQR Editor reported some very kind remarks about the previous article and I hope readers may find this equally interesting and thought provoking.
There are a number of different approaches to the subject which deal with a whole range of issues. I would like to deal with two main areas here; firstly, on a very broad scale, the way of turbo-charging the Goals that were covered in the last article and, secondly, on a very specific scale, the process of visualising a particular stroke.
Goals are all very well, and they will work just by writing them down and reviewing them regularly. But the effect can be far greater and far quicker. In the same way that it took positive action to move from not having written goals to sitting down and writing them, so too, it takes another positive action to actually visualise yourself achieving those goals.
A brief example will demonstrate the point. It is commonplace for a typical player (without goals) to focus so hard on a particular landmark (say, a hundred break) that they are forever breaking down in the nineties - or whenever they start to think about One Hundred rather than the shot in front of them. This is because they are thinking about a century from the standpoint of someone who has never made one. Better to think of the hundred as a When goal rather than an If goal. Think of yourself as a hundred-break player and you will automatically focus on the necessary steps to make it a reality. After all, what happens after the typical player has made a hundred? He makes another and another. All that has changed is belief.
If the broad visualisation is going to turbo-charge your goals into a powerful self-improvement tool, then specific visualisation can be considered as the cement that binds it all together. Again, an example illustrates the point. Some years ago I used to find a thick run-through in-off a very tricky shot indeed. This puzzled me and I discovered two main reasons for the weakness. One, despite reading the theory of the shot and seeing the ease with which others played it, I had not persevered with it in practice. Two, each time I was confronted with the shot I visualised my cue-ball wobbling in the jaws. And of course, wobble it did - followed by a quick visit to the Scoreboard. Remarkably, when I made a real effort it was with no more than about half-an-hour's practice that I was able to gain some mastery over the stroke and drill the visualisation of a successful outcome into my mind's eye.
Between the broad and the specific examples that I have mentioned here, there are a range of other areas in which strong, positive, visualisation can pay dividends. For example, a very positive goal is to state that you want to make a hundred break in every match that your opponent makes one against you. In this way, whenever an opponent makes a high break, it presents you with an opportunity to achieve one of your goals rather than being viewed as an excuse for losing. The point about visualisation here is that you need to be focused on the remainder of the match rather than rehearsing the loser's speech in your head, you know what I mean, "Well, I was going well, then he made a 123 and I was never in it after that," and so on and so on. You need to see yourself winning from that situation (Clock permitting!)
It is just as easy to visualise success as failure so why give yourself an unnecessary handicap?
I hope you find something here that helps. Good Luck.